HALL OF FAME #22: COOL PAPA BELL: CLASS OF 1974

Today's "Hall of Fame Inductee" is legendary Negro League speedster Cool Papa Bell, recognized as one of the fastest men ever to wear a pair of baseball cleats, and inducted into the Hall in 1974.

Check out the card first:

Depending on where you look, Bell played about 21 years in the Negro Leagues, racking up as many anecdotes about his speed as stolen bases or hits.

He'd go on to become one of the most popular Negro League players in history, and was an eight-time all-star.

According to various records, finished his career with a batting average between .315 and .337, though the exact figures may be lost forever because of spotty record-keeping at the time.

Originally a pitcher when he made his debut for the St. Louis Stars in 1922, he was soon converted to an outfielder to utilize his all around athleticism.

He even excelled in the Mexican League from 1938 to 1941,  taking home a Triple Crown in 1940 when he hit a robust .437 with 12 homers and 79 runs batted in, while his career batting average in that league was a sparkling .367.

I won't get into all the hilarious anecdotes about his speed here, but they are all easily available on-line, from many of his Hall of Fame contemporaries.

For those of you not familiar with them, do yourself a favor and seek them out. Definitely worth the read.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1976 STEVE HUNTZ: "1976 PROJECT"

Next up on my "1976 Project" for Reader Jim is a guy who came back to the Majors after a few years, Steve Huntz.

Take a look at the "missing" 1976 card:

After playing in 35 games for the Chicago White Sox in 1971, Huntz bounced around in the Minors before coming back up to the "Big Show" in 1975 with the San Diego Padres.

He appeared in 22 games, good for 62 plate appearances.

He tallied eight hits in 53 at-bats, good for a .151 batting average, with four doubles, four runs batted in and three runs scored.

It would turn out to be the last of his Major League playing time, as he'd suit up for the Padres Triple-A Hawaii team in 1976 and 1977 before retiring for good.

Could have been a decent "Long Time No See" card since he last appeared in the 1972 set.

One final note, Huntz was part of the trade that brought slugger Dick Allen to the North Side of Chicago when he was traded along with Tommy John to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the "Wampum Walloper" in December of '71.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1978 LENN SAKATA

Here's a curious one: I post today a "missing" 1978 Topps card for former infielder Lenn Sakata.

Take a look at my card design:

 

What makes this curious is the fact that Sakata didn't get a card even though he played in 53 games with 169 plate appearances in 1977, good for at least a spot on those multi-player rookie cards, no?

But he eventually got a spot on a 1980 multi-player rookie card after appearing in only four games with 14 plate appearances in 1979. Strange…

Of course many of you will remember Sakata from his playing days in Baltimore, where he spent six of his eleven Major League seasons.

In 1977 he posted a .162 batting average, collecting 25 hits in 154 official at-bats, with a couple of doubles and homers thrown in.

By the time he retired after the 1987 season after a handful of games with the New York Yankees, Sakata had a .230 batting average with 296 hits in 1289 at-bats, with 46 doubles, four triples, 25 homers and 109 RBI's over 565 games.

JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT- 1970'S BASEBALL TRIVIA PART #99 (A REVISIT OF #17)

Almost at 100 weeks of baseball trivia!

Today we look back at my 17th trivia set from 2013, so take a stab and see which ones ring a bell.

As usual I'll post the answers tomorrow…

1. What team suffered the most losses in one season during the 1970's?

2. What team finished in first place three times, and last place three times during the decade?

3. From 1976 through 1978, three of the four divisions in baseball had the same team end up in first place each season. What division had more than one team end up in first place during these years? And what year was it?

4. What team suffered the most last place finishes in their division during the decade?

5. What season was the only year in the decade to see a team other than the Reds or Dodgers win the N.L. West?


***SPOILER ALERT! ANSWERS BELOW:

1. 1979 Toronto Blue Jays: 53-109.

2. Philadelphia Phillies: First place in 1976/77/78; Last place in 1971/72/73.
 
3. 1976 N.L. West: Reds; 1977/78 Dodgers.
 
4. San Diego Padres: Five times, 1970-1974

5. 1971: San Francisco Giants

MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" #38: 1972 WILLIE HORTON

Time to give long time Detroit Tigers slugger Willie Horton a "missing" 1972 In-Action card:

It's easy to forget how good a career Horton put together between 1963 and 1979 with all of his contemporaries stealing the spotlight, but a quick look at what he accomplished on the baseball diamond is nothing short of impressive.

In 18 years as a big league outfielder and designated hitter, Horton slammed 325 homers with 873 runs scored and 1163 runs batted in, with a .273 batting average and just under 2000 hits (1993).

14 of his 18 seasons in the sun were spent in the Motor City, where he was an important member of their world championship team of 1968, hitting a career high 36 home runs while driving in 85 and batting .285 (in a season where Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with a .301 average).

He topped 20 homers seven times in his career with three 100+ RBI campaigns, on his way to four all-star selections and two top-10 MVP finishes (1965 & 1968).

He finished up his career as a designated hitter, and in 1979 had a comeback year at the age of 36 that saw him hit 29 home runs with 106 RBI's while collecting a career high 180 hits with the Seattle Mariners.

After a partial 1980 season that saw him play in only 97 games, he was released by Seattle just before opening day in 1981, and though he did sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates soon afterwards, he never played a Major League game again, closing out a nice career after 2028 games and 7298 at-bats.

NICKNAMES OF THE '70'S #30: "BLACK & DECKER" DON SUTTON

One of my favorite nicknames of ballplayers that starred during the wild-70's is "Black and Decker", for Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton.

So I went ahead and created a 1978 "Nickname of the 70's" card for him, check it out:

As history likes to remind us, cheating of some sort has always been a part of the game, and with Sutton, he was a master at doctoring the baseball, hence the nom-de-plume…

Whatever he did, or did not do, it all led him to Cooperstown, where he can proudly display his 324 wins, 58 shutouts and 3574 strikeouts over 774 games, 756 of which were starts.

Over his 23 years as a Major League pitcher, he was a part of six Pennant winners, and a minor part of a World Championship team during his final year in 1988 with the team he spent most of his career with, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

There are those that say Sutton, like a few other players who racked up big numbers, was a product of "tenure over domination", that is, that the numbers he garnered in the bigs was more about the amount of years he played over a bunch of dominating seasons.

I don't find that as a problem actually.

Being that there are just as few guys who played a long time while staying very productive as those legends who dominated for a somewhat brief time during their careers, I like to see the Don Suttons, Phil Niekros, Eddie Murrays and Tony Perez' get their due.

Almost a quarter-century of productivity on a Major League mound, leading to numbers like Sutton put up are definitely worth a plaque in Cooperstown, no?

Anyway, I chose a 1978 template since he was coming off of starting the 1977 All-Star game for the National League, while smack in the middle of his solid career. Seemed like a good template to use here.

Hope you all agree…

MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 OSCAR BROWN

Today I'll go ahead and give former Atlanta Braves outfielder Oscar Brown a "missing" card in the 1974 set, take a look at the card I came up with:

Nice and clean, like the rest of that '74 set.

Brown actually finished up a brief five-year career in 1973, appearing in 22 games, with 62 plate appearances and 58 official at-bats.

He batted .207 with 12 hits, three of them doubles, and three runs scored, and finished his career with a .244 batting average, with 77 hits, 14 doubles, two triples, four homers and 28 runs batted in over 160 games, all with Atlanta.

His brother was former big league outfielder "Downtown" Ollie Brown, most notably of the original San Diego Padres.