One of the more underrated offensive seasons for a catcher during
the 1970's was put in by Giants catcher Dick Dietz in 1970, when he hit
22 homers, 107 runs batted in, 36 doubles and 109 walks, to go along
with an excellent slash line of .300/.426/.515.
Granted, when you have a season like this at the same time some
young stud named Johnny Bench is destroying opposing pitching, you can
see how it happens that your season goes somewhat unappreciated.
I'm not sure if it still applies, but for years Dietz' 1970 was the
only season in Major League history of a catcher hitting .300 with 100
runs batted in and 100 walks.
But Dietz had one of those "career years", as he was never able to repeat the performance.
As a mater of fact, by the time the 1974 season opened, he was already out of Major League ball for good.
However in my mind he did put in enough time in 1973 with the
Atlanta Braves to warrant a card in the 1974 Topps set, so let me
present my "missing" 1974 Dietz card:
Though Dietz carved out an eight-year career playing for the
Giants, Dodgers and Braves between 1966 and 1973, he only had two
seasons of full playing time, 1970 and 1971.
In his final season, 1973, he appeared in 83 games for Atlanta,
with 191 plate appearances, splitting time between first base and
catcher.
He hit a very respectable .295 with three homers and 24 runs
batted in, and a VERY respectable 49 walks, which gave him a fantastic
.474 OBP.
As a matter of fact, he retired from the game with a nice .390 career OBP, along with a .261 batting average.
