1970 "20-WIN CIRCLE": CLAUDE OSTEEN

Today's blog post has Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clause Osteen added to my new 1970 "20-win Circle" thread, celebrating the 20-game winning pitchers of 1969:

Osteen would join the 20-win circle for the first time in his career  in 1969, putting in an excellent campaign with seven shutouts, 183 strikeouts and a 2.66 earned run average over a workmanlike 321 innings and 16 complete games.

The man was an innings eater, putting in well over 200 innings a year between 1963 and 1973, with the 321 from 1969 his career-high.

He fell just short of 200 wins in his career with 196, as he posted a 7-16 record with the Chicago White Sox in his last season of 1975.

But he did have a solid career nevertheless, winning 20 games twice (1969 and 1972), throwing 40 shutouts (with a high of seven in 1969), and finishing with a 3.30 earned run average, with four seasons posting a sub-3.00 figure.

Coming over from the Washington Senators in 1965, he must have been overjoyed becoming a Dodger, teaming up with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax (and soon enough Don Sutton), to form quite the formidable rotation.

He was part of a World Championship team right off the bat in 1965 as the Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins, but was also part of the Dodger team that got swept in the series the following year by the Baltimore Orioles.

A three-time All-Star, Osteen is also in the top-50 all-time in shutouts and games started (with 488).

Certainly an overlooked ace from the era.

MISSING IN ACTION: 1965 WORLD SERIES GAME 3

On the blog today, we move on to Game Three of the 1965 World Series in my 1966 sub-set, which Topps inexplicably left out of their set:

With the Minnesota Twins shocking everyone, taking a two-games-to-none lead by beating Los Angeles Dodger aces Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, the Series moved to L.A. and the Dodgers needed a win badly.

Luckily for them, young pitcher Claude Osteen was up to the challenge, tossing a complete game shutout with a 4-0 win, striking out two while issuing two walks and allowing five hits.

Twins starter Camilo Pascual allowed three runs over five innings, with Lou Johnson and John Roseboro driving in the three runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

The game was completed in an economical two hours and six minutes, giving the Dodgers life in trying to recapture the Title that they last won two seasons earlier in 1963.

Incredibly, there were only three strikeouts TOTAL in the game, something I cannot imagine nowadays! Incredible.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1975 CLAUDE OSTEEN

On the blog today we finally go and give former pitcher Claude Osteen a "do-over" for his 1975 Topps card, replacing the absolutely classic airbrush job thrown into packs for us kids to gawk at way back when:

 

For those sadly not familiar with the original, you can thank me later:

 

What a hilarious card. As a matter of fact the Cardinal TEAM seemed to have a bunch of great airbrush cards in the 1975 set, something I profiled here on the blog years ago:

http://whentoppshadballs.blogspot.com/2014/08/random-quickie-those-airbrushed-1975-st.html

Just some great fun I must admit!

As for Osteen, fell just short of 200 wins in his career with 196, as he posted a 7-16 record with the "South-Siders" in 1975 over 37 starts and 204.1 innings of work.

But he did have a solid career nevertheless, winning 20 games twice (1969 and 1972), throwing 40 shutouts (with a high of seven in 1969), and finishing with a 3.30 earned run average, with four seasons posting a sub-3.00 figure.

Coming over from the Washington Senators in 1965, he must have been overjoyed becoming a Dodger, teaming up with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax (and soon enough Don Sutton), to form quite the formidable rotation.

He was part of a World Championship team right off the bat in 1965 as the Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins, but was also part of the Dodger team that got swept in the series the following year by the Baltimore Orioles.

A three-time All-Star, Osteen is also in the top-50 all-time in shutouts and games started (with 488).

EXPANDED YEARLY LEADER CARDS: 1973 N.L. VICTORIES

On the blog today, we move on to the National League's top winners for 1972 in my on-going "Expanded League Leader" card series, featuring some big time studs of the era:

 

Of course we start off with the great Steve Carlton, who led the world in everything for 1972, winning 27 games on his way to the first of his four Cy Young Awards.

The man was just incredible, especially given that the Philadelphia Phillies won only 59 games that year!

Coming in second that year in wins was another future Hall of Famer, Tom Seaver of the New York Mets who posted 21 victories, his third 20+ win season of his young career.

The righty also posted his fifth of what would end up being nine straight 200+ strikeout seasons, also making his sixth straight All-Star team.

Tied for third among N.L. pitchers with 20 wins apiece are Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins and Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Claude Osteen.

For Jenkins, it was his sixth straight 20+ win campaign, coming off a Cy Young winning season in 1971 when he himself led the N.L. with his 24 wins, completing an incredible 30 of his 39 starts!

In Osteen, the Dodgers got a pitcher who put in his second career 20-win season, the first which came in 1969.

Osteen paired his 20-wins with a nice 2.64 earned run average, along with four shutouts while completing 14 of his 33 starts, tossing 252 innings.

Well there you go, four pitchers making the cut here on this card, as we go ahead and move on to the American League next week!

THEN AND NOW #27: CLAUDE OSTEEN 1976

Though primarily known for his nine years as a Los Angeles Dodger pitcher, Claude Osteen was closing out a nice 18-year career in 1976, and I wanted to give him a "Super Veterans" card as part of my "Then and Now" thread.

Check it out:

Osteen fell just short of 200 wins in his career with 196, as he posted a 7-16 record with the "South-Siders" in 1975 over 37 starts and 204.1 innings of work.

But he did have a solid career nevertheless, winning 20 games twice (1969 and 1972), throwing 40 shutouts (with a high of seven in 1969), and finishing with a 3.30 earned run average, with four seasons posting a sub-3.00 figure.

Coming over from the Washington Senators in 1965, he must have been overjoyed becoming a Dodger, teaming up with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax (and soon enough Don Sutton), to form quite the formidable rotation.

He was part of a World Championship team right off the bat in 1965 as the Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins, but was also part of the Dodger team that got swept in the series the following year by the Baltimore Orioles.

A three-time All-Star, Osteen is also in the top-50 all-time in shutouts and games started (with 488).

RANDOM QUICKIE: THOSE AIRBRUSHED 1975 ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

I know there were a ton of airbrushing jobs on Topps part in the 1970's, and many of them left a lot to be desired as far as "quality" went.

But one little item that always popped out to me were those badly airbrushed St. Louis Cardinals cards from the 1975 set.

It seemed like there were an inordinate amount of bad ones for that team in that year, and they are absolute CLASSICS!

Let's take a look:

Man. Some of those St. Louis logos on the caps are horrendous!

I'll pick the Osteen logo as the worst. However the Sadecki and Rudolph caps sport some terrible messy black stroking around the white lettering on the caps.

What a classic set of cards right here!

I guess looking at it now the Cardinals had the same bad amount of airbrushing as the Yankees or any other team in this set.

But for some reason these Cardinal cards were the ones that always stuck with me through the years.

The Osteen photo also bothers me since he looks so confused, like he's looking at the camera as some magic box and can't figure out what's happening at that moment.

Still, even with all the airbrush "disasters" in the set, the 1975 Topps offering is still one of my all-time favorites! Just can't get enough of all the colors.