Here’s
another “traded” card to add to the collection, a 1970 edition for what
was going to be the American League batting champ for that season, Alex
Johnson of the California Angels:
After spending two very good seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, in which
he batted .312 and .315 respectively in 1968 and 1969, Johnson was dealt
to the Angels on November 29th as part of a five-man deal that brought
Pedro Borbon and two others to the eventual N.L. West champ Reds.
Initially, it looked like a steal for the Angels, as Johnson went on to
collect 202 hits with 85 runs scored and 86 runs batted in while edging
out Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski for the league batting title.
Still only 27 years of age, it seemed like Johnson was on his way to a solid if not star career in the Majors with his new club.
Sadly, Johnson’s time with the Angels was full of controversy, running
afoul of manager Lefty Phillips, eventually getting benched for
“loafing” among other things that spilled into the next season.
After numerous more run-ins with management, he was benched
indefinitely, leading to only 65 games played in 1971, batting only
.260, a 69 point drop from his batting champ campaign the year before.
Finally on October 5th of 1971, he was granted a trade and dealt to the
Cleveland Indians for, among others, the great Vada Pinson, with
Cleveland hoping the change of scenery would bring him back to All-Star
status.
However, though he had a couple of decent seasons over the next few
years of his career, he never again reached the level of play between
1968-1970, done as an active player after the 1976 season at only 33
years of age.
By the time he retired, he finished with a very nice .288 batting
average, with 1331 hits over 4623 at-bats in 1322 games, but sadly never
again able to reach that level of play that made him one of the more
promising young talents in 1970.
Today
we have on the blog a “not so missing” 1975 card for a guy I could
have sworn played longer in the Majors, former infielder Ray Busse:
Busse finished up his three year Big League career in 1974 with 19 games
as a Houston Astro, batting .206 with seven hits over 34 at-bats.
For some reason I really thought he played further into the decade, but
nevertheless, by the time he was done as an active player he finished
with a .148 average with 23 hits over 155 at-bats playing with the
Astros in 1971, the second half of 1973 and 1974 and a brief 24 game
spell with the St. Louis Cardinals to open the 1973 season.
Here’s
a great nickname from the 1970’s, “Scrap Iron” for former second
baseman Phil Garner, who really made his bones with the “We are Family”
1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates:
Originally up with the Oakland A’s in 1973, Garner found himself traded
to the Pirates before the 1977 season as part of a massive nine-player
deal that also involved Tony Armas, Tommy Helms and Mitchell Page among
others.
Just two years later he was a World Champ, giving the team a solid
infielder who’d hit a career-high .293 with 76 runs scored and 51 extra
base hits over 151 games.
He’d end up putting in 16-seasons in the Big Leagues, finishing up with a
career average of .260 with 1594 hits and 780 runs over 1860 games.
After his playing career was over he’d turn to coaching and managing,
the latter of which he did for 15 seasons: the Milwaukee Brewers from
1992 to 1999, the Detroit Tigers 2000-2002 and the Houston Astros from
2004 to 2007, including the 2005 National League champion squad that had
the “Killer B’s” of Bagwell, Biggio and Berkman, as well as Roger
Clemens and Andy Pettitte.
Not a bad “baseball life”!
Here’s
a “not so missing” 1974 card for former infielder Jerry DaVanon, who
appeared in 41 games for the California Angels in 1973 after spending
all of 1972 in the Minors:
DaVanon made it back to the Big Leagues and hit .235 for the Angels in
1973 while playing three infield positions with a little DH-ing thrown
in.
Originally up in 1969 with the new San Diego Padres, he then played for
the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles before spending all of
1972 playing in both the Baltimore and California Minor League systems.
1974 would see him back with the Cardinals before he moved on to the
Houston Astros for the 1975 and 1976 seasons, before having a third
stint with St. Louis in 1977, albeit only nine games, the last of his
MLB career.
All told, he finished up with a .234 career average over 262 games, with
117 hits in 499 at-bats, with 73 runs scored and 50 runs batted in over
eight seasons.
Here’s a “not so missing” 1973 card for a guy I already tackled, previously for a 1974 edition, former pitcher Jim Foor:
Though my first card for him was for his brief tenure with the
Pittsburgh Pirates, this one has him with the team he came up with, the
Detroit Tigers, for whom he collected his only Major League decision
when he went 1-0 over seven appearances during the 1972 season.
To be honest those seven appearances were not pretty, as he posted a
bloated 14.73 ERA over 3.2 innings of work, giving up six earned runs on
six hits and six walks (ouch!).
He got his first taste of the Big Leagues the year before when he
appeared in three games with the Tigers, pitching one inning in total.
In 1973 he’d find himself with the Pirates, and appear in what would be
the last three games of his short career, not factoring in a decision
while tossing 1.1 innings of scoreless ball.
He would spend the last three seasons of his pro career in the Minors,
pitching for the Kansas City, St. Louis and Oakland organizations,
before calling it a career after 1976.
The
next no-hit gem on the thread is the one tossed by Chicago Cubs pitcher
Ken Holtzman, who would also throw yet another before he was through
with his Major League career:
Holtzman took the mound on August 19th of 1969 and faced a tough Atlanta
Braves team, led by Hank Aaron of course, while facing future Hall of
Famer Phil Niekro.
After keeping the Braves hitless in the top of the first inning,
Holtzman was given a three-run lead to work with when Ron Santo blasted
his 25th homer of the season with two men on board.
Well, all Holtzman did was go the rest of the game, not only
surrendering NO hits, but also doing it without the aid of a strikeout!
While he did walk three, he ended up winning his 14th game against seven
losses, lowering his ERA to 3.12, throwing the games fifth no-hitter of
the season.
Two years later, Holtzman would throw another no-hitter, and once again,
would do it against the eventual Division champions, this time the
Cincinnati Reds, loaded with the likes of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and
Tony Perez.
That’s two no-hitters against top-notch teams! Just amazing.
Time
to go ahead a “fix” the 1979 Paul Molitor Topps card, his first “solo”
card after being on a multi-player card the year before with another
future Hall of Famer, Alan Trammell. On the 1979 card, I’ve gone ahead
and placed the Topps “All-Star Rookie” trophy, which Topps stopped using
in 1978:
Molitor finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year race
in 1978, to Trammell’s teammate and another (hopefully) future Hall of
Famer, Lou Whitaker.
Molitor put in a wonderful rookie year, hitting .273 with 73 runs scored and 30 stolen bases, over 125 games and 521 at-bats.
Of course, all he’d do the rest of the way was put in 21 seasons of
All-Star baseball, topping 200 hits four times, 100 runs five times,
batting over .300 12 times, and finishing up with over 3000 hits, a .300
avergae, 600 doubles and just under 1800 runs scored.
I was always mesmerized by the seasons he put in the 1990’s, as it
seemed like he got BETTER in his 30’s, shaking the injury-bug, driving
in 100 runs for the only two times in his career, collecting three of
the four 200-hit seasons and topping a .320 batting average five times!
The man was incredible.
I can only imagine what his final stats would have been had he not
missed about three seasons worth of playing time earlier in his career.
Nevertheless, he was a cinch for the Hall of Fame, getting elected on his first year of eligibility in 2004.
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