Today on the blog, we move to shortstop and the National League for my pick as top at the position in his league for the 1970s, and I go with Dave Concepcion:
There
were some really good shortstops in the N.L. during the 1970's,
especially Philadelphia Phillies Larry Bowa, but I just had to go with a
cog of the "Big Red Machine", arguably a Hall of Famer who took home
five Gold Gloves and made six All-Star teams.
Often
overlooked by teammates like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan,
Concepcion was also a valuable piece to the four-time Pennant winners
and two-time World Champs, giving them a solid man up-the-middle to
compliment Bench and Morgan.
He would end up putting in 19-seasons in the Major Leagues, all with
Cincinnati, finishing up with 2326 hits and a .267 batting average over
2488 games and 8723 at-bats between 1970 and 1988.
He played in all four of the “Big Red Machine” World Series appearances and batted a cool .297 over his Postseason action, with 30 hits in 101 at-bats over 34 games.
I’ll never forget opening up a pack of 1979 cards and seeing that the “All-Star” banner was NOT on his card. I was stunned since he was always the National League All-Star shortstop since I started collecting in 1976.
For me, he became somewhat of a baseball institution, playing through my youth straight through college, retiring at the age of 40.
Anyway, once he became eligible for Hall of Fame induction, he was on the ballot all 15 years and never got more than 16.9% (1998), but really, if it IS called the Hall of “Fame”, I think you can make a pretty good argument for the guy since he was indeed in that upper-echelon during the wild-70’s.
He certainly has my pick for the N.L. shortstop of the decade for the 1970's!He played in all four of the “Big Red Machine” World Series appearances and batted a cool .297 over his Postseason action, with 30 hits in 101 at-bats over 34 games.
I’ll never forget opening up a pack of 1979 cards and seeing that the “All-Star” banner was NOT on his card. I was stunned since he was always the National League All-Star shortstop since I started collecting in 1976.
For me, he became somewhat of a baseball institution, playing through my youth straight through college, retiring at the age of 40.
Anyway, once he became eligible for Hall of Fame induction, he was on the ballot all 15 years and never got more than 16.9% (1998), but really, if it IS called the Hall of “Fame”, I think you can make a pretty good argument for the guy since he was indeed in that upper-echelon during the wild-70’s.
