GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1970 LOU PINIELLA

Up on the blog today, we're going to go and give Lou Piniella a do-over on his 1970 card, something worthy of the 1969 American League Rookie of the Year:

Re-done version

As issued by Topps

 

You'd think with a full season of 1969 under his belt, Topps would have had a better image for his 1970 card.

However with the battle going on between the card maker and MLBPA at the time, they were recycling images or using older images taken years before.

Right before the 1969 season Piniella was traded by the Seattle Pilots to another new franchise, the Kansas City Royals, for John Gelnar and Steve Whitaker.

It was a great move by the Kansas City team, as Piniella would not disappoint, going on to cop Rookie of the Year honors by hitting .282 with eleven homers and 68 runs batted in.

He'd play with the Royals through the 1973 season, making one more All-Star team in 1972 when he hit .312 while leading the league with 33 doubles, collecting a career-best 179 hits.

After being traded to the New York Yankees before the 1974 season, Piniella found his permanent home in the big leagues, playing the final eleven seasons of his career there.

Along the way he was a member of two championship teams, hit .300 or better five times, and eventually would even become manager of the Yanks before moving on to a long career leading Major League squads.

Over his 18-year career he hit .291, with 1705 hits in 5867 at-bats, and besides 10 games split between the Orioles in 1964 and the Indians in 1968, he'd do it all with the Royals and Yankees between 1969-1984.

In 1986 he took over as Yankee manager, and would go on to manage for another 23 seasons, guiding the Yanks, Reds, Mariners, Devil Rays and Cubs.

He would lead his teams to a World Series win in 1990 (Reds), an American League record 116 win season in 2001 (Mariners), eight 90+ win seasons (all but the Devil Rays), and six 1st place finishes (with the Reds, Mariners and Cubs).

Not a bad career spanning 46 years!

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS: LOU PINIELLA

Good day all!

Thought it'd be fun to add another player to my long-running 1971 "Minor League Days" thread, with the next guy in 1969 A.L. Rookie of the Year Lou Piniella:

 

Piniella is shown here as a member of the Portland Beavers, for whom he played between 1966 and 1968, averaging above .300 combined while in the Cleveland Indians organization.

He did get into six games for the Indians in 1968 before being selected by the new Seattle Pilots organization in the expansion draft in October of that year.

However right before the 1969 season Piniella was traded by the Pilots to another new franchise, the Kansas City Royals, for John Gelnar and Steve Whitaker.

It was a great move by the Kansas City team, as Piniella would not disappoint, going on to cop Rookie of the Year honors by hitting .282 with eleven homers and 68 runs batted in.

He'd play with the Royals through the 1973 season, making one more All-Star team in 1972 when he hit .312 while leading the league with 33 doubles, collecting a career-best 179 hits.

After being traded to the New York Yankees before the 1974 season, Piniella found his permanent home in the big leagues, playing the final eleven seasons of his career there.

Along the way he was a member of two championship teams, hit .300 or better five times, and eventually would even become manager of the Yanks before moving on to a long career leading Major League squads.

Over his 18-year career he hit .291, with 1705 hits in 5867 at-bats, and besides 10 games split between the Orioles in 1964 and the Indians in 1968, he'd do it all with the Roylas and Yankees between 1969-1984.

In 1986 he took over as Yankee manager, and would go on to manage for another 23 seasons, guiding the Yanks, Reds, Mariners, Devil Rays and Cubs.

He would lead his teams to a World Series win in 1990 (Reds), an American League record 116 win season in 2001 (Mariners), eight 90+ win seasons (all but the Devil Rays), and six 1st place finishes (with the Reds, Mariners and Cubs).

Not a bad career spanning 46 years!

REVISITING AN OLD BLOG POST- JULY 29TH, 2015

Thought it'd be fun to revisit an old blog post from over six years ago, my "Missing" 1972 In-Action card for Lou Piniella of the Kansas City Royals, which was a really fun thread where I created a bunch of missing 1972 In-Action cards Topps should have had out there:

 

Here's the original blog post write-up for that day:

"Piniella was establishing himself as a solid Major League player, already taking home the American League Rookie of the Year in the 1969, the Royals inaugural season, and just putting in consistent numbers every year there.

After being traded to the New York Yankees before the 1974 season, Piniella found his permanent home in the big leagues, playing the final eleven seasons of his career there.

Along the way he was a member of two championship teams, hit .300 or better five times, and eventually would even become manager of the Yanks before moving on to a long career leading Major League squads.

Over his 18-year career he hit .291, with 1705 hits in 5867 at-bats, and besides 10 games split between the Orioles in 1964 and the Indians in 1968, he'd do it all with the Roylas and Yankees between 1969-1984.

In 1986 he took over as Yankee manager, and would go on to manage for another 23 seasons, guiding the Yanks, Reds, Mariners, Devil Rays and Cubs.

He would lead his teams to a World Series win in 1990 (Reds), an American League record 116 win season in 2001 (Mariners), eight 90+ win seasons (all but the Devil Rays), and six 1st place finishes (with the Reds, Mariners and Cubs).

Not a bad career spanning 46 years!"

EXPANDED YEARLY LEADER CARDS: 1973 A.L. BATTING LEADERS

Ok now.

Today we move on in my new "Expanded League Leaders" thread to the American League and it's leading batters for the 1972 season on a 1973 card:

 

 

Of course, we start off with Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who won his second of what was to be seven batting titles, hitting .318, the lowest average of any of his titles, but still enough to get the job done.

Following him is a bit of a surprise, which really only goes to show you the impact of having expanded league leaders back then, as the second best hitter in 1972 for the Junior Circuit is "Sweet Lou" Piniella of the Kansas City Royals, who hit .312 while leading the league with 33 doubles, leading to his only All-Star birth.

Coming in third, just ten points of a Triple Crown, was the Wampum Walloper" himself, Dick Allen, who of course wound up with an MVP Award for his monster 1972 campaign when he led the league in homers, RBIs, walks, on-base percentage and slugging in his first season in the South Side.

I believe that if he collected about eight more hits over the course of the season he would have taken the Triple Crown!

Nevertheless, his 1972 season was brilliant, adding the MVP hardware to a Rookie of the Year Award of 1964.

Well, there you have it! Onto the next expanded leage-leader card, what will it be?

Stay tuned...

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR- 1970 SUB-SET

Here is the next and final Award sub-set card for the 1970 set, the Rookie of the Year winners of the previous year, Ted Sizemore of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National league and Lou Piniella of the Kansas City Royals for the American League:

Sizemore, who was getting his first taste of the big leagues, ended up playing in 159 games for the Dodgers and batting .271 with 160 hits over 590 at-bats.
He scored 69 runs, with 29 extra base hits and 46 runs batted in, while walking 45 times against 40 strikeouts.
Over in the American League, Lou Piniella was freed from his tenure with the Seattle Pilots the year before and was able to put together a very nice rookie campaign with a .282 batting average based on 139 hits in 493 at-bats over 135 games.
He hit 11 homers and drove in 68 runs while scoring 43 himself, ending up with nine votes, three more than runner-up Mike Nagy of the Boston Red Sox, who had a great rookie year when he posted a 12-2 record along with a 3.11 earned run average over 196.2 innings pitched.
Some other notables who got some votes were Al Oliver, who finished second in the N.L. freshman race, while Carlos May of the Chicago White Sox finished third in the A.L.

NICKNAMES OF THE '70'S #37: "SWEET LOU" PINIELLA

Up next in my ongoing nickname thread is “Sweet Lou” Piniella, a baseball “lifer” if there ever was one.
Take a look at my card first:

I used the 1978 template since Piniella was in the middle of his “sweet” run as a Bronx Bomber, taking part in four World Series, taking home two championships, and being a spark plug in the ever famous “Bronx Zoo” with the likes of Reggie, Thurman and Bucky.
As we all know, after wrapping up his nice 18-year career he went on to an excellent career as a Major League manager, leading the 1990 Reds to a championship as well as heading the 2001 Mariners, who tied the Major League record with 116 wins.
Combined the man was in a Major League uniform for over 40 years!
“Sweet”!!!

MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" #43: 1972 LOU PINIELLA

Today I go and crate a "missing" 1972 In-Action card for "Sweet" Lou Piniella, then of the Kansas City Royals.

Check out the card:

Piniella was establishing himself as a solid Major League player, already taking home the American League Rookie of the Year in the 1969, the Royals inaugural season, and just putting in consistent numbers every year there.

After being traded to the New York Yankees before the 1974 season, Piniella found his permanent home in the big leagues, playing the final eleven seasons of his career there.

Along the way he was a member of two championship teams, hit .300 or better five times, and eventually would even become manager of the Yanks before moving on to a long career leading Major League squads.

Over his 18-year career he hit .291, with 1705 hits in 5867 at-bats, and besides 10 games split between the Orioles in 1964 and the Indians in 1968, he'd do it all with the Roylas and Yankees between 1969-1984.

In 1986 he took over as Yankee manager, and would go on to manage for another 23 seasons, guiding the Yanks, Reds, Mariners, Devil Rays and Cubs.

He would lead his teams to a World Series win in 1990 (Reds), an American League record 116 win season in 2001 (Mariners), eight 90+ win seasons (all but the Devil Rays), and six 1st place finishes (with the Reds, Mariners and Cubs).

Not a bad career spanning 46 years!