On the blog today, a 1973 "Nicknames of the 1970's" card former reliever Jack Aker, who at one point held the record with 32 saves in a season in 1966 while with the Kansas City Athletics:
Since
his nickname was rooted in his ancestry, I used the symbol of the
Anishinaabe people, of which Aker's descendants are from, more
specifically the Potawatomi tribe.
"Anishinaabe"
means "Original people", and is a group of tribes that also includes
the Algonquin, Ojibway, Ottawa, Mississauga, Nipissing, Saulteaux and
Oji-Cree tribes.
As for Aker's playing career, over his entire 11 year career he never started a
single game, appearing in a total of 495 games in relief, posting a
(then) very respectable 124 saves, including 32 in 1966 alone when he
had his best season in the big leagues for the
Kansas City Athletics, going 8-4 with a 1.99 ERA to go along with those
league-leading saves.
Interestingly,
Aker picked up the save in the Seattle Pilots very first game and win
in franchise history, before getting traded to the New York Yankees
later in the year.
Between 1964 and 1974 he'd suit up for the Athletics, Pilots,
Yankees, Cubs, Braves and Mets, finishing with a 47-45 record with a
nice 3.28 ERA and 404 strikeouts over 746 innings of work in 495
appearances.
