ON-CARD ALL-STAR: 1970 BILL FREEHAN

Up on the blog today is the first American League All-Star from 1969 to get a "fix" on their 1970 Topps card, starting All-Star catcher Bill Freehan, who in my opinion should be in the Hall of Fame as the best catcher in his league for a significant amount of time:

Really, Freehan does NOT get enough credit for being the best backstop in the A.L. during the 1960's into the 1970's before guys like Carlton Fisk and Thurman Munson came along.

The man was an eleven-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glover and received MVP consideration six times, finishing third and second respectively in 1967 and 1968.

A solid player through and through, he'd retire after the 1976 season with a .262 lifetime average, 200 homers and 758 runs batted in over 1774 games and 6073 at-bats and finished with a .993 fielding percentage while donning the "tools of ignorance".

Really, I need to give Freehan more attention on this blog.

Look for some other customs here in the near future!

 

NEGRO LEAGUE LEGENDS- BEN TAYLOR

It has been nearly three years since I've added a player to my "Negro League Legends" thread, so today I present a card for Ben Taylor, former first baseman and manager:

Taylor spent over 20 years playing in the Negro leagues, beginning with the Birmingham Giants in 1908 through to the Baltimore Black Sox in 1928, while managing until 1938 when he led the Washington Black Senators.

Originally a pitcher when his career began, he eventually established himself playing for his brother. C.I. Taylor, who managed and owned the Indianapolis ABCs.

According to record books, Taylor hit .300 or better in all but one of his first 16 seasons, and even went on to mentor young Buck Leonard at first base.

He finished his career with a .318 batting average, hitting as high as .371 in 1922 with Indianapolis, while scoring 410 runs and driving in 354.

He also ended with a record of 8-6 as a pitcher, with a 4.30 earned run average over 24 appearances and 161.1 innings of work.

In 2006 he was given his rightful place in Cooperstown, being selected by the "Committee on African-American Baseball".

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1973 JIMMY ROSARIO

On the blog today we have a 1973 "not so missing" card for three-year Major League outfielder Jimmy Rosario, who barely saw any action during the 1972 season with the San Francisco Giants:

Rosario was coming off a rookie season in 1971 that saw him play in 92 games, hitting .224 over that time.

Sadly for him, 1972 wasn't as eventful as he appeared in only seven games for the Giants, going 0-2 at the plate with a run scored.

Turns out he would spend the next three years in the Minor Leagues before making it all the way back to the Big Leagues in 1976, now a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, appearing in 15 games and hitting .189 with seven hits in 37 at-bats.

The following year he would go on to the Japanese League where he’d play for the Crown Lighter Lions before playing out his pro career with five seasons in the Mexican League until the age of 37 in 1982.

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1972 BOB BURDA

On the blog today, we have a re-done 1972 card for former first baseman/outfielder Bob Burda, who was originally airbrushed into a Red Sox uniform for his upcoming tenure with his new team.

But on the blog, we give him a card showing him with whom he played for in 1971, the St. Louis Cardinals:

Re-done for blog

Original issue by Topps

Burda appeared in 65 games for St. Louis, a return of sorts since he originally came up with them back in 1962 at the age of 23.

It was a successful reunion of sorts, as he hit a career best .296 with 21 hits in 71 at-bats in his limited role, playing both first base and outfield.

Moving onto 1972, it would turn out to be his last in the Big Leagues, as he would play in 45 games for Boston, hitting .164 with 12 hits in 73 at-bats, with a couple of home runs and nine runs batted in.

For his career Burda would play in 388 games, hitting .224 with 142 hits over 634 at-bats, scoring 53 runs and driving in 78.

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 NYLS NYMAN

On the blog today, how about a "not so missing" 1977 card for former Chicago White Sox outfielder Nyls Nyman?

Well here you go:

Nyman appeared in only eight games for Chicago in 1976, going 2-for-15 at the plate with two runs scored and a run batted in.

This was after a season of 1975 that saw him see the most action of any of his four Big League campaigns when he played in 106 games, hitting .226 with 74 hits over 327 at-bats, setting career highs across the board.

He would follow up the brief 1976 action with a single game in 1977 in what turned out to be the last game of his career, going 0-1 at the plate as a pinch-hitter.

All told, Nyman finished his career with a .238 average with 85 hits over 357 at-bats in 120 games, with 43 runs scored and 33 runs batted in.

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1973 DON ROSE

Today's blog post has a "do-over" for former pitcher Don Rose's 1973 Topps card since I came across this nice image of him as a California Angel, as opposed to the airbrushed image Topps had to go with back then:

RE-DONE

ORIGINAL AS-ISSUED

In 1971 he came up to the Majors with the New York Mets, appearing in a single game and pitching two scoreless innings before being a part of a pretty big trade in the off-season when he was included with a young flame-throwing Nolan Ryan in a deal with the California Angels to get perennial all-star shortstop Jim Fregosi.

Well we all know how that turned out...

Rose would go 1-4 in his lone season with the Angels in 1972, pitching to a 4.22 earned run average over 16 games and 42.2 innings.

During the 1974 season Rose appeared in two games with the San Francisco Giants after spending the previous season in the Minors.
Over those two games he didn’t factor in a decision, posting an earned run average of 9.00 in exactly one inning of work.

Those would end up being the last Big League games of his three-year career.

He would finish his career with 19 appearances and a record of 1-4 along with an E.R.A. of 4.14 over 45.2 innings pitched.

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1978 ROY LEE JACKSON

On the blog today we have a "not so missing" pre-rookie card for former New York Mets pitcher Roy Lee Jackson, who made his Major League debut during the 1977 season:

Jackson appeared in four games for the Mets, going 0-2 with a 6.00 earned run average over 24 innings of work as a 23-year-old.

He'd pitch another three years with the Mets, never really becoming a full-timer until joining his second team, the Toronto Blue Jays in 1981, where he became a dependable arm out of the bullpen over four seasons.

In 1985 he joined the San Diego Padres for a season, going 2-3 with a nice 2.70 ERA over 22 games before playing what turned out to be his last Big League action in 1986 with the Minnesota Twins, going 0-1 over 28 games with a 3.86 ERA.

All told, in 10 Major League seasons, Jackson ended up with a career 28-34 record, with a 3.77 ERA and 34 saves over 280 appearances and 559 innings pitched.