Thursday, January 24, 2019

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 TOM BURGMEIER

Today we have a “not so missing” 1974 card for a guy we are all familiar with, former reliever Tom Burgmeier, who silently put together an excellent 17-year Major League career as a reliable arm out of the bullpen:


The St. Paul, Minnesota native had an injury-ridden 1973 season that saw him appear in only six games for the Kansas City Royals, not factoring in a decision while sporting a 5.40 earned run average over 10 innings.
However he’d bounce back and proceed to put in another eleven years of solid ball for the Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s through the 1984 season before retiring at the age of 40.
His career really was a good one, appearing in 745 games while earning a record of 79-55 with a very nice 3.23 ERA with 102 saves in 1258.2 innings.
Among his 745 appearances, only three were starts, two during his rookie year of 1968 while with the California Angels, and one in 1978 with the Red Sox.
Just one of those guys who was quietly reliable, year after year, making only one All-Star game, in 1980 when he ended up with a record of 5-4 and an ERA of exactly 2.00 with a career-high 24 saves for Boston.