Today I wanted to examine one of my favorite sub-sets of the 70's,
Topps first attempt at a "Traded" set of any kind, cards #751 through
#757.
It comprised of only seven cards, but among them you have three
future Hall of Famers, six Cy Youngs awards, five M.V.P. awards, and a
few little tid-bits of importance in baseball "history".
Starting off with the first card in the sub-set, #751 Steve
Carlton, we have the future Hall member showing up as a Phillie for the
first time on a card. We all know what happened next: an absolutely
amazing 1972 season where he went 27-10 with a 1.97
E.R.A. and 310 strikeouts, easily giving him his first of FOUR Cy Young
awards. "Lefty" would go on to forge a Hall of Fame career, ending up
with 329 wins to go along with 4136 K's and a championship in 1980.
The second card, #752, was a signifier of a very important piece of
baseball history that was about to unfold: the "Big Red Machine"
Cincinnati Reds of the 1970's. When Joe Morgan was traded to the Reds in
November 1971, it was to be the final piece the
Reds needed to become the juggernaut they were hinting they would
become a few years later.
Morgan was added to an already powerful line up featuring
uber-stars Bench, Rose, Perez and Concepcion among others, leading to
two consecutive championships in 1975-76 and catapulting Morgan into the
spotlight with M.V.P.'s both years, ending up in the
Hall of Fame in 1990. Easily the cream of the crop in the N.L. as far
as second basemen went, the perennial all-star gave the Reds that
combination of speed and power that was relentless in a line up that
could bash you into submission from the get go.
Card #753 shows Denny McLain, former two-time Cy Young winner and
1968 M.V.P. on his new team, the Oakland A's as he was closing out his
career.
A bit of a tragic story, McLain is obviously best knows as the last
pitcher to win 30+ games in a season (1968), but sadly equally as known
for all his problems with the law in his post-baseball career.
1972 was to be his last season in the bigs, closing out a short
10-year career with the Braves down in Atlanta, where he was traded to
in June for Orlando Cepeda. In the end he sported a 131-91 career record
with a 3.39 E.R.A. to go along with his awards
mentioned above.
Next up in the sub-set we have one of the all-time greats, card
#754, Frank Robinson, who was traded over to the Los Angeles Dodgers in
December of 1971 from the Orioles. He ended up spending only one season
in L.A., but didn't move very far, as he was
traded to the California Angels about a year later and had a couple of
very productive seasons, contributing to his amazing career of 586 home
runs, 1812 R.B.I.'s and 2943 hits. I always wondered why he didn't have
the "extra" at-bats at the end of his career
to try and get to 3,000, especially since he ended his playing days as a
player-manager on the Indians.
Anyway, his one year in the City of Angels wasn't his best showing:
a line of .251/.353/.442 to go along with 19 homers and 59 ribbies in
103 games. This lead to only the third time in his 17 year career at
that point where he didn't garner any M.V.P.
consideration. Incredible.
Jim Fregosi follows up Robinson in his new Mets digs on card #755.
As we all know, Fregosi was traded to the Mets in December of 1971 for
four players, one of them being Nolan Ryan. Definitely one of the
all-time bad trades in baseball history! However,
at the time it must be noted that Fregosi really was arguably the best
short stop in the American League, posting eight consecutive seasons
where he received M.V.P. votes by season's end. Sadly for the Mets he
couldn't continue this success, and found himself
in Shea for only about a season and a half.
He did move onto a relatively successful managerial career after
his playing days were done, managing the Angels, White Sox, Phillies and
Blue Jays over 15 years between 1978-2000. Of note, he was the manager
of the Phillies team that lost the World Series
to the Jays in 1993 thanks in part to Joe Carter's series-ending blast
of Mitch Williams. He was also at the helm of the powerful 1979 Angels
team that finished first and lost to the Orioles in the playoffs. This
was a team with Rod Carew, Don Baylor, Carney
Lansford, Bobby Grich, Brian Downing, Dan Ford and Willie Aikens. A
monster line up that also had Nolan Ryan as their pitching ace. Not too
shabby.
Card #756 gives us Rick Wise, the pitcher that was traded for Steve
Carlton, whom we looked at earlier in this sub-set. At the time of the
trade, this wasn't exactly a lop-sided trade as Wise was already a
proven veteran with seven successful years under
his belt even though he was still only 25 years old.
However, when you look at what Carlton ended up achieving as a
Phillies ace, you can't help but call this a trade-bust even though Wise
went on to have a few more solid seasons before he hung up the spikes
in 1982. All told he posted a 188-181 record with
a 3.69 E.R.A. and 1647 K's over 18 seasons. Certainly admirable to say
the least. But of course he'll always be that answer to the trivia
question: who did the Phillies give up for Steve Carlton?
The last card in the set, #757, is perhaps the only card in the set
that doesn't really depict a star player, even though this player did
post a decent 18-year career spanning 1963-1980: Jose Cardenal.
Traded from the Brewers to the Cubs in December of 1971, Cardenal
posted his best seasons as a big-leaguer as a member of the
North-siders. As a matter of fact he even got some M.V.P. play in both
1972 and 1973 as an outfielder with a little pop in his
bat and some speed on the base paths. He eventually hung them up after
the 1980 season where he split time with the Royals and Mets. All told
he would end up with just under 2000 hits, a .275 batting average, and
over 300 stolen bases spread out over 2017
games.
So there you have it: seven cards that show "Traded" blazing across
the front with a small write-up on the back, thrown in as a new sub-set
in the monster 787-card 1972 Topps baseball card set. Definitely a
great idea, but I wish they could have done something
other than the "Married with Children" stencil font "rubber-stamp"
TRADED designation. But hey, at least their player selection was on
point! Great group with tons of accomplishments.