Here's a fun card to "fix", the 1970 Sal Bando, showing the fact that he was the American League starting third baseman in the 1969 All-Star game:
It's
amazing to think that he beat out perennial All-Star and legend Brooks
Robinson, but when you look at the season Bando put in that year, it was
much deserved!
Bando
had what turned out to be the best year of his 16-year career in 1969,
hitting 31 homer while driving in 113 runs, scoring 106 and collecting
171 hits, all career-bests, while making his 1st All-Star team and
finishing 16th in the MVP race.
A
huge cog in the machine that would eventually be the three-peat World
Champion A's teams of the mid-70's, he would end up making four All-Star
teams over his career, while placing top-4 in MVP votes three times
with a high of second place in 1971 when teammate Vida Blue took home
the honors.
Bando put together a very solid 16-year career that saw him take
home three championships, participate in four all-star games, and finish
in the top-10 in MVP voting three times.
His five 20-homer and two 100+ RBI seasons were a nice compliment
to Reggie's offensive exploits, and with Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace and Bert
Campaneris thrown in you can see why those A's teams were so strong.
Then again, with starting pitching like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter,
Ken Holtzman, Rollie Fingers et al, yeah, they were going to kick-ass no
matter what…
