MINOR LEAGUE DAYS- PHIL NIEKRO

Today on the blog we go and add Hall of Famer Phil Niekro to my long-running “Minor League Days” thread, celebrating stars of Major League Baseball around 1971 with a card showing them before they hit the Big Leagues:

Incredibly enough, Niekro was already a 25-year-old when he put in one season with the Denver Bears in 1964, going 11-5 with a 3.45 earned run average over 29 appearances after spending all of 1963 in the Military.
Later that season he would make his Major League debut with 10 games for the Milwaukee Braves, not factoring in a decisions while sporting an ERA of 3.45 over 15 innings.
It is incredible to think Niekro didn’t have a full season on Big League duty until 1967 at the age of 28, yet still went on to pitch 24 seasons, winning 318 games with a very nice 3.35 ERA along with 45 shutouts and 3342 strikeouts before he was done at the age of 48!
I always thought it amazing that at the age of 44 in 1983, he took home the last of his five Gold Gloves, ALL of which were garnered beginning his age 39 season in 1978.
Ageless!

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- (DEDICATED ROOKIE EDITION) 1977 GARY WHEELOCK

For fun today our blog post has a 1977 “not so missing dedicated rookie” card for former pitcher Gary Wheelock, who made his MLB debut during the 1976 season with the California Angels:

Wheelock actually appeared on a multi-player rookie card in a small airbrushed Seattle Mariners cap, so since I came across this nice image of him with the California Angels, I figured "why not?" and created this version. Wheelock appeared in two games for California as a September call-up, not factoring in a decision while getting hit hard, to the tune of a 27.00 earned run average over two innings,
He would find himself a member of the new Seattle Mariners organization in 1977 and appear in 17 games for his new team, going 6-9 with a 4.89 ERA over 88.1 innings in that inaugural season.
Sadly for him however, he’d spend the next three seasons in the Minors before making it all the way back for one last game in 1980, throwing three innings while giving up two runs, again not factoring in a decision.
After a brief Minor League season for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981 where he appeared in nine games, he called it a career, finishing with a record of 6-9 over 20 games, with an ERA of 5.40 in 93.1 innings of work.

 

TRADED- 1974 BEN OGLIVIE

On the blog today, a card I’ve wanted to do for quite a long time now, and with the help of my friend Chris in Colorado now a possibility, my 1974 “traded” card for former slugger Ben Oglivie:

After playing the first three years of his Major League career with the Boston Red Sox, Oglivie found himself in the “Motor City” after a straight-up trade for Dick McAuliffe on October 23rd of 1973.
He would continue to be played as a platoon-player over the next four seasons, averaging about 100 games a year, but nevertheless playing well as he showed power and a decent batting average hovering around .280.
However it wasn’t until he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for pitcher Jim Slaton that he’d finally find full-time work, eventually becoming a legitimate slugger who’d lead the American League in 1980 with 41 homers, along with a career-high 118 runs batted in and 94 runs scored.
He would play with the Brewers through the rest of his 16-year career, until 1986, before going on to play in Japan for two seasons with Kintetsu, where he’d his 46 homers combined.
Overall in his MLB career, Oglivie batted .273 with 235 homers and 901 RBI’s, with 1615 hits over 5913 at-bats and 1754 games, getting three All-Star nods and a Silver Slugger for his Home Run champion 1980 season.
Thank you Chris!!!!

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1975 PAT BOURQUE

Today’s blog post offers up a “fix” for a situation that I’m always fascinated about: Topps trying to get the card right, eventually getting shafted with a late-minute transaction.
In this case, Pat Bourque, who was originally shown in the 1975 set as an Oakland A’s player, even though he finished the 1974 season as a Minnesota Twin, and never played Big League ball again:

Bourque played the last 23 games of the 1974 season with the Twins after coming over from Oakland, hitting .219 with 14 hits in 64 at-bats, with five runs scored and eight runs batted in.
But after the season ended, he was traded by Minnesota back to Oakland, for whom he started the 1974 season with, but would never appear in a Major League game with.
As a matter of fact, instead of playing baseball in the States again, he took his talents South to Mexico where he played the next four years with the Mexico City Reds before finally retiring after the 1978 season.
Nevertheless, it gives us a unique oddball 1975 card showing him with the A’s, for whom he never played again, and no cards of him as a Twin, which I fixed today.

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 KEN OBERKFELL

Today’s blog post has a pre-rookie “not so missing” 1979 card for former third baseman Ken Oberkfell, who was just embarking on a very nice 16-year Major League career:

Oberkfell appeared in two-dozen games for the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1978 season, after making his Big League debut in 1977 with nine games.
Over those 24 games in 1978, hit hit a disappointing .120 with six hits in 50 at-bats, scoring seven runs while collecting his first extra-base-hit, a double.
Of course as you know, he would go on to play 16 seasons in the Big Leagues, the first eight with the Cardinals before moving on to the Atlanta Braves for five years, before playing out his career with four others between 1988 and 1992.
Oberkfell gave St. Louis a solid few seasons between 1979 and 1983, never hitting below .289 while admirably manning third base, including their 1982 championship season.
By the time he retired after the 1992 season, he finished with a .278 career average, with 1354 hits over 4874 at-bats and 1602 games, with 558 runs scored and 446 runs batted in.

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 ANDY MERCHANT

Up on the blog today, a “not so missing” 1977 card for two-year Major leaguer Andy Merchant of the Boston Red Sox, who played the last of his brief Big League career in 1976:

Merchant, who was originally up to the Majors in 1975 for one single game, was back in 1976, this time for two games, completing what was to be a brief three game career.
Over his three Major League games, the catcher hit .333 with two hits over six at-bats, scoring a run while drawing one base on balls.
He would go on to play another three full seasons in Boston’s Minor League system before calling it a career, which began back in 1972 as a 21-year-old.
He played his entire professional career in the Boston organization, never really playing full-time it seems, with a career high 119 games in the Minors in the 1975 season.

 

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS- LOU BROCK

Next up in my “Minor League Days” 1971 sub-set is St. Louis Cardinals legend and Hall of Famer Lou Brock, “The Franchise”, who sadly passed away recently along with quite a few other legends of the game:

Brock was in his first season of professional ball when this photo was taken in 1961, playing for the St. Cloud Rox, the Chicago Cubs C-level Minor League team.
In his sole season there Brock lit up the league, hitting .361 with 181 hits and 117 runs scored in 128 games, stealing 38 bases, driving in 82, and collecting 53 extra base hits.
Brock really was an under-appreciated player in my book, having to get what little spotlight he could playing the outfield in the National league when you had guys like Mays, Aaron and Clemente there as well.
Nevertheless, the man made six All-Star squads, finished second in the MVP race for the National League in 1974, and would go on to a Hall of Fame induction thanks to 3000+ hits, an MLB record 938 stolen bases, and 1610 runs scored.
Did you know that between 1964 and 1974 the LEAST amount of hits he collected in any one season was 182?
As a matter of fact in those eleven seasons he collected over 190 hits eight times, while scoring less than 90 only once.
Just an incredible, “quiet” Major League career rarely matched before or since, without all the fan-fare outside of his 1974 season when he shattered the MLB stolen base record with 118.
Heck, even his last season of 1979, at the age of 40, Brock hit .304 with 21 stolen bases over 120 games and 436 plate appearances.
All-out legend.