EXPANSION DO-OVER: TOMMY SMITH

Up on the blog today we have an expansion do-over for Tommy Smith and his 1977 card, originally showing him in an airbrushed Seattle Mariners uni in expectation of the upcoming inaugural season for the new franchise:

Understandably up against the wall, Topps had to scramble for both the Mariners and Toronto Blue Jay players in advance of their first seasons as member of the Major Leagues, which led to some classics as we all know.

Smiths wasn't one of the worst by far, but for those who don't remember the original, here you go:

In November of 1976 he would be drafted by the new Seattle Mariners organization as part of the expansion draft, where he would go on to play the last games of his career, 21 to be exact, where he hit .259 with seven hits in 27 at-bats.

In 1976 he’d see the most playing time of his five Major League seasons, appearing in 55 games for the Cleveland Indians, while hitting .256 with 42 hits in 164 at-bats, driving in 12 runs and scoring 17 himself.

All told, Smith played in 121 games in five seasons, hitting .232 with 63 hits, driving in 21 while scoring 28 over 271 at-bats between Cleveland and Seattle.

 

 

EXPANSION DO-OVER: 1977 JOE LIS

On the blog today we have a re-do for Joe Lis and his 1977 Topps card, which was originally part of the expansion madness that led to some memorable airbrushing.

However with the benefit of time I used a proper image of Lis as a Mariner, so here goes:

For those that do not remember the original, here you go:

 

Lis was about to play what turned out to be his final Major League season in 1977, as an inaugural member of the Seattle Mariners after two-plus seasons as a Cleveland Indian.

He ended up appearing in nine games for Seattle, hitting .231 with three hits over 13 at-bats.

He would eventually put in eight seasons in the Major Leagues, batting .233 with 182 hits in 780 at-bats over 356 career games, with 32 homers, 92 runs batted in and 96 runs scored.
The most he ever played in any one season was in 1973 while with the Minnesota Twins when he appeared in 103 games, hitting .245 over 286 plate appearances, with nine homers and 25 RBIs.
He’d eventually end his career with nine games playing fore the inaugural 1977 Seattle Mariners before playing a season in Japan in 1978, returning for one last Minor League season in 1979, his last as a pro.

 

1977 MARINERS RE-DO: LARRY COX

Time to add former catcher Larry Cox to my on-going thread of “fixing” all of the Seattle Mariner and Toronto Blue Jays airbrushed cards from the 1977 set:

Now, not that I really hate the original airbrushed cards. Since that was the first year I truly collected cards they have a special place in my heart.
However since I’m finding these nice images of the players in their respective uniforms I figured it’d be fun to have an updated set.
For those that don’t remember, here’s the original as released by the fine folks at Topps:

Though he wouldn’t get his first baseball card until the 1977 set, he did actually get some playing time in the Majors in 1973, 1974 and 1975, all with the Phillies.
He’d see his most action in 1979 & 1980 while with the Seattle Mariners, appearing in over 100 games for the only two times in his career.
Nevertheless, Cox would play nine years in the big leagues, finishing up after the 1982 season with a .221 batting average based on 182 hits in 825 at-bats over 348 games, most with Seattle.

1977 MARINERS RE-DO: BOB STINSON

Time to go and add another 1977 expansion re-do to the collection, this time a redone card for former catcher Bob Stinson.
First, here’s the original as issued by Topps in the Spring of 1977:

Now here’s my re-done version with the advantage of time:

Stinson was drafted by Seattle in the 1976 expansion draft as the 25th pick away from the Kansas City Royals, for whom he played the previous two seasons.
Never a full-time player, he did appear in 124 games in 1978, the only season he topped 300 at-bats, setting career-highs across the board through all offensive categories.
Originally up with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1969, he’d play 12-years in the Big Leagues, finishing up with the Mariners in 1980, hitting .250 in 652 games, with 408 hits over 1634 at-bats, with 33 homers and 180 runs batted in.

1977 MARINERS REDO- STAN THOMAS

I haven’t done one of these in a while, but came across a nice photo of former Mariners pitcher Stan Thomas from Seattle’s inaugural 1977 season, so here’s a re-do of his 1977 Topps card, as well as the original as issued:

Re-done for the blog

Original Topps release

Thomas was drafted by Seattle away from the Cleveland Indians on November 5th of 1976 in the expansion draft after what was a pretty good year out of the bullpen when he went 4-4 with a 2.30 earned run average and six saves over 37 appearances and 105.2 innings pitched.
He would go on to make 13 appearances for the Mariners, going 2-6 with a 6.02 ERA before being sent to the New York Yankees, where he’d make only three appearances, going 1-0 with a 7.11 ERA in 6.1 innings.
Turns out that would be the last MLB action he’d see, closing out a four-year career with a record of 11-14 along with a 3.70 ERA and nine saves over 111 appearances and 265.1 innings.

1977 BLUE JAYS REDONE- JIM MASON

Next up in my on-going “Expansion Do-Overs” for the 1977 Blue Jays and Mariners cards is former shortstop Jim Mason, who went from the 1976 World Series, where he hit a home run for the New York Yankees, to the newly formed Toronto Blue Jays, and had this ridiculous photo used on his card by Topps, where it looked like he was crying:

Re-dome with a smile

Seriously, is he crying?

Topps really had some killer images in that 1977 set: Darrel Chaney, John Lowenstein, and this gem, which I replaced with an image that actually shows Mason smiling.
Originally a member of the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers between 1971 and 1973, Mason played for the Yankees between 1974 and 1976, getting his only full-time role during his nine-year career in 1974, appearing in 152 games and batting .250 with 110 hits in 440 at-bats.
Until writing this blog entry, I never realized that between 1975 and 1979, the last five seasons of his career, Mason never reached the .200 mark in batting!
His averages are as follows: .152, .180, .187, .190 and .183.
So in all fairness, we could be talking about the “Mason-Line” instead of the “Mendoza-Line” all these years later!
Nevertheless, Mason would end up hitting .203 over his career, collecting 322 hits over 1584 at-bats in 634 games, finishing up with the Montreal Expos in 1979.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- GLENN ABBOTT

The next player in my on-going “1977 Expansion” re-do is the Seattle Mariners’ big winner during their inaugural season, Glenn Abbott. Take a look:

RE-DONE

ORIGINAL AS-ISSUED BY TOPPS

Almost looks like a totally different person between the two, no?
Abbott, who was selected away from the dominant Oakland A’s clubs of the mid-70’s, ended up posting a record of 12-13 for the Mariners, easily leading all pitchers on the team pretty much across the board: wins, starts, ERA, Innings and complete games.
He’d actually be a stable arm for Seattle over the next five-and-a-half seasons before pitching the last couple seasons of his 11-year career with the Detroit Tigers, wrapping up during their World Champion year of 1984.
Al told, he was a member of three championship clubs during his career, finishing with a 62-83 record over 248 appearances, 206 of them starts, with five shutouts and a 4.39 ERA in 1286 innings of work.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- DICK POLE

Next up in the 1977 expansion hit parade redo is former pitcher Dick Pole, who was drafted by the Seattle Mariners as the seventh pick in the expansion draft in late 1976:

Re-done

Original card with airbrushing

Pole has the misfortune of being drafted away from the Boston Red Sox, not too far removed form a World Series berth in 1975 and still a power in the American League East.
As expected, the 1977 season was a rough one, with Pole posting a record of 7-12 with a 5.15 earned run average over 25 appearances, all but one of them as a starter.
He’d go on to pitch only one more season in the Majors, going 4-11 the following year with a bloated 6.48 ERA over 21 games and 98.2 innings of work.
He’d spend the following three years in the Minors, pitching in the Pittsburgh and Detroit systems before taking his playing experience over to coaching, something he would do for over 20 years through the 2009 season, even helping develop a young Greg Maddux back in the mid-80’s when coaching for the Chicago Cubs.

1977 BLUE JAYS REDONE- CHUCK HARTENSTEIN

Today I post up a re-done card that truly, I would never dare replace since the original is one of the greatest cards of the decade, but nevertheless to keep the “Expansion 1977 Do-Overs” going, here it is, Chuck Hartenstein:

Re-done, yet still "trucker-licious"

Original card as released by Topps

Hartenstien, who last appeared in a Major League game in 1970 with the Boston Red Sox, would get drafted in the expansion draft in 1976 by the Toronto Blue Jays, which would lead to the great card you see above, airbrushed, and a great job I might add, showing him looking like some trucker ready to throw in a Merle Haggard 8-track while part of some convoy somewhere.
I have always loved this card. The shades, the sideburns, and especially knowing what he looked like years earlier, it’s the perfect card reflecting the era.
His “comeback” would be short however, as he would get hammered over his 13 appearances, going 0-2 with a bloated 6.59 earned run average, giving up 20 earned runs over 27.1 innings.
I was always also into cards of guys that hadn’t appeared in a Topps set for a while. Brock Davis, Danny Murphy, Vincente Romo also come to mind.
Anyway, seems Hartenstein’s pro career was over with the last game he appeared in with the Blue Jays, as it seems he never even pitched in a Minor League game again.
But long live the original Topps card and all it’s 70’s glory!

1977 MARINERS REDONE: BILL STEIN

Next up with my 1977 “Expansion Do-Overs” is the Bill Stein card, which originally used the same image of him the previous year wearing a Chicago White Sox uni:

Re-done

Original

Topps decided to go and use an image they already had out the a year before, which amazes me since I would think they’d have a few images of each player.
Nevertheless, time being the great “fixer”, they would go on to take proper pics of him in a Seattle uniform so I went and “fixed” it just over 40 years later.
Stein would go on to put in 14 years in the Big Leagues, and 1977 would be the only one of them that was a true full-season, appearing in 151 games for the new organization, with exactly 600 plate appearances.
He put in a nice season, hitting .259 with 13 homers and 67 runs batted in, along with 144 hits and 53 runs scored.
All except the batting average were easily career-highs in a career that spanned 1972 through 1985.
He’d finish his career with a .267 average with 751 hits over 2811 at-bats, appearing in 959 games.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- RICK JONES

Here’s a card from the 1977 set that BEGS for a “re-do”, the oddly painted up Rick Jones card, which was originally a black and white image it seems.
Take a look at the Topps original out that Spring:

Now here's the re-done version I created for the blog:

Along with the 1978 Greg Minton and Mike Paxton cards, it’s a rarely seen tactic Topps used in the decade when it appears a color image wasn’t available (how, I will never know).
Jones appeared in 24 games for the Red Sox in 1976, putting in a nice performance as he posted a 5-3 record along with a 3.36 earned run average, starting 14 of those appearances.
Once onto Seattle however, he didn’t fair so well, going 1-4 with a 5.10 ERA over ten appearances, all starts and 42,1 innings of work.
The following year he’d make only three appearances for Seattle, starting two games and going 0-2 before spending 1979 and 1980 in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system, posting double-digit wins each year, yet leaving the game for good at the age of 25.
Interesting to see his 1975 minor league season, as he posted a record of 20-7 with a 2.67 ERA and 177 strikeouts over 29 starts and 226 innings at the age of only 20.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- DAVE COLLINS

Back on July 9th of 2016  I posted about the strange case of the 1977 Topps Dave Collins card and how it took me decades to prove to my friends that I was correct in my guess that it surely wasn’t the former speedster. Take a look at the original:

Well, turns out it was former pitcher Bobby Jones, as I’m sure many of you are now aware all these years later, so it was time to go ahead a re-do the card with the proper image, take a look:

Collins played his first two seasons of Big League ball with the California Angels, stealing 52 bases combined in a part-time roll, giving us a preview of what was to lie ahead.
He would go on to play 16 years in the Major Leagues, stealing as many as 79 bases in 1980 while with the Cincinnati Reds, while also stealing 60 in 1984 when he was playing for the Toronto Blue Jays, a season where he also led the league in triples with 15.
I’ll always remember him for his disappointing year with the New York Yankees in 1982, a year that was a failure for the organization in so many way actually.
Nevertheless, Collins would finish his career with 395 steals, while also batting a very nice .272 with 1335 hits over 4907 at-bats in 1701 games, finishing up with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1990.
I never even realized he made it that far to be honest!

1977 BLUE JAYS REDONE- JESSE JEFFERSON

Time to go a “re-do” a 1977 Topps expansion card, this time we’ll tackle Jesse Jefferson of the Toronto Blue Jays:

Re-done version

Topps original

Jefferson was drafted by the new club away from the Chicago White Sox, for whom he pitched in 1976 and part of the 1975 season.
In the first season of Major League play, he pitched pretty well for an upstart team, posting an earned run average of 4.31 with eight complete games over 33 starts, with 217 innings pitched.
Of course, as with any club just starting out, he wouldn’t get any support as evidenced by his final record of 9-17.
He would put together a nine-year career in the Big Leagues, finishing with a record of 29-81 along with an E.R.A. of 4.81 over 237 appearances, 144 of those starts, with four shutouts and 522 strikeouts in 1085.1 innings pitched.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- LEROY STANTON

Time to go ahead a re-do yet another 1977 expansion card, this time the Leroy Stanton card, going from an airbrush job to an actual image of him in uniform with the new Seattle Mariners organization:

Revised version

Original airbrushed version

The 40th pick in the 1976 expansion draft, Stanton went on to have a very productive season for Seattle in their inaugural campaign, hitting 27 home runs while driving in 90 runs with a very respectable .275 batting average.
Oddly enough, after a sub=par season in 1978, which saw his home run total plummet to three while only appearing in 93 games, he was out of Major League ball for good.
1979 would see him play in Japan for the Hanshin Tigers, where he would hit 23 homers, though he only drove in 58 runs while hitting only .225, which would be the last professional action he would have, though I did see somewhere that he may have played in the Mexican League in 1980. But I can’t find any stats or record of this actually happening.
Anyone know? He was only 34 at that time.

1977 BLUE JAYS REDONE- ALAN ASHBY

Alan Ashby, one of the original Toronto Blue Jays of 1977, gets a make-over on this 1977 Topps card, getting rid of the airbrushed job and replaced with an actual shot of him in Toronto gear:

Re-done version

Original version by Topps

After being traded to the Jays from the Cleveland Indians in November of 1976, Ashby would go on to put in two seasons for the expansion team before moving on to play for the Houston Astros for the next eleven years. I never realized that his career to him all the way to the doorsteps of the 1990 decade, finishing up with 22 games for the Astros in 1989 after 17-years as a Major League catcher. In those 17 seasons he batted .245 while playing in 1370 games, collecting 1010 hits with 90 home runs and 513 runs batted in over 4123 official at-bats. After his baseball career ended as a player he hung around the game as a coach in the Astros system as well as a broadcaster for the Astros in both radio and television.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- DAN MEYER

The next 1977 expansion card to get the re-do is the very first Mariner or Blue Jay card I pulled as an 8-year-old way back, 40 years ago, Dan Meyer, who put together an excellent year for Seattle in their first year of existence:

Original airbrushed version by Topps

Revised version

Meyer, who was the ninth pick in the baseball expansion draft in November of 1976, did not disappoint his new team in 1977, as he batted .273 with 22 homers and 90 runs batted in while playing first base.
It would be the best year of his 12-year career, and he’d play for the Mariners through the 1981 season before moving on to the Oakland A’s for four years before retiring after 1985.
Over those 12 seasons, Meyer batted .253 with 86 home runs and 459 runs batted in playing for the Detroit Tigers, Mariners and A’s.

1977 BLUE JAYS REDONE- OTTO VELEZ

The next expansion “do-over” from 1977 is the Toronto Blue Jays’ Otto Velez, who got to play full-time after four brief seasons with the New York Yankees:

Velez, who was the 53rd pick in the 1976 expansion draft, had a decent year for the Jays in 1977 when he batted .256 with 16 homers and 62 runs batted in.
He would stay with the team for the next five years, hitting as many as 20 homers (1980) as well as matching the ‘77 RBI total that very same year.
As for the original Topps 1977 card, this one was one of the better airbrush jobs, since there wasn’t much to airbrush! Nevertheless it was a nice job with the logo on the cap.
Velez would put 11 years in the Major Leagues, batting .251 with 78 homers and 272 runs batted in, while collecting 452 hits in 1802 at-bats over 637 games.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- KURT BEVACQUA

Today we look at a great card, the 1977 Kurt Bevacqua, which is an airbrushed image so Topps could show him, as all others in this thread, as members of the new clubs in town, the Seattle Mariners (or Toronto Blue Jays):

Interesting thing is, Bevacqua would end up never playing an inning of ball for the Mariners, getting released by the team before the season even started after being purchased from the Milwaukee Brewers just a few months earlier.
Nevertheless, Topps managed to get some “real” images of him in a Mariners uni before he was let go, so I re-did the original, so here you go:

Bevacqua managed to sigh with a new team less than a month after being released by Seattle, the Texas Rangers, where he’d play for the next couple of seasons before moving on to the San Diego Padres in 1979.
He’d be on the move once again in 1980, getting traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for, among others, the ever wonderfully-named Rick Lancellotti, before making it back to the Padres in 1982.
Of course, that last stint in the Majors, with the Padres from 1982 through 1985 would give him his the most memorable moment in the Majors (well unless you consider that sweet 1976 Topps bubble-blowing card the peak of his career), when he hit a three-run home run in Game Two of the 1984 World Series against the eventual World Champion Detroit Tigers, giving the Padres their only win in the series.
Overall, he’d end up playing 15-years in the Majors, mainly as a platoon or part-time player, batting .236 over 970 games with 499 hits over 2117 at-bats for six teams.

EXPANSION RE-DONE: 1977 PETE VUCKOVICH

Revisiting my thread where I re-do the original Topps 1977 Blue Jays & Mariners cards, today we have a re-done Pete Vuckovich card, with the original for comparison:

Re-done

Original

Of course, we all know that Topps was scrambling to get cards in their 1977 set to represent the two new Major League franchises that would start play that season, so it was an admirable job to get two full teams worth of players in there.
So this is more of a respectful task with time on our side, replacing the airbrushed photos Topps had on the cards.
It’s easy to forget the rather pedestrian career Vuckovich had leading up to his 1982 Cy Young Award when he led the Milwaukee Brewers to an American League title, eventually losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
Some may even question if Jim Palmer or even Dan Quisenberry were more worthy recipients of the award (I thought “Quiz” was ripped off three awards to be honest, from 1982 to 1984).
Nevertheless, Vuckovich had his high-point that season, going 18-6 with a 3.34 earned run average, beating out future Hall of Fame Orioles pitcher Palmer for the Cy Young honors.
Sadly for Vuckovich, however, he came up with arm troubles the following year and only appeared in three games before missing the entire 1984 season before returning in 1985, playing for two more seasons before retiring for good after the 1986 season.
He’d win only eight games after his award winning season, finishing with 93 career wins against 69 losses over 11-years and 286 appearances.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- DAVE PAGAN

The next redone 1977 Mariners/Blue Jays card is of former pitcher Dave Pagan of the Mariners, who was drafted by Seattle from the Baltimore Orioles in the 1976 expansion draft:

Original Topps version

Re-done without airbrushing

Pagan originally came up with the New York Yankees in 1973 and played with them through the 1976 season before being traded as part of a blockbuster 10-player trade on June 15th that included Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Ken Holtzman and Doyle Alexander.
After 20 appearances with the Orioles the second half of 1976, he found himself as one of the original Mariners in 1977, appearing in 24 games, all but four out of the bullpen and posting a 1-1 record with a 6.14 earned run average over 66 innings.
But on July 27th of that season he found himself on the move yet again, this time to the Pittsburgh Pirates, for whom he’d play one game, the last game of his MLB career, pitching three innings of scoreless ball with four strikeouts.
After two years in the Pirates Minor League system in 1978 & 1979, he was out of pro ball for good, leaving the game with a 4-9 record along with a 4.96 E.R.A., 147 strikeouts and four saves over 85 appearances, 18 of them starts.
As an aside: a usable color image of him as a Pirate is one of my white whales, as I want to create a “missing” 1978 card for him. So if you see an image, send it along!