Saturday, March 30, 2019

1976 SPECIAL- THE SLUGGING PHILLIES MIKE SCHMIDT AND GREG LUZINSKI

Adding to the fun “Specials” sub-set through the wild 1970’s, today I post up my 1976 card featuring the powerful Phillies slugging duo of Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski:


When this card would have come out, perhaps only the Cincinnati Reds arguably had a more feared duo of sluggers than the Phillies.
Schmidt was coming off of what would end up being the second of his eight home run titles, while Luzinski was the National League MVP runner-up to the Reds’ Joe Morgan.
Luzinski would also finish as the NL MVP runner-up in 1977, again behind a Reds player, this time George Foster, while of course Schmidt would end up taking home three MVP’s in the 1980’s.
It’s amazing to think that Luzinski ended up retiring with 307 homers  and 1128 runs batted in over his career, and that he was only 33 when he left the game!
Nevertheless, what a pair of thumpers the Phillies had leading the way for a team that also had Larry Bowa, Dave Cash and Garry Maddox among others in their line-up!