As far as obscure RBIers, I'd have to say that JR Richard, relief pitcher for Houston, takes the cake. Who the fuck is this guy? I think I saw him for the first time yesterday. What do you guys think?
Actually, I read an article a few years ago in SI (something like "The Most Feared Pitchers Ever") in which several former players claimed J.R. Richard was the most frightening pitcher they ever faced. From what I read, he was the Randy Johnson of his time, throwing incredible heat and possessing a wicked mean streak. He was pretty dominant for a few years in the late 70's before he had a stroke.
My nomination for a player that time forgot would be Tim Laudner. I'm a Twins fan, and I have no idea what became of him after 1987.
You have more info about Laudner's attempted suicide? That sounds like Hall o' Shame material to me...
If we are using NES, Al Pedrique gets the nod. Arcade has a bunch of unknowns, with Rabbit Maranville topping my list....
Funny story - Potsie was playing Todd in arcade and asked me who Don Gullet was and when he pitched. I said I couldn't remember. A few hours later we're watching the Cubs vs Reds and Gullet strolls out to the mound, apparently he's the Reds pitching coach...
Laundromat is pretty unknown. But there's tons of guys who I haven't heard from.
Like I've posted many times before, Pedrique is a regular figure here in Phoenix, as he's the AAA coach for the DBacks.
I'd actually heard of Rabbit Maranville, solely because I used to have a copy of "The Baseball Hall of Shame Volume IV", and there was a blurb about what a big clown he was (I think; it could've been something else). I'm familiar with most of the guys in the arcade version, but I'm a baseball history nerd, so I'm probably the exception rather than the rule.
Just for the heck of it, I just googled for "Gene Larkin", and the 6th or 7th result was a link to Dan Gladden's baseball camp (Larkin coaches there). Guess who else is a coach at that camp? None other than Tim Laudner.
I then googled for Laudner, and it turned up the homepage for the Minnesota Assembly of Mediocre Athletes (http://www.geocities.com/mama_hof/index.html (http://www.geocities.com/mama_hof/index.html)) - Laudner was the inaugural member of their Hall of Fame, in honor of his totally undeserved All-Star appearance (really - in 1988, during which he batted .253 with 13 HR). Randy Bush is also a member.
We gotta get more info on the suicide attempt. There's really a book called Baseball Hall of Shame?
Actually, the Baseball Hall of Shame is a series. I had Volume 4, and they had 1 and 3 at my high school library, plus the Football Hall of Shame. The only RBI-er I can remember from any of the books, though, was Kirby Puckett, who was forced by the police to quit batting practice during spring training because he was damaging cars beyond the outfield fence.
I googled for '"Tim Laudner" suicide', but the only thing I could find was a mention of some charity work he was doing. I have an aunt in St. Paul who's been following the Twins longer than I have; I'll see what she knows.
Don Gullett is the man!!! We hang out with his daughter and he gets us some pretty nice Reds tickets. Hell, we used to get drunk at his house all the time.