On the blog today, thought it'd be fun to take a closer look at another unissued 1977 proof card, this of future Cy Young winning pitcher Steve Stone, who found himself "across town" before the season, going from the Chicago Cubs to the White Sox:
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By
the time the 1977's were out, Topps went ahead and airbrushed Stone
into a Sox uni, but as you can see from the unissied proof, they
originally had him in a Cubs uniform in a posed photo.
Stone
spent the previous three seasons on the North Side of Chicago playing
for the Cubs, winning 8, 12 and 3 games respectively between 1974 and
1976.
Funny enough, before his Cubs tenure he played one
season with the White Sox in 1973, going 6-11 over 36 appearances with a
4.24 earned run average.
He'd have his best season yet in
1977 with the White Sox, winning 15 games against 12 losses, posting an
ERA of 4.51 over 31 starts, with eight complete games.
He'd go
on to win 12 more games in 1978 before finding himself in Baltimore for
the 1979 season, where he'd go 11-7 with a 3.77 ERA over 32 starts.
Of
course, the 1980 season was one for the ages, as he would come out of
nowhere to win 25 games, make his only All-Star team, and eventually
take home the A.L. Cy Young Award.
Along with the hefty win
total he posted an ERA of 3.23 over 37 starts, with a shutout and 149
strikeouts in 250.2 innings of work.
However, sadly for him he
would develop arm troubles during the 1981 season, and incredibly would
see his Major league career end just like that, finishing 4-7 with a
4.60 ERA over 15 games, 12 of them starts, throwing only 62.2 innings.
All
told, Stone finished with a record of 107-93 in 11 seasons, with a 3.97
ERA and seven shutouts over 320 games, 269 of them starts, and 1788.1
innings pitched.