Good day all.
On the blog today we
spotlight my 1960 "Stars of the Game" card of two-time American League
batting champ Pete Runnels, from my custom set released in 2018:
-17.jpg)
Runnel's
career began with the Washington Senators in 1951, where he'd play
through the 1957 season as a solid infielder who averaged about .2880
while playing mainly shortstop and second base, hitting as high as .310
in 1956.
In January of 1958 he was traded to the Boston Red
Sox for Albie Pearson and Norm Zauchin, and he would really find his
groove, hitting .322 in his first year in Beantown, with a career-best
103 runs scored and 183 hits, finishing tenth in the MVP race by
season's end.
In 1960 and 1962 he would go on to take home
batting titles, hitting .320 and .326 respectively, making the All-Star
team(s) each season while transitioning to first base, though still
putting in some time around the infield.
Surprisingly, after
that second batting title in 1962 he was traded to the new Houston
franchise, then called the Colt .45's, for Roman Mejias, where he would
put in a sub-par year, hitting .253 over 124 games.
The 1964
year would turn out to be his last, getting released by Houston in May
after a dreadful .196 start after 22 games, with only 10 hits and three
RBIs in 51 at-bats.
Nevertheless he'd finish his Big League
tenure with a very nice .291 career average, with 1854 hits in 6373
at-bats, scoring 876 runs while driving in 630, with those two batting
titles to cement his name in baseball history.
