1978 SPECIAL- THE MONTREAL EXPOS STAR OUTFIELD

Fun card to create for the blog here, a 1978 special featuring the Montreal Expos brilliant young outfield trio of Andre Dawson, Warren Cromartie and Ellis Valentine:

What a group of talented young players here!
With Cromartie the oldest at 23 years of age with the other two at 22, these guys were primed for some great seasons, and 1977 showed just that.
Andre Dawson marched straight to a National League Rookie of the Year with 19 homers, 21 stolen bases and a .282 batting average, Warren Cromartie also hit .282 with 175 hits, 41 doubles, 10 stolen bases and only 40 strikeouts in 662 plate appearances, and Ellis Valentine hit 25 homers, with 76 runs batted in, 13 stolen bases and a .293 average.
While Dawson went on to a Hall of Fame career, all three had nice careers, with Cromartie going to Japan after the 1983 season before making a comeback in 1991 at the age of 37 with the Kansas City Royals, hitting .313 over 69 games.
I’m sure any team would love to have these three anchoring their outfield!

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1976 TOM LUNDSTEDT

Up on the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1976 card for former catcher Tom Lundstedt, who played the last of his MLB games during the 1975 season:

Lundstedt appeared in 18 games for the Minnesota Twins in 1975 after playing the first two years of his career with the Chicago Cubs between 1973 and 1974.
In his 1975 action he batted .107 with three hits over 28 at-bats, collecting the one and only run batted in of his Big League tenure, with two runs scored.
Turns out he would retire from professional ball after 1975, finishing up with a career .092 batting average with six hits in 65 at-bats, with three runs scored, and RBI and nine walks.

TRADED- 1975 TUG McGRAW

Time to go and create a 1975 “traded” card for long-time reliever Tug McGraw, who found himself moving on to the “City of Brotherly Love” with a December trade from the New York Mets:

McGraw was traded over to the division rival Philadelphia Phillies on December 3rd of 1974 along with Doh Hahn and Dave Schneck for Mac Scarce, John Stearns and Del Unser.
After putting in nine solid if not excellent seasons with the Mets between 1965 and 1974, McGraw would go on to turn it up a notch and play ten years for the Phillies, closing out his career after the 1984 season at the age of 39.
He would make the All-Star team twice, get MVP consideration three seasons, and finish fifth in the Cy Young race in 1980 after helping the Phillies to a World Championship.
In that season he had perhaps the best year of his career, posting a record of 5-4 with a miniscule 1.46 earned run average over 57 games, with 20 saves, before posting another four saves in the Post Season, including the final out of the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.
His final numbers were a career record of 96-92, with a 3.14 ERA over 824 appearances, with 180 saves and 1109 strikeouts in 1514.2 innings pitched.
I can’t believe it’s already been 16 years since he passed away on January 5th of 2004 from a brain tumor which was first diagnosed just about a year earlier.
A true character of the game, he was only 59 years old.
R.I.P. Tug.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1972 RICH SEVERSON

Today’s blog post has a career-capping “not so missing” 1972 card for former Kansas City Royals infielder Rich Severson, who played the last of his brief two-year MLB career during the 1971 season:

Severson appeared in 16 games for the Royals in 1971, hitting an even .300 with nine hits over 30 at-bats along with four runs scored and an RBI while playing second, short and third on the defensive end.
His Big League debut was a year prior, during the Royals’ second season, where he played in 77 games, hitting .250 with 60 hits over 240 at-bats, both scoring and driving in 22 runs.
He would end up spending the next two seasons in the Royals and Philadelphia Phillies Minor League systems, retiring after the  1973 campaign.
All told, his two-year MLB career resulted in a .256 batting average, with 69 hits over 270 at-bats, with 26 runs scored and 23 RBIs.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1970 GEORGE SPRIGGS

On the blog today we have a “not so missing” 1970 card for former “original Royal” player George Spriggs, who appeared in 23 games for Kansas City in their inaugural 1969 season:

Spriggs hit .138 over those 23 games, which was a return to the Big Leagues after spending all of 1968 in the Minors after playing parts of 1965 through 1967 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He would play in 51 games during the 1970 season, with 145 plate appearances, by far the most of any one season in his five-year Big League career, which would end up being his last.
In those 51 games he hit .208 with 27 hits and 12 runs scored and seven runs batted in before moving on to the New York Mets organization, where he’d play through 1972 in their Minor League system, before calling it a career.
All told, Spriggs’ MLB career resulted in a .191 batting average, with 43 hits over 225 at-bats, with 35 runs scored and 12 RBIs.

MY OVERSIGHT GIVES YOU A 1972 "DEDICATED ROOKIE" FOR JIM FOOR

Created this card months ago and just realized that the player was actually on a multi-player rookie card in that set, so my error makes this a “dedicated rookie” instead of the intended “not so missing” card for former Detroit Tigers pitcher Jim Foor:

Foor was actually on card #257 in the 1972 Topps set along with Tim Hosley and Paul Jata, something that immediately occurred to me as I was putting this post together.
Nevertheless, I don’t want to “waste” the effort, so here’s a “dedicated rookie” for the 13-game Major League pitcher, who made his Big League debut during the 1971 season with three games.
Over those three games, Foor didn’t factor in a decisions and pitched to an eye-gouging 18.00 earned run average over one single inning, walking four and giving up two hits while also striking out two.
He’d be back in 1972 with seven appearances for Detroit, going 1-0 with an ERA of 14.73 over 3.2 innings, all out of the bullpen for the American League East champ Tigers.
In 1973 he’d find himself a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, appearing in three games and not factoring in a decision, throwing 1.1 innings of scoreless ball.
However, after another three seasons of Minor League work in the Kansas City, St. Louis and Oakland systems through the 1976 campaign he’d call it a career, finishing up with a record of 1-0 over 13 appearances, with an ERA of 12.00 in six innings of work, all out of the ‘pen.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1972 MISSING ROGER NELSON

Up on the blog today, I wanted a shot a re-doing my much earlier “missing card” for Kansas City Royals pitcher Roger Nelson, which I created almost SEVEN years ago (time flies!):

Now the first one I created wasn’t all that bad, but this image here is an actual Topps photo, so it just completes what I wanted to accomplish for the guy who would go on to post one of the best WHIP-seasons of our lifetime!.
Here’s my original post written up on June 13th, 2013:

“Quick, if someone were to ask you to name the top 3 "WHIP" pitching seasons since 1970, I'm sure at some point you can guess the names Pedro Martinez or Greg Maddux if you don't already know the answer.
Martinez set the MLB record with a .737 WHIP in 2000 (unreal considering it was smack in the middle of steroid-era baseball), while Maddux turned in an incredible .810 WHIP in 1995. Both were Cy Young award winners those years, and both were already considered the top pitchers in the game.
Now, if you were to take a guess at #3 on the WHIP list post-1970, how long would it take for you to name Roger Nelson of the 1972 Royals!?
Yes, journeyman pitcher and one of the original Royals from their debut 1969 season, Roger Nelson.
He of the nine-year, 29-32 career, pulled off an amazing, yet unappreciated season in 1972 where he posted a 2.08 E.R.A.,  with 10 complete games out of 19 starts, for a team that went 76-78.
Yet despite the valiant effort, he ended up sporting a paltry 11-6 record by season's end, though six of those 11 wins were by shutout.
But what really set this season apart from so many others was his WHIP (Walks+Hits/Innings Pitched), which is so valued in today’s game.
In 1972 Nelson recorded an amazing .871 WHIP, easily finishing ahead of Hall of Famers Catfish Hunter, Gaylord Perry and Jim Palmer. Definitely one of those trivia questions that can win you some money in a bar one night!
Now, as if the poor guy's season isn't respected enough, turns out Topps didn't even have a card for him in the 1972 set even though he had cards from 1968-1971, and 1973-1975. But for his best season in the Majors, nothing. That is, until today.”