Sunday, July 23, 2023

GIMMIE A DO-OVER (OF ONE OF MY OWN!): 1972 DEDICATED ROOKIE FOR RICHIE ZISK

Well, as I announced a few weeks ago, for SOME reason way back when, I designed a 1970 "dedicated rookie" for slugger Richie Zisk when I meant to do a 1972 edition, since his first rookie card was in the 1972 set, NOT 1970.

So with that, here we have the corrected 1972 edition, which will also be a printed card in one of my upcoming custom sets this year:


Zisk would make his MLB debut in 1971 with seven games before coming back in 1972 with 17 appearances for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
But in 1973 he made quite the impression, hitting a cool .324 over 103 games, giving everyone an idea of what was to come.
He would end up playing 13 seasons under the Big League sun, for the Pirates, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners between 1971 and 1983, hitting 207 homers, with 792 RBIs and 681 runs scored, hitting .287 over 1453 games and 5144 at-bats.
I will ALWAYS be bothered by the fact that Topps screwed up his 1978 card, forgetting to place the All-Star emblem on his card, which would have given him two straight All-Star cards in 1978/1979.Hey, it's the little things for us collectors that keep it interesting, no?!