"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: ROBIN ROBERTS

Let's go and add one of my favorite pitchers, Robin Roberts, to my on-going "Classic Baseball" custom set, due for a release somewhat soon as a multi-series set:

Roberts was a freaking machine during the 1950’s pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, posting six 20-win seasons with  a 19 and 17 win season thrown in as well.
He led the league in wins four times with a high of 28 in 1952, while also leading the National league in strikeouts twice, complete games five times, innings pitched five times and shutouts once.
By the time he retired after the 1966 season, he finished with 286 wins and a 3.41 earned run average, with 45 shutouts and 2357 strikeouts over 676 games and 4688.2 innings pitched.
Between 1950 and 1956 he was named to the all-star team each year, while also garnering MVP attention every season.
To be honest how he didn’t win the MVP in 1952 is beyond me, as the award went to Chicago Cubs slugger Hank Sauer.
Granted the Phillies finished in fourth place with an 87-67 record, 9.5 games behind the Dodgers.
But the Cubs finished in fifth place, with a 77-77 record.
So what went on there is something worth looking into considering all Roberts did was go 28-7 with a 2.59 ERA, three shutouts, 148 strikeouts and 30 complete games out of his 37 starts!

 

REVISITING A POST FROM 10 YEARS AGO: "MISSING" 1976 JERRY MARTIN

Thought I'd revisit a post from exactly 10 years ago today, my "missing" 1976 card for Jerry Martin, which was part of a fun collection of creations for my buddy Jim's project:

Martin played in 57 games during the 1975 season for the Philadelphia Phillies, hitting .212 with 24 hits in 114 at-bats.
It was his second taste of the big leagues, and he’d go on to play for another nine years before hanging them up after the 1984 season after 51 games with the New York Mets.
In between he suited up for the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals, putting in his best seasons with the Cubs in 1979 and 1980 when he hit a combined 42 home runs with 146 runs batted in.

 

BY SPECIAL REQUEST: RE-DO 1974 ELLIOTT MADDOX

By special request today, we have on the blog a "do-over" for Elliott Maddox and his 1974 card, with today's example showing him as a New York Yankee, the team he helped finish in second place in perhaps his finest season in the Major Leagues:

Coming over from the Texas Rangers after three years with that franchise, Maddox immediately paid dividends, as he helped the Yanks to a very nice 89-73 record, good for second place in the American League East.

In his three seasons with the New York Yankees, the first two saw him top a .300 batting average, easily his two best seasons as a Big League player.

His 1974 seasons saw him hit .303 in a full-time role, scoring 75 runs and setting personal season-bests across the board, topped off with a surprising 8th-place finish for the MVP Award later that year.

In 1977 he'd play for the Baltimore Orioles, though appearing in only 49 games, hitting .262 while playing center field and third base, before going on to the New York Mets.

He'd play well for them, hitting about .260 overall over what turned out to be his last three seasons in the Majors.

He would play in the Minors during the 1981 season but he would leave the Big Leagues shortly after, with a career .261 average, with 742 hits in 2843 at-bats in 1029 games.

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1890 "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" WILLIE KEELER

On the blog today, my "19th Century Base Ball Champions" card for the great Willie Keeler, fellow Brooklynite and one of the greatest hitters for average the game has ever seen:

"Wee Willie" was one of those players whose career jumped out at me when I was a 10-year-old with my first Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia, seeing his stats for the first time, being blown away.

First off, his eight straight seasons of 200+ hits was unsurpassed until a man by the name of Ichiro came along, with Keeler collecting as many as 239 hits in 1897 and hitting as high as .424 that very same year.

Between 1892 and 1906 he never hit below .300, taking home two batting titles while scoring 100+ runs a year eight straight seasons, with a high of 165 in 1894 with the Baltimore Orioles.

By the time he hung up the spikes after the 1910 season, he finished with a .341 average, with 2932 hits, 1719 runs scored and 495 stolen bases, incredibly striking out only 136 times over 9619 plate appearances!

That is an AVERAGE of only seven strikeouts per season over his career!

Just an amazing career that led to him being one of the first players selected for the Hall of Fame, which happened in 1939 when he was named on 207 of 274 ballots cast.

One of baseball's early historical figures, he passed away on New Years, 1923, only 50 years of age.

"Hit 'em where they ain't"!

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1969 VADA PINSON

I've wanted to give one of my favorite players, Vada Pinson, a do-over for his 1969 card for quite some time, so today is the day, with this little beauty:

After playing for the Cincinnati reds for the first eleven seasons of his great (Hall worthy?) career, Pinson was shipped off to the St. Louis Cardinals for Wayne Granger and Bobby Tolan, and Topps scrambled to get him shown as a Cardinal on their card with a hatless image of him clearly in a Reds uni.

Not the worst card out there, but still a bit irksome.

Anyway, I went with another classic image of him as a Reds player, just to cap off his great run with the organization.

When you look at Pinson’s career, you should be impressed with what he accomplished between 1958 and 1975.
The man could slug the ball, hitting 256 home runs, while also swipe the base, as his 305 steals show. He collected 200+ hits in a season four times while topping .300 four times with a high of .343 in 1961 for the pennant winning Reds.
He led the N.L. in hits, doubles and triples two times each, while also topping the Senior Circuit in runs in his first full season, 1959, with 131.
By the time he completed his career, he topped 2700 hits, 1300 runs, 1100 runs batted in, 250 homers and 300 stolen bases.
To this day it amazes me that guys like Pinson, Al Oliver, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker get snubbed by both the BBWA at first, then the Veteran’s Committee, yet Cooperstown has players like Stonewall Jackson, Chick Hafey, Jesse Haines and “High Pockets” Kelly in there.

OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 TONY PEREZ

Today we take a look at the image variation between the great Tony Perez's 1977 OPC and Topps cards after his shocking trade to the Montreal Expos, the beginning of the end for the juggernaut Cincinnati Reds "Big Red Machine" dynasty:

OPC edition

Topps edition

OPC managed to get him out as a member of "their" Montreal Expos, something I am sure the Canadian baseball world was excited about.

Perez was sent to Montreal along with pitcher Will McEnaney for two guys out of the bullpen: Woodie Fryman and Dale Murray.

Now, I don't really remember the reasoning for this trade (Tony! Help me out here!), but it seems ABSURD all these years later.

Nevertheless, the "Big Dog" kept on producing for the next four years (three with the Expos and one with the Boston Red Sox in 1980) before becoming a solid veteran bat off the bench between 1982 and 1986 with Boston, Philadelphia and back in Cincinnati before retiring.

All told, he put together a magnificent 23 years career, collecting over 2700 hits, 375 home runs, 1600 runs batted in, and a .279 lifetime batting average.

He was also named to seven all-star teams and got Most Valuable Player attention in seven seasons.

It took a long while, but he was eventually elected into the Hall of Fame in 2000, joining former teammates Joe Morgan, Sparky Anderson and Johnny Bench, with Dave Concepcion and Pete Rose still out in the cold.

As I've stated earlier on this blog, I was always fascinated that former "Big Red Machine" skipper Anderson considered the Perez trade a severe blow to the Reds' continued dominance of Major League ball after 1976.

Here's a team that pretty much had their entire squad intact, and even picked up TOM SEAVER in June of 1977, but could never make it back to the top of the baseball world.

A good idea of how important Perez was…

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: WARREN SPAHN

Time to add one of my favorite subjects for the blog to my custom "Classic Baseball" set, the great Warren Spahn:

Anyone who has followed this blog long enough knows by now that any time I can create a card for the mighty lefty, I will take it!

The man was amazing, flat out, and by the time he retired in 1965 he posted a 363-245 record, with a 3.09 ERA, 63 shutouts, 28 saves and 2583 strikeouts over 750 appearances, 665 of which were starts.

Oh yeah, he also hit 35 career home runs along with 189 runs batted in with (coincidentally) 363 hits!

And remember he didn’t win his first game until he was 25 years of age, as he served in the military from 1943 to 1945.

His first 20-game season was 1947 (at the age of 26), and he kept right on rolling until his final 20-game season in 1963!

In between, he ended up posting 13 such campaigns, leading the league eight times (with five of those coming consecutively from 1957 to 1961).