NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1976 EDDIE SOLOMON

On the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1976 card for former pitcher Eddie Solomon, who was left out of a few Topps sets early on in his career:

Solomon, who would go on to pitch 10 years in the Major Leagues, appeared in four games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1973, not factoring in a decision with a 7.11 earned run average over 6.1 innings.
He’d appear in just four games the following season as well, but would see much better results, posting an ERA of 1.50 over 6 innings, allowing just one earned run.

In 1975 he'd appear in only six games for the Chicago Cubs, his only season with the organization, not factoring in a decision while pitching to a 1.35 ERA over 6.2 innings of work.
He’d spend the rest of his career as an arm that could start or come out of the bullpen, mainly with the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates, for whom he pitched between 1977 and 1982.
He finished his career with a record of 36-42, along with an ERA of exactly 4.00 over 191 appearances and 718 innings, with 95 of those games as starts.
Sadly, in January of 1986 at the young age of only 34, he died in a car accident in Macon, Georgia.

 

WTHBALLS 1950 CUSTOM SET: WARREN SPAHN

Good day all! On the blog today, another card from my 2018 "1950 Stars of the Game" custom set, Warren Spahn, all-time great lefty and a favorite subject of mine:

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).

Just an amazing career!

REVISIT: MISSING IN ACTION- 1976 MIKE SQUIRES

Revisiting a 10+ year-old post showing my "missing" 1976 card for former first baseman Mike Squires.

Here’s what would be a “missing” rookie card for Gold Glove winning first baseman Mike Squires, who would spend his entire 10-year career with the Chicago White Sox:

Squires came up to the Major Leagues in 1975, appearing in 20 games for the Pale Hose, batting .231 over 65 at-bats.
After a season in the Minors in ‘76, he was in the Big Leagues to say in 1977, generally a guy off the bench, specifically as a defensive replacement, leading to a Gold Glove Award in the strike-shortened 1981 season.
By the time he was out of the Majors after a couple of games in 1985, he left behind a .260 batting average with 411 hits over 1580 at-bats in 779 games, with a career .995 fielding percentage.
Nevertheless, as it stands Squires first card would be in that horrible black-and-white multi-player rookie sub-set in the 1979 set.
On a side-note, never realized that in the 1976 Topps set, there isn’t a first baseman among all the White Sox players.  I had to get creative to whip up a first baseman template for this card.

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1960S STARS OF THE GAME: BILL MAZEROSKI

Good day all! On the blog today, we spotlight my card for HOFer Bill Mazeroski, from my 1960 "Stars of the Game" custom gelatin set released back in 2018:

Just realized I messed up about a month ago with this post, accidentally showing a Killebrew card instead of Mazeroski, so here it is today!

A nice era-perfect photo of the Pittsburgh Pirates great, from right about the time he catapulted himself into baseball history with a Game 7 home run in the bottom of the ninth to send the Pirates to a World Championship over the heavily favored New York Yankees.

But it's easy to forget that Mazeroski's homer was in only his fifth full season in the Majors. He went on to star for the Pirates for the next 12 seasons before hanging them up at the end of the 1972 season.
By the time he retired, Mazeroski won two world championships (1960 & 1971), eight Gold Gloves, made seven All-Star teams, topped 2000 hits and made a name for himself as one of the premier fielding second baseman in baseball.
He still holds the all-time record for turning double-plays for second basemen at 1706, and lead the National League in assists nine times between 1958-1968.
While the BBWA failed to vote him into the Hall of Fame withing the 15 years of eligibility, the Veteran's Committee got him in 2001, almost 30 years after retiring, joining such former teammates like Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente.

 

CAREER-CAPPER: 1984 BOBBY MURCER

Up on the blog today, from my next WTHBALLS custom set, we finally get around to creating a 1984 "Career-Capper" for one of the nicest men to ever take the field, Bobby Murcer:

Murcer appeared in only nine games for the New York Yankees in 1983, the final games of his very nice 17-year career.

He made his MLB debut in 1965, appearing in 11 games for the New York Yankees and hitting .243 with a homer and four runs batted in while putting in time at shortstop.

After 21 more games in 1966, he lost two years to military service before coming back as a full-time Big League outfielder in 1969, slugging 26 homers with 82 RBIs and a .259 batting average over 152 games.

Murcer really did have a very nice career, especially those seasons between 1969 and 1977 when he drove in over 80 runs eight times, while topping 90 five of those seasons.
He hit as high as .331 (1971) while hitting as many as 33 homers (1972), while also leading the league in runs scored with 102 in 1972, OBP with a .427 mark in 1971 and total bases with 314 again in 1972.
He made five straight All-Star teams from 1971 through 1975, and was in the top-10 in MVP voting three straight years: 1971-1973.
Much more importantly, the man was one of the nicest human beings on the planet, as I can attest to, meeting him on more than a few occasions.
He was just as “real” as it got.
Rest in Peace Bobby. You are truly missed.

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: JIM RICE

The next player to get a card in my long-running "Classic Baseball" custom set, slugger and Hall of Famer Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox:

I'm STILL amazed with Rice's run from 1977 through 1979! Even though he only pulled in one M.V.P., he was an absolute terror at the plate.

Over 200 hits each year, along with 39, 46 and 39 homers, as well as averaging 124 runs batted in and a .320 average.

Then you notice that the dude hit 15, 15 and 6 TRIPLES those years, leading the league in homers AND triples in 1978.

I mean, that is just plain RAKING at the plate!

Man, Rice used to terrify me as a young Yankee fan. He was just plain brutal to opposing pitchers, and it was a shame that he had to wait so long to get elected into Cooperstown. 

By the time Rice was done in the Big Leagues, he'd finish with 2400+ hits, 382 homers, 1451 runs batted in and a .298 lifetime average.

Five times would he finish in the running for Most Valuable Player besides the year he took it home.

Absolute STUD!

 

OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 BOMBO RIVERA

Time for another look at some OPC to Topps image variations, this time the 1977 difference for Montreal Expos outfielder Bombo Rivera:

OPC version

Topps version

Another one of those strange "zoom-in" differences that OPC decided on as opposed to the cropping Topps used.

As for Rivera, he would play in 68 games in 1976 for the Expos, hitting a very respectable .276 with 51 hits over 185 at-bats, with 22 runs scored and 19 RBIs.
After a full 1977 season in the Minors, he was back in the Majors for 1978, now with the Minnesota Twins, where he would play over the next three seasons, hitting .271, .281 and .221 before spending all of 1981 in the Minors again.
In 1982, still only 29 years of age, he was back in the Big Leagues, though now with the Kansas City Royals, where he’d appear in only five games, the last five of his career it turned out, as he’d hit .100 with one hit over 10 at-bats.
Far from retiring, he took his talents to both Japan and Mexico, where he ended up playing another six seasons, through 1988, finally retiring as an active player.
Overall, for his MLB career, he finished with a .265 average over 335 games, with 220 hits in 831 at-bats, with 109 runs scored and 83 RBIs between 1975 and 1982.