WTHBALLS "BASEBALL ICONS" SPECIAL SET: JUAN MARICHAL

On the blog today, the "Dominican Dandy" Juan Marichal gets a card in my future custom "Icons" set, to be released in special packaging with still to be decided inserts and extras:

Legendary leg kick for a legendary pitcher!

The man was born to pitch.

Once called up to the big show in 1961, he would go 6-2 over his first 11 starts, with a 2.66 ERA and six complete games, including a shutout in his 1st MLB start.
As much as Marichal is celebrated as an all-time pitching legend, you still have to feel for the guy when you consider the timing of all his banner years in the big leagues.
In 1963 he had his breakout year, going 25-8 with a 2.41 E.R.A., but takes a back seat to another guy who has a breakout year, Sandy Koufax.
In 1966 he wins 25 games again, but again takes a backseat to a now dominating Koufax, who wins 27 along with a bunch of other eye-popping numbers.
In 1968 he sets a career high of 26 wins to go along with a 2.43 earned run average, but wait, a guy named Bob Gibson has a year for the ages, winning both the Cy Young Award and the M.V.P.
But when you look at the decade as a whole, there wasn't a better pitcher in the game from 1960-1969, as Marichal went on to win 191 games, winning 25 or more wins three times, post seven sub-3.00 E.R.A. seasons,  top 200+ strikeouts six times , and get selected as an all-star every year between 1962-1969.
What a BEAST on the mound!
Easily would have been the first 3-time Cy Young winner if not for Koufax and Gibson.
Ah well, I’m sure his spot in Cooperstown makes it a bit easier to take.

"Dominican Dandy" indeed!

REVISITING A POST FROM 2014: 1979 "THEN & NOW" LOU BROCK

Good day everyone.

On the blog today we revisit a post from October of 2014, my 1979 "Then & Now" card for the great Lou Brock:

I loved creating cards for this thread a while back, fun stuff!

Here's the original post from that day:

Man! Here's a guy who is often overlooked in baseball history, and funny enough I almost forgot all about him for my "Then and Now" series: Lou Brock.

I just had to use a picture of him with that Cardinals cap on! Just takes me back…

By the end of the 1979 season Brock was closing out his Hall of Fame career, nailing down his 3000th hit to go along with his 938 stolen bases, 1610 runs scored and .293 lifetime average.

Even at the age of 40 he was doing well, batting over .300 (.304) with 21 stolen bases!

An eight-time stolen base champ, he also collected 200 hits in a season four times, with another four seasons of over 190, and he also scored 100+ runs in a season seven times.

Incredibly enough, in Brock's 19-year career, he made the All-Star team only six times! 

The price you pay for coming up during the years of Mays, Aaron, and Clemente! 

Tough luck indeed!

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: MICKEY LOLICH

Time to add former Detroit Tigers ace and World Series hero Mickey Lolich to my custom "Classic Baseball" set, to be released later this year in multiple series:

Lolich was the definition of a "workhorse" for the Tigers, reeling off 12 straight seasons of 200+ innings pitched, including a staggering four straight 300+ inning stretch between 1971 and 1974.

Along the way he posted two 20-win seasons, with a high of 25 in 1971 when he started an incredible 45 games, completing 29 and throwing a staggering 376 innings!
He also posted four shutouts that year as well as a league-leading 308 strikeouts, finishing second in the Cy Young Award behind Oakland pitcher Vida Blue.
After a 12-18 campaign in 1975, Lolich was traded to the New York Mets for Rusty Staub where he went 8-13 before missing the 1977 season.
In 1978 he was back in the Big Leagues, now with the San Diego Padres, where he went 2-1 over 20 appearances, posting a brilliant 1.56 ERA over 34.2 innings pitched.
After a final season of MLB ball in 1979 that saw him go 0-2 with a bloated 4.74 ERA in 27 appearances, Lolich retired, ending up with a 217-191 record along with 2832 strikeouts, at one point the Major League record for left-handed pitchers, as well as 41 shutouts and a 3.44 ERA in 586 appearances over 16-years.

REVISITING A POST FROM 2014: MISSING 1976 ART HOWE

Good day everyone.

Today we revisit a post from 2014, my "missing" 1976 card for Art Howe, part of the "1976 Project" I worked on with my buddy Jim:

Here's the original written post as well:

Here's a "missing" card I created for one of the blog readers here. As a matter of fact I've happily taken on a project for him, creating numerous 1976 cards of players who were either omitted from the set for some reason, or were portrayed on the wrong team.

This also helps ME create more 1976 Topps cards, as it is easily my favorite all-time set! So it's "win-win"!

So moving forward, for this series, which will also appear on this blog as I create these cards, I will add the "1976 Project" in the title, as some of the cards don't necessarily fit into any of my subject-threads.

The future Major League manager actually played in 63 games for the Pirates in 1975, gathering 162 plate appearances, so really he should have had a card.

He hit .171 for the year, with nine doubles and a homer along with 10 runs batted in and 13 runs scored.

His 11-year career as a player would really hit it's stride after joining the Houston Astros, as he'd play pretty much full-time between 1977 and 1982 before a couple of part-time years in St. Louis in 1984 and 1985 (he didn't play Major League ball in 1983).

As you all know, he'd really find his niche on the Major League level as a manager, guiding the Astros, Oakland A's and New York Mets between 1989 and 2004.

His real success was leading the young studs in Oakland in the late-90's/early-00's, winning 100-games in two seasons (2001 and 2002), but never being able to get past the N.Y. Yankees (remember the now-famous "Jeter-Flip"?).

All told, Howe would win 1129 games as a manager in the Big Leagues, finishing 2nd in "Manager of the Year" voting four years in a row from 1999-2002.

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: TONY PEREZ

This week we have TWO cards added to my future custom "Classic Baseball" set, earlier with Tony Oliva, and today with "Big Dog" Tony Perez, an RBI-machine if there ever was one:

Perez truly was an overlooked star on a team that would also have guys like Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, just to name a few, and it’s just plain criminal considering he logged 10 seasons in a row over 90+ runs batted in, with six of them over 100 as stated earlier.
With a batting average hovering around .280, he was a solid and steady force at the plate and out in the field for a team that would become legendary, on their way to two straight championships in 1975 and 1976.
He would play for 23 seasons in the Major Leagues, and end up with 379 homers, 1652 RBI’s, 2732 hits and a very nice .279 average before he left the game at the age of 44.
The “Big Dog”, Sparky Anderson always stated that what killed the “Big Red Machine” from dominating for a longer period of time was trading away their slugging first baseman in December of 1976 to the Montreal Expos for Woodie Fryman and Dale Murray, a trade that still baffles me.
Nevertheless, after nine tries, he finally made it into the Hall of Fame in 2000, and rightly so. Hopefully Pete Rose can also join his former teammates someday as well.

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: TONY OLIVA

The next baseball superstar to get added to my future custom "Classic Baseball" set is three-time American League batting champ Tony Oliva of the Minnesota Twins:

Just a nice portrait shot of the man who was born to hit a baseball.

He 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 led the lead in batting, this time hitting .321, with 16 homers, 98 R.B.I.'s, 40 doubles and 107 runs scored.
He also led 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 "definitely" warranted 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, and come 2022 he would be selected for a spot in Cooperstown, which is just fine with me!
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-existent years in 1962, 1963 and 1972. 
So his numbers carry a bit more weight in that light.
And wow, what a great hitting combo he and Rod Carew made for the Twins, huh?!
Nice 1-2 punch right there.

 

REVISITING A POST FROM 2015: MISSING 1972 MIKE TORREZ

Today we'll revisit my "missing" 1972 card for long-time pitcher Mike Torrez, at one time about as reliable an arm there was in the Big Leagues:

Torrez barely played in 1971, as he split time between the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos (for only one game), totaling 10 games and 39 innings of work.

But in 1972 he would begin a nice run when he posted a 16-12 record with a 3.33 earned run average and 112 strikeouts over 34 games, 33 of which were starts, and 243.1 innings pitched.

During the middle of the decade he did something I always thought was amazing: he won 14 or more games five years in a row, with FIVE different teams!

He won 15 in 1974 with the Expos, 20 in 1975 with the Orioles (of course, right?), 16 in 1976 with the A's, 14 in 1977 (after coming over from Oakland with a 3-1 record) with the Yankees, and then 16 with the Red Sox in 1978.

That's a pretty cool run! He even went on to win 16 games yet again the following year while still pitching for Boston.

By the time he retired after the 1984 season, Torrez fashioned himself a solid 18-year career that saw him go 185-160, with a 3.96 E.R.A., 1404 strikeouts and 15 shutouts over 494 games, 458 of which were starts.

He also won two games in the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers, pitching a complete game in both starts, yielding a 2.50 E.R.A. with 15 strikeouts. Not bad at all…