CAREER-CAPPER: 1987 GARRY MADDOX

Good day all.

On the blog today, by special request, a 1987 "career-capper" for one of the greatest fielding outfielders of all-time, Garry Maddox, the "Secretary of Defense":

Maddox appeared in only six games for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1986, closing out a wonderful 15-year career that started with the San Francisco Giants in 1972.

Maddox, eventually to be known as the “Secretary of Defense” for his defensive prowess, came up with the San Francisco Giants in 1972 and had a nice rookie campaign when he hit .266 with 122 hits, 12 homers and 58 runs batted in.
The man went on to have an excellent Major League career over the next 15-years, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he was traded in 1975 for Willie Montanez.
He’d go on to win eight Gold Gloves, all with the Phillies, while hitting .285 for his career, throwing in about 25 stolen bases a year.
In 1976 he’d even hit as high as .330, earning him a fifth place finish in the National League’s MVP race, batting in a line-up with other stars like Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski.
He’d retire just a couple of weeks into the 1986 season, finishing up with that .285 batting average, 1802 hits, 248 stolen bases, and a reputation as being one of the greatest defensive outfielders to play the game.

 

1977 CENTENNIAL SPECIAL: GARRY MADDOX

Adding to my fun 1977 "Centennial" sub-set, we have the great outfielder Garry Maddox, celebrating the National League's 100th anniversary of 1976:

Maddox, eventually to be known as the “Secretary of Defense” for his defensive prowess, came up with the San Francisco Giants in 1972 and had a nice rookie campaign when he hit .266 with 122 hits, 12 homers and 58 runs batted in.
The man went on to have an excellent Major League career over the next 15-years, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he was traded in 1975 for Willie Montanez.
He’d go on to win eight Gold Gloves, all with the Phillies, while hitting .285 for his career, throwing in about 25 stolen bases a year.
In 1976 he’d even hit as high as .330, earning him a fifth place finish in the National League’s MVP race, batting in a line-up with other stars like Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski.
He’d retire just a couple of weeks into the 1986 season, finishing up with that .285 batting average, 1802 hits, 248 stolen bases, and a reputation as being one of the greatest defensive outfielders to play the game.

 

EXPANDED LEAGUE LEADERS- 1977 N.L. BATTING

On the blog today, we move on to the 1977 Topps set and “fix” the league leader cards with “expanded league leaders”, starting off with the National League and their top three hitters of 1976:

 

 

We start off with Chicago Cubs hitting machine Bill Madlock, who won his second straight batting title in 1976, hitting .339 after hitting a blistering .354 the previous season.

Turns out the man would go on to win four batting titles before he was through, taking home the other two in 1981 and 1983 while with the Pittsburgh Pirates, hitting .341 and .323 respectively.

By the time he retired, he finished his career with a .305 batting average, with 2008 hits in 6594 at-bats over 1806 games between 1973 and 1987.

Just three points behind Madlock in the batting race, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey (Sr.), who came into his own in 1976 (as if the “Big Red Machine” even NEEDED yet another star hitter!), hitting .336 with 189 hits in 562 at-bats.

He also scored 111 runs and stole 34 bases for the eventual World Champions, who possessed a line-up that was just silly: Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, George Foster and Griffey.

He would put in 19 seasons as a Big Leaguer, also topping 2000 hits (2143), with a career average of .296 between 1973 and 1991.

Of course, he also had a son who would go on to do a few things on the baseball diamond. Not too shabby!

In third place with a .330 batting average was the DEFENSIVE outfielder extraordinaire, Garry Maddox of the Philadelphia Phillies, who set his career-best average with 175 hits in 531 at-bats, slapping 37 doubles and stealing 29 bases for the N.L. East champs.

That season he also took home the second of his eight Gold Glove Awards, appreciated as one of, if not THE best defensive outfielder in the game at that time, leading to his now classic nickname, “The Secretary of Defense”.

By the time he hung up the cleats, he finished with 1802 hits in 6331 at-bats, good for a .285 average over 1749 games between 1972 and 1986.

Next week, we move on to the American League and THEIR top three hitters!

See you then!

EXPANDED YEARLY LEADER CARDS: 1974 N.L. BATTING

OK now! Today we move on to 1974 with my on-going "expanded league leaders" thread, creating league leader cards for EACH league celebrating the top 3 in a category instead of the combined top players of both leagues on one card.

With that we begin with the National league and the top 3 batters of 1973:

 

 

We start off with the great Pete Rose, who took home the third (and final) batting title of his career in 1973 when he hit .338, a healthy 18 points ahead of the second place batter.

During that season he collected a career-best 230 hits, while scoring 115 runs with 64 runs batted in for the Cincinnati Reds.

Behind him with a very nice .320 batting average is Houston Astros young stud Cesar Cedeno, who matched the same batting average from 1972.

As a matter of fact his 1973 season was almost the mirror-image of his 1972 performance, with him collecting 168 hits and 35 doubles, with 25 homers and 70 RBIs, with 56 stolen bases thrown in for good measure.

Those numbers are almost exactly the same as his 1972 numbers, and indeed that is a very good thing! The man was a budding superstar back then.

Just one point off of Cedeno in 1973 was a little bit of a surprise, none other than Garry Maddox, the "Secretary of Defense", who had a very nice first truly full season in the Big Leagues with his .319 batting average along with 187 hits, 30 doubles, 10 triples and 11 homers, with 76 RBIs and 81 runs scored.

Just two years later he'd find himself East as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, where he'd take home eight Gold Gloves for his stellar defensive play, and be part of some solid teams with others like Greg Luzinski, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and Larry Bowa.

Well there you have it! The top-three batters of the National League in 1973.

Next week, the American League!

1975 IN-ACTION: GARRY MADDOX

Time to go and give the “Secretary of Defense” Garry Maddox a 1975 “In-Action” card in my long-running sub-set, celebrating his ascent to becoming one of the all-time greatest defensive outfielders we’ve ever seen:

Maddox was still with his original Big League team, the San Francisco Giants, when this card would have seen the light of day, with him just about to begin his fourth season.
1975 would see him get traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Willie Montanez in May, and he would take that opportunity to take home the first of eight Gold Gloves over his brilliant 15-year career.
He would spent the rest of his career with the Phillies, hitting as high as .330 in 1976, helping them to a World Championship in 1980, and finishing with 1802 hits and a .285 batting average when it was all said and done.
Incredibly, the man was never tabbed for an All-Star game, which stuns me since he had some excellent seasons during his career.
Nevertheless, by the time he retired after the 1986 season he was regarded as one of the best defensive outfielders ever, prompting one of the best quotes, “Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, the other one-third by Maddox”.
Brilliant!

A MISSED ROOKIE CUP: 1973 GARRY MADDOX

Next up in my ongoing series of “correcting” Topps cards that for some reason lacked the “Topps All-Rookie” cup is the 1973 Garry Maddox card:

Maddox, eventually to be known as the “Secretary of Defense” for his defensive prowess, came up with the San Fracisco Giants in 1972 and had a nice rookie campaign when he hit .266 with 122 hits, 12 homers and 58 runs batted in.
Those numbers got him selected for the Topps Rookie All-Star team, but as stated earlier, didn’t get him the “Rookie Cup” some of the other players selected got in the 1973 set.
Regardless, the man went on to have an excellent Major League career over the next 15-years, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies, where he was traded in 1975 for Willie Montanez.
He’d go on to win eight Gold Gloves, all with the Phillies, while hitting .285 for his career, throwing in about 25 stolen bases a year.
In 1976 he’d even hit as high as .330, earning him a fifth place finish in the National League’s MVP race, batting in a line-up with other stars like Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski.
He’d retire just a couple of weeks into the 1986 season, finishing up with that .285 batting average, 1802 hits, 248 stolen bases, and a reputation as being one of the greatest defensive outfielders to play the game.

NICKNAMES OF THE '70'S #31: "SECRETARY OF DEFENSE" GARRY MADDOX

Up next in my "Nicknames of the '70's" series is former Phillies outfielder Garry Maddox, aka the "Secretary of Defense".

First up, the card I came up with:

Now, allow me to start by saying I looked high and low for a good image of Maddox out in the field, being that he was really known as a defensive master, but I could NOT find a single usable image.

On top of that, I couldn't even fins a good image of him from 1975/76, when he first joined the Phillies. I promise you, I was searching around like crazy.

Regardless, I went with a 1976 format since this was at the beginning of his run of eight straight Gold Glove Awards (1975-1982).

I'll always remember the classic line: "Two-thirds of the earth is covered by water, the other one-third by Garry Maddox", attributed to Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas. Just classic!

Now, with all this talk of his defensive abilities, Maddox was no slouch at the plate either.

By the time he retired after the 1986 season, he collected 1802 hits, with 337 doubles, 62 triples and 117 home runs, along with 777 runs scored and 754 runs batted in with a very nice .285 batting average.

He was also a threat on the base paths, stealing over 20 bases in eight straight seasons between 1973 and 1980.

But again, it was his stellar defensive work that he will always be remembered for, with a great nickname to boot: "Secretary of Defense".