1971 SPECIAL- OLIVA AND KILLEBREW: "TWIN TERRORS"

Came across this great image for former Minnesota Twins all-stars Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew circa 1970 and thought it’d make for a great 1971 special, so here goes:

What a great pair of players!
Olive, the three-time batting champion and 1964 American League Rookie of the Year, along with Killebrew, the eight-time American League home run champion and 1969 Most Valuable Player.
A case can also be made that Oliva should have been the 1965 A.L. Most Valuable Player over his teammate Zoilo Versalles (which I happen to agree with), but he had to settle for second place in the voting, which he’d also do in 1970 when he finished behind Baltimore’s Boog Powell for the honor.
Nevertheless, the two studs gave the Twins such a potent double-threat in their line-up for years, and must have been a joy to watch day-in and day-out!
Oliva 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 lead the lead in batting, this time hitting .321, with 16 homers, 98 R.B.I.'s, 40 doubles and 107 runs scored.
He also lead 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 warrant 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.
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-existant years in 1962, 1963 and 1972. 
So his numbers carry a bit more weight in that light.
Killebrew?
What does anyone need to be reminded of regarding Killebrew?
He was an absolute BEAST at the plate, crushing 573 lifetime homers, MOST of them during the pitching-era of the 1960's into the '70's.
Eight 40+ home run seasons, nine 100+ runs batted in seasons, seven 100+ base-on-balls seasons, an M.V.P. in 1969 (with five top-5 finishes in M.V.P. voting as well), and a Hall of Fame induction in 1984.
Just awesome!

 

GIMMIE A MONSTER DO-OVER: HANK AARON'S 1975 ALL-STAR BASE CARD

OK!
Now here is a card I have been meaning to create for years, Hank Aaron’s “base” 1975 All-Star card, which for some reason Topps managed to screw up way back when:

 

 

Now, as we know Topps went ahead and made Aaron’s base card an airbrushed Milwaukee Brewer card with his recent trade back to “where it all began” for him.
However, instead of doing what they did with Bobby Murcer, where he’d still have the “All-Star” logo on his base card, they went ahead and put the All-Star on his “Record Breaker” card.
Now, I know a lot of you love the way Topps handled it, but I have always hated it, since I was a kid trying to keep all my All-Star cards together in their yellow and red beautiful glory.
Not that I was really a fan of the Bobby Murcer card with him as a San Francisco Giant yet labeled an American League All-Star outfielder, but at least when paged all together it made sense!
Nevertheless, I created two versions, a posed version and an action version to make the set complete!
Hope you enjoy them! 

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- OTTO VELEZ

Up on the blog today, how about a “not so missing” 1976 card for Otto Velez, who played in a half-dozen games during the 1975 season for the New York Yankees:

Velez, who got his first taste of the Big Leagues in 1973 at the age of 22, played in 23, 27 and then six games respectively between his debut year and 1975.
In 1975 he hit .250 over his brief action, collecting two hits in eight at-bats along with a run batted in while playing some first base along with being a designated hitter.
He’d be back with the Yankees in 1976, appearing in 49 games for the eventual American League champions, hitting .266 with a couple of homers, 11 runs scored and 10 RBIs.
His career would take different path when he was the 53rd pick in the 1976 expansion draft, for the new Toronto Blue Jays organization, and would have a decent year for the Jays in 1977 when he batted .256 with 16 homers and 62 runs batted in.
He would stay with the team for the next five years, hitting as many as 20 homers (1980) as well as matching the ‘77 RBI total that very same year.
Velez would put 11 years in the Major Leagues, batting .251 with 78 homers and 272 runs batted in, while collecting 452 hits in 1802 at-bats over 637 games.

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1975 RICK STELMASZEK

Up on the blog today is another do-over, this time a 1975 re-do for former catcher Rick Stelmaszek, who had himself a nifty airbrush job by the fine people at Topps, but is now given a fresh new pic for his card thanks to the gift of passing time:

Oddly enough Stelmaszek played for the Chicago Cubs in 1974, appearing in 25 games. It was the only Big League action he saw, so the airbrushed job for 1975 is a bit weird.
For those that don’t remember the original, here you go:

I wonder why Topps didn’t have an image for him WITH the team he actually played for the year prior.
As for his career, after coming up in 1971 for six games with the Senators, Stelmaszek spent the 1972 season In the Minors before making it back to the Big Leagues in 1973, going on to appear in seven games for the now relocated franchise before a trade in May sent him to the Angels.
He’d appear in 22 games for California, one of the MANY catchers the Angels seemed to have at that time, batting .154 for them and a combined .143 between the two organizations.
It was a short-lived tenure with his new team, and he would find himself playing for his hometown Chicago Cubs by the time the 1974 season opened up, playing in 25 games and batting .227 with 10 hits over 56 at-bats while filling in behind the plate.
Those would actually be the last Big League games for Stelmaszek, though he would toil in the Minors for another four years, each year for a different organization, retiring as a player after the 1978 season.
All told, he finished with a .170 batting average, with 15 hits over 88 at-bats in 60 lifetime games, driving in 10 runs while scoring four himself.

 

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1971 RICK DEMPSEY

Time to go and give long-time Major League catcher Rick Dempsey a “not so missing” 1971 card after appearing in five games for the Minnesota Twins during the 1970 season:

Dempsey was still only 20 years old when he made it to the Big Leagues for the second season in a row, making his MLB debut as a teen in 1969 for the West champion Twins.
Over his five games in 1970 he went 0-7 at the plate, scoring a run, this after going 3-for-6 at the plate in 1969 for a cool .500 batting average.
Of course, we know know that he would go on to play in four decades, playing 24 years between 1969 and 1992, mainly for the Baltimore Orioles, as well as short stints with the New York Yankees, Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers.
Never a full-time player, he was an important platoon or “off the bench” catcher that would be a part of two World Championship teams (1983 Orioles and 1988 Dodgers), even taking home the 1983 World Series MVP when he hit .385 for Baltimore in their win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
By the time he retired, he ended up with a career .233 average, with 1093 hits in 4692 at-bats over 1765 games, while also being a huge jokester cracking fans up along the way.
I’ll always remember his rain-delay act with over-stuffed uniform as he “slip and slid” across the tarp while with the Orioles some time during the early-80’s.
Great career and character.

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1970 JIM GOSGER

Up on the blog today we have a 1970 “not so missing” card for former outfielder Jim Gosger, who split his 1969 campaign in dramatic fashion, starting the season off with the new Seattle Pilots franchise, then moving on to the eventual World Champion New York Mets:

Gosger was sent over to the Mets in July to complete an earlier trade from February that involved Greg Goossen, and he went on to appear in 10 games for the “Amazins”, hitting .133 over that time with two hits in 15 at-bats.
He would move on to the Montreal Expos for both the 1970 and 1971 seasons before spending all of 1972 in the Minor Leagues.
He’d make it back to the Majors in 1973, again with the Mets, where he would play in 38 games, followed by another 26 in 1974, which would end up being the last of his Big League career.
He had a 10-year career that saw him suit up for the Boston Red Sox, Kansas City/Oakland A’s, Seattle Pilots, Montreal Expos and Mets before retiring after the 1974 season.
All told he batted .226 for his career with 411 hits, 197 runs scored, 30 homers and 177 runs batted in over 705 career games and 1815 at-bats.

 

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER- 1973 TOM HALLER

For the fun of it, today’s blog post has a re-done 1973 card for former all-star catcher Tom Haller, who was actually shown by Topps as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, airbrushed of course.
Take a look at the re-do and original cards:

Original 1973 Topps card

Re-done Tigers version

Actually, Haller finished the 1972 season with the Detroit Tigers, appearing in 59 games and hitting .207 with 25 hits in 121 at-bats in what turned out to be the last Big League action he’d see.
However on October 25th of 1972 Haller was purchased by the Phillies, so Topps understandably was trying to get ahead and have Haller as a Phillie for the upcoming 1973 set.
Well, as we have seen many times before (and since), turns out Haller would get released by Philadelphia in February of 1973, making the Phillies airbrush card unnecessary.
Regardless, Haller was a three-time All-Star over his 12-year Big League career, as well as garnering a little “MVP-attention” in back-to-back years in 1968 and 1969 while with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
His best year would have to be 1966 while with the San Francisco Giants when he hit a career-best 27 home runs along with 67 runs batted in, scoring 74 runs, hitting .240 with 113 hits in 471 at-bats.
All told he finished his career with a .257 average, with 134 homers and 504 RBIs over 1294 games and 3935 at-bats between 1961 and 1972.