1970 FANTASY COACH CARD- JOE DIMAGGIO

Of course if I was creating a 1970’s “coach-card” set, you know eventually I’d come around to “Joltin Joe” DiMaggio and his time spent as a coach for the Oakland A’s at the end of the 1960’s, allowing me to create this 1970 card for him:

Almost 20 years after his retirement as a player, DiMaggio found himself a couple of years short of the highest level of pension from the Major Leagues, and owner of the Oakland A's franchise, Charlie Finley, was happy to oblige the “Yankee Clipper” with a title of Vice President while he suited up in the Oakland green for the 1968 and 1969 seasons, which was near his hometown.
Convenient all-around, no?
Needless to say, the stunt got DiMaggio what he wanted, and Finley was able to leverage the legend of DiMaggio with the fans of the organization’s new home out west, where they moved from Kansas City after the 1967 season.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1975 BILL SLAYBACK

Today I offer up a “missing” 1975 card for former Detroit Tigers pitcher Bill Slayback, who wrapped up a three-year career in 1974, all in Motown:

Slayback appeared in 16 games during the 1974 season, four of those starts, and posted a 1-3 record with a 4.77 earned run average in 54.2 innings of work.
The previous year, he barely saw any big league action when he pitched in three games and only 2 innings, but his “rookie” year of 1972 gave him the bulk of his playing time when suited up for 23 games, going 5-6 over 81.2 innings.
All told he posted a 6-9 record in the Majors, with a 3.84 ERA in 42 games, 17 of which were starts, along with a shutout over 138.1 innings pitched.

(NOT REALLY) MISSING IN ACTION- 1976 PROJECT: DAVE McKAY

Here’s a 1976 card for a guy who did appear in the set, but on a multiple-player rookie card.
However, “Reader Jim” asked me to create a dedicated version for his ongoing project, Dave McKay:

McKay appeared in 33 games for the Twins in 1975, good for 135 plate appearances, definitely stretching the “rookie” status a bit, especially for a spot on a multi-player card.
During his first taste of the Majors, McKay hit .256 with 32 hits over 125 at-bats.
He’d go on to play for eight years, even as one of the original Toronto Blue Jays in their inaugural 1977 season, and finishing with the Oakland A’s in 1982.
He would bat .229 for his career, collecting 441 hits over his 645 games and 1928 at-bats before becoming a long-time coach, currently acting as first base coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- 1959 HARVEY HADDIX AND THE GREATEST GAME EVER LOST

Imagine pitching what many consider the greatest game ever pitched and yet come out the loser?!
Today we celebrate Harvey Haddix and the 12 perfect innings he pitched in 1959 against the defending National League champion Milwaukee Braves before losing it all in the unlucky 13th inning:

As we all pretty much know be heart now, on May 26th of 1959 Haddix took the hill against the Milwaukee Braves, led by sluggers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock among others.
Well, all Haddix went on to do was retire the first 36 batters he faced! That’s 12 straight innings of three-up, three-down.
What adds to the incredible accomplishment was that, according to Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, who was playing behind Haddix that day at second base, there were no game-saving defensive gems.
Haddix was in complete control as he went through the order four times before reaching the 13th inning.
His opposing pitcher, Lew Burdette, wasn’t throwing a perfect game, or even a no-hitter, but he WAS shutting the Pirates out as well, necessitating the game going into extra innings.
Sadly for Haddix, the 13th opened up with an error by third baseman Don Hoak, allowing Felix Mantilla to reach first base.
After a sacrifice bunt by Eddie Mathews (imagine that today!), he understandably walked Hank Aaron to face Joe Adcock, not exactly an easy out himself.
Well, Adcock drilled a Haddix pitch into the stands, hitting what seemed to be the game-winning 3-0 homer.
But with the game already legendary it couldn’t end THAT easily right?
Turns out upon Adcock hitting the game-winner, Aaron decided to just head straight for the dugout instead of running out the bases, which then led to Adcock passing him at second base, resulting in an out, leading to National League President Warren Giles to rule the hit a game-winning double, going into the books officially as a Braves 2-0 win.
Nevertheless, 12-consecutive perfect innings is something that you can’t even dream of.
Just incredible.
But for Haddix not incredible enough...

MISSING IN ACTION- 1976 DIEGO SEGUI

Time to add a 1976 “missing” Diego Segui to the 1978 version I created a while back to close out the former pitcher’s career:

Segui appeared in 33 games for Boston in their American League championship season, posting a 2-5 record with a 4.82 earned run average over 71 innings of work.
He would miss the 1976 season before joining the Seattle Mariners team for their inaugural 1977 year, a forgettable one for Segui as he went 0-7 with a bloated 5.69 ERA in his swan-song.
For his 15-year career he would go 92-111 with a 3.81 ERA over 639 games, 171 of them starts, leading the A.L. in ERA in 1970 with a 2.56 mark when he split the year between starting and relieving for the Oakland A’s.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 JACK KUCEK

Here’s a “missing” 1979 card for former White Sox pitcher Jack Kucek, who appeared in two multi-player rookie cards (1975 and 1976) as well as a 1977 card:

Oddly enough, Kucek saw a significant amount of playing time in 1978 as far as his career was concerned, warranting a card in the ‘79 set, yet barely saw any playing time in the other seasons when he did get a spot in Topps’ sets.
During the 1978 season Kucek appeared in 10 games, pitching to a 2-3 record with a nice 3.29 earned run average over 52 innings of work.
What stands out to me is that of those 10 appearances he had five starts and completed three of them, while collecting a save among his other games played.
He would put together a seven-year career, posting a 7-16 record with a 5.12 ERA over 59 games and 205.2 innings, with a couple of saves and 121 strikeouts.

MISSING IN ACTION- "IN ACTION" #57: RICO PETROCELLI

Found this great action shot of fellow-Brooklynite Rico Petrocelli and I figured it would make a great “missing” 1972 In-Action card:

At this time in his career Petrocelli was THE power-hitting shortstop in the Majors, slamming 40 homers in 1970 and 29 in 1971 while averaging 100 runs batted in for the Red Sox.
In 1972 he’d go on to hit another 28 round-trippers while driving in 89 along with 91 base on balls with 82 runs scored with a .251 average.
But those three seasons would be the high marks as far as slugging, though he would remain a productive hitter the rest of his career which lasted through the 1976 season.
In all, Petrocelli played 13-years of Major League ball, all with the Red Sox, hitting 210 home runs with 773 RBI’s, 653 runs scored and 1352 hits, good for a .251 average over 5390 at-bats in 1553 games.