Up on the blog today, another fun "un-issued" proof card to spotlight, this one a 1977 proof of former 20-game winner Wayne Garland of the Baltimore Orioles and soon to be Cleveland Indians:
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Garland
was coming off a great 1976 season with the Orioles that saw him go
20-7 with a very nice 2.67 earned run average over 38 appearances, 25 of
which were starts.
It
was certainly a "career-year" and one that got him a fat Free Agent
contract with the Indians over the Winter, sadly one that the Indians
would definitely want back.
Arm
injuries set in soon after and Garland never got close to his 1976
numbers, going 13-19 in 1977, and never winning more than six games in
any of his remaining four seasons after that before retiring in 1981 at
only 30 years of age.
Of
his 10140 career innings over his nine year career, a whopping HALF of
those were thrown in the two seasons of 1976 and 1977, with a high of
282.2 in his first year with Cleveland in 1977.
All told he finished with a 55-66 career record along with a 3.89 ERA and 450
strikeouts over 190 games, 121 of them starts, with seven shutouts and
six saves.
