Today's airbrushing card classic features former pitcher Tom Bradley on his 1971 Topps card (#588).
Take a look:
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| Dig the signature on the card... |
Looks like another one of those "color-inside-the-lines" jammies we've seen before (1972 Hal King for example).
Awesome…Gotta love it!
I just love cards like this!
By the way, please note the FULL autograph with middle name: "Thomas William Bradley".
Bradley was coming off of his first two years in the Majors,
getting sparse action with the California Angels, who drafted him in
1968 out of the University of Maryland. You can see a small bit of
California's uniform around his collar.
1971 was actually the first of three pretty good seasons for
Bradley, as he went on to post a 15-15 record with a nice 2.96 E.R.A.
and 206 strikeouts.
He started an amazing 39 games that year, enough for 285.2 innings
even though he only completed seven games. But he DID post SIX shutouts
in those seven complete games.
1972 was almost identical to 1971, as he went 15-14 with a 2.98
earned run average and 209 strikeouts while starting 40 games, good for
260.0 innings. Of those 40 starts he upped his complete games to eleven,
though his shutout total dropped to two.
Nevertheless not a bad arm to have starting every fourth day!
1973 was a small step backwards, as he moved on to the San
Francisco Giants, but decent when all was said and done: Bradley ended
up with a 13-12 record over 34 starts, good for 224 innings and six
complete games. His strikeout total dropped noticeably,
totaling only 136, but perhaps it was a sign of things to come…
In 1974 he was not nearly as effective a starter, going 8-11 with a
bloated 5.16 E.R.A. over the course of 21 starts and 30 appearances. He
managed only 134.1 innings and notched only 72 K's. But he DID have two
shutouts among his eight wins.
However, by 1975 he was pretty much done, as he managed to pitch in only 13 games, six of them starts.
He ended his final year in the big leagues with a 2-3 record and eye-popping 6.21 E.R.A.
He appeared in his last game on September, 15th of '75, ended his career at the age of 28.
Bradley went on to a lengthy career as a college head baseball
coach, leading Jacksonville University from 1979 to 1990 before moving
on to his alma mater, the University of Maryland from 1991 through 2000.
