NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1970 BILL McNULTY

Today I post up a “not so missing” 1970 card for former outfielder Bill McNulty, who played his first Major League games in 1969:

McNulty didn’t quite have a debut to remember, as he would appear in five games for the Oakland A’s and go hitless over 17 at-bats, striking out 10 times. Ouch.
He’d spend the next two years in the Minors before making it all the way back in 1972, albeit for four games, going 1-for-10 along with a couple of walks.
That would be it for him on a Major League field, as he’d go on to play three more years in the Minors before some time in Japan before retiring as a player after the 1975 season.
But get this. His 1974 season for Sacramento in the Milwaukee Brewers system was one of the top seasons of the decade, in ANY leagues!
That year, in 144 games and 526 at-bats, McNulty hit 55 homers with 135 runs batted in, along with 135 runs scored.
He slashed a .329/.438/.690 line for the year and it’s really something that he didn’t get a chance to join the other Brewer sluggers on the Big League level.
As a matter of fact, McNulty hit 20 or more homers the final seven years of his pro career, dating back to 1969.
Even in his last season of 1975, he finished with 24 homers, in only 104 games, with 63 RBIs and 54 runs scored.

BILL MCNULTY'S 1973 PHOTO. AIRBRUSHED 1970'S STYLE

Came across this image that was used for Bill McNulty’s 1973 Topps card appearance, as part of a three-player rookie card, thought it’s be fun to spotlight:

McNulty appeared on a multi-player rookie alongside Ken Reitz and Terry Hughes, and once you see the original image you see that he was actually in a Milwaukee Brewers uniform, a team he never actually played for in regular season play, which is OK since he also never played for the Texas Rangers in a regular season game!
As a matter of fact, the ONLY Major League action McNulty ever saw were five games in 1969 and four games in 1972, as a member of the Oakland A’s.
By the time this card came out, all of McNulty’s Major League action was already behind him, though he would put in two nice seasons, one of them tremendous, in the Minors over the next two years, before heading to Japan in 1975 to play one season there.
In 1973 he was in the New York Mets system, and hit 25 homers while driving in 69 runs with 78 runs scored. Not bad.
But it was his 1974 season, playing in the Brewers system again, that he put in one of the better seasons in Minor League play during the decade.
Over 144 games for the Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League, he batted .329 with a whopping 55 homers and 135 runs batted in, while scoring 135 himself with a huge .690 slugging percentage.
Just huge.
Yet all that would get him was that tour in Japan the following season playing for the Lotte Orions alongside former 1965 N.L. Rookie of the Year Jim Lefebvre.
It seems it was the last professional action he saw as a player.