Today
we have a “not so missing” 1972 card for former catcher Frank
Fernandez, who had himself a whirlwind 1971 season playing for three
teams, including the Oakland A’s two DIFFERENT times:
Fernandez began the year with Oakland after coming over to them from the
Yankees in the Al Downing-Danny Cater deal a year earlier, before being
dealt to the Washington Senators after only two games out West.
Turns out Oakland would come along and purchase his contract about a
month and a half later, but again, he’d only play two games for them
before getting traded to the Cubs for Adrian Garrett two months later.
All told, Fernandez played in 39 games that year, batting a cool .138 with 11 hits over 80 at-bats in those four stints.
He’d only go on to appear in three games for the Cubs in 1972 before
retiring for good as an active player after the 1973 season, toiling in
the Minors for (yet again) the Oakland organization as well as Detroit.
For his career, he played in 285 games, mainly for the team that drafted
him, the New York Yankees, batting .199 with 145 hits over 727 at-bats,
hitting 39 homers with 116 runs batted in, which is not that bad
considering the at-bats to home runs.