JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT- 1970'S BASEBALL TRIVIA PART #54- YANKEE STYLE..

Hey everyone.

Trivia time again, and today we'll start a new thread that'll go for a while, focus on specific teams through the decade.

Today we'll start with the New York Yankees and offense.

See how many you can get.

Answers tomorrow…

1. From 1970-79, which Yankee player had the most hits in a season?

2. During the decade, what Yankee had the most homers in a season?

3. What Yankee player drove in the most runs in a season during the 1970's?

4. Which Yank stole the most bases in a season during the '70's?

5. Finally, what Yankee player scored the most runs in a season during the decade?

***SPOILER ALERT! ANSWERS BELOW: 


1.  Thurman Munson, 190 hits in 1975.

2. Graig Nettles, 37 homers in 1977.

3. Reggie Jackson, 110 R.B.I.'s in 1977.

4. Mickey Rivers, 43 in 1976.

5. Roy White, 109 runs in 1970. 

1975 "CY YOUNG AWARD" SUB-SET: WHAT IF? 1971

Up for today on my imagined 1975 Cy Young sub-set is the 1971 season, and the two guys who took home the award: Vida Blue in the American League and Fergie Jenkins in the National League.

Take a look at my design:

 

The Vida Blue card was already on the original M.V.P. card, since he also took home that award as well as the Cy Young in his monster season.

Back on December 24th I focused on the pair of award winning hurlers when I profiled the 1972 "awards" sub-set, where I also redesigned the cards with images of the actual players instead of the awards themselves.

So if you'll allow me some laziness here, I'll "copy and paste" what I wrote then for the two stars here:

 

"Vida Blue burst on to the Major League scene in 1971 with an amazing 24-8 record along with a 1.87 earned run average and 301 strikeouts.

For that he took home both the M.V.P. And Cy Young awards at the ripe old age of 21.

On the National League side, Fergie Jenkins got his award after finishing third the previous year (and would finish third the FOLLOWING year).

To win the award he fashioned a 24-13 record with a 2.77 E.R.A. along with 263 strikeouts. On top of that Jenkins was absolutely in control on the mound, issuing only 37 walks in 325 innings of work!

Easily the most overlooked "big winner" among Hall of Fame pitchers from the era, Jenkins would end up with 284 career wins to go along with 3192 strikeouts and a 3.34 E.R.A.

He would also be the first pitcher to amass over 3000 strikeouts while issuing under 1000 walks, finishing just under the wire with 997 career base on balls. He'd be joined later on by Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling."

Up next is the 1972 season, and with that it leaves us with only four more cards to design and profile before we get to that last year, 1975, when the "M.V.P." sub-set was released in that awesome colorful set.

The 1972 card will be fun, since I first have to design a "regular" card for Steve Carlton as a Philadelphia Phillies player (I'm not using the "traded" card from the '72 set), and I will also be using the redesigned 1972 Gaylord Perry card I designed not too long ago.

It'll make for an even MORE unique card "that never was".

Keep an eye out for it!

BOB WELCH: 11/3/56-6/9/14: REST IN PEACE

11/3/56-6/9/14

Ugh...
Awful news coming through at the moment:
Bob Welch, former Cy Young Award winner and all-star pitcher passed away yesterday at the young age of 57.
Really sad to hear, especially for someone so young.
As the media seems to have latched on to his awesome 1990 season, I'll repeat it here: Welch is the last pitcher to win 25+ games, totaling 27 wins for the A.L. champ Oakland Athletics that year.
Many will also remember his epic battle with Reggie Jackson in the second game of the 1978 World Series, striking him out to end the contest as a 21-year old rookie, sealing the win for Los Angeles.
He retired after the 1994 season, enjoying a very nice 17-year career, ten in L.A. and seven in Oakland, finishing with a 211-146 record and being a member of two World Champion teams, the 1981 Dodgers and 1989 Athletics.
Rest in peace Bob...

MISSING IN ACTION- 1973 DAVE SCHNECK

Today we revisit former New York Met outfielder Dave Schneck, who I profiled earlier for his "missing" 1975 Topps card, (click on the label below of his name for that post).

Today we look at my design for a "missing" 1973 Topps card, as he saw some decent playing time in 1972 and should have had a card in the following year's set.

Take a look at the card first:

For the 1972 season Schneck played in 37 games, good for 134 plate appearances and 23 hits in 123 at-bats.

That translates to an anemic .187 average, which he paired up with three doubles, two triples and three homers along with 10 runs batted in.

It was about a third of the playing time he'd see in 1974, which didn't even get him a card in the 1975 season, but again, with some of the guys that DID get a card in the 1973 set, you wonder why Schneck was left out.

For some of you Mets fans out there looking for the complete card representation, I hope this helps!

Seems I get more requests from Mets fans for "missing" player cards than any others.

I'll try coming up with some more missing Mets in the future.

"HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 1970'S" #17: 41 BATTERS RETIRED IN A ROW FOR JIM BARR

Here's a highlight from the 1970's that usually went underreported, Giant pitcher Jim Barr and his 41 batters in a row retired in 1972.

What made this more amazing was the he retired 41 batters in a row yet didn't throw a no-hitter, since it spanned two games on August 23rd and August 29th of that year.

On the 23rd he retired the final 21 batters he faced after he walked Pirates pitcher Bob Moose in the third inning.

Then on the 29th, he retired the first 20 Cardinals batters before Bernie Carbo hit a double.

It wasn't something that got a lot of attention until White Sox reliever Bobby Jenks topped it 35 years later in 2007 (then later topped by another White Sox hurler, Mark Buehrle, in 2009-including his perfect game).

Take a look at my card celebrating Barr's feat:

Barr fashioned a pretty solid 12 year career between the San Francisco Giants and California Angels between 1971 and 1983.

He finished 101-112 with a 3.56 E.R.A., with 20 shutouts and three seasons of a sub-3.00 earned run average.

1974 was arguably his best season in the Majors, as he went 13-9 with a 2.74 E.R.A. and five shutouts, with two saves thrown in as well.

I remember this streak was one of my favorite trivia questions to stump people from time to time as a kid, and I promise you no one ever got it.

It just wasn't appreciated, either by baseball folk or Topps.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 AL DOWNING

Quick-who was the last New York Yankee pitcher to lead the league in strikeouts?

If you guessed today's profiled player, Al Downing, good for you!

Believe it or not, Downing was indeed the last Yankee strikeout leader, way back in 1964 when he led the American League in K's with 217 at the nice young age of 23.

The sky was the limit with Downing then, along with the Yankees' other young guns Jim Bouton and Mel Stottlemyre.

Sadly, as it usually does in professional sports, the best laid plans never seem to work out, as Bouton wore out his welcome, and his arm, in a few short years, while Downing followed with arm troubles by the 1968 season, still only 27.

After finding himself in Oakland and Milwaukee in 1970, he moved on to the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a remarkable comeback year, going 20-9 with a 2.68 earned run average and a league-leading five shutouts.

Those numbers got him a third place finish in Cy Young voting, and some M.V.P. consideration as well.

But after a decent 1972 season where he sported a 9-9 record with a sub-3.00 E.R.A., he could never again stay healthy enough for a full year.

He'd pitch in no more than 22 games in any one season before hanging them up after twelve games in 1977.

Now, it's definitely arguable, but I think he should have had a card in Topps' 1977 set after appearing in 17 games, good for 46.2 innings and a 1-2 record in 1976.

Lord knows there were guys in that set that had much less of a distinguished resume, yet Downing was finishing up his 16th year on the mound, with a very nice 3.22 E.R.A., 123 wins and over 1600 strikeouts.

So allow me to "fix" that here with my own 1977 Al Downing card, using a decent action shot of him during the same period.

Take a look:

One more thing: take a look at his rookie year in 1963.

It was actually quite an underrated freshman year!

All he did was go 13-5 with a 2.56 earned run average, as well as four shutouts and 171 K's. Throw in a league-leading 5.8 hits-allowed-per-nine-innings and 8.8 strikeouts-per-nine-innings, it seems probable that if it wasn't for another great rookie pitcher, Gary Peters of the Chicago White Sox, Downing could very well have taken home the award himself.

NOW HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? TOPPS 1972 RAY LAMB AND THE INEXPLICABLE AIRBRUSHING

Thanks to reader Eric C. Loy, the 1972 Topps Ray Lamb card was brought to my attention, pointing out the airbrushing job.

Check it out here:

Now it's not the worst airbrushing job, but what makes this so strange is that Lamb appeared in the 1971 Topps set, as a Cleveland Indian! And there was NO airbrushing going on there.

Check out THAT one:

On top of all that, Lamb didn't even appear in a Major League game as an Indian until the 1971 season, so Topps was on the ball in 1971 and managed to get a card of Lamb with his current team instead of his former team, the Dodgers, for whom he pitched in 1970.

Yet in 1972, AFTER Lamb appeared in 43 games, 21 as a starter, for Cleveland in 1971, they couldn't find an image of him in the correct uniform?

So freaking odd.

I'm almost positive that's a Los Angeles uni he's wearing on the 1972 card, so what gives here?

Thanks to Eric for the tip! Again, it's the quirky stuff like this that makes it all so much fun to run this blog!

As a small bonus to checking Lamb out, I came across a decent shot of him from 1973 as an Indian, and realized that there should have been a card for him in the 1974 set, which there wasn't, so keep an eye out for that "missing" card here in the near future.

Thanks Eric!