REVISITING MY MISSING IN ACTION: 1978 JIM FULLER

On the blog this fine day, we revisit a 10-year-old post featuring my 1978 "missing in action" card for Jim Fuller of the Houston Astros:

Fuller played the final 34 games of his career for the Houston Astros in 1977, collecting 16 hits in exactly 100 at-bats for a .160 batting average.

That action in 1977 was the first for him since the 1974 season when he played in 64 games for the Baltimore Orioles, for whom he came up with the previous year.

All told, Fuller's career consisted of those three years, finishing with a .194 batting average, 61 hits, 11 homers and 41 runs batted in spread over 107 games and 315 at-bats.

WTHBALLS 1970 "ALL-1960s ALL-STARS" 21 CARD SET

Good day all! Hope everyone is doing well.

Happy to say that the newest WTHBALLS offering is now available for purchase, my 1970 "All-1960s All-Stars" set.

Featuring a full 21-cards, this set celebrates my picks for the all-decade teams of both the A.L. and N.L. for the decade of the 1960s.

I picked all eight positions plus a RHP and LHP pitcher for each league, as well as an overall MLB pick for reliever of the 1960s, since I'll use any excuse to create another Hoyt Wilhelm card!

All-time greats line Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente among others are featured in this one, with 16 (17 including Pete Rose) players being Hall of Famers.

As an added treat, the backs have a brief bio on what the players did over the 1960s, earning their spot on these squads and set.

Each set comes wrapped in a "tweaked" 1970 wrapper (see photos attached), and is available for $20 plus $4.50 shipping.

Paypal as usual: slogun23@gmail.com

Fun set to add into my 1970 set binder!

Any questions feel free to contact me...

Gio/wthballs

 

MISSING IN ACTION: 1963 FLEER ELSTON HOWARD

Time to go and add the great Elston Howard to my long-running 1963 Fleer extension set, giving the eventual 1963 A.L. MVP a card in this iconic set:

After putting in some time in the Negro Leagues, he would eventually break the Yankees' color-barrier in 1955, immediately showing he belonged, with a .290 batting average and 10 homers in only 97 games, driving in 43 runs and scoring 33.

Two seasons later he would make his first All-Star team, the first of nine straight seasons doing so, and of course in 1963 would also be named the A.L. MVP when he hit 28 home runs with 85 RBIs while hitting .287, taking home the first of two straight Gold Gloves for his work behind the plate.

After a nice 14-year career as a player, finishing up his playing days as a member of the Boston Red Sox, he returned to the Bronx as a coach, a position he would hold for the next ten years until his untimely death from heart disease in 1980.

Four years later the Yankees would retire Howard's #32 in 1984, and I was actually at that ceremony as a young teen-aged kid of 15.

Incredible to think that was already over 40 years ago.

A SET THAT NEVER WAS: 1971 ALL-STAR TICKET SET: NORM CASH

Today on the blog, we add Detroit Tigers first baseman Norm Cash to my 1971 special All-Star Game set based on the design of the game's ticket:

Though Cash was actually not selected by fans in the All-Star voting, he ended starting the game for injured Boog Powell, so I thought it'd be fun to include him here in this set.

Cash really did put together a solid 17-year career that stands out even more when you consider the modern "dead-ball" era he played in.

By the time he retired after the 1974 season he slammed 377 homers and drove in 1103 runs while collecting 1820 hits.

Not a bad compliment in the line-up to guys like Al Kaline and Willie Horton!

Of course, his monster season happened to be the same year of Mantle and Maris and their pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record, 1961.

That year Cash tore it up, as he led the league in batting with a .361 average (the only time he batted .300 or better in a season oddly enough), while also slamming 41 home runs and driving in 132 runs.

Even with a league-leading .487 on-base-percentage and 193 hits, all it got him was a fourth place finish for MVP behind Maris, Mantle and Orioles slugger Jim Gentile.

Timing, as they say, is everything…

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1960S STARS OF THE GAME: MICKEY MANTLE

On the blog today, we begin to spotlight my custom WTHBALLS Gelatin "1960 Stars of Baseball" set released back in 2018 in custom Gelatin box with lots of goodies:

We'll start off with uber-star Mickey Mantle.

The set featured 40 postcard-sized cards with cut-out player cards to mimic the Jello sets of that era.

Fun set to produce, as it even contained a packet of gelatin to complete the set!

As I have stated before here on the blog many times, Mantle is one of those guys I really don't think we need to get into as far as his tenure on the baseball diamond. It'd be kind of a joke to start writing about his career since it would take up a book's worth.

But alas, 500+ homers, a bushel of World Championships, three Most Valuable Player Awards, and the hearts of more fans than we can even imagine to this day.

"The Mick" in all his glory, enshrined in his rightful place in Cooperstown, along with his longtime buddy Whitey Ford in the same HOF class.

One of the great icons of the sport over its 150+ year history.

Not too bad a Hollywood script...

I just wished I would have gotten to see him play!

CAREER-CAPPER: 1968 LEW BURDETTE

Up on the blog today, we have a 1968 "Career-Capper" for pitcher Lew Burdette, who put together an excellent 18 year Major League career:

Burdette appeared in 19 games for the California Angels in 1967, the last season he'd suit up in the Majors, going 1-0 with a 4.91 earned run average over 18.1 innings at the age of 40.

Burdette of course will always be known as the hero of the 1957 World Series when he pitched the (then) Milwaukee Braves to a surprising championship win over the favored New York Yankees, winning three games, all complete games, two of them shutouts.
He put in 18 seasons in the Big Leagues, winning 203 games while posting and earned run average of 3.66 along with 33 shutouts and 32 saves over 626 appearances.
Between 1956 and 1961 he averaged just under 20 wins a season for the Braves, with a high of 21 in 1959 which led the National League, as well as his four shutouts and 39 starts.
Great playing career for a baseball lifer, who’d retire after a couple of seasons with the California Angels in 1967 as an arm out of the bullpen at the age of 40.

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: ORLANDO CEPEDA

Today on the blog, we add the "Baby Bull" Orlando Cepeda to my long-running custom WTHBALLS "Classic Baseball" set, celebrating the great game and it's Golden Era:

While Cepeda's career was productive enough to get into Cooperstown, it's well known that if not for his bad knees, his final statistics could have been mind blowing.
Nevertheless, by the time he retired, he posted final numbers of: 379 homers, 1365 runs batted in, 2351 hits and a .297 average, with a Rookie of the Year (1958) and M.V.P. award (1967) thrown in.
It took a little while, but he was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999 after being selected by the Veteran's Committee.
What a power trio San Francisco had in Cepeda, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey! Power to the ultimate degree!”