Monday, October 28, 2024

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1975 ART HOWE

On the blog today, we have a 1975 "not so missing" card for Art Howe, his third such card created for the blog over the years:


Howe made his Big League debut in 1974, with 29 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates that saw him hit .243 with 18 hits over 74 at-bats, with a homer and five runs batted in.
The future Major League manager actually played in 63 games for the Pirates in 1975, gathering 162 plate appearances, so really he should have had a card.
He hit .171 for the year, with nine doubles and a homer along with 10 runs batted in and 13 runs scored.
His 11-year career as a player would really hit it's stride after joining the Houston Astros, as he'd play pretty much full-time between 1977 and 1982 before a couple of part-time years in St. Louis in 1984 and 1985 (he didn't play Major League ball in 1983).
As you all know, he'd really find his niche on the Major League level as a manager, guiding the Astros, Oakland A's and New York Mets between 1989 and 2004.
His real success was leading the young studs in Oakland in the late-90's/early-00's, winning 100-games in two seasons (2001 and 2002), but never being able to get past the N.Y. Yankees (remember the now-famous "Jeter-Flip"?).
All told, Howe would win 1129 games as a manager in the Big Leagues, finishing 2nd in "Manager of the Year" voting four years in a row from 1999-2002.

 

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER...

@wthballs
Everything baseball: cards, events, history and more.