I have made it official recently that I’m now collecting all things Ryno. I could buy every Ryno card I come across and still not own every card he has made. I will continue go after Ryno’s but I want to try and own every card of a single player. I want to start a new collection that I know I can afford, does not have thousands of cards to hunt down, and has some personal connection to me. That player is Scott Radinsky. I know a few bloggers and readers will know who this is, but most will not.
Scott had an eleven year career as a left handed middle reliever. He played for four teams over his career, the White Sox, Dodgers, Cardinals, and the Indians. He ended his career with a 42-25 record, 3.44 ERA, and 358 strikeouts in 481 innings pitched. His stats are not horrible nor are they great. So why Radinsky you ask?
Growing up I had one love, and that was baseball. When I was close to becoming a teenager I discovered Punk Rock, and my second love was born. This is the main reason why I stopped buying baseball cards. My weeks were filled searching for records and my weekends were filled with shows. All of my money went to tapes, CD’s, 7″ records, T-shirts, and shows.
The baseball world and punk world rarely collided unless I was able to take in a day game at Wrigley and a show at the Metro which is only two blocks away. This all changed with out me really knowing it. My friends and I piled into my sweet ’87 Blazer to take the half hour drive east to The PIT Skatepark to take in an afternoon of skating and evening of pure punk rock. The PIT was the best place to see a show, no security, no adults, no rules, and the bands would hang out and skate with you. When we pulled in the parking lot I saw a guy with a bucket of balls and a make shift backstop. He was throwing some heat and he was pretty serious about what he was doing. I was never a great skater and I usually got hurt when I tried so I wandered over and started talking to the guy throwing the baseballs. He introduced himself and said he was the singer for Ten Foot Pole. We started shooting the shit about music and baseball. I offered to get my glove and play some catch and we did. He never once said a word about pitching for the White Sox or being a major leaguer. He said it was just something he did on the side to take a break from the music. Here I was playing catch with a major league pitcher and had no clue. I went inside and told everyone I just played catch with the lead singer of Ten Foot Pole, not the middle reliever of the Chicago White Sox. I didn’t realize it until later that summer when I read an article in Rolling Stone about professional athletes and their music careers. He was forced out of the band later that year because of his baseball career interfering with his tour schedule. He later joined the band Pulley who are pretty kick ass as well.
I was actually able to see him pitch in the summer of ’96. He was with the Dodgers and came in for relief for Hideo Nomo against the Cubs. I was able to get down by the bullpen and say hi and got a picture but for the life of me I can’t find my old pictures.
He only has a handful of cards but some may prove to be a challenge. Here is the checklist from Beckett.com. He also has quite a few cards on Ebay to my surprise. I plan on going on a mini shopping spree later on. If anyone has any of his cards I would be willing to make a trade. I got a feeling I will need some help with this endeavour. Here is a sweet flyer I dug up, it was actually still hanging at my parents house inside the closet door of what is now my dad’s office, but was my old room.
Project '62 
