1975 MISSING CAREER CAPPER- 1975 BOB MILLER

Here’s a “career-capper” and “missing” 1975 card for long-time Major League pitcher Bob Miller, who wrapped up his big league tenure with the New York Mets:

Miller put together a nice 17-year career, starting off in 1957 when he came up with the St. Louis Cardinals as an 18-year old.
In 1974 he appeared in 58 games for the Mets, all in relief, and posted a 2-2 record with a 3.58 earned run average over 78 innings of work.
It was the second tour of duty with the Mets, his first being in 1962 as an “original Met”, and it showed, as he went 1-12 with a 4.89 ERA as a starter with occasional work out of the ‘pen.
The following year the Gods of baseball smiled on him as he found himself in sunny Los Angeles as a member of the eventual World Champion Dodgers, and he had his best season as a Major Leaguer, going 10-8 with a 2.89 ERA over 43 games, 23 of which were starts alongside Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
By the time he retired, he finished with a 69-81 record, along with a very nice 3.37 ERA in 694 games and 1551.1 innings, with 52 saves, playing for no less than TEN teams.

"WHEN AIRBRUSHING GOES TERRIBLY WRONG"- PART X

Here's another topic I haven't posted to in a long while.

However, I'll admit it's not for lack of material to cover when it comes to airbrushing on baseball cards during the decade of the '70's.

A great example of this is today's card: 1974 (#624) Bob Miller of the New York Mets.

Now I don't know about you, but I've NEVER seen such a neon NY Mets cap in my life! Have you?!

Check out the airbrushing job on THIS cap! Awesome.

It seems the "artist" Topps employed also struggled a bit with the "NY" logo, and then decided that he wouldn't be bothered with trying to "fix" Miller's jersey.

But the jersey has me a bit confused, since Miller pitched with San Diego, Detroit AND the Mets in 1973, but it looks like the photo was from the year before, when Miller was hurling for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Look at the other players in the background. Those look like Pirates, not any of the other aforementioned teams. No? 

So if this is indeed the case, then what's with the red airbrush job on the collar stripe? Wasn't on the Pirates uniform to begin with, and it certainly has nothing to do with the Mets. Odd.

Looks like a Met player snuck into a Pirate convention.

 

On the subject of odd, Bob Miller had somewhat of an "odd" career. He managed to stick around for 17 years, but he bounced around a lot, and if I remember correctly, at one point he had the record for most Major League teams a player suited up for, which was 10: Cardinals, Mets (twice), Dodgers, Twins, Indians, White Sox, Cubs, Padres (twice), Pirates, and Tigers. Whew!

A good example of how "hot and cold" Miller's career was are his 1962 and 1963 seasons. 

As an "original Met" in the inaugural season of '62, Miller was clobbered to a tune of a 1 and 12 record with a 4.89 earned run average. But as the baseball gods would have it, he was sent to the Dodgers before the 1963 season, where he posted perhaps his finest big league campaign, going 10-8 with a nifty 2.89 E.R.A. over 42 games and 187 innings as part of a world champ squad who swept the Yanks in october of that year.

It was the only season where he posted double-digit wins in his long career.

After retiring in 1974 his career record ended up at 69-81 with a not-to-shabby 3.37 E.R.A. in 694 games, 99 of which were starts.

It's also interesting to note that he wasn't a lefty thrower, who seem to always find a place to continue a career as we've seen over the years.

Take a closer look at his career and you'll also see that in 1970, 1971 AND 1973 Miller pitched for THREE teams each year! Amazing! In 1972 he was mercifully given a full year with only one team, the Pirates.

At least Miller was a member of three different world champion teams: 1963 and 1965 Dodgers along with the 1971 Pirates. Not bad.