1978 CAREER-CAPPER: BOBBY DARWIN

Here’s a card I’ve been meaning to create for a while now, a 1978 “career-capper” for former pitcher-turned-outfielder Bobby Darwin:

Darwin wrapped up his nine-year Major League career with a split season between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, hitting a combined .190 with four hits over 21 at-bats in 15 games.
Starting his Big League career with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1969 as a pitcher, Darwin was moved to the outfield where he showed some pop in his bat, hitting 65 home runs in three seasons with the Minnesota Twins between 1972 and 1974.
A “hit-or-miss” type hitter, he also led the American League in strikeouts (as a batter) those three straight seasons between 1972 and 1974, in what were his only three full seasons as a Big Leaguer.
He finished his career with a batting average of .251, with 559 hits over 2224 at-bats, with 250 runs scored and 328 RBI’s.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1970 BOBBY DARWIN

Really fun 1970 card to add to the “collection” today, a card for former pitcher turned outfielder Bobby Darwin, who began his MLB career with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a young arm as a teenager:

It’s easy to forget that the man who’d eventually go on to the Minnesota Twins and slug 65 homers over three seasons between 1972-1974 started out as a pitcher with the pitching rich Dodgers in the 1960’s.
In 1969, after a seven year hiatus from his MLB debut in 1962, Darwin made it back to a Big League mound and appeared in six games, not factoring in a decision while posting an ERA of 9.82 in 3.2 innings pitched.
Back in his MLB debut in 1962, he appeared in one game at the age of 19, giving up six runs, four of them earned, in 3.1 innings, getting tagged with the loss in the abbreviated start.
But he’d find his place as an outfielder, eventually going on to hit 83 homers in his nine-year career playing for the Dodgers, Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox and finally Chicago Cubs between 1962 and 1977.
A “hit-or-miss” type hitter, he led the American League in strikeouts (as a batter) three straight seasons between 1972 and 1974, his only three full seasons as a Big Leaguer.
He finished his career with a batting average of .251, with 559 hits over 2224 at-bats, with 250 runs scored and 328 RBI’s.

AIRBRUSHING THROUGH THE 1970's- 1976 BOBBY DARWIN

Looking at the 1976 airbrush job done for former “slugger” Bobby Darwin of the Milwaukee Brewers for his 1976 card, though again I wonder why Topps didn’t have an image of him in the real thing:

It’s strange that Topps had to airbrush him into a Milwaukee uni since he played the last half of the 1975 season with them, appearing in 55 games after coming over from the Minnesota Twins in a trade on June 14th for Johnny Briggs.
Nevertheless, he’d find himself on the move once again during the 1976 season, this time heading East to the Boston Red Sox after opening the year with 25 games with the Brewers, ending up appearing in 43 games with the Red Sox before finishing up his nine-year career with yet another split season between Boston and the Chicago Cubs in 1977.
He did put together three straight decent years while with Minnesota between 1972 and 1974, averaging just about 20 homers and 90 runs batted in, though leading the league in strikeouts each season.
Overall, he finished with a .251 career average, hitting 83 homers and driving in 328 runs while collecting 559 hits in 2224 at-bats in 646 games between 1962 and 1977.

1976 PROJECT: A RE-DO FOR BOBBY DARWIN

Next up in the long-running “1976 Project” for “Reader Jim” is a revamp of the originally airbrushed masterpiece that was Bobby Darwin’s 1976 Topps card.
For those who need a reminder, here’s the original:

Now here is what we came up with thanks to the Topps Vaults:

Kind of a clean-up job more than anything else, but well warranted.
Darwin found himself in Milwaukee after 3 1/2 productive years in Minnesota, where he averaged over 20 homers a year and just under 90 runs batted in.
Sadly he also averaged about 130 strikeouts per year, leading the American League three years in a row from 1972-1974 while hitting about .260.
After his move to the Brewers his career never equaled his output for the Twins, playing sporadically before being shipped to Boston where he would mainly DH before moving on yet again, this time to the Chicago Cubs for the last 11 games of his nine-year career.
All in all he hit 83 homers over 646 games with 559 hits and 328 RBI’s, with a .251 batting average in 2224 at-bats.