"LONG TIME NO SEE"- MINNIE MINOSO IN 1977

After being away from Major League baseball since 1964, Minnie Minoso, who by now was 50 years old and coming off of a few years playing down in Mexico, was brought back as a publicity stunt by one of baseball's great showmen, White Sox owner Bill Veeck and his son Mike.
He ended up appearing in three games, going 1 for 8 and becoming the fourth-oldest player to record a hit, while also becoming the only player to appear in the 1940's through the 1970's.
If THAT wasn't enough, four years later in 1980, "Mr. White Sox" entrenched himself in baseball history by becoming only the second player (Nick Altrock being the other) to appear in five different decades: '40's, 50's, '60's, '70's and '80's. Veeck, in another publicity stunt, had Minoso appear in two games, going 0-2 at the age of 54.
For his 1976 appearances, Topps commemorated the event by issuing a "Record Breaker" card in their 1977 set (#232) seen here (even though he WASN'T the oldest player to "hit safely"):

Now, what if Topps wanted to have a little fun and actually issue a regular player-card for Minoso? That would have been an interesting card to have, especially with stats dating back to the 1940's.
I went ahead and designed a "regular" card for Minoso, imagining what it could have looked like. Take a gander:

Could've been his first player card since 1964.

Something that would have been cool was the fact that Minoso could've had a 13 year gap between baseball card appearances as a player (1964-1977) if Topps created a regular card for him.
I can only really remember two players off the top of my head Vicente Romo (1975-1983) and Chuck Hartenstein (1970-1977) with similar long gaps between cards. (I'll be writing about the Hartenstein card in the near future).
Oh well, sadly it wasn't to be...
PS- It's easy to forget just how great a player Minoso was throughout the 1950's. A consistent .300 hitter with both power and speed, driving in over 100 runs four times while leading the A.L. in stolen bases and triples three times.
In addition to this, he finished in the top five in M.V.P. voting four times as well: 1951, 1953, 1954 and 1960.
It's a shame he didn't play his first full season in the big leagues until he was 25. He could have put up some great "power and speed" career stats by the time he was done. As it is, he finished his career with 186 homers and 205 steals. Not bad for only 11 full seasons under his belt!

JUAN MARICHAL: FILLING IN THE FINAL PIECES

I never realized how Topps missed out on Juan Marichal, not only with a card in 1976 capping off his career, but also how they missed out on a card for him in 1975 when really, there should have been one issued anyway.
After playing out the 1974 season with the Red Sox, appearing in 11 games and finishing with a 5-1 record, Marichal was released in late October, but wasn't officially retired, so it would have been cool to have a card for him in '75. No reason not to.
So I went ahead and designed a 1975 card for him as a Boston player, being that in reality, Topps would never have had a card issued as a Dodger since he didn't sign with them until the end of March.
His stint in L.A. didn't last very long, a total of 2 games and six innings for an 0-1 record. And with that line capped off a Hall of Fame career, sporting a record of 243-142, 2.89 E.R.A. and 2303 K's.
Throw in three seasons of 25+ wins (each time overshadowed by a monster season by either Koufax or Gibson), nine All Star games, and a no-hitter on June 15th, 1963, and Marichal was arguably the best pitcher of the 1960's when considering the FULL decade: six 20+ win seasons, eight sub-3.00 E.R.A.'s, and winning the most games during the 1960's for any Major league pitcher.
After leaving the game in 1975, a 1976 card for him in a Dodger uniform would have been nice, and somewhat ironic considering that the one true blemish on his career would be the "Johnny Roseboro bat incident" in 1965. Google it if you're not familiar. No need to delve into that fiasco here.
Anyway, I've also gone and designed a 1976 Marichal Dodger card, capping off his amazing career which lead to a Hall induction in 1983.

Missing in the 1975 set.

Capping off his legendary career.

RANDOM QUICKIE...

Anyone else out there ever think that Lindy McDaniel's baseball glove on his 1970 Topps card looked comically over-sized?
I swear I keep flipping back and forth, as if it's some optical illusion. But right now I am sure it looks humongous!
Take a look...

Is it me, or is his glove HUGE!?

THE STRANGE COINCIDENCES AND QUIRKS OF BASEBALL CARDS... TOPPS 1971 #664 PITCHING PROSPECTS CARD

When you have a rookie card depicting three players, and you go on to see that in the end they combined to sport a not-so-nifty 21-53 career record, you tend to forgot about it and never look back.

However, today I'd like to examine an interesting card from the 1971 Topps set, #664 "Rookie Star Pitchers", which featured three future prospects, all with the same last name: Reynolds: Archie, Bob and Ken.

All three aspiring pitchers just happened to be coming up at the same time for three different Major League teams: the Angels, Expos and Phillies respectively, but sadly, as I stated before, never really found the success they were hoping for. But hey, at least they are part of a strange little bit of baseball card history: three players on the same card with the same surname. A little out of the ordinary, don't you think?

You KNOW Topps had to be having a little fun with this card, and in doing so gave the card-collecting world one of those little "quirks" that make it all so entertaining.

Let's have a look at the players on the card…

First we have Archie Reynolds, shown with an airbrush job as a member of the Angels. Previously a member of the Cubs, he appeared in only 16 games for the North siders before being traded to California for Juan Pizarro in June of 1970.

Sad to say things didn't get any better for him, as he proceeded to so 0-3 over 15 games before being traded to the Brewers for Curt Motton in 1972.

Overall he finished with a career of 36 game appearances, and an 0-8 record with a 5.73 E.R.A. 

Secondly, we have Bon Reynolds, the most "successful" of the three Reynolds players, who is shown as an Expo, who up until this card was issued appeared in only one game in his Major League career, in 1969.

Funny enough, he never appeared in another game again as an Expo, being traded to the Cardinals in June of 1971 for Mike Torrez. After appearing in only 4 games for the Cardinals, he went on to the Milwaukee Brewers where he played in only 3 more games before the most succesful stage of his career, a 3+ year stint as a member of the Orioles where he went 14-11 before closing out his career with stops in Detroit and Cleveland for a career tally of 14-16 with a 3.15 E.R.A. over 140 games.

Last but not least, we have Ken, who is shown as a member of the Phillies. While he posted a career E.R.A. of 4.46 over 103 total Major League games, he ended up with a 7-29 record over the course of 6 years, with stops in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, St. Louis and San Diego. 

1972 was a particularly rough year for him, as he posted more than half his career losses with a 2-15 record for the Phillies to go along with a not-so-bad E.R.A. Of 4.26 in 33 games, 23 of which were starts.

One last coincidence stemming from this card is that all three players appeared for the Brewers in consecutive years: Bob appeared in a few games in 1971, Archie in 1972, and Ken in 1973. What are the odds of that!?

You "gotta" love stuff like this!

Reynolds, Reynolds and Reynolds.

ACCIDENTAL PHOTO BOMBING: PART V

Today's accidental photo-bombing cards are two of the first cards where I spotted a star player on someone elses baseball card way back when: 1973 #145 Bobby Bonds and 1977 #640 Carlton Fisk.
First up we have the Bonds card. It's a nice horizontal photo with Bonds getting back to the bag, perhaps on a pick-off attempt. After all, Bonds was the proto-type "double threat" when it came to slugging and stealing, so this was a crucial part of his game. (Many of you will say Willie Mays was really the first double-threat, and I can't really argue, but I always saw Bonds as the guy who put "30/30" on the map).
Anyway, manning first base, awaiting the throw from the pitcher is none other than the Pirates Willie Stargell.  This photo was taken right about when Stargell began playing more games at first base than in the outfield. Just a nice clean card with two stars for the price of one.
The second card I'm posting today was always one of my favorites. As a young Yankee fan I was quick to notice that my favorite second basemen, #30 Willie Randolph, was sliding into home plate while Carlton Fisk waited for the throw home.
Action shots of plays at the plate are always the best shots! Look at the crowd in the background: they're frozen in time waiting for the play's outcome. Fisk looks like he's about to get the ball and sweep tag Randolph as he's crossing the plate.
Just awesome. I wonder if he was safe or not.

Willie Stargell making an appearance at first base.

Willie Randolph going in for the slide.

"CAREER CAPPER" #3: 1974 WILLIE MAYS

Today I'm posting a nice 1974 "Career Capper" baseball card for all-time great Willie Mays.
Being that the 1974 set offered some nice horizontal designs for certain players, I thought one for Mays would have been a great "last card" had Topps honored super stars this way after they retired from the game.
Mays capped off a tremendous career following the 1973 season, finishing up with the Mets in which he got to appear in his first World Series since 1962.
As a matter of fact, Mays actually did appear in the 1974 set, on card #473 which highlighted Game #2 of the series where the Mets won 10-7.
Anyway, not much to get into about arguably the best all-around player in baseball history. 3000+ hits, 660 homers, 1900+ R.B.I.'s., 1951 Rookie of the Year and N.L. M.V.P. in 1954 and 1965. But he was much more than just stats. He was the "Sey Hey Kid".
By the time the 1970's hit, he was a walking legend of the sport, and being enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 was the cherry on top of it all.
I found a great picture of Mays during his last campaign, which was perfect for the horizontal design.
Check it out and let me know what you think...

One last hurrah for the "Sey Hey Kid".

"GIMME A DO-OVER"- PART X: 1977 #40 BOBBY MURCER

Bobby Murcer's 1977 card was always one that I didn't like.
You see, I grew up a Yankee fan and I always loved Murcer. So even the cards of him on either the Cubs or Giants were cards I sought out as I ripped open packs in the late 70's.
So seeing this card with catcher Joe Ferguson taking up most of the frame irked me. So today I'm posting a much cleaner redesigned card with Murcer posing in a batting stance, facing the camera.
Yeah it's a little tame, but at least we're not distracted by some other guy's back to the camera instead of Murcer himself.
On a side note: I do like the fact that on the original card Murcer seems to be arguing balls and strikes with the ump. He seems a bit pissed, which if you know Murcer the player or announcer, there was probably not a nicer person on the baseball diamond or in the booth calling games.
Anyway,, would have made for a great card if the photographer got Murcer and the ump in the shot instead what was actually depicted.

#40 Topps card as issued.

Redesigned with a portrait picture.