EXPANDED LEAGUE LEADERS: 1979 N.L. VICTORIES

On the blog today, we move on to the National League’s top winners for 1978, shown on a 1979 “expanded league leader” card from my long-running thread:

 

 

We begin with the 40-year-old wonder, Gaylord Perry, who would stun everyone with a season like no other for a man of his age, taking home the Cy Young Award that year by going 21-6 in his first season with the San Diego Padres.

Perry  was just brilliant that year, leading the league with his 21 wins, while pitching to an excellent 2.73 earned run average, with two shutouts and five complete games while tossing 232.2 innings.

It was the 14^th season in a row that Perry topped 200 innings, while also reeling off five 300+ inning campaigns during the stretch. Just incredible!

By taking home the Cy Young in 1978, he became the first pitcher in major League history to win the award in both leagues, previously winning the award in 1972 when he posted 24 wins for the Cleveland Indians.

In second place with 20 wins, another pitcher who had a very successful first season with his new club, Ross Grimsley, who had what turned out to be the best year of his career in 1978 in his first year with the Montreal Expos.

Grimsley went 20-11 for Montreal that year, with a 3.05 ERA over 263 innings in 36 starts, with three shutouts and 19 complete games, looking like an excellent pick-up for the franchise.

Sadly however, Grimsley would begin to deal with injuries the following season, winning only 10 games in 1979, and lasting only parts of the next three years before retiring for good, winning only seven games between 1980 and 1982

In third place tied with 19 wins apiece, the Atlanta Braves Phil Niekro and the Los Angeles Dodgers Burt Hooton, who both had very nice seasons for their respective teams.

For Niekro, the 39-year-old just missed his third 20-win season by going 19-18 over 44 appearances, 42 of them starts, posting a 2.88 ERA over 334.1 innings while tossing four shutouts and completing 22 games.

He would follow that up in 1979 by becoming like Perry, a 20-game winner at that age, famously winning 21 games while also LOSING 20 games, though by no means his own fault, posting a very nice 3.39 ERA while throwing an amazing 342 innings for Atlanta.

If that wasn’t enough, it’s mind boggling that he was STILL to go one for another eight years before retiring after the 1987 season, pitching until he was 48! Just amazing.

For the Dodgers’ Hooton, the solid starter who is pretty much forgotten these days, he won a career-best 19 games that season, helping the Dodgers make their second-straight World Series, posting a very nice 2.71 ERA over 32 starts with three shutouts and 10 complete games, easily the best season of his 15-year career that began in 1971 with the Chicago Cubs.

By the time he hung them up after a brief stint with the Texas Rangers in 1985, he’d end up with 151 wins and a very nice 3.38 ERA over 480 games, 377 of those starts, striking out just under 1500 batters in that time.

Next week, the American League’s top winners of 1978!

VINTAGE SPECIAL! "MISSING" 1954 WILSON'S FRANKS WARREN SPAHN

Hello everyone!

Today on the blog I post up my second "missing" superstar from one of the best sets of the 1950's, the 1954 Wilson Franks baseball set, with the legend Warren Spahn:

Spahn was coming off yet another fantastic season for the Braves in 1953, their first in the city of Milwaukee after the franchise moved from Boston.

For the year, Spahn led the league with 23 wins and a 2.10 earned run average, while tossing five shutouts and striking out 148 batters.

The man was amazing, flat out, and by the time he retired in 1965 he posted a 363-245 record, with a 3.09 ERA, 63 shutouts, 28 saves and 2583 strikeouts over 750 appearances, 665 of which were starts.

Oh yeah, he also hit 35 career home runs along with 189 runs batted in with (coincidentally) 363 hits!

And remember he didn’t win his first game until he was 25 years of age, as he served in the military from 1943 to 1945.

His first 20-game season was 1947 (at the age of 26), and he kept right on rolling until his final 20-game season in 1963!

In between, he ended up posting 13 such campaigns, leading the league eight times (with five of those coming consecutively from 1957 to 1961).

Just an incredible talent! Was there anything he couldn’t do?
Once in a lifetime right there...

1971 "MINOR LEAGUE DAYS" SERIES TWO CHECKLIST INSERT: BOBBY GRICH

Good day everyone!

On the blog today, we have my 1971 "Minor League Days" special checklist insert card celebrating the 1971 Minor League Player of the Year, Bobby Grich, from my recently released set:

As for Grich himself, before carving out an excellent Major League career, he had a monster 1971 season playing for the Orioles' Triple-A farm club in Rochester.

In 130 games as a shortstop, Grich POUNDED the International League, hitting .336 while smashing 32 homers with 83 runs batted in and 124 runs scored with 299 total bases.

These were NOT middle infielder numbers you often saw during the 1960's and 1970's!

And it was for those numbers that Grich was a solid pick for Minor League Player of the Year.

Once he jumped to the Majors for good in 1972, he became one of the best second baseman in the game for the rest of the decade, considered one of the best fielders at his position, winning four Gold Gloves as well as leading the league in putouts, double-plays and assists multiple times.

But he was no slouch at the plate, as he retired with almost 2000 hits, 224 homers, 1000+ runs scored and 864 runs batted in after seven years in Baltimore and ten years in California as a member of the Angels before hanging them up after the 1986 season.

MISSING IN ACTION: 1966 WORLD SERIES CARD: 1965 GAME SEVEN

On the blog today, we finally get to the seventh game of the 1965 World Series, in a 1966 sub-set that Topps decided to skip in their set:

After falling behind in the Series two-games-to-one, the Los Angeles Dodgers came all the way back to win it all in the seventh game, thanks in part to Sandy Koufax and his three-hit shutout, in which he struck out ten.

Koufax was masterful, as he walked three while giving up two singles and a double, winning his second game of the Series after a Game Two loss, giving the Dodgers their second championship in three years.

For the Minnesota Twins, their Game Two winner Jim Kaat took the loss this time, giving up two runs in his three innings of work, the only two runs the Dodgers would score, or even need for that matter.

Lou Johnson hit a homer while Wes Parker went two-for-four with an RBI for the Dodgers, with Jim Gilliam also collecting two hits in the Fall Classic.

That wraps up a fun "missing" 1960's sub-set here on the blog, and I hope to tackle a few others over the rest of the year.

See you then!

1977 N.L. CENTENNIAL: J.R. RICHARD

On the blog today, we add Houston Astros ace J.R. Richard to my 1977 "N.L. Centennial" sub-set, celebrating the Senior League's 100th anniversary of the year before:

As part of the celebration, the league wore special patches on their sleeves, so I made sure to use photos that showed them on every card.

Luckily for me there were countless photos taken that season of the players and the league's games, so it wasn't nearly as difficult for me to create the set (slated for a two-series release later this year!).

As for the great J.R., he was just becoming the great formidable pitcher mowing down N.L. batter around this time.

From 1976 to 1979, Richard was down-right nasty, striking out 200 or more batters, including 300+ in both 1978 and 1979 (leading the N.L. in K's each time), as well as posting 18 or more wins and 3+ shutouts each season. 

1980 was shaping up to be more of the same, as Richard was 10-4 with a 1.90 E.R.A. and 119 K's through only 113.2 innings.

But on July 30th, 1980, while playing a game of catch before a game, Richard suffered a stroke that ended his career in an instant, requiring emergency surgery to remove a life-threatening blood clot in his neck.

Though he tried a comeback once he recovered, the stroke caused enough damage to prevent him from ever playing in another Major League game.

A tragic end to one of the most promising careers in the Majors at the time.

It would have been incredible to see Richard team up with new Astros pitcher Nolan Ryan and see how many K's they could have racked up.

1970 "20-WIN CIRCLE": CLAUDE OSTEEN

Today's blog post has Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clause Osteen added to my new 1970 "20-win Circle" thread, celebrating the 20-game winning pitchers of 1969:

Osteen would join the 20-win circle for the first time in his career  in 1969, putting in an excellent campaign with seven shutouts, 183 strikeouts and a 2.66 earned run average over a workmanlike 321 innings and 16 complete games.

The man was an innings eater, putting in well over 200 innings a year between 1963 and 1973, with the 321 from 1969 his career-high.

He fell just short of 200 wins in his career with 196, as he posted a 7-16 record with the Chicago White Sox in his last season of 1975.

But he did have a solid career nevertheless, winning 20 games twice (1969 and 1972), throwing 40 shutouts (with a high of seven in 1969), and finishing with a 3.30 earned run average, with four seasons posting a sub-3.00 figure.

Coming over from the Washington Senators in 1965, he must have been overjoyed becoming a Dodger, teaming up with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax (and soon enough Don Sutton), to form quite the formidable rotation.

He was part of a World Championship team right off the bat in 1965 as the Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins, but was also part of the Dodger team that got swept in the series the following year by the Baltimore Orioles.

A three-time All-Star, Osteen is also in the top-50 all-time in shutouts and games started (with 488).

Certainly an overlooked ace from the era.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1977 STEVE BOWLING

Up on the blog today, we have a 1977 "not so missing" card for two-year Major League outfielder Steve Bowling, who made his Big League debut in 1976 as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers:

Bowling appeared in only 14 games for Milwaukee, hitting .167 with seven hits over 42 at-bats, scoring four and driving in two.

The following year he would find himself a member of the new Toronto Blue jays franchise, playing in 89 games and hitting .206, scoring 19 and driving in 13.

It's surprising Topps didn't give Bowling a card in their 1978 set considering all the playing time he had that season, so years ago I did create a "missing" card for him in that set.

Anyway, after two more seasons in the Minors for the White Sox and Reds, he'd call it a career for good after 1979.

His final career stats: a .199 batting average, with that single home run and 15 runs batted in over 103 games and 236 at-bats.