Next
up in my ongoing awards sub-set through the 1970’s is a 1975 Rookie of
the Year card for the 1974 winners, Bake McBride and Mike Hargrove, two
players who went on to nice Major League careers:
In the National League, McBride played centerfield for the St. Louis
Cardinals, and proceeded to bat .309 in his first big league season with
173 hits and 81 runs scored, 30 stolen bases and 56 runs batted in.
He would go on to bat a career .299 over his 11-year career playing with
the Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Indians before
retiring after the 1983 season.
In the American League, Hargrove played in 131 games in his first taste
of the Majors, ending up with a .323 batting average based on his 134
hits in 415 at-bats.
He also collected 49 walks, giving him an on-base=percentage of .395
which would be a familiar theme for his 12-year career, as the “Human
Rain Delay” would retire with a very nice career OBP of .396, topping
100 walks four times.
Of course later on he would go into managing, leading the powerhouse
Cleveland Indian teams of the 1990’s, winning two American League
pennants before moving on to the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners
through the 2007 season.