BRIAN SCHNEIDER - (39) 23
Expos to Nationals transition catcher
Expos 2000 - 2004 / Nationals 2005 - 2007
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| photo by Getty Images - 29 April 2004 Expos in San Diego. |
I'm trying to get this semi-regular player scheme going again. The biggest problem I've had with it is deciding which 5 (or 6 maybe) cards of an individual
SeNator to feature, make sure I have the backs scanned (I didn't use to scan card backs for the longest time) and to hunt for photos to decide which if any to show along with the cards, and then to plan who will be featured next. The basic criteria for me to feature a player is for me to hopefully have more than just one or two of a player's cards; the player must have been on one of the DC Club incarnations so guys like
Gary Carter and
Vladimir Guerrero will not be mentioned in this series. I may blog about them from time to time since they were
Expos, but neither actually played in DC on the home team. The closest
Vlad got was playing in Baltimore for the
Orioles.
OK so onto this post's Curly W Player Brian "Schneider-man" Schneider. Brian was the Expos main catcher when the team moved over to DC to become The Nationals. He caught the inaugural first pitch President Bush tossed in 2005. At the time he was my fave currently playing catcher. During his tenure as a National, Brian was an Amazing catcher (at least to me) and had a pretty decent arm for catching base stealers. He was one of the "take the lead" team mentors for younger players and worked well with the pitchers as their "quarterback".
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| Photo by Getty Images? |
During the off season in the winter of 2007 News of him being traded to the
New York Mets along with Outfielder
Ryan Church (another fave
Nat) for
Lastings Milledge really ticked me. Probably because it was the first trade I recall that involved some of my faves that I heard about when it happened. I blogged my Gut Reaction to it on my regular blog in a post titled
Nats + Mets Trade = UH OH. At the time I didn't have a card blog yet so all my card posts and sports-news posts were made there. It took me a couple of years to get over the trade, by that time
Lastings Milledge was traded to the
Pirates and
Brian was still with the
Mets about to move to the
Phillies.
Brian's last playing season was 2012 with the
Phillies he announced his retirement on 29 January 2013 a day after, fellow
Expo to
National, Nick Johnson (last with the
Orioles) announced his retirement.
Lookie what I found. "Final?" Play at the Plate between Ex-Teammates.
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| Photo via Associated Press from 09 June 2012 Game Phillies at Baltimore |
Baseball Historian fans may recall that
Brian was the Catcher at the plate in the 2007 "Chasing the Record" Circus game vs. The
Giants in San Fran. where
Barry Bonds hit homer number 756 off of
Mike Bacsik - freezing the game for an hour or two.
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| photo via Getty Images - 7 August 2007 Bonds his #756 at home vs. Nationals. |
OK it was only about 35-45 minutes but it seemed about an hour too long. Yes I know it was baseball history and it was a big thing at the time, but halting the game for more than 10 minutes was uncalled for. 15 minutes tops would be acceptable for anything of this nature.
Now lets get on with the Card Show:
2002 Fleer Baseball 84 Brian Schneider Expos
2004 MLB Showdown Card Game 014 Brian Schneider Expos
(Front and Back)
2005 Topps Total Baseball 17 (WAS7) Brian Schneider Nationals
(Front and Back)
2006 Topps Heritage Baseball 357 Brian Schneider Nationals
(Front and Back)
2007 Topps Heritage Baseball 114 Brian Schneider Nationals
(Front and Back)
2008 Topps Heritage Baseball 616 Brian Schneider Mets
(Front and Back)
Oddly
Brian sort of bears a slight resemblance to this 1960s
Senators Catcher. I noticed the resemblance when I first got this card from sportlots (I think).
1963 Topps Baseball 94 Bob Schmidt Senators
Senators/Nationals mentioned in this post:
Mike Bacsik
Ryan Church
Nick Johnson
Lastings Milledge
Bob Schmidt
Brian Schneider
Other
Noteable "Franchise" players mentioned in this post:
Gary Carter
Vladimir Guerrero
Brian Schneider Baseball Reference
In The Hole: Ryan Church - (38), 19
