Tuesday, October 15, 2024
OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 MARTY PEREZ
Today on the blog we take a look at the image variation for Marty Perez and his 1977 OPC and Topps cards:
I
always liked that 1977 Topps Perez card with him suited up with the San
Francisco Giants, out in the field on a nice sunny day.
As
for OPC, they quickly airbrushed him into a New York Yankees uniform ,
or should I say, cap, to reflect his trade in March of 1977 for Terry
Whitfield.
Sadly all that airbrushing work was for nothing, as
Perez made one single appearance for the Yankees that Spring before
getting traded to the Oakland A's along with Dock Ellis and Larry Murray
for pitcher Mike Torrez.
In that one game for the Yanks Perez
went 2-for-4 with time out at third base, before going on to play 115
games for the A's the rest of the way.
Turns out the following
season, he'd only appear in 16 games for Oakland before getting
released, ending his playing career after 10 seasons.
Between 1971 and 1976 he was a regular player for the Atlanta Braves,
putting in extensive time in the infield, averaging around .250 at the
plate.
Overall, he hit .246 in 931 games between 1969 and
1978, with 771 hits in 3131 at-bats, with 313 runs scored and 241 runs
batted in.
Labels:
1977,
Airbrushing,
Giants,
Marty Perez,
OPC Variations,
Yankees
Monday, October 14, 2024
REVISITING A POST FROM 2015: 1975 DEDICATED ROOKIE FOR KEITH HERNANDEZ
Good day all.
On
the blog today, we revisit a post from just about 10 years ago, my 1975
"dedicated rookie" for Keith Hernandez, of the the greatest fielding
first baseman in the game's long, rich history:
Hernandez was just about to launch his stellar Major League career in 1975 after playing in 14 games during the 1974 season.
Topps gave him a spot on one of the multi-player rookie cards in
the 1975 set, but a dedicated card for him seems like a natural for this
blog.
As far as his career, all he would do from then on is win a batting
title in 1979, a co-MVP Award the very same year (sharing it with
Pirate legend Willie Stargell), take home 11 Gold Glove Awards for his
magic at first base, and get named to five all-star
games.
He was part of a World Champion team with both the St. Louis
Cardinals in 1982 and the New York Mets in 1986, and would finish his
17-year career with over 2000 hits, 1000 runs scored, 1000 runs batted
in and a .296 average.
He became an instant darling here in New York to so many kids when
he arrived during the 1983 season, and I have to admit even though I was
a rabid Yankee fan and WORSHIPPED Don Mattingly, Hernandez was a guy I
just had to like no matter what.
It just seemed that it was the Hernandez trade that got the
mid-80's Mets team going in the right direction, soon to be joined by
the likes of Cone, Gooden, Carter and crew.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
THE WHOLE NINE: SERIES 2- CAREER-CAPPER: 1961 DON NEWCOMBE
Time today to spotlight my 1961 "career-capper" for Don Newcombe, baseball's first Cy Young Award winner, from my recent custom set "The Whole Nine: Series 2":
Newcombe
finished up and excellent 12-year career with 36 games split during the
1960 season with the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians, posting a
record of 6-9 with a 4.48 ERA over 136.2 innings at the age of 34.
He'd
put in a year in the Minors in 1961 with Spokane before playing one
game overseas in Japan with Chunichi in 1962, thus ending his playing
career.
The
N.L. Rookie of the Year in 1949 when he posted 17 wins for the Dodgers,
he followed that up with 19 wins in 1950 before the first of his three
20-win seasons the following year.
Sadly
for him, he would spend the next two years in the military, losing two
peak seasons to serving his country before coming back in 1954 when he
would go 9-8 over 29 games.
In
1955 he'd be in the 20-win circle once again, helping the Dodgers win
the World Series as he would go 20-5 and finishing seventh in the MVP
race, the last year without an Award dedicated to pitchers.
And then came 1956...
For
Don Newcombe, 1956 was a magical year. He was a monster on the mound,
going 27-7 with a 3.06 earned run average and five shutouts and leading
the Dodgers to another face-off with the New York Yankees in the World
Series.
Not
only did that get him the very first Cy Young Award, but it also bagged
him a Most Valuable Player Award, thus making him the answer to a
clever trivia question: who was the only pitcher to win a Rookie of the
Year, Cy Young and M.V.P.? (He would be joined
in this by Detroit Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander in 2011).
However, it would be the peak, followed by a quick decline at
only 31 years of age, winning 11 games in 1957 before managing just 26
wins over the last three years of his career, which came to a close in
1960 after that split year with the Reds and
Indians.
All
told, the man won the aforementioned awards while posting 153 wins
against just 96 losses, good for a very nice .614 winning percentage,
with a 3.57 earned run average and 24 shutouts over 360 games.Saturday, October 12, 2024
WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1890 "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" JOHN CLARKSON
Today on the blog we take a look at my custom card for Hall of Fame pitcher John Clarkson, from my 2018 "1890 Base Ball Champions" set:
Really fun custom set to create and release in special cigarette box packaging with extra goodies thrown in!
Of
course, for those familiar with 19th Century cards, you'll recognize
that I used the 1894 Mayo Plug set as inspiration for this set design,
as the Mayo Plugs are one of my very favorite card sets of all-time.
As
for Clarkson, the right hander from Massachusetts put in twelve years in
the Big Leagues, posting 328 victories by the time he hung them up,
winning as many as 53 games in 1885, with eight seasons of 20+ wins.
In
1889 he took home the pitching Triple Crown when he led the league with
49 wins, 2.73 earned run average and 284 strikeouts, over 73
appearances, 72 of which were starts, completing an incredible 68 of
them for 620 innings of work.
In 1885, when he posted his
career-best 53 wins, he completed 68 of his 70 starts, tossing 10
shutouts and striking out 308 batters while finishing with another
career-best of a 1.85 E.R.A. over 623 innings.
Just amazing.
On
June 4th of 1889 he is credited as throwing the first record
"immaculate inning", doing so against the Philadelphia Quakers in the
third inning of their match-up.
His final numbers: a 328-178
record, good for a .648 winning percentage, with a 2.81 ERA over 531
appearances, 518 of those starts, with 485 complete games and 37
shutouts.
In 1963, Clarkson was elected to the Hall of Fame by
the Veterans Committee, joining fellow 19th Century 300-game winners
like Cy Young, Pud Galvin and Mickey Welch.
Friday, October 11, 2024
NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1972 RICK STELMASZEK
On the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1972 card for former catcher Rick Stelmaszek, who made his MLB debut in 1971 with a handful of games with the Washington Senators in their last season of play before relocating to Texas as the Rangers:
Stelmaszek
went 0-for-9 at the plate over six games while putting in time behind
the plate for the Senators before spending all of 1972 in the Minors.
He'd make 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.
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.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: J.R. RICHARD
Today on
the blog, we go and add J.R. Richard to my future custom "Classic
Baseball" set, which I hope to release in five series in the near future
as a "monster" WTHBALLS set on high-end card stock:
Just
a wonderful image of the fire-balling Astros ace flashing that great
smile as he tortured National League batters with his overpowering
stuff.
Richard was just becoming the great formidable pitcher mowing down N.L. batters around the time this photo was taken.
From 1976 to 1979, Richard was down-right nasty, striking out 200
or more batters, including 300+ in both 1978 and 1979 (leading the N.L.
in K's each time), as well as posting 18 or more wins and 3+ shutouts
each season.
1980 was shaping up to be more of the same, as Richard was 10-4 with a 1.90 E.R.A. and 119 K's through only 113.2 innings.
But on July 30th, 1980, while playing a game of catch before a
game, Richard suffered a stroke that ended his career in an instant,
requiring emergency surgery to remove a life-threatening blood clot in
his neck.
Though he tried a comeback once he recovered, the stroke caused
enough damage to prevent him from ever playing in another Major League
game.
A tragic end to one of the most promising careers in the Majors at the time.
It would have been incredible to see Richard team up with new
Astros pitcher Nolan Ryan and see how many K's they could have racked
up.
That would have been some 1-2 punch to watch through the 1980s, but sadly we did not have the pleasure.
Rest in Peace J.R.
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 GEORGE SCOTT
Time to put the spotlight on George Scott and his 1977 image variation between his Topps and OPC cards, a classic photo with an airbrush-touch in only the way the 1970s could have given us:
Not too bad a job to put "Boomer" back in a Boston Red Sox uniform after some power-house years with the Milwaukee Brewers!
Already an all-star for the Red Sox between 1966 and 1971 before heading
to Milwaukee, Scott came back and continued his bashing ways in 1977,
hitting 33 homers with 95 runs batted in and 103 runs scored, getting
him his third and final all-star nod.
Sadly for the Red Sox, Scott’s production would drop-off, to the point he found himself in Kansas City in 1979, whereas Cecil Cooper went on to a borderline Hall of Fame career with the Brewers through the 1980’s.
Nevertheless, Scott put together an excellent 14-year career that saw him collect just under 2000 hits, 271 home runs and 1051 RBI’s along with eight Gold Gloves for his fielding at first base.
Not bad at all...
Sadly for the Red Sox, Scott’s production would drop-off, to the point he found himself in Kansas City in 1979, whereas Cecil Cooper went on to a borderline Hall of Fame career with the Brewers through the 1980’s.
Nevertheless, Scott put together an excellent 14-year career that saw him collect just under 2000 hits, 271 home runs and 1051 RBI’s along with eight Gold Gloves for his fielding at first base.
Not bad at all...
Labels:
1977,
Airbrushing,
Brewers,
George Scott,
OPC Variations,
Red Sox
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER...
@wthballs
Everything baseball: cards, events, history and more.
Everything baseball: cards, events, history and more.