In this ongoing series -- inspired by Stereogum¡¯s ¡°The No. 1s¡± -- we¡¯ll look back on some of the more interesting, notable, and unexpected players of the week in MLB history, an award that has been given out since 1974. While many players of the week have been written about extensively and are entrenched in baseball lore, that is not always the case.

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? Archive: Best Weeks Ever

The Week: June 30, 1991

AL: Randy Milligan, 1B/DH, BAL
NL: Barry Larkin, SS, CIN

Did you realize there used to be two MLB Drafts each year? (Well, for two years, the first two years, there were actually three.) There was the regular one, the one in June, which was for recent high school graduates and college seniors. There was one, those first two years, in August for players from amateur summer leagues. And then there was the January one, which lasted more than 20 years, until 1986, in which junior college players, early high school graduates and college dropouts were chosen. There aren¡¯t many players from that January who had big careers in the Majors. Ken Phelps, Roy Smalley (who was chosen twice), Ned Yost, Willie Aikens, Mickey Hatcher, Alan Wiggins, Craig McMurtry, Ellis Burks -- those sorts of guys. The most famous is the only Hall of Famer: Kirby Puckett, whom the Twins chose in 1982. I¡¯ve only found four of them to ever win Player of the Week honors: Puckett, Burks, Aikens and ¡­ Randy Milligan.

Milligan was the third overall pick, and the first pick by the Mets, in the 1981 January Draft. Even though he was only 18 when drafted, he was a huge man -- or at least a huge man by 1981 standards -- and was nicknamed ¡°Moose.¡± He played first base, but his defense was such that the Mets, even though they were in the National League, probably thought of him more as a designated hitter type. But he became, as he made his way through the Minors, one of their top prospects.

It took him a while -- he was very young. He didn¡¯t make it to Double-A Jackson until 1984, and Triple-A Tidewater in 1986. But it was his 1987 season, the year after the Mets won their last World Series, that drew notice: At the age of 25, already in his eighth professional season, he nearly won the International League¡¯s Triple Crown, with 29 homers, 103 RBIs and a .326 average. That wasn¡¯t an empty average: He walked 91 times that year for a .438 OBP. This got him a brief callup to the Majors for two at-bats in 1987: He walked once and struck out once.

He never did get a ball in play for the Mets: They traded him to Pittsburgh in March 1988 for Mackey Sasser and Tim Drummond. He struggled there, so the Pirates shipped him to Baltimore that November for a Minor Leaguer. That Orioles team was coming off a 107-loss season in 1988 but put Milligan at first base and watched him, along with Cal Ripken Jr., Mickey Tettleton and Joe Orsulak, help the team make a huge 33-game jump in the standings. Milligan, in his first full season in the league but already the same age as Ripken (whose streak was well on its way by then), actually outslugged Ripken and everyone else on the team other than Tettleton. He had some injuries in 1990 but put up a .900 OPS, the best of his career. He was actually seventh in the American League in walks that year, despite playing only 109 games. He¡¯s one of those players whose ability to draw walks would be much more appreciated today.

But 1991 was a bad year for the Orioles overall -- it¡¯s the year they lost 95 games and fired Frank Robinson -- but it was the year Milligan played the most games of his career, 141, and won his lone Player of the Week Award. He hit three homers in five games during that stretch, building off a moment the week before that ended up being historic, in a cinematic way. No, I mean literally a cinematic way. On June 17, 1991, he hit a walk-off double to beat the Twins, and it was captured and featured in the film "A Few Good Men." (It¡¯s not the scene where Tom Cruise is hitting grounders awkwardly.)

Milligan left the Orioles in free agency after the 1992 season, signed with the Reds, was traded to Cleveland, then was traded to Montreal right before the 1994 season. He was a key pinch-hitter for that team, but the cancellation of the remainder of the season cost him a spot at his first postseason appearance. He sat out a year and played in the Mexican League in 1996, but then he officially retired. He turned 60 last year and is now a scout for those Orioles. They still call him Moose, more than 40 years later.

The other Player of the Week that week was Barry Larkin, who won the second of his four Player of the Week Awards.

Around the world

After being freed from prison after 26 years a year earlier, Nelson Mandela addressed Congress on June 26.

The No. 1 song

¡°Rush Rush,¡± Paula Abdul

It¡¯s actually difficult to pick a week in the early ¡¯90s when the No. 1 song wasn¡¯t a song by Paula Abdul. ¡°Rush Rush¡± was No. 1 for five weeks and features a very, very young Keanu Reeves in its video.

At The Movies

Two of the biggest hits of 1991 were Kevin Costner in ¡°Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves¡± and James Cameron¡¯s ¡°Terminator 2: Judgment Day.¡± But one more was No. 1 right in between them: ¡°The Naked Gun 2?: The Smell of Fear.¡± There is no baseball in that movie like the first one. But wow, is it funny.