A RE-DO OF ONE OF MY OWN: 1974 RAY LAMB

Waaaay back on July 8th of 2014 I created a "missing" 1974 card for former Cleveland Indians pitcher Ray Lamb, who really did deserve a card in the 1974 Topps set based on his 1973 action.

Thing is at that time the only image I could find to use for the "card" was a team-issued postcard, which wasn't exactly the optimum image I wanted.

All these years later, I finally found one, so I recreated it using an actual Topps photo:

For those that want to see what my original card looked like, here you go:

Here's my original write-up for the blog way back when:

"Quick: who was the only player to wear uniform number "42" for the Los Angeles Dodgers after Jackie Robinson retired?

If you answered Ray Lamb, today's "missing in action" subject, good for you!

Turns out Lamb wore the legendary number in 1969 while with the Dodgers, before they retired the number in 1972.

Lamb was already a member of the Cleveland Indians by then, and was out of professional baseball by 1974.

However I feel he "should" have, or "could" have had a card in Topps 1974 set based on the playing time he put in the previous year.

In 1973 Lamb appeared in 32 games for the Tribe, going an even 3 and 3 with a 4.60 earned run average and 60 strikeouts in 86 innings of work.

But by March of 1974, he was released, and as far as I can tell never played again, not even Minor League ball.

Strange, as I haven't come across any info regarding an injury or something like that.

Lamb's best season was arguably 1971, when he posted a deceptive 6-12 record to go along with his 3.35 E.R.A., three complete games and a shutout playing his first year for the Indians after being dealt by the team that drafted him, the Dodgers.

He put in a decent year in 1972, going 5-6 with an even better 3.09 E.R.A., mainly as a guy out of the 'pen.

All told, he finished his career with a 20-23 record, 3.54 E.R.A. and 258 strikeouts in 424 innings over 154 games."

MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 RAY LAMB

Quick: who was the only player to wear uniform number "42" for the Los Angeles Dodgers after Jackie Robinson retired?

If you answered Ray Lamb, today's "missing in action" subject, good for you!

Turns out Lamb wore the legendary number in 1969 while with the Dodgers, before they retired the number in 1972.

Lamb was already a member of the Cleveland Indians by then, and was out of professional baseball by 1974.

However I feel he "should" have, or "could" have had a card in Topps 1974 set based on the playing time he put in the previous year.

Before we get into the numbers, take a look at my 1974 "missing" card design:

In 1973 Lamb appeared in 32 games for the Tribe, going an even 3 and 3 with a 4.60 earned run average and 60 strikeouts in 86 innings of work.

But by March of 1974, he was released, and as far as I can tell never played again, not even Minor League ball.

Strange, as I haven't come across any info regarding an injury or something like that.

Lamb's best season was arguably 1971, when he posted a deceptive 6-12 record to go along with his 3.35 E.R.A., three complete games and a shutout playing his first year for the Indians after being dealt by the team that drafted him, the Dodgers.

He put in a decent year in 1972, going 5-6 with an even better 3.09 E.R.A., mainly as a guy out of the 'pen.

All told, he finished his career with a 20-23 record, 3.54 E.R.A. and 258 strikeouts in 424 innings over 154 games.

NOW HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? TOPPS 1972 RAY LAMB AND THE INEXPLICABLE AIRBRUSHING

Thanks to reader Eric C. Loy, the 1972 Topps Ray Lamb card was brought to my attention, pointing out the airbrushing job.

Check it out here:

Now it's not the worst airbrushing job, but what makes this so strange is that Lamb appeared in the 1971 Topps set, as a Cleveland Indian! And there was NO airbrushing going on there.

Check out THAT one:

On top of all that, Lamb didn't even appear in a Major League game as an Indian until the 1971 season, so Topps was on the ball in 1971 and managed to get a card of Lamb with his current team instead of his former team, the Dodgers, for whom he pitched in 1970.

Yet in 1972, AFTER Lamb appeared in 43 games, 21 as a starter, for Cleveland in 1971, they couldn't find an image of him in the correct uniform?

So freaking odd.

I'm almost positive that's a Los Angeles uni he's wearing on the 1972 card, so what gives here?

Thanks to Eric for the tip! Again, it's the quirky stuff like this that makes it all so much fun to run this blog!

As a small bonus to checking Lamb out, I came across a decent shot of him from 1973 as an Indian, and realized that there should have been a card for him in the 1974 set, which there wasn't, so keep an eye out for that "missing" card here in the near future.

Thanks Eric!