NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 JACK PIERCE

Next up on the blog is a “Not So Missing” 1974 card for former Atlanta Braves first baseman Jack Pierce, who made his Major League debut during the 1973 season:

Pierce appeared in 11 games for the Braves in 1973, collecting a single over 20 at-bats while playing six of those games at first.
He’d go on to play another six games in 1974 before finding himself with the Detroit Tigers in 1975, playing in 53 games and hitting .235 with 40 hits in 170 at-bats, with eight home runs and 22 runs batted in.
But after that time with the Tigers, he’d go on to play two seasons in both the Mexican and Japanese Leagues in 1976 and 1977 before coming back to America in 1978, where he’d play for the Seattle Mariners organization for two years, never making the Big Leagues however.
After those two Minor League seasons for the Mariners, he went back and played in the Mexican League for the next eight years, retiring for good as an active pro player in 1987.
Overall, as a Major League player, Pierce batted .211 with 42 hits over 199 at-bats in 70 games between 1973 and 1975, with 20 runs scored and 22 RBIs along with eight home runs.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1978 BOB SHELDON

Today’s blog post has a 1978 “Not Really Missing” card for former Milwaukee Brewers second baseman and designated hitter Bob Sheldon, who played all three of his Major League seasons in the Brew City:

Turns out Sheldon played the last 31 games of his brief Big League career in 1977, hitting .203 with 13 hits over 64 at-bats while DH-ing and playing a few games out at second base.
It was a return to the Majors for him, as he spent all of 1976 in the Minor Leagues after getting some MLB time in both 1974 and 1975, albeit part time.
In his first taste of the Big Leagues, he appeared in 10 games during the 1974 season, collecting two hits over 17 at-bats for a forgettable .118 average.
But in 1975 he played in 53 games, batting a very nice .287 with 52 hits over 181 at-bats, scoring 17 runs while driving in 14 with three doubles and three triples.
I couldn’t find out why, but after his Major League action I 1977, he never even played any Minor League ball after that, finishing up his career with an average of .256 with 67 hits in 262 at-bats over 94 games.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1972 JOHN YOUNG

Here was a fun card to create for someone who had a huge impact on the sport beyond his actual playing days, former Detroit Tigers first baseman John Young, he of a two-game Major League career:

Young appeared in those two Big League games in September of 1971, going 2-for-4 with a double and run scored, thus the sum total of his playing career, even though he would hit very well in the Minor Leagues over the next six seasons for the Detroit and St. Louis Cardinals organizations.
By 1978 he was a Minor League instructor, before assuming other positions like scout and director of scouting for various teams.
It was while scouting that Young went on to organize “Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities”, aka “RBI” to introduce and give inner-city kids a chance to play the game.
It was while scouting he saw that few kids in inner-cities got the chance to play baseball, eventually reporting his findings to Major League baseball and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, acquiring funds to launch the program in 1989.
The program exists to this day, now under direction of MLB, and continues to be an important part of kids from urban areas getting the chance to play organized baseball for the first time.
Sadly, Young passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 67 after suffering from diabetes, but his contributions to the game far exceed his action on a baseball diamond.
Really nice story to read about if you get the chance.

1977 BLUE JAYS REDONE- JIM MASON

Next up in my on-going “Expansion Do-Overs” for the 1977 Blue Jays and Mariners cards is former shortstop Jim Mason, who went from the 1976 World Series, where he hit a home run for the New York Yankees, to the newly formed Toronto Blue Jays, and had this ridiculous photo used on his card by Topps, where it looked like he was crying:

Re-dome with a smile

Seriously, is he crying?

Topps really had some killer images in that 1977 set: Darrel Chaney, John Lowenstein, and this gem, which I replaced with an image that actually shows Mason smiling.
Originally a member of the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers between 1971 and 1973, Mason played for the Yankees between 1974 and 1976, getting his only full-time role during his nine-year career in 1974, appearing in 152 games and batting .250 with 110 hits in 440 at-bats.
Until writing this blog entry, I never realized that between 1975 and 1979, the last five seasons of his career, Mason never reached the .200 mark in batting!
His averages are as follows: .152, .180, .187, .190 and .183.
So in all fairness, we could be talking about the “Mason-Line” instead of the “Mendoza-Line” all these years later!
Nevertheless, Mason would end up hitting .203 over his career, collecting 322 hits over 1584 at-bats in 634 games, finishing up with the Montreal Expos in 1979.

A MISSING ROOKIE CUP: 1974 GARY THOMASSON

The next “Missing Rookie Cup” in the series is a 1974 card for former outfielder/first baseman Gary Thomasson, who would go on to put in nine-years in the Major Leagues:

Thomasson came up for a cup-of-coffee in 1972 for his first taste of the Big Leagues, appearing in 10 games for the San Francisco Giants and going 9-for27 for a .333 average.
In 1973 he would play in 112 games, putting in a nice rookie year, batting .285 with 67 hits over 235 official at-bats, scoring 35 runs while driving in 30.
Though he wouldn’t hit that high again during his career, he would pretty much put up the same numbers every year, becoming a solid platoon player, only having a truly full season of action once over the length of his career, in 1977 when he appeared in 145 games and had 534 plate appearances, hitting a career high 17 homers while driving in 71 runs.
After six seasons in San Francisco, he was part of the trade that brought the Giants pitching ace Vida Blue, with Thomasson and six others going to Oakland, where he would play through June before getting traded yet again, this time East to the eventual World Champion New York Yankees for Dell Alston and Mickey Klutts.
The trade allowed him to see the only Postseason action he’d get in his career, going 1-for-4 against the Dodgers, ironically the team he’d find himself playing for the very next season, where he would play out his active career in 1980, finishing up with a .249 batting average with 591 hits over 2373 at-bats and exactly 900 games.

AIRBRUSHING THROUGH THE 1970'S: 1973 EDDIE LEON

Came across this airbrushed image of Eddie Leon, which became the one used for his 1973 Topps card, thought it’d be fun to post:

Leon was traded from the Cleveland Indians over to the Chicago White Sox for Walt “No Neck” Williams on October 19th, 1972, necessitating the art you see here.
Leon had a couple of seasons under his belt as a starter for Cleveland early in the decade, appearing in 152 and 131 games in 1970 and 1971 respectively before getting in a half season in 1972.
For Chicago, he was back to full-time, appearing in 127 games for the White Sox, batting .228 with 91 hits over 399 at-bats.
1974 saw him only play in 31 games, before getting traded in December of that year to the New York Yankees, where he’d play one single game during the 1975 before being released in May.
He would go on to play in the Mexican League in 1976 before retiring as a player, finishing his MLB career with a .236 batting average wit 440 hits in 1862 at-bats in 601 games.
Always fun to see how Topps would crop an airbrushed image, in this case you can see the very top of the “Cleveland” across his chest on the released card, with the crayon-like paint job on his hat.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1977 DOUG CLAREY

Another fun card to create for the 1977 set, a “Not So Missing’ card for former Second Baseman Doug Clarey of the St. Louis Cardinals:

Clarey made his Major League debut in 1976, appearing in nine games and collecting one hit, a home run over four at-bats with two runs scored and two runs batted in.
But that Big League action during the Bicentennial Year would be it for him, as he’d go on to play Minor League ball over the next two seasons before retiring, playing in the Milwaukee, New York Mets and Baltimore organizations through 1978.