Here’s a “missing: 1972 card for former pitcher Bob Priddy, who wrapped up a nine-year career in 1971:
Priddy appeared in 40 games for the Atlanta Braces, posting a 4-9 record with a 4.22 earned run average over 64 innings.
Generally an arm out of the bullpen throughout his career, he appeared
in 249 games between 1962 and 1971, with only 29 of them starts.
By the time he retired, he finished with a 24-38 record with a 4.00 ERA and 18 saves over 536 innings pitched.
Next
up in my 1976 celebration of Major League baseball’s 100th year of
existence is the supposed “inventor” of the curve ball, Candy Cummings.
Take a look:
Cummings parlayed that claim to the famous pitch all the way to a Hall
of Fame induction in 1939, as baseball wanted to recognize the man who
brought the widely used off-speed pitch to the game.
But it’s not like the man didn’t produce on the field.
During his National Association career between 1972 and 1975 he posted a
combined 134-80 record, pitching for a different team every year: New
York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Hartford.
Once the Major’s began play in 1876 he posted a 16-8 record for Hartford
with a sparkling 1.67 earned run average over 24 starts, all of them
complete games with five shutouts.
But the 1877 season would see Cummings drop to a 5-14 record while
pitching for Cincinnati, with his ERA ballooning to 4.34, which would be
his last in the big leagues.
Overall he finished with a 145 and 94 record, with a 2.42 ERA over 242
games, but again, it was his claim of figuring out how to make the ball
curve towards the plate that would have him remembered almost a century
and a half later.
Granted,
lately I have been producing “missing” cards for players who really are
pushing the limits of sufficient playing time the previous year, but
the 1978 Henry Cruz card always had me wondering why Topps even bothered:
For a guy who only appeared in 16 games the previous year, with only 22
plate appearances, seems Topps went above and beyond with the added
efforts of airbrushing to get this player a card, no?
Cruz, who actually should have had a card in the 1977 set after his time
with the Los Angeles Dodgers, would only appear on a multi-player
rookie card in the 1976 set besides this 1978 edition.
The airbrusing on this card is actually really good! Notice all the work
with the collar, the shadowing, and the “sox” logo on the cap! Would
love to see the original photo to really appreciate the work done here.
For Cruz, he’d put in four-years in the Majors, all part-time seasons
split between the Dodgers and White Sox, finishing with a .229 average
over 171 games and 280 at-bats before bouncing around in the Minors and
Mexican Leagues until 1985.
Here’s a “missing” 1978 card for former pitcher Jim Umbarger of the Texas Rangers:
Umbarger appeared in 15 games over the 1977 season, split between the
Oakland A’s and Texas, posting a 2-6 record with a 6.32 earned run
average over 57 innings of work.
His first two years in the Majors were much better, as he went 8-7 and
10-12 in 1975 and 1976 respectively with Texas, posting ERA’s of 4.12
and 3.15 with five shutouts splitting time between starting and the
bullpen.
He wouldn’t fare much better in 1978, posting a 5-8 record with a 4.88
ERA, thus completing what would be his 4-year career, giving him a 25-33
record with a 4.14 ERA over 133 games, 61 of which were starts, and 483
innings pitched.
If
the topic is baseball highlights and 1956, then perhaps THE most
memorable for the “Turn Back the Clock” series is Don Larsen and his
World Series perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers:
Just a couple of years removed from a disastrous season with the
Baltimore Orioles in the inaugural campaign which saw him post a 3-21
record, Larsen found a temporary home in the Bronx and chipped in a nice
11-5 record with a 3.26 earned run average, splitting time between
starting and the bullpen.
But no one was to know what was coming on that Autumn day when he would
stun the baseball world, shutting down “Dem Bums”, 27-up and 27-down.
Considering he pitched poorly in Game 2 of the series, lasting only 1.2
innings after being handed a 6-0 lead, it’s incredible that just a short
time later he would dominate such a loaded Dodger team en-route to
baseball history.
But then again, it’s just one of those things that makes baseball so great...
I’ve
been meaning to re-do the 1972 Willie Mays In-Action card by Topps for
some time, not necessarily because the photo is so bad per se, but
because that fielder’s leg ruins the shot for me. A bit picky, I know, but what the "Hey":
I found a nice action shot of Mays during the 1971 season, which was the
last productive year of the all-time great’s monstrous career that
would lead straight to the Hall of Fame.
3000+ hits, 660 homers, 2000+ runs and 1900+ runs batted in, throw in
the 300+ stolen bases and a .300+ batting average and really, what more
could you ask from a player!?
Just incredible. Wish I could have seen him play in person, in his prime...
Here’s
a “missing” 1975 card for Kurt Bevacqua, who suited up for both the
Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals during the 1974 season:
Bevacqua played in 57 games in 1974, hitting .184 with 23 hits over 125
at-bats while DH-ing and playing both the infield and outfield.
He would end up playing 15 seasons as a Major League player, the
highlight for him being his heroics in the 1984 World Series as a member
of the San Diego Padres, giving them their only win against the
eventual World Champion Detroit Tigers.
All told he’d hit .236 over his career, with 499 hits in 2117 official
at-bats while playing every position but pitcher and catcher.
And let’s not forget he won that Bubble-Gum blowing contest, leading to
one of the quirkier cards in the Topps stable in the 1970’s...
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Everything baseball: cards, events, history and more.
