Fun card to add to the WTHBALLS checklist, a "not so missing" 1974 card for Tony La Russa, who played the last of his Major League time as a player before embarking on one of the great Managerial careers the game has ever seen:
La
Russa appeared in one game for the Chicago Cubs in 1973, apparently as a
pinch-runner which led to him scoring a run without a plate appearance.
Before
that the last action he saw in the Majors was during the 1971 season
when he split the year with the Oakland A's and Atlanta Braves,
appearing in 32 games and hitting .133 with two hits over 15 official
at-bats.
He came up in 1963 for a brief cup of coffee with the Kansas
City Athletics, but wouldn't make it back up to the big leagues again
until 1968, when he appeared in only five games, good for three at-bats.
Actually, in his six year playing career, he never really got a chunk of playing time in any one season.
However, ironically enough, the MOST action he ever saw was during
the 1970 season while still playing for the A's, when he got into 52
games at second base, good for 106 at-bats.
He didn't make much of the opportunity, batting .198 with 21 hits and six runs batted in.
However, if there was EVER a year where Topps should have given the
guy a baseball card you think it would be the only year he scraped
together more than 100+ plate appearances, no?
Yet Topps didn't have a LaRussa card in their 1971 set, even though he WAS included in their sets in 1964, 1968 and 1972.
So way back when on the blog I did create a "missing" 1971 card for him, almost eight years ago to be exact! Time sure flies!
As we all know, Tony LaRussa the "manager" is one of the all-time greats.
Between 1979 and 2011, a span of 33 years, he managed three teams
(White Sox, A's and Cardinals) to 2728 victories, six pennants, three
world championships, and 12 first place finishes.