1969 "DO-OVER" SET: TOM SEAVER

Next up in my spotlights of cards from my recent custom "1969 Gimmie A Do-Over" set, Tom Seaver, perhaps my favorite pitcher of all-time, "Tom Terrific", three-time Cy Young winner, New York Mets legend, Hall of Famer:

Topps originally reused the image they had on his 1968 card, I'm sure much to the annoyance of young collectors pulling cards from packs way back when.

Here I used a nice posed shot, showing the young pitching ace smiling as he would soon guide the young Mets franchise to the most unlikely of World Championships later that year.

What needs to be said about the greatest New York Met to ever suit up?

The man would end up with a 311-205 record along with 61 shutouts and 3640 strikeouts to go with a brilliant 2.86 ERA over 20-seasons and 656 appearances, 647 of which were starts.

He was in prime form in the mid-70’s, putting together nine straight 200 strikeouts seasons while getting tabbed to ten all-star teams in his first eleven seasons.

God I loved Tom Seaver when I was a kid. More than any other pitcher of that era I was in awe of this man. He just seemed like a "super-hero" to me.

Just look at all my other posts dedicated to the man here on this blog. He was other-worldly to me growing up in New York City as a kid in the 1970's.

Even if he WAS a Met, to this young Yankee fan he was unquestionably the best pitcher in the game at that time.

Rest in Peace "Tom Terrific"!

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1970 RICHIE (DICK) ALLEN

Good day everyone!

On the blog this fine morning we have a do-over for the great Richie (Dick) Allen, the second such "correction" I have done for his 1970 card, this time reflecting his last season with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969, as opposed to the revised St. Louis Cardinals version I created years ago:

Re-Done version

Topps issued version

Just a nice shot of the "Wampum Walloper" in his Philly uni before he was shipped off to the St. Louis Cardinals in a blockbuster trade.

Allen hit 32 homers in baseball's centennial season, along with 89 runs batted, 79 runs scored and a .288 batting average.

He would find himself part of the aforementioned blockbuster trade on October 7th of 1969 when he was shipped off to the St. Louis Cardinals with Jerry Johnson and Cookie Rojas for Byron Brown, Joe Hoerner and Curt Flood.

Allen would fare well for the Cardinals in 1970, hitting 34 homers while driving in 101 runs in only 122 games, yet would be on the move again, this time being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he'd suit up in 1971, driving in 90 while hitting 23 homers, hitting .295 over on the West Coast.

The man was a beast at the plate, putting up numbers that were consistently up in the league-leaders year after year.

Needless to say, he took home the Rookie of the Year in 1964, and in 1972 would take home the MVP trophy while with the White Sox when he paced the American League with 37 homers and 113 RBI's, while just missing out on the Triple Crown, batting .308, just ten points off the league-leading mark by perennial winner Rod Carew.

By the time he left the game at the age of 35, Allen hit over 350 homers, batted .292 and scored 1099 runs with 1119 RBI's.

The seven-time all-star also led his league in triples once, walks once, on-base-percentage twice and slugging three times.

I'm not saying the man is a lock-tight Hall of Fame candidate, but I do think in light of some of the guys already in, HE should also be in there.

The fact that the most support he got was an 18.9% showing in 1996 seems like a joke to me.

What do you all think?

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS: LEGENDS EDITION: YOGI BERRA

Today we add the great Yogi Berra to my on-going 1971 "Minor League Days: Legends Edition" sub-set, celebrating all-time greats and their time toiling in the Minors:

Yogi spent one season with the Norfolk Tars in 1943 as an 18-year-old, "making his bones" so to speak before losing a couple of seasons serving in the military between 1944 and 1945.

In that one season he hit .253 over 111 games, with 56 runs batted in and 53 runs scored with seven homers.

After the war he came back to the Minors, playing for the Newark Bears before a call-up to the New York Yankees in 1946, where he came to stay.

Well, we all know what he would do once in the Majors...

Besides being a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, he was a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

1971 "BASEBALL'S GREATEST MOMENTS": TOMMY DAVIS

Today we have another "missing" 1971 Baseball's Greatest Moments" card, this time a card celebrating underrated Tommy Davis and his two straight batting titles in the early 1960's while with the Los Angeles Dodgers:

Still in his early 20's, the Brooklyn native reeled off two titles in 1962 and 1963 when he hit .346 and .326 respectively, giving him top-10 MVP finishes each year.

The highlight of his career is easily his 1962 season when he won the first of his two straight batting titles, hitting .346 with 230 hits, 27 homers, 153 RBIs and 120 runs scored.

Incredibly, those numbers only got him a third place finish in the National league MVP race at season's end, with teammate Maury Wills taking the award and Willie Mays seemingly robbed with a second place finish.

By the time he finished up, he played in 1999 games, with a nice .294 lifetime average, 2121 hits, 153 homers and 1052 runs batted in.

The advent of the Designated Hitter prolonged his career between 1973 and 1976, as the previous few years were sporadic efforts at best with no less than five teams: the White Sox, Pilots, Astros, A's and Cubs.

As a D.H. he found new life with the Baltimore Orioles as their main "man with the bat" between 1973 and 1975.

One last thought: interesting to remember that between 1949 and 1998, Tommy Davis was the ONLY Major League player to reach 150+ runs batted in for a season, when he did so in 1962, funny enough the ONLY time he even topped 100 in his 18-year career.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1969 SPECIAL: HANK AARON

Today on the blog we begin to spotlight one of my recent custom printed sets, the 1969 "Do-Over" I released a few months ago:

As we all know, at the time the 1969 set was released, Topps was in a bit of a battle with the MLBPA over player image licensing, so they decided to recycle as many images as possible, some from the previous year's set, or some from a few years before.

This led to many recycled images for players like Willie Mays, Carl Yastrzemski, Joe Morgan, and today's player, the great Hank Aaron:

Originally Aaron's 1969 card used the same image as his 1968 card, so I felt a re-do was in order, using this wonderful portrait image showing Aaron's million-dollar smile.

Just a fun set to create giving my birth-year set a bit of a "refresh"!

As for Aaron the player?

The man was simply out of this world...

Let his numbers do all the talking: 2174 runs scored, 3771 hits, 624 doubles, 98 triples, 755 home runs, 2297 runs batted in, a .305 batting average no less than 21 all-star selections!
Just tremendous!
He also had eight top-5 finishes for MVP, including taking home the award in 1957, as well as three Gold Gloves won consecutively between 1958-1960.
It's incredible to look at his 15 years of topping 100 or more runs scored, 11 seasons of 100 or more runs batted in, five more seasons of 90+ RBI's, and TWENTY STRAIGHT years of 20 or more home runs.

Rest in Peace to one of the absolute greats of the game, Mr. Henry Aaron...aka "Hammerin' Hank"!

Look for the other players given a refresh in this set spotlighted in the coming weeks!

OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 DENNIS BLAIR

Here's a strange one for you all today, a closer look at the image variation on former Montreal Expos pitcher Dennis Blair's 1977 Topps and OPC cards:

OPC version

Topps version

Not much of a difference huh? Yet they went ahead and used pretty much the same image with a slightly different angle for his cards. Very odd for the effort.

Looks to be the same photo shoot, with one shot from a few steps to the left of the other, as you can see the light tower and scoreboard shift way in the background. Oh well!

As for Blair, he originally came up to the Big Leagues in 1974 as a 20-year-old, having a nice rookie year that saw him go 11-7 for the Expos, with a nice 3.27 earned run average over 22 appearances, all starts.

Over those 22 starts he threw 146 innings, completing four games with one of them a shutout, striking out 76 while walking 72 (ouch).

He'd pretty much pitch just as well the following year, with a lot less support, as evidenced by his 8-15 record with a 3.80 ERA over 30 appearances (27 starts), though he did walk 106 batters against his 82 strikeouts.

Sadly arm issues set in during the 1976 season, as he would appear in only five games, going 0-2 with a 4.02 ERA before spending the next four years in the Minors Leagues for various organizations.

In 1980 he would make a comeback to the Majors, now with the San Diego Padres, appearing in five games but with little success, going 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA over 14 innings of work, thus concluding a four-year Big League tenure that had him end up 19-25 over 62 games, with a 3.69 ERA in 339 innings, with 178 strikeouts and 192 walks allowed.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1979 DAMASO GARCIA

Super fun card creation today on the blog, my 1979 "not so missing" slab for Damaso Garcia, who began his Major League career with the New York Yankees in 1978:

Garcia appeared in 18 games with the eventual World Champions in 1978, hitting .195 with eight hits over 41 at-bats, playing both shortstop and second base.

He'd play in eleven games with the Bronx Bombers in 1979 before finding himself traded to the Toronto Blue Jays along with Chris Chambliss and Paul Mirabella on November 1st of 1979 for Rick Cerone, Tom Underwood and Ted Wilborn, a trade that helped his career with the given opportunity to play everyday.

With that chance he would not disappoint, finishing fourth in the Rookie of the Year race in 1980, hitting .278 with 151 hits, 30 doubles and 13 stolen bases.

He would go on to make two All-Star teams while also taking home a Silver Slugger Award in 1982 when he collected a career-best 185 hits, 80 runs scored and 54 stolen bases.

While a consistent contributor to the Blue jays through the 1986 season, his relationship with manager Jimy Williams went South, leading to a trade to the Atlanta Braves before the 1987 season, with him spending the entire season in the Minors.

He'd make it back to the Majors in 1988, but for only 21 games, hitting .117 before finding himself with the Montreal Expos in 1989, for what turned out to be the last 80 games of his career, hitting .271.

Sadly, shortly after his playing days were over, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, with subsequent surgery saving his life but leading to physical impairments that would stay with him the rest of his days.

Happily, he would live until the age of 63, eventually passing away due to cancer in April of 2020.

1960'S CAREER-CAPPERS INSERTS: WHITEY FORD

Today on the blog we profile my "1960s Career-Cappers" insert card for New York Yankee legend Whitey Ford. Part of my custom set released back in 2020:

Just a fun little "extra" I randomly inserted into the sets, in thick card stock while paying homage to the 1948 Bowman set.

What needs to be said about quite possibly the greatest Yankee pitcher of all?

Cy Young winner in 1961, winner of 236 games against only 106 losses (a nifty .690 winning percentage), a 2.75 career earned run average, and a member of six world championship clubs.

He led the league in wins three times, winning percentage three times, ERA twice, shutouts twice, and was named to eight all-star teams during his 16-year career.

His 10 World Series wins (along with his eight losses) are Major League high marks to this day, and who knows how much more he could have padded all of his numbers had he not lost two seasons to the military in 1951 and 1952!

When the Hall of Fame came calling he was inducted on his first try, getting named to 284 of 365 ballots in 1974.

Obviously there's so much more to get into with Whitey, but I could end up writing a book here if I did, so I'll leave it up to the Wikipedia's out there to fill anyone in who wants to learn more.

I only wish Ford didn't try to hang on those last couple of years in 1966 and 1967, when he went a combined 4-9, thus eliminating the chance of him being only the second pitcher to this day to retire with 200+ wins and LESS than 100 losses (the other being 19th-century pitcher Bob Caruthers, who finished at 218-99 between 1884-1893).

Oh well, I know I'm nitpicking here…It's the nerd in me I guess.

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS-LEGENDS EDITION: MICKEY MANTLE

Up on the blog today, we add the great Mickey mantle to my on-going 1971 "Minor League Days: Legends Edition", celebrating all-time greats before they made the "Big Show":

Mantle was an 18-year-old when he suited up for the Joplin Miners in 1950, absolutely tearing the cover off the ball to the tune of a .383 batting average, with 199 hits, 30 of those doubles, 12 triples and 26 homers.

The following season he moved on to the Kansas City Blues in Triple-A, where he put in 40 games and was hitting .361 before getting the call up to the Major Leagues.

As far as his Big League accomplishments?

Well, Mantle is one of those guys I really don't think we need to get into as far as his tenure on the baseball diamond. It'd be kind of a joke to start writing about his career since it would take up a book's worth.

But alas, 500+ homers, a bushel of World Championships, three Most Valuable Player Awards, and the hearts of more fans than we can even imagine to this day.

"The Mick" in all his glory, enshrined in his rightful place in Cooperstown, along with his longtime buddy Whitey Ford in the same HOF class.

One of the great icons of the sport over its 150+ year history.

Not too bad a Hollywood script...

DEDICATED ROOKIE (#2): 1972 JON MATLACK

Time to go and create a second "dedicated rookie" for former New York Mets pitcher Jon Matlack, who was on two straight multi-player rookie cards in 1971 and 1972. As I have previously created a 1971 edition, today we have the 1972 version:

Matlack joined an already solid New York Mets staff in 1972 and proceeded to post a 15-10 record in his rookie year, with a very nice 2.32 earned run average over 32 starts, including four shutouts.

Those numbers got him a Rookie of the Year Award, easily finishing ahead of second-place Dave Rader and fellow teammate John Milner, who finished third.

It would pretty much be the prototypical Matlack season as he’d go on to lead the league in shutouts twice, and average about 15 wins over the next seven years.

Easily overshadowed by teammates like Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman through the 1970's, he was about as solid a #3 starter you could ask for.

Overall, he’d split his time as a big league pitcher evenly between the Mets and Texas Rangers, over 13 seasons, and retire with an excellent 3.18 E.R.A., along with a final record of 125-126 and 30 shutouts in 361 appearances, 318 of them starts, with 1516 strikeouts.

1971 "BASEBALL'S GREATEST MOMENTS": CESAR TOVAR

Today on the blog we add Cesar Tovar to the 1971 Topps "Baseball's Greatest Moments" set, one of the greatest oddball sets ever made, celebrating his unique game where he played all nine positions:

On September 22nd of 1968, Tovar became the second Major League player ever (after Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics) to play all nine positions in one Big League game, doing so against the Oakland A's, ironically enough starting the game as a pitcher and facing Campaneris, who was the lead-off batter!

As a matter of fact, in his one-inning stint as a pitcher, Tovar even fanned Reggie Jackson, before moving on to the other eight positions as the game wore on.

Since then, Campaneris and Tovar have been joined in the "all-nine-position" club by Scott Sheldon (2000), Shane Halter (2000) and Andrew Romine (2017), still a very exclusive club considering the game's long and illustrious history!

As for Tovar and his career, over his 12-year career he batted a very respectable .278 considering the “modern-dead ball era” he played in, with 1546 hits over 5569 at-bats in 1488 games, with 834 runs scored and 435 RBI’s and 226 stolen bases.

With guys like Tony Oliva, Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew in the same line-up, it made for some good offense in their prime.

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1970 JOHN DONALDSON

Today on the blog, we "correct", or rather update John Donaldson's 1970 card, with the advantage of time, to have him posed in his true Seattle Pilots uniform as opposed to a close-up shot of him clearly in an Oakland A's uni:

Donaldson came over to the Pilots in the middle of June in a trade for Larry haney, playing the first three and a half years with the Athletics organization.

He'd play in 95 games for the Pilots, hitting .234 with 79 hits in 338 at-bats with a homer and 19 runs batted in while playing the infield.

In 1970, Donaldson found himself back with the A's and appeared in 41 games, with 98 plate appearances while hitting .247 with 22 hits with four runs scored and eleven runs batted in.

He'd be out of Major League ball until the 1974 season, when he'd make a brief reappearance with the A's, appearing in only 10 games for the World Champions.

All told, Donaldson's career lasted 6-years, playing in 405 games, with a .238 lifetime batting average, 96 runs scored, 292 hits and 86 RBI's over 1225 at-bats and 1380 plate appearances.

REVISITING A POST FROM JULY, 2015: 1978 BOOG POWELL CAREER-CAPPER

Up on the blog today, thought it'd be fun to revisit a post from about eight years ago, my 1978 "career-capper" for Boog Powell:

Many forget that he played the last of his Major league games as a Los Angeles Dodger before closing out a magnificent Big League career.

Here's the original write-up as posted way back when:

"Yeah it's a card that has been created by others, as I've seen them online, but I just had to fill this hole in my "virtual collection" as well.

Powell closed out a very nice 17-year career in 1977 with 50 games out in Los Angeles for the Dodgers, as a pinch-hitter and playing a little first base .

He collected 10 hits over 41 at-bats, all singles, posting a .244 batting average with five runs batted in.

He was only two-years removed from an excellent season with the Cleveland Indians that saw him hit 27 homers with 86 RBI's and a .297 average, but by the time he hit 35 years of age he was done.

He finished with 339 home runs, 1187 runs batted in and a .266 average, while being named to four all-star teams, taking home a Most Valuable Player Award in 1970 while with the World Champion Orioles, and two other top-3 MVP finishes in 1966 and 1969.

Always a fan-favorite in Baltimore, Boog can still be seen around Camden Yards at his "Boog's Barbeque" restaurant.

And who can forget those awesome Miller Lite commercials in the 1980's!? Those were great!

 

OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 JESSE JEFFERSON

Good day all!

On the blog today, we take a look at the image variations between Jesse Jefferson's 1977 Topps and OPC cards:

 

OPC version

Topps version

As usual, the OPC version shows an updated posed image of the player in the Toronto Blue Jays uniform as opposed to the Topps, which was per the usual, an airbrushed image.

Jefferson was drafted by the Blue Jays from the Chicago White Sox in the Expansion Draft, for whom he pitched in 1976 and part of the 1975 season.
In the first season of Major League play for Toronto, he pitched pretty well, posting an earned run average of 4.31 with eight complete games over 33 starts, with 217 innings pitched.
Of course, as with any club just starting out, he wouldn’t get any support as evidenced by his final record of 9-17.
He would put together a nine-year career in the Big Leagues, finishing with a record of 29-81 along with an E.R.A. of 4.81 over 237 appearances, 144 of those starts, with four shutouts and 522 strikeouts in 1085.1 innings pitched.

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS: LEGENDS EDITION: TED WILLIAMS

As promised yesterday, completing the "Ted Williams Weekend" here on the blog, today I present to you my 1971 "Minor League Days Legends Edition", showing perhaps the greatest hitter the game has ever seen before his remarkable Big League career while still toiling in the Minors:

Williams put in two years with the San Diego Padres, playing as a 17 and 18 year old in 1936/1937.

He performed admirably considering his age, hitting .271 and .291 before making the jump to Minneapolis in 1938.

His season with Minneapolis was killer, as he hit .366 with 43 homers and 142 runs batted in over 148 games for the Millers, giving everyone a glimpse as to what to expect from the lanky hitting prodigy once he hit the Majors.

“The Splendid Splinter” was just incredible as a hitter. The last .400 hitter, 521 home runs, a .344 lifetime average with SIX batting titles, and the man missed MULTIPLE years in his prime due to war and his service in the military.
I remember as a kid (nerd alert) I used to love averaging out the three seasons before and after his missed seasons and then factoring them into his final career numbers, and they were insane!
If I remember correctly he would have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 home runs, 3500 hits, 2000+ runs scored and runs batted in along with the slugging and on-base percentages that would have made his already monster career just other-worldly!

The man was truly a “hitting-machine”, perhaps the greatest pure hitter ever (or the Babe? Or Cobb? Musial?).

By the way, by today’s rules, Williams should have won SEVEN batting titles, but in 1954 he lost out to the Cleveland Indians Bobby Avila, who hit .341 with the THEN required official at-bats instead of 501 plate appearances.
Williams hit .345 with 526 plate appearances based on his 386 at-bats and 136 walks, but under the rules of the day was denied that seventh title.

1960'S CAREER-CAPPERS INSERTS: TED WILLIAMS

We are going to make this a Ted Williams weekend these next couple of days, beginning with my 1960s "Career-Cappers" insert spotlight of the "Splendid Splinter", from my custom set released a few years ago:

Randomly inserted into each set, these thick stock square cards were the perfect compliment to my capper set giving these legends their rightful "last card".

The Boston legend hung them up after the 1960 season, after 19 seasons of extraordinary baseball, losing parts of five seasons to military service, denying us some absolutely bonkers career statistics.

“The Splendid Splinter” was just incredible as a hitter. The last .400 hitter, 521 home runs, a .344 lifetime average with SIX batting titles, and the man missed MULTIPLE years in his prime due to war and his service in the military.
I remember as a kid (nerd alert) I used to love averaging out the three seasons before and after his missed seasons and then factoring them into his final career numbers, and they were insane!
If I remember correctly he would have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 home runs, 3500 hits, 2000+ runs scored and runs batted in along with the slugging and on-base percentages that would have made his already monster career just other-worldly!

The man was truly a “hitting-machine”, perhaps the greatest pure hitter ever (or the Babe? Or Cobb? Musial?).

By the way, by today’s rules, Williams should have won SEVEN batting titles, but in 1954 he lost out to the Cleveland Indians Bobby Avila, who hit .341 with the THEN required official at-bats instead of 501 plate appearances.
Williams hit .345 with 526 plate appearances based on his 386 at-bats and 136 walks, but under the rules of the day was denied that seventh title.

JAPANESE SPECIAL: 1964 MASAICHI KANEDA

Super fun card to create and post to the blog today, a 1964 special Japanese Edition of Hall of Fame pitcher Masaichi Kaneda, who put together a monster baseball career:

The man was an absolute beast on the mound, as evidenced by his 14 consecutive 20-win seasons, all for the Kokutetsu Swallows in the Central League.

Among those 14 20-win campaigns, he also reached 30+ wins twice, with 31 in 1958 and 30 in 1963.

In 1955 the man tossed 400 innings when he appeared in 62 games, 37 of them starts, completing 34 while finishing up 21 in relief.

Incredible numbers that remind me of Robin Roberts or Warren Spahn, though for a longer amount of time.

To top it off, in that run of 14 straight 20-win seasons, he also topped 200+ strikeouts each and every year, including five 300+ K campaigns between 1955 and 1959, while also posting seven seasons of a sub-2.00 earned run average, with a ridiculous 1.30 mark in 1958 when he threw 332.1 innings!

Just incredible!

By the time he retired after the 1969 season, he finished with 400 wins, a 2.34 ERA and 4490 strikeouts over 944 games, 569 of them starts, with 82 shutouts.

Legend!

Look for this card to be printed in an upcoming set for sure!

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1975 BILL STEIN

Up on the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1975 card for Bill Stein, who appeared in a Baker's Dozen games for the Chicago White Sox during the 1974 season:

Stein hit .279 for the Pale Hose that year, collecting 12 hits in 42 at-bats while pretty much playing everywhere defensively.

He would go on to put in 14 years in the Big Leagues, and 1977 would be the only one of them that was a true full-season, appearing in 151 games for the new organization, with exactly 600 plate appearances.
He put in a nice season, hitting .259 with 13 homers and 67 runs batted in, along with 144 hits and 53 runs scored.
All except the batting average were easily career-highs in a career that spanned 1972 through 1985.
He’d finish his career with a .267 average with 751 hits over 2811 at-bats, appearing in 959 games.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1979 ROGELIO MORET

On the blog today, a "not so missing" 1979 card for Rogelio Moret, who actually saw the last Major League action of his career in 1978 with seven games for the Texas Rangers:

Moret was still only 28 when he saw that last action on a Big League mound, going 0-1 with a 4.91 earned run average in 14.2 innings pitched.

He put in two seasons with the Rangers, with a year in Atlanta with the Braves before that in 1976 when he posted a record of 3-5 over 27 games, about half of those starts, with a bloated 5.00 ERA.

The first six years of his career were with the Boston Red Sox, where he did shine for two of those seasons, going 13-2 and 14-3 in 1973 and 1975 respectively.

He was a versatile pitcher who could start and come out of the bullpen, giving the Sox a valuable arm during their 1975 American League championship year when he led the A.L. with a sparkling .824 winning percentage.

Because of those two big seasons, he finished his career with a very nice record of 47-27, for a .635 winning percentage, with a 3.66 ERA over 168 games, 82 of them starts, with five shutouts and 12 saves between 1970 and 1978.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1972 AL HRABOSKY

Today on the blog, we have a "not so missing" 1972 card for the "Mad Hungarian" Al Hrabosky, who did appear on a multi-player rookie card in the 1971 set, then got skipped in '72 before a return to Topps in 1973:

It wouldn't be until 1973 that Hrabosky would become a solid man out of the pen, appearing in 44 games and posting a sparkling 2.09 earned run average with five saves and 57 K's in 56 innings.

His next two seasons of 1974 and 1975 would be the best of his 13-year career, as he went a combined 21-9 with 35 saves, posting E.R.A.'s of 2.95 and 1.66 over 130 games.

He would finish a very nice 64-35, with a 3.10 ERA and 97 saves over 545 appearances and 722 innings pitched between 1970 and 1982, finishing in the Top-5 in NL Cy Young voting in both 1974 and 1975.

Of course, the mark he really left on the game were his insane antics, psyching himself up on the mound like a madman with his back to the batter before he spun around in an apparent rage.

The "Mad Hungarian"!

OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 CHIP LANG

Good day all!

On the blog today we take a look at the image variation between the 1977 Topps and OPC cards of former Montreal Expos pitcher Chip Lang:

OPC Version

Topps Version

 

Certainly one of the rare occasions where the Topps card is better than the OPC version, with Topps opting for an action shot of the righty instead of a posed image.

Now, as for the player himself, when I say Chip Lang was a “two-year” MLB pitcher I am stretching it quite a bit, as Lang appeared in one single game during the 1975 season, his Big League debut, pitching 1.2 innings and allowing two hits and three walks for a cool 10.80 earned run average, with two strikeouts.
He’d be back on a Major League mound the following season, appearing in 29 games for Montreal, with two of them starts, going 1-3 with a 4.19 ERA over 62.1 innings of work, striking out 30 but walking 34.
He would go on to play two years in the Minors, for both the Montreal and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations, but never get back to the Big Leagues, finishing up with those 30 appearances in 1975/1976, with a record of 1-3 along with a 4.36 ERA in 64 innings pitched.

 

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS: LEGENDS EDITION- LEFTY GROVE

On the blog today, we add the great Lefty Grove to my on-going 1971 "Minor League Days: Legends Edition", celebrating his time with the Baltimore Orioles before dominating the Major Leagues:

Take into account those "lost" years pitching for the Baltimore Orioles Minor League franchise in the early 1920's, when the team owner refused to sell him to a Major League franchise.

Those were some of the all-time best Minor League clubs, and all Grove did in his five years there was go 111-39!

That's a .740 winning percentage. Imagine some of those wins tacked on to his Major League totals. Just awesome.

In his five years in the Minors, his win totals were: 15, 25, 18, 27 and 26!

So he started out in the Big Leagues at the age of 25 because his Minor League team refused to sell him earlier in his career, and all Grove did was go on to win 300 games against only 141 losses, good for the best winning percentage among all 300-game winners at .680.
He won nine E.R.A. titles, four games won titles, and seven strikeout titles in his 17 year career.
In 1931 he won the first BBWA American league M.V.P. award when he went 31-4 with a 2.06 E.R.A. and 175 strikeouts, all league leading numbers. That would also be his second straight pitching triple-crown, as he lead the league in the same categories in 1930 as well.
His .886 winning percentage that year is second all-time among 20+ game winning seasons, behind Ron Guidry's .893 winning percentage when he went 25-3 in 1978.
How about this for a cool performance: in 1930, as Grove went 28-5 with a 2.54 E.R.A. and 209 strikeouts for his first pitching triple-crown, he also lead the league in saves with nine.
By the time Grove retired after the 1941 season playing for the Red Sox, he was a sure fire Hall of Famer, and was inducted his first year of eligibility in 1947, getting named on 123 of 161 ballots cast.

1960'S CAREER-CAPPERS INSERTS: STAN MUSIAL

Today on the blog we spotlight my "1960s Career-Cappers" insert card for the great, arguably greatest, Stan Musial, about as forgotten or overlooked a great of the game as there is:

Musial's MLB numbers are just absurd: seven batting titles, two R.B.I. titles, five triples titles and eight doubles titles, with career numbers of 475 home runs, 1951 runs batted in and a .331 career average. Throw in his 725 doubles, 177 triples and 3630 hits along with 1949 runs scored and the numbers are staggering. 

And don't forget that Musial also lost a year to military duty, easily putting him over 500 homers, close to 3900 hits and around 2100 runs batted in if he played in 1945.

Along with the great Frank Robinson I always felt Stan Musial was often the most overlooked in the decades since his playing days ended.

When talk of "Greatest Living Player" came up it was always Williams, DiMaggio, Mays or even Aaron that would come up. But Stan Musial would always kind of be that after-thought.

Criminal.

Three Most Valuable Player Awards, FOUR second-place finishes, including three in a row between 1949-1951, and twenty consecutive all-star appearances, Musial definitely is a member of that rarified stratosphere of baseball royalty along with the likes of Ruth, Cobb, Mays and Wagner, among others.

1975 IN-ACTION: BILLY WILLIAMS

Today's blog post has a 1975 "In-Action" card for "Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler", Billy Williams, Hall of Fame outfielder extraordinaire of the Chicago Cubs:

Williams was truly a magnificent player that gets lost in the crowded Hall of Fame N.L. outfield of the era filled with guys like Aaron, Mays and Clemente.

However he was a player ANY team would kill for, putting in All-Star calibre season after season through the 1960s and beyond.

He wrapped up a Hall of Fame career in 1976 with the Oakland A’s, his second season with the team after 16 years with the Chicago Cubs.
By the time he retired, he finished with 2711 hits, 1410 runs scored, 426 home runs, 1475 runs batted in and a .290 batting average over 2488 games.
He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1961, two-time runner-up to the MVP Award (thanks to Johnny Bench each time) in 1970 and 1972 and a six-time All-Star.
What a career he put together, yet always in the shadows of giants like teammate Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente.
Nevertheless, though it took him six years of eligibility to make it, he was elected for a rightful place in Cooperstown in 1987 when he received 85.7% of the vote.
Just a great player all around.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1970 LOU PINIELLA

Up on the blog today, we're going to go and give Lou Piniella a do-over on his 1970 card, something worthy of the 1969 American League Rookie of the Year:

Re-done version

As issued by Topps

 

You'd think with a full season of 1969 under his belt, Topps would have had a better image for his 1970 card.

However with the battle going on between the card maker and MLBPA at the time, they were recycling images or using older images taken years before.

Right before the 1969 season Piniella was traded by the Seattle Pilots to another new franchise, the Kansas City Royals, for John Gelnar and Steve Whitaker.

It was a great move by the Kansas City team, as Piniella would not disappoint, going on to cop Rookie of the Year honors by hitting .282 with eleven homers and 68 runs batted in.

He'd play with the Royals through the 1973 season, making one more All-Star team in 1972 when he hit .312 while leading the league with 33 doubles, collecting a career-best 179 hits.

After being traded to the New York Yankees before the 1974 season, Piniella found his permanent home in the big leagues, playing the final eleven seasons of his career there.

Along the way he was a member of two championship teams, hit .300 or better five times, and eventually would even become manager of the Yanks before moving on to a long career leading Major League squads.

Over his 18-year career he hit .291, with 1705 hits in 5867 at-bats, and besides 10 games split between the Orioles in 1964 and the Indians in 1968, he'd do it all with the Royals and Yankees between 1969-1984.

In 1986 he took over as Yankee manager, and would go on to manage for another 23 seasons, guiding the Yanks, Reds, Mariners, Devil Rays and Cubs.

He would lead his teams to a World Series win in 1990 (Reds), an American League record 116 win season in 2001 (Mariners), eight 90+ win seasons (all but the Devil Rays), and six 1st place finishes (with the Reds, Mariners and Cubs).

Not a bad career spanning 46 years!

REVISITING A POST FROM 2013: MISSING IN ACTION: 1976 TOM KELLY

Good day everyone!

Thought it'd be fun to revisit a blog post from over 10 years ago, this one my "missing" 1976 card for future World Series winning manager Tom Kelly:

Here's the original post write-up for the card:

While trolling around online recently, I came across an old photo of former Twins manager Tom Kelly as a player from 1975.
I've always known that he didn't have much of a Major League playing career, but never realized that he saw enough action in his only year, 1975, to warrant a card being issued for him in the 1976 set.
In his only season up in the big leagues, Kelly played in 49 games for 147 plate appearances, hitting a not-so-impressive .181 while playing first base and some outfield. Not much, but enough in my eyes for Topps to give him a card.
Nevertheless, after that brief time in the "bigs" he bounced around the Minors until 1980, suiting up for the Twins and Orioles.
He did have some pretty decent seasons, showing some "pop" to go along with some solid averages, and he even got to pitch in a few games, going 1-0 with a 1.88 E.R.A. in 24 innings, yet for some reason he never got the call back up.
Well as we all know, Kelly found his way to leading teams on the field, starting out as skipper for Visalia in A-Ball at the ripe old age of 26 in 1977 as a player-manager.
By the time 1986 rolled around, he was managing the Minnesota Twins, and it was a position he'd hold onto for 16 years, even leading the team to two world championships in 1987 and 1991.
Some of the players he managed were stars like Kirby Puckett, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield and Jack Morris.
He finally retired after the 2001 season, getting himself a bunch of baseball card appearances of the managerial variety along the way.
But today, I post a 1976 player card I designed for the former Twins leader reflecting his cup-of-coffee back in 1975.
Seems the Twins didn't have a card of a first baseman in the 1976 set. I had to "cut out" the player icon in the lower left from a George Scott card and recolor the border for the Kelly card shown below. Go figure...

OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 DAVE CASH

Today on the blog we take a look at another OPC/Topps image variation in the 1977 sets, this time for Dave Cash of the Montreal Expos:

OPC version

Topps version

Obviously, as with so many others, the OPC Cash has a nice posed shot as opposed to the Topps airbrush monster you see here.

Cash, who played the first five years of his Big League career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, came over to the Philadelphia Phillies in October of 1973 in a trade for pitcher Ken Brett, and did not disappoint the Phillie faithful, having his three best years as a Major Leaguer between 1974-1976.
In those three seasons Cash averaged over 200 hits a season, along with a .300 average while playing pretty much every single game, even setting the MLB record (since broken) of 699 at-bats during the 1975 season.
He’d sign with the Montreal Expos in the Winter of 1976 as a Free Agent, and would have one more very good year in 1977 before quickly having his career turn South.

In his 1977 season, Cash would collect 188 hits, with 42 doubles and 21 stolen bases while hitting .289 in 650 at-bats.

The following year he took a bit of a dip, hitting only .252 with 166 hits, scoring 66 runs with 12 steals, though he did appear in 159 games.

After an injury-plagued 1979 season he found himself with the San Diego Padres in 1980, where he hit .227 over 130 games, before retiring at only 32 years of age.
All told, Cash finished with a very nice .283 career average, with 1571 hits over 5554 at-bats and 1422 games between 1969 and 1980, stealing 120 bases and scoring 732 runs.