[Terry D]

I assume many readers here are somewhat familiar with Chris Bando. They are of course much more likely to be familiar with Chris' big brother Sal, a near HOF 3B for many years with the A's and Brewers. Chris had the bad luck to play most of his major league baseball with the Cleveland Indians of the 1980s. The Tribe may not have been the absolute worst franchise of that decade in terms of wins and losses, but it was without any doubt the most incompetently run. If you don't believe me, just check Terry Pluto's The Curse of Rocky Colavito. These were the days of Dave (I Will Fight No More Forever) Garcia, Pat Corrales, Gabe Paul, Phil Seghi, Peter (Pitchers on Parade) Bavasi, et. al. In the mid 80s the Tribe came up with a damned good collection of young hitters (Joe Carter, Julio Franco, Brett Butler, etc.) but they still couldn't win because the idiots in the front office paired these hitters with the worst pitching staff since the days of the '62 Mets. It was hard for any player to succeed in an environment like that, but in truth Chris Bando was not really a hot prospect to begin with and his minor league numbers were not truly outstanding. Basically, Chris Bando was to Sal Bando as Hector Cruz was to Jose Cruz. His major league catcher ERA was nearly a run higher than the league average, and he caught just a so-so 39% of enemy baserunners. He did not get on base much. He had a little power, but not enough to justify everyday play. Chris had just one good year in the majors, 1984, when he hit .291 with good power while serving as half of a platoon with Gerry Willard (another promising young hitter the Indians had no real idea what to do with). Chris stopped hitting after that and was soon pushed aside by two allegedly hot prospects who hit even less than he did, Joel Skinner and Andy Allanson. Chris got into one game with the '88 Tigers and two with the '89 A's, the only MLB title winner he ever played for. He has since had a long career as a coach and manager, including a stint as boss of a club called the Washington Wild Things. Like his big brother, Chris is also a serious Christian. This black and white image, the first I have ever seen of Chris with the A's, comes from an apparently defunct religious website he used to operate.