Wednesday, May 10, 2023

1960'S DEDICATED ROOKIE: 1966 FERGIE JENKINS

On the blog today, we spotlight my 1966 "dedicated rookie" card for pitching great Fergie Jenkins, who began his fantastic career as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies:



The card was part of my fun "1960's Dedicated Rookie" set released a few years back, easily one of the more popular sets I've produced since starting the blog.
For Jenkins, the 22-year-old appeared in seven games for the Phillies in 1965, going 2-1 over 12.1 innings with a very nice 2.19 EAR and 10 strikeouts.
After one game with Philadelphia in 1966 he was shipped to Chicago in a multi-player trade that the Phillies would LOVE to take back, as Jenkins would go on to reel off six straight 20-win seasons beginning in 1967, taking home the Cy Young Award in 1971.
As we all know, by the time he hung them up he put together a Hall of Fame career, topping 280 wins, 3000 strikeouts, with 49 shutouts, a Cy Young Award in 1971 and four other top-3 finishes in the award voting.
In 1991 he capped off his career with an induction into Cooperstown on his third try, just getting the 75% of the vote with 75.4% support.
On a geeky side-note, “Fly” was also the first pitcher to ever register 3000+ strikeouts while issuing less than 1000 base on balls.
The man was truly "Fly"!

 

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