MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" #54: 1972 SAM McDOWELL

I’ve been meaning to create a “missing” 1972 In-Action card for former fireball pitcher Sam McDowell for quite some time now, and since I have not been able to locate a usable action shot of him as a San Francisco Giant, I just went and created one of him while still with the Cleveland Indians:

While Topps managed to have him (and the guy he was traded for: Gaylord Perry) on the correct team, he didn’t yet suit up for the Giants when the 1972 set came out, so I get a cut a little slack here right?
McDowell was just about to enter the decline of his once amazing career, posting a 13-17 record for the Tribe with 192 strikeouts and a 3.40 earned run average in 1971.
That would be the final productive season of his 15-year career.
In that career he’d post 2 300+ strikeout seasons, while leading the American League in that category five times.
He’d also post a 20-win season, win and ERA crown and get named to six all-star teams while with the Indians.
But sadly for him by the time he turned 30 it was all downhill, and he was out of baseball by the time he was a painfully young 32 years old after stops in the Bronx and Pittsburgh.
Nevertheless he did go 141-134 with a nice 3.17 ERA and 2453 K’s during his career, but the “what could have been’s” have always been part of the conversation when it came around to “Sudden Sam”.

MAJOR LEAGUE FOUNDERS: TOMMY BOND 1876-1976

The next player in my celebration of Major League baseball’s 100th anniversary in 1976 is former pitcher Tommy Bond.
Check out the card first:

Bond, who was the last surviving player from the inaugural 1876 season, put together an excellent career, going 234-163 between 1874 and 1884 (the first two seasons playing in the National Association), with a 2.14 earned run average and 42 shutouts over 417 appearances.
He was the first pitcher in league history to win the pitching triple crown, leading the N.L. in  wins, strikeouts and ERA in 1877 when he posted a 40-17 record with a 2.11 ERA and 170 K’s.
He twice led the league in wins, in ERA and in strikeouts along with shutouts three times, innings pitched once and complete games once.

THEN AND NOW: RAY SADECKI: 1960-1977

Haven’t done a “Then and Now” card in a while, and I came across this image of former pitcher Ray Sadecki during his final season in the big leagues so I figured I’d make one up for him:

Though Sadecki appears in the 1977 Topps set as a Milwaukee Brewer, I figured I’d go ahead and show him as a Met since he pitched his last few games with them.
Sadecki put together a nice 18-year career on a big league mound, both as a starter and a reliever between 1960 and 1977.
He was a 20-game winner in 1964 with the St Louis Cardinals, and three-times posted an earned run average under 3.00, with a low of 2.78 in 1967 with the San Francisco Giants.
He retired with a 135-131 record, with a 3.78 ERA and 20 shutouts along with 1614 strikeouts and seven saves over the course of 563 appearances, 328 of which were starts.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 JOHNNY CALLISON

Here’s a card I think came out really nice, my “missing” 1974 card for former slugger Johnny Callison, who was wrapping up a nice career by the time 1973 rolled around:

Callison played in his final 45 games during the 1973 in the Bronx, hitting .176 with 24 hits over 136 at-bats, including the last of his 226 career taters.
His career spanned 16-years between 1958 and 1973, where he collected 1757 hits with 926 runs scored, 840 runs batted in and the aforementioned 226 homers with a .264 average.
A three-time all-star, he was also the National league runner-up in MVP voting in 1964, certainly a victim to the colossal collapse of the Philadelphia Phillies to the St. Louis Cardinals, which propelled third baseman Ken Boyer to capture the award.
In both ‘64 and 1965 Callison topped 30+ homers, 25+ doubles and 10+ triples, while driving in over 100 both seasons as well.
After the Phillies he played with the Chicago Cubs for two years in 1970 and 1971 before moving on to the Yankees for the 1972 and 1973 campaigns, thus closing the books on a very respectable career in the big leagues.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK 1955: "DEM BUMS" FINALLY WIN IT ALL!

Next up in the “Turn Back the Clock” thread, we move on to 1975 and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 team who finally won it all and took home the World Championship, the only time this would happen while in Brooklyn:

“Dem Bums”, as they were affectionately known to their fans, beat their dreaded American League rival New York Yankees with the help of a 22-year-old Johnny Podres who came out of nowhere and shut out the Bombers 2-0 in game seven.
It was the culmination of a long road for these Dodgers, who fell short of a championship after taking home four pennants in eight years but falling short each time to the Yanks.
The team went 98-55 during the season, led by the usual suspects in Roy Campanella, Duke Snider  and Gil Hodges on the offensive side, and Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine and Clem Labine on the pitching side.
Newcombe posted his first 20-win season, while Campy, Gil and the Duke all drove in 100+ runs, with Carl Furillo falling just short of that number with 95 ribbies.
Of course this was only the beginning for the organization, as the Dodgers would go on to move out West to Los Angeles, then win it all in 1959, 1963 and 1965, putting all thoughts of an “also-ran” behind them, along with millions of broken hearts in Brooklyn.

DEDICATED ROOKIE: 1974 KEN GRIFFEY SR.

Here’s a “dedicated rookie” for former all-star Ken Griffey Sr, who was on a multi-player rookie card in the 1974 set:

Griffey began what was to become a brilliant 19-year career that saw him hit .296 with 2143 hits in 7229 at-bats, with 1129 runs scored, 152 homers and 859 runs batted in.
During the 1973 season he made the most of his short stay, hitting .384 in 25 games with 33 hits in 86 at-bats.
He was named to three all-star games during his career, and was a member of the “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds of the 1970’s, taking home two consecutive World Championships in 1975 and 1976.
Of course, we HAVE to mention something else he did, which was father a kid who would become one of the players of his generation, Ken Griffey Jr, recent Hall of Fame inductee and super-star extraordinaire.
I still think one of the coolest moments in baseball history was when Griffey Sr and Griffey Jr BOTH hit homers for the same team in the same game!  I just couldn’t believe it actually happened.

THE TEAM THAT NEVER WAS: 1977 WILLIE CRAWFORD AND THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

I still get a kick out of snafu’s when it came to Topps trying to keep up to date with a player’s new team.
And sometimes, it bit them in the ass because of last-minute transactions, like the 1977 Willie Crawford card that has him on the Giants:

Turns out that while he was indeed sent to the Giants after the 1976 season was over, he was then sent to the Houston Astros right before the 1977 season started, leaving us with a “phantom” team that he actually never played for.
This is some of the stuff that actually had me think about doing a blog of 1970’s baseball cards, because it really shows what Topps was up against in that day and age.
Today with all the up-to-date split-second technology we have, it’s cool to be reminded of what it was like not too long ago when (some of us) were kids.
Crawford put together a nice 14-year career in the Majors, mainly with the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom he played 12 of those seasons for.
Between 1964 and 1977 he’d hit .268 as a pro, collecting 921 hits over 3435 at-bats in 1210 games.