On the blog today, we add former Oakland A's great third baseman Sal Bando to my on-going 1970 "In-Game Action" set:
Bando
had what turned out to be the best year of his 16-year career in 1969,
hitting 31 homers while driving in 113 runs, scoring 106 and collecting
171 hits, all career-bests, while making his 1st All-Star team and
finishing 16th in the MVP race.
A
huge cog in that Oakland machine of the mid-70's, he would end up making four All-Star
teams over his career, while placing top-4 in MVP votes three times
with a high of second place in 1971 when teammate Vida Blue took home
the honors.
Bando put together a very solid Big League career that saw him take
home three championships, participate in four all-star games, and finish
in the top-10 in MVP voting three times.
His five 20-homer and two 100+ RBI seasons were a nice compliment
to Reggie's offensive exploits, and with Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace and Bert
Campaneris thrown in you can see why those A's teams were so strong.
Then again, with starting pitching like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter,
Ken Holtzman, Rollie Fingers et al, yeah, they were going to kick-ass no
matter what…
He retired in 1981 with 1790 hits, 982 runs
scored, 242 homers, 1039 runs batted in and a .254 batting average.
