…In which we address the age-old question “Who are these guys?”
Today’s post has an extra air of excitement about it… Not only do we cover Doug “Eyechart” Gwosdz, but also Fred Kuhaulua!
Mike Armstrong:
Appeared in 197 games over 8 years, mainly as a reliever – he has one start on his record. Also pitched for the Royals, Yankees and Indians. Was the primary setup man to Dan Quisenberry in 1982 and 1983. Finished 94 career games but had just 11 saves.
In 1979 he was traded straight-up for Paul O’Neill! …Only it’s not THAT Paul O’Neill.
Doug Gwosdz:
Was largely a backup to Terry Kennedy and played 69 games over 4 years with the Padres, batting .144 in the process.
Fred Kuhualua:
Fred Mahele Kuhaulua was born in Hawaii… I know! Who saw that coming?
He had two “cups of coffee” in the Majors… 1977 with the Angels (3 games, 1 start, 6.1 innings, 15.63 ERA) and 1981 with the Padres (1-0, 2.45 in 5 games, 4 starts).
On October 1st, 1981 he shut out the soon-to-be-World-Champion Dodgers over 8 innings. Eric Show closed out the 1-0 win. Fernando Valenzuela was the hard-luck loser, giving up an unearned run and taking the loss.
Fred’s only Major League hit was an RBI single off of Phil Niekro on 9/20/1981.
I believe this is Kuhaulua’s only Major League card.
Closest To Being A Star:
Although it’s tempting to go with the guy who outpitched Fernando Valenzuela, Mike Armstrong was the only one to have a Major League career, so I guess that makes him closest to being a star.
The Shlabotnik Report 
Padres. I’m still bitter about 1984.
“Padres. Why did it have to be Padres.”
Mike Armstrong had a pretty darn interesting career.
Armstrong on Baseball Reference
Just a friendly grammar note – … an RBI single off of Phil … – it is considered very poor English and totally unnecessary to have ‘ of ‘ in this context …
Far too many writers have always done this over the ages and you can run this around with any grammarian to see that ‘ of ‘ is not necessary here and adds nothing to the sentence …
Additionally, one wonders what the success rate was for finding this card with all 3 signatures as Kuhaulua apparently does not like to sign this card and is considered a toughie.
Thanks for pointing that out… I’ll be better about that in the future.