On the blog today, a "do-over" of the very first 1970 Topps card I ever owned, bought as a ten year old in 1980 at an Antique Store in Brooklyn, featuring former New York Yankees reliever Jack Aker:
 |
| As issued by Topps |
As you can see from the original
image, Topps was in the middle of a battle with MLBPA regarding
licensing rights so they were recycling tons of photos of many players
in the late-60's/early-70's.
The issued image shows Aker clearly as a member of the Kansas City/Oakland A's, where he played between 1964 and 1968.
He
did appear in 38 games for the Yankees in 1969 after coming over from
the Seattle Pilots, performing very well by posting a record of 8-4 with
a 2.06 ERA and eleven saves.
In his entire 11 year career he never started a
single game, appearing in a total of 495 games in relief, posting a
(then) very respectable 124 saves, including 32 in 1966 alone when he
had his best season in the big leagues for the
Kansas City Athletics, going 8-4 with a 1.99 ERA to go along with those
league-leading saves.
Between 1964 and 1974 he'd suit up for the Athletics, Pilots,
Yankees, Cubs, Braves and Mets, finishing with a 47-45 record with a
nice 3.28 ERA and 404 strikeouts over 746 innings of work in 495
appearances.
