Today I want to post up a "Traded" 1979 card for power-and-speed threat Bobby Bonds. Take a look at my card:
Bonds was shown as a Texas Ranger in the '79 set, but was traded over to Cleveland in October during the off-season.
He'd spend one season in Cleveland and put up "typical" numbers: 25
home runs, 34 stolen bases, a .275 batting average with 93 runs scored.
Yet those solid numbers wouldn't be enough to prevent yet another
trade which would send him to the St. Louis Cardinals for the 1980
season.
Ever since being traded from the San Francisco Giants for Bobby
Murcer before the 1975 season Bonds found himself bouncing around for
the remaining seven years of his career.
Between 1975 and 1981, a total of seven years, Bonds played for
seven teams: the Yankees, Angels, White Sox, Rangers, Indians, Cardinals
and Cubs.
It's a shame he could never keep it all together with all the
talent he had, the man could have put up some serious career numbers!
As it was, he finished with 332 homers, 1024 runs batted in, 1258
runs scored and 461 stolen bases and even took home three Gold Gloves.
What an awesome combination of power and speed.
Five times he attained a 30/30 season, just missing out on becoming
the first player in history to hit 40/40 in 1973 when he clubbed 39
homers with 43 swipes.
I remember him stating years later that if he knew it was going to
be such a big deal he'd have done it multiple times. And I'm sure he
could have too.