As part of my ongoing “1976 Project” for Reader Jim, we went and
created a Texas Ranger version of his 1976 card since he played the bulk
of the 1975 season with them before moving on to the Oakland A’s at the
end of the year, here’s what I came up with:
Tovar was bought by Oakland on August 31, 1975 for their stretch
run, and ended up playing with them through the 1976 season before
moving on to the Yankees for the final 13 games of his career that year.
A solid player during his years with the team he came up with, the
Minnesota Twins between 1965 1972, Tovar once led the American League in
hits with 204 in 1971, doubles and triples in the same season in 1970
and even garnered MVP consideration five years
in a row between 1967 to 1971.
In his 12-year career he batted a very respectable .278 considering
the “modern-dead ball era” he played in, with 1546 hits over 5569
at-bats in 1488 games, with 834 runs scored and 435 RBI’s and 226 stolen
bases.
With guys like Tony Oliva, Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew in the same line-up, it made for some good offense in their prime.
