By the time this card (#623) hit the shelves in 1976, Bob Allietta was already out of the Majors for good.
As I've stated before I've always been a sucker for cards that showed a player who came and went before we even knew it, so allow me to profile guys like this from time to time.
Allietta was drafted as the seventh pick overall in the January 1971 draft by the California Angels as a catcher out of High School.
After working his way up the Minor League system, he finally got the call to the Majors in 1975 and saw action in 21 games, good for 45 at-bats and a .178 batting average.
Sadly for him, he was on the disabled list for about a month and a half smack in the middle of the season, limiting his playing time.
As (bad) luck would have it, those 21 games would end up being all the time he would see in the "bigs", and he would bounce around the Minors for five teams through the 1980 season.
Ironically enough, his last two seasons in the Minors, playing for Tacoma of the Pacific League (the Indians' Triple-A team), he had his two best professional seasons at the plate, hitting .301 in 1979 and .304 in 1980.
But as stated earlier, after the 1980 season, at the ripe old age of 28, his career was over.
Professional sports are a BITCH of a mistress as we all know...
Well at least he got a card in my all-time favorite set! And it's not a bad looking card at that!
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| 21 games and this nice card for Allietta and the Majors. |