Taylor, who came over to the Bucs on September 3rd of the ‘71 season after being purchased from the Kansas City Royals, appeared in seven games, batting .167 with a couple of hits over 12 at-bats.
He began the season in Kansas City, though only appearing in 20 games on the year, collecting seven hits there over 39 at-bats for a .179 average, giving him a combined ..176 batting average for the year.
He’d find himself right back in Kansas City for the 1972 campaign, where he’d play the last two years of his MLB career, seeing his last Big League action in 1973, appearing in 69 games for KC.
He finished his 6-year MLB career with a .266 average based on his 225 hits in 846 at-bats, spread out over 411 games between 1968 and 1973.
On a personal note, Carl Taylor was the very first “old card” I ever got, finding him just laying there in the schoolyard in 1979, my mind blown by seeing a card design I had never seen before since I started collecting as a seven year old in 1976.
Sure, I’d seen some 1975’s at my cousin’s house, but I had never seen any card of any year that was older than that. So to see that nice, clean layout, unlike anything issued by Topps since 1975, was mind blowing. It was the first spark of any kind that started my life-long craze of hunting down “old cards”.
Soon after, I found an Antique Store on the other side of the neighborhood that was the mother-load, large bunches of commons rubber-banded together for 75 cents (70’s), and smaller bunches of commons for $1, of which I distinctly remember 1962’s.
On top of that, I will always remember the 9-pocket sheets hanging in his window with Mantle, Campanella, Maris, Jackie Robinson. 1959, 1956, 1958.
Sadly those cards were about $5-$10, and my mom was NOT shelling out that kind of coin for “stupid baseball cards”. Remember, this was 1979/1980.
Incredible memories some 40 years later!
