Here’s
another “traded” card to add to the collection, a 1970 edition for what
was going to be the American League batting champ for that season, Alex
Johnson of the California Angels:
After spending two very good seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, in which
he batted .312 and .315 respectively in 1968 and 1969, Johnson was dealt
to the Angels on November 29th as part of a five-man deal that brought
Pedro Borbon and two others to the eventual N.L. West champ Reds.
Initially, it looked like a steal for the Angels, as Johnson went on to
collect 202 hits with 85 runs scored and 86 runs batted in while edging
out Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski for the league batting title.
Still only 27 years of age, it seemed like Johnson was on his way to a solid if not star career in the Majors with his new club.
Sadly, Johnson’s time with the Angels was full of controversy, running
afoul of manager Lefty Phillips, eventually getting benched for
“loafing” among other things that spilled into the next season.
After numerous more run-ins with management, he was benched
indefinitely, leading to only 65 games played in 1971, batting only
.260, a 69 point drop from his batting champ campaign the year before.
Finally on October 5th of 1971, he was granted a trade and dealt to the
Cleveland Indians for, among others, the great Vada Pinson, with
Cleveland hoping the change of scenery would bring him back to All-Star
status.
However, though he had a couple of decent seasons over the next few
years of his career, he never again reached the level of play between
1968-1970, done as an active player after the 1976 season at only 33
years of age.
By the time he retired, he finished with a very nice .288 batting
average, with 1331 hits over 4623 at-bats in 1322 games, but sadly never
again able to reach that level of play that made him one of the more
promising young talents in 1970.