A NOT SO MISSING 1977 CAREER-CAPPER FOR ROGER NELSON

Up on the blog today we have a career-capping 1977 card for former pitcher Roger Nelson, aka “Spider”, who played the last of his Major League games during the 1976 season:

Nelson appeared in three games for the Kansas City Royals in 1976, not factoring in a decision while pitching to a very nice 2.08 earned run average over 8.2 innings.
His finest MLB season was 1972 during his first stint with the Royals, when he posted a record of 11-6 with an excellent 2.08 ERA with six shutouts over 34 appearances, 19 of them starts.
What made the season really impressive is that he posted the lowest WHIP of any pitcher through the Greg Maddux years a couple of decades later when he finished with a WHIP of 0.871, allowing only 31 walks and 120 hits over his 173.1 innings.
I was always fascinated by this out-of-nowhere year for a relatively unknown pitcher, especially when this happened during the era of Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Steve Carlton et. al.
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.