On the blog today, thought it'd be fun to revisit an old blog post from July 21st, 2015, where I created a "missing" 1978 card for former outfielder/1st baseman:
Tolan appeared in 64 games in 1977, 15 with the Philadelphia
Phillies and 49 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, good for 97 plate
appearances and 90 at-bats.
He hit .189 with 17 hits, eight runs scored and 10 runs batted in, with a single stolen base.
His best years were with the Cincinnati Reds between 1969 and 1973,
topping .300 a couple of times and leading the league in stolen bases
in 1970 with 57 and even slamming 21 home runs in 1969 with 93 runs
batted in.
He
missed all of 1971 after a fantastic 1970 season after rupturing his
achilles tendon while playing basketball, violating a clause in his
contract, but did make it back to win the 1972 "Comeback Player of the
Year" Award in 1972.
Sadly for him however, he was traded to the San Diego Padres for pitcher
Clay Kirby after the 1973 season, which saw his performance drop
dramatically, hitting only .206, thereby missing out on the tremendous
"Big Red Machine" run the next few years.
Dig the awesome 1970's sideburns-into-'stache going on with him on this 1978 card! Love it!
He'd actually make one more "comeback" of sorts in 1979, this time
for the Padres, after being out of baseball all of 1978, appearing in 22
games though hitting only .190 with four hits over 21 at-bats, retiring
soon after.
In all he'd finish with a .265 average with 193 steals and 1121
hits over 1282 games and 4238 at-bats, as well as a World Series ring as
a member of the 1967 St. Louis Cardinals, when they defeated the Boston
Red Sox.
