Sometimes
you really had to wonder what Topps was thinking when they made their
decisions for someone to appear on a multi-player rookie card, even
though they had substantial playing time the season before, such as
Detroit Tigers pitcher Kip Young, who appeared on the dreadful rookie
sub-set in 1979.
So I went ahead and gave him his own “dedicated” rookie card considering
the man put in enough innings during the 1978 season that he wasn’t
even a rookie any longer by the time 1979 came along:
Getting his first taste of Major League ball in 1978, Young went on to
appear in 14 games during the season, 13 of them starts, and posting a
record of 6-7 with a very nice 2.81 earned run average over 105.2
innings pitched!
Certainly NOT a rookie any longer, yet there he was on those awful
black-and-white cards that we all love to hate (is there anyone out
there who likes them?). The kid even threw seven complete games in his
rookie season, which alone took away his “rookie” status”, regardless of
his other games that year.
In 1979 he came back, much less successful this time, going 2-2 with a
bloated 6.39 ERA in 13 appearances, with 43.2 innings of work in what
would turn out to be the last of his brief two-season career.
Though he continued to pitch in the Minors through the 1982 season vor a
few different organizations, he’d never make it back to the Majors,
finishing his career with an 8-9 record, along with a 3.86 earned run
average over 27 games and 149.1 innings.