1984 Greensboro Hornets Team Photo

   Once again, a chance eBay search strikes gold for one of my player collections.  I had no idea this existed, but I am now the proud owner of a 1984 Greensboro Hornets team photo, likely a stadium giveaway, sponsored by Goodys, makers of what are purported to be fine headache powders.  It measures 8"x 10" and is printed in color on thin, glossy paper.

    In 1984, Greensboro was a Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees in the South Atlantic League.  Of course, I picked this beauty up because a very young Roberto Kelly is featured in the second row, but as it happens, he is sitting right next to a young Cuban pitching prospect, one Osvaldo Canseco.

     There are a handful of other players in the photo that managed to reach the majors, to include Mitch Lyden, Brad Arnsberg, Bill Fulton and Mike Armstrong, and coach Bob Veale.  Also pictured, in the fourth row is current, beleaguered manager of the Atlanta Braves, Fredi Gonzalez, and in the second row, peaking over Ozzie cap is none other than Steve George.

"Steve who," you say?

Steve George!

This guy, masquerading as Al Leiter on a 1988 Topps card:

1983 TCMA Greensboro Hornets #19 Roberto Kelly

      Signed by the Yankees, in 1982, as an undrafted amateur out of Panama, Roberto Kelly began his professional career in Bradenten, Florida, playing for the Gulf Coast League Yankees as an 18 year old shortstop.  Interestingly, Kelly played alongside just one other future Major Leaguer on that GCL team, a young first baseman by the name of Fred McGriff.  Probably because the rate of attrition is so high, no one ever really makes baseball cards of Gulf Coast Leaguers, so this is Roberto Kelly's very first baseball card.

      As is often mentioned by scouts and management, in the lowest levels of the minor league system, players (especially those from Latin America that often lack the background in organized baseball of their counterparts from the US) are being looked at more for their tools, skills and polish more than actual performance.  As evidenced by his stats on the back of the card, he didn't fare very well in 1982, but apparently showed enough promise to warrant a promotion to the short-season Oneonta Yankees of the New York/Penn League for the first half of 1983, where he was moved to the outfield, probably to take better advantage of his speed.   Finishing the year in Greensboro, of the South Atlantic League, Kelly showed improvement at every promotion.

    On a side note, 1983 was an interesting year for TCMA, as they printed cards on both the standard thin, white card stock they'd been using since the mid-1970s (seen in this earlier post on Steve Howard), as well as the thicker, Topps-style grey/brown card stock.  I'm not entirely sure whether or not that was the cause of the super grainy photos.