Time to go and give Jim “Catfish” Hunter a card in my on-going 1975 “In-Action sub-set, in all it’s beautiful Oakland A’s glory:
I can never get tired of those uniforms!
Hunter was just completing his incredible run with the A’s, which saw
him win three straight championships between 1972 and 1974, while also
posting four straight 20-win seasons stretching back to 1971.
But he wasn’t done just yet, going on to be one of the first big time
Free Agents and signing with the New York Yankees and winning another 23
games in 1975 to lead the American League after doing the same with 25
the year before.
After posting 17 wins for the Yankees in 1976, helping them get to the
World Series for the first time in 12 seasons, Hunter developed arm
problems, playing out his Hall of Fame career with 24 wins over the next
three seasons before calling it a career in 1979.
I still marvel at his 1975 season with the Yanks, which saw him complete
30 of his 39 starts, throwing 328 innings while finishing second in the
league’s Cy Young race.
To think he retired at the age of only 33!