The next unreleased 1971 Topps Rookie All-Star card we spotlight here on the blog will be the N.L.'s top rookie of the 1970 season, former Montreal Expos pitcher Carl Morton, who took home top honors:
After a brief cup-of-coffee in 1969 on the
inaugural Expos team, Morton came back in 1970 and put together an
excellent rookie year, posting a record of 18-11 with a 3.60 earned run
average and four shutouts over 43 appearances, 37 of which were starts,
with a whopping 284.2 innings pitched.
Those
numbers also got him a ninth-place finish in the Cy Young race as well,
while getting him some points in MVP voting by baseball writers too.
He would go on to put in eight years
in the big leagues, never really matching the numbers he put up that
first year, but a solid starter nevertheless, finishing up with a career
87-92 record with a 3.73 E.R.A., 13 shutouts and 650 strikeouts over
1648.2 innings of work, pitching for the Expos and Atlanta Braves.
Typical
of pitchers of the era, Morton put in some innings-heavy years over his
career, with four of his eight seasons topping 250+, three times over
270.
Certainly a far cry for today's handling of moundsmen!
