Regardless of the fact that he played his last game in 1975, I feel
that long time reliever Lindy McDaniel should have had a card in the
1976 Topps set.
So I went and designed one myself, check it out:
McDaniel was closing out an excellent 21 year career that saw him
come up as a 19-year old phenom in 1955 with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Over the next 21 years McDaniel would go on to lead the league in
saves three times, winning percentage once, and even finish in the top-3
and top-5 in Cy Young and M.V.P. voting respectively in 1960 when he
went 12-4 with a 2.09 earned run average and
26 saves.
In 1975, at the age of 39, McDaniel was pitching for the Kansas
City Royals and had a great final year on the mound, going 5-1 with a
4.15 E.R.A. over 40 games and 78 innings of work.
I think that playing time warranted a card for a guy who, at the
time of his retirement was second all-time in game appearances for a
pitcher, with 987, just short of joining Hoyt Wilhelm as the only two
hurlers to appear in that many games.
All told, McDaniel went 141-119 with a 3.45 E.R.A., with 172 saves
pitching for the Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, New York
Yankees and Royals.
A very nice career indeed.
I'll be designing a "Super Veteran" card for him in my "Then and Now" series for sure…so keep an eye out for it.