HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE! LET¹S LOOK FORWARD TO 2017!

All the very best for the New Years to everyone, and I thank you all for joining me everyday to relive those awesome baseball days during the 1970’s!
I figured today would be a great time to let you all know a little of what I have planned for 2017. Some cool stuff that I hope you all enjoy!
First up, a CHUNK of this year will be taken up by what I will be calling “Not Quite Missing In Action”, which will be “missing” cards of players who made very brief appearances in the Major Leagues, some of whom literally played a SINGLE GAME at the MLB level.
I already have a couple of hundred players lined up, and heck, I figure if you made it all the way up to the “big show”, why not have a card to commemorate it?!
Also on tap for the new year will be a thread for a 1978 sub-set (in the manager-style layout) of “Future Star” cards, with a snapshot of a star player before they made the pros, with a “current” shot on the right. Have a BUNCH of stars with awesome pics of them as amateurs so that will be fun to do!
I also wanted to tackle the 1977 Mariners and Blue Jays cards from the Topps set and recreate them with actual photos of the players in the correct uniforms instead of the airbrushed jobs we saw when opening packs 40 years earlier.
I do realize that the OPC set took care of this in a sense, but I’ve found so many good photos of the players from that year I figured there’s never too much out there, am I right?
A REALLY cool sub-set I want to create is a 1975 “In-Action” set since so many of the stars did not have action photos on their cards.
So as Topps did in 1972, many of the players will have an “In-Action” card in addition to their regular card in the 1975 set.
Among some of the other smaller ideas I have is to periodically drop in “special” cards like they used to do in the 1960’s, with stars paired up in random photos.
I loved that they had those in the 50’s/60’s and wished Topps carried that into the 70’s.
Anyway, it’ll definitely be a packed year for the blog,  so I hope you all continue to check in as I keep feeding one of my obsessions day in and day out.
See you tomorrow as we start it all up again, keeping that 1970’s baseball flame alive!
Now go and get ready for that ball to drop tonight!
All the best to all of you and yours this coming new year!
Gio

MISSING IN ACTION- 1973 JOE GILBERT

Here’s a second “missing” card for former Montreal Expos pitcher Joe Gilbert, which would have represented BOTH cards of his short two-year career:

Gilbert, for whom I created a 1974 card a while back, could have also had a card in the 1973 set based on his 22 appearances in 1972, though his 0-1 record with an eye-popping 8.45 earned run average surely had Topps thinking he wouldn’t be making a return appearance!
Nevertheless, Gilbert finished his two-year stint in the Majors with a 2-5 record over 68 appearances, all out of the bullpen, with a 6.82 ERA with a couple of saves thrown in over 98 innings pitched.

LEADERS OF THE DECADE: BATTING AVERAGE

Next up on the new thread celebrating the high-marks in each league for various statistics is batting average, with the legendary Roberto Clemente and Tigers long time slugger Norm Cash representing each league for the 1960’s:

Clemente’s 1967 average of .357 would give him the fourth, and last, batting championship of his career, and would top his own mark of .351 from 1961 as the National League’s high mark in that category.
Norm Cash, who put together an excellent 17-year Major League career between 1958 and 1974, would have what would normally be an MVP season in 1961 when he topped the league in batting with a .361 mark along with 41 home runs and 132 runs batted in as well as 119 runs scored.
But alas, he had that season at the same time as some other guys named Maris and Mantle, so he had to settle for the American League’s highest average for a season in the 1960’s.
Ironically, it would be the ONLY time Cash even hit .300 in his career, with his .286 average the season before as his NEXT highest mark. Go figure!

FANTASY COACH CARD- 1979 BOBBY DOERR

The next fantasy coach card is of the oldest living baseball player, and baseball Hall of Fame member Bobby Doerr, Red Sox legend and the ONLY player left who appeared in a Major League game in the 1930’s:

Another of those baseball lifers, Doerr continued his baseball tenure after his playing days were over by going into coaching, and by the late 1970’s found himself in Toronto as a hitting coach for the Blue Jays.
It’s incredible to think of this man’s life in Major League ball.
To put things in perspective, he was a teammate of Jimmie Foxx, played against Lou Gehrig, and came up to the Majors BEFORE Ted Williams!
Just incredible…

MISSING IN ACTION- 1970 CARROLL SEMBERA

Here’s a “missing” 1970 card for one of the original Montreal Expos from their inaugural season of 1969, Carroll Sembera:

The righty appeared in 23 games for the Expos, posting a record of 0-2 with a 3.55 earned run average over 33 innings pitched, all in relief.
The following season he’d appear in the final five games of his career, finishing up with a 3-11 record along with a 4.70 ERA in 99 games and 139.2 innings pitched, with all three of his wins coming while with the team that he came up with, the Houston Astros.

"WTHBALLS" ISSUE #9 "1975 MISSING IN ACTION" NOW AVAILABLE!!!

It's that time again!

The newest issue of "WTHALLS", the 1975 "Missing in Action" edition, is now available!
Once again we have a 24-page glossy full-color magazine show-casing the 1975 cards I've created thus far on the blog, including some "career cappers" for Al Kaline and Orlando Cepeda.
This issue also comes with an art card postcard of a second version of the Kaline capper, which sure does look nice when cut and slipped into a penny-sleeve, then into a rigid holder!
As usual the issue is $7 postpaid, and you can paypal me at: john@slogun.com
Thank you all that have helped keep this project moving forward! And all the best for the Holidays!!!
Gio

1975 MISSING CAREER CAPPER- 1975 BOB MILLER

Here’s a “career-capper” and “missing” 1975 card for long-time Major League pitcher Bob Miller, who wrapped up his big league tenure with the New York Mets:

Miller put together a nice 17-year career, starting off in 1957 when he came up with the St. Louis Cardinals as an 18-year old.
In 1974 he appeared in 58 games for the Mets, all in relief, and posted a 2-2 record with a 3.58 earned run average over 78 innings of work.
It was the second tour of duty with the Mets, his first being in 1962 as an “original Met”, and it showed, as he went 1-12 with a 4.89 ERA as a starter with occasional work out of the ‘pen.
The following year the Gods of baseball smiled on him as he found himself in sunny Los Angeles as a member of the eventual World Champion Dodgers, and he had his best season as a Major Leaguer, going 10-8 with a 2.89 ERA over 43 games, 23 of which were starts alongside Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
By the time he retired, he finished with a 69-81 record, along with a very nice 3.37 ERA in 694 games and 1551.1 innings, with 52 saves, playing for no less than TEN teams.