This quick rundown on the former Major League pitcher. The A's drafted in 1978, and for some reason thought it would be cool to bring an 18 year old up to the Majors straight out of high school. They did the same thing with Mike Morgan. Both of them had an ERA above 7 pitching to Major League hitters as fresh out of high school pitchers. Conroy gets sent to the Minors where he lingers for a few years. They bring him back up in 1982, he does decently and they use him as a spot starter and long reliever for a few years.
The earliest card I have of Conroy in my collection is a 1984 Topps card.
He also appeared on the A's team card. Name a better duo on the 1983 A's.
I can think of about 5, but they put the batting average leader and ERA leader for the 1983 season on the team card for the 1984 Topps set. Take that Carney Lansford.
Enter the 1985 offseason.
The Cardinals trade Joaquin Andujar to the A's for Tim Conroy and Mike Heath. Andujar was coming off a 21 win season, so the trade looked a little lopsided at the time. After reading a write up of the trade, I am guessing that Joaquin Andujar going ballistic on Don Denkinger in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series might have been the final straw for him in St. Louis. Not sure that Whitey Herzog was a big fan of baggage. See Keith Hernandez.
Conroy pitched part of two seasons in St. Louis. Injuries wrecked his career in 1987, but his most significant contribution to the Cardinals was his 1986 Topps Traded baseball card. Here is the front of the card.
As a kid, I have to admit that there were very few Cardinals cards with pictures inside of Busch Stadium. Just looking at the 1986 Topps cards, every single picture was either taken at Spring Training or in Shea Stadium. All of them.
There were years that someone squeezed in a shot or two from Busch Stadium, but not many. I like this Conroy card because the photo was not only taken at Busch, but you kind of get the whole feel for the stadium in the mid 1980s. He's not standing against a wall, or sitting in the dugout where you just get a little piece of the stadium.
There is astroturf. The high blue walls in the outfield. The National League logos on the walls. The concourse ramps. The right field video board. The discolored seats in the outfield that might have been red at some point. I have tried to figure out what is on the videoboard.
My guess?
Before the games they used to have the Cardinals team stats, the individual team leaders, and the National League leaders. Those were displayed as a list. At some point, usually while the players were stretching, the organist would play a couple of different songs including "Meet Me In St. Louis" with the words displayed on the scoreboard. The clock says 7:14. I am guessing this is from a 7:35 start, and that's what is on the scoreboard.
There are videos of the former longtime Cardinals organist on YouTube, but no "Meet Me In St. Louis", so here is "Here Comes The King" instead.
If the photographer had taken another step back you probably would have gotten the arches at the top of the stadium, which might have made it a perfect. I am being picky. This is a great card.
Back to Conroy for a second.
Here is the back of the 1986 Topps Traded card. The stats are not great, but I did not know Pepper Martin was born on a leap year day. Tim Conroy and I also share a birthday, but nearly two decades apart in age.
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