REVISITING A 10-YEAR OLD POST: 1972 CARLTON FISK DEDICATED ROOKIE

Thought it'd be fun to revisit an old post today, this one my 1972 "dedicated rookie" for all-time great Carlton Fisk:

Here's the original write-up as it appeared way back when:

While Carlton Fisk's 1972 rookie card (#79) is one of the nicer rookie cards of the decade in my book, both for design AND the fact that one of my favorite players from my childhood is also on it, Cecil Cooper, it still would have been nice to have a "dedicated" rookie card of "Pudge" instead of a three-player card as seen below:

Today I post up what could be the last "dedicated rookie" subject in the thread, since Fisk is the last of future Hall of Fame players who had a shared rookie card during the 70's.

(Jack Morris may make the Hall, but he DID have a nice 1978 Burger King card that would qualify as a dedicated rookie.)

I may branch out to other stars of the game during the era, like Thurman Munson and Dale Murphy, but time will tell.

But for now, allow me to present my design of a 1972 Carlton Fisk "dedicated" rookie card, using a great 1972 photo from Sports Illustrated as the card image.

Enjoy…

 

On a side note, Cecil Cooper really was one of my favorite players growing up, and I feel he is often a forgotten star of the late 1970's-early 1980's with the Milwaukee Brewers.

I'll have to find something to profile him with later on…

 

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS: LEGENDS EDITION- GEORGE SISLER

Today on the blog we have all-time great George Sisler added to my long-running 1971 "Minor League Days: Legends Edition" thread, in this case a baseball legend who put time in the Minors at the end of his career rather than the beginning:

Here we see Sisler during his year with the Rochester Red Wings in 1931, one year removed from his last Major League season.

In that year at Rochester, Sisler just continued doing what he did best, hit, to the tune of a .309 average with 186 hits over 613 at-bats at the age of 38.

The man was a hitting machine, twice topping .400 and finishing up his 15-year career with a .340 average, with 2812 hits in 8267 at-bats.

Somewhat forgotten was that the man also possessed some speed on the base-paths, as evidenced by his 375 career steals, leading the league four times with a high of 51 in 1922, the year he took home league MVP honors when he collected 246 hits and a batting titles, one of two, hitting an incredible .420 while scoring 134 runs and driving in 105.

Incredibly, at the height of his career, he lost an entire season (1923) due to vision problems, something that definitely kept him from reaching 3000 hits.

But he did return in 1924 and kept on hitting, reaching 200+ hits three more times, six such seasons total, and reaching .300+ six of his final seven seasons.

About as easy a Hall of Fame pick as they came, he was selected for the Hall in 1939, one of the all-time greatest hitters the game has ever seen.

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: AL ROSEN

Up on the blog today, we add former Cleveland Indians slugger Al Rosen to my custom "Classic Baseball" set, celebrating the sport I have loved for close to 50 years now:

Rosen had somewhat of a meteoric Major League career, with superstar seasons between 1950 and 1955 before a pedestrian 1956 season, then retirement. Just like that.

One of the heavy hitters of the Indian teams blessed with uber-pitching (Feller, Garcia, Lemon, Wynn), Rosen had his peak season in 1953 when he just missed a Triple Crown, though taking home the American League MVP Award when he led the league with 43 homers and 145 RBIs to go along with 201 hits and a .336 batting average.

His rookie season of 1950 would have normally gotten someone the Rookie of the Year Award, when he led the league with 37 homers, while driving in 116 runs and scoring 100.

But it happened to fall in the same season as Walt Dropo, who put in one of the greatest rookie seasons of all-time, easily taking home the award over the Cleveland third baseman.

Sadly for him, though still only 32 years of age by 1956, he retired from baseball due to back and leg injuries, thus ending an amazing Big League career just like that, to which he then moved into the world of stock brokerage, which he held for the next two decades before returning to baseball as a Front Office figure.

As a Front Office man, Rosen also saw success, guiding the New York Yankees during their return to greatness during the "Bronx Zoo" days before moving on to the Houston Astros and then the San Francisco Giants through the 1980's.

The man was as tough as they came, and because of his Jewish ancestry, would challenge those who hurled ethnic slurs at him throughout his career, usually with the person backing down.

A very interesting personality in baseball's rich history!

Nevertheless, over his shortened 10 year career, of which there were only seven full seasons, Rosen retired with a .285 average, with 192 homers and 717 RBIs, making four All-Star teams and taking home the aforementioned MVP in 1953.

Not too shabby!

1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: N.L. OUTFIELDER ROBERTO CLEMENTE

The first National League outfielder I've picked on my "All-1960s Decade Team" is an easy one, as are pretty much ALL outfield slots for both leagues to be honest, and today we start with the great Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates:

I'm sure you can also figure out who the other two outfielders for the National League will be as well!

Anyway, as for the man himself, Clemente's career is the stuff of legend: His fiery play on the field, his good deeds, and his absolute adoration by teammates and fans alike.

On the field Clemente's numbers were incredible: four batting titles, five seasons batting over .340, four 200 hit seasons, 12 all-star nods, 12 Gold Gloves and a Most Valuable Player Award in 1966.

And a prime example of Clemente's importance to the game was his immediate induction into Cooperstown by special committee in 1973, waiving the standard five-year wait before a player joins the Hall ballot, as well as the establishment of the "Roberto Clemente Award", given every year to the player that exemplified "outstanding baseball playing skills who is personally involved in community work."

The man was truly something else, and I'm not even thinking of his baseball prowess.

Just special and truly one of a kind!

MISSING ALL-STAR MANAGER: 1970 RED SCHOENDIENST

Today on the blog, we "tweak" Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst's 1970 Topps card to reflect his status as the All-Star Manager from the 1969 All-Star game for the National league, based on his 1968 Pennant-winning season with the St. Louis Cardinals:

As I did many years ago on the blog for the starting nine for each league in the 1969 Midsummer Classic, I added the "All-Star" banner across the bottom of Schoendienst's card to mark his All-Star status of the previous season.

I've always been an on-card" All-Star fan, as Topps did between 1975 and 1981, and never preferred the "extra" All-Star cards of other sets/years.

Something about the All-Star call out on the player's base-card that made it so special in my humble opinion.

Schoendienst first put together a 19-year Hall of Fame career between 1945 and 1963, winning a championship with the Cards as well as the Milwaukee Braves in 1957, before coaching and then managing St. Louis from 1965 to 1976, winning yet another championship in 1967, with a spot managing gig in 1980 and then 1990 all while coaching the team in between, including the 1982 season, giving him a FIFTH championship in his illustrious career.

He put in 2216 games as a player, then went on to manage 1999 games, winning 1041 of them for a .522 winning percentage, while coaching at LEAST another couple thousand games on top of that!
A true baseball "lifer"!

WTHBALLS GUM PACK CUSTOM SET: DAVE PARKER

Today on the blog, my Dave Parker mini-card from my custom "Gum Pack" set released months ago as a bit of an "extra" kick to the WTHBALLS checklist:

Fun little set to create and produce in unique gum pack packaging!

An all-around super-star, Parker hit for average, for power, had a cannon for an arm, and would even steal some bases if needed.

By the time he retired after the 1991 season, a nice 19-year career, he posted over 2700 hits, 1200 runs scored, 500 doubles, almost 1500 runs batted in, 339 home runs and over 150 stolen bases!

He was a seven-time all-star who also finished in the top-10 in M.V.P. voting six times, with three Gold Gloves thrown in for good measure.

The fact that Dave Parker never garnered more than 24.5% of the BBWA Hall of Fame vote (1998) before becoming ineligible in 2011 is just criminal in my eyes.

This man should be in the Hall of Fame. Plain and simple! "Analytics" be damned!

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: CARLTON FISK

Time to go and add Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk to my custom WTHBALLS "Classic Baseball" set, a custom production I plan on issuing over five series later this year in celebration of the sport I love so much pretty much my entire life:

Just a nice in-game shot of the elite catcher.

Carlton Fisk immediately made his impact on the game, unanimously winning the 1972 Rookie of the Year Award by hitting .293 and leading the league with nine triples along with 22 homers and 61 runs batted in.
Of course, we all know he’d go on to star for both the Red Sox and then the Chicago White Sox over the next 21 seasosn, 24 overall, becoming one of the greatest catchers in the history of the game.
He'd be named to eleven all-star games, collect 2356 Major League hits, and slam 376 home runs with 1330 runs batted in and 1276 runs scored.
Of course, he’d also give us one of baseball’s all-time moments, hitting the game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series versus the “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds, the image of him waving the ball fair a part of Major League history.
After eleven years in Boston, he would go on to play 13 more with the White Sox, playing until the age of 45! A tank of a man, and continue to put in solid season after season.
In 1985 at the age of 37, he set career highs in home runs (37) and Runs batted in (107), while tying his career high in stolen bases (17) while catching 130 games. Just amazing.
After missing out on a Hall of Fame selection in 1999 (how the Hell did that happen?), he made it in the following year when he was named on 79.6% of ballots, joining other all-time catchers like Campanella, Berra and Bench in baseball immortality.