You'd think a former two-time batting champ and twelve year veteran
of the Major Leagues would get a little more respect than Tommy Davis
did in 1973 with Topps.
In a year that see's Topps issue player cards to the likes of Jose
Arcia, Monty montgomery or Jim Geddes, you'd think that a former star
player who accumulated over 100 at-bats the previous year would warrant a
card.
Well, we've seen a bunch of other strange choices Topps made
regarding player selection for their sets, so I guess I shouldn't be TOO
surprised here.
But funny enough, even though Tommy Davis was in a state of flux
with his career in the early 1970's, 1973 would be a sort of rebirth for
him, as he filled in wonderfully for the Baltimore Orioles as their
first full-time designated hitter, ending the
season with a 10th place finish in the A.L. M.V.P. Voting.
For the season Davis ended up hitting .306 with seven homers and 89
runs batted in over the course of 137 games. Not bad for a guy who
bounced around and played for five teams the previous three years.
By all accounts Davis went on to an even better year in 1974,
hitting .284 with 11 homers and 84 R.B.I.'s with 181 hits in 626 at-bats
at the age of 35, once again getting Most Valuable Player attention.
Well, I've gone and created a 1973 card for Davis, one that easily
should have been in place of a few players Topps decided to go with that
year.
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| A comeback year for the former two-time batting champ. |
I can't finish this post profiling Tommy Davis without mentioning his kick-ass 1962 season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
That season he crushed everything thrown his way, hitting a
league-leading .346 with 230 hits, nine triples, 27 homers and
astounding 153 runs batted in! He also threw in 18 stolen bases for good
measure.
All those numbers got him a third place in M.V.P. Voting behind
teammate Maury Wills and the Giants' Willie Mays, who I think got robbed
of the award.
But hey, that's for another day…