Here’s
a “not so missing” 1974 card for three-game Major Leaguer Greg Harts,
who appeared for the New York Mets as a September call-up in 1973 for
his only taste of the Big League experience:
Harts went 1-for-2 at the plate for the Mets, singling in his first
Major League at-bat after spending four seasons in their Minor League
system.
He had some pop in his bat, hitting 19 and 20 homers respectively in
1971 and 1972, while also showing some speed with 23 stolen bases in the
latter season.
But after his Big League debut he was back in the Minors for 1974 where
he split time between Double and Triple-A ball, hitting .259 with 10
homers and eight stolen bases.
1975 saw him down to A-Ball, where after only 19 games he was done,
though I don’t know hy since according to Baseball_Reference he never
had a plate appearance in those 19 games.
Odd.
Anyone know what became of Harts?
Here’s
a really “not so missing” 1978 card for former Boston Red Sox pitcher
Jim Burton, who made the last appearance of his brief Major League
career in 1977:
Burton, who originally came up in 1975 and appeared in 29 games, with
four of them starts, for the eventual American League champions, made
only one appearance in 1977 after spending all of 1976 in the Minors.
In that One appearance for the Red Sox, Burton threw 2.2 innings of
scoreless ball against the Baltimore Orioles, striking out three while
giving up two hits.
Sadly for him that would end up being the last action he’d see on a Big
League mound, as he would play in the New York Mets system in 1978
before retiring.
In 1975 he posted a record of 1-2 with an earned run average of 2.89
over 53 innings, and even got a card in that awesome 1976 Topps set.
Overall, he finished his brief career with a 1-2 record, sporting an ERA
of 2.75 over 55.2 innings and 30 appearances, with a save thrown in for
good measure.
The
next no-hitter in my on-going sub-set through the 1970’s celebrating
all the gems thrown by pitchers is a second appearance by the Montreal
Expos’ Bill Stoneman, who also threw a no-hitter in 1969:
Stoneman became of the rare breed of Major League pitchers with multiple
no-hitters when he finished the 1972 season with a 7-0 no-no against
the New York Mets at Jarry Park, making him the very first to throw a
no-hitter outside the United States.
While he struck out nine Mets during the game, he also issued seven walks, so it wasn’t exactly a dominating performance.
Nevertheless, Stoneman got into the MLB record books with no-hitter #2
for his career, while opposing pitcher Jim McAndrew took the loss,
finishing his season at 11-8.
The no-hit shutout would allow Stoneman to lower his season ERA below
3.00, finishing up at 2.98 while going 12-14 with four shutouts 13
complete games, with 171 strikeouts.
The season also saw him get his one and only All-Star nod, however sadly
for him arm troubles set in the following season, in which he posted a
record of 4-8 with an ERA at 6.80 over 29 appearances and 96.2 innings.
In April of 1974 the California Angels purchased him but the change of
scenery didn’t help, as Stoneman would go on to post a record of 1-8
over 13 appearances, with an ERA of 6.14 over 58.2 innings pitched.
By June, the Angels released him and he was out of Big League ball for good.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1977 card for former pitcher Ken Reynolds, who
finished up a six-year Major League career with 19 appearances with the
San Diego Padres in 1976:
Reynolds, who originally came up with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1970,
came to San Diego after one season with the St. Louis Cardinals, where
he appeared in 10 games in 1975 where he posted a record of 0-1 with an
ERA at 1.59 over 17 innings of work.
In 1976 with San Diego he ended up at 0-3, with a rough 6.40 ERA over
32.1 innings, starting two games while finishing six, with a save thrown
in.
The bulk of his MLB playing time were the 1971 and 1972 seasons with the
Phillies, where he was a regular starter, throwing 162.1 and 154.1
innings respectively, winning seven games while losing 24 combined for
those “second-division” teams.
By the time he retired from Big League play, Reynolds ended up with a
record of 7-29, with an ERA of 4.46 over 103 appearances and 375.2
innings, with 51 of those appearances starts.
Here was a fun card to add to the “not so missing” family, a 1971 card for former St. Louis Cardinal infielder Jim Kennedy:
Kennedy’s entire Big League run came in the Summer of 1970 when he
appeared in 12 games for St. Louis, playing both shortstop and second
base.
Over that brief time in the Majors, Kennedy hit .125 with three hits
over 24 at-bats, with a run scored, before finding himself back in the
Minors, which turned out to be for the rest of his Pro career.
In 1971 he played in the Minnesota Twins organization before moving on
to the New York Mets Minor League system, where he played through the
1973 season before retiring.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1976 card for former infielder Craig Robinson, who
found himself back to a spot role after appearing in a career-high 145
games the previous season:
Robinson was coming off of a 1974 season that saw him amass 506 plate
appearances with the Atlanta Braves, hitting .230 with 104 hits and 52
runs scored while manning shortstop.
But in 1975 he found himself traded to the San Francisco Giants for Ed
Goodson in June and only got into 29 games the rest of the way, 39 total
split between the two teams, hitting a dreadful .065 with three hits in
46 at-bats.
Funny enough, in 1976 he’d see himself back with the Atlanta Braves
after starting the season with the Giants, and he’d play through the
1977 season, albeit again in spot role, appearing in only 57 games
combined for what would end up being his final two seasons in the Big
Leagues.
By the time he finished, Robinson finished with a career .219 batting
average, with 157 hits in 718 at-bats, scoring 80 runs and driving in 42
in 292 games and 718 at-bats spread out over six seasons.
Fresh
off of giving Mike Hargrove an “In-Action” card in my ongoing 1975
sub-set, I just had to include him in my long-running “Nicknames of the
1970’s” set as well, with his awesome “Human Rain Delay” tag:
Hargrove was just hilarious with every single at-bat, and as a kid I was
in awe of the man for being able to do such a routine after every
single pitch.
Granted, nowadays it’d seem almost normal with the way things are, but
back then it was a riot! I was always expecting a pitcher to hit him
with the next pitch out of frustration.
By the time 1979 rolled around, which is the template I used for his
nickname card, Hargrove was firlmy established as a player who would get
on base consistently, posting on-base-percentages hovering around .400.
Already a two-time league leader in walks by the time this card would
have come out, Hargrove went on to post a brilliant .396 OBP over his
12-year career, with four seasons of 100+ walks along with five .300+
batting average campaigns.
By
special request for my man Jim, here’s a “not so missing” 1977 card for
former Detroit Tigers pitcher Ed Glynn, who pitched just under two
dozen innings in 1976:
Glynn made five appearances for the Tigers, throwing 23.2 innings and
sporting a record of 1-3, while posting an earned run average at 6.08.
The previous season he made his MLB debut by appearing in three games,
one of them a start, while going 0-2 with a 4.30 ERA over 14.2 innings
of work.
He’d go on to pitch for 10 Big League seasons, moving on to the New York
Mets, then Cleveland Indians before a final stop for only three
appearances with the Montreal Expos in 1985.
All told, Glynn ended up with a career 12-17 record, with a 4.25 ERA
over 175 appearances and 264.2 innings pitched, along with 12 saves and
one complete game.
Time
to spotlight an airbrush job of a card that had an impact on my young
baseball days back in the mid-70’s: the 1976 Doc Medich traded:
For me, this was the trade that brought a young fellow-Brooklynite,
Willie Randolph, to the Bronx, where he’d become a soft-spoken fan
favorite, including mine.
However at the time Medich was a young stud coming off of win totals of
14, 19 and 16 in his first three years of Big League ball.
He was an inning-eater, tossing over 270 in both 1974 and 1975 after
starting 38 games each season, and looked like a solid arm that would
have a very nice Major League career ahead of him.
He would go on to play eleven seasons in the Majors, finishing up with a
career 124-105 record, with 16 shutouts over 312 appearances and 1996.2
innings pitched through the 1982 season.
However that early promise wasn’t really met, never winning more than 14
games in any season the rest of the way after this trade, and that was
with the Texas Rangers in 1980.
Nevertheless, that trade that sent him to the “Steel City”, while the
Yankees received Randolph, Ken Brett and Dock Ellis, helped New York
forge a mini-dynasty that brought them two straight World Series
championships in 1977 and 1978, and a second baseman that would become
of the organizations most dependable players.
Time
to go and add (at the time) the reigning American League Rookie of the
Year to my running 1975 “In-Action” sub-set, the Texas Rangers’ Mike
Hargrove:
Hargrove was coming off of an excellent freshman campaign, batting .323
with 66 runs batted in and an on-base-percentage hovering near .400 (of
course).
Not yet labeled “The Human Rain Delay” for his approach to an at-bat, he
already gave the Big Leagues a look at what would become a steady
player who’d make it on base 40% of the time through hits and walks.
He would eventually go on to have a very nice 12-year Major League
career that saw him tops 100 walks four times, while leading the league
twice, while also finishing up with a .290 batting average with 1614
hits over 5564 at-bats in 1666 games.
Of course, he would then go on to have a very nice 16-year managerial
career that saw him win two pennants with the Cleveland Indians,
including their incredible 1995 season in which the Indians went 100-44
during the strike-shortened season.
While managing the Indians, Hargrove led them to five straight
first-place finishes between 1995 and 1999, before moving on to manage
the Baltimore Orioles for four years and Seattle Mariners for three.
A baseball lifer for sure.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1979 card for former San Francisco Giants pitcher
Phil Nastu, who appeared in the first Big League games of his brief
career during the 1978 season:
Nastu was a September call-up in 1978, appearing in three games for the
Giants, with one of them a start, going 0-1 with a 5.63 earned run
average over eight innings.
The following season he’d get decent playing time, appearing in 25 games
and throwing exactly 100 innings while going 3-4 with a decent 4.32
ERA.
Sadly for him in 1980, after only six appearances, all out of the
bullpen, he was was done in the Majors, as he posted a 6.00 ERA over six
innings and was sent down to the Minors, where he’d go on to pitch the
next two seasons for both the Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles
organizations before retiring for good after the 1982 season.
All told, he finished his MLB tenure with a record of 3-5, with an ERA at 4.50 over 34 appearances and 114 innings pitched.
Always
wanted to created a dedicated card for former Catcher Rick Cerone as a
Cleveland Indian, so here goes, my 1976 “not so missing in action”
edition:
Cerone, who would soon be part of the inaugural Toronto Blue Jays team
of 1977, began his 18-year Major League career with the Cleveland
Indians with seven games in 1975, batting .250 with three hits over 12
at-bats while getting his first taste behind the plate.
He would go on to play through the 1992 season, with 1980 easily his
best season as he surprised everyone, especially us kids here in NYC
when he hit .277 with 14 homers and 85 runs batted in after taking over
as the first full-time catcher after the tragic death of Thurman Munson
the year before.
His efforts that year got him a seventh-place finish in American League
MVP voting, yet ironically he’d never get to play full-time in any
season the rest of the way.
Nevertheless, he retired with 1329 games under his belt, with three
tours in the Bronx, batting .245 based on 998 hits in 4069 at-bats along
with 436 runs batted in and 393 runs scored.
Time
to go and give former .300 hitter Bake McBride, aka “Shake n’ Bake” a
card in my long-running “Nickname” series through the 1970’s:
The 1974 National League rookie of the year had himself a very nice
11-year Major League career, one that saw him top a .300 batting average
seven of those seasons.
If not for injuries throughout his Big League tenure who knows what he
could have done, as evidenced with his 1153 hits in only 3853 at-bats.
Only twice did he appear in more than 137 games in any one season, and in only six of them did he play in over 100.
Nevertheless, “Shake n’ Bake” would retire after a couple of years with
the Cleveland Indians with a career .299 average, with 183 stolen bases
and 548 runs scored in only 1071 games.
Think about it, if you were to translate that over let’s say 2500 Major League games, that is quite a career!
Next
up on the blog, we have a “not so missing” 1974 card for former Detroit
Tigers first baseman Joe Staton, who played out the final nine games of
his brief two-year Major League career in 1973:
Staton collected four hits over 17 at-bats in those nine games, hitting .235 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
The previous year he made his MLB debut, playing in six games while going hitless in two at-bats, with a run scored.
Turn out that Major League action in 1973 would be the last of his
professional career, though I can’t find any other info on what he went
on to, as Baseball_Reference shows he didn’t even play Minor League ball
after the 1973 season.
Anyone out there know?
Nevertheless, Staton finished with a 15-game career that saw him hit
.211 with four hits in 19 at-bats, all with the Detroit Tigers between
1972 and 1973.
Today
we have a “not so missing” 1970 card for former pitcher Archie
Reynolds, who started his five-year Major League career with the Chicago
Cubs:
Reynolds made his Big League debut in 1968, appearing in seven games and
going 0-1 with an ERA at 6.75 over 13.1 innings before getting into
only two games the following year.
In those two appearances of 1969, he went 0-1 with an ERA of 2.45 in 7.1
innings of work, starting both games and striking out four while
walking seven, with 11 hits allowed.
Turns out he didn’t have much luck the rest of his stay in the Majors,
going on to play another three seasons, with only 36 appearances over
those five campaigns, and sadly for him never picking up a win. However,
in every single one of his Big League years he’d go on to pick up at
least one loss, eventually ending up with a career record of 0-8 with an
earned run average of 5.73 over 36 appearances and 81.2 innings
pitched.
Time
to add one of the more famous no-hitters of the decade to the
long-running sub-set of gems of the 1970’s, that of Chicago Cubs pitcher
Milt Pappas and his near-perfect game on September 2nd, 1972:
Pappas took the mound against the San Diego Padres on that afternoon,
and proceeded to set each and every batter down one by one.
In the meantime, with the help of Don Kessinger and his three runs
batted in, along with one each by Jose Cardenal, Bill North, Carmen
Fanzone and Jim Hickman, the Cubs gave Pappas a healthy eight run lead
going into the ninth inning, perfect game intact.
In the top of the ninth, Pappas got lead-off hitter Johnny Jeter to line
out to the outfield, followed by a groundout to short by Fred Kendall.
The stage was set for Pappas to throw the first perfect game since Jim
Hunters gem in 1968, and up came light-hitter Larry Stahl to pinch-hit
for pitcher Al Severinson.
With young Bruce Froemming umpiring behind the plate, Pappas worked the
count to 3-2, then proceeded to throw a ball that Stahl took, but could
have gone either way.
Froemming called a ball to the shock of everyone in Wrigley Field, most of all Pappas, and the place went nuts.
Pappas settled down eventually and proceeded to get the next batter
Garry Jestadt to pop-out to the second baseman to secure the no-hitter,
but for years Pappas would say he could never appreciate or enjoy the
no-hitter because of what he felt was a missed call for that third
strike.
Years later Pappas and Froemming would joke about that day, but Pappas
would still say the “missed” call hurt, denying him of a special place
in Major League history.
Nevertheless, Pappas would throw the last Cubs no-hitter until Carlos Zambrano threw one in 2008, a span of 36 years.
Time
to go and give former all-star shortstop Rick Burleson, aka “Rooster”, a
“Nicknames of the 1970’s” card in the long-running series:
Burleson had himself a brilliant run in the Major Leagues, from his
rookie season of 1974 though the strike-shortened 1981 season before
injuries abruptly cut-short his career, even though he did continue to
play until 1987.
Named to four all-star teams, he also took home a Gold Glove in 1979 and
a Silver Slugger in 1981, while getting some MVP attention in four
different seasons.
The 1977 season would be his best when he collected 194 hits while
leading the league with 663 at-bats, with a .293 average, 36 doubles and
80 runs scored.
After his initial season with the California Angels in 1981, he went
through injuries that kept him from playing full-time, never appearing
in more than 93 games in any one season between 1982 and 1987, the last
of which was with the Baltimore Orioles.
Once he did retire after 13 Major League seasons, he finished with a
batting average of .273, with 1401 hits and 656 runs scored over 5139
at-bats and 1346 games, and one cool nickname!
Up
next on the blog we have a “not so missing” 1972 card for former San
Diego Padres infielder Ron Slocum, who played the last of his Major
League games in 1971:
Slocum spent all three of his Big League seasons with the Padres,
finishing up with seven games in 1971, going hitless in 18 at-bats while
playing some third base.
Originally up during their inaugural 1969 season, Slocum ended up
hitting .150 during his career, collecting 17 hits over 113 at-bats in
80 games.
While looking into his career for this short piece on him, I noticed
that he died at the age of 43 in 1988, yet cannot find anything else on
it.
As a matter of fact, it seems Major League baseball didn’t even know he
died until 2014 when his daughter provided some proof of this.
Anyone know what happened?
Seems odd that there is no info out there on a former ballplayer who died so young.
Here’s
a fun card to add to the 1970 collection, a “not so missing” Clyde
Mashore, known for his five seasons with the Montreal Expos, yet came up
for his first taste of Major League ball with two games in 1969 with
the Cincinnati Reds:
Mashore went 0-1 at the plate with a run scored for the Reds as a 24-year-old when he got called-up in July.
About a year later he would be traded to the Montreal franchise for Ty
Cline, and would spend the rest of his playing days with the Expos,
playing through the 1973 season, generally as a guy off the bench.
Never a full-time player, Mashore ended playing in 241 games during his
Big League stay, hitting .208 with 87 hits over 419 at-bats, hitting
eight homers and driving in 47, along with 11 stolen bases and 58 runs
scored.
I also created “missing” cards for him in the past, a 1974
“career-capper” and a 1972 edition, since Topps failed to include him in
those sets while having others with far less playing time getting a
slot.
Even
though Ralph Garr had an amazing action shot for his card in the 1975
set, I had to add him to the growing “In-Action” sub-set I’ve been
building for a while, so here it is:
At the time the reigning National League batting champ after a .353 mark
in 1974, Garr had an amazing run between 1971 and 1975, a stretch that
saw him top .325 three times, along with three 200-hit seasons and
leading the league in triples twice.
In 1976 he’d find himself with the Chicago White Sox, where he’d hit an
even .300 his first two years there, but he’d be out of Major League
ball just three years later after a rapid decline.
Nevertheless, he’d finish his Big League career with a .306 batting
average, with 1562 hits over 5108 at-bats, stealing 172 bases and
scoring 717 runs over 14-years.
The “Roadrunner” definitely had it going on in the 1970’s!
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1974 card for three-year Major Leaguer, and future
manager, John Felske, who played the last of his Big League games in
1973:
Felske appeared in 13 games for Milwaukee in 1973, batting .136 with
three hits in 22 at-bats, scoring one run and driving in four.
Originally up with the Chicago Cubs in 1968 for a cup-of-coffee, where
he appeared in only four games, he made it all the way back in 1972 when
he played in 37 games for the Brewers, hitting .138 with 11 hits in 80
at-bats, with the only homer he’d hit in MLB play and five RBI’s.
All told, he finished with a .135 average with 14 hits in 104 at-bats,
before going into coaching and eventually managing, which he did between
1985-1987 with the Philadelphia Phillies, even leading them to a second
place finish in 1986 with a record of 86 and 75.
Here’s
a 1976 “not so missing” career-capper for former Gold-Glove
centerfielder Ken Berry, who wrapped up a nice 14-year Major League
career in 1975 with the Cleveland Indians:
Berry appeared in 25 games for the Tribe during his last taste of Big
League ball, batting an even .200 with eight hits over 40 at-bats,
scoring six runs with one run batted in.
He twice was awarded a Gold Glove for his work in the outfield, in 1970
during his final season with the Chicago White Sox, the team he came up
with in 1962, and again in 1972 in his second season with the California
Angels, for whom he played between 1971 and 1973.
He’d spend the 1974 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he hit .240 over 98 games, before that last year with the Indians.
By the time he retired, he finished with a .255 batting average, with
1053 hits over 4136 at-bats in 1384 games, with 422 runs scored and 343
runs batted in, and an All-Star nod back in 1967.
Today
we have a “Traded” 1974 card for Walt “No Neck” Williams, who was
actually on a Cleveland Indians Topps card, but was part of a three-team
trade which landed him in the Bronx on March 19th, 1974:
Williams came to the New York Yankees along with pitcher Rick Sawyer in a
trade that also included the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers, with
Jim Perry going back to the Indians and catcher Jerry Moses going to
the Indians.
Turns out Williams would spend the final two years as a Major Leaguer
with the Yankees, getting released right before the 1976 season and
retiring for good in 1980 after two seasons in Japan and two more in the
Mexican League.
Originally up to the Majors in 1964 as a 20-year-old for 10 games with
the Houston Colt .45’s, he’d spend the next two seasons in the Minor
Leagues before making it back, now as a member of the Chicago White Sox,
in 1967, where he’d go on to play for the next six years before moving
on to the Indians for one season.
By the time he was done, he finished with a nice .270 batting average,
with 640 hits over 2373 at-bats in 842 games, scoring 284 runs and
driving in 173, while also leaving us with one of the great nicknames of
the era, “No Neck”, and if you look at any of his Topps cards, you’ll
see why.
As for the card template, I was never a fan of that GIANT yellow "Traded" banner Topps used on their version in 1974, so I just went with a horizontal layout, which I am a big fan of.
Today we have up on the blog somewhat of an interesting “missing” card, that a 1972 edition for former pitcher Chris Zachary:
Zachary pitched for nine seasons in the Big Leagues, and over that time
Topps gave him a few cards in their sets between 1963 and 1973.
However, though Zachary never had a “full” season of action in his MLB
tenure, the one season that saw him somewhat close to full-time work was
ignored by the folks at Topps, leaving him out of the 1972 set.
In 1971, his only season with the St. Louis Cardinals, Zachary appeared
in 23 games, with 12 of those starts, pitching a total of 89.2 innings,
by far a career-high.
He posted a record of 3-10 with an earned run average of 5.32, with a shutout and 48 strikeouts against 26 base on balls.
Now, you’d think with the monster 1972 set coming out that Topps would
have this guy in their set! But no, he was omitted while so many other
guys who played so much less in 1971 got a slot in there.
As a matter of fact, in the very next Topps set of 1973, after a season
that saw Zachary pitch only 38.1 innings for the Detroit Tigers in 1972,
he got a card!
Go figure.
Nevertheless, over the course of his nine years on a Big League mound,
Zachary accumulated a record of 10-29, with an ERA at 4.57 over 108
appearances, 40 of those starts, and 321.1 innings pitched.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1978 card for former catcher John Tamargo, who
started off his five-year Major League career with the St. Louis
Cardinals, including four games during the 1977 season after breaking in
with 10 in 1976:
Tamargo went 0-for-4 at the plate for St. Louis over those four games in
1977, while collecting three hits over 10 at-bats in his first taste of
the Big Leagues in 1976.
In 1978 he’d end up splitting the season between St. Louis and the San
Francisco Giants, batting .224 over 42 games, with 22 hits in 98
at-bats.
The following year he’d end up splitting between the Giants and Montreal
Expos, hitting .247, before playing out what would be his last as an
active player in 1980 with the Expos, hitting .275 over 37 games, with
13 runs batted in, both career highs.
Overall for his major League tenure, Tamargo ended up hitting .242 with
59 hits in 244 at-bats, scoring 19 runs while driving in 33 over 135
games.
Up
on the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1977 card for former Los
Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dennis Lewallyn, for whom I also created a 1978
edition a while back:
Lewallyn appeared in four games during the 1976 season, posting a record
of 1-1 with a nice 2.16 earned run average over 16.2 innings of work.
The 1977 campaign would go on to be the most action he’d see over his
eight-year Major League career, albeit still a small amount in the grand
scheme of things, as he’d pitch 17 innings over five appearances, with a
3-1 record and 4.24 ERA for the National League champs.
He’d pitch one season with the Texas Rangers in 1980, appearing in four
games, then moving on to the Cleveland Indians, for whom he’d pitch the
last two seasons of his career, appearing in 11 combined games between
1981 and 1982.
Overall, Lewallyn appeared in 34 Major League games, with a 4-4 record
and 4.48 ERA over 80.1 innings pitched, starting three of those games
and finishing 15.
The
next “Nicknames of the 1970’s” card in my long-running series is a 1971
edition for former New York Yankee Horace “Hoss” Clarke, second baseman
during the “dark years” of the Bronx franchise between 1965 and 1973:
I chose the 1971 template since Clarke was coming off of his two best
seasons in the Major Leagues, collecting 183 and 172 hits respectively
in 1969 and 1970, topping 80 runs each year along with 56 stolen bases
combined.
He led the American League with 641 and a whopping 686 at-bats in these
campaigns, with over 700 plate appearances each year as well.
A solid player for the Yankees during some lean seasons, Clarke played 9
1/2 of his 10-year Big League career in the Bronx, finishing up with a
half-season with the San Diego Padres in 1974 before retiring.
All told, “Hoss” finished with a .256 career average, with 1230 hits and
151 stolen bases over 1272 games and 4813 at-bats between 1965 and
1974.
Up
on the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1976 card for former
pitcher John Montague, who split his 1975 season between the Montreal
Expos and Philadelphia Phillies:
Over 15 combined appearances, Montague posted a record of 0-1 with an earned run average of 6.35 over 22.2 innings of work.
He’d spend all of 1976 in the Minor Leagues, putting in a very nice
season for the Phillies organization, before being selected in the
expansion draft by the Seattle Mariners.
In 1977 he’d go on to see the most action of any of his seven Big League
seasons, appearing in 47 games and pitching to a 8-12 record with an
ERA at 4.29 over 182.1 innings, with two complete games and four saves.
He’d go on to pitch another three years in the Majors, evenly split
between the Mariners and California Angels until 1980, finishing up his
career with a record of 24-26 over 223 appearances, posting an ERA of
4.76 in 546.2 innings, with 21 saves and two complete games in 17
starts.
Today
on the blog I post up a career-capping “not so missing” 1972 card for
former pitcher, and fellow-Brooklynite Sal Campisi, who pitched the last
games of his brief three-year Big League career in 1971:
Campisi, who originally came up with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1969 and
continued pitching for them in 1970, found himself a member of the
Minnesota Twins in 1971, appearing in six games, not factoring in a
decision with an earned run average of 4.15 over 4.1 innings.
The previous season he appeared in a career-high 37 games for the
Cardinals, posting a record of 2-2 with a very nice 2.92 ERA over 49.1
innings, with four saves.
Sadly for him however, he’d never make it back to a Big League mound,
and from what I can gather, he retired for good as a pro player as well,
with those six appearances with the Twins his last on a professional
level.
Moving
ahead in my “No-Hitters Through the 1970’s” thread, we have the first
gem tossed during the 1972 season, Burt Hooton’s No-No against the
Philadelphia Phillies on April 16th:
Hooton, making only the fourth start of his Major League career, went on
to strike out seven Phillies, while also issuing seven walks in front
of the home-town fans at Wrigley Field, completing the game in 2 hours
and 22 minutes.
The 4-0 win was helped by two RBIs by catcher Randy Hundley, as well as
an RBI by second baseman Glenn Beckert, with future Hall of Famers Billy
Williams and Ron Santo each collecting three hits and scoring a run.
Hooton would go on to have a nice first full-season in 1972, posting an
ERA of .280, though his record betrayed the year, finishing at 11-14.
He would go on to have an excellent 15-year run, mainly with the Los
Angeles Dodgers, which saw him be a part of three National League
champion teams, as well as a World Championship in 1981.
His post-season resume was very good, finishing at 6-3 with an ERA at
3.17 over eleven starts, with 33 strikeouts and a complete game.
His final regular season numbers: 151 wins against 136 losses, a very
nice 3.38 ERA and 1491 strikeouts in 480 appearances (377 of those
starts), and 2652 innings pitched, with 29 shutouts and seven saves.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1973 card for former second baseman and left-fielder
Chuck Goggins of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who made his MLB debut with
five games during the 1972 season:
Goggins went 2-for-7 at the plate, good for a .286 average, with a walk
thrown in while playing second base in one of those games.
The following year, after starting the season with Pittsburgh, he’d be
purchased by the Atlanta Braves where he’d appear in 64 games, batting a
combined .297 in 101 at-bats with 19 runs scored.
As the 1974 season was about to open up, he was traded to the Boston Red
Sox, where he’d end up playing in only two games, the last two games of
his Big League career, and what would end up the last of his pro
career.
All told, he played in 72 games in the Majors, batting a very nice .293
with 29 hits over 99 at-bats, with 19 runs scored and seven runs batted
in.
Time
to go and add “Stretch” Willie McCovey, who recently passed away on
Halloween day, to the growing “1975 In-Action” sub-set I’ve been
creating over the past couple years:
McCovey was beginning to enter the twilight of his Hall of Fame career which spanned 22 seasons between 1959 and 1980.
Over that time he took home a Rookie of the Year when he burst onto the
Major League scene with a .354 average and 13 homers in 52 games in
1959, an MVP in 1969 when he led the league with 45 homers, 126 runs
batted in, a .453 OBP and a .612 slugging percentage, while getting six
All-Star nods.
By the time he hung them up for good, he finished with 521 homers, 15555
RBIs, 1229 runs scored and 2211 hits playing for the San Francisco
Giants, San Diego Padres, and a brief 11-game stretch with the Oakland
A’s at the end of the 1976 season.
In 1986, in his 1st year of eligibility, he was voted into the Hall with
81.4% of the vote, an easy first-try inductee for the man from Mobile,
Alabama.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1975 card for former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jerry
Bell, who finished up a brief four-year Major League career with five
appearances during the 1974 season:
Bell, who originally came up to the Big Leagues with eight appearances
in 1971, pitched to a 1-0 record in 1974, with a nice 2.57 earned run
average over 14 innings of work.
The previous season had him see the most action in any one season,
making 31 appearances, with 25 of them starts, going 9-9 with a 3.97 ERA
in 183.2 innings along with eight complete games and a save.
But for whatever reason, he never made it back to the Big Leagues again,
spending all of 1975 in the Minors before retiring when the year was
over.
For his career, Bell finished at 17-11, with a nice 3.28 ERA over 69
games and 283 innings pitched, striking out 89 with eight complete games
and a single save.
Some of you may remember Bell from the 1972 Darrell Porter rookie card
with the images swapped, with Bell always signing over “Darrell Porter”
on the card years later. Hilarious.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1977 card for a two-game Major Leaguer, former White
Sox catcher George Enright, who despite nine years in the Minor
Leagues, only got the briefest of Big League action:
Enright finally made it up to the Majors in August of 1976 after five
seasons of Minor League ball, then getting into his second, and last,
game about a month later, going 0-1 at the plate while spending seven
innings behind the plate.
Sadly for him that would all he’d get, as he’d be back in the Minors for
1977, where he’d stay through the 1980 season before retiring for good
at the age of only 26.
Nevertheless, he got to taste that Big League magic for two games, more than any of us can say. Cheers George!
It’s
about time I get around to creating a “Nicknames of the ‘70’s” card for
Red Sox all-star outfielder Dwight “Dewey” Evans, who formed a third of
what was an extraordinary young outfield for the Boston franchise in
the late-70’s/Early-80s:
Evans was part of the amazing outfield comprised of himself, Jim Rice
and Fred Lynn who all came up in the mid-70’s and went on to excellent
Major League careers.
For Evans, it was a career that lasted 20-years, all but one, his last in 1991 with the Baltimore Orioles, with Boston.
This was a career that included eight Gold Gloves and three All-Star
nods, while finishing in the top-10 in American League MVP voting four
times, while finishing up with 2446 hits, 385 home runs and 1384 runs
batted in, all with a .272 average in over 2600 games and just under
9000 at-bats.
Let’s not forget that the man had an absolute gun for an arm out in
right-field while being one of the top outfielders in the Junior Circuit
over the course of his career.
Often overshadowed by teammates throughout his career, Evans would end
up as a borderline Hall of Famer, outplaying many of the very guys that
got the spotlight.
Today
we have a 1979 “not so missing” card for former Seattle Mariners
infielder Jose Baez, who finished up a brief two-year Major League
career in 1978:
Baez was originally up with the 1977 inaugural Mariner team, getting his
first taste of the Big Leagues and appearing in 91 games for the new
franchise, hitting .259 with 79 hits over 305 official at-bats.
In 1978 he fell to only 23 appearances, batting .160 with eight hits in
50 at-bats, generally playing second base with a few games at third.
Turns out that would be it for him in the Majors, as he would go on to
play another season of Minor League ball in the St. Louis Cardinals
organization before going on to two seasons of Mexican League ball until
1980 before retiring.
For his MLB tenure, Baez finished with a .245 average, collecting 87 hits over 355 at-bats in 114 games, all for the Mariners.
Time
to go and give former speedster Larry Lintz a “not so missing” 1978
card after another season of a “designated running” for the Oakland A’s
in 1977:
Lintz, who didn’t quite get the full-on “D.R.” action that Herb
Washington had before him, did play in 41 games, with only 40 plate
appearances, stealing 13 bases while scoring 11 runs for Oakland.
The previous year, his first with the A’s, Lintz appeared in 68 games,
yet had only four plate appearances, scoring 21 runs while stealing 31
bases for the go-go team that stole over 300, 341 to be exact!
But Lintz’s MLB days were coming to a close, as he’d find himself with
the Cleveland Indians the following year, appearing in only three games
before being out of Big League ball for good.
All told, he played in 350 games during his career between 1973 and
1978, hitting .227 while scoring 137 runs and stealing 128 bases in 616
at-bats and 756 plate appearances.
Super-fun
card to create today, my 1972 card celebrating the great Bob Gibson and
his no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 14th of 1971:
For Gibson, he came into the game at 10-10 for the season, just one year removed from picking up his second Cy Young Award.
But on this day he had everything working for him against the eventual
World Champion Pirates, who had a line-up of heavy hitters.
Over the next 2 hours and 22 minutes, Gibson would set the Pirates down
one by one, allowing only three walks while striking out 10, while also
staked out to an early 5-0 lead in the first inning thanks in part to a
three-run home run by Joe Hague.
Joe Torre and Ted Simmons both went 4-for-6 at the plate, while Gibson
helped himself as well with a 1-for-4 game with three runs batted in.
He’d go on to finish the year at 16-13, with a 3.04 ERA while leading
the league with five shutouts over 31 starts and 245.2 innings of work.
Of note, he also finished the season with 185 strikeouts, the first time
he didn’t reach 200 in a non-injury season (1967) since 1961.
Nevertheless, he also collected his seventh Gold Glove that season, while also finishing fifth in the Cy Young Race.
What a career.
Today
we have a “not so missing” 1974 card for former Atlanta Braves pitcher
Jimmy Freeman, he of a brief two-season Major League career in the early
part of the decade:
Freeman saw Big League action in both the 1972 and 1973 seasons, albeit only six and 13 games respectively.
While he posted a record of 2-2 with a 6.00 earned run average in 1972
as a September call-up, he went 0-2 in 1973, with an ERA at 7.71 over 13
appearances, five of them starts, in 37.1 innings pitched.
He’d go on to pitch another three years in the Minors, for the Atlanta,
Baltimore Orioles and St. Louis Cardinals organizations before retiring
for good after the 1976 season.
All told, he finished his MLB career with a record of 2-4, with an ERA at 6.87 over 19 appearances and 73.1 innings pitched
Today
I post up a “not so missing” 1970 card for former outfielder Bill
McNulty, who played his first Major League games in 1969:
McNulty didn’t quite have a debut to remember, as he would appear in
five games for the Oakland A’s and go hitless over 17 at-bats, striking
out 10 times. Ouch.
He’d spend the next two years in the Minors before making it all the way
back in 1972, albeit for four games, going 1-for-10 along with a couple
of walks.
That would be it for him on a Major League field, as he’d go on to play
three more years in the Minors before some time in Japan before retiring
as a player after the 1975 season.
But get this. His 1974 season for Sacramento in the Milwaukee Brewers
system was one of the top seasons of the decade, in ANY leagues!
That year, in 144 games and 526 at-bats, McNulty hit 55 homers with 135 runs batted in, along with 135 runs scored.
He slashed a .329/.438/.690 line for the year and it’s really something
that he didn’t get a chance to join the other Brewer sluggers on the Big
League level.
As a matter of fact, McNulty hit 20 or more homers the final seven years of his pro career, dating back to 1969.
Even in his last season of 1975, he finished with 24 homers, in only 104 games, with 63 RBIs and 54 runs scored.
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1971 card for former Third Baseman Terry Hughes, who
made his Major League debut in 1970 with three games for the Chicago
Cubs:
Hughes was drafted #2 overall by Chicago in the 1967 Amateur Draft, and
would have some decent years in the Minors before making it up to the
Big Leagues as a September call-up.
Sadly for him however, he’d be back in the Minors all of 1971 and 1972
before getting another shot on a Major League field, now as a member of
the St. Louis Cardinals, in 1973 with eleven games, in which he hit .214
with three hits over 14 at-bats.
The following year he’d see the most action in his brief three-year
career, playing in 41 games for the Boston Red Sox, enough action to get
him a Topps card in the 1975 set.
He hit .203 for the Red Sox in 1974, but once again would go on to play
another two full seasons in the Minors before retiring for good as a
player after a Triple-A season with Tulsa in the St. Louis system.
All told, Hughes hit .209 over 54 games, collecting 18 hits, including a homer, with seven RBI’s and six runs scored.
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