The 1977 All-Star cards are some of my all-time favorites, so I’m always interested in “adding” to the checklist, and this one is a perfect fit, as it shows Grich in-action while still in a Baltimore uniform.
Granted, Topps was trying to do the right thing by showing him as a member of the California Angels before the 1977 season began, but for some reason I’ve always felt if a guy was coming off an All-Star or award-winning year with another team, there should be some love thrown that way (as in the 1975 Bobby Murcer card, etc).
He would win four Gold Gloves overall in his excellent 17-year career, while getting named to six All-Star teams and participating in five American League Championship Series, two with the Orioles and three with the California Angels.
Defensively he topped the league in assists three times, putouts four times and fielding percentage twice, generally considered one of the best fielding second baseman of his era.
I always felt his 1979 season was lost in the shuffle of some great years put in by the likes of Don Baylor, Fred Lynn and George Brett when he hit a career high 30 home runs with 101 RBIs to go with a .294 average, fantastic numbers for a second baseman in that era outside of a guy named Joe Morgan.
Two years later he’d be one of four players tied to lead the American League in homers with 22, while also topping the league in slugging (.543).
By the time he retired after the 1986 season he finished with a .266 career average with 1833 hits and 224 homers, with 864 runs batted in and 1033 runs scored.
