1981 DRAKES BIG PITCHERS: ROLLIE FINGERS

Today on the blog we spotlight another card from my recent 1981 "Drake's Big Pitchers" custom set, this time Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers:

Fingers was in his superstar prime at the time this card would have seen the light of day, unknowingly about to find himself with the Milwaukee Brewers that year on his way to both a Cy Young Award and a Most Valuable Player Award.

He would put together a wonderful 17-year career which would see him lead the league in saves three times, post sub-2.00 ERA's 12 times and finish up with a sparkling 2.90 career ERA over 944 games and 1701.1 innings pitched.

He was named to seven all-star teams, both in the A.L. and N.L., before closing out his career in 1985, finishing with a 114-118 record with 341 saves.

One of the great characters of the decade! But a force out of the 'pen as well.

He was voted into the Hall in 1992, his second year on the ballot, garnering 81.2% of the vote.

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1971 JIM JOHNSON

Today on the blog we have a great "old fashioned" 1971 "not so missing" card for three-game Major League pitcher Jim Johnson of the San Francisco Giants:

The entirety of Johnson's Big League tenure was during the month of April, 1970, when he appeared in the aforementioned three games, going 1-0 with a 8.10 earned run average over 6.2 innings.

He was hit hard over those 6+ innings, giving up eight hits and six runs while walking five, striking out two with a balk and two wild pitches.

Though he was sent down to the Minors for the rest of the season, it seemed probable that he would be back up either later in the year or the following season, however because of a stubborn Giants front office and later on a sore arm, Johnson decided the best move for his family was to retire and move onto a long and distinguished career in Education.

Sadly he passed away at the young age of only 42 due to Pancreatic Cancer in 1987, at the time he was the Superintendent of Schools at North Muskegon, Michigan High School.

He had devoted his life to Education even before he retired, attaining advanced Degrees at University while toiling in the Minors.

 

1981 DRAKES BIG PITCHERS: RICH GOSSAGE

Good day everyone!

On the blog today, a spotlight on another card from my 1981 "Drake's Big Pitchers" custom set released late last year, this one of Hall of Fame reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage:

After spending his first five Major League seasons with the Chicago White Sox, Gossge found himself with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the 1977 season, performing very well as he would go 11-9 over 72 appearances, with 26 saves and a sparkling 1.62 earned run average over 133 innings, striking out 151 batters.

He parlayed that season in the new Free Agent world, signing with the New York Yankees, where he would star for the next six years, gaining tons of fans, me included.

Gossage was a true character of the game. He was all legs and arms whipping near-100 mile-per-hour fastballs while sporting that trademark 'stache, closing out games for those "Bronx Zoo" teams I loved so much.

He spent six years in the Bronx, and never had an E.R.A. over 2.62, even sporting a microscopic 0.77 in 1981!

He also led the league in saves twice while wearing pinstripes, as well as getting named to three all-star teams.

In 1978, 1980 and 1981 he'd also finish in the top-5 in Cy Young voting, in addition to getting some M.V.P. attention.

Around the school-yard I literally spent most of my childhood in, the nickname "Goose" was taken by so many kids it was ridiculous. We all loved that "crazy dude" who looked as mean as any biker.

By the time he was done, Gossage put in a 22 year career that landed him in the Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2008.

He was also given a plaque out in Yankee Stadium this year (to which I am a bit puzzled by), cementing his Yankee legend for all to look back on.

The "Goose", a real wild-man of a closer…

 

CAREER-CAPPER: 1965 PETE RUNNELS

Up on the blog today, let's delve into the 1960s and give two-time batting champ Pete Runnels a 1965 "Career-Capper" shall we?

Here you go:

Runnels put in what turned out to be the last Major League action of his career in 1964, as a member of the Houston Colt .45s, or Astros as they were making that transition at that time.

Just two years removed from his second batting title in 1962, he hit .196 over 22 games for Houston, with 10 hits over 51 at-bats with three RBIs.

Runnels took home the American League batting title in 1960 and 1962 as a member of the Boston Red Sox, hitting .320 and .326 respectively, topping the .300 mark all of his five years with Boston.

His first seven years in the Big Leagues were with the Washington Senators between 1951 and 1957, where he average about .280 while playing both the infield and outfield, even getting some MVP votes in both 1952 and 1956.

Overall, by the time he retired, he finished with a .291 batting average, with 1854 hits in 6373 at-bats over 1799 games, getting named to five All-Star teams along the way.

Not too shabby a career!

 

CAREER-CAPPER: 1973 PHIL REGAN

Today on the blog we'll go ahead and give former reliever Phil Regan a 1973 "career-capper" to celebrate a nice 13-year Big League tenure:

Regan split the 1972 season with the Chicago Cubs and crosstown Chicago White Sox, appearing in 15 games and going 0-2 with a 3.63 earned run average in 17.1 innings.

He would have a couple of incredible seasons on a Big League mound, particularly his 1966 campaign with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he posted a record of 14-1 with a sparkling 1.62 ERA over 116.2 innings, leading the National League with 21 saves, helping L.A. go to the World Series.

Two years later, splitting the year with the Dodgers and Cubs, he'd post a record of 12-5 with a 2.27 ERA over 134.2 innings, leading the league once again in saves, this time with 25.

By the time he retired, he appeared in 551 games between 1960 and 1972, finishing with a record of 96-81, with a 3.84 ERA over 1372.2 innings, saving 92 games.

Not too shabby!

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1975 JOSE CRUZ

Good day everyone.

On the blog today, a card I've been meaning to "do-over" for years, a 1975 redo for Jose Cruz, showing him with the team he suited up with in 1974, the St. Louis Cardinals:

Now if you don't remember the card originally out there in packs that Spring of 1975 for Cruz, please look at this airbrushed gem:

Absolutely hilarious!

That Houston Astros logo is about the largest logo I've ever seen on a cap!

In late October of 1974 Jose Cruz was purchased by Houston from St. Louis, where he played from 1970-1974.
He never really got to play full-time with the Cardinals, but that changed in a hurry when he suited up for the Astros.
He immediately became a popular player, going on to play 13 solid seasons for them in the outfield and finishing in the top-10 in M.V.P. voting three times in the process.
Actually, Cruz can be the quietest 2000+ hits guy from the 1970's and '80's. He finished with 2251 hits, 165 home runs and 317 stolen bases while collecting two Silver Slugger awards over a 19-year career. Not bad at all.

 

REVISIT: 1978 "TURN BACK THE CLOCK" STAN MUSIAL

Up on the blog today, thought it'd be fun to revisit another 10-year-old post, this one my 1978 "Turn Back The Clock" card for all-time great Stan Musial, celebrating his 3000th hit from 20 years earlier:

He would go on to collect another 630 more hits to become the leading National League hit-maker before Hank Aaron would overtake him about 10 years later.
Throw in 725 doubles, 177 triples and 475 home runs and you have yourself one of THE best all-around hitters the game ever saw.
Three Most Valuable Player Awards, FOUR second-place finishes, including three in a row between 1949-1951, and twenty consecutive all-star appearances, Musial definitely is a member of that rarified stratosphere of baseball royalty along with the likes of Ruth, Cobb, Mays and Wagner, among others.

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SPECIAL: 1980 RICKEY HENDERSON PEPSI ALL-STAR

Good day all!

On the blog today, we have a fun card I created for my latest WTHBALLS release, a reprint of the never-released 1980 Pepsi All-Stars baseball set, with a bonus Rickey Henderson you see here:

I thought it'd be fun to add in one special card to the 22-card reprint set, and the Rickey rookie card was a natural choice.

Imagine if this was part of the very valuable test set!?

In his first taste of the Majors, Rickey appeared in 89 games with the Oakland A's in 1979, hitting .274 with 96 hits in 351 at-bats, stealing 33 bases and scoring 49 runs.

Coming into 1979 Henderson was on fire in 1977 and 1978 playing for Modesto and Jersey City in the Minors.

In '77 with Modesto, all he did was hit .345 with 120 runs scored and 95 stolen bases to go along with a sick .465 on-base-percentage.

The following year, getting promoted to Double-A ball, Henderson kept on hitting, this time to the tune of .310 with 81 runs scored and 81 steals.

So at the dawn of the 1979 season Henderson was ready to just about take over the game, straight to the Hall of Fame some 25 years later.

Just a glimpse of the dynamic player that was about to take over the baseball world over the next quarter century!

Greatest lead-off man the game has ever seen!

FIXING UP ALL-STAR CARDS: 1984 MANNY TRILLO

Today on the blog we fix another 1980's Topps All-Star snub, this time a 1984 card for Manny Trillo of the Cleveland Indians, the starter at second base for the American league in the 1983 game:

Topps decided to give the All-Star card to Lou Whitaker of the Detroit Tigers, a practice that I came to hate as a kid collecting back then. Why stray from the voted players? 

Anyway, Trillo would find himself shipped off to the Montreal Expos after the All-Star game, before ending up with the San Francisco Giants for the 1984 season.

He’d put together an excellent career that saw him win a World Championship with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980, win three Gold Gloves between 1979 and 1983 and get tabbed for four All-Star games.
By the time he retired after the 1989 season he finished up with 1562 hits over 5950 at-bats, good for a .263 average, with 598 runs scored and 571 runs batted in.

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: MARK FIDRYCH

Time to go ahead and give "The Bird", Mark Fidrych a card in my long-running custom WTHBALLS set, "Classic Baseball":

Does everyone still remember the impact Mark Fidrych had in Major League Baseball that summer of 1976!?
It was incredible, and for a young kid of seven, it was one of the first hypes I remember as a baseball fan.
The antics: talking to the baseball, grooming the mound, and all-around clownish behavior made him an instant favorite of mine back then.
There was so much I was learning about baseball all at once, and one thing I thought I learned was that guys like this were always around. Little did I know that what I was seeing was something truly special.
Well, we all know the story: Fidrych came up later in the season, having only pitched one inning as of mid-May, until a lucky break had him spot start for the Tigers where he ended up pitching a complete game two-hitter. In his first 13 starts, Fidrych had a remarkable 120 1/3 innings pitched. That's MORE than nine-innings a start due to three 11-inning games. Amazing.
By early July, as the media took hold of the story, "The Bird" was 9-1 with a 1.85 E.R.A. and was picked, as a rookie, to start the All-Star game for the American League.
By now he was taking over the baseball world, and everyone loved the show, including me!
He ended his season as Rookie of the Year, with a league-leading 2.34 E.R.A and 24 complete games out of 29 starts with a 19-9 record.
Sadly, after a dead arm the following season and repeated attempts at comebacks, Fidrych hung up the cleats by 1980 and ended up working as a contractor and fixing up his farmhouse back home in Northborough, Ma.
Turns out a torn rotator cuff went undiagnosed for years, and by the time this was discovered in 1985, all hopes of a repair and a comeback to baseball was long gone.
As it seems to happen with so many larger than life characters who come in and out of our lives, Fidrych met an untimely death on April 13th, 2009 at the age of only 54 when the truck he was working under caught his clothing.
I'll always remember that season, just as I was religiously forming my baseball addiction, and this "crazy" bird-man was always on T.V., talking to the baseball and smiling his way into my psyche.

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1972 GEORGE HENDRICK

Up on the blog today we have a do-over for George Hendrick and his classic 1972 rookie card, which originally had a black and white image colorized:

Redone version

Here's the original as-issued if you don't remember:

As-issued by Topps

I remember I found this card at a flea market in Brooklyn, where you went through boxes of cards this guy had on these fold-out tables. It was $1.00 for 22 cards! This was around 1981. I walked away with about 400 cards, and had to explain to my dad why I was carrying this big box when I went back to meet him after wandering around the market wondering where I was. I also remember how pissed he was that I managed to spend $20, all of my money, on something as ridiculous as "old cards". 

Hendrick would go on to play through the 1988 campaign, finishing up with 267 homers, 1111 RBIs, a .278 batting average and 1980 hits in 2048 games and 7129 at-bats.

He was an important cog in the Cardinals '80s machine that would net a World Championship in 1982, while taking home two Silver Slugger Awards and making two All-Star teams.

Apparently his nickname was “Silent George”, though I do not remember that, but perhaps I need to whip up a “nickname of the 1970’s” card for him as well!

 

OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 MIKE JORGENSEN

Good day all!

On the blog today, we take a closer look at another OPC to Topps image variation, this one the 1977 cards of former Montreal Expos first baseman Mike Jorgensen:

OPC version

Topps version

Seems OPC decided to crop in a bit on the photo Topps used of Jorgensen swingin, with the Topps image more to my liking to be honest.

Jorgensen put in 17 years as a Major League player, originally coming up with the New York Mets in 1968 at the age of 19, and playing through the 1985 season with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In between, he had his best years with the Expos between 1972 and 1976, even taking home a Gold Glove in 1973.

In 1975 he pretty much set career bests with 116 hits, 18 homers and 67 runs batted in over 445 at-bats, hitting .261 while also collecting 79 walks.

Never truly a full-time player, he finished up with a .243 batting average, with 833 over 3421 at-bats in 1633 games.