NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: 1970 "FROGGY" BILL HANDS

Adding to my long-running "nicknames of the 1970's" thread today, and this time it's former Chicago Cubs pitcher Bill Hands, aka "Froggy", on a 1970 template to celebrate his excellent 1969 season:

 

The high point of his career was easily 1969 while pitching for the Chicago Cubs.

That season he teamed up with Fergie Jenkins, forming a 20-game winning one-two punch, going 20-14 with a nice 2.49 E.R.A. while starting 41 games, good for 300 innings on the nose.

All told, he retired with a 111-110 record and 3.35 E.R.A in 374 career games between 1965 and 1975, pitching for the Giants, Cubs, Twins and Rangers.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1975 OTTO VELEZ

On the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1975 card for former outfielder/first baseman Otto Velez, who appeared in a couple dozen games during the 1974 season:

 

Velez, who actually had a spot on a multi-player rookie card in Topps' 1974 set after 23 games in 1973, hit .209 during his 1974 Big League action, with 14 hits, nine runs scored and 10 runs batted in for the New York Yankees.

He would only appear in six games for the Yanks in 1975, followed by 49 games during their American League championship season of 1976, before being drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in their inaugural expansion draft before the 1977 campaign.

He was the 53rd pick in the 1976 expansion draft, and would have 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 seasons, hitting as many as 20 homers (1980) as well as matching his 1977 RBI total that very same year.

In 1983 he would find himself with the Cleveland Indians, where he would play what turned out to be the final 10 games of his career, hitting only .080 with two hits over 25 at-bats, with a run scored and an RBI.

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.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 MIKE MORGAN

Fun card to add to the WTHBALLS stable today, a "not so missing" 1979 card for long-time Major League pitcher Mike Morgan, who made his Big League debut in 1978 as an 18-year-old with the Oakland A's:

 

Morgan had three starts in his first taste of the Majors, going 0-3 with a bloated 7.30 earned run average in 12.1 innings of work.

He wouldn't fare much better the following season when he went 2-10 over 13 games, posting an ERA of 5.94 in 77.1 innings, still a teenager.

However, after spending all of 1980 and 1981 in the Minors, he was back in 1982 as a member of the New York Yankees, where he put in a solid year, going 7-11 over 30 games, finishing up with a respectable 4.37 ERA over 150.1 innings.

In 1983 he would find himself as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, where he appeared in only 16 games, posting a record of 0-3 with a 5.16 ERA, and would take a step back even further the following year where he spent the season in the Minors.

However, in 1985 he was back for good, and as it turned out would spend the next 18 years as a Major League pitcher, becoming a specialist out of the bullpen in the last half, appearing in a total of 597 games before retiring after the 2002 seasons.

Morgan led the league in shutouts in 1990 with four while a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and won a career-best 16 games while with the Chicago Cubs just two years later, going 16-8 with a very nice 2.55 ERA over 34 starts.

At the age of 41 in 2001, as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, he finally got a taste of a championship, as the Diamondbacks beat the three-peat champ New York Yankees in the World Series in dramatic fashion.

All told, Morgan finished with a record of 141-186, appearing in 597 games, 411 of those starts, with 10 shutouts and eight saves, striking out 1403 batters while walking 938.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1970 PHIL HENNIGAN

Up on the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1970 card for former pitcher Phil Hennigan, who made his MLB debut in 1969 as a member of the Cleveland Indians:

 

Hennigan was a 23-year-old when he appeared in nine games for the Tribe in 1969, going 2-1 with a 3.31 earned run average over 16.1 innings of work.

He would go on to play four seasons with the Indians, generally out of the bullpen, before one last hurrah in 1973 as a member of the National League champion New York Mets.

All told, in his five years under the Big League sun, Hennigan finished with a record of 17-14 over 176 games, posting an ERA of 4.26 in 280.2 innings, with 26 saves and 188 strikeouts.

Not a bad little career at that.

TRADED- 1976 WILLIE CRAWFORD

On the blog to start off a new week, we have a "missing" 1976 traded card for former outfielder Willie Crawford, who found himself heading East from Los Angeles to the St. Louis Cardinals:

 

Crawford spent the first 12 years of his Big League career with the Dodgers before heading to the Cardinals in a deal for Ted Sizemore on March 2nd, 1976.

He would play well in what turned out to be his only year there, hitting .304 over 120 games and 392 at-bats, driving in 50 runs while scoring 49.

But his time there was brief, for on October 20th of 1976 he was traded to the Giants as part of a six-player trade that included John Curtis and Vic Harris going to San Fran, while Mike Caldwell, John D’Acquisto and Dave Rader came to St. Louis.
 As if that wasn't enough change of scenery, on March 26th of 1977, just before the season started, Crawford was on the move again, getting traded to the Houston Astros.
But it didn't end there! After just 42 games with Houston, Crawford found himself playing for the Oakland A’s after getting traded for Denny Walling and cash.
Turns out that time with Oakland playing out the 1977 season would be the last of his Big League career, as he would go on to play in the Mexican league over the next two years before retiring for good as an active player.
Over 14 MLB seasons, Crawford hit .268 with 921 hits over 3435 at-bats, playing in 1210 games between 1964 and 1977.

EXPANDED YEARLY LEADER CARDS: 1974 A.L. BATTING

Ok now!

Today we move on to the American League in my on-going "expanded league leaders" thread, celebrating the top-3 hitters of the Junior Circuit for 1973:

 

Of course we begin with the great Rod Carew, who obliterated the league with his .350 batting average, 44 points ahead of the second place batter!!!

Carew took home his third batting title that year, aloso leading the league with his 203 hits and 11 triples, while making his seventh straight All-Star team and finishing fourth in the MVP race at season's end.

Seriously, the man was just eons ahead of anyone else at this point as far as hitting, heading straight for the Hall of Fame and cementing his place as one of the game's greatest natural hitters.

Surprisingly, the second and third place finishers in the A.L. batting race, both tied at .306, were a slugger who posted his career-best average, George Scott, and a man who made a big comeback, resurrecting his MLB career as a Designated Hitter, former two-time batting champ Tommy Davis.

For Scott, his .306 average was accompanied by his 24 home runs and 107 runs batted in, while leading the league with 295 total bases.

He also took home his fifth Gold Glove Award, and would end up with eight such awards before his career was over.

For Davis, who was the Baltimore Orioles full-time DH in its first year in existence, he came back to have his best year in the Big Leagues since 1967 when he was a New York Met, giving the "O's" 89 RBIs in addition to his second place finish in the batting race, garnering a tenth-place finish in the MVP race.

The 35-year-old found new life as a DH, and would give Baltimore another solid season the following year when he'd hit .289 with 84 RBIs with 181 hits, his last truly full season in the Majors before retiring after 1976.

Next up, we move on to the National League's top home run hitters of 1973. See you next week!

ON-CARD ALL-STAR: A SPECIAL 1974 RICK WISE

On the blog today, a special edition of my on-going "On-Card All-Star" cards, where I slap a bold and beautiful "All-Star" banner across a players' base Topps card, which was always my favorite way to go instead of a separate All-Star sub Set.

In this case, I had to create a "correct" card for the National League's 1973 All-Star game starter, Rick Wise, who was sent packing to the Boston Red Sox in the off-season, leading to Topps airbrushing him into a BoSox uni for their 1974 offering:

 

Makes for a very nice unique addition to all our 1974 sets!

It's easy to forget that the guy put together a really solid Major League career, finishing with a 188-181 record to go along with a 3.69 earned run average, 30 shutouts and 1647 strikeouts over 506 games (455 starts) between 1964 and 1982.
Yes he'll always be remembered for being the "wrong" side of the Steve Carlton trade (ironically enough during the off-season after his no-hit year), but if not for an injury-plagued season in 1974 while with the Red Sox, he could have been a 200-game winner.
Go figure...