Today
we have a career-capping 1979 “not so missing” card for former pitcher
Gene Pentz, who played out his four-year MLB career with 10 appearances
for the Houston Astros in 1978:
He didn’t factor in a decision over those appearances, pitching to an
earned run average of 6.00 in 15 innings of work, all out of the
bullpen.
The previous two seasons were successful for the reliever, as he went a
combined 8-5 over 81 appearances, with seven saves and an ERA at about
3.50 for Houston.
He made his MLB debut in 1975 with the Detroit Tigers, appearing in 13
games and going 0-4 with an ERA of 3.20 over 25.1 innings, again all out
of the ‘pen.
All told, Pentz went 8-9 for his career, appearing in 104 games and
posting an ERA of 3.63 in 191 innings pitched, with seven saves and four
starts.
Today
we have a card that I originally pegged as “not really missing”, but
upon further review consider it really a “missing” career-capping card
for former Cleveland Indians pitcher Vince Colbert:
Colbert, who spent all three years of his Big League career with the
Indians between 1970 and 1972, appeared in 22 games during the 1972
season, going 1-7 with an earned run average of 4.58 over 74.2 innings
pitched.
The previous year was his only “full” season when he appeared in 50
games, going 7-6 with a 3.97 ERA, starting 10 of those games and
completing two.
In his MLB debut of 1970 he appeared in 23 games, going 1-1 with a 7.26
ERA in 31 innings, giving us a final Big League record of 9-14 over 95
appearances, with an ERA of 4.57 in 248.1 innings of work, with three
complete games and a shutout, along with four saves.
Today
we have a “not so missing” 1970 card for former pitcher Bill Edgerton,
who was one of the Seattle Pilots during their one year as a Major
League franchise in 1969:
Edgerton, who made it back to a Big League mound after spending all of
1968 in the Minors, appeared in four games during the 1969 season, going
0-1 with an ERA of 13.50 in four innings of work.
Before that he made brief appearances in both 1966 and 1967 for the
(then) Kansas City Athletics, going a combined 1-1 with an ERA of about
3.00 in 13 games and 16.2 innings pitched.
He finished his three year career with a record of 1-2 over 17
appearances, pitching to an ERA of 4.79 in 20.2 innings, striking out 11
batters while walking 10.
Up on the blog today we have a career-capping “not so missing” 1973 card for former Cleveland Indians infielder Lou Camilli:
Camilli, who spent all four seasons of his Big League career with
Cleveland, appeared in 39 games over the 1972 campaign, hitting .146
with six hits over 41 at-bats with three runs batted in, the only RBIs
of his career actually.
Never a full-time player by any means, the most action he saw was in
1971 when he appeared in 39 games with 89 plate appearances, hitting
.198 with 16 hits and five runs scored over 81 official at-bats.
Overall for his brief career, Camilli hit .146 with 22 hits, seven runs
scored and three RBIs in 151 at-bats over 107 games between 1969 and
1972.
Another
fun 1978 “traded” card to add to the mix, a Willie Horton edition for
the former slugger who had himself an active season as part of four
organizations between January and December:
Horton was traded by the Texas Ranger to the Cleveland Indians on
February 28th along with former pitching phenom David Clyde for Tom
Buskey and John Lowenstein.
He’d play for the Tribe through July 3rd before being released, only to
be picked up by the Oakland A’s ten days later, where he’d play for
about a month before getting traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for the
rest of the season.
Overall he’d hit 11 homers and drive in 60 runs over 115 games, which I’m sure must have been frustrating for the guy.
However, By the time the 1979 season opened up, he found himself a
member of the Seattle Mariners as their full-time DH, and boy did he
have himself a season, hitting 29 homers and driving in 106 runs, which
was a career high at the age of 36.
He also collected 180 hits and batted .279 over 162 games and 646
at-bats, again both career-highs for a guy many considered old and done
as far as his career was concerned.
Incredible comeback season.
He’d play one more season before retiring, finishing up with 325 homers
and 1163 runs batted in, with just under 2000 hits and a .273 average
over 2028 games and 7298 at-bats.
Of course, most of hisn career was spent as a fan favorite Detroit Tiger
between 1963 and 1977, the high point as a member of the 1968 World
Champion team.
Wonderful career!
Had
this photo prepped for a 1970 “special” for a long while now, so here
goes, the magnificent National League All-Stars lined up ready to play
in 1969:
Just look at this assembly of Major League baseball superstardom!
Starting on the left, Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst as your manager,
followed by Matty Alou, Don Kessinger, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Ron
Santo, Clean Jones, Johnny Bench and Felix Milan.
I love seeing the uber-young Johnny Bench here, barely out of his teens,
ready to cruise towards the Hall of Fame, standing side-by-side with
some other baseball Gods like Aaron and McCovey.
Add into the fact that the National league starting pitcher for the game
was another future Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton, and I’d say you have a
pretty nifty starting nine, don’t you?
Fantastic.
Time
to go ahead and give former Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Beard one last
“not so missing” card to wrap up his four-year MLB career, this one a
1978 edition:
Beard played the last of his Big League games during the 1977 season,
appearing in four games while not factoring in a decision, with a
bloated 9.64 earned run average over 4.2 innings of work.
He spent all four seasons with Atlanta, coming up in 1974 with six
appearances before having a nice 1975 year when he went 4-0 over 34
games with an ERA at 3.20.
All told, he finished his career with a record of 4-2 over 74
appearances, posting a final ERA of 3.74 over 118 innings pitched, all
but two of those games out of the bullpen.
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