1978 SPECIAL SUB-SET- "1977 30 HOME RUN CLUB" OSCAR GAMBLE

Today on the blog we come up to Oscar Gamble in my on-going 1978 sub-set celebrating the 30-home run hitters of 1977, "30 Home Run Club", somewhat of a rip-off of the great 1977 Topps football "1000 Yard Rushers" idea:

 

As any of you know, I love Oscar Gamble, and any time I can have an excuse to create another custom for the man, I will!

In Gamble's lone season with the White Sox, as part of their celebrated "South Side Hit Men" lineup, he hit an amazing 31 homers in just 408 official at-bats.

The 31 homers were a career high, though it was not because he never found that stroke again, as he would have seasons such as 1979 when he hit 19 homers over 274 at-bats, 1980 when he hit 14 homers in 194 at-bats, and 1982 when he hit 18 homers in 316 at-bats.

The man really was a homer machine, as evidenced by his 200 career homers in just 4502 at-bats.

Nevertheless, he still put in a very nice 17-year Big League career, playing between 1969 and 1985, seeing the most time with the New York Yankees, for whom he played seven years.

An icon of 1970's baseball, sadly Gamble passed away in January of 2018 at the age of 68, and he is terribly missed by yours truly.

DEDICATED ROOKIE (VERSION 2)- 1970 OSCAR GAMBLE

As promised a few days ago, today on the blog I present my second version of a 1970 “dedicated rookie” card for Oscar Gamble, this one a Chicago Cubs edition since he made his MLB debut with them in 1968:

Gamble played in 24 games in 1969, again for the Cubs, hitting .225 with a homer and five RBIs over 81 plate appearances and 71 official at-bats.
On November 17th of 1969 he’d be traded along with pitcher Dick Selma to the Phillies for Johnny Callison and a player to be named later, which ended up being Larry Colton.
As I stated in my other post, Gamble only had ONE season where he topped 500 plate appearances, and that was in 1974 while playing for the Indians (he had 508).
In 4502 career at-bats, Gamble hit 200 homers. Not bad when you think about a full career would be around 8000 at-bats. We’re talking 400+ homers from him.
I'll always remember Gamble as a Yankee at the tail-end of his career. He always seemed to hit a homer when he came up, and was always a fun guy to watch play. A true character.
Always aware of his numbers, he'd frequently talk about his "home run ratio", and years later Jim Kaat, while broadcasting games on the YES channel, would always bring that up when some current player was hitting home runs at nice pace.
Nevertheless, Gamble played 17 seasons in the Big Leagues, with those 200 home runs, 666 RBIs and 656 runs scored over 1584 games between 1969 and 1985.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1978 OSCAR GAMBLE

For fun today, following on the recent footsteps of my re-done 1978 Richie Zisk card, I present my 1978 Oscar Gamble card, showing the slugger suited up for the Pale Hose instead of the Topps-issued airbrush job of him as a San Diego Padre:

Coming off of what turned out to be the best season of his 17-year Major League career, Gamble set career-highs in home runs (31), runs batted in (83), runs scored (75) and total bases (240) as a member of the Chicago White Sox “South Side Hitmen” team.
That 1977 White Sox team was a good one, based in large part to the fire power they had in their line-up, as they finished 90-72 for the season.
Besides Gamble and his 31 homers, they also got strong contributions from Richie Zisk (30 homers), Eric Soderholm (25 homers), Chet Lemon (19 homers), Jim Spencer (18 homers), and Lamar Johnson (18 homers).
As a team the ChiSox ended up hitting 192 homers for the year, very nice muscle display!
As I mentioned the other day in his “dedicated rookie” post, I never realized that during his entire career, Gamble only had ONE season where he topped 500 plate appearances, and that was in 1974 while playing for the Indians (he had 508).
In 4502 career at-bats, Gamble hit 200 homers. Not bad when you think about a full career would be around 8000 at-bats. We’re talking 400+ homers from him.
Always aware of his numbers, he'd frequently talk about his "home run ratio", and years later Jim Kaat, while broadcasting games on the YES channel, would always bring that up when some current player was hitting home runs at nice pace.
Nevertheless, Gamble played 17 seasons in the Big Leagues, with those 200 home runs, 666 RBIs and 656 runs scored over 1584 games between 1969 and 1985.

DEDICATED ROOKIE- 1970 OSCAR GAMBLE (VERSION 1)

Morning everyone!
Up on the blog today will the first of two different “dedicated rookies” for that 70’s icon Oscar Gamble, this one being the Philadelphia Phillies version, for which Topps had him depicted as in their 1970 set:

Great “card” to add to the collection!
In about a week I’ll also have my Chicago Cubs version, which is who Gamble made his major league debut with in 1969, so keep an eye out for it!
Gamble played in 24 games in 1969, again for the Cubs, hitting .225 with a homer and five RBIs over 81 plate appearances and 71 official at-bats.
On November 17th of 1969 he’d be traded along with pitcher Dick Selma to the Phillies for Johnny Callison and a player to be named later, which ended up being Larry Colton.
You know, I never realized that during his entire career, Gamble only had ONE season where he topped 500 plate appearances, and that was in 1974 while playing for the Indians (he had 508).
In 4502 career at-bats, Gamble hit 200 homers. Not bad when you think about a full career would be around 8000 at-bats. We’re talking 400+ homers from him.
I'll always remember Gamble as a Yankee at the tail-end of his career. He always seemed to hit a homer when he came up, and was always a fun guy to watch play. A true character.
Always aware of his numbers, he'd frequently talk about his "home run ratio", and years later Jim Kaat, while broadcasting games on the YES channel, would always bring that up when some current player was hitting home runs at nice pace.
Nevertheless, Gamble played 17 seasons in the Big Leagues, with those 200 home runs, 666 RBIs and 656 runs scored over 1584 games between 1969 and 1985.
I miss that man!
R.I.P. Sir...

TRADED: 1977 OSCAR GAMBLE

Let's whip up a 1977 card for Oscar Gamble as a Chicago White Sox player for my newest entry in my "traded" thread:

Topps had him (understandably so) as a New York Yankees player, since he wasn't traded to the White Sox until April of '77.

As it turned out, 1977 would be the best year of Gamble's solid 17-year career, mainly as a power-bat off the bench.

In only 408 at-bats that season, Gamble powered 31 homers to go with 83 runs batted in with a nice .297 batting average in his only season in the South Side.

As a matter of fact, I never realized that during his entire career, Gamble only had ONE season where he topped 500 plate appearances, and that was in 1974 while playing for the Indians (he had 508).

In 4502 career at-bats, Gamble hit 200 homers. Not bad when you think about it!

After his lone season in Chicago, Gamble would take his bat to San Diego, where he'd play for the Padres for a year, then on to Texas for part of the 1979 season before he made it back to the Bronx.

Once back he'd play for the Yanks until 1984, before playing out his career with the White Sox in 1985.

I'll always remember Gamble as a Yankee at the tail-end of his career. He always seemed to hit a homer when he came up, and was always a fun guy to watch play. A true character.

Always aware of his numbers, he'd frequently talk about his "home run ratio", and years later Jim Kaat, while broadcasting games on the YES channel, would always bring that up when some current player was hitting home runs at nice pace.

OSCAR GAMBLE IS BACK! A LOOK AT HIS WACKY 1973 CARD (#372)

You KNOW I can't go long on this blog without some new mention or profile of that '70's baseball icon: Oscar Gamble!

Today I want to take a look at his action-packed 1973 card (#372):

Someone's popping up from a hole in the ground!!!

First off, it's obvious Topps did a basic airbrush job on his Philadelphia Phillies uniform, getting rid of the "P" on the front but leaving the rest as-is. 

If you didn't notice it right off the bat, you'd have to realize this when you notice that the player standing upright next to him is a National Leaguer, non-other than Cincinnati Reds all-star shortstop Dave Concepcion. So the image is from a Phillies-Reds game some time in 1972.

Oscar was traded by the Phillies in November, 1972 to the Cleveland Indians with Roger Freed for Del Unser and Terry Wedgewood.

It IS a great action shot, no doubt, as it seems Gamble was just forced out at second base and they're all looking towards force, perhaps at the completion of a double-play (?).

But what always made me chuckle was the "floating" head of the Reds' second baseman in that dust cloud at Gamble's feet! 

You'd miss him if you didn't look closely. (I can't really tell who it is, maybe Darrel Chaney? But I'm really guessing here).

Love it!

Those 1973 horizontal cards were brilliant, even though a ton of them had crappy photos (Luis Alvarado anyone?).

They still made for a classic set, and I have to admit, ever since I started this blog, it has made me appreciate the '73 Topps set more and more for all of it's quirkiness, peculiarity and unique insight into baseball during the era.

I'll definitely be profiling many more cards from this set in the future!

Heck, it seems like I've already redesigned a bunch of them here already!

RANDOM QUICKIE: "YOU CAN TRY..."

"…BUT YOU CAN'T RUN FROM OSCAR GAMBLE'S AFRO!!!"

Ha!

I never noticed before, but behind George Hendrick on his 1976 Topps card (#570), we have the afro of ALL afro's, Oscar Gamble's fluffy dome cover, making yet another appearance!

Hilarious!

The 'fro was an entity unto itself huh?!

You just gotta love it! Take a look:

Oscar Gamble and the 'fro that ate Cleveland make an appearance.

By the way, I DO love the Cleveland Indians visor Hendrick is sporting, as well as the distant gaze he's exhibiting, as if contemplating life's true meaning or something.

Maybe he was wondering just how much longer he had to toil in Cleveland?

He had no need to worry though if that was the case.

After one more productive year with the Indians, he'd be off to San Diego for about a year and a half before moving on to St. Louis, where he'd be an important cog on some good teams, including their 1982 world championship squad.

"THE MAN...THE HAIR...THE LEGEND"- OSCAR GAMBLE

Yeah I know, seems like everyone has taken a shot at writing about the legend that has become Oscar Gamble and his downright awesome afro. As far as coiffe styles from the '70's go, there is NO better example than the head of hair struggling to bust out from underneath Gamble's baseball caps in his 1975 and 1976 (Traded) cards.

Please. Sit back and take it all in. It truly is the stuff of legend. Sadly (or not), when Gamble found himself on the Yankees, team owner George Steinbrenner made him cut his hair, leading Gamble to recall years later, "When I went home (after the hair cut) and my wife saw me without the afro, she started crying."

The haircut has become so big (pun intended) that a photo of Gamble with his mountain of hair was featured on the cover of a great book about 1970's baseball, "Big Hair and Plastic Grass", which was published in 2012. Check it out:

Well, at least his afro was documented before it went the way of the "Pet Rock", Disco, and polyester jump suits on the cards shown below. Enjoy!

1975 Topps Card

1976 Topps Traded Card