Thursday, October 20, 2016

A 1974 AIRBRUSHING GEM: CLYDE WRIGHT

Here’s another airbrush classic thanks to Topps, the 1974 Clyde Wright (father of Jaret) edition:


Wright found himself in Milwaukee after an eight-year run with the California Angels, the team he came up with in 1966.
So Topps whipped out the tools and gave us this great paint job to “Brewer-ize” Wright just in time for their 1974 set.
Wright had quite a run with the Angels between 1970 and 1972, posting three straight years of sub-3.00 earned run averages along with 56 wins with a high of 22 in 1970, with six shutouts while averaging about 265 innings pitched.
Sadly for him however once a Brewer in 1974, he would end up losing 20, going 9-20 with a not so terrible 4.42 ERA, but in the light-hitting early 1970’s it was high enough to spell doom for any pitcher.
He would spend the 1975 season with the Texas Rangers, then find himself out of the Major Leagues for good, finishing with a 100-111 career record along with a 3.50 ERA over 329 games and 1728.2 innings pitched.
Years later his son Jaret would make a name for himself in 1997 beating the Yankees twice in the Division Series to help the Cleveland Indians eventually move on to the World Series before losing to the Florida Marlins.