1960's IN-ACTION SPECIAL: 1962 STAN MUSIAL

The next 1960's superstar to get an "In-Action" card in my recent custom set, the great, and one of the GREATEST, Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals:

Stan was close to wrapping up one of the greatest careers a player ever had in the sport by the time this card would have seen the light of day, eventually playing through the 1963 season before walking away.

His MLB numbers are just absurd: seven batting titles, two R.B.I. titles, five triples titles and eight doubles titles, with career numbers of 475 home runs, 1951 runs batted in and a .331 career average. Throw in his 725 doubles, 177 triples and 3630 hits along with 1949 runs scored and the numbers are staggering. 

And don't forget that Musial also lost a year to military duty, easily putting him over 500 homers, close to 3900 hits and around 2100 runs batted in if he played in 1945.

Along with the great Frank Robinson I always felt Stan Musial was often overlooked in the decades since his playing days ended.

When talk of "Greatest Living Player" came up it was always Williams, DiMaggio, Mays or even Aaron that would come up. But Stan Musial would always kind of be that after-thought.

Criminal.

Three Most Valuable Player Awards, FOUR second-place finishes, including three in a row between 1949-1951, and twenty consecutive all-star appearances, Musial definitely is a member of that rarified stratosphere of baseball royalty along with the likes of Ruth, Cobb, Mays and Wagner, among others.

 

1971 "BASEBALL'S GREATEST MOMENTS": WAYNE SIMPSON

On the blog today, I'll add Cincinnati reds pitching phenom Wayne Simpson to my "missing" 1971 "Baseball's Greatest Moments" sub-set, celebrating his splash in the Majors back in 1970:

Simpson came up with an absolute "BANG" in 1970, going 14-3 with a 3.02 E.R.A., two shutouts and 10 complete games in 24 starts with the Cincinnati Reds, finishing fourth in Rookie of the Year voting.

He won 13 of his first 14 decisions, including a one-hitter, a two-hitter and a three-hitter!

Needless to say, the Reds looked like they had quite the prospect on their hands the first half of the 1970 season.

But by July 26th of that year arm troubles set in, ending his season with a 14-3 record and a 3.02 earned run average.

Turns out the arm problems were serious enough to curtail his career right from the start, as he'd never pitch a full season for the Reds over the next few years.

After landing in Kansas City for the 1973 season, Simpson didn't fare much better, going 3 and 4 with a 5.73 E.R.A. over 16 games, 10 of which were starts.

He never saw any Major League action in 1974, and in 1975 he was now in Philadelphia, appearing in seven games, five of which were starts for the Phillies, going 1-0 with a 3.23 E.R.A., pitching 30.2 innings.

However more arm troubles caused him to miss the 1976 season, and in 1977 he found himself on yet another team, the California Angels.

It turned out he would start the most games next to his stellar rookie season for his career, toeing the rubber 23 times, 27 games total for California, throwing 122 innings with a 6-12 record and 5.83 E.R.A.

His 1970 season was one of those rookie splashes up there with Von McDaniel, Mark Fidrych and Herb Score, enough so that he would still be a figure baseball magazines would write about years later as far as a young arm making an immediate impact.

REVISITING A POST FROM 2014: THEN& NOW 1974 JUAN MARICHAL

Thought we'd revisit a blog post from almost ten years ago today, my 1974 "Then and Now" card for the great Juan Marichal, who had quite the magnificent Big League career:

Here's the original write-up from July of 2014 as it appeared.

This was the third such "Then and Now" card I created for the blog at the time:

"Following the basic idea of my previous subjects: Bob Gibson and Hank Aaron, this card features Marichal in the last Topps set he actually appeared on (1974), with a new card concept showing him at the end of his career, along with his Topps rookie card, in this case his 1961 debut.

No need getting into his career accomplishments here since it was well documented already, but the "Dominican Dandy" would eventually find himself enshrined in the baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, capping off a stellar career which saw him post a 243-142 record with a 2.89 earned run average, 2303 strikeouts and 52 shutouts, 10 of which came in 1965 alone.

Next up on this thread…well let's keep that a secret for now.

You'll just have to keep an eye out for it…"

1969 "DO-OVER" SET: WILLIE MAYS

The next card from my custom "1969 Gimmie A Do-Over" set released last year, one for the great, if not the greatest, Willie Mays:

Originally having his 1966 card image reused by Topps in 1969, I used a nice close-up of that "Million-Dollar Smile" for my re-do, giving us another unique card for the "Say Hey Kid".

As we all know by now, Topps was in the middle of a licensing problem with the MLBPA at the time, leading to some questionable image use in the late-60's/early-70's.

Over half a century later, I'm more than happy to fix some of this!

As for Mays, what needs to be said about perhaps the greatest player in history?
660 home runs, 3000+ hits, over 2000 runs scored and over 1900 runs batted in, with over 300 stolen bases and a .300+ batting average as well!
He took home the Rookie of the Year Award in 1951, then proceeded to win two Most Valuable Player Awards, the first in 1954 and the second eleven years later in 1965.
Let’s also not forget the 20 all-star nods and 12 Gold Gloves, leaving him in that rarified company of Ruth, Cobb, Aaron and Gehrig as far as accomplishments and legend.
Of course, Hall of Fame voting being what it is, he wasn’t a UNANIMOUS selection because of this silly unspoken rule of “no one gets 100% voting”, something I will NEVER understand.

CAREER-CAPPER: 1973 TONY CLONINGER

On the blog today, we have a 1973 "career-capper" for former pitcher Tony Cloninger, who wrapped up a nice 12-year playing career before moving on to coaching later in life:

Cloninger appeared in 17 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1972, going 0-2 with a bloated 5.19 earned run average over 26 innings.

Incredibly, even though those would be the last game of his career, he was still only 31 years of age, coming up in 1961 at the age of 20.

His finest season was easily 1965 when he posted 24 wins for the Milwaukee Braves, against 11 losses, posting a 3.29 ERA and 211 strikeouts over 40 appearances.

This was after a 19-win season the year before when he had his breakout year, completing 15 games, tossing three shutouts while saving two others.

In 1966 he'd win another 14 games, but it was one game at the PLATE that would remain his shining moment in the Big Leagues, something I profiled years ago with a 1976 "Turn Back the Clock" card, his two Grand Slam batting performance!

On July 3rd of that year, playing the San Francisco Giants, Cloninger took the mound for the Atlanta Braves.

With his team demolishing the Giants 17-3 that day, it was Cloninger that supplied the bulk of the offense, going 3-for-5 with TWO grand slams and nine runs batted in!

He connected for his 1st slam in the seven-run first inning against RELIEVER Bob Priddy after starter Joe Gibbon didn’t make it past the first five batters, and then connected for yet another in the fourth inning against Ray Sadecki, who ironically enough hit a homer off of Cloninger in the same game.

On top of the hitting performance, Cloninger pitched a complete game, allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out five batters, upping his record to 9-7 at that time, on his way to a 14-11 season.

By the time he retired, he'd finish with a record of 113-97, with a 4.07 ERA over 352 appearances, with 13 shutouts and six saves.

Not too shabby!

1975 IN-ACTION: TOMMY HARPER

Good day everyone.

Felt like adding Tommy Harper to my long-running 1975 "In-Action" sub-set today, giving the former two-way threat another card in the colorful 1975 set:

An All-Star in 1970 for the Milwaukee Brewers in their first season, Harper became an early member of the 30-homer/30-steals club when he hit 31 taters and swiped 38 bases, just one season removed from leading the American League with 73 steals for the one-year Seattle Pilots franchise in 1969.
He’d also lead the league with 54 steals while with the Boston Red Sox in 1973, while also hitting 17 homers and hitting .281 with 92 runs scored.

Harper was traded to the Angels for Bob Heise before the 1975 season, and ended up playing only 89 games with them before moving on to the Oakland A’s later in the year.

He then went on to play for the Baltimore Orioles in 1976 for what turned out to be the last 46 games of his 15-year career, beginning in 1962 with the Cincinnati Reds.

By the time he retired, Harper finished with 146 homers and 408 stolen bases, with a .257 batting average and 1609 hits in 6269 at-bats over 1810 games, with one All-Star nod, leading the league twice in stolen bases and runs scored with 126 in 1965 while with the Reds.

1960'S IN-ACTION SPECIAL: 1965 BOB GIBSON

Good day everyone!

Excited to introduce you all to a new thread, and new custom set today, that my "1960's In-Action" series, which will have special in-action cards throughout the Topps sets of the 1960's, imagining if Topps began using action shots before their 1971 set.

So today we will start it off with a 1965 In-Action card of the great Bob Gibson:

This will be a multi-release series of cards, with 10 cards per series (one for each year of the 1960's), along with a random "bonus" card of a non-Topps, or non-1960s card.

I have been wanting to do this for quite some time now, and finally had the chance to release the first series this month.

Today's card shows Gibson in classic form, coming off a wonderful 1964 season that saw him lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a championship, defeating the New York Yankees in the World Series, with "Gibby" going 2-1 in his three starts, with two complete games and 31 strikeouts over 27 innings.

Bob Gibson has always been one of my favorite all-time players and competitors. Besides the obvious things to love about the guy as far as his stats go, it was the over-the-top drive and no-nonsense play that had me hooked.
Ever hear Tim McCarver tell the story of the first time he saw Gibson after Tim was traded to the Phillies in October of 1969? If not here goes:
Before a game between the Cardinals and the Phillies in 1970, both teams were on the field loosening up and getting ready. Tim, who was a teammate of Gibson for about ten years before being traded, figured he'd go say hello to him. Not only were they teammates for so long, but they came up in the Cardinals system together in the late-50's.
Well as Tim says it, he went up to Gibson near the batter's box, stuck out his hand and went to say "hi", and knew immediately he was done for. Gibson just stared him down and walked away.
First time McCarver was up at the plate, Gibson delivered his first pitch and brushed him back.
Message delivered: they weren't teammates anymore, and while ON the field, they were enemies.
How can you NOT love that!?
The man was a force on the mound, and of course his 1968 season is the stuff of legend. I STILL wonder how on earth he managed to have 9 losses with a season E.R.A. of 1.12!!! Just incredible.

He'd play through the 1975 season, eventually settling for 251 wins as a Big League ace, along with 3117 strikeouts (only the second pitcher ever to reach that mark at the time), 56 shutouts and a brilliant 2.91 E.R.A. Needless to say, the Hall of Fame was sure to call in 1981 and an obvious choice for induction was granted.