Just
a fun card to create and post up today on the blog, an “action” card of
Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse against the Boston Red Sox:
I can’t really determine what game this is, though the Indians played
the Red Sox in their second game of the 1976 season after opening up the
year against the Detroit Tigers for one game.
Anyone have an idea?
Fosse was enjoying a return to the Indians, the team he made his mark
with earlier in the decade when he made two All-Star teams and two Gold
Gloves in 1970 and 1971.
Of course, everyone remembers that play at the plate with Pete Rose in
the 1970 All-Star game which left him in agony after Rose plowed into
him trying to score.
Fosse would end up putting in 12 years as a Big League catcher, playing
through the 1979 season and finishing up with a career .256 batting
average, with those two Gold Gloves and two All-Star nods between 1967
and 1979.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving day!
Really
fun card to post up today on the blog, a “not so missing” 1978 card for
one-game Major League pitcher Mike Darr of the Toronto Blue Jays:
Darr appeared in his one game against the Boston Red Sox on September
6th, 1977 allowing five earned runs over 1.1 innings of work, giving him
an unsightly 33.75 earned run average along with four walks allowed
against one strikeout.
He would go on to spend the next two seasons in the Toronto Minor League
system, but never make it back to a Big League mound, finishing up with
that one game under the sun in September of 1977.
It’s also worth noting that Darr was the father of future MLBer Mike
Darr who tragically died in a car accident at the age of 25 during 2002
Spring Training.
The younger Darr played three seasons for the Padres, 1999-2001,
appearing in 188 games and hitting .273 before the tragic accident.
Good day everyone!
Today on the blog we have a card for a guy who made his MLB debut with
one single at-bat in 1972, Chris Ward, who appeared in his first Big
League game on September 10th of ‘72, his only appearance of the season:
Ward flied out against Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Dick Selma in the
top of the 6th inning on that date for the first at-bat of what would
end up being a brief two season career.
After spending all of 1973 in the Minors, a season that saw him his a
solid .340 over 70 games at Triple-A, he made it back to the Big Leagues
in 1974 where he played in 92 games, hitting .204 with 28 hits in 137
at-bats.
Sadly for him however, he would spend the next three years in both the
Cubs, San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians systems but never get a
chance back in the Majors, finishing up with a .203 average over 93
games, with eight runs scored and 15 RBIs.
Today
on the blog we have a “not so missing” 1971 card for a grossly
underrated player, Jose Cruz, who made his MLB debut during the 1970
season with the St. Louis Cardinals:
Cruz, who would go on to find fame and fortune with his 13 seasons
playing for the Houston Astros between 1975 and 1987, appeared in six
games for St. Louis in his first taste of the Big Leagues in 1970,
hitting a robust .353 with six hits over 17 at-bats.
He’d never find his true hitting stroke over the parts of five seasons
he spent in St. Louis, but after being purchased by the Astros in
December of 1974, he would go on to become an All-Star outfielder.
He would be named to two All-Star teams, win two Silver Slugger Awards,
and three times finish in the top-10 for N.L. MVP, even leading the
league in hits with 189 in 1983.
By the time he finished with one season as a New York Yankee in 1988 at
the age of 40, he retired with 2251 hits, a .284 batting average, 165
homers and 317 stolen bases.
Today
I present a 1974 “not so missing” card for former reliever Tom Buskey,
who made his MLB debut during the 1973 season as a member of the New
York Yankees:
Buskey appeared in eight games for the Yanks, going 0-1 with an ERA of
5.40 over 16.2 innings pitched, collecting a save along the way.
He would end up putting in eight years in the Big Leagues, pitching
through the 1980 season and appearing in 258 games, all out of the
bullpen for the Yanks, Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays between
1973 and 1980.
His final numbers looked like this: a 21-27 record with a 3.66 earned
run average over 479.1 innings pitched, picking up 34 saves and striking
out 212 hitters.
His best year would arguably be 1975 while with the Indians when he
finished 5-3 with a nice 2.57 earned run average over 50 appearances and
77 innings pitched, with seven saves.
Up
on the blog today is a “not so missing” 1978 card for former Montreal
Expos pitcher Hal Dues, who made his MLB debut with six appearances
during the 1977 season:
Funny enough, the image used for this card is almost exactly like the one for his 1979 card that Topps actually put out, that I had to compare side by side to be sure I wasn't duplicating.
Seems he liked this pose!
Over those six appearances, he posted a record of 1-1 with an earned run
average of 4.30 as a 22-year-old, with four of those games being
starts, over 23 innings pitched.
He’d have a very nice 1978 season which saw his record of 5-6 betray his
ERA of 2.36 over 25 appearances, 12 of those starts, throwing 99
innings and pitching a complete game while also picking up a save.
Seems like injuries curtailed his Big League tenure, as he would spend
all of 1979 in the Minors, appearing in only 12 games split between
Double and Triple A ball before making it to the Majors in 1980.
In what turned out to be his last taste of the Big Leagues, Dues
appeared in six games for Montreal during the 1980 season, going 0-1
over 12.1 innings pitched, posting a bloated 6.57 ERA.
He would play another two seasons in the Minors for the Montreal
organization, but would retire from pro ball after the 1982 campaign,
ending up with a career 6-8 record over 37 appearances, with a nice 3.08
ERA in 134.1 innings pitched.
Time
to go an add future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven to the long-running
“traded” thread on the blog with a 1976 edition, marking his move from
the Minnesota Twins to the Texas Rangers as part of a blockbuster
six-player trade that also included $250,000:
Blyleven was sent packing along with Danny Thompson to the Rangers for a
package of Mike Cubbage, Jim Gideon, Bill Singer and Roy Smalley along
with $250,000 on June 1st of 1976.
Before the trade he was 4-5 with a 3.12 earned run average over 12
starts, and would go on to post a record of 9-11 with Texas, starting 24
games and completing 14 of them with six shutouts.
He’d finish the combined season with over 200 strikeouts, the sixth
straight season doing so, along with a very nice 2.87 ERA over 297.2
innings of work.
Of course, little did anyone realize that the man would go on to pitch
another 16 years in the Majors, finishing up with 287 wins, 60 shutouts
and 3701 strikeouts, which at the time of his retirement was third
all-time.
I’m still amazed that it took BBWA so many years for them to select him
for Hall of Fame enshrinement considering his career numbers, produced
for generally bad teams.
His post season numbers were even better, going 5-1 over eight games
with an ERA of 2.47, with 36 strike outs in 47.1 innings pitched with
only eight walks allowed.
“The Frying Dutchman”!
Taking
a look today at the original Topps image used for former outfielder
Mike Anderson’s 1976 Traded card, airbrushed to perfection in that
oh-so-70s style we all love:
Not the best of jobs here with that wild St. Louis Cardinals cap, but then again not the worst by any means either.
Anderson came over to the Cardinals from the division rival Philadelphia
Phillies for pitcher Ron Reed straight up in a December 9th, 1975
trade.
He would have a pretty good season in 1976, hitting .291 over 86 games,
but would fall to a .221 clip in 1977, which would lead to a crazy 1978
season for him where he was released by the Cardinals, Phillies, then
Baltimore Orioles in the space of only seven months.
Ironically he’d play out his last Big League season in 1979 back with
the Phillies, hitting .231 over 79 games before playing two seasons in
the Minors through 1981 before calling it a career.
Overall, he finished his nine-year career with a .246 average, with 367
hits over 1490 at-bats in 721 games between 1971 and 1979.
Time
to go and give Mario Mendoza, he of the “Mendoza Line”, a “missing”
1977 card to fill out his nine-year Major League career:
Mendoza, who (unfairly?) became the go-to reference for hitting under
.200, appeared in 50 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 1976
season, you guessed it, hitting under .200 with a .185 figure based on
his 17 hits over 92 at-bats.
Now granted, the man hit under the .200 threshold five times during his
career, but he did end up with a career .215 average by the time he
retired from Big League ball in 1982.
I guess you can say that in back-to-back seasons in 1980 and 1981 he was
positively raking when he hit .245 and .231 for the Seattle mariners
and Texas Rangers respectively.
Nevertheless, by the time he retired, he finished with 287 hits over
1337 at-bats spread out over 686 games between 1974 and 1982, good for
the .215 average, with 106 runs scored and 101 runs batted in.
Some say (and I agree), that it was unfair to make HIM the poster child
for the light-hitting set, and though I cannot at this very moment
remember many of the players, there are a handful that were actually
much worse at the plate than he, including who I consider the worst,
former catcher Bill Bergen, who hit .170 over eleven seasons between
1901 and 1911, and the guy pretty much played FULL TIME!
Go check out his numbers. I think you’ll all agree.
On
the blog today, we close out the career of former infielder Jack
Heidemann, who wrapped up an eight-year Major League career with five
games for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1977:
Heidemann went 0-1 at the plate over those five games, with a run
scored, in what turned out to be the last taste of Big League action for
his career that started in 1969 with the Cleveland Indians.
In between, he also suited up for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York
Mets, generally a player off the bench except for 1970 when he appeared
in 133 games for the Indians for his only full-season, hitting .211 with
94 hits over 445 at-bats with six homers, 44 runs scored and 37 runs
batted in, all career highs.
He finished his Major League tenure with a .211 batting average, with
231 hits in 1093 at-bats over 426 games, hitting nine home runs and
driving in 75, scoring 94 himself.
This
right here is one of the main reasons I ever started the blog in the
first place, a “not so missing” card for a player I have never heard of
before, who happens to have one of the best names I’ve ever heard of,
former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Lafayette Currence:
The extent of Currence’s career was eight games during the Summer of
1975, pitching 18.2 innings and going 0-2 with a bloated 7.71 earned run
average, with seven strikeouts and 14 walks with 25 hits allowed
(ouch)!
Nevertheless, though he never got another chance at a Big League game
after that initial showing, spending the next two seasons in the
Brewers’ system through 1977, I wish there was a card, even just a
multi-player rookie slot, for him in the 1976 set just to have had this
name thrown at me all those years ago.
Originally in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, Currence spent
eight-years in pro ball, spanning 1970-1977, but only got those eight
games in 1975 on a Big League mound.
And get this: his FULL name is actually Delancey Lafayette Currence! Fantastic!!!
Always
fun to create 1974 “missing” cards of the San Diego Padres, as it also
gives me a chance to create a “Washington Nationals” counterpart
remembering the dilemma Topps had with the proposed move of the
franchise before the 1974 season.
Today, it’s former catcher Bob Davis, who made his Big League debut in
1973 with five games, leading to the following two creations for the
blog:
Davis collected one hit over eleven at-bats in that time, good for a
.091 batting average, before heading back to the Minor Leagues where
he’d play all of 1974.
He’d be back behind a Major League plate in 1975, appearing in 43 games
and hitting .234 with 30 hits in 128 at-bats, and he would go on to play
parts of the next six seasons in the Majors.
Over that time he would play for the Padres, Toronto Blue Jays and
California Angels between 1975 and 1981, hitting just below the “Mendoza
Line”, finishing his Big League career with a .197 batting average,
with 131 hits over 665 at-bats and 290 games.
Speaking of the “Mendoza Line”, keep an eye out for a “missing” 1977 Mario Mendoza card later this week!
I
have been wanting to do a proper 1976 “dedicated rookies” card for my
favorite second baseman, Willie Randolph, for years now, and I finally
scored a wonderful photo of him during his brief time with the
Pittsburgh Pirates, so here you go:
Hard to find some really good photos of Randolph with the Pirates in
what was his first taste of the Big Leagues in 1975, but I think this
one fits the bill!
Of course, Randolph was (thankfully) traded to the New York Yankees by
the time this card would have seen the light of day as part of a
blockbuster deal that also saw Ken Brett and Dock Ellis head to the
Bronx for pitcher Doc Medich.
All Randolph did was play the next 13 years of his great career as the
Yankees second baseman, the understated infielder who dealt with all the
“Bronx Zoo” madness with grace and professionalism, making six All-Star
teams and helping the Yankees win two championships while also taking
home two American League titles.
I cannot state how much I loved him as a kid growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Year in and year out all he did was give the Yankees a solid bat in the
line-up while playing stellar defense, keeping out of the Steinbrenner
madness, and acting as an anchor those “Bronx Zoo” teams sorely needed.
What a steal for the Yanks!
Today
on the blog, we have a 1979 “Special” I created for all-or-nothing
slugger Dave Kingman, “Kong”, since I came across this nice image of him
at Wrigley in what I like to think was another of his prodigious
blasts:
Kingman was in the middle of his best year as a Major Leaguer, leading
all of baseball with 48 home runs while driving in 115 runs for the
Cubs, also setting career-highs with a .288 batting average and 97 runs
scored.
I was always enamored with the guy: his wiffle-ball like swings, his
dour and somewhat aloof disposition, and of course his tape-measure
homers.
I got to see a lot of him due to his time with the Mets, and me growing
up in New York City (though I was a Yankee fan), and I always though
Kingman was that cool “loner” dude who did things his own way.
Then I really became fascinated by him when he retired after the 1986
season, just after posting his THIRD straight 30+ home run year with the
Oakland A’s.
As a kid I could not understand how no one wanted to have a 30+ homer guy back then on their team, even IF he struck out a lot.
I was mesmerized and still am somewhat that the guy’s final year in the
Majors produced 35 home runs and 94 RBI’s, only to walk away after being
signed as a Free Agent by the San Francisco Giants that never led to
anything after some Minor League action.
The enigma that is “Kong”.
Today
on the blog we have an interesting card for a few reasons, the
classic-70’s airbrushed 1972 card for former outfielder Richie
Scheinblum. Take a look at the original image with final result:
Scheinblum was given a card in the 1972 set even though he was coming
off a 1971 season that saw him appear in only 27 games while with the
Washington Senators, and you can clearly see the “Senators” across his
chest in the original before Topps cropped the image just right for the
final resulting card.
The year before that, in 1970, was entirely spent in the Minors, so it’s
clear that Topps thought it fitting to give him a later-series card in
the 1972 set really on what was going on DURING the 1972 season.
And what was going on that year was a solid season for Scheinblum in
what turned out to be his only season playing for the Kansas City
Royals, also a season that saw him make the American League All-Star
team, AND the only season of his eight-year MLB career that had him play
full-time.
Pretty unique scenario here.
Scheinblum hit .300 on the nose that year, with career-highs across the
board: 60 runs scored, 135 hits, 21 doubles, four triples, eight homers
and 66 runs batted in.
He also had a very nice .383 on-base-percentage with 58 walks against
only 40 strikeouts for the season over 520 plate appearances.
Yet he never got a chance to play full-time again, even though the very
next year he hit a combined .307 playing for the Cincinnati Reds and
California Angels over 106 games and 333 plate appearances.
You’d think some teams could have used a contact-hitting guy who already
proved himself a decent hitter in the mid-70’s who just hit the age of
30.
As a matter of fact, in 1974, which turned out to be the last of his Big
League career, Scheinblum ended up suiting up for three teams, the
Angels, the Royals (again), and finally the St. Louis Cardinals for six
games, for which I earlier created a “not so missing” 1975 card on the
blog some time ago.
That was it for even his pro career, as I cannot even find any Minor
League action for the guy after those Cardinal games in 1974.
All told Scheinblum finished with a career .263 batting average, with
320 hits over 1218 at-bats spread out over 462 games between 1965 and
1974.
It’s worth noting that in 1971, he tore up the Minors when he hit .388
for the Denver Bears, with 25 homers and 108 RBI’s over 106 games, with a
crazy .492 on-base-percentage and .725 slugging percentage, getting him
that late-season call-up with the Senators.
Was
originally going to have this as a “not so missing” card, but realized
that it really was a “missing in action” 1974 card for former reliever
Jim York of the Houston Astros. So here you go:
York appeared in 41 games for Houston during the 1973 season, going 3-4
with an earned run average of 4.42 over 53 innings of work with six
saves.
Definitely enough action in the season to warrant a card in the 1974 set don’t you think?
Ironically, York WAS given a card in both the 1973 set after a 1972
season that saw him appear in only 26 games with 36 innings pitched.
Nevertheless, York put in seven years in the Big Leagues, appearing in
174 games and throwing 285 innings, all but four appearances out of the
bullpen.
Over that time he finished with a career 16-17 record, with an ERA of
3.79 and 10 saves pitching for the Kansas City Royals, Astros and three
games with the New York Yankees in his final year of 1976 (watch for
that “not so missing” card right here in the near future).
Up
on the blog today we have a 1976 ”not so missing” card for former San
Diego Padres pitcher Larry Hardy, who appeared in only a few games the
previous season after a very nice rookie campaign in 1974:
Hardy appeared in only three games during the 1975 season throwing 2.2
innings and ending up with a bloated earned run average of 13.50 without
factoring in a decision.
It was a big come-down after a very nice rookie year in 1974 that saw
him appear in 76 games, all but one out of the bullpen,going 9-4 for a
bad Padre team, while posting a 4.69 ERA over 101.2 innings pitched,
with two saves thrown in.
After getting traded to the Houston Astros over the Winter of 1975 for
Doug Rader, Hardy’s luck didn’t improve as he would appear in 15 games
out of the ‘pen, not factoring in a decision and pitching to an ERA of
7.06 over 21.2 innings.
Turns out those would be the last innings of his Major League career as
he would go on to play another three years in the Astros’ Minor League
system, but never making it back to a Big League mound again, finishing
up with a career 9-4 record, with a 5.29 ERA over 94 appearances and 126
innings of work.
Time
to go and add that Kansas City Royals spark-plug and grossly overlooked
player from the 1970’s, Amos Otis, to my long-running 1975 “In-Action”
sub-set:
Otis, who came over to the Royals before the 1970 season in a famously
lopsided trade by the New York Mets that netted them Joe Foy, went on to
have a wonderful 17-year Major League career, all but three of those
seasons in K.C.
All the man did was put in consistent solid seasons year after year,
making it to five All-Star games and taking home three Gold Gloves for
his defensive work out in centerfield.
He twice led the American League in doubles, while also topping the
league in stolen bases once, and even had some “pop” in his bat with six
seasons of 15+ homers, with a career high of 26 in 1973.
By the time he retired after the 1984 season after one year with the
Pittsburgh Pirates, he ended up with 193 homers, 341 stolen bases, 1092
runs scored and 2020 hits along with a batting average of .277 and 1007
runs batted in.
Considering the “dead ball” era of the early-70’s in the American
League, his numbers are up there with the best of them, and it’s sad he
get’s lost among his contemporaries when looking back at that time in
Major League baseball.
Time to go and add Oakland A’s All-Star Gene Tenace to my long-running “Dedicated Rookies” thread, giving him his own 1970 card:
Gotta love those classic A’s uniforms!
Tenace of course went on to become an important cog in the three-peat
World Champion teams of 1972-1974, switching between catching duties and
first base, consistently posting on-base-percentages hovering around
.400 with the help of his ability to draw walks.
As a matter of fact in three different seasons Tenace collected more
walks than hits in full seasons where he walked over 100 times.
Part of the first big wave of Free Agency, he’d move on to the San Diego
Padres in 1977 where he’d play for four seasons before playing for the
St. Louis Cardinals in 1981 & 1982, then one last season in the Big
Leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1983.
By the time he retired he ended up with a .241 career average, with 201
homers and 674 runs batted in, with 1060 hits and 984 walks over 1555
games and 4390 at-bats, with an All-Star start in 1975.
Time
to go an add a 1971 “not so missing” card to the blog for eight-game
Major League pitcher Gene Rounsaville of the Chicago White Sox:
After spending the first five years of his professional career in the
Philadelphia Phillies Minor League system between 1965 and 1969,
Rounsaville was drafted by Chicago in the Rule 5 Draft before the 1970
season.
He’d make his Big League debut on April 7th and spend the month with
the White Sox, going 0-1 with a bloated 9.95 ERA over those eight games,
throwing 6.1 innings all out of the bullpen.
He would spend the rest of the year in the Minors, pitching well to the
tune of a 3.26 ERA over 27 appearances and 91 innings, with five saves.
However from what I can find, he never played pro ball again, even
though he was still only 25 years of age, finishing up with those eight
Major League appearances and a record of 0-1.
Time
for another “nickname of the 1970’s” card, this time former relief
pitcher Clay Carroll of the Cincinnati Reds, who was (by my count) the
third player who had the “Hawk” moniker:
This makes my third “Hawk” nickname card, following a 1978 Andre Dawson
and a 1970 Ken Harrelson, easily making this the most popular alias in
this long-running thread.
Carroll get’s a 1973 template since he was coming off his amazing 1972
campaign that saw him set a National League record mark with 37 saves
while posting a 2.25 ERA over 65 appearances and 96 innings.
Those numbers were good enough to finish fifth in the Cy Young Race, as
well as a 13th-place finish for MVP, while making his second All-Star
team.
Since coming to the Reds in 1968 he did nothing but put in stellar
season after season, posting double-digit saves while posting records
like 12-6 in 1969, 10-4 in 1971 and 12-5 later in 1974.
Over his 15-year Big League career he would end up with a record of
96-73, with 143 saves and a very nice 2.94 ERA over 731 appearances and
1353.1 innings pitched.
Fun
card to add to the 1979 stable, a Terry Cornutt “not so missing”
creation for his brief, and I mean very brief, tenure as a Major League
pitcher in the decade’s last season:
Cornutt, who made his Big League debut the previous year with 28 games
and 44.1 innings pitched for the Giants, appeared in only one game
during the 1978 season, pitching a total of three innings on September
15th, a successful scoreless appearance against the Cincinnati Reds.
Sadly for him that would be it though as far as his MLB career, as he
would go on to play the next two years in the Minors but never getting a
chance to make it back to a Big League mound again.
In his brief two-year career, Cornutt finished with a record of 1-2,
with an earned run average of 3.61 over 29 games and 47.1 innings
pitched, all but one of those games out of the bullpen.
Today
I present to you a 1978 “not so missing” card for former infielder Tom
Heintzelman, who appeared in only two games for the San Francisco Giants
during the 1977 season, but you all know that’s good enough for me to
create a card:
Heintzelman spent all of 1975 and 1976 in the Minors after coming up
with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1973 and playing parts of 1973 and 1974.
Over those two games in 1977, he went 0-2 at the plate while not getting
any time defensively out in the field, though I did post his position
as “2B” instead of pinch-hitter.
Regardless, in 1978 he’d play what turned out to be the last games of
his MLB career when he appeared in 27 games for the Giants, batting .229
with eight hits in 35 at-bats, with a double and a couple homers thrown
in.
He’d spend all of 1979 in the Minors, but would retire soon after,
finishing up his Big League tenure with a career .243 average, with 34
hits over 140 at-bats in 90 games between 1973 and 1978.
Up
on the blog today, a 1977 “not so missing” card for former Milwaukee
Brewers pitcher Moose Haas, who made his MLB debut during the 1976
season with five appearances as a 20-year-old:
Haas went 0-1 during his first taste of the Big Leagues, sporting an
earned run average of 3.94 over 16 innings of work, with two of those
games starts.
He would go on to be a solid arm, generally as a starter, for Milwaukee
over the next nine seasons before finishing up his career with two years
out in Oakland.
The early-90’s were his solid seasons, as he would have double-digit win
totals every year between 1979 and 1983, with a high of 16 in 1980 when
he went 16-15 with three shutouts and a career-high 252.2 innings.
In 1983 he’d lead the American League with a .813 winning percentage
after posting a record of 13-3over 25 games, all starts, with three
shutouts.
By the time he retired after the 1987 season, still only 31 years of
age, he finished with a career 100-83 record, with a 4.01 ERA over 266
games and 1655 innings pitched, with eight shutouts and 853 strikeouts.
For me, I’ll always remember him for the near no-hitter he tossed
against the Yankees in June of 1985, finally broken up with a Don
Mattingly double to right field in the seventh inning.
Haas was dealing that game and he really looked to have the Yankees
number, eventually settling for a 6-0 win with just that one hit
allowed.
Anytime
I use a non-Topps photo for a card I always look to “correct” it later
on with the genuine article, like today for former California Angels
catcher Tom Egan:
I originally used a non-Topps photo for Egan and a 1976 “not so missing”
card a while back, and although it was fine, I like using the
“real-deal” so much more. Lucky to find this one.
Egan was just coming off the last games of his Big League career in 1975
that saw him appear in 28 games for the Angels, who seemed to use
DOZENS of catchers during the decade.
He hit .229 for the Halos that year, collecting 16 hits over 70 at-bats
with seven runs scored and three runs batted in, with three doubles and a
triple.
Turns out that was it for him in the Majors, retiring shortly after
without even some Minor League games before calling it a career.
He originally came up to the Big Leagues back in 1965 as a 19-year-old with the Angels, appearing in 18 games and hitting .263.
He’d go on to play parts of the five years with the Angels, never more
than 79 games (1970) before going on to play for the Chicago White Sox
in 1971/1972.
After a year in the Minors, he was back with the Angels in 1974, playing
in 43 games before that last season of 1975, finishing up with a career
.200 batting average after collecting 196 hits in 979 at-bats spread
out over 373 games.
On
the blog today, a career-capping “not so missing” 1973 card for former
Chicago White Sox outfielder Jim Qualls, who played the last of his
brief three-year Big League career in 1972:
Qualls appeared in 11 games during the 1972 season, his only time with
the White Sox, going 0-for-10 at the plate ironically in general use as a
pinch-hitter, with one game out in the field.
He originally came up to the Majors in 1969 with the Chicago Cubs,
playing in 43 games and of course being remembered for breaking up Tom
Seaver’s perfect game on July 9th with one out in the ninth inning.
The following season had him play in nine games for the Montreal Expos,
going 1-for-9 at the plate, before spending all of 1971 in the Minor
Leagues.
After his Big League career he played for two years in Japan, suiting up
for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1972/1973 before calling it a
career.
For his MLB tenure, he finished with a .223 average, with 31 hits over
139 at-bats over 63 games, most during his debut season in 1969.
Today
on the blog we have a 1978 “traded” card for former second baseman
Jerry Remy, who found himself heading East to the Boston Red Sox after
three seasons with the California Angels:
Traded to the Red Sox for pitcher Don Aase, Boston picked up the sweet
end of this deal as Remy not only would become a productive player, but
eventually go on to becoming a baseball “lifer” of sorts as he’d move
into the Boston broadcast booth for over 30 years, something he still
does to this day.
After three really good years with the Angels between 1975 and 1977, the
Angels shipped Remy to Boston and Remy quickly paid dividends as he’d
make the only All-Star team of his career during his first season with
the Sox, hitting .278 with 87 runs scored and 30 stolen bases.
He’d go on to play seven seasons with Boston, sadly his career suffering
from injuries which led him to retire at the young age of 31 after the
1984 season.
He’d finish his 10-year career with a .275 batting average, with 1226
hits and 605 runs scored over 1154 games and 4455 at-bats., stealing 208
bases.
Fun
card to add to the “Nicknames of the 1970’s” stable, a 1973 edition
featuring Kansas City pitcher Roger Nelson, aka “Spider”, who came out
of nowhere in 1972 with a season for the ages, albeit somewhat under the
radar:
Nelson, who barely played the previous two seasons, so much so that he
wasn’t even in the 1972 Topps set, went on to post one of the lowest
WHIP’s in MLB history in 1972 with a 0.871 mark.
He’d post a record of 11-6 over 34 appearances, 19 of them starts, with
six shutouts and two saves while striking out 120 batters while walking
only 31.
His 3.87 strikeouts to walks ratio also led the American League, while
also finishing the season with a stellar 2.08 earned run average.
However he quickly fell to earth the following year, now pitching for
the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in only 14 games while going 3-2 with a
decent 3.46 ERA, throwing only 54.2 innings.
He’d pitch parts of the 1974 and 1976 seasons, spending all of 1975 in
the Minors, finishing up his nine year Big League career with three
games for the Royals out of the bullpen during the Bicentennial year.
All told, he finished with a career 29-32 record, with a very nice 3.06
ERA over 135 appearances and 636.1 innings, with seven shutouts and four
saves.
Half of his career 20 complete games and all but one of his career
shutouts were during that magic run of 1972 when he had it running on
all cylinders.
p
on the blog today we have a “missing” 1970 card for former pitcher
Marcel Lachemann, who made his MLB debut during the 1969 season with the
Oakland A’s:
Lachemann, who would also go on to manage in the Majors, just as his
brother Rene Lachemann, appeared in 28 games for Oakland, going 4-1 with
an earned run average of 3.95 over 43.1 innings of work with a couple
of saves.
He would pitch for parts of two more seasons before toiling in the Minor
Leagues through the 1974 season, that last two in the Montreal Expos
organization.
All told, he finished his Big League career with a record of 7-4,
posting a final ERA of 3.44 over 70 appearances and 102 innings pitched,
collecting five saves, with all of his time in the Majors coming out of
the bullpen.
Between 1994 and 1996 he’d manage the California Angels, finishing his
managerial career with a 161-170 record, leading the Angels to a second
place finish in 1995.
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