Today
we post up a missing 1977 card for San Diego padres pitcher Jerry
Johnson, who would have his final card the following year in the 1978
set as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays:
Johnson, who I always remember as the man with the “iron jaw”, appeared
in 24 games for the Padres in 1976, going 1-3 with a bloated 5.31 earned
run average over 39 innings pitched.
In 1977 he would be a member of the inaugural Blue Jay team, his last
season in the Big Leagues, going 2-4 with an ERA of 4.60 over 43
appearances and 86 innings pitched.
His finest season would have to be 1972 when he was with the San
Francisco Giants, a year which saw him post a record of 12-9 with a nice
2.97 earned run average over 67 appearances, all out of the bullpen,
with 18 saves in 109 innings pitched.
All told, by the time he retired, he finished up with a record of 48-51,
with an ERA of 4.31 and 41 saves over 365 appearances and 770.2 innings
of work.
Here
was a fun card to produce, while also dealing with a somewhat sub-par
image that took a lot of Photoshopping, a 1976 card for former Houston
Astros pinch-hitter (and outfielder) Jesus De La Rosa:
Though he only appeared in three games for the Astros in 1975, all as a
pinch-hitter, De La Rosa was generally an outfielder in his pro career,
along with some first base action thrown in.
In those three games as a Big Leaguer, he went 1-for-three with a double
and run scored, all over the first week of August of that Summer.
Sadly for him that would be the sum total of his Major League career,
though his pro career started back in 1969 when he was only 15 years
old.
He played eleven seasons in the Minors along with two in the Mexican League, before calling it a career after the 1980 campaign.
Though I wasn’t 100% happy with the image I had to use, it was indeed a
Topps image, and I cleaned it up as best as the software would allow.
Nevertheless, a decent addition to the 1976 “missing card” collection.
Time
to go and give Los Angeles Dodger “lifer” Bill Russell a 1975 In-Action
card in the long-running series, as he was just about getting started
in his 18-year career as a player before moving on to coaching and
managerial positions with the organization later on:
Russell came up with the Dodgers along with their other All-Star infield
of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes and Ron Cey, a rare instance that was
really fun to witness as a baseball fan through the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Originally up as a 20-year-old in 1969, he’d go on to play through the
1986 season before eventually getting a chance to manage the team for
parts of three seasons between 1996 and 1998.
For his playing career, Russell hit .263, with 1926 hits and 796 runs
scored, with three All-Star nods over 2181 games, again, all with the
Dodgers.
Next
up in the “missing rookie cup” parade is the 1974 card for future Cy
Young winner Randy Jones, who came up in 1973 and had himself an
excellent freshman showing with the San Diego Padres:
Jones made his Big League debut in June of 1973 and went on to post a
record of 7-6, with a nice 3.16 earned run average over 20 appearances,
19 of them starts.
Though he would have a forgettable sophomore season in 1974 which saw
him lead the National League with 22 losses, along with an ERA of 4.45,
we all know how that could have easily been different had he pitched for
a better team.
Regardless, over the next two seasons he arguably could have taken home
the Cy Young BOTH times, as he’d go on to post records of 20-12 and
22-14, leading the league in ERA with a 2.24 in ‘75 and posting another
nice 2.74 mark in his Cy season.
His 1976 season was something, as he’d complete a league-leading 25
games (out of his 40 starts), while logging 315.1 innings, tossing five
shutouts and facing 1251 batters. Incredible.
Sadly, all that work took a toll on his arm, and the following season he
was reduced to just under 150 innings and only 27 appearances, seeing
his ERA balloon to 4.58 before getting back to a 2.88 figure in 1978.
After a couple of more mediocre seasons in San Diego, he’d end up with
the New York Mets, where he stumbles, posting a combined 8-18 record in
1981/1982, retiring at the young age of 32 after the ‘82 season.
All told, he finished his career with a record of 100-123, with a decent
3.42 earned run average over 305 appearances and 1933 innings pitched,
with that 1976 Cy Young Award and a second place finish the year before.
Today
we have a “not so missing” 1978 card for former Cincinnati Reds pitcher
Joe Henderson, who had a spot on a multi-player rookie card the
previous year, his only Topps card showing:
Henderson, who originally came up with the Chicago White Sox in 1974 for
the first five games of his career, appeared in four games with the
Reds in 1976, then seven games in 1977, accumulating a record of 3-2
over that brief Big League tenure.
Turns out that would be it for him in the Major Leagues, and it seems
even professional ball altogether, at the age of 30, originally turning
pro with the California (Los Angeles) Angels at the age of 18 in 1965.
He had a couple of excellent seasons in the Minors over that time, going
17-8 and 17-4 in 1968 and 1973 respectively for the Angels and White
Sox organizations.
Nevertheless, he’d finish his MLB career with that 3-2 record, with an ERA of 6.69 over 35 innings and 16 appearances.
Next
up in the “No-Hitter” thread I just started a couple weeks back is a
no-hitter thrown the day AFTER this pitchers team was no-hit by my last
entry Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds, and that would be Don Wilson
of the Houston Astros:
Incredibly, just the day after Maloney’s 13-K no-hit gem, Wilson matched
him with 13 K’s of his own on his way to a no-hitter against a Reds
team that had Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez in the line-up.
Wilson did walk six batters, but he easily overpowered the Reds’ line-up
that day, improving his record to 2-3 and lowering his ERA to 3.46 on
the young season.
For Wilson it was his second career no-hitter, with the first coming in
1967 against the Atlanta Braves, with Hank Aaron being the final out.
Wilson would go on to have arguably his best season in the Big Leagues
in 1969, finishing up with a record of 16-12 with an ERA at 4.00 with
235 strikeouts over 34 starts.
He’d match those 16 wins a couple of years later, his high-water mark
for a season, with another 15 wins the following year, with ERA’s under
3.00 each time.
A bright star on the Houston Astros team, tragically, on January 5th of
1975 he passed away under mysterious circumstances in his home of carbon
monoxide poisoning in his car, which also took the life of his
5-year-old son who was sleeping upstairs above the garage. Wilson was
only 29-years-old.
Here’s
a guy I’ve known as a player very well, yet until I came across this
image, I never knew him to start his MLB career with the Texas Rangers
in 1976, thus leading me to create this “not so missing” 1977 card, Greg
Pryor:
I’ve always known Pryor as a Chicago White Sox player, then on to the
Kansas City Royals, for whom he played through the 1986 season before
retiring.
Yet, here we are, turns out Pryor’s first taste of the Big Leagues was
in 1976 as a member of the Rangers, for whom he appeared in five games,
collecting three hits over eight at-bats while playing the infield.
Turns out he was originally drafted by the Washington Senators back in
1971’s Amateur Draft, and after he had that brief taste of the Majors in
1976, he was traded to the New York Yankees in February of 1977 for
Sandy Alomar.
He spent the entire year in the Minors, before being granted Free Agency
in November of that year, leading him to be signed by the White Sox,
for whom he’d play between 1978 and 1981.
Pretty much a platoon or guy-off-the-bench player throughout his career,
he did see full-time action in 1979 when he played in 143 games for
Chicago, batting .275 over 525 plate appearances, scoring 60 runs while
collecting 131 hits.
By the time he retired, he finished with a .250 lifetime average, with
471 hits in 1883 at-bats, scoring 204 runs while driving in 146 himself,
while also being a part of the 1985 World Champion Royals team.
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