REVISITING MY MISSING 1976 RAY SADECKI CARD

From a post ten years ago, we revisit my "missing" 1976 card for former ace pitcher Ray Sadecki, with a slight "twist":

As part of a project I created for my buddy Jim for his personal collection, he wanted a 1976 card of Sadecki suited up with the Atlanta Braves, whereas I would have created a Kansas City Royals version since he finished the season with them in 1975.

Nevertheless...Here's the original write-up as it appeared in November of 2015:

"Now, this card has a bit of a twist to it, since if I followed my usual routine, I’d have had Sadecki shown as a Kansas City Royal, the team that he finished the 1975 season with.
However, following Jim’s lead, we felt it better to have him for the team he saw the most action with, the Atlanta Braves, for whom he tallied 25 appearances and 66.1 innings pitched.
He also suited up for the St. Louis Cardinals (who he opened up the season with), and the Royals as I mentioned.
All together with all three organizations Sadecki appeared in 38 games, good for 80.1 innings of work, posting a combined 4-3 record with a 4.03 earned run average while striking out 32 batters.
Sadecki put in a nice long 18-year career in the Majors, coming up as a young arm with the St. Louis Cardinals, even posting a 20-win season in 1964, helping them win the World Series over the New York Yankees.
All told he pitched for six teams (Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Royals, Braves and Brewers), posting a final record of 135-131 with a 3.78 ERA and 1614 K’s over 563 games and 2500.1 innings."

1978 CAREER-CAPPER: RAY SADECKI

On the blog today, a 1978 "career-capper" for pitcher Ray Sadecki, who had himself a nice Major League career before retiring after the 1977 season:

Sadecki put together a nice 18-year career on a big league mound, both as a starter and a reliever between 1960 and 1977.
He was a 20-game winner in 1964 with the St Louis Cardinals, and three-times posted an earned run average under 3.00, with a low of 2.78 in 1967 with the San Francisco Giants.

All told he pitched for six teams (Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Royals, Braves and Brewers), posting a final record of 135-131 with a 3.78 ERA and 1614 K’s over 563 games and 2500.1 innings, tossing 20 shutouts and starting 328 games.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1975 RAY SADECKI

Many moons ago here on the blog, I posted about the 1975 Topps set and how many of the St. Louis Cardinal players had hilarious airbrush jobs, including today's "do-over", pitcher Ray Sadecki.

Here's the original that I speak of:

 

Well let us re-do that card and show him with whom he suited up the prior season, the New York Mets:

 

Sadecki had a nice season in 1974 for the Mets, going 8-8 over 34 appearances, 10 of those starts, pitching to a 3.41 ERA with a shutouts over 103 innings of work.

He put together a nice 18-year career on a big league mound, both as a starter and a reliever between 1960 and 1977.
He was a 20-game winner in 1964 with the St Louis Cardinals, and three-times posted an earned run average under 3.00, with a low of 2.78 in 1967 with the San Francisco Giants.
He retired with a 135-131 record, with a 3.78 ERA and 20 shutouts along with 1614 strikeouts and seven saves over the course of 563 appearances, 328 of which were starts.

THEN AND NOW: RAY SADECKI: 1960-1977

Haven’t done a “Then and Now” card in a while, and I came across this image of former pitcher Ray Sadecki during his final season in the big leagues so I figured I’d make one up for him:

Though Sadecki appears in the 1977 Topps set as a Milwaukee Brewer, I figured I’d go ahead and show him as a Met since he pitched his last few games with them.
Sadecki put together a nice 18-year career on a big league mound, both as a starter and a reliever between 1960 and 1977.
He was a 20-game winner in 1964 with the St Louis Cardinals, and three-times posted an earned run average under 3.00, with a low of 2.78 in 1967 with the San Francisco Giants.
He retired with a 135-131 record, with a 3.78 ERA and 20 shutouts along with 1614 strikeouts and seven saves over the course of 563 appearances, 328 of which were starts.

MISSING IN ACTION: 1976 RAY SADECKI (1976 PROJECT)

Here’s one of the very first “missing” 1976 cards I created for “Reader Jim” way back when we started the “1976 Project”, a “missing” card for former pitcher Ray Sadecki.
Check it out:

Now, this card has a bit of a twist to it, since if I followed my usual routine, I’d have had Sadecki shown as a Kansas City Royal, the team that he finished the 1975 season with.
However, following Jim’s lead, we felt it better to have him for the team he saw the most action with, the Atlanta Braves, for whom he tallied 25 appearances and 66.1 innings pitched.
He also suited up for the St. Louis Cardinals (who he opened up the season with), and the Royals as I mentioned.
All together with all three organizations Sadecki appeared in 38 games, good for 80.1 innings of work, posting a combined 4-3 record with a 4.03 earned run average while striking out 32 batters.
Sadecki put in a nice long 18-year career in the Majors, coming up as a young arm with the St. Louis Cardinals, even posting a 20-win season in 1964, helping them win the World Series over the New York Yankees.
All told he pitched for six teams (Cardinals, Giants, Mets, Royals, Braves and Brewers), posting a final record of 135-131 with a 3.78 ERA and 1614 K’s over 563 games and 2500.1 innings.

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.