Up on the blog today we have a career-capping “not so missing” 1974 card for former pitcher Tom Kelley of the Atlanta Braves:
Kelley pitched in what turned out to be the last seven games of his
seven-year Big League career in 1973, going 0-1 with an earned run
average of 2.84 over 12.2 innings.
He would spend the next three seasons pitching in the Minors for both
the Atlanta and New York Mets organizations, but never get another shot
back at the Big Show again.
His finest season in the Big Leagues was easily 1971 when he made his
return to the Majors, going 9-5 with a nice 2.96 ERA over 28 appearances
after toiling in the Minors really since 1967.
When Topps gave him that 1971 card in their set, he pitched a total of
ONE inning since the end of the 1966 season, and I wrote about it was
back on this blog in August of 2013:
http://whentoppshadballs.
Nevertheless, he finished his career with a record of 20-22 over 104
appearances, with an ERA of 3.75 over 408 innings of work pitching for
both the Braves and the Cleveland Indians between 1964 and 1973.
