Sunday, July 31, 2016

TRADED: 1977 JEFF BURROUGHS

Allow me to post my newest “Traded” card, this one as part of the 1977 set and featuring former A.L. MVP Jeff Burroughs, who found himself in Atlanta after spending the first 7 years in the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers organization:


The Braves gave up five players PLUS $250,000 for Burroughs, and he would make an immediate splash in the National league, hitting 41 home runs (a career high) while driving in 114 runs playing at the “Launching Pad”, Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium.
Though he wouldn’t match those numbers again in his career, he would put together a very nice 16-year career that saw him hit 240 homers while driving in 882 runs between 1970 and 1985.
As stated earlier he would take home the 1974 A.L. MVP Award when he hit 25 homers and led the league with 118 runs batted in along with a .301 batting average, arguably his finest season in the big leagues.
A #1 pick in the amateur draft of 1969 out of Long Beach, California, he would be one of the first members of the 30-home runs-in-both-leagues club (30 with the Rangers in 1973/41 Braves in 1977), and actually one of the most successful #1 over-all picks at the time.
At the tail end of his career during the early-1980’s he was a potent bat off the bench for teams like the Seattle Mariners, Oakland A’s and Toronto Blue Jays.

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