Saturday, June 3, 2017

1977 BLUE JAYS REDONE- RICO CARTY...NO WAIT A SECOND

I was going to re-do the 1977 Rico Carty Topps card with an action shot of him suited up for Toronto, then realized that though he was indeed drafted by the new Blue Jay team North of the border, he was traded BACK to Cleveland a month later in a deal that got the Jays Rick Cerone.
With that in mind we were left with a card of a player who never actually played for the team he was shown as part of...


...then again, go figure, the Cleveland Indians went and traded Carty BACK to the Blue Jays in March of 1978, for whom he’d play only until August of that year before getting traded yat again to the Oakland A’s.
But wait! It doesn’t end there! Would you believe that the Oakland A’s then sold Carty BACK to the Blue Jays just two months later?!
So within the span of two years he was a member of the Blue Jays three times!
Incredible.
This for a guy who once batted .366 on his way to a batting crown, as well as a write-in starting gig at that year’s All-Star game in 1970.
In the end, Carty put in a very nice 15-year career that saw him bat .299 with 1677 hits, 204 homers and 890 runs batted in, numbers that would have been much better had not injuries ruined a few years during his prime.