TURN BACK THE CLOCK- EDDIE MATHEWS SLAMS HIS 500TH CAREER HOME RUN

Next up in my running “Turn Back the Clock” series is Hall of Fame slugger Eddie Mathews and his 500th career home run, hit while he was a member of the Houston Astros on July 14th 1967:

At the time Mathews became only the seventh 500-HR hitter in Major League history, on his way to 512 homers in his 17-year career, spent mainly with the Braves organization from Boston, to Milwaukee, on to Atlanta.
A beast of a hitter immediately upon reaching the Majors, in 1953 he hit 47 homers along with 135 runs batted in at the age of 21!
It would be the first of three straight 40-HR seasons, as well as nine straight 30+ homer campaigns, 10 overall.
By the time he retired after the 1968 season he easily wrote his way into Cooperstown, elected in 1978 with just under 80% of the vote.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 OSCAR ZAMORA

Here’s a “missing” 1977 card for former Cuban pitcher Oscar Zamora, who just wrapped up his third season with the Chicago Cubs:

Zamora appeared in 40 games for the Cubs, posting a 5-3 record with a 5.24 earned run average over 55 innings pitched.
He’d spend the 1977 season in the Minors, where he’d go 7-2 in 59 relief appearances with the Wichita Aeros in Triple-A before making it back to the Majors in 1978 as a member of the Houston Astros.
In that stint he wouldn’t factor in a decision over 10 appearances and 15 innings. Strangely, Topps would go and give him a card in the 1978 set in an airbrushed cap.
Go figure. You spend an entire year in the Minors and get a card the following year, but appear in 40 games in 1976 and get snubbed for the ‘77 set.
He’d spend four years in the Majors, ending up with a 13-14 career record with a 4.53 E.R.A over 158 games and 224.2 innings of work.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 CHARLIE BEAMON

Here’s a “not really” missing 1979 card for former Seattle Mariner DH/1B Charlie Beamon, who played the first 10 games of his Major League career in 1978:

Beamon came up in September of the ‘78 season, going 2-for-11 with a couple of runs scored in his first taste of the big show.
He would come back the following season, playing in 27 games and batting an even .200 with five hits over 25 at-bats, but would stay in the minors the following year before coming up for his last bit in the Majors in 1980, this time for the Toronto Blue Jays, collecting three hits over 15 at-bats.
In total, his brief MLB career consisted of 10 hits over 51 at-bats, good for a .196 batting average over 45 games.

REST IN PEACE- JIM BUNNING

Really sad to hear yesterday about the passing of former Hall of Fame pitcher and United States Senator Jim Bunning, about as accomplished a person to take a mound as there was.
Here’s a nice image of him in the form of a 1972 In-Action card I put together yesterday:

As a baseball player he put in 17-years of all-star play, winning 20 games once, but putting together four 19-win seasons along with three 17-win seasons, while leading his league in strikeouts three times and shutouts twice.
The seven-time all-star threw a no-hitter in each league, with his National League no-no a perfect game against the New York Mets in 1964.
He also won 100-games in each league, becoming the first to do so since the great Cy Young at the beginning of the 20th Century.
In 1996, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining contemporaries such as Juan Marichal, Sandy Koufax and Whitey Ford.
By then he was already a Representative of Kentucky’s 4th District  for nine years before becoming a State Senator in 1999, a position he would hold until January 2011.
A great life to say the least. Though I like to think of it as incredible actually. To do any ONE of these things he accomplished is a life’s great achievement, and Bunning did them all.
Amazing man.

1975 IN-ACTION: JIMMY WYNN

The next 1975 “In-Action” card in my running sub-set is of the “Toy Cannon”, Jimmy Wynn, who was coming off of a great season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, his 1st MLB season with a team other than the Houston Astros in 12 years as a big leaguer:

Wynn came in 5th for the N.L. M.V.P. Award in 1974 after helping the Dodgers make it back to the World Series, though losing to the three-peat Oakland A’s dynasty.
He hit 32 homers, drove in 108 runs and of course, walked 108 times, the fourth of what would be six seasons of 100+ walks during his career.
He’d play one more year out in L.A. before heading over to the Atlanta Braves for a season before finishing up his career with a split season as a New York Yankee & Milwaukee Brewer in 1977.
In his 15-year career he’d end up with 291 homers along with 964 runs batted in and 1105 runs scored with a .250 batting average and 1224 walks in 1920 games and 6653 at-bats.

1977 MARINERS REDONE- DAVE PAGAN

The next redone 1977 Mariners/Blue Jays card is of former pitcher Dave Pagan of the Mariners, who was drafted by Seattle from the Baltimore Orioles in the 1976 expansion draft:

Original Topps version

Re-done without airbrushing

Pagan originally came up with the New York Yankees in 1973 and played with them through the 1976 season before being traded as part of a blockbuster 10-player trade on June 15th that included Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Ken Holtzman and Doyle Alexander.
After 20 appearances with the Orioles the second half of 1976, he found himself as one of the original Mariners in 1977, appearing in 24 games, all but four out of the bullpen and posting a 1-1 record with a 6.14 earned run average over 66 innings.
But on July 27th of that season he found himself on the move yet again, this time to the Pittsburgh Pirates, for whom he’d play one game, the last game of his MLB career, pitching three innings of scoreless ball with four strikeouts.
After two years in the Pirates Minor League system in 1978 & 1979, he was out of pro ball for good, leaving the game with a 4-9 record along with a 4.96 E.R.A., 147 strikeouts and four saves over 85 appearances, 18 of them starts.
As an aside: a usable color image of him as a Pirate is one of my white whales, as I want to create a “missing” 1978 card for him. So if you see an image, send it along!

NEGRO LEAGUE LEGENDS- RUBE FOSTER

Today’s Negro league Legend is none other than a man considered by many to be the “Father of Black Baseball”, all-time great Rube Foster, player, manager and owner during his historic career:

Held in high-regard as the greatest pitcher during the early part of the 20th-Century in Black baseball, this man transcends “stats” and achieved his lofty place in baseball history for the influence he had in building the Negro National League, as well as teaching numerous young players who came along under his tutelage during his 20+ years as player and manager.
Numerous are the stories that follow this legend: his nickname “Rube”, apparently coined after he beat Rube Waddell in a game in the first few years of the 1900’s; Christy Mathewson’s “fadeaway” screwball, taught to him by none other than Foster after he was brought in by John McGraw to teach the young ace.
Of course with stat-keeping the way it was in these early days of baseball, especially the Negro Leagues, Foster’s numbers are left to history to uncover for sure, but we do know from personal accounts that he was one of the greats regardless of league, sad we didn’t get to see him compete against all players.
Nevertheless, although it took way too long, Foster was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, long overdue but definitely a worthy historical figure in the sports’ long history to have his place in Cooperstown forever.
As I state with all these Negro league Legends posts, please do yourself a favor and read up on these players, you’ll be happy you did with the anecdotes, classic match-ups and great players along the way that make for an amazing read.