While NL infielder Darrel Chaney wasn’t much of a hitter for his whole career (.217 lifetime average), he didn’t do himself any favors in last season in 1979. That year he hit .162 with a pathetic .205 slugging percentage.
I will give Chaney credit for staying around for eleven years. A lot of that credit goes to his ability to play multiple positions that quite honestly, many can’t play well. A lot of players back in the day made a living like that. Tom Brookens, Rich Amaral, Woody Woodward come to mind. I suppose Miguel Cairo or Jose Vizcaino could be more modern day versions.
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 Totals | 63 | 137 | 117 | 15 | 19 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 34 | .162 | .277 | .205 |
Chaney’s 1979 card gets two of almost everything. Two 0s, two 8s, two 9s. He does get five 14s which really does help this card offensively.
Standout bad number: 15-39
A couple things about this card:
Chaney is rated at four positions including at catcher. Many times when there wasn’t a catcher with a lot of at-bats for the regular card set for a team, APBA would assign the catcher rating to a non-catcher (and then put the second string catcher in the XB set). This happened to (I believe) Luis Salazar of the Cubs in 1977.
That said, this actually was NOT the case here. Chaney did catch 1/3 inning for the Braves. He probably deserves the C-5, by the way. He allowed a stolen base in that short outing.
Also, like many utility players, Chaney gets the 53-21 similar to pitchers.
It’s funny you mentioned Tom Brookens. I had a friend who was a Tigers fan and said “every year the Tigers try to find someone to replace Brookens, and every year he still ends up playing the most games.”
I have not played a set from the 80’s in a long time, and while he was no George Brett, I seem to remember him being somewhat decent for 2-3 seasons.
But getting back to today’s card, this is a pretty awful card though at least he can play defense and draw the occasional walk.
yeah, five 14s is actually pretty good. Bill James would have a lot to say about that, I’m sure. :)
Utility men like Chaney are valuable in real life and when doing season replays. Whether it’s covering the second game of a double header, giving a regular a rest or a late inning substitution–a regular infielder gives way to a pinch hitter–or covering for an injury.
Kind of glad to see Chaney immortalized with a Terrible Tuesday card. Wasn’t he one of the first players who headed up the movement to keep games like APBA from using their names?? What was APBA’s fake name for him?