On the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1975 card for former outfielder/first baseman Otto Velez, who appeared in a couple dozen games during the 1974 season:
Velez,
who actually had a spot on a multi-player rookie card in Topps' 1974
set after 23 games in 1973, hit .209 during his 1974 Big League action,
with 14 hits, nine runs scored and 10 runs batted in for the New York
Yankees.
He
would only appear in six games for the Yanks in 1975, followed by 49
games during their American League championship season of 1976, before
being drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in their inaugural expansion
draft before the 1977 campaign.
He was the 53rd pick in the 1976 expansion draft, and would have a decent
year for the Jays in 1977 when he batted .256 with 16 homers and 62 runs
batted in.
He would stay with the team for the next five seasons, hitting as many as 20 homers (1980) as well as matching his 1977 RBI total that very same year.
He would stay with the team for the next five seasons, hitting as many as 20 homers (1980) as well as matching his 1977 RBI total that very same year.
In
1983 he would find himself with the Cleveland Indians, where he would
play what turned out to be the final 10 games of his career, hitting
only .080 with two hits over 25 at-bats, with a run scored and an RBI.
Velez would put 11 years in the Major Leagues, batting .251 with 78
homers and 272 runs batted in, while collecting 452 hits in 1802 at-bats
over 637 games.
