NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1973 BILLY COWAN

On the blog today we have a career-capping "not so missing" 1973 card for former California Angels outfielder/first baseman Bill Cowan:

 

Cowan appeared in only three games for the Angels in what turned out to be the last action of his eight-year career, going 0-3 at the plate as a pinch-hitter.

Originally up with the Chicago Cubs in 1963, he would end up retiring with a .236 career average, with 281 hits in 1190 at-bats, along with 40 homers and 125 runs batted in for six different teams.

His only full season of action came in his rookie 1964 season when he appeared in 139 games for the Cubs, hitting 19 homers while driving in 50, setting personal bests across the board in all offensive categories.

On a side-note: he put up some monster seasons in the Minors his 1st three pro years between 1961 and 1963, slamming as many as 35 homers and driving in as much as 122 runs while dividing his time in various levels of the Chicago Cubs system.

 

BY SPECIAL REQUEST- EXPANDED YEARLY LEADER CARDS: 1973 N.L. BATTING LEADERS

A short while ago a few of you asked or requested that I tackle the fact that over some years during the 1970's Topps created a simpler league leader card that featured two players, each leagues leader in a particular hitting or pitching category instead of expanded cards with the top three or so in each league, like the 1976 sub-set or 1972.

Well today we have the beginning of what will be a long thread creating just that, beginning with 1973, the first such year during the decade that went to the two-player format.

We'll start with the National League and it's top-3 hitters of 1972:

 

Betcha didn't have Dusty Baker in third that year huh?

Of course Billy Williams took home the batting crown that year, putting in another amazing year for the Chicago Cubs, yet sadly once again during another even BETTER year from some catcher on the Cincinnati Reds, Johnny Bench.

Ralph Garr, the runner-up in the NL batting race, of course would go on to top the league in 1974, so he'd eventually know the feeling of batting champ soon enough.

For Baker, it turned out it was his career-best with a .321 batting average, though he would hit .320 in 1981.

The 1972 season was actually his first full year as a Major Leaguer, and he did not disappoint!

That is why I do love the expanded league leader cards so much, since there were a great many players who ended up just short of glory that would surprise you.

We'll do this by category so the next card in the thread will be the American League batting leaders, with another player who may surprise some of you.

 

JUST FOR FUN-TIME FOR ANOTHER 1974 HANK AARON REDO

My apologies, but I will always create Hank Aaron cards, even if I already created one for a particular year, as with today's card, yet another 1974 redo, this time as a portrait layout adding to my previous landscape orientation:

 

Just a great picture of the legend smiling, enjoying life, on his way to baseball history.

Just a few months back I posted my landscape 1974 card, and it was accompanied by the following post:

Of course all baseball talk was about Aaron at this time, with his overtaking Babe Ruth as the all-time Home Run champion as the 1974 season opened up, and rightly so!

The man was simply out of this world...

Let his numbers do all the talking: 2174 runs scored, 3771 hits, 624 doubles, 98 triples, 755 home runs, 2297 runs batted in, a .305 batting average no less than 21 all-star selections!
Just tremendous!
He also had eight top-5 finishes for MVP, including taking home the award in 1957, as well as three Gold Gloves won consecutively between 1958-1960.
It's incredible to look at his 15 years of topping 100 or more runs scored, 11 seasons of 100 or more runs batted in, five more seasons of 90+ RBI's, and TWENTY STRAIGHT years of 20 or more home runs.

Rest in Peace to one of the absolute greats of the game, Mr. Henry Aaron...aka "Hammerin' Hank"!

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1977 MANNY SANGUILLEN

Though I am actually a fan of the CLASSIC 1977 Topps airbrush job on Manny Sanguillen's card, I am finally creating a do-over, using the catcher actually suited up in Oakland's finest, so here you go:

Now, for those that really need a refresher on the original, here you go:

 

Absolutely stunning isn't it? Topps really went to town on this one!

Nevertheless, I had this great image of Sanguillen from the 1976 season and figured it was time to recreate the card for the blog.

Sanguillen really gets overlooked when it comes to how well he played during his 13-year career, all but 1977 spent with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This was a catcher who hit over .300 four times, with a high of .328 in 1975, while also topping .280 another four times, before retiring with a robust .296 career average.

I personally think he may have been ripped off a Rookie of the Year in 1969 when he hit .303 with 62 runs scored and 57 runs batted in as a rookie catcher, losing to the Dodgers Ted Sizemore (a STRONG argument can also be made for Sanguillen's teammate Al Oliver, who also could have won).

He was named to three all-star teams, and even garnered some MVP support in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1975 as a member of the Bucs.

A very nice career for a solid catcher during the 1970's who gets forgotten among the Benchs, Fisks, Munsons and Simmons of the Majors…

 

COMMENTS SECTION REMOVED

Hello everyone!

Just a quick note to let you all know I've disabled the comment section until I can figure out how to prevent those annoying spam comments that have really gotten out of control.

Once I figure out how to do all that I'll have it back up!

Sorry about that! So freaking annoying!

NOT SO MISSING IN ACTION- 1975 JOHN WOCKENFUSS

Adding to my 1975 "missing" cards, today I throw in a "not so missing" card for former Detroit Tigers catcher John Wockenfuss, who also got a 1977 edition here on the blog a couple years back:

Wockenfuss made his Big League debut during the 1974 season, appearing in 13 games for Detroit, hitting .138 in limited play with four hits over 29 official at-bats.

He'd appear in 35 games the following season, hitting .229 with 27 hits, 15 runs scored and 13 runs batted in, with 13 extra base hits.

It would be more of the same with 60 games for the Detroit Tigers in 1976, batting .222 with 32 hits over 144 at-bats, easily enough action to have gotten a card in the set as mentioned earlier.
Wockenfuss was one of those players who was “always there” during my childhood, as I pulled his cards out of packs well into the 1980’s.
He put in twelve seasons in the Major Leagues between 1974 and 1985, playing all but his last two years with the Tigers before finishing up with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1984 and 1985.
Never a full-time player, the only time he topped 100 games in a season was in 1981 when he played in 126 games for Detroit, setting personal bests across the board with the extra playing time.
He’d retire after the 1985 season with a .262 batting average, with 543 hits over 2072 at-bats, with 267 runs scored and 310 runs batted in over 795 games.

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER OF ONE OF MY OWN: 1970 JIM BOUTON

Waaaaay back in June of 2013, about a month after I started this blog, I created a "missing" 1970 card former pitcher Jim Bouton, using an action photo, something the 1970 set did NOT use.

So today, incredibly eight years later, I will re-do that card with a proper image:

 

Much more of a "realistic" 1970 card don't you think?

Here's my original post from back then...

"For a player who appeared in 73 games in 1969, totaling 122 innings pitched for two teams, it's surprising enough for Topps not to have a card for him the following year.
But when you then realize that we're talking about Jim Bouton, bad-boy ex-Yank and author of one of the all-time classic baseball books: "Ball Four", as well as being an established player who posted a 20+ win season for the Yanks in 1963, you have to wonder what was up with being left out of the card set.
Though his book wasn't "officially" released until June of 1970, it wasn't a secret as to what was in there, and Bouton certainly pissed off many in the Major League baseball world who found out about his tell-all tome.
Perhaps Topps could be included as those who had Bouton on their "persona-non-grata" list?
I can't really find anything on this, but I went ahead and created my own version of a "card that shoulda' been".
If I do go ahead and create more of these, I'll limit this to cards of players that had substantial playing time the season before, did NOT retire over the off-season, yet had no cards issued the following year.
Enjoy..."