NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1975 BILL STEIN

Up on the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1975 card for Bill Stein, who appeared in a Baker's Dozen games for the Chicago White Sox during the 1974 season:

Stein hit .279 for the Pale Hose that year, collecting 12 hits in 42 at-bats while pretty much playing everywhere defensively.

He would go on to put in 14 years in the Big Leagues, and 1977 would be the only one of them that was a true full-season, appearing in 151 games for the new organization, with exactly 600 plate appearances.
He put in a nice season, hitting .259 with 13 homers and 67 runs batted in, along with 144 hits and 53 runs scored.
All except the batting average were easily career-highs in a career that spanned 1972 through 1985.
He’d finish his career with a .267 average with 751 hits over 2811 at-bats, appearing in 959 games.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1973 BILL STEIN

Good day everyone.

On the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1973 card for journeyman Bill Stein, who put in some time with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1972, though not being included in the Topps set the following year:

It was the first taste of the Big Leagues for Stein, appearing in 14 games and putting in time at Third and the corner outfield spots for the Redbirds.

Over those scant 14 games he hit .314 with 11 hits over 34 at-bats, with a couple runs scored and a couple homers.

He would go on to put in 14 years in the Big Leagues, and 1977 would be the only one of them that was a true full-season, appearing in 151 games for the new organization, with exactly 600 plate appearances.
He put in a nice season, hitting .259 with 13 homers and 67 runs batted in, along with 144 hits and 53 runs scored.
All except the batting average were easily career-highs in a career that spanned 1972 through 1985.
He’d finish his career with a .267 average with 751 hits over 2811 at-bats, appearing in 959 games.

1977 MARINERS REDONE: BILL STEIN

Next up with my 1977 “Expansion Do-Overs” is the Bill Stein card, which originally used the same image of him the previous year wearing a Chicago White Sox uni:

Re-done

Original

Topps decided to go and use an image they already had out the a year before, which amazes me since I would think they’d have a few images of each player.
Nevertheless, time being the great “fixer”, they would go on to take proper pics of him in a Seattle uniform so I went and “fixed” it just over 40 years later.
Stein would go on to put in 14 years in the Big Leagues, and 1977 would be the only one of them that was a true full-season, appearing in 151 games for the new organization, with exactly 600 plate appearances.
He put in a nice season, hitting .259 with 13 homers and 67 runs batted in, along with 144 hits and 53 runs scored.
All except the batting average were easily career-highs in a career that spanned 1972 through 1985.
He’d finish his career with a .267 average with 751 hits over 2811 at-bats, appearing in 959 games.

RANDOM QUICKIE: BILL STEIN AND HIS REPEATING IMAGE: 1976 AND 1977

Here's a quick post regarding former infielder Bill Stein and his 1976 and 1977 Topps cards.

I always get a kick out of images Topps blatantly used more than once, especially in consecutive years, like they did here:

1976

1977

In this case the guys at Topps closed in on the photo while airbrushing Stein into a Seattle Mariners uni (notice the great logo on the cap!).

For some reason Topps decided that Stein was a second baseman in 1976 and a third baseman in 1977, even though he played equal amounts both years for both positions. 

Stein did manage to forge a decent 14-year Major League career for himself between 1972 and 1985, playing in 959 games with 2811 at-bats while playing the infield and outfield.

His finest season could arguably be the inaugural Mariners year of 1977 when he hit .259 with 13 home runs and 67 runs batted in, along with 53 runs scored and 26 doubles in 151 games as the Mariners very first full-time third baseman.

It would actually be the only season where he played full-time, generally relegated to platoon status throughout his big league career.

I'll be looking at a few more cards that fall into this practice by Topps, so if you're into this type of stuff keep an eye out for it.