Sunday, February 2, 2020

THE RANDOM ODDITY OF THE 1975 TOPPS PAT BOURQUE

I never realized the 1975 card of Pat Bourque was “technically” off for a couple of reasons, mainly the fact that he finished the 1974 season as a member of the Minnesota Twins, followed by the fact that he never played professional ball ever again.
So why the 1975 card with him as an Oakland A’s player?


Well it turns out that Bourque was traded by the Twins on October 23rd of 1974 BACK to the Oakland A’s, for whom he played the first part of 1974, but never ended up playing for them again.
Nevertheless, Topps, trying to stay on top of the move, had him as an Oakland player in anticipation of his playing the 1975 season there.
Bourque played 73 games for the A’s to start the 1974 campaign before being traded to the Twins on August 19th for Jim Holt, ending up with a .225 batting average combined between the two teams.
Turns out he’d never play pro ball again, Majors or Minors, though I can’t seem to find out why.
He finished his four-year Major League career with a .215 average, with 87 hits over 405 at-bats, driving in 61 runs while scoring 36 himself between 1971 and 1974.