Today on the blog, we have the next starting All-Star from 1969 to get an "on-card" banner on their 1970 card, starting second baseman for the National League Felix Millan of the Atlanta Braves:
Millan would go on to bring home the first of his two Gold Gloves while making the first of his three straight All-Star teams in 1969, hitting .267 with 1974 hits, 98 runs scored and 14 stolen bases.
He would
put in solid season after solid season for Atlanta over the next three
years before getting traded to the New York Mets as part of a deal that
got Atlanta pitchers Danny Frisella and Gary Gentry before the 1973
campaign started.
In 1973 he gave the New York Mets an
important cog on their way to the National League title before falling
to the Oakland A's juggernaut in the World Series.
While with
the Mets he again was solid, collecting as many as 191 hits in a season
(1975), which would stand for many years as the team record, hitting as
high as .290 before a gruesome injury pretty much ended his career in
1977.
After Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Ed Ott tried to break
up a double-play, Millan took exception to the slide and exchanged
words, leading to Millan striking Ott with his fist.
Ott, who
was a former wrestler, literally picked Millan up and slammed him down
onto his knee, injuring Millan's shoulder so badly it ended his career.
Just like that. Terrible.
All told, Millan played between 1966 and 1977, hitting .279 with 1617 hits in 5791 at-bats over 1480 games, scoring 699 runs and driving in 403 for the Braves and Mets.
