REVISIT: MISSING IN ACTION 1973 GARY PETERS

Today on the blog we'll revisit a 10-year-old post, this time my "missing" 1973 card for pitcher Gary Peters:

Peters appeared in 33 games for the Boston Red Sox in 1972, posting a 3-3 record with a 4.32 earned run average over 85.1 innings of work.
That would close out a very respectable 14-year career that saw him lead the league in wins with 20 in 1964, while also leading the league in ERA in both 1963 (his rookie year) as well as 1966 with a sparkling 1.98 figure.
His rookie year was awesome, as he went 19-8 for the Pale Hose with that league-leading ERA, along with 189 strikeouts and four shutouts to take home the R.O.Y. honor.
His final numbers were 124-103 with a 3.25 ERA, along with 23 shutouts and 1420 K’s over 2081 innings and 359 games, 286 of which were starts.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1968 AMOS OTIS

Fun card to add to the WTHBALLS family today, a "not so missing" 1968 card for one of the under-appreciated stars of the 1970s, Amos Otis, who was just starting out his great career as a member of the New York Mets:

He came up with the New York Mets in 1967 with 19 games as a 20-year-old, hitting .220 with 13 hits over 59 at-bats with six runs scored and a run batted in.

Otis could very well be THE most overlooked player of the 1970's as he was nothing but steady through the entire decade, going on to be the American League's top run scorer with 861. driving in 90+ three times while stealing 30+ bases five times.

By the time he retired after the 1984 season after one year with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he ended up with 193 homers, 341 stolen bases, 1092 runs scored and 2020 hits along with a batting average of .277 and 1007 runs batted in.
Considering the “dead ball” era of the early-70’s in the American League, his numbers are up there with the best of them, and it’s sad he gets lost among his contemporaries when looking back at that time in Major League baseball.

1980S CAREER-CAPPERS: 1989 DON SUTTON

Today on the blog, we take a look at my 1989 "Career-Capper" for Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, from my recent custom set released a couple months back:

Everything Sutton did led him to Cooperstown, where he can proudly display his 324 wins, 58 shutouts and 3574 strikeouts over 774 games, 756 of which were starts.

Over his 23 years as a Major League pitcher, he was a part of six Pennant winners, and a minor part of a World Championship team during his final year in 1988 with the team he spent most of his career with, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

There are those that say Sutton, like a few other players who racked up big numbers, was a product of "tenure over domination", that is, that the numbers he garnered in the bigs was more about the amount of years he played over a bunch of dominating seasons.

I don't find that as a problem actually.

Being that there are just as few guys who played a long time while staying very productive as those legends who dominated for a somewhat brief time during their careers, I like to see the Don Suttons, Phil Niekros, Eddie Murrays and Tony Perez' get their due.

Almost a quarter-century of productivity on a Major League mound, leading to numbers like Sutton put up are definitely worth a plaque in Cooperstown, no?

Hope you all agree…

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1960S STARS OF THE GAME: FRANK HOWARD

On the blog today, we spotlight my 1960 "Stars of the Game" card for Frank Howard from my custom gelatin set released back in 2018:

The man was already on his way to a wonderful Major League career, taking home top Rookie honors in the National League for 1960, and having a great 1962 season when he slammed 31 homers with 119 runs batted in, earning a ninth-place finish in the MVP race by season's end.

Later in the decade, after finding himself playing for the Washington Senators, he won two home run titles, and ironically hitting a career high 48 in 1968 in between (falling one homer short, behind Harmon Killebrew), driving in over 100 runs each year.

Those efforts got him top-10 finishes in the league MVP voting each year, finishing 8th, 4th and 5th respectively between 1968 and 1970.

An absolute beast at the plate, he would be the last Big League player until Jay Buhner (1995-97) to hit 40+ homers three years in a row from 1968-1970, with a high of 48 in 1969, though leading the league in 1968 and 1970 with 44.
He was also one of the early players to join the 30-home runs in each league club, hitting 31 with the Dodgers in 1962 before reaching the plateau again in 1967 when he slammed 36 taters.
All told, he finished his career with 382 homers over 16 seasons, before moving on to a coaching and managerial career, making him somewhat of a baseball lifer.
I loved him when he was with the New York Yankees later in his coaching career! I mean, how often do you get to appreciate a guy who was so nasty as a player that he had THREE great nicknames: “The Capital Punisher”, "The Washington Monument" and “Hondo"!

 

OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 ALVIS WOODS

Up on the blog today, we take another look at OPC to Topps image variations, this time the difference for Alvin Woods and his 1977 cards:

OPC version

Topps version

While Topps inserted Woods onto a multi-player rookie card, OPC gave him a dedicated rookie card in the set since he was representing a Canadian team, the newly formed Toronto Blue Jays.

Woods ended up having a decent seven year MLB career, starting off with a nice 1977 rookie year when he hit .284 over 122 games, collecting 125 hits in 440 at-bats.

He'd play through the 1982 season with the Blue Jays before putting in four years in the Minors, eventually making it back to a Big League field in 1986 as a member of the Minnesota Twins when he hit a robust .321 over what turned out to be the last 23 games of his career, going 9-for-28 at the plate.

Overall, he finished with a career .271 batting average, with 538 hits in 1986 at-bats over 618 games, driving in 196 runs while scoring 233 himself.

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM HIGHLIGHT: 1960 LEAF "IN-ACTION"

Good day all!

On the blog today, we spotlight my 1960 Leaf "In-Action" card for Hall of Fame reliever Hoyt Wilhelm, which was part of my "1960s In-Action" Series 3 set released earlier this year:

I've always been fascinated by Wilhelm's career.
Who knows what he could have done if he remained a starter. Who knows what his career numbers would have been if he began his career in his early 20's instead of at the ripe "old" age of 29!
Think about this for a second: the man started his career at 29 and he STILL pitched in 21 seasons. He still ended up setting what was then the all-time record for appearances by a pitcher with 1070.
Throw in seven seasons of sub-2.00 E.R.A.'s, 227 saves, and on top of all of that, TWO E.R.A. crowns in the ONLY two years he even threw enough innings to qualify, and you definitely have a Hall of Fame career when it's all said and done.
Take a look at Wilhelm's rookie season. In 1952 he shows up in New York, pitching for the Giants, and all he does is go 15-3 in 159.1 innings, with a league-leading 2.43 E.R.A. and 11 saves. And this was ALL in relief! He appeared in 71 games without a single start. Just awesome.
He also managed to hit a home run in his first Major League at bat on April 23, 1952, never to hit another one in his career. Go figure.
It would then be another seven years before he would pitch more than 154 innings, this time topping out with a career high 226 with the Baltimore Orioles in 1959 mainly as a starter.
His other numbers that year were good enough to have him selected as an All-Star: 15-11, league-leading 2.19 E.R.A., and 13 complete games with three shut outs.
Whether you had him starting or coming in as a reliever, he was up for the challenge.
Wilhelm finally called it a career after the 1972 season where he appeared in only 16 games for the L.A. Dodgers.
Over the course of his last five seasons (all post-45 years of age), he bounced around a bit and pitched for five teams: White Sox, Angels, Braves, Dodgers and Cubs, going 17-18 with 43 saves.
Nevertheless, Wilhelm was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985, generally considered the first relief pitcher to have this honor bestowed upon him.

 

REVISIT: MISSING IN ACTION- 1972 JOE MOELLER

Today on the blog we'll revisit a post from 10 years ago.

Here’s a “missing” 1972 card for former pitcher Joe Moeller, who finished up an eight-year career in 1971, all with the Los Angeles Dodgers:

Moeller appeared in 28 games for L.A., posting a 2-4 record with a 3.80 earned run average out of the bullpen, with 32 strikeouts in 66.1 innings of work.
To this day he is the youngest starter in Dodger history at 19 years and two months when he did so in his rookie season of 1962.
He’d miss both the 1963 and 1965 season which must have SUCKED since they were BOTH World Championship years for the Dodgers, but between every year from 1962 and 1971 that he was a Major League pitcher, he’d put on the Dodger blue.
He would wrap up his career with a 26-36 record with a 4.01 ERA, with seven saves and a shutout with 307 K’s over 583.2 innings and 166 appearances, 74 of which were starts.

 

MISSING IN ACTION: 1981 LEE MAY

Up on the blog today, we go and create a "missing" 1981 card for the "Big Bopper", Lee May, who was left out of the 1981 Topps set even though he played in 78 games during the 1980 season:

May was certainly coming to the end of his brilliant Major League career by then, but still had some left in the tank.

In 1980 he hit .243 for the Baltimore Orioles, with seven homers and 31 runs batted in over 222 at-bats at the age of 37.

You have to wonder what could have been with May, since he was already a feared slugger putting together a very nice career before he was traded to the Astros as part of the Joe Morgan trade before the 1972 season opened up.

Would the "Big Red Machine" have happened? If so, would May's legacy on the diamond have been elevated to the point of true stardom?

He put up big seasons with the Reds, the Astros, and then the Orioles before ending his career after two partial seasons with the Royals in 1982.

His total numbers are very good, especially for a guy who played the bulk of his career in the "dead" late-60's/early-70's: 959 runs, 2031 hits, 354 home runs and 1244 runs batted in.

His last year in Cincinnati, 1971, was killer: 39 homers with 98 R.B.I.'s, 85 runs scored and a .278 average to complement the likes of Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Johnny Bench.

Granted the guy struck out a ton, and his final batting average of .267 leaves a lot to be desired, but it's interesting to wonder "what could have been" with both his career and the legend of the Reds teams of the mid-70's.

 

AVAILABLE NOW! WTHBALLS 1976 "POWER ROLL" DICE GAME SET

Hello Everyone!

Hope you're all sliding right into Autumn.

I am happy to announce the next WTHBALLS custom set is now available: "1976 Power Roll", a baseball-game set featuring 25 star cards with two mini pencils, two mini dice, WTHBALLS 1" pinback button and two wrapped pieces of Bazooka bubble gum inside hard plastic snap-case.

 

Each star card has unique dice rolls listed on back indicating results for each dice total, 2 through 12, with a special "power roll" for each player that's an automatic home run.

As an added bonus to make the card set more fun, the wrap band includes a QR code that, once scanned on your phone, will take you directly to the set page on my blog so you can download and print a specially designed scorecard page (8.5x11) as many times as you wish to score your games if you decide to play!

See photos attached!

Sets are $16 each plus a one-time $5.00 shipping charge (sorry, postage has gone up $0.50), no matter how many sets you purchase.

Usual Paypal address: slogun23@gmail.com

Again, thank you all so much for the interest and support!

Take Care

Gio/wthballs

REVISIT: CAREER-CAPPER: 1974 JOHNNY CALLISON

On the blog today, we revisit another 10-year-old post from the WTHBALLS vault, this time my 1974 "career-capper" for Johnny Callison:

Callison played in his final 45 games during the 1973 in the Bronx, hitting .176 with 24 hits over 136 at-bats, including the last of his 226 career taters.
His career spanned 16-years between 1958 and 1973, where he collected 1757 hits with 926 runs scored, 840 runs batted in and the aforementioned 226 homers with a .264 average.
A three-time all-star, he was also the National league runner-up in MVP voting in 1964, certainly a victim to the colossal collapse of the Philadelphia Phillies to the St. Louis Cardinals, which propelled third baseman Ken Boyer to capture the award.
In both ‘64 and 1965 Callison topped 30+ homers, 25+ doubles and 10+ triples, while driving in over 100 both seasons as well.
After the Phillies he played with the Chicago Cubs for two years in 1970 and 1971 before moving on to the Yankees for the 1972 and 1973 campaigns, thus closing the books on a very respectable career in the big leagues.

 

CAREER-CAPPER: 1987 GEORGE FOSTER

Up on the blog today, we have my 1987 "Career-Capper" for former N.L. MVP George Foster, who wrapped up an excellent Major League career in 1986:

Foster split his final year in the Big Leagues between the New York Mets and Chicago White Sox, unfortunately for him missing out on the eventual World Championship at season's end.

Overall he hit .225 over 87 games, with 14 homers and 42 RBIs on 284 at-bats.

Back in 1969 Foster appeared in nine games for the San Francisco Giants, hitting a robust .400 with two hits in five at-bats, with both a run scored and an RBI.

It was his first taste of the Majors, and he would again appear in nine games during the 1970 season, hitting .316 with six hits over 19 at-bats, including his first double, triple and home run.

The 1971 season would bring him incredible fortune when he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Frank Duffy and Vern Geishert, part of the building process that would eventually lead to the juggernaut "Big Red Machine" two-time champion Reds teams of the mid-70s.

As for Foster’s career, all he would go on to do is give the Reds another big time bat along with Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez, with Joe Morgan soon joining them in 1972, forming one of the all-time great line-ups the game has ever seen.
Between, Foster, Bench, Rose and Morgan, it would give the Reds five MVP seasons in the decade, just insane, with Foster having his career-year in 1977 when he slammed 52 homers along with 149 RBIs and 124 runs scored, all leading numbers in the National League.
He’d go on to play 18 years in the Big Leagues, finishing in the top-3 in MVP voting three times, while making five All-Star teams and retiring with 348 home runs, 1239 RBIs and just under 2000 hits with 1925.

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: ROGER MARIS

Good day everyone.

On the blog today we'll go and add Roger Maris to my "Classic Baseball" WTHBALLS custom set, celebrating the great game and its incredible history:

As we all know, Maris' Yankee tenure resulted in that historic 1961 season that saw him hit "61 in '61", setting a new Major League record with 61 home runs, leading to what was his second straight MVP Award after a wonderful 1960 season that saw him 39 homers and a league-leading 112 RBIs.

Talk about "right place at the right time", Maris then went to the Cardinals just as they put together a World Championship in 1967, and a return to the World Series in 1968, though that resulted in a loss to the Detroit Tigers.

Maris appeared in 100 games for the N.L. champs, hitting .255 with 5 homers and 45 RBIs in the "Year of the Pitcher" of 1968.

He spent the last two years of his career with the Cardinals after his historic tenure with the New York Yankees.

By the time he hung them up in 1968, he hit 275 homers with 850 RBIs and 826 runs scored, hitting .260 over 1463 games between 1957 and 1968.

It's easy to forget that he retired very young, at only 33 years of age.

Would have been cool if he got to play into the mid-70's, just as I was getting into baseball...