"Now Batting #13 Dave Conception........"The Shortstop that was the keystone partner to Joe Morgan (another member of this exclusive set) as well the rest of the Big Red Machine of the 1970's teams. Dave was a 5 time Gold Glover 9 time All-Star (Including 1 All-Star MVP winner in 1982). Dave was from Venezuela who modeled his game after watching the former White Sox great & Venezuelan Chico Carrasquel. Dave is 1 of 4 players in this set that played their entire career with just 1 team (The other 3 are Bill Russell,Roberto Clemente, & Roy White) even though he was released prior to the 1989 season he signed with the Angels but didn't make the team out of Spring Training.
I will remember Dave in 1988 when I was 13 my family was on vacation my mom arranged us to keep me happy for my part & as usual a delayed birthday (mind you my birthday is in June) present 5 tickets for the whole family to watch the Cincinnati Reds play the Pittsburgh Pirates at 3 Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh on August 22 the Reds won 2-0 over the Pirates. I was happy to see Danny Jackson win his 18th game on the way to a 23-8 season & seeing Chris Sabo in his rookie year on his way to take the Rookie of the Year that year. Anyways so after the game I went to where fans could get autographs if they were lucky to get anything signed which I was able to get Rob Dibble,Chris Sabo,(When I told him I was a fellow Michigander he was surprised that a kid from Michigan came to see him even though I wore my Ohio State hat) then a huge crowd saw Doug Drabek & they all went after him including my little brother Ethan who said I'll go get his for ya brother I said thanks then out came Dave Collins I remember he was on his 2nd tour with the Reds plus I recognized him only no one else did we talked about his 1st tour of Cincinnati & then his only season with the Detroit Tigers & what he thought about the chances of the Reds being a contender he said probably won't happen until 1990 which turned out to be true & he was shocked that someone recognized him then I thanked him for his time & as went he said kid there goes Dave Conception which I recognized as well so I said Senor Conception may I please have your Autograph unfortunately Dave just brushed my request off & continued to walk away. It wasn't until later someone told me that Dave just heard he was going to be released after the year & he wasn't signing anything, which I understood but at least he could have said something to me saying sorry I don't sign. Meanwhile Ethan was lucky enough to get me Doug Drabek's then we went back to find the rest of the family & headed to our hotel room to gear up for the rest of the vacation which was going to Gettysburg the next day then end going to Hershey to see the chocolate factory.
So despite what happened that family vacation is the image of him brushing me off say he doesn't deserve to be in the set no I think he does cause he was like I said earlier the shortstop of The Big Red Machine his bat came through in some good games during the 1970s especially hitting .370 against the Yankees in the 1976 World Series. So what is your take on him leave your comment below next up is Dave's former teammate of the Reds from 1984-1987 & Hall of Famer Class of 2025 Dave 'Cobra' Parker. Until then I leave you the quote unfortunately I disagree on that Mr. Conception is one but said by the great Rogers Hornsby "Any ballplayer who doesn't sign Autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."
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