Left-Handed Catcher Larry Haney Seattle Pilots

It's Baseball Card Friday and today we look at left-handed catcher Larry Haney.  Topps 1969

Since the 1870's, there have been around 10 left-handed catchers, most of those being left-handed utility players filling in behind the plate for a game or two.  There are many ideas why there are no left-handed catchers, such as obstruction issues with throwing to bases as well as left-handed people tend to be more artsy and aren't tough enough to hack it behind the plate.  Whatever the case may be, of all the left-handed catchers in the history of baseball, Larry Haney wasn't one of them.

They reused his picture from his 1968 card but accidentally flipped the negative, which left them with a mirror image and a left-handed Larry.

This is Mr. Haney's card from 1968.  Kind of a cool card. 


My favorite part of this card is that's Boog Powell in the back ground.  I love Boog Powell.  When I was a kid I went down and got Boog's autograph at Fingers Furniture in Houston.  Wait-a-minute.  If that's Boog Powell in the '68 card, then in the mirror image card, it's Bizarro Boog Powell.  Let's pray Bizarro Boog Powell doesn't escape from the '69 card and start feeding bar-b-qued humans to cows and pigs.


Okay, back to my man Larry Haney.  Lets take a look at a couple of his other cards.

This is from 1973 we see Larry wearing a doctor's rubber glove as a batting glove. 

Then he grew a moustache and was looking smooth in his 1977 card...

But my favorite card of Larry Haney comes from 1975

It's a cool action shot, Larry's got the ball in his hand, there's dust in the air, Larry looks like he's going to gun down a guy running to third.  It's a great photo.  One little problem, that's not Larry Haney.  It's Dave Duncan.

First they make Larry Haney left handed, then the coolest card they give him, Larry Haney's not in it.



 Here's Dave Duncan's other card from that year.

So this Memorial Day, when you're at a party and someone asks you "Name an obscure player who's had a Hall of Fame career when it comes to his baseball cards?"  You can say "Larry Haney."
You do that, I'm pretty sure you're going to get laid.