It
is time to go and add former All-Star Richie Zisk to my long running
thread of “dedicated rookies”, this one a 1970 edition for the
Brooklyn-born slugger:
Zisk wouldn’t actually make his MLB debut until 1971 with seven games
before coming back in 1972 with 17 appearances for the Pittsburgh
Pirates.
But in 1973 he made quite the impression, hitting a cool .324 over 103 games, giving everyone an idea of what was to come.
He would end up playing 13 seasons under the Big League sun, for the
Pirates, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners between
1971 and 1983, hitting 207 homers, with 792 RBIs and 681 runs scored,
hitting .287 over 1453 games and 5144 at-bats.
I will ALWAYS be bothered by the fact that Topps screwed up his 1978
card, forgetting to place the All-Star emblem on his card, which would
have given him two straight All-Star cards in 1978/1979.
But keep an eye out next week for my re-done 1978 Zisk card, with All-Star emblem as well as White Sox fix!