MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 JIM BOUTON

I guess it’s about time I go ahead and create a fantasy 1979 card for former pitcher (and author) Jim Bouton, who made a remarkable Major League comeback after an eight-year hiatus, pitching for the Atlanta Braves in 1978, a short-lived comeback, but still an accomplishment:

Sadly the only image I could really find and use is one used often, so my creation here isn’t exactly the most “unique” specimen.
Once a young stud with the New York Yankees in the early 1960’s, posting a 21-win season at the age of 24, followed by an 18-win campaign the next season, he soon developed arm trouble and found himself out of baseball in 1970 at the young age of 31 after a season and a half with the Houston Astros.
Fast-forward eight years to 1978, most notably after writing the now legendary baseball book “Ball Four”, and Bouton made it all the way back as a 39-year old knuckleball pitcher, appearing in five games, all starts, going 1-3 with a 4.97 earned run average in 29 innings of work.
Though the comeback was short, it was definitely sweet as I remember it really brought Bouton back into the spotlight, giving his book new life, just enough for a ten year old kid from Brooklyn a cool book to read from the library!

MISSING IN ACTION- 1970 RON KLINE

Here’s a “missing” 1970 card for former  relief pitcher Ron Kline, who was at the tail end of a nice 17-year career which would end in 1970:

Like Many early relievers, Kline originally came up as a starter for the Pittsburgh Pirates way back in 1952, but would find his niche as a reliever about ten years into his career, then with the Detroit Tigers in 1962.
In 1969 he played for no less than three teams: the Pirates, Giants and Red Sox, combining for a 1-5 record with a 5.19 earned run average in 43 appearances and four saves.
This was a stark contrast to his excellent 1968 season which saw him post a 12-5 record with a miniscule .168 ERA over 56 games, with seven saves in 112.2 innings pitched for Pittsburgh.
In 1970, his last year in the big leagues, he’d appear in five games for the Atlanta Braves, posting a bloated 7.11 ERA without a record, thus closing out his career with a 114-144 record over 736 appearances, with a 3.75 ERA and 108 saves in 2078 innings pitched.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1970'S- ROD CAREW FLIRTS WITH .400!

Today we celebrate the historic 1977 season the greatest hitter of the 1970’s had, Rod Carew and his chase of the elusive .400 mark:

Carew would end up taking home the American League Most Valuable Player Award not just based on his final batting average, but his league-leading 128 runs scored, 239 hits and 16 triples along with 38 doubles, 14 homers and 100 runs batted in.
As for that .400 mark? It once again remained untouched since Ted Williams in 1941, with Carew coming in at an eye-popping .388 to win his sixth batting title.
But during that 1977 season he had everyone following each Minnesota Twins game to see what he did at the plate.
Even though I was only eight at the time I remember it well, thinking Carew was some sort of God.
Guess I was right!

WTHBALLS ISSUE #4 IS HERE! ALL THE "1972 MISSING IN ACTION" CARDS...

Hey Everyone!
The fourth issue of my 'zine "WTHBALLS" is now available!
This issue compiles all my 1972 "missing in action" cards to date, such as Rusty Staub, Luis Tiant, Dean Chance and many more.

Anyone interested can pick up a copy the usual way, $7 paypal to john@slogun.com and I’ll get this out asap!

Thanks!

Gio

@wthballs

MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 DON WERNER

The next “missing” card from the 1970’s up on the blog is a 1979 edition for former Cincinnati Reds player Don Werner, who was on a multi-player rookie the year before:

Werner actually saw substantial playing time in 1978, appearing in 50 games for Cincinnati, with 17 hits over 113 at-bats, for a .150 batting average with 11 runs batted in and seven runs scored.
Actually not a bad hits-to-RBI ratio!
Anyway, he would not see Major League action in 1979 though would make it back in 1980 before moving on to the Texas Rangers in 1981 and 1982.
For his seven year career Werner hit .176 with 49 hits in 279 at-bats over 118 games, all while catching behind the plate.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- TOM CHENEY STRIKES OUT 21 BATTERS

Here’s a “Turn Back the Clock” 1972 card celebrating the 10th anniversary of Washington Senators’ pitcher Tom Cheney striking out 21 Baltimore Orioles in a 16-inning complete game which saw him throw over 220 pitches:

On September 12, 1962, Cheney had a shutout going into the ninth-inning, along with 13 strikeouts.
Sadly for him, the Orioles also had a shutout going, so the game would go into extra innings.
Little did anyone know that Cheney would continue pitching, as well as striking out batters, for another seven innings until opposing pitcher Dick Hall gave up a game-winning homer to Senator Bud Zipfel, giving Cheney the shutout and record-breaking performance.
The mark still stands as the most strikeouts in a single game by one pitcher, regardless of innings pitched.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 JOE DECKER

Here’s a “missing” 1977 card for former Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Decker, who actually missed the 1977 season but put in some time during the ’76 season to get a card:

Decker appeared in 13 games for the Twins in the Bicentennial year, posting a 2-7 record with a 5.28 earned run average over 58 innings pitched.
Aside for nine games with the Seattle Mariners in 1979 it would be the last action he’d see in his nine-year career, the first four of which were spent with the Chicago Cubs between 1969 and 1972 before finding himself in the Twin Cities.
He finished his big league career with a 36-44 record with a 4.17 ERA, winning as many as 16 games in 1974 when he also posted a nice 3.29 ERA along with 158 strikeouts, easily his best season in the Majors.