Friday, October 14, 2016

MISSING IN ACTION- 1972 TONY GONZALEZ

Here’s a 1972 card for former Cuban outfielder Tony Gonzalez, who just celebrated his 80th birthday this past August:


Gonzalez wrapped up an excellent 12-year career in 1971, appearing in 111 games for the California Angels and batting .245 with 77 hits over 314 at-bats.
It’s easy to forget that he finished with a very nice .286 career batting average, something he did over the modern “dead-ball” era.
His hey-day was with the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he played nine-years through the 1960’s, batting as high as .339 in 1967 and hitting as many as 20 homers in 1962.
After he left the Majors he tried playing in the Mexican League and Japanese league in the early ‘70’s, but was out of the pros by 1973 after a brief stop at Reading (AA) for the Phillies at the age of 36.