NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: "BIG MONEY" EARL WILLIAMS

Here was a card I’ve been wanted to create for a while now, a “nickname” card for former National League Rookie of the Year Earl Williams, aka “Big Money”, so I went ahead and created a 1973 example:

Williams’ successful Major League debut in 1971 was actually with the Atlanta Braves, but it’s really not that easy finding a time-appropriate image of him from that season, so I went and found this great image from his first season with the Baltimore Orioles in 1973.
In that award-winning 1971 season with Atlanta, Williams hit 33 home runs with 87 runs batted in while batting .260, certainly (at the time especially) a great rookie year, beating out Willie Montanez as the league’s top freshman.
After another excellent season in 1972, where he hit 28 homers with another 87 RBIs, Williams was dealt to Baltimore as part of a six-player deal that had Davey Johnson, Pat Dobson and Johnny Oates heading the other way in November.
He did not disappoint in his first year, hitting 22 homers while driving in 83 runs while catching and playing first base.
He had a bit of a drop off in production the following season, but still hit 14 homers with 52 RBIs in 118 games and 413 at-bats, before finding his way back to Atlanta again via trade, where he’d play another seasons and a half before playing out his career with the Montreal Expos for the second half of 1976 and the Oakland A’s in 1977.
Though he still had some pop in his bat, hitting 17 homers in 1976 split between the Braves and Expos, and 13 homers with the A’s in 1977, his average was hovering around the .230 mark with an OBP under .300.
He’d play the next two years in the Mexican League, but would never get back to the Big Leagues, retiring as a pro after 1980.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD- 1972 SUB-SET

Today we celebrate the 1971 Major League Rookies of the Year in my ongoing “Awards” series, with Earl Williams of the Atlanta Braves and Chris Chambliss of the Cleveland Indians sharing the spotlight:

Williams slammed his way to the award in the National League, clubbing 33 home runs while driving in 87 and batting .260 while doing something very uncommon, playing 72 games as catcher along with another 42 at third base and 31 at first base. Something you definitely do not see often!
He would follow that season up with another solid year in 1972 when he added 28 homers while equaling his RBI total of 87 and again playing the same three positions.
He would move on to Baltimore in 1973 before returning to Atlanta in 1975 for a year and a half, splitting time with the Montreal Expos in 1976.
He’d end up playing eight years in the Majors, finishing up with the Oakland A’s in 1977 before moving on to the Mexican League for a couple of years.
I never realized that he lived in the very town I moved to, Somerset, NJ and passed away just a few years ago at the age of 64.
Over in the American League we have the Indians’ Chris Chambliss, who had a very productive freshman season in the Majors when he batted .275 with nine homers and 48 runs batted in in only 111 games and 458 plate appearances.
The career 1st baseman would turn out to have a very nice 17-year career in the Major Leagues, winning two championships with the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978, of course also having his finest moment in the big leagues when he homered to clinch the American League pennant for the Yankees in the Bronx, culminating in one of the iconic sports moments of the decade as he raced around the bases trying to avoid the rushing fans who poured onto the field in celebration (can you imagine that now!?).
He would finish his career with over 2000 hits, a .279 average and 185 home runs with just under 1000 runs batted in calling it a career after one single at-bat for the Yankees in 1988.

MISSING IN ACTION- "IN ACTION" : EARL WILLIAMS

Time to add another player to my long-running thread, ‘MIA-MIA”, the “missing” 1972 In-Action cards, this time the newly crowned Rookie of the Year in the National League, Earl Williams of the Atlanta Braves:

First off, I DO realize this image was not from the 1971 season, but there were NO images of Williams in action from 1971 to be found, so I went with this shot since it was really a cool shot to use.
Williams burst onto the MLB stage with a great rookie season behind the plate, slamming 33 home runs while driving in 87, along with 72 runs scored and a .260 batting average.
Ironically, even after hitting another 28 home runs the following season, it wasn’t enough to keep him in Atlanta, as he found himself traded in a multi-player deal to the Baltimore Orioles with Taylor Duncan for pitcher Pat Dobson and Davey Johnson along with two other players.
He’d end up playing through the 1977 season, finishing up with the Oakland A’s after eight-years in the league, hitting 138 home runs before he was through, just under half of them those first two seasons.

UGH...THOSE 1972 TOPPS "AWARDS" CARDS...(#621 THROUGH #626): TODAY, CARD #625 "ROOKIE OF THE YEAR"

Let's come back to my thread regarding that 1972 awards sub-set, and check in on the "Rookie of the Year" award card (#625), which originally featured an image of the actual award rather than the two winners in 1971: Chris Chambliss in the A.L. and Earl Williams in the N.L.

First off, a look at the original card issued by Topps:

Yeah, you already know how I feel about these cards, so I'll spare the rant. 

But take a look at my redesign, showing what would have been a much nicer card to collect back then:

Among the two winners of the award, Williams had more of an impact during the season, bashing 33 homers and driving in 87 runs for the Atlanta Braves splitting time between catcher, first base and third at the age of 22.

Sadly, 1971 was easily his best year in the Majors, as his numbers rapidly declined over the rest of his eight year career, ending up with Oakland in 1977.

He always kept that powerful "punch" in his swing, totaling 138 lifetime homers in only 3058 at-bats. Not bad especially in the modern "dead ball" era he played in.

But by the time he hung up the cleats at the age of 28, his final numbers were mediocre at best, totaling only 889 games played spread among the Braves, Orioles, Expos and A's.

As for Chambliss, we all know he ended up putting together a very nice 17-year career playing for the Indians, Yankees and Braves from 1971 through 1988.

His 1971 numbers didn't exactly jump off the page, but in a year where there really wasn't much R.O.Y. competition, Chambliss easily won the award over Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Bill Parsons.

Playing strictly first base for Cleveland over 111 games, Chambliss put together solid numbers: a .275 batting average, 20 doubles, four triples and nine homers with 48 ribbies in 415 at-bats.

But it was after he moved on to the New York yankees that he made his mark in baseball, becoming an important cog in the "Bronx Zoo" teams along with Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, etc.

Between 1976-1978, Chambliss drove in 90+ runs each year, along with averages between .274-.293 and homers between 12-17.

Lastly, one cannot talk about Chris Chambliss without talking about the single most memorable moment of his career, his pennant winning home run off Kansas City reliever Mark Little in game five of the American League Championship in the Bronx in 1976.

Easily the highlight of a solid career for the veteran first baseman (and one of THE first baseball highlights witnessed first hand by me actually!).

Next up regarding this thread: the last card in the sub-set, and biggest reason why it would have been nicer to have players shown on these cards instead of awards, the "Babe Ruth" award (#626), featuring none other than Pittsburgh Pirate great Roberto Clemente.

Well, it WOULD have featured him if I had something to do with it.

But at least I can present my redesign for the ugly card that actually got issued back in 1972.

Keep an eye out for it….