Thursday, May 23, 2024

REVISITING A POST FROM 2014: 1970 VAN KELLY MISSING IN ACTION

Fun card and post to revisit today on the blog, my 1970 "missing in action" card for former infielder Van Kelly, who got the spotlight here on April 5th of 2014 as one of the earlier "missing in action" creations by yours truly:


Here's the original write-up for the blog post way back when:
Kelly really should have had a card in the 1970 Topps set after playing almost half of San Diego's inaugural season the previous year, manning both third and second base.
Kelly didn't leave much of a mark in the Majors, playing in 73 games in 1969 and only 38 games the next.
But I'd like to think that 222 plate appearances in '69 would be enough to warrant a card, especially for a 23 year old who seemed to be on the verge of a "career", no?
All told, Kelly would play in 111 games in his career, finishing with a .221 batting average, 66 hits, four homers, 25 runs scored and 24 runs batted in during his short career.
But thanks to the world of baseball card geeks like me, his name lives on!

 

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