The last entry to complete the set before we move on to some other Flashback sets…
Oh, Elijah. I went from hating his signing to thinking he had some potential to being absolutely confused when he was cut from the team. I guess his attitude just got the best of him? I’m also confused that he’s playing for the Newark Bears, apparently, as he wasn’t GREAT last year, but he was only 25. Surely someone would have picked him up? But yeah, according to the Washington Post:
But Rizzo also implied that Dukes’s presence in the clubhouse adversely affected the Nationals, saying they “will be a more cohesive group” without him.
“The clubhouse will be more united,” Rizzo said. “We’ll have a better feel around the ballclub. We’ll gain just by that alone.”
So yeah, attitude entirely. Oh, well. Good luck to the guy.
Another of the great, lost Expos from the MLB years.
Phillips as an Expo.
I liked Phillips way back, and I’ve been happy to see him find his talent and turn it into a productive career. I like this card a lot, as well – it captures exactly the spirit of 92 Upper Deck.
So we get to the first of today’s entries that isn’t in some way tied to the Nats/Expos…but IS from Washington, DC. No, I didn’t plan it this way, but it’s a nice little coincidence. Emmanuel isn’t a very good hitter (in the way that Hitler wasn’t a very nice man), but he’s managed to stick in the majors since debuting in 08, and was even rumored to be part of a trade for Jose Bautista this season, though that never got off the ground. I thought he might be a good glove man, so I hit up fangraphs, and his UZR is -17.7. So uhm…what value does he provide, actually? A warm body? I don’t get it. But he’s still out there.
And so the final card I’ll cover in this set. Uhm…Rico Washington. That’s about the flimsiest connection to this “theme” you can come up with. Rico was a 30-year old rookie when this was published, so I can appreciate that this was probably just a neat moment for him. He didn’t really hit well in his run, which lasted most of April, 2008, and he hasn’t been back since. In fact, he seems to have retired completely, but at least he got a shot. Good for him.
