Reviewing a Future Star: Pat Dodson

As we prepare for a new baseball season here at Bus Leagues Baseball, I want to break ground on a new feature. We usually don’t look into the past too often around here and, come to think of it, we usually don’t look into the future that much either. I guess that makes us unique. I like to think we are perhaps the most “carpe diem”, living in the present, zen-like minor league blog on the block.

But I digress.

Anyway, about the new feature. Every so often, I’m going to take a look a Future Star, Rated Rookie, or any other famous baseball card prospect designation to see how accurate the labels are. Did the card companies get them right? Or were they wasting card collectors time by leading them down the wrong road?

First up is someone Brian might be familiar with, former Red Sox prospect Pat Dodson. Back in the mid-1980s the Red Sox were a veteran team with several minor leaguers with the talent to make the parent club. There was Mike Greenwell, Sam Horn, Kevin Romine, Todd Benzinger, and Dodson. Although he was the oldest of the bunch, Dodson, a hard-hitting first baseman, was awarded the International League MVP in 1986 and was named a “Future Star” by Topps for their 1987 baseball card set.

Unfortunately, Dodson failed to live up to the Future Star billing. He only appeared in 52 games in the majors, hitting .202 in 308 at bats. So what happened?

The problem was that although Dodson won IL MVP, he was far from the best prospect in the league. That title probably would go to Fred McGriff, who was five years younger and successful at the same level. Dodson wasn’t even the best prospect in the Red Sox system. That was probably either Greenwell or Horn. Dodson was 26 and in his third year in Pawtucket and his seventh in the farm system when he finally put it together. There was no doubt he was used to the level of competition. A prospect with power potential should hit 27 home runs in AAA.

After he found his groove, Dodson was a quad-A player before the term became popular. He had no business being called a “Future Star”. After shuffling between Pawtucket and Boston in 1987 and 1988, he was granted free agency and moved to Japan to play for the Kinestsu Buffaloes in 1989. He returned to the states in 1990 and briefly saw action in the Rangers organization for their AAA affiliate, the Oklahoma City 89ers. After 23 games with OKC, Pat Dodson was out of organized baseball.

I have no idea why Topps designated Dodson a Future Star. All they did was mislead thousands of kids across the nation who clamored for Dodson’s cards, thinking he was going to be a star.

(Picture of Dodson card found on The Writer’s Journey.)