Super
fun card to create for the long running “nicknames” thread, a 1975
edition for Oakland A’s star Gene Tenace, aka “Steamboat”:
Tenace, an important cog in the three-peat champion A’s teams of the
mid-decade, was having himself a wonderful run between 1973 and 1976.
Constantly hitting 20+ homers and drawing 100+ walks a year, his on-base-percentage was always hovering around the .400 mark.
After the 1976 season Tenace, along with many of his star teammates was
shipped off by eccentric team owner Charlie Finley, and found himself as
a member of the San Diego Padres, where he would play for the next four
seasons before moving on to St. Louis for two years and lastly the
Pittsburgh Pirates in 1983, his last in the big leagues.
He would total 15-years in the Major Leagues, winning three
championships, an all-star berth in 1975, and hitting 201 home runs
while batting .241 along with a very nice .388 on-base-percentage
because of his walk totals.
Oh yeah, and he had an awesome full name: Fiore Gino Tennaci!
Don’t
know why it took my so long to create a 1974 “not so missing” card for
former New York Mets outfielder Dave Schneck, but here you go:
In 1973 Schneck appeared in 13 games, good for 36 plate appearances,
hitting only .194 with seven hits, including two runs scored and a
triple while playing out in centerfield.
He’d play three years in the Big Leagues, all for the Mets before he was
shipped to the Phillies as part of the Tug McGraw/John Stearns deal in
December of 1974.
He would go on to play in the Minors for Philly, Cincinnati and the
Chicago Cubs for another three years before hanging them up, leaving us
with 143 games played for his career, with a .199 batting average based
on 82 hits over 413 at-bats, with eight homers and 35 RBIs.
On
the blog today we have a “not so missing” card for former reliever Mike
Stanton, who made his Big League debut in 1975 with the Houston Astros:
Stanton appeared in seven games for Houston as a 22 year old, going 0-2
with a 7.27 earned run average over 17.1 innings of work.
He’d go back to the Minor Leagues for the next four seasons before
making it back to a Major League mound in 1980, now as a member of the
Cleveland Indians, for whom he’d pitch the next two years before moving
on to the Seattle Mariners in 1982.
He’d pitch for Seattle for the rest of his seven-year career save for
the final 11 games of his career with the Chicago White Sox in 1985,
appearing in 277 games, all but three of them out of the bullpen,
finishing with a career 13-22 record, with a 4.61 ERA and 31 saves and
304 strikeouts over 384.1 innings of wor.
Today
on the blog we have a “not so missing” 1977 card for former infielder
Tim Nordbrook, who split the 1976 season between the Baltimore Orioles
and California Angels:
Nordbrook, who originally came up to the Big Leagues in 1974, appeared
in 32 games split between the two teams in 1976, hitting .167 with 5
hits over 30 at-bats, scoring five runs with a stolen base.
He would go on to play in parts of six seasons through 1979, never
playing more than 41 games in any year across five organizations,
finishing with a .178 batting average with 30 hits in 169 at-bats over
129 games.
Time
to go and post up my 1979 traded card for the “Mad Hungarian” Al
Hrabosky, who found himself dealt to the American League West champion
Kansas City Royals over the Winter of 1977/78:
Hrabosky was already entrenched as one of the premier relievers of the
Senior Circuit when he was traded to the Royals for Mark Little and Buck
Martinez on December 8th.
He’d go on to play two seasons for K.C., performing very well with 31 saves and a combined 17-11 record, finishing 84 games.
But after the 1979 season he’d be on the move again, heading to the
Atlanta Braves where he would pitch the last three seasons of his
career, developing arm problems and retiring at the end of 1982.
He would finish a very nice 64-35, with a 3.10 ERA and 97 saves over 545
appearances and 722 innings pitched between 1970 and 1982, finishing in
the Top-5 in NL Cy Young voting in both 1974 and 1975.
Of course, the mark he really left on the game were his insane antics,
psyching himself up on the mound like a madman with his back to the
batter before he spun around in an apparent rage.
Classic stuff from one of the real characters of 1970’s baseball!
Today
we have a “not so missing” 1978 card for two-year Major league pitcher
Johnny Sutton, who made his Big League debut during the 1977 season as a
member of the St. Louis Cardinals:
Sutton appeared in 14 games for the Red Birds and did very well,
pitching to a 2-1 record with a nice 2.59 earned run average over 24.1
innings of work.
Over the Winter he was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the Rule 5
Draft, and proceeded to appear in 17 games during the 1978 campaign, not
factoring in a decision and pitching to a 3.45 ERA over 44.1 innings.
Sadly for him however, he’d end up pitching in the Minor Leagues over
the next four out of five seasons (missing all of 1981), never getting
another chance at a Major league game again.
He’d finish his tenure with a record of 2-1 over 31 appearances, with an
ERA of 3.15 with 27 strikeouts in 68.2 innings pitched. A nice brief
MLB career for sure.
Wanted
to add this “nickname” card to the long-running series, even though
technically he wouldn’t be considered a “1970s” player.
Nevertheless, veteran Major League infielder “Ducky” Dick Schofield
wound up a nice 19-year career in 1971, carving out a Big League tenure
as a valuable glove to fill-in or platoon throughout the years:
Schofield would end up splitting the 1971 season, his last, between the
St. Louis cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers, finishing up with 1321
games played, 3083 at-bats and 699 hits, good for a .227 career average.
Over those 19 seasons he played for seven organizations, three in the
American League and four in the National League, playing what we would
consider a “full” season only twice, in 1963 with the Pittsburgh Pirates
and 1965 when he split the season with the Pirates and San Francisco
Giants.
Later on his son Dick Jr, as well as grandson Jayson Werth would play in
the Big Leagues, making them one of the rare three-generation baseball
families out there.
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