1975 "IN-ACTION": MIKE CUELLAR

Haven't added a player to my 1975 "In-Action"  set in a long while, so today we go and add Baltimore Orioles ace Mike Cuellar:

By 1975 Cuellar was coming close to closing out a nice 15-year career that saw him win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A. Seasons.

His 1974 season saw him post his last 20-win season, going 22-10 for the Orioles with a 3.11 ERA over 38 starts, with five shutouts and 20 complete games, ending up sixth in the Cy Young race at season's end.

I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in the early-1960's.

In 1977 Cuellar found himself with the California Angels, appearing in only two games, which would be the last two games of his career.

His lifetime numbers were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above, a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games, 379 of which were starts.

1970 "20-WIN CIRCLE": MIKE CUELLAR

Up on the blog today, we add former Baltimore Orioles ace Mike Cuellar to my 1970 "20-Win Circle" sub-set, celebrating all the 20-game winner in 1969:

Cuellar had a breakout season in 1969, winning 23 games while posting a 2.38 earned run average and five shutouts over 39 starts, completing 18 with 182 strikeouts.

The man was as solid as they came over his career, which began in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds as a 22-year-old.

He ended up putting in a nice 15-year career that saw him win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A. Seasons.

I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in the early-1960's.

His lifetime numbers nevertheless were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above, a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games, 379 of which were starts, completing almost half of them with 172.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1970 MIKE CUELLAR

For fun today, I wanted to do-over former ace Mike Cuellar's 1970 card, which was originally a reused non-descript photo of him cap-less due to Topps short-lived issue with the MLBPA, giving us many lame cards between 1969 and 1970:

For those that don't remember the original, here you go:

Just a nicer more time-appropriate image of the man as he was seemingly posting 20 wins a year for the juggernaut Baltimore Orioles.

The man was as solid as they came over his career, which began in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds as a 22-year-old.

He ended up putting in a nice 15-year career that saw him win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A. Seasons.

I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in the early-1960's.

His lifetime numbers nevertheless were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above, a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games, 379 of which were starts, completing almost half of them with 172.

1970 "IN-GAME ACTION": MIKE CUELLAR

Time to spotlight my 1970 "In-Game Action" card of Baltimore Orioles ace Mike Cuellar from my recent custom series:

 

The man was as solid as they came over his career, which began in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds as a 22-year-old.

He ended up putting in a nice 15-year career that saw him win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A. Seasons.

I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in the early-1960's.

His lifetime numbers nevertheless were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above, a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games, 379 of which were starts, completing almost half of them with 172.

EXPANDED LEAGUE LEADERS- 1975 A.L. VICTORIES

On the blog today, we move on to the American League and their top winning pitchers for 1974, on a 1975 “expanded league leader” card:

 

 

The top spot with 25 victories was shared by two future Hall of Famers, Jim “Catfish” Hunter and Fergie Jenkins, who both had monster seasons and finished first and second respectively in the Cy Young race by season’s end.

For Hunter, he finally brought home the Cy Young Award after going 25-12 for the Oakland A’s, helping them win their third straight World Championship, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He also led the league with a 2.49 earned run average, starting 41 games and completing 23, with six shutouts and 143 strikeouts in 318.1 innings of work, edging out Jenkins 90 points to 75 for pitching’s greatest award.

For Jenkins, he just missed out on becoming the first pitcher to take home the award in both leagues, as he would go 25-12 with a 2.82 ERA over 41 starts, completing 29 while tossing six shutouts himself, striking out 225 batters for the surprising Texas Rangers.

It was the last of his seven 20-win seasons in the Majors, as he would go on to finish with 284 wins over his stellar 19-year Big League career.

In third place with 22 wins apiece are four solid starters from the decade, including one Hall of Famer: Nolan Ryan, Mike Cuellar, Steve Busby and Luis Tiant.

All four of these guys put in Cy worthy years for their respective teams, with Ryan leading the league with 367 strikeouts, Cuellar leading the league with his .688 winning percentage, Tiant leading the league with his seven shutouts and Busby tossing the second no-hitter of his young career, becoming the first pitcher to ever toss two no-no’s in his first two full seasons in the Majors.

Well there you have it! SIX top-notch pitchers of the era represented on a fun card to create for the blog!

 

CAREER-CAPPER- 1978 MIKE CUELLAR

Up on the blog today, we finally get around to creating a 1978 "career-capper" for pitcher Mike Cuellar, who finished up a very nice Major League career with two games as a California Angel in 1977:

 

Cuellar got hit hard over those two games, to the tune of a 18.90 ERA in 3.1 innings of work, giving up nine hits and three walks.

Nevertheless, the man was as solid as they came over his career, which began in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds as a 22-year-old.

He ended up putting in a nice 15-year career that saw him win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A. Seasons.

I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in the early-1960's.

His lifetime numbers nevertheless were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above, a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games, 379 of which were starts, completing almost half of them with 172.

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS- MIKE CUELLAR

Time for another 1971 "Minor League Days" card to add to one of my favorite projects here on the blog, this time former ace Mike Cuellar:

Cuellar was pitching for the Havana Sugar Kings in 1959 when this images was taken, seeing the 22-year-old pitch to a record of 10-11 with a jnice 2.80 ERA over 29 appearances, all starts.

Earlier in the year he made his Big League debut with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games while not factoring in a decision, though hit hard to the tune of a 15.75 ERA in four innings of work.

Cuellar ended up putting in a nice 15-year career that saw him win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A. Seasons.

I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in the early-1960's.

His lifetime numbers nevertheless were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above, a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games, 379 of which were starts, completing almost half of them with 172.

 

1971 SPECIAL- THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES YOUNG ARMS RACE

Up on the blog today I’m posting up a nice 1971 custom featuring three studs for the Baltimore Orioles, who all posted 20+ wins in 1970:

Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally won a combined 68 games between them, helping the Orioles post 108 wins in 1970, on their way to a World Championship over the Cincinnati reds.
Those 108 wins would end up being the high-mark for wins by a team during the decade, matched by the 1975 “Big Red Machine” Reds, who also took home the title that year.
For future Hall of Fame pitcher Palmer, it would be the first of eight 20-win seasons, with only the 1974 and 1979 seasons where he didn’t win at least 20 during the wild-70’s.
McNally and Cuellar would finish second and fourth respectively in the Cy Young race at the end of year, behind winner Jim Perry of the Minnesota Twins, with Palmer following right behind at number 5.
What a magnificent stable of young arms!
As an aside to the way the game has changed over the generations, the Orioles only used six starters all season in 1970, with one of them, Marcelino Lopez, starting only three games.
Their other five starters accounted for 159 of 162 starts that season. Incredible.

CY YOUNG WINNERS- 1970 SUB-SET

I don’t know about you all, but when I was a kid ripping open packs, I was always psyched to come to one of the big time award winners from the previous season.
Pulling a Ron Guidry in 1979, a Joe Morgan in 1977, etc, was always a highlight.
It also irked me a bit that the big-time award winners were never “celebrated” in a sub-set. At least the way I wanted them to be.
Sure you had that attempt in the 1972 set, which we all want to forget about. And we had the 1975 sub-set celebrating all the MVP’s during the Topps run of 1951 to 74.
But what about a sub-set EVERY year showcasing the guys who took home the hardware the previous season?
Well today I’ll start that idea with a 1970 “Cy Young Winners” card, showing (in this case) the three guys who were the big winners during the 1969 season: Tom Seaver, Denny McLain and Mike Cuellar:

I wanted to take that idea of the actual award, or trophy if you will, and use it on the card along with images of the players themselves. THAT would have been a good way to go about it in 1972.
Of course, Seaver was on top of it all with the first of his three Cy Young Awards, posting a 25-7 record with a 2.21 earned run average and 208 strikeouts, leading the New York Mets all the way to an improbable championship over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles.
Those Orioles were led by Cuellar, who posted the first of his four 20-win season when he went 23-11 with a 2.38 E.R.A. And 182 strikeouts, leading his team to an American League championship, though they would lose to the Mets as I mentioned earlier.
However, that performance wasn’t enough to claim the award outright, as Detroit Tigers ace Denny McLain, coming off of a Cy Young AND MVP season in 1968 with his 31 wins and World Championship, would post another sparkler of a season, going 24-9 with a 2.80 E.R.A. And 181 strikeouts, along with a league-leading nine shutouts, to share in what would be his second straight claim to the award.
Well there you have it, the first of what will be a 30-card sub-set, spotlighting all the Cy Young, MVP and Rookie of the Year winners between 1969 and 1978.
Hope you enjoy it as much I will!

THEN AND NOW #33: MIKE CUELLAR 1977

Let's go and give former Baltimore Orioles star pitcher Mike Cuellar a "Then and Now" card in the 1977 set.

Take a look:

By 1977 Cuellar was closing out a nice 15-year career that saw him win 185 games, post four 20+ win seasons, win a Cy Young Award (shared with Tigers pitcher Denny McLain in 1969) and post four sub-3.00 E.R.A. Seasons.

I never realized that even though he came up in 1959 with the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in two games as a 22-year old, he didn't make it back to the Major's until 1964 at the age of 27, now as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Considering his lifetime win total mentioned above, he could have possibly approached 250 wins had he not missed those four-plus years in the early-1960's.

In 1977 Cuellar found himself with the California Angels, appearing in only two games, which would be the last two games of his career.

His lifetime numbers were impressive: the 185 wins mentioned above, a 3.14 lifetime E.R.A., 36 shutouts and 1632 strikeouts over 453 games, 379 of which were starts.

1975 "CY YOUNG AWARD" SUB-SET: WHAT IF? 1969

Today we take a look at 1969, the first season after MLB lowered the pitching mound after the "Year of the Pitcher" in 1968 in hopes of stimulating offense, as baseball was losing ground to the N.F.L. in popularity as "America's Game".

Yet while offense did indeed increase a bit over the previous year, there were still some stellar pitching performances to be had.

And the guys that ended up taking home the Cy Young hardware as top pitchers of their respective leagues were Tom Seaver in the N.L. and Denny McLain and Mike Cuellar in the A.L.

As you all know, for the first (and only) time in Cy Young voting, there was a tie, and it has made for somewhat of a unique card in my thread of an imagined "Cy Young" 1975 sub-set.

Take a look at the end result:

I struggled a bit with this one, trying to come up with a nice, clean design that showed all three pitchers, without altering the continuity of my sub-set too much.

And while I wanted to be a bit more "creative" with this card, the best design really was the ho-hum split panel you see here.

Let's start with the National League's top pitcher, Tom Seaver.

While he burst onto the Major League scene as N.L. Rookie of the Year in 1967, and followed up with a solid sophomore season in 1968, this was the year "Tom Terrific" was born, leading the New York Mets to the most improbable World Championship in ages, defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles juggernaut and posting eye-popping numbers that not only would get him the first of THREE Cy Young Awards, but a second place finish in Most Valuable Player voting as well.

Let the numbers speak for themselves: a 25-7 record, 2.21 earned run average and 208 strikeouts, along with five shutouts and a .781 winning percentage.

Fantastic! And only a single vote for Atlanta Braves pitcher Phil Niekro prevented Seaver from unanimously winning the award.

Of course, we all know that Seaver would wind his career with Hall of Fame numbers, totaling 311 wins, a 2.86 E.R.A., 61 shutouts and 3640 strikeouts, easily entering the hallowed halls of Cooperstown in 1992 after seeing his name on 425 of 430 ballots.

I hate to say it since it was at the expense of the Yankees, but I was in attendance the day Seaver logged his 300th win (on Phil Rizzuto day of all days), in 1985 at Yankee Stadium, and man was it a scene! And I have to admit I went home elated at what I just witnessed.

Over in the American League things got a bit more sticky, as voters ended up with a tie, picking the 1968 A.L. Cy Young winner (and Most Valuable Player), Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers, AND Mike Cuellar, who excelled in his first year as a Baltimore Oriole after some decent years in the National League, mainly as a Houston Astro.

Both pitchers received 10 first place votes, and it's understandable why, with their final numbers being so close.

Denny McLain followed up his 30-win season of '68 with a nice 24-9 record, along with a 2.80 earned run average, nine shutouts and 181 strikeouts over 41 starts, while Mike Cuellar was equally as impressive, posting a 23-11 record with a 2.38 E.R.A., five shutouts and 182 strikeouts over 39 starts for the powerful Baltimore pitching staff that also featured Dave McNally and Jim Palmer.

And while both pitchers didn't end up in the Hall of Fame like their National League counterpart, they did fashion nice Major League careers, Cuellar ending up with a 185-130 record, and McLain with a 131-91 mark.

OK, next up we move into the 1970's, and take a look at the 1970 Cy Young Award winners: Jim Perry of the Minnesota Twins and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals.

"HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 1970'S" #1: 1971 ORIOLES 20-WIN FOURSOME

Today I start a new thread that I know will be fun to work on: "highlight" cards throughout the decade of events and milestones that didn't get enough play by Topps (in MY book) in any set.

Record Breaker and Highlight cards did indeed appear in sets during the 1970's, but they still left some accomplishments that I always felt were big out of the picture.

A good example of this would be today's baseball achievement: the 1971 Baltimore Orioles and their 20-game winning foursome of Jim Palmer, Pat Dobson, Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally.

I mean come on! Only once before (and since) has a team sported FOUR starters that won 20 or more games, and that was the much-maligned Chicago White Sox team from 1920 when Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Williams, Red Faber and Dickie Kerr all won 20+.

Not until this fearsome foursome showed up everyday in 1971 did a team have such a luxury.

First, take a look at my design for what should have been a nice insert into the 1972 Topps set to celebrate this rare achievement:

Ok, I got a little "cheeky" with the text on the card. But I didn't want to just list their names.

You'll find this as a common thread with a bunch of the card designs I come up with for this thread.

Back to what this staff did: think about it: 80+ wins just like that on the shoulders of four starters.

That's amazing, and obviously something we will never see again the way Major League ball is played these last 30 years or so.

McNally led the way with a 21-5 record, followed by the other three with Cuellar going 20-9, Dobson going 20-8 and Palmer going 20-9.

Only Cuellar sported an E.R.A. Over 3.00, with a 3.08 showing, while Palmer had the lowest at 2.68, McNally at 2.89 and Dobson at 2.90.

Oddly enough the biggest winner had the fewest starts, as McNally took the mound 30 times in '71 while the others all posted 37 or 38 starts for the year.

Palmer was the last to reach 20-wins with a sparkling 5-0 shutout of the Cleveland Indians on September 26th, his last start!

Cuellar won his 20th a couple games before on the 24th, (1st Game of a doubleheader), beating Sam McDowell 9-2, while McNally pitched a shutout against the Yankees on the 21st of September to reach HIS milestone win.

Incredibly Dobson also threw a shutout for HIS 20th win, this one in the second game of a doubleheader on the 24th against the Indians.

Dobson and Cuellar both won their 20th on the same day, and three of the four starters threw shutouts for their wins!

How awesome is that?!

Since that awesome pitching staff performance, the closest any team has had to four 20-game winners seems to be the 1989 Oakland A's, who had Dave Stewart with 21 wins, Mike Moore and Storm Davis win 19, and Bob Welch chip in 17 wins.

Still pretty impressive, especially considering that team played at the beginning of the "middle relief" era, FOR the guy who really began implementing it the way we see it used today: skipper Tony LaRussa.

Anyway, if you like this sort of stuff, keep an eye out for more of the same in the coming weeks, as I'll design cards for such baseball accomplishments as the 1977 Dodgers having four players slam 30+ homers, the 1973 Braves with three batters swat 40+ homers, and much more.