Thursday, March 14, 2019

NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: "THE BEE" AL BUMBRY

The next nickname up in my long-running “Nicknames of the 1970’s” is “The Bee”, Al Bumbry, Baltimore Orioles spark-plug, who gets a 1978 card:


Bumbry was coming off of his best Major League season to date in 1977, hitting .317 with 19 stolen bases and 31 doubles, well on his way to a very nice 14-year career, all but his last (1985 with San Diego) with the Orioles.
Over those 14 seasons he would be the 1973 American League Rookie of the Year, would hit over .300 three times, lead the league in triples once and top 200 hits when he collected 205 in1980, the first Baltimore player to do so up to that point.
He would steal 254 bases over his career, twice topping 40 with 42 in 1976 and 44 in 1980, while scoring over 100 once when he scored 118 during the 1980 season.
By the time he retired after the 1985 season, he finished with a career average of .281 with 1422 hits over 5053 at-bats in 1496 games, scoring 778 runs while driving in 402, and was a member of the 1983 world champion Oriole club that defeated the Philadelphia Phillies (“The Wheez Kids”).

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