Saturday, April 18, 2020

1978 RE-DO: "SOUTH SIDE HITMEN" ALL-STAR RICHIE ZISK

Here’s a card I’ve wanted to created for a long time, a 1978 “re-do” for Richie Zisk, showing him as a member of the Chicago White Sox as well as getting that All-Star medallion on there, which Topps inexplicably left off his original card:


I remember as a kid my friends and I trying to figure out why there was a missing all-star card when this set came out.
I was in the third grade and we were trying to complete our sets, ripping packs open and never getting that third American League All-Star outfielder.
Of course a year later we’d be trying to figure out the American League All-Star shortstop, as Topps pulled the same boner move and for some reason forgot to put that sweet all-star banner on Freddie Patek’s card as well.
Zisk arguably had his best Major League season in 1977, slamming 30 home runs along with a .290 batting average, with 101 runs batted in and 78 runs scored, giving him a starting all-star berth and some MVP consideration.
That 1977 White Sox team was a good one, based in large part to the fire power they had in their line-up, as they finished 90-72 for the season.
Besides Zisk and his 30 homers, they also got strong contributions from Oscar Gamble (31 homers), Eric Soderholm (25 homers), Chet Lemon (19 homers), Jim Spencer (18 homers), and Lamar Johnson (18 homers).
As a team the ChiSox ended up hitting 192 homers for the year, very nice muscle display!
As for Zisk, he'd end up playing for 13-years, hitting 207 home runs with 792 RBI's and 681 runs scored with a nice .287 batting average over 1453 games and 5144 at-bats.