For
the second day in a row here on the blog, I offer up a “not so missing”
card for a player who appeared in one single solitary game the previous
season, this time it’s a 1971 card for former outfielder Joe Nossek,
who did just that for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1970:
Nossek appeared in what turned out to be the last game of his six-year
Big League career on September 13th of the 1970 season, going 0-1 at the
plate, closing out a MLB tenure that had him hit .228 over 295 games,
collecting 132 hits in 579 at-bats playing for the Minnesota Twins,
Kansas City/Oakland Athletics and Cardinals between 1964 and 1970.
Generally a part-time player, the most action he ever saw in any one
season was the 91 appearances he made in 1966 when he played in four
with the Twins before going off to play in 87 games with the Athletics,
with 241 plate appearances and hitting .261.
Here’s
a “not so missing" 1973 card for former catcher (and future manager)
Gene Lamont, who appeared in one single game during the 1972 season, for
only two innings at that, without even a plate appearance:
Lamont spent the season in the Minor Leagues that season, pretty much as
he did the prior season when he only appeared in seven games in the Big
Leagues.
As a matter of fact he’d spend all of 1973 in the Minors as well before getting into 60 games in the Major League level in 1974.
After that it was only another four games in 1975 before his active days
were over, totaling 87 games on the Big League level between 1970 and
1975, all with the Detroit Tigers, hitting .233 with 37 hits over 159
at-bats.
Of course, he’d get into coaching, and eventually managing after his
playing days were over, managing the Chicago White Sox and Pittsburgh
Pirates between 1992 and 2000 for eight seasons, even leading the White
Sox to first place finishes in 1993 and 1994.
Found
this photo of the great Billy Martin a while back and always wanted to
create a card with it, so here it is, a 1973 “special” of the fiery
manager at his best:
Martin was a winner wherever he managed. Just look it up!
He began his managerial career in 1969 with the Minnesota Twins and took
them straight to the Playoffs, guiding the team to a first place finish
with a 97-65 record.
He would move on to Detroit, and would take them to a first place finish by his second year in 1972 with a record of 86-70.
He’d move on to the Texas Rangers and they’d have their first successful
season in 1974, albeit a second place finish behind league MVP Jeff
Burroughs and ace Fergie Jenkins, then of course he would move on to the
New York Yankees, where the “Bronx Zoo” was in full swing, eventually
bringing Martin a World Championship in 1977.
He’d move on to the Oakland A’s where “Billy-Ball” was in full effect,
losing to the Yankees in the Championship Series while burning through
every arm on his pitching staff with overuse.
Then finally, there was the back-and-forth period between he and the
Yankees, specifically owner George Steinbrenner, where he managed in
1983, 1985 and finally 1988, almost a comedic show of hiring and firing
that really was an embarrassment to us Yankee fans of the era.
Nevertheless, Martin was a winner, though one with a temper at that,
leaving the game with a .553 winning percentage and over 1200 wins.
Should he be in the Hall of Fame?
I do think so more for his personality than anything else. As a symbol
of the wild 1970’s with his managerial style ala Earl Weaver, arguing
and fighting his way through each season.
Rest in Peace Billy, you are missed.
Time
to go and add a 1972 “Traded” card for one of my favorite players from
ANY era, Ken Singleton, who found himself North of the border in
Montreal after a blockbuster trade just as the season was opening up:
Singleton was part of the trade that brought Rusty Staub to the New York
Mets, going to the Expos along with Tim Foli and Mike Jorgensen on
April 5th, 1972.
He would go on to have three very solid years in Montreal, with 1973 his
finest as he scored 100 runs along with 103 runs batted in and 23
homers, while also walking 123 times while leading the National League
with a .425 on-base-percentage, finishing ninth in MVP voting.
Of course, we all know that Singleton would go on to have an excellent
15-year Major League career, topping 2000 hits, 1000-RBI’s and just
under 250 homers while making three All-Star teams and finishing second
in the American League MVP race behind Don Baylor when he had his best
Big League season, hitting 35 homers with 111 RBI’s and 109 walks,
hitting .295 and scoring 93 runs.
Just a great person overall, I thoroughly enjoy his time as a New York
Yankee TV announcer, and will miss him as he retires after the 2019
season.
Let’s
go and give “Scrap Iron” Phil Garner a “not so missing” 1974 card based
on his MLB debut of nine games during the 1973 season:
Garner got his first taste of the Big Leagues with nine games, getting
five plate appearances without a hit along with three strikeouts.
Nevertheless, he would go on to a very nice 16-year career as a player,
along with another eight as a manager during the 1990’s and 2000’s, even
guiding the Houston Astros to a National League Pennant in 2005 when
they eventually lost to the Chicago White Sox in the World Series.
As a player, he was a part of the 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates
team, as well as a member of the 1973 and 1974 World Champ Oakland A’s,
though not a cog or even a regular by any means.
By the time he retired after the 1988 season, the three-time All-Star
finished with a career .260 average, with 1594 hits over 6136 at-bats
and 1860 games.
Although
I created a “Highlights from the 1970’s” card for the Oakland A’s
four-pitcher combined no-hitter some five years ago here on the blog, I
had to include it in my long-running “no-hitters through the 1970’s”
series:
Whereas I originally created a card showing all four pitchers who
contributed to the gem spun on the last day of the 1975 season, today I
wanted something different, so I pictured the guy who closed out the
game, Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers.
Since I already wrote about it in the original post, I’ll take the liberty to copy-paste it here:
On the very last day of the season the A's closed out yet another
successful year, no-hitting California and winning 5-0, giving them 98
wins for the season and their fifth straight division championship.
Vida Blue, Glenn Abbott, Paul Lindblad and Rollie Fingers each
contributed to the no-hitter, with Blue giving up the only two walks.
What I also find incredible is the fact that the A's switched catchers during the game as well!
Gene Tenace started the game behind the plate, then switched over to
first base while Ray Fosse came in at the top of the seventh inning to
catch Lindblad.
For the life of me I can't (off the top of my head) remember another no-hitter where the starting catcher was pulled.
Anyone know another such game?
I'll have to look it up for sure!
As a kid I always remember the two combined no-hitters of the '70's:
this game and the one that happened the very next year with two Chicago
White Sox pitchers doing the same.
I'll be designing a card for THAT game as well in the near future, so keep an eye out for it.
For anyone interested in the Oakland no-hit game particulars, here's a
link to the box score on the Godly web-site, "Baseball-Reference.com":
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK197509280.shtml
Another item to point out: Reggie Jackson hit two home runs in the game,
the second of which gave him a tie for the home run crown in 1975 with
Milwaukee Brewer George Scott, one of THREE such occasions that Reggie
would share a home run crown in his career with a Milwaukee Brewer!
And all three times while he was playing for a different team!
How freakin' strange is that?
He's also share the crown in 1980 with Ben Oglivie while playing for the
Yankees, and with Gorman Thomas in 1982 while with the Angels.
Man I love this game!
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1976 card for former California Angels pitcher Luis
Quintana, who played what turned out to be the last of his Major League
games during the 1975 season:
Quintana appeared in four games for California, going 0-2 with a 6.43
earned run average over seven innings, all out of the bullpen.
The previous season he appeared in 18 games, his debut season, going 2-1
with an ERA of 4.26 in 12.2 innings, again, all out of the bullpen.
Although he’d stick around Minor League ball through the 1983 season,
he’d never make it back to a Big League mound, finishing his brief
career with a record of 2-3, with an ERA at 5.03 over 22 appearances and
19.2 innings pitched, all with the Angels.
Love creating cards like this!
Here’s a “not so missing” 1979 card for former Cincinnati Reds third
baseman Mike Grace, who played his entire Major League career over the
course of two weeks between April and May of 1978:
Grace appeared in five games, going 0-for-3 at the plate, thus representing the entire action of his Big League experience.
He would go on to play another five years of Pro Ball through the 1983
season, but would never get the chance to come up to the Majors again.
Nevertheless, the man made it to the top, and that’s more than I can say!
Cheers Mike!
Let’s
go and give a “not so missing” 1978 card to former Chicago Cubs catcher
Mike Gordon, who had a brief two-year Major League career in 1977-78:
Gordon appeared in the first eight games of his brief MLB career during
the 1977 season, collecting one hit over 23 official at-bats.
The following year he’d play in four games, going 1-for-5 at the plate
in what turned out to be the last taste of Big League ball.
He’d go on to spend all of 1979 in the Cubs’ Minor League system before
retiring for good, having spent his entire eight-year professional
career in the Chicago (NL) organization.
All told, he finished his MLB career with a .071 average, with two hits in 28 at-bats with a couple of runs batted in.
Now
here’s an odd kind of “Nickname of the 1970s” card I created today, one
for former utility man Jim Dwyer aka “Pig Pen” from 1977:
Now, the reason this card is so odd is that Dwyer never actually played a
single game with the Chicago Cubs, but he did spend most of the 1977
season in the Minor League system, where he had a great year at the
plate.
On top of that, he actually DID see Big League time in 1977, but with
the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he never even played a single Minor
League game for that year.
Really unique situation here!
In the Cubs system that year Dwyer hit .332 with 38 doubles, 12 triples
and 18 homers to go along with 108 walks, giving him a fantastic .459
on-base-percentage.
You would THINK the Cubs of those days could have tried him out!
Nevertheless, he found himself in St. Louis by year’s end and played in
13 games for the Cardinals, hitting .226 over that short time.
So when I found this image of him at Wrigley, in Cubs gear, I knew it would make an interesting card to add to the collection!
Dwyer would go on to play 18 seasons in the Majors, hitting .260
generally as a guy off the bench for no less that seven teams: Orioles,
Cardinals, Twins, Expos, Red Sox, Mets and Giants between 1973 and 1990.
Came
across this image of the great Lou Brock and had to make a 1976
“special” card with it, celebrating his march towards history with
stolen base after stolen base during his Hall of Fame career:
Coming off of his record-breaking 1974 season when he stole 118 bases,
the 36 year old then went on to steal another 56 in 1975, pushing him
past the 800 mark for his career.
Of course, he would go on to steal another 138 bases before he was done,
not only passing Ty Cobb for the “modern” MLB record, but even the
great Hall of Famer Billy Hamilton from the 19th Century, who stole 914,
unquestionably giving Brock the record until a guy named “Rickey” came
along.
I love the extra logo sticker the St. Louis Cardinals used on their
batting helmets in the middle of the 1970’s, shown on the image here.
Nice little bonus!
The
next no-hitter profiled on the long-running thread is that of young San
Francisco Giants pitcher Ed Halicki on August 24th 1975 against the New
York Mets:
The 24-year-old was in his first full season when he turned in the
performance of his career, striking out 10 while walking two, on his way
to the no-hitter at home in Candlestick Park.
Gary Thomasson and Willie Montanez drove in two runs each, supplying
more than enough offense to give Halicki the support for the win,
improving his record to 8-10 and lowering his ERA to 3.48.
Turns out Giants fans would have to wait another 35 years before another
of their pitchers threw a no-hitter, when Jonathan Sanchez did just
that on July 10th of 2010.
Nevertheless, Halicki, though he did put in a nice seven-year Major
League career, reached the pinnacle of his Big League days that day in
1975.
Today
we have a “not so missing” 1976 card for former pitcher Rick Sawyer,
who you may remember from his time with the San Diego padres later in
the decade:
Sawyer originally came up to the Big Leagues with the Yanks, first
appearing in a single game during the 1974 season when he pitched 1.2
innings.
In 1976 he was back, albeit for only four appearances out of the
bullpen, not factoring in a decisions and posting an ERA of an even 3.00
over six innings of work.
By the time the 1976 season opened, he found himself a member of the
Padres, posting a nice year with a 5-3 record over 13 appearances, with
an ERA of 2.53 over 81.2 innings pitched.
In 1977, he would appear in a career-high 56 games, with nine of them
starts, throwing 111 innings and going 7-6, though with a bloated ERA of
5.84.
Sadly, that would be the end of his Big League days, as he’d spend all
of 1978 in the Cleveland Indians organization, posting an ugly 6.43 ERA
over 28 innings, ending his pro career.
Today
on the blog we have a “not so missing” 1974 card for former Houston
Astros pitcher Mike Cosgrove, who appeared in 13 games during the 1973
season:
Cosgrove had a very nice showing over those 13 games, posting an earned
run average of 1.80 over 10 innings while going 1-1, all out of the
bullpen.
His first taste of the Big Leagues was a season earlier when he came up
for seven games, going 0-1 with an ERA of 4.61 over 13.2 innings, with a
start thrown in.
He would go on to play five years in the Majors, all with Houston,
finishing up with a record of 12-11 with an ERA of 4.03 over 119
appearances and 274.2 innings pitched, striking out 122 batters while
walking 145, collecting eight saves between 1972 and 1976.
Time
to go and close-out former outfielder Brock Davis’ Major League career
with a 1973 career-capping card after he appeared in over a
half-season’s worth of games for the Milwaukee Brewers yet was left out
of the Topps set:
Davis had a very nice 1972 season for Milwaukee, hitting .318 with 49
hits in 154 at-bats, scoring 17 runs and driving in 12 himself.
Easily the best season of his sporadic run in the Majors, turns out
they’d also be the last, as he’d spend the next three years in the Minor
Leagues playing for four organizations before retiring for good after
the 1975 campaign.
Originally up for his first taste of the Big Leagues in 1963 with the
Houston Colt .45’s as a 19-year old, he went on to play parts of six
seasons over 10 years, hitting .260 with 141 hits in 543 at-bats playing
for Houston, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee between 1963 and 1972.
Today
we have a career-capping “not so missing” 1970 card for former catcher
Gene Oliver, who finished up a nice 10-year Major League career with 23
games for the Chicago Cubs:
Oliver hit .222 over those games, collecting the final six hits of his
career in 27 at-bats in what turned out to be the end of a Big League
run that began back in 1959 when he came up with the St. Louis Cardinals
as a 24-year-old.
His best year was 1965 when with the Milwaukee Braves when he appeared
in 122 games, hitting .270 with 21 homers and 58 runs batted in in 392
at-bats.
By the time he retired, he finished with a career .246 batting average,
with 93 homers and 320 RBIs, collecting 546 hits in 2216 at-bats over
786 games.
Found
this great image of former second baseman Cookie Rojas in a St. Louis
Cardinals uniform, so I figured I’d go and re-do his 1970 card. So here
goes:
 |
| Re-done version |
 |
| As issued by Topps |
Topps originally used their tried and true method at the time of the
cap-less portrait shot of Rojas, devoid of any team identity.
Funny enough, he would be traded not too long into the 1970 season to
the Kansas City Royals where he’d run out his nice 16-year career,
playing the final eight seasons in K.C. and becoming a fan favorite
before retiring after the 1977 season at the age of 38.
The five-time All-Star retired with a .263 career average, collecting
1660 hits over 6309 at-bats, scoring 713 runs and driving in 593.
Time
to go and create a 1976 “Traded” card (wasn’t really a fan of the Topps
original lay-out) for former lefty Ken Holtzman, who found himself in
the Bronx a couple months into the season:
Holtzman actually started the season with the Baltimore Orioles, for
whom he just got traded to right before the season started on April 2nd
as part of the blockbuster Reggie Jackson deal.
Some two and a half months later he was on the move again, as part of a
huge 10-player deal that saw Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Rudy May,
Scott McGregor and Dave Pagan go to Baltimore with Holtzman, Doyle
Alexander, Elrod Hendricks, Grant Jackson and Jimmy Freeman coming to
the Yankees.
Though he’d go 9-7 for the Yankees the rest of the way, helping them to
their first World Series berth in 12 years, his best days were already
behind him, winning only nine more games over the next three years
before retiring for good in 1979 at the age of 33 with a career 174-150
record along with 31 shutouts and 1601 strikeouts.
Along the way he was part of three World Champion teams (A’s 1972-1974), and was named to a couple of All-Star teams.
Today
we have a sort of extreme change of fortune, a career-capping “not so
missing” 1978 card for former pitcher Stan Thomas, who went from the
new, cellar-dwelling Seattle Mariners to the eventual World Champion New
York Yankees in 1977:
Thomas began the season as one of the original Mariners, appearing in 13
games and posting a record of 2-6 with an unsightly 6.02 earned run
average over 58.1 innings of work.
Then in the middle of the “Dog Days of Summer”, August 2nd to be exact,
he was sent to the Bronx “as part of a conditional deal” (whatever that
means), giving him the chance to pitch on a winning team.
What he’d end up doing is go 1-0 for the Yankees over three appearances,
all out of the bullpen, yet posting an ERA of 7.11 (yikes), over 6.1
innings of work.
Turns out that would be it for his Big League career, which began back
in 1974 with the Texas Rangers, leaving him with a career 11-14 record,
sporting an ERA of 3.70 over 111 games and 265.1 innings, with 17 starts
and nine saves thrown in.
Ho-Hum.
Time for another No-Hitter entry, and yep, it’s another gem tosses by
legend Nolan Ryan, who threw his record-tying fourth such game on June
1st, 1975, matching the great Sandy Koufax for the most in one career:
Facing the Baltimore Orioles on a bright Sunday afternoon, Ryan went on
to strike-out nine batters, while walking four, winning the game 1-0
thanks to a Dave Chalk third-inning single that brought speedster Mickey
Rivers home.
Baltimore pitchers Ross Grimsley and Wayne Garland fought the good
fight, allowing that one run while only walking one other batter, but
alas, the “Ryan Express” was in full-swing in the mid-70’s, and just
like that, in the course of a few seasons, he had four No-Hitters under
his belt.
That Baltimore line-up was no slouch either!
Leading off for them was Ken Singleton, and they also had Al Bumbry, Don
Baylor, Bobby Grich, Lee May and Brooks Robinson starting that day,
with former two-time batting champ Tommy Davis pinch-hitting!
Just amazing.
Little did we know that Ryan still had three more no-no’s in that arm
left, and he’d be slinging BB’s for another 18 years before hanging them
up!
On
the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1970 card for former San
Francisco Giants pitcher Mike Davison, who appeared in one game in 1969,
the very first of his Big League career:
Davison pitched two innings for San Francisco in that appearance,
allowing one run on two hits while striking out two and not factoring in
a decision.
The following season he’d see more action as he appeared in 31 games,
all out of the bullpen, going 3-5 with an ERA at 6.50 over 36 innings of
work.
He struck out 21 batters yet walked 22, giving up 46 hits, four of those
home runs, leading to 26 earned runs, closing out 16 games and
collecting a save.
Sadly for him, that would end up being the last of his Major League
play, as he would spend all of 1971 in the Minors suiting up for both
the Giants and Cincinnati Reds organizations before retiring as an
active player for good at only 25 years of age.
Let’s
cap-off the nice 11-year career for former pitcher Fritz Peterson with a
1977 “not so missing” card, though one could argue it’s borderline
“missing” when you remember some of the other guys who got a card in the
set:
Peterson appeared in 13 games playing for the Cleveland Indians and
Texas Rangers, throwing 62 innings and finishing with a 1-3 record along
with an earned run average of 5.08.
In just the previous year he went 14-8 for the Indians, with a couple of
shutouts and a 3.94 ERA, so the rapid decline was a surprise for the
man who was also a former 20-game winner, something he did while with
the New York Yankees in 1970.
While with the Yanks, he posted three straight seasons of sub-3.00 ERA’s
between 1968-1970: 2.63, 2.55 and 2.90, while posting win totals of 12,
17 and 20.
By the time he retired after the 1976 season, he ended up with a career
record of 133-131, with a nice 3.30 ERA and 20 shutouts over 355
appearances and 2218.1 innings pitched.
Here’s
a “missing in action” card for former Philadelphia Phillies outfielder
Joe Lis, who certainly had enough appearances during the 1971 season to
warrant a spot in the monster 787-card 1972 Topps set:
Lis played in 59 games for the Phils the previous year, batting .211
with 26 hits over 123 at-bats and 144 plate appearances, with six home
runs and 10 runs batted in.
Considering some of the others who got a card in that ‘72 set with less
action in 1971, Lis could have easily been a choice to get one as well.
Originally up to the Majors in 1970 with 13 games as a 23-year old, Lis
went on to play eight years in the Big Leagues before moving on to
coaching.
During his playing career he finished up with a .233 career average,
with 182 hits in 780 at-bats over 356 games playing for the Phillies,
Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners during their
inaugural 1977 season, which was his last.
Time
to go and give one of the all-time greats of the game, Frank Robinson,
aka “The Judge”, a “Nicknames of the 1970’s” card in the long-running
series here on the blog:
Robinson is perhaps the “greatest underrated player” in Major League history.
A two-time Most Valuable Player, and the first to do it in both leagues,
Robinson also took home a Triple Crown in 1966, was a twelve time
All-Star, finished in the Top-4 in MVP voting outside his two wins, and
oh yeah, was also the first African-American Manager in league history.
When he retired as an active player in 1976, Robinson was in the top-5
in so many offensive categories he was in the company of Babe Ruth, Hank
Aaron and Willie Mays.
Yet oddly enough, perhaps because of the era he played in, he would get
buried in the “all-time greats” conversation in lieu of the
aforementioned players along with guys like Ty Cobb, Roberto Clemente
and Ted Williams.
I would say he and Stan Musial are the TWO greatest “underrated” players
of all-time, and you could arguably throw in others like Al Kaline for
good measure.
Today
we look at an airbrush job by Topps for their 1978, and though not a
terrible one, I must ask “why bother?” considering so many other players
who deserved a card that year-the 1978 Rudy Meoli:
First off, the paint job on this is pretty good actually!
The effect of the embroidery on the Chicago Cubs logo looks great, as
does the shadowing on the cap itself. An excellent effort all-around.
But consider this: Meoli at that point hadn’t played in the Big Leagues
since the 1875 season when he was with the California Angels!
So why the effort on a card for the 1978 set, let alone the paint job,
for a light-hitting infielder who was bounced around three organizations
since his last MLB action?
Very odd.
Starting in November 1975, Meoli was traded from the Angels, the team he
came up with in 1971, to the San Diego Padres, then to the Cincinnati
Reds in April of 1976, for whom he never played, then on to the Cubs who
purchased him in September of 1977.
He’d go on to play 47 games for the Cubs in 1978, hitting .103 before
moving on to the Philadelphia Phillies for the 1979 season, where he’d
play the last MLB games of his career, hitting .178 before leaving the
game as an active player for good.
All told, over parts of six seasons, Meoli hit .212 with 133 hits in 626
at-bats over 310 games between 1971 and 1979, mainly with the Angels.
Today
we post up a “not so missing” 1974 card for former Kansas City Royals
prospect Tom Poquette, who made his Big League debut during the 1973
season:
Poquette appeared in 21 games for Kansas City, hitting .214 while
collecting six hits over 28 at-bats, driving in three while scoring four
runs himself.
He would end up playing both the 1974 and 1975 seasons in the Minors,
but would make it back in 1976 and have a really good rookie year,
hitting .302 over 104 games, with 104 hits in 344 at-bats.
He was getting some decent attention as an “up-and-comer” for the
Royals, giving them a very nice core of young players along with a guy
named George Brett, among others.
In 1977 he followed up with yet another nice season, hitting .292 with
100 hits in 342 at-bats, collecting 23 doubles and six triples over 106
games, avoiding the “sophomore jinx”.
Sadly for him however, the bottom seemed to drop out from under him in
1978 when he fell to a .216 batting average in 80 games, collecting just
44 hits in 204 at-bats for the Western Division champs, and while he
did bounce-back in 1979 with a .311 average, it was only after he was
traded to the Boston Red Sox for “Boomer” George Scott that he got it
going, and that was in only 63 games through the end of the year.
He’d spend all of 1980 in the Minors before coming back in 1981, but for
only 33 games split between the Red Sox and Texas Rangers, before
playing out his career with two dozen games in 1982 back where it all
started, Kansas City, hitting .145 before calling it a career after
parts of seven seasons.
He’d finish with a .268 average, with 329 hits over 1226 at-bats in 452
games, scoring 127 runs while driving in 136, but never maintaining that
early promise shown in 1976 and 1977.
The
next no-hitter through the 1970’s profiled on the blog is the third
such gem spun by the legend himself, Nolan Ryan, who reeled off another
masterpiece, this time against the Minnesota Twins on September 28th,
1974:
“I knew this would probably be my last start of the season,” remarked
California Angels speedballer Nolan Ryan. “I said to [catcher] Tom Egan ,
‘I think I’ll let it all hang out. What do I have to lose?’”
Ha!
Having already thrown two no-hitters in 1973, Ryan came back and added
to what would become one of the legendary careers in Major League
baseball by striking out 15 batters (while also walking eight), keeping
the Twins hitless for the third no-no in two seasons.
Just incredible.
And yet, little did any of us realize that the man would not only throw
another FOUR no-hitters before he was done, but that the seventh and
final no-hitter of his astonishing career would be SEVENTEEN years after
this one, in 1991.
I mean, where do you even begin to explain to someone not familiar with baseball just how extraordinary this is?!
“The Ryan Express” is not of this earth!
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1971 card for former catcher Tim Hosley, who debuted
in the Big Leagues with seven games for the Detroit Tigers in 1970 at
the age of 23:
Hosley picked up the first two hits of his career over 12 at-bats in
that brief MLB experience, but would go on to play nine seasons as a
back-up catcher between 1970 and 1981.
The most action he ever saw in a season would be in 1975 when he was
with the Chicago Cubs and appeared in 62 games, hitting .255 with 36
hits in 141 at-bats, pretty much setting career-highs across the board
in every category.
By the time he retired, he finished with a .215 batting average with 79
hits over 368 at-bats in 208 Big League games, playing for the Tigers,
Oakland A’s and Cubs.
Here’s
a “missing” 1976 card for a guy who had a couple of missing inclusions
in Topps sets in the 1970’s, former infielder Luis Gomez of the
Minnesota Twins:
Gomez played in 89 games during the 1975 season, batting .139 (ugh) with
10 hits over 72 at-bats, scoring seven runs and driving in five.
OK, with those numbers I get why Topps left him out of the 1976 set.
But the previous year, he was coming off a rookie season of 1974 that
saw him play in 82 games, with 186 plate appearances, hitting .208 with
35 hits over 168 at-bats, scoring 18 runs, which, though not stellar
numbers, easily could have gotten him a card in the 1975 set, no?
Nevertheless, Gomez would go on to play eight-years in the Majors,
hitting .210 over 609 games with 263 hits in 1251 at-bats for the Twins,
Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves before finishing up after the 1981
season.
It’s
about time I added “Downtown” Ollie Brown to the long-running
“Nicknames of the 1970’s” thread, and I threw a bit of a twist by
creating a 1973 edition while he was with the Oakland A’s:
Finding this image made me think it’d be fun to create the card while he
was with Oakland, definitely not a team he’s closely associated with.
Nevertheless, here it is, in all that green and gold glory.
Brown had his best MLB seasons behind him at this point, when he was one
of the first fan favorites for the expansion San Diego Padres from 1969
through 1972.
But his career wasn’t done yet as he would go on to play through the
1977 season, finishing up his 13-year Big League career with a .265
batting average along with 102 homers, 454 runs batted in and 964 hits
over 1221 games between 1965 and 1977.
It’s amazing to realize that he retired at the age of only 33. For me it
seemed like by the time he was with the Philadelphia Phillies at the
end of his career he was pushing 40!
