Here’s a fun card to add to the “wthballs” stable, a “not so missing” 1972 card for pitcher George Brunet, who had himself quite an interesting professional baseball career:
Brunet pitched what turned out to be the last Major League games of his
15-year career in 1971, appearing in seven games for the St. Louis
cardinals, going 0-1 with a 5.79 earned run average over 9.1 innings.
Originally up in 1956 with the Kansas City Athletics as a 22-year old,
it wasn’t until 1965 that he’d see full-time action in a season, now a
member of the California Angels.
Between 1965 and 1969 was a starter for the Angels, averaging over 200
innings a year, while winning 54 games and tossing 14 shutouts along the
way.
Now, though he ended his Big League career with a record of 69-93, with a
3.62 ERA over 324 appearances and 1431.2 innings pitched, it was what
he did AFTER 1971 that handed him some baseball notoriety.
After a full season in the Minor Leagues in 1972, Brunet decided to take
his talents South to the Mexican League, where he was known as “El
Viejo” (the old man), as he would go on to pitch until 1989, at age 54!
By the time he was done in Mexico, he held numerous pitching records,
toss over 50 shutouts, strikeout over 3000 batters, and even toss a
no-hitter at the age of 42 in 1977.
In 1999 he was inducted to the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame, sadly
eight years after he passed away from a heart attack at the age of only
56.
I wish I could dig up more about Brunet in the Mexican League, as his
time there really was something to explore since he was so popular.
