GIMMIE A DO-OVER- 1975 KEN RUDOLPH

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s re-do of former catcher Alan Ashby, the blog follows up today with another former catcher getting the “do-over” treatment, a 1975 edition for Ken Rudolph:

Now if you remember, Topps’ 1975 airbrush job showing Rudolph with his new St. Louis Cardinal team was one for the ages. Take a look:

What a doozy! It was actually part of a slew of unbelievable Cardinals airbrush jobs that I covered on the blog a long time ago:

http://whentoppshadballs.blogspot.com/2014/08/random-quickie-those-airbrushed-1975-st.html

But for Rudolph, he played in 57 games for the San Francisco Giants during the 1974 season, hitting a career-best .259 with 41 hits over 158 at-bats, along with 11 runs scored and 10 runs batted in.
It was his only season out West after starting his career with the Chicago Cubs, playing for them 1969 through 1973.
Never more than a back-up catcher, he would see the bulk of his MLB action between 1972 and 1974, appearing in 173 of his career 328 Big League games, playing for the Cubs, Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Orioles.
By the time he retired after the 1977 season, he finished with a career average of .213, with 158 hits in 743 at-bats, along with 64 runs batted in and 55 runs scored with six homers thrown in.

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 KEN RUDOLPH

Time to add my “not so missing” 1977 card of former catcher Ken Rudolph to the blog today, showing him as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he suited up in 1976:

He appeared in only 27 games during the Bicentennial year, hitting .160 with eight hits in 50 at-bats, with a run scored and five runs batted in.
Rudolph played the first five years of his career with the Chicago Cubs, coming up during that tumultuous 1969 season, and would see the bulk of his MLB action with the organization.
Never more than a back-up catcher, he would see the most of his MLB action between 1972 and 1974, appearing in 173 of his career 328 Big League games, playing for the Cubs, Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Orioles.
By the time he retired after the 1977 season when he split the season between the San Francisco Giants and Baltimore Orioles, he finished with a career average of .213, with 158 hits in 743 at-bats, along with 64 runs batted in and 55 runs scored with six homers thrown in.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1978 KEN RUDOLPH

Here’s a “career-capping” card for former big league catcher Ken Rudolph, who played the last 11 games of his nine-year career with the Baltimore Orioles after starting the season with the San Francisco Giants:

Rudolph played the first five years of his career with the Chicago Cubs, coming up during that tumultuous 1969 season, and would see the bulk of his MLB action with the organization.
Never more than a back-up catcher, he would see the bulk of his MLB action between 1972 and 1974, appearing in 173 of his career 328 Big League games, playing for the Cubs, Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Orioles.
By the time he retired after the 1977 season, he finished with a career average of .213, with 158 hits in 743 at-bats, along with 64 runs batted in and 55 runs scored with six homers thrown in.

RANDOM QUICKIE: THOSE AIRBRUSHED 1975 ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

I know there were a ton of airbrushing jobs on Topps part in the 1970's, and many of them left a lot to be desired as far as "quality" went.

But one little item that always popped out to me were those badly airbrushed St. Louis Cardinals cards from the 1975 set.

It seemed like there were an inordinate amount of bad ones for that team in that year, and they are absolute CLASSICS!

Let's take a look:

Man. Some of those St. Louis logos on the caps are horrendous!

I'll pick the Osteen logo as the worst. However the Sadecki and Rudolph caps sport some terrible messy black stroking around the white lettering on the caps.

What a classic set of cards right here!

I guess looking at it now the Cardinals had the same bad amount of airbrushing as the Yankees or any other team in this set.

But for some reason these Cardinal cards were the ones that always stuck with me through the years.

The Osteen photo also bothers me since he looks so confused, like he's looking at the camera as some magic box and can't figure out what's happening at that moment.

Still, even with all the airbrush "disasters" in the set, the 1975 Topps offering is still one of my all-time favorites! Just can't get enough of all the colors.