Monday, June 30, 2014

"HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 1970'S" #23: McCOVEY SLAMS 500TH HOMER

Here's a card that would have been nice to pull fresh from a Topps pack in 1979: a "highlight" card celebrating Willie McCovey hitting his 500th home run.
Take a look:


McCovey reached the lofty mark on June 30th of 1978 against the Atlanta Braves, and became the twelfth slugger to reach that mark at the time.
Before McCovey, the last player to reach 500 home runs was Frank Robinson towards the end of the 1971 season.
"Stretch" would end up with 521 homers in his career, tying the great Ted Williams on the all-time list.
It's amazing to think, but McCovey missed a chunk of time throughout his career because of injuries, and it's hard not to wonder if 600 was possible for him had he stayed healthy.
Nevertheless, his 22 year career was worthy of Hall of Fame induction in 1986, capping a brilliant run that saw him suit up for the Giants, Padres, and A's between 1959 and 1980, making him one of those rare "four decade" players as well.
I followed the design for this card after my Gaylord Perry 3000th strikeout "highlight" card which I posted a couple months ago, and it seems to make for a decent "virtual" sub-set for the otherwise bland set Topps put out there, 35 years ago.
Hope you all agree…

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