REVISITING A POST FROM 2014: MISSING 1976 ART HOWE

Good day everyone.

Today we revisit a post from 2014, my "missing" 1976 card for Art Howe, part of the "1976 Project" I worked on with my buddy Jim:

Here's the original written post as well:

Here's a "missing" card I created for one of the blog readers here. As a matter of fact I've happily taken on a project for him, creating numerous 1976 cards of players who were either omitted from the set for some reason, or were portrayed on the wrong team.

This also helps ME create more 1976 Topps cards, as it is easily my favorite all-time set! So it's "win-win"!

So moving forward, for this series, which will also appear on this blog as I create these cards, I will add the "1976 Project" in the title, as some of the cards don't necessarily fit into any of my subject-threads.

The future Major League manager actually played in 63 games for the Pirates in 1975, gathering 162 plate appearances, so really he should have had a card.

He hit .171 for the year, with nine doubles and a homer along with 10 runs batted in and 13 runs scored.

His 11-year career as a player would really hit it's stride after joining the Houston Astros, as he'd play pretty much full-time between 1977 and 1982 before a couple of part-time years in St. Louis in 1984 and 1985 (he didn't play Major League ball in 1983).

As you all know, he'd really find his niche on the Major League level as a manager, guiding the Astros, Oakland A's and New York Mets between 1989 and 2004.

His real success was leading the young studs in Oakland in the late-90's/early-00's, winning 100-games in two seasons (2001 and 2002), but never being able to get past the N.Y. Yankees (remember the now-famous "Jeter-Flip"?).

All told, Howe would win 1129 games as a manager in the Big Leagues, finishing 2nd in "Manager of the Year" voting four years in a row from 1999-2002.

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: TONY PEREZ

This week we have TWO cards added to my future custom "Classic Baseball" set, earlier with Tony Oliva, and today with "Big Dog" Tony Perez, an RBI-machine if there ever was one:

Perez truly was an overlooked star on a team that would also have guys like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, just to name a few, and it’s just plain criminal considering he logged 10 seasons in a row over 90+ runs batted in, with six of them over 100 as stated earlier.
With a batting average hovering around .280, he was a solid and steady force at the plate and out in the field for a team that would become legendary, on their way to two straight championships in 1975 and 1976.
He would play for 23 seasons in the Major Leagues, and end up with 379 homers, 1652 RBI’s, 2732 hits and a very nice .279 average before he left the game at the age of 44.
The “Big Dog”, Sparky Anderson always stated that what killed the “Big Red Machine” from dominating for a longer period of time was trading away their slugging first baseman in December of 1976 to the Montreal Expos for Woodie Fryman and Dale Murray, a trade that still baffles me.
Nevertheless, after nine tries, he finally made it into the Hall of Fame in 2000, and rightly so. Hopefully Pete Rose can also join his former teammates someday as well.

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: TONY OLIVA

The next baseball superstar to get added to my future custom "Classic Baseball" set is three-time American League batting champ Tony Oliva of the Minnesota Twins:

Just a nice portrait shot of the man who was born to hit a baseball.

He burst onto the Major League scene in 1964 when he easily won the American League Rookie of the Year award.
In that year, all he did was lead the league in batting, hitting .323, while slamming 32 homers with 94 runs batted in. 
He also lead the league in runs scored with 109, hits with 217, doubles with 43 and total bases with 374!
Those numbers also got him a fourth place finish in M.V.P. voting as well.
The following year there was no sign of a sophomore jinx, as he once again led the lead in batting, this time hitting .321, with 16 homers, 98 R.B.I.'s, 40 doubles and 107 runs scored.
He also led the league in total hits again, this time with 185.
All told in his career, Oliva would win three batting titles (the third coming in 1971 when he hit .337), and would lead the league in hits five times, slugging once (1971), get named to eight straight all-star teams, and have two second-place finishes for M.V.P., in 1965 and 1970.
I wouldn't say his final numbers "definitely" warranted a Hall of Fame spot for Oliva. But I'll admit that you can argue a good point for it with the career he left us with, and come 2022 he would be selected for a spot in Cooperstown, which is just fine with me!
When you really take a look, he only had 11 full seasons in the Majors, with the half-season in 1976 and three pretty much non-existent years in 1962, 1963 and 1972. 
So his numbers carry a bit more weight in that light.
And wow, what a great hitting combo he and Rod Carew made for the Twins, huh?!
Nice 1-2 punch right there.

 

REVISITING A POST FROM 2015: MISSING 1972 MIKE TORREZ

Today we'll revisit my "missing" 1972 card for long-time pitcher Mike Torrez, at one time about as reliable an arm there was in the Big Leagues:

Torrez barely played in 1971, as he split time between the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos (for only one game), totaling 10 games and 39 innings of work.

But in 1972 he would begin a nice run when he posted a 16-12 record with a 3.33 earned run average and 112 strikeouts over 34 games, 33 of which were starts, and 243.1 innings pitched.

During the middle of the decade he did something I always thought was amazing: he won 14 or more games five years in a row, with FIVE different teams!

He won 15 in 1974 with the Expos, 20 in 1975 with the Orioles (of course, right?), 16 in 1976 with the A's, 14 in 1977 (after coming over from Oakland with a 3-1 record) with the Yankees, and then 16 with the Red Sox in 1978.

That's a pretty cool run! He even went on to win 16 games yet again the following year while still pitching for Boston.

By the time he retired after the 1984 season, Torrez fashioned himself a solid 18-year career that saw him go 185-160, with a 3.96 E.R.A., 1404 strikeouts and 15 shutouts over 494 games, 458 of which were starts.

He also won two games in the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers, pitching a complete game in both starts, yielding a 2.50 E.R.A. with 15 strikeouts. Not bad at all…

 

1960S "IN-ACTION": 1969 WILLIE McCOVEY

Today on the blog we have what is going to be a SWEET card from my next "1960s In-Action" set, Series Three, that of "Stretch" Willie McCovey:

I just love this image of him at the plate, probably about to launch another homer our of the stratosphere at the expense of another poor National League pitcher.

He was at the height of his career at the time this card would have seen the light of day, about to put in an MVP year in 1969, obliterating everything in sight!

From the moment he got called up to the Big Leagues in 1959, all he did was tear the seams off the ball by hitting .354 with 13 homers and 38 runs batted in along with 32 runs scored in only 52 games, copping a Rookie of the Year Award and setting the tone for his 22-year career.

In 1969 he had his finest season, as he made his fifth All-Star team, on his way to taking home the league MVP Award after a year that saw him lead the league with 45 homers, 126 RBIs, a .453 OBP and a .656 slugging percentage, as well as a whopping 45 intentional base on balls.

The man put it ALL together that year!

By the time he retired in 1980, he crushed 521 home runs, collected over 2000 hits, drove in over 1500, and left his mark as one of the most feared sluggers of his generation.

In 1986, his first year of eligibility, he was voted into the Hall of Fame with 81.4% of the ballots cast.

Man, what a threesome McCovey, Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda made back in the 1960's for San Francisco, huh?

Just incredible.

REVISITING A POST FROM 2014: "MISSING" 1972 IN-ACTION BILL FREEHAN

Today on the blog, revisiting a post from November, 2014, featuring a "missing" 1972 "In-Action" card, this of "should-be" Hall of Fame catcher Bill Freehan:

Here's the original write-up from that post many moons ago:

"This is cool.

My last "MIA-MIA" 1972 card was of future Hall of Fame member Frank Robinson.

And today I want to present to you all my newest addition to the thread, Bill Freehan, with a great in-game action shot of him blocking the plate against who else, Frank Robinson from 1969.

Great action shot!

1972 marked a "changing of the guard" in a sense when it came to American League catchers.

Up until then, Freehan was considered by many to be the best A.L. Backstop, manning the plate in Detroit for about 10 years and being named to eight-straight All-Star games at the time.

Also the winner of five Gold Gloves, Freehan was pretty much the top of the heap when it came to catchers in the Junior Circuit.

Then in 1970 you had Thurman Munson come along, win the Rookie of the Year Award, and then was followed by the Boston red Sox young stud Carlton Fisk, who'd take home the same award two years later.

Coupled with Johnny Bench and Ted Simmons in the National League, and you can see how the landscape was changing for Major League catching.

Nevertheless, Freehan was a stalwart behind the plate for the Tigers.

Three times he'd finish in the top-10 for Most Valuable Player (1964, 1967 & 1968), and he'd play his entire 15-year career in Motown.

A solid player through and through, he'd retire after the 1976 season with a .262 lifetime average, 200 homers and 758 runs batted in over 1774 games and 6073 at-bats.

He was named to eleven all-star games, and finished with a .993 fielding percentage while donning the "tools of ignorance".

I can't tell who the Baltimore player is who is watching the play unfold in front of him.

Any ideas?"

GIMMIE A DO-OVER OF ONE OF MY OWN: 1979 RANCE MULLINIKS

Good day all.

On the blog today, a do-over for one of my own creations from a couple weeks back, a "not so missing" 1979 card for Rance Mulliniks, which I originally posted with an image of Bobby Jones, corrected here with a nice image of Mulliniks:

A few of you spotted the error immediately, and I was lucky enough to already have another image of the long time infielder to use as my "fix".

Mulliniks, who had his Topps rookie card in the 1978 set after appearing in 78 games for California in 1977, hit .185 in 1978 over the aforementioned 50 games, with 22 hits over 119 at-bats while putting time in at shortstop.

He'd play in only 22 games during the 1979 season for the Angels before being part of a blockbuster trade in December of 1979 that included Willie Aikens and Al Cowens, seeing the players swap uni's between the Angels and Kansas City Royals.

He'd see limited time with the Royals in 1980 and 1981 before heading off to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he finally found a home and would spend the rest of his 16-year career with, playing 11 seasons for the Jays, generally at third base with some time around the rest of the infield.

He would have some really nice seasons with the Jays, and while never truly a "full-time" player, he'd put in seasons with over 350 plate appearances between 1982 and 1988, hitting as high as .324 (1984) with a couple of other .300+ seasons thrown in.

By the time he retired after the 1992 season, he finished up with 972 hits in 3569 at-bats, good for a .272 mark, with 445 runs scored and 435 runs batted in over 1325 games.