Adding to my new 1970 "In-Game Action" thread, we have the great Pete Rose, a Hall of Famer in my book, and smack in the middle of his career-peak when this card would have seen the light of day:
Rose was coming off his second straight batting title, hitting .348 after a league-leading .335 in 1968.
He also reached 200+ hits for the fourth of what would end up being a record ten such seasons, with 218 in 1969.
Those
numbers got him a fourth place finish in the MVP race at season's end,
along with a Gold Glove for his work in the outfield after coming up as a
second baseman.
Growing up in the 1970's as a baseball nut, Pete Rose was an almost
mythic figure. Even though his Reds steamrolled through "my" Yankees in
the 1976 World Series, Rose, along with his all-star teammates, seemed
like something made-up, not real.
I guess a part of that could be that the very first Pete Rose
baseball card I ever saw, at the age of seven, was his 1976 Topps
masterpiece, which had that glare of his, staring down the camera,
showing that intensity that created the "Charlie Hustle"
legend.
What a player, a Hall of Fame player. But I won't get into THAT here.
The "Player of the Decade" for the 1970's, Rose etched his name into the history of the game many times over.
Really, along with guys like Tom Seaver and Reggie Jackson, you just
can't have too many Pete Rose cards from the 1970's in my eyes.
