NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1973 LES CAIN

On the blog today is a career-capping “not so missing” 1973 card for former Detroit Tigers pitcher Les Cain, who saw the last of his Big League action in 1972:

Cain appeared in five games for the Tigers that season, going 0-3 with a 3.80 earned run average over 23.2 innings of work, all five of those appearances starts.
The previous two seasons were good for Cain, as he posted records of 12-7 and 10-9 respectively, filling a spot as one of Detroit’s main starters.
However, in what turned out to be a landmark case against Major League baseball, after Cain developed arm trouble in 1972 at the age of only 24, he insisted that manager Billy Martin still made him pitch, resulting in career-ending arm troubles (sound familiar?), which led him to sue the organization.
In a stunning move, the Michigan Bureau of Workman’s Compensation ruled in favor of Cain and judged that the Detroit Tigers would have to pay Cain $111 a week for the rest of his life!
Incredible!
I never knew this until researching Cain for this blog post.
Cain is still alive, and I’m assuming still collecting his checks from the Tigers to this day, some 47 years later.
As for his Big League career, he finished with a record of 23-19 over 68 appearances, starting 64 of those games and pitching to a 3.98 ERA over 373 innings in parts of four seasons between 1968 and 1972.

DEDICATED ROOKIE- 1972 BEN OGLIVIE

Time to go and give former slugger Ben Oglivie a 1972 “dedicated rookie” to add to my long-running thread, as he originally shared a spot on a late series three-player rookie card in the now classic Topps offering:

Oglivie appeared in the first 14 games of his career during the 1971 season for the Boston Red Sox, hitting an admirable .263 with 10 hits in 38 at-bats, scoring two while driving in four.
He didn’t hit a homer in that short time-frame, but those would come in bunches over the next 16 seasons, including a league-leading 41 in 1980 as part of the powerful Milwaukee Brewers team that also featured guys like Cecil Cooper, Robin Yount, Ted Simmons and Paul Molitor.
He would get traded to the Detroit Tigers in the 1973 off-season for Dick McAuliffe, where he would continue to be played as a platoon-player over the next four seasons, averaging about 100 games a year, but nevertheless playing well as he showed power and a decent batting average hovering around .280.
However it wasn’t until he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for pitcher Jim Slaton that he’d finally find full-time work, eventually becoming a legitimate slugger who’d lead the American League in 1980 with 41 homers as I mentioned earlier, along with a career-high 118 runs batted in and 94 runs scored.
He would play with the Brewers through the rest of his 16-year career, until 1986, before going on to play in Japan for two seasons with Kintetsu, where he’d his 46 homers combined.
Overall in his MLB career, Oglivie batted .273 with 235 homers and 901 RBI’s, with 1615 hits over 5913 at-bats and 1754 games, getting three All-Star nods and a Silver Slugger for his Home Run champion 1980 season.

NICKNAMES OF THE 1970s- 1978 BAKE McBRIDE

Time to go an add Bake McBride to my long-running “nicknames of the 1970s” thread, with this 1978 rendition for the .300-hitting former outfielder:

It’s funny, “Bake” could be the only player that had a nickname based OFF of his nickname: “Shake n’ Bake”, even though “Bake” was already  his nickname.
For those who didn’t know, his given name is Arnold Ray McBride.
I decided on going with “Bake” instead of “Shake n’ Bake” mainly because of the layout space I had on the card, with the former of the two nickname better suited to the card template.
McBride made an immediate splash in the Majors, hitting .302 in limited play in 1973 before coming back and taking home the 1974 National League Rookie of the Year Award when he hit .309 with 173 hits and 30 stolen bases.
Sadly, even though he would keep that average around .300 for the rest of his career, he was repeatedly dealing with injuries, ranging from knee and shoulder ailments, to missing almost an entire season because of eye problems relating to contact lenses.
Over his 11-year career he managed to play a full season only four times, with three of those years coming consecutively between 1978-1980.
In that last of consecutive full years, he helped the Phillies win the 1980 World Series, defeating the Kansas City Royals and giving the team their first title.
After that, he played three more years in the Big Leagues, never more than 70 games in any one season, finishing up with a .299 batting average over 1071 games and 3853 at-bats, with 1153 hits and 183 stolen bases.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1975 ROD GASPAR

Up on the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1975 career-capper for four-year MLB outfielder Rod Gaspar, who saw the last of his Big League action with the San Diego Padres in 1974:

Gaspar appeared in 33 games, hitting .214 with three hits in 14 at-bats, scoring four and driving in one, with four base on balls thrown in.
He’d finish his 4-year career with a .208 batting average along with 54 hits and 35 runs scored over 260 at-bats and 178 games, 118 of those games as a rookie during that unexpected NY Mets run to their improbable championship in 1969 when he hit .228 for the “Amazin’s”, with 49 hits over 215 official at-bats while playing all three outfield positions.
Sadly for him that rookie year of 1969 would by far be the most action he’d see in any of his four seasons under the Big League sun, but what a year to have THAT distinction!

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 PAT ROCKETT

Today’s blog post has a “not so missing” 1977 card for former Atlanta Braves shortstop Pat Rockett, who made his MLB debut in 1976 with four games:

Rockett went 1-for-5 at the plate over those four games while handling shortstop in two of those appearances.
He’d be back in 1977 with 93 games played, hitting .254 with 67 hits over 264 at-bats, with 27 runs scored and 24 runs batted in.
In 1978 he’d play in 55 games, but it would end up being the last of his Big League action, hitting .141 with 20 hits in 142 at-bats.
He’d play two more seasons in the Minor Leagues, both for ther Braves and the Toronto Blue Jays, but would never get back to the Majors again, finishing up with a career .214 average, with 88 hits in 411 at-bats, with 33 runs scored and 28 RBIs over 152 games.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1971 DON EDDY

Up on the blog today, we have a “not so missing” 1971 card for two-year MLB pitcher Don Eddy, who made his MLB debut in 1970 as a September call-up:

Now, I do realize that Eddy is wearing the red and white uniforms that really didn’t make an appearance until 1971, so truly he should be wearing the powder blue uniforms everyone else has on the 1971 White Sox cards.
But if you then go and look at manager Chuck Tanner’s late-series 1971 card, he does have the red and white hat on, though I believe it may be airbrushed. Not sure.
Nevertheless, Eddy appeared in seven games for Chicago over the last month of 1971, not factoring in a decision and posting a very nice 2.31 earned run average over 11.2 innings.
He’d be back in 1971 and go on to play in 22 games, going 0-2 but post another fine ERA, this time 2.38 over 22.2 innings, all out of the bullpen.
Sadly for him however, and for reasons I have not been able to find, he would not pitch in the Majors again, playing the last two years of his pro career in the San Diego Padres organization, before retiring after the 1973 season.
It’s interesting to note that the guy posted some excellent ERA’s all through his pro career, even his last season of 1973 when he was at an even 2.00 over 36 games with 13 saves.
Why the Padres, especially at that time, didn’t give him a shot is beyond me, so he finished his brief Big League career with a record of 0-2 with an ERA of 2.36 over 29 games and 34.1 innings of work.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1976 ROB ELLIS

Time to go and give former Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Rob Ellis a third “missing” card on the blog, this one a “not so missing” variety, and I have to say I never realized he never got a Topps card for any of his three Big League seasons:

Not that he ever played a substantial amount in any of the three years he suited up, but I could have sworn he was at least on a multi-player rookie card.
Nevertheless, Ellis appeared in six games in what turned out to be his last taste of the Majors, 1975, hitting .286 with two hits in seven at-bats.
He would go on to play another five years in the Minors, but never get another crack at a Major League game, finishing his limited time under the Big League sun with a .229 average, with 38 hits in 166 at-bats over 64 games between 1971 and 1975, all with Milwaukee.