Up on the blog
today, I thought it’d be fun to re-do the 1973 Topps Texas Rangers
manager card to reflect the skipper at the helm of the team in their
first season down is Texas, the great Ted Williams. So
here you go:
Originally, Topps
had an airbrushed card showing manager Whitey Herzog, who was about to
lead the team in 1973, but I thought a card showing the Hall of Famer
would be fun to add to the “virtual” collection.
Williams had a rough
year in 1972, leading the team to a record of 54-100, a last-place
finish in the American League West, after the team was moved from
Washington DC after the 1971 season.
Except for his first
season of managing in 1969, when he led the team to a nice 86-76
record, good for a fourth-place finish, Williams didn’t fare much
better, losing 92 games in 1970 and 96 games in 1971.
With a new manager
in place, the team didn’t do much better, going on to lose 105 games in
1973, with Herzog dumped as skipper 138 games later after guiding them
to a record of 47-91, before getting Billy
Martin to step in and lead the team for the last 23 games of the year,
going 9-14.
Nevertheless, I’ll never complain about another Ted Williams card in ANY collection, even a manager card well into the 1970s!