Any baseball fan of the 1970's is quite familiar with the lack of
love between the American Leagues two best catchers of the decade,
Carlton Fisk and Thurman Munson.
They openly despised each other not only as combatants for
dominance behind the plate, but as members of the hottest rivalry in the
game, the Red Sox and Yankees.
For most of the decade it was either Fisk or Munson starting the
all-star game as catcher for the A.L. Both won Rookie of the Year honors
just two years apart: 1970 for Munson and 1972 for Fisk. Munson pulled
in an M.V.P. award in 1976 while Fisk gave
the baseball world one of the most exciting moments in the game's
history: his game-winning homer off the foul pole in the World Series
just a year earlier against the Reds.
Throw in two notorious brawls in 1973 and 1976, along with some
name-calling in the press, and these two guys, who ironically had a lot
in common outside of the game, were the epitome of sports and the "me
against you" attitude.
After Munsons tragic death in 1979 Fisk went on to say that they
never "hated" each other outside of baseball, and that they really
respected each other.
However, as long as it was between the foul lines,
these guys were mortal enemies who were always
keeping tabs on each other, especially Munson.
I've read on more than one occasion that he used to scan the box scores the following day to see what Fisk did the previous game.
Well, in some sort of twisted "honor" of these two warriors, I
dedicate this installment of "Accidental Photo-Bombing" to them with
appearances they made in the 1978 set on someone elses card: Munson on
Doug Ault's #267 issue and Fisk on Roy White's #16
card.
The White card is especially nice since you can see Fisk's
expression as he tracks the ball heading to what seems to be the
outfield. Nice shot that makes up a very nice baseball card.
Gotta love that '78 set!
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| The Yankee Captain behind the plate. |
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| Fisk tracking the ball hit by White. |
