1972 Topps Baseball

#135 -- Vada Pinson

2010-01-18T08:28:00.001-06:00

Vada Pinson

About 25 years ago there was an older fellow that had a ball card shop in Springfield, Missouri (near where I live) had a piece in the paper about something he'd done in his store called the Call of Fame. He's taken a wall in his store and put up something like plaques for ballplayers who were really good, but not quite Hall of Fame worthy. I remember Ron Santo being there as well as this guy. When the best players of the 60s are rattled off, there were so many great outfielders (Aaron, Mays, Clemente, Frank Robinson, Rose, Clemente...and that's just the National League) that Vada Pinson gets lost.

On Baseball-Reference's Hall of Fame indicators list, he falls just short. When you look at the career comparable players, you see a lot of other guys who would make what I call the Hall of the Pretty Dang Good, guys like Dave Parker, Steve Garvey, Al Oliver, Johnny Damon, Bill Buckner, Willie Davis, along with a couple of Hall of Famers (Roberto Clemente, Zach Wheat) a borderline Hall of Famer (Bernie Williams) and Steve Finley. The comparables by age are Al Kaline, Roberto Clemente and Cesar Cedeno. So Vada's in pretty good company.

Vada ranks 47th all time in hits with 2757 and had a career OPS+ of 110 (he didn't walk a lot). He was an All-Star only twice and once was 3rd in MVP voting. Vada was a great complimentary player. He was the centerfielder for the Reds through the 60s with league average range. He had double digits in assists most seasons, which meant he had a good enough arm to throw guys out, but not such a good arm as to keep guys from trying to take an extra base.

The Reds traded Vada in 1968 and he then bounced around from the Cardinals to the Indians, the Angels and finally the Royals, where he ended his major league career in 1976. He had a long coaching career afterwards, finishing up with the Marlins in 1995. He passed away in 1995 at the age of 57 following a stroke.

This card is obviously an airbrushed Indians photo into an Angel uniform after the trade to the Angels. It's another in a long series at that time taken in Yankee Stadium.

I wish that older fellow still had his card shop. It wasn't one with a bunch of display cases full of jersey cards, etc. He just had boxes of older cards from the 50s, 60s and 70s all over the place. That would be a great place to spend a week now.......

#134 -- Carl Morton

2010-01-17T07:30:00.000-06:00

Carl Morton

I don't know why, but I always thought Carl looked sad and forlorn in this card. It's almost as if he's thinking, "It's really cool that we get to train here in West Palm Beach (see the palm tree next to the light pole in the background?), but when this is done then we have to go to Jarry Park in cold freaking Montreal and get our brains beat in." Or..." I signed with the Braves thinking I could someday play alongside Hank Aaron in the outfield. Then, moving to the mound, maybe I could be in the rotation with Niekro. Now......hello last place."

Carl didn't make it as a hitter in the minors, but he had a good arm, so they let him pitch and he took to it. He posted good numbers in A and AA for the Braves in 1967-68, so the Expos took him in the expansion draft. He started the season as their number 4 starter. He pitched great in his debut, allowing no runs and 6 hits in 9 innings, but Joe Niekro of the Cubs matched him and Carl took a no-decision (Cubs won in the 12th).

He started getting hit harder and by May 3 he was 0-3 with a 5.40 ERA, so the Expos sent him to their AAA team in Vancouver. The Pacific Coast League in those days was a deathtrap for pitcher stats with the ball flying all over the place in Salt Lake City, Denver, Albuquerque and the other high altitude stops around the league. Carl handled it very well, going 8-6 with a 3.52 ERA allowing only 118 hits in 133 innings.

In 1970, Carl was NL Rookie of the Year, winning 18 games for an Expo team that went 73-89. Unfortunately, he turned that around in 1971, going 10-18 and followed that up 7-13 in 1972. Then he was traded back to the Braves for Pat Jarvis. He finally got to be teammates with Hank Aaron for a couple of years and had three strong years in the Launching Pad, winning 15, 16 and 17 games.

In 1976 Carl signed a $100,000 contract with the Braves. However, when he went only 4-9, Ted Turner got rid of him and he found out his contract wasn't guaranteed (accoring to the Baseball Reference Bullpen). I thought everything was guaranteed in baseball, but I guess not.

Carl bounced around the minors for another couple of years before giving it up in 1979. He tried to stay in shape, but that didn't do him well, either. He dropped dead of a heart attack in his parent's driveway returning from a jog in 1983. Wow. I hear that 65,000 a year die during exercise. Maybe Carl's forlorn look on this card is just some kind of premonition.

#133 -- Joe Keough

2010-01-16T05:51:00.003-06:00

Joe Keough

I'm blessed with a last name that's easy enough to pronounce. I can't take any credit for that. We don't get to pick our last names, at least until we get old enough to go down to the courthouse and file for a legal name change or, if you're a woman, old enough to get married. Even then, I think most women pick a husband and get stuck with a name, rather than go out and marry someone to get his last name (except for the gold-diggers who like the last name "Trump", et. al.)

Joe Keough didn't get blessed with a name easy to pronounce. I remember when I was a kid being stumped on this one. KE-og didn't sound quite right. If I looked at it today, it might be pronounced the same as "cough." But, for those of you that don't know, it's pronounced KEY-oh.

Joe was a really talented guy who was drafted in the 2nd round (21st overall selection) out of high school by the old Kansas City A's in 1965. That was the year the draft was begun, so Rick Monday was the A's first draft choice. In the same round, 15 picks later, Johnny Bench went to the Reds.

Joe rose through the A's system fairly quickly. It wasn't difficult then because, although there were guys like Campaneris, Bando, Jackson, Hunter and Fingers coming along, there wasn't much at the major league level blocking him. It wasn't like he was a first baseman in the Cardinal organization. Joe made it up in 1968 after Charlie Finley moved the team to Oakland. He gets to debut as a pinch-hitter in the 2nd game of a double-header in Yankee Stadium leading off the bottom of the 8th with the A's trailing 3-2. This is a pivotal early August game, with the A's holding a 2 1/2 game lead over the Yankees for 5th place. Lindy McDaniel, a pretty good reliever is pitching, but Joe takes him deep to tie the game. At this point, Joe is on pace to break all records with a career OPS of 5.000. (For those that care, the A's went on to win the game on a 10th inning RBI single by Reginald Martinez Jackson.)

Joe only hit .214 that year, but I suppose it was impressive enough to be the #4 selection by the Royals in the expansion draft. Joe spent most of his time with the Royals as a 4th outfielder/pinch-hitter. He hit .322 in 183 at bats in 1970, but quickly tailed off in 1971 and 1972. His playing time tailed off as well. He was traded to the White Sox for Jim Lytle. He played in 5 games, batting once, grounding into a double play.

Joe is probably more famous now for being the brother of Marty Keough and uncle of Matt Keough. Matt followed Uncle Joe into the A's organization and had a few good years as a starting pitcher whose arm Billy Martin could blow out. He then married a 1980 centerfold model (no, it's not a centerfold picture...it's safe to click the link) and moved to a ritzy neighborhood near Irvine and had a short and unceremonious tenure on the Real Housewives of Orange County.

Looking in the background behind Joe and over his left shoulder is a guy wearing what looks like an Oriole hat. Is Dave McNally spying on the Royals?

132 -- Joe Morgan

2010-01-12T13:50:00.002-06:00

Joe Morgan

When I was a kid, there was always a vacant lot next door. In fact, I had a vacant lot next door to me until I was 27 and bought a house. That meant that a little boy that liked baseball spent a lot of time mowing those vacant lots so he'd have a place to play baseball. I usually didn't have neighbors that played baseball, so I spent a lot of time by myself. I'd throw up the ball, hit it and then use my imagination to fill in the gaps on what happened based on where the ball went. Of course, I'd run through actual lineups, meaning I had to learn to bat left-handed. It also meant that I had to learn batting stances.

Bobby Tolan and Carl Yastrzemski held the bat very high. Roy White started his hands down below his waist when batting left-handed. Willie Stargell whipped his bat around several times.

But there was no more distinctive batting stance than Joe Morgan's chicken wing. I suppose it must have been a timing trigger. But to see a guy standing there pulling his elbow up to his body....I don't know. I know as a 9 year old I thought I'd broken a rib once when I pulled it too far and too quickly.

Morgan gets card number 132. How's that for respect for a future Hall of Famer? And it's not like this is an early card. He was going into his 10th season in the big leagues. But he was a lifetime .263 hitter and his 162 game average was a thoroughly unimpressive 12 HR, 51 RBI with 36 SB and OPS+ of 121. The Cincinnati years (1972-1979) were much better: 162 game average of 22 HR, 86 RBI, 57 SB, .287 average, OPS+ of 147 and 2 MVP awards.

Needless to say, in the 60's, he was seen as just another really good second baseman, but in the 70's, he got better (power increased and strikeout rate decreased) and he was seen as the best second baseman of the decade. What happened? My best supposition could be that he got different coaching when he got to the Reds, but how many 10 year veterans really change much based on what coaching they get? More likely he's hitting 3rd, behind Rose and Griffey and ahead of Bench, Perez and Foster, both of which meant he was going to see more fastballs.

I think Morgan gets a bad rap now. His playing career is largely overlooked and he's just seen as some arrogant broadcaster. He's got reason to be arrogant, but the only complaint I have is that he seems to have developed a Tony Gwynn-like addiction to doughnuts. It's hard to look at either Gwynn or Morgan and believe they stole 50 bases.

There's a bonus player standing in the distance behind Morgan. This is a 1971 regular season shot, rather than a spring training photo. That's Astro catcher Johnny Edwards. The only other possibility is that this is in Cincinnati and that's Red backup catcher Pat Corrales, because the Astro and Red uniforms from a distance were similar. Still, I'm going with Edwards.

131 -- Jim Nettles

2010-01-11T18:55:00.004-06:00

Jim Nettles

Wilton Guerrero. Tommie Aaron. Paul Reuschel. Vince DiMiggio. Rich Murray. Hector Cruz. Jim Nettles fits into a category with these guys. They were all the ball-playing brother of an All-Star, some even got to have Hall of Famers as brothers (although none were able to parlay that into as much fame as Billy Ripken). Jim had the blessing of following Graig through high school in San Diego and then to San Diego State.

So, by the time college is over, and Graig is 3 years ahead of Jim, that's the end, right? Nope. Graig is drafted in the 4th round by the Twins in 1965 and in 1968 the Twins take Jim in the 4th round. Graig was traded to Cleveland by the time the Twins brought Jim up in 1970.

Like Wilton, Tommie, Paul, Rich and Hector, Jim Nettles didn't have much of a career. He played with the Twins in 1971-72, primarily off the bench, and was then traded to the Tigers. After a partial season with the Tigers in 1974, he bounced around AAA, Mexico and Japan, getting 23 at bats with the Royals and A's in 1979 and 1981. He had a 9 year managerial career in the minors, ending with a 39-101 record with Bakersfield in 1996.

He did hit homers off Catfish Hunter and Gaylord Perry. One guy he hit really well was Joe Decker, who he got twice in 3 at bats against Decker on July 20, 1974 in Tiger Stadium. Jim had 16 career home runs, but 5 of them came in July 1971. His first 2 homers were in each game of a doubleheader against the Royals (the first a walkoff in the bottom of the 10th) and then he homered off Sonny Siebert, Stan Bahnsen and Fritz Peterson (an inside the parker) that month, all pretty good pitchers.

It's a pretty good picture on the card. Looks like one of the posed shots with the bat outstretched so it looks like the photographer snapped the picture mid-swing. It looks like a coach ambling towards the outfield to run drills. I can't figure out who it is. Any help would be appreciated.

#130 -- Bob Gibson

2009-07-13T07:22:00.003-05:00

Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson and Lou Brock were my first favorite players. As such I still have a soft spot in my heart for Gibby. In fact, I'm currently passing time on my treadmill (no, not as I write this, but during this time period) watching Game 1 of the 1968 World Series. Gibby doesn't really look as intimidating as I remember, but I don't see a lot of Tigers getting good swings, either.

Gibson went to college at Creighton in his native Omaha, playing basketball and baseball. I have no doubt that he would have been top of the line in football, volleyball, lacrosse or any other sport he chose to master. When he was a kid, no one would have imagined a career as an intimidating Hall of Fame pitcher, college basketball player and Harlem Globetrotter. Gibson was sickly. He had ricketts, asthma, pneumonia and a heart murmur. Still, he was as dominating in high school and college as he would be in the National League.

His Wikipedia page said he was one of the stars of the late 50's Globetrotters. I don't know how correct that is, but it says he could hammer down backhanded dunks. I do believe the line that says he left the Globies because he got tired of the clowning. Gibby is a competitor and there's no competition in beating the Washington Generals night after night while running tricks.

When initially called up, he butted heads with Cardinal manager Solly Hemus, but Gibson made the starting rotation and stayed there for the duration of his career. I was surprised to see that he only has 251 career victories. He had several years where he just didn't get the wins commensurate with his level of pitching. For example, he was having a good 1967 going into July 15 game against the Pirates. He was 10-6, 3.52 with 119 strikeouts in 138 innings. Roberto Clemente led off the 4th inning with a smash back to the box. It hit Gibson in the lower leg and Clemente got a single out of it. He then walked Willie Stargell, got Bill Mazeroski on a fly ball and walked Donn Clendenon before they figured out Clemente's liner had broken his freaking leg! I guess Gibby was human with a broken tibia. He came back in early September and went 3-1, 0.96 in 5 starts where he allowed 2 runs once. He then went 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA and a home run against the Red Sox in the Series. Wow.

However, his stretch from 1968 (actually you could have begun it after the July 15, 1967 game against the Pirates....he was 6-1, and an ERA under 1 in 8 starts) through 1970 is similar to what Sandy Koufax had done a few years earlier and what Greg Maddux did in the mid-90's. He was 65-29, 2.13 ERA and 811 strikeouts in 913 innings in 103 starts those 9 years. That means he averaged 8.86 innings per start in a 3 year period. He had 20 shutouts in those 103 starts and 79 complete games.

In 1968 he had a stretch where he completed 19 out of 20 games. The game he didn't complete, he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the 11th inning of a 13 inning loss. I know. You've got to be thinking, "What a wuss. Suck it up and give a little of yourself." I'd say Red Schoendienst had a lot of guts to pull him. In that stretch of 20 starts, he had 12 shutouts (5 in a row) and gave up 17 earned runs in 182 innings. His 1968 season was absolutely stupid and part of the reason now we have lowered mounds, juiced ballparks, juiced balls and juiced bats.

I'll put my respect and admiration for Gibson this way: The first National League game I ever got to see was Sunday, September 26 against the Expos. A fellow in my small town would take charter buses to St. Louis or Kansas City for a baseball game for about $15/head. My dad took me on a lot of those. This one was a big deal because it was my first Cardinal game and Bob Gibson was going to pitch. I was really hyped up. When we got to the Stadium, they announced the starting pitcher would be Darryl Patterson. Who? Dad, why isn't Bob Gibson pitching? Something about the Cardinals being out of the race. I was so PO'd about not getting to see Bob Gibson pitch that when I got home I found Darryl Patterson's 1971 card and promptly wadded it up. I'll have to look to see if I still have it and post a scan. I guess I had a little bit of Gibby's temperment as a 7 year old.

1972 Feature

July 13, 1972 was a Thursday and a light night on the schedule. In 6 games there were 4 shutouts. Gibson didn't pitch for the Cardinals, but Reggie Cleveland threw a 2-hitter at the Braves and won 2-0.

The Game of the Day was division leaders Pittsburgh (with Steve Blass coming in at 10-2) going against 12-2 Gary Nolan and the West division leading Reds. Cesar Geronimo got the Reds' first run with a 5th inning homer. Pittsburgh hadn't done much to that point, but they started getting with it. They loaded the bases, but Nolan struck out Richie Hebner to strand 3 in the 6th. Nolan then struck out Stargell and Hebner in the 8th to leave a couple on base. Bobby Tolan got a sacrifice fly in the 8th to give Nolan a little bit of breathing room. Clay Carroll pitched around a 9th inning single to close it out.

One Good Turn.....

2009-07-11T13:43:00.003-05:00

My wife needed a long weekend, so we're in Kansas City shopping. Just for fun I check Beckett's show calendar and there's a mall show in K.C. It is not the mall she likes to hit, but she's a good sport. Hopefully I'll find some high numbers and other assorted goodies.

UPDATE:
Mixed bag of success for me. I found no 1972 cards to finish off this set. I did, however, find a few 57 and 58's in a dollar box that will work for TTM autographs (e.g., Virgil Trucks, John O'Brien, et. al.). My big haul was to eliminate about 70 of the cards on my 1970 want list. I'm up to 61% complete, which is very misleading because I still need a lot of the high dollar cards on that set.

I did save some money. One seller had just bought a complete 1956 set and a 1957 set missing only 5 cards. He priced the '57 to me at $2000 and I passed it up. I told my wife we saved $2000 and she was incredibly impressed with me. I think she'll be getting a nice dinner tomorrow night to show my appreciation for her patience while I dug through old ball cards.

#129 -- Charlie Fox

2009-07-08T12:34:00.001-05:00

Charlie Fox

How old does Charlie look here? To me he looks like he'd have to be in his mid-60's. However, assuming it was taken in Spring Training 1971 (or in front of the bleachers at a high school football stadium), he hadn't had his 50th birthday yet. Johngy left a comment earlier about how a lot of the players looked older in this set than they do now.

Charlie was a lifelong Giant. He grew up in New York City and wanted nothing more than to be a Giant. His Baseball-Reference page doesn't list when he was signed by the Giants, but he was brought up to play 3 games in late September 1942 for the Giants as a 20 year old. He was a catcher and had a .429 lifetime batting average (3 singles in 7 at bats). It might be worth keeping track of that and see if he turns out to have the highest lifetime big league batting average of anyone in this set. He's certainly set the bar high.

His minor league career doesn't pick up again until 1946, so I'd say he spent his early 20's fighting for America's freedom. He was a backup catcher in the low minors (B and C leagues) through the 50's and never sniffed the big leagues again. He scouted until the mid-60's and then either coached with the Giants or managed in the minors until named as manager of the Giants in May of 1970.

The Giants made it to the playoffs once between 1962 and 1987, that being when Fox led them to the West Division in 1971. However, it's not like they were abject failures. They finished 2nd to the Cardinals or the Dodgers most years in the 60's. But, despite McCovey, Mays and Marichal they just couldn't get over the hump despite having the most consistent run.

The Giants crashed hard in 1972. Charlie had a tough year with the Giants finishing 5th. McCovey and Marichal were injured, Mays was finally showing his age and young players like Chris Speier, Dave Kingman and Garry Maddox weren't ready yet. They bounced back somewhat in 1973, but when they got off to a bad start in 1974, Charlie found himself not employed by the Giants for the first time in over 30 years.

He had a couple of other stints with the Expos (as a GM) and as an interim manager for the Cubs. He had a fiery temper, but he was a lifetime baseball man. There are a lot of guys out there like Fox who never have the chance to manage in the post-season or even make it to the big leagues. The thing that sets Fox aside is that 1971 season when he won the West.

P.S. I was googling Charlie Fox and came across a reference on Urban Dictionary. I've never heard his name used that way, however.

1972 Feature

July 8, 1972 was a Saturday. There were a lot of low-scoring games. The Dodgers lost to the Mets 4-1, due in part to 4 Dodger errors. Man, what with Charlie Fox being a long-time Giant and 4 Dodger errors, this post can't end too early for one Night Owl. Juan Marichal raised his record to 3-10, but he only went 6 innings allowing 1 unearned run against the Expos as poor Ernie McAnally fell to 1-11. The Angels held the Red Sox scoreless over the last 15 innings of their 17 inning game and then scored to win 4-3.

The Game of the Day is one that we just don't see any more. The Yankees took on the Twins in the Met. Mel Stottlemyre went for the Yankees against Bert Blyleven. The Twins pinch-hit for Blyleven in the bottom of the 10th. Wayne Granger relieved and gave a homer to light-hitting Bernie Allen leading off the 11th. Stottlemyre came out for the 11th and gave up a leadoff single to Danny Thompson.

Rod Carew was next up. Ralph Houk went to the bullpen for Sparky Lyle. Carew hits a dribbler to Lyle that gets Thompson to second with the tying run. Slugger Harmon Killebrew was up next. Today, there would be thought given to walking him. However, in that time managers would have even pitched to Albert Pujols instead of purposely putting the winning run on base. Lyle struck out the Killer and then fanned pinch-hitter Steve Brye. That was a 1-0 11-inning game where the starters went 10 innings. I suppose this is one of the games the Bert Blyleven for the Hall of Fame Club (of which I'm not a member) cite that could have been one of the wins that would have gotten him to 300. Instead, it looks to me like a well-pitched game that a good pitcher, Mel Stottlemyre, won.

By the way, I've tried to purposely post this at 12:34:56 PM on 7/8/09. Big Deal.

#128 -- Eddie Watt

2009-07-05T08:45:00.002-05:00

Eddie Watt

In the stretch when the Orioles were at the top of the American League from 1969-1971, there was no better reliever in baseball than Eddie Watt, but nobody's ever heard of him. That's partly because the Orioles threw so many complete games they really didn't need a reliever. They'd carry a 9 man pitching staff and 1 of those guys would usually pitch less than once a week. Contrast that with today's game where some managers are considering carrying 13 pitchers.

In that stretch of 1969-1971, Eddie still appeared only 48 games and 55 innings on average. The Oriole bullpen also had Dick Hall, Dave Leonhard and Pete Richert all pitching effectively during that period. I mentioned the Orioles threw a lot of complete games. From 1969-71 their complete game totals were 50, 64 and 71, well over 1/3 of the total games played.

Eddie pitched 8 years for the Orioles and they went to the World Series 4 of them. He was a rookie on the 1966 championship team and was a vital cog on the 1970 championship team as well as the 1969 and 1971 AL Championship teams. After the 1973 season he was sold to Philadelphia. The O's seemed to be going through a change and there were a lot of players in a rich minor league system that were coming up. Eddie slipped a little more with the Phillies. They released him and after a few games with the Cubs in 1975 his career was over.

Eddie wasn't like today's closers. He didn't come in to great fanfare and entry music. He was more quiet and unassuming. He grew up in Iowa on a farm and never saw a major league baseball game until he saved one for the Orioles on April 12, 1966. One week later he pitched in his second game and got his first win. One week later he notched his first major league win.

His stats today don't look like they'd be good enough to make an all-star team, but Eddie was one of the best in his time.

1972 Feature

On July 5, 1972 Nolan Ryan was at it again. He threw 9 shutout innings at the Brewers and it wouldn't have been enough if Winston Llenas, pinch-hitting for Ryan, hadn't knocked in the winning run with a single in the bottom of the 9th off Earl Stephenson. Stephenson had been matching him zero for zero, but gave up the winning hit. Marty Pattin of the Red Sox and Dave McNally of the Orioles also had 5-hit shutouts.

Independence Day

2009-07-04T08:00:00.002-05:00

I'll take my turn to editorialize. A few years ago in my church, we were having a celebration of freedom in America and they were playing the National Anthem. For some reason, I tried to put myself in the shoes of Francis Scott Key while he wrote the song.

Imagine. You're detained on a British boat in Baltimore harbor at night while your fledgling country is being attacked and invaded by the greatest power on the earth at that time. You can hear blasts and see explosions all night and you don't know what's going on.

You ask someone near sunup, thinking about seeing things were OK when the sun went down last night...

O, Say can you see

By the dawn's early light.

What so proudly we hailed

At the twilight's last gleaming.

You're worried about the flag at Fort McHenry, but you can only try to catch a glimpse over the sides of the boat every now and then because it isn't safe to put your head up.....

Whose broad stripes and bright stars

Through the perilous fight

O'er the ramparts we watched

Were so gallantly streaming.

In the darkness, you can't see if the Fort is holding or not. Every now and then when there's an explosion, it gives you a burst of light to see what's going on.....

And the rockets red glare,

The bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night

That the flag was still there!

And as long as our flag is still there, the Fort is holding and everything is OK! With the raising of the flag over Fort McHenry he knew we'd held off the Brits. Imagine the relief and joy every time Francis sees Old Glory still waving on shore.

Then, Francis Scott Key poses a question and a challenge from that boat to you and me, almost 200 years in the future......

Oh, Say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave,

Over the land of the free

And the home of the brave?

There was a time that I'd be at a ballgame and I couldn't wait for the National Anthem to be over so I could join the umpire in a hearty "Play Ball." Now, when the National Anthem is over, I'll give Francis Scott Key a quiet answer to his question: "Yes, the flag still waves over the greatest country the earth has ever known." Somehow, I think he's in a place now where what's going on here doesn't matter to him, but I'd like to think that he'd take some peace knowing everything is still OK.

That being said, I love Det. Frank Drebin as Enrico Palazzo butchering the song. While I am absolutely reverent about it at the ballpark (and think what Roseann Barr did to it absolutely sucks), I can have a good laugh at "The Naked Gun."

#127 -- Duffy Dyer

2009-07-04T07:30:00.003-05:00

Duffy Dyer

Somehow I think Duffy disqualified himself from making the backup catcher Hall of Fame by starting over half his team's games in 1972 and 1977. However, he spent much of his career in the bullpen warming up guys like Tug McGraw, Grant Jackson and Dale Murray, and putting on the shin guards and mask to warm up a pitcher between innings when Jerry Grote, Ed Ott or Gary Carter had been on base at the end of an inning. What does a backup catcher do? One thing they don't do is grab headlines.

Duffy, however, would be one of the more famous backup catchers, partly because of his nickname and partly because of being a long-time Met. Duffy was a first round draft pick (secondary phase) out of baseball factory Arizona State in 1966 as the 9th pick. The 2nd overall pick in the regular phase was teammate Reggie Jackson.

Duffy didn't have quite the career that Reggie did. He was a rookie on the 1969 Amazin' Mets, but was at best a 3rd string catcher behind Jerry Grote and J.C. Martin. He did get one at bat in the Series without getting a hit. In 1972 he had his career highs in games, at bats, hits home runs (8), RBI and strikeouts. He didn't play as much in 1973 and didn't play in the post-season at all.

Duffy had some occasional pop in his bat, but too often he didn't make contact. Then again, the backup catcher rarely has time to get his full batting practice in, as he's busy catching guys that need to get some work in on the side. Certainly in Spring Training the backup catcher's role is purely catching and has nothing to do with hitting. He got traded to the Pirates and spent 4 years there as a backup, getting to appear in the 1975 long enough to draw a bases loaded walk off Rawly Eastwick in the bottom of the 9th to tie up Game 3. The Reds promptly scored twice in the 10th to close out the sweep. He then bounced on to Montreal and Detroit to close his career.

He's been involved in baseball all his life. He's now the catching coordinator for the Padres, but he's been a minor league manager at several different levels. One thing that's bugging him now is that he's lost his 1969 World Series ring. He had to be in the Dominican last summer and thinks someone stole it out of his locker. If anybody sees it at a show or on ebay, give Duffy a call.

I love this card because it shows a young Duffy in the classic catching pose. This looks like a spring training shot with somebody else's catching mitt lying behind him and the cool (yeah, right) windbreaker sleeves on.

1972 Feature

July 4, 1972 had a full slate of games. Many were low scoring, with 7 runs by the Expos over the Dodgers being the biggest offensive barrage. A lot of these games were well-pitched. Lynn McGlothen of the Red Sox threw a 3-hit shutout for his first big league win. Pat Dobson gave up a Dick Allen homer in the first, but coasted to a 3-hitter in a 2-1 victory over the White Sox. Dick Tidrow of the Indians and Roger Nelson of the Royals each threw 4-hit shutouts. In the National League, Larry Dierker had to scatter 8 hits to shut out the Pirates.

The Game of the Day is Tom Seaver and the Mets against the Padres in the first game of a doubleheader. Clay Kirby only lasted 2 2/3 innings for the Padres. He only gave up 2 runs and 3 hits, but he walked 4 in the 3rd, forcing in 2 runs. When you hit as poorly as the Padres and you're facing Tom Seaver you can't afford to walk guys with the bases loaded. The Mets didn't get anything else the rest of the day.

But with Tom Terrific pitching you don't usually need much. Seaver struck out 11, walked 4 and gave up only a single to Leron Lee with 1 out in the 9th. That was a problem because Big Nate Colbert represented the tying run on deck. He also represented the end of the game because he rolled into a 6-4-3 double play. Seaver threw a wonderful game here.

Also on this day was a game I remember watching on TV as an 8-year old. It was an afternoon game between the Reds and the Cardinals. Scipio Spinks was a sensation for the Cardinals that year and entered the game 5-4. He also had character, as he had a stuffed monkey he carried around for luck that he called Mighty Joe Young. I remember the Cardinals had a feature on the pre-game show about it. Joe let Scipio down that day as the Reds scored 5 off him in the bottom of the 2nd. In the 3rd, the Cardinals got a rally going and Scipio was on 1st with 1 out. Luis Melendez doubled and Scipio ran through a stop sign at 3rd and tried to score. He was safe, but on his slide into Johnny Bench, he tore ligaments in his knee and was never effective again. (The play-by-play on Retrosheet even mentions the torn ligaments.) He missed the rest of the year. I still remember the announcer (I can't remember if it was Jay Randolph or Mike Shannon) bemoaning the fact that he ran. It was something to the effect of, "When you're down by 5 in the 3rd, there's no reason for you to have your pitcher trying to score with 1 out." Makes sense to me. I guess Chien-Ming Wang wasn't the first pitcher to have his career severly interrupted by a baserunning effort.

(Oh, yes. I can also hear my wife in the background, "How can you remember that detail from a baseball game 37 years ago, but you can't remember to mail in the cable bill?" I hope I'm not the only one with that type of memory.)

#126 -- Bart Johnson

2009-07-03T09:30:00.002-05:00

Bart Johnson

The 1970's was a decade of a lot of things. Bell bottoms, hippies, tube socks, lava lamps and the White Man's Afro. Bart Johnson had a White Man's Afro and it seemed to work for him. There's a lot of information on Bart in this interview of him and it also shows all of his baseball cards. See as the decade went along that Bart seemed to aspire to become the albino Oscar Gamble.

Bart had a heck of a lot of athletic talent. He went to BYU and, in the days before freshman eligibility on the varsity basketball team, averaged 28 a game for the freshman team. John Wooden unsuccessfully recruited him for UCLA. Bart said he picked baseball over basketball because he had Cy Young stuff pitching, but would have "only" been a solid NBA player. He'd have given Randy Denton a run for his money on the hair front. (Here's a coincidence...I was looking at Johngy's blog to see if he'd interviewed Bart and I found this Youtube interview of the Ultimate White Man's Afro, Randy Denton!)

Bart had a blazing fast ball and had a great 1971 season. He had a lot of promise and thought he'd take off in 1972, but he hit like a thud. He gave up 8 runs in an extra inning game (written up here in the 1972 Feature). He'd hurt his knee playing basketball in the off-season, told the Sox about it and they said he'd "be fine." However, they didn't want him to shelve it, so he ended up playing outfield (and batting .316) in the Sox A and AA teams.

He came back to pitch in 1973 and was so-so, probably still recovering. He got into it with the Sox in Spring Training of 1974 because they wanted him to go to the minors. He threatened to quit and work publicity for the World Football League's Chicago Fire. He even had a tryout with the Seattle Super Sonics that summer, but nothing came of it. He finally decided to go back to pitching and had a great 1974 second half where he started to fulfill his potential. From July 7 to the end of the year he was 10-4, 2.74 and had back to back shutouts in late August.

He's going to make a top of the rotation pitcher in 1975 to combine with Wilbur Wood and Jim Kaat, right? No. He herniated a disc in his lower back during a spring training game because he slipped on a wet mound. They weren't able to do much back then and he missed the whole season. He was in the rotation all year in 1976 (along with Goose Gossage) and didn't do well. By 1977, he'd lost a lot on his fast ball and it was over.

Bart's been a scout since his playing days wrapped up. He's working for the Nationals now and, from what I've seen on other message boards, he can be spotted in establishments near his Oaklawn, IL home.

1972 Feature

Lots going on July 3, 1972. Hank Aaron had a big day with a homer, double, single, 2 walks and was hit once in a 13-9 win at Houston. Rick Wise got a complete game 4-2 victory over the Reds and hit a 2-run homer. The Orioles pasted Detroit 15-3, and had a 6 run inning and a 7 run inning in the game. They had 21 hits, 16 of them were singles. The Phillies got to Don Carrithers of the Giants for 4 runs and 5 hits in the first inning. They got nothing -- no runs and no hits -- the rest of the way, but it was enough because they Steve Carlton getting his 10th win. Willie Stargell hit a 2-run walk-off homer to power the Pirates past the Cubs.

My Game of the Day is in Disneyville, where Catfish Hunter of the A's had a pitching duel with Rudy May of the Angels. The A's had pushed across a run in the 7th. The Angels hadn't gotten anything off Hunter. Bert Campaneris singled to lead off the 8th and Joe Rudi was safe when Rudy May made an error on his sacrifice bunt attempt.

Now we get the big situation of the game. A's ahead 1-0 in the top of the 8th. Nobody out. Good speed at second with Campeneris and Rudi on at first. Coming to the plate is the A's best hitter and biggest slugger, Reginald Martinez Jackson. He does something that would never be done in today's game. He lays down a sacrifice bunt. Successfully. Can you imagine Tony LaRussa asking Albert Pujols to do that? If Joe Girardi asked Alex Rodriguez to sacrifice, could he get the bunt down? However, Big Ego Reggie moved the runners along. Captain Sal Bando was walked intentionally and Mike Epstein knocked a 2-run single to break the game open. A couple of batters later Dave Duncan got another 2-run single and the A's held on to win the game 5-0. Catfish had a 2-hitter.

I had to look it up. Reggie had 4 sacrifices in 1972 and 13 for his career, but after 1972 he only got down 1 sacrifice bunt.

#125 -- Dave Cash

2009-07-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

Dave Cash

I always liked Dave Cash. He had a lot of style, as you can see in this card. He's got the wristbands, the hat's cocked just right and he's got just the hint of an arrogant sneer as he pretends to look at the pitcher that's going to throw him a pitch. I always think of him as a Pirate, although he had his best success with the Phillies.

Dave came up and got some playing time in 1970 filling in for Bill Mazeroski. In 1971 he played half-time at second and some at third, still getting over 500 at bats. However, Rennie Stennett was coming up and Cash had to split time with him.

In 1974 Cash was part of a straight up trade within the division to the Phillies for Ken Brett. It worked out for both teams, more so of the Phillies than the Pirates. Cash teamed up with Larry Bowa to anchor the middle infield and had over 200 hits twice (and 189 the other year).

Cash retired with the highest fielding percentage for a second baseman. For a time in the 1970's, he held the record for most at bats in a season, which means he led off, played every day, played for a team that scored a lot and he didn't walk. But he didn't strike out either. He's somebody that you'd think would have good speed, but wasn't a good base-stealer, stealing 120 and being caught 74 times, just over 60%, which wasn't good for a 1970's leadoff hitter.

I always thought Dave Cash was cool. I also saw that he was part of the 1st all-black starting 9 in the majors on September 1, 1971. It's probably happened a few times since.

1972 Feature
Nolan Ryan continued his assault on July 1, 1972, by striking out 16 A's in a 5-3 win. He gave up 3 runs on only 5 hits, but also walked 3, hit Sal Bando and Bill Voss in the 7th and threw his 9th wild pitch of the year.

The Game of the Day is going to be in Fenway. Going into the top of the 9th the Red Sox have a 5-3 lead, but the Brewers scored 2 in the 8th and have momentun. All of the Red Sox runs have come on home runs, two by Ben Oglivie and one by former Brewer pitcher Marty Pattin. Don Newhauser came in to relieve in the 9th and got a grounder to short. Since Luis Aparicio had not been hitting well, the Sox were trying out rookie Juan Beniquez at short. Beniquez had a much better bat, but was a woeful shortstop. In 1971 he played 15 games at short, made 6 errors and fielded .895. He was better in 1972. In 27 games he made 14 errors, but his fielding percentage improved to .900. It's hard to field under .900. Juan never played shortstop again until a 1 inning emergency for the Angels in 1985.

Anyway, an out and a walk later and the tying run is on base. The Sox bring Luis Tiant in to face Ron Theobald. We've seen Theobald's card. He's not menacing looking and he hit like he was borrowing Eddie Gaedel's bat. Theobald did make some solid contact on Tiant, however. He did the right thing and hit a grounder to Juan ".900" Beniquez, but Beniquez handled it cleanly and it turned into a 6-4-3 game-ending double play. Theobald hits it hard, but that turns it into a double play when Beniquez fields it cleanly. Sometimes guys go against what they would normally do.

#124 -- Yankee Rookies (Closter, Torres, Hambright)

2009-06-26T12:12:00.007-05:00

Alan Closter

Rusty Torres

Roger Hambright

The Yankee farm system of the 1990's was what got them their late-90's success by developing guys like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte. That same farm system helped continue the playoff success through the early part of the 2000's by causing other teams to overvalue Yankee prospects because they were Yankees. The Yankee farm system of the 40's and 50's (including the Kansas City A's) was responsible for the success in the 50's and early 60's, largely because there was no draft and the Yankees could send out superscouts like Tom Greenwade out with suitcases full of money to sign guys like Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard and Bobby Murcer.

That led to the institution of the Amateur Player Draft. The Yankees didn't adjust well for a long time. As a result, their farm system really sucked in the late 60's and 70's. This card is an example. None of these three guys were major contributors, but they were Yankees....

Al Closter was signed in 1965, but drafted and sold before he made his big league debut with the Senators in 1966. He wasn't ready, as he came late into the O's blowing out the Senators. He gave up a double, walked 2 (including pitcher Moe Drabowsky) and got light-hitting Luis Aparicio on a fly to deep center. The Senators let him go back to the Yankees rather than keep him on the roster. He came back in 1971 and had his most time, going 2-2, 5.08 in 1 start and 13 relief appearances. He gave 5 runs on 5 hits (including homers to Mickey Stanley and Norm Cash) in his only start. In 1972, he only got into 2 games and didn't come up to the Yankees in 1973. Late in the season, he was the Player to be Named Later in the deal that brought Pat Dobson to the Yankees from Atlanta. The Braves decided to put him on the expanded roster to see what they got. After 4 games, 4 1/3 innings and 7 earned runs, they decided they'd seen enough. Al pitched at AAA in 1974 and 1975 before giving it up. But, Al's in the Syracuse Baseball Wall of Fame and I'm not.

Rusty Torres had the best career of these 3. He was signed at age 18 and slowly worked his way along until things clicked for him in the minors when he turned 20. He had a cup of coffee in 1971 that led to all kinds of great predictions because he hit .385 in 26 at bats over 9 games. He struck out looking in his first game against Pat Dobson (1 of 3 strikeouts that day). Rusty never fulfilled that promise. He was a journeyman that hit .212 in parts of 9 seasons in the bigs.

Rusty, however, appeared in three of the oddest and most infamous American League games of the 1970's. On September 30, 1971, he was the Yankee right fielder in the last Washington Senator game before they moved to Texas. Rusty was 1/4 in the game. He was also walking to the on-deck circle when the fans rushed the field with 2 outs in the 9th causing a forfeit.

Fast forward to June 4, 1974. Rusty is a bench player for the Indians and comes to pinch-hit in the 9th. The Indians are at home and trailing the Rangers 5-4 when Rusty is summoned to bat. He singles and moves Ed Crosby to 2nd with 1 out. Alan Ashby follows with a single to load the bases. Crosby then scored on Johnny Lowenstein's sac fly and Rusty was the winning run on 2nd with 2 out and Jack Brohamer coming up to face Steve Foucault. He never got to bat. Fans, likely affected by Cleveland's Ten Cent Beer Night promotion, stormed the field, stole MVP Jeff Burroughs' glove and the game was forfeited to the Rangers. This link has a great description of the night, complete with Ranger manager Billy Martin ordering the team to arm themselves with bats to storm centerfield to save their comrades. Think I'm kidding? Check out the picture showing some of Billy's Batwielders escorting Burroughs to safety. (That's Jim Spencer on the left and I don't know who's on the right.)

Guess what happened July 12, 1979? Rusty is now with the White Sox who are hosting a doubleheader against the Tigers. Rusty goes 1-3 and scores the lone run as the Sox lose to Pat Underwood. Here's the link to Game 2. Rusty didn't play. Nobody played. Comiskey became unplayable between games because it was Disco Demolition Night. The Wikipedia account is kind of funny, especially noting that Sox broadcasters Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall were commenting in Game 1 about strange people roaming the stands. Stranger than the ones in the press box?

I wouldn't be surprised if Rusty hadn't been in Comiskey a few years ago when that redneck and his son jumped Royal coach Tom Gamboa.

Roger Hambright had a much more sedate career than Torres, but had more substance than Closter. Hambright was up most of the second half of 1971 pitching out of the bullpen. He went 3-1 with 2 saves and a 4.39 ERA that wasn't very good back then. He got off to a good start, with 3 scoreless innings and a win in his first 2 appearances. In his 3rd, the Yanks took a 1 run lead in the top of the 12th, so he was positioned to get another win. The White Sox tied the score and had a runner on 2nd with 2 out and Carlos May coming up. Ralph Houk decided to walk May to get to Bill Melton. Anybody remember Bill Melton on a card so far in this set? A three-run homer later and Hambright has his first big league loss. Roger had a couple of more good years in the bullpen in the minors before not doing well in 1974 (arm trouble, perhaps?) and ending his career at the ripe old age of 25.

No 1972 feature here. I think I've brought up enough 1970's culture here!

#123 -- Ed Acosta

2009-06-25T06:44:00.004-05:00

Ed Acosta

Here's a guy that I just don't remember at all. When I think of an Acosta, I think of Cy Acosta of the White Sox, but they're no relation. Ed only played in part of 1970 with the Pirates, part of 1971 and then was up the whole year in 1972 with the Padres and that was it.

The shutout mentioned on his cardback was an 8-hitter against the Phillies in his first appearance for the Padres in 1971. Of his 6 starts in 1971, 3 of them were complete game victories, which kind of makes you wonder why they didn't keep him in the rotation. It looks like he was primarily used in a mop-up role in 1972 and then he vanished. Baseball-Reference doesn't record a release, sale to the Rangers or any other kind of banishment. Perhaps he went back home to Panama to open a baseball academy to tutor young men that would turn into closers for the Yankees. Perhaps he went to play in another league in Latin America. I don't know where Ed Acosta went, but he was a big guy and did reasonably well.

1972 Feature
Five doubleheaders dominated the baseball schedule on June 25, 1972. Ed Acosta went out to pitch the 9th of a 3-3 tie with the Giants and allowed 2 runs. Fortunately for him, Garry Jestadt hit a 2-run homer to bail him out and send the game to extra innings, where the Giants won in dramatic fashion. Garry Maddox hit a 1-out double in the 14th. Ed Goodson grounded out to third. According to what I see in the box score, it looks like Maddox was running and kept going. First baseman Nate Colbert was credited with an assist and catcher Pat Corrales an error, so I would suppose that Maddox bowled Corrales over and injured him, as it relates that Fred Kendall replaced Corrales behind the plate. What a gutsy move and it paid off in a 14-inning 6-5 win for the Giants.

Lynn McGlothen made his debut with the Red Sox this date. I remember him as being the "anchor" of the Cardinal staffs once Bob Gibson retired and before Bob Forsch took over. Wow, the Cardinals really did suck in the mid-70's.

Also, happy 37th birthday to Carlos Delgado of the Mets, who was born on June 25, 1972. Anyway, as happy a birthday as you can have on the disabled list watching Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals beat Johann Santana and your team in CitiField (hopefully for me) this afternoon.

#122 -- Larry Biittner

2009-06-23T07:25:00.000-05:00

Larry Biittner

For a long time in the 70's I misspelled Larry's last name. I'm sure I wasn't the only person that didn't put in the second "i". On Google, there are about 5,640 results for "Larry Biittner" and about 1,100 results for "Larry Bittner". I don't know if there are very many other ballplayers with such a large percentage of hits for the wrong spelling.

Larry, or "Butch" as he's supposedly known (story to follow), was a solid contact and average hitter that didn't have a lot of pop. He had 2-3 years when he played full time, but was usually a part-time player and pinch-hitter. Believe it or not, but at 3, 31 .259, he was one of the Rangers' best hitters in 1972. He hit .315 in 1975 for the Expos and .298 for the Cubs in 1977, but never hit more than 12 homers and never had an OPS+ over 117.

Biittner had his only 2-homer game in a Cubs 23-6 win over the Padres in May 1977. On July 4 of 1977, in the 1st game of a doubleheader in Chicago against his former teammates, the Expos, he took to the mound in a game the Cubs were trailing 11-2. He promptly gave up a 3-run homer to Larry Parrish. He also got taken deep by Ellis Valentine and Andre Dawson, none of which would be an embarrassment. I don't know what he was throwing, but of the 4 outs he got, 3 of them were strikeouts. He struck out pitcher Jackie Brown after Parrish homered. OK, he's a pitcher, big deal. Well, he also struck out Del Unser and Larry Parrish to end the game.

I don't know how to run the report (Andy.....), but I can't believe there are very many non-pitchers who have struck out more than 3 in a game in the last 40 years. For all Biittner did with the Cubs and Reds, this has to be one of his most unusual accomplishments. However, this is a guy that really loved playing ball. In doing my Google search, I found this article about a softball player that marvelled at the "old" guy playing 3rd base next to him and homering often...finding out it was Larry "Butch" Biittner.

1972 Feature
Friday, June 23, 1972 was a big day on the schedule. Steve Arlin followed up his June 18 2-hitter by throwing a 1-hitter at the Giants, beating them 4-1. The only hit came on Garry Maddox' 1-out triple in the 2nd and he scored on a sacrifice fly.

Nolan Ryan threw a 2-hitter at the A's, beating them 2-1. The A's only hits were a 1st inning solo homer by Reggie Jackson and Dave Duncan's 7th inning single. However it took an 8th inning Bob Oliver homer to win the game for the Angels. This win set Ryan on a 5 game winning streak where he didn't allow more than 3 runs or 6 hits in any of those games. None of those were the no-hitters, but I have a feeling we may see him again in this section.....

This date also became a big day in the Watergate saga. It was on June 23, 1972 when President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman were taped formulating a plan to cover up the break-in. The tape didn't come out until August 1974, but it was enough to put the final shovel of dirt on the Nixon Administration. I'm sure they didn't know it at the time, but it's a good lesson. If there's something going on bad, you might as well fess up, because someone will find you out.

#121 -- Ed Sprague

2009-06-19T07:51:00.002-05:00

Ed Sprague

Every team has a scouting story about how they found this guy or that guy which is out of the ordinary. Ed would be one of those stories for the Cardinals. Of course, it might have been a better story if he'd made more of an impact on the big league level. Ed couldn't have been scouted the conventional way. Like Sidd Finch, he didn't play high school baseball or college baseball. Somehow a Cardinal scout found him pitching in the Army in Germany and signed him as a free agent in 1966.

OK. That is an unusual story. So the Cardinals get this raw, hardthrowing pitcher and stash him in the low minors to get some seasoning. First year in the minors he gets some innings under his belt and walks a lot of guys. Second year in the minors he pitches a full season at A-ball (California League) and goes 11-7 with a 3.12 ERA and gets the walks under control (the ERA is artificially low as he gave up 83 runs, but only 54 earned....what? was this a team full of scatterarms?). He's looking at a promotion, right? The A's take him in the Rule 5 draft and he spends 1968 learning in the big leagues. He goes a respectable 3-4, 3.28, but his BB/K ratio is 1.0 and he has 6 wild pitches in 68 innings. Still, 4 years removed from an Army base with no baseball background and he's in the big leagues, giving up a homer to Brooks Robinson in his debut (although he did get the other 6 guys out that he faced).

Ed split 1969 between the minors and A's and was then sold to the Reds. He was in the minors in 1970 and came up for a cup of coffee in 1971. He bounced from the Reds to the Cardinals (he only pitched 8 games, but as a young, impressionable Cardinal fan I remember him vividly as one of the guys who couldn't do anything right in the early 70's) and then on to the Brewers. He was off to a 7-2 start in 1974 when he had a knee injury in Comiskey. That messed him up. He came back in 1975 to go 1-7, but what was really telling was walking 40 and only striking out 21 in only 67 innings. He got in 8 innings in 1976 and got shelled. That was it for Ed Sprague in the big leagues until Ed Sprague (his son) made it with the Blue Jays (later to make it in the Mitchell Report).

Remember how the A's noticed him in the California League? After his career was over he went back to California and owned the Stockton franchise.

1972 Feature
A couple of teams went wild on June 19, 1972. Roberto Clemente had 3 RBI on 2 doubles and a homer as the Pirates made up for the previous day's shutout, cuffing the Dodgers 13-3. Reggie Smith homered twice to lead the Red Sox to a 12-0 blasting of the Rangers. But the Game of the Day will feature a couple of hot teams.

The Mets come in having won 3 out of 4 and hanging on to first place in the East by a half-game. A month before they had a 6 game lead, so they need to get things going again. The Astros have won 6 out of 7 and are only a game and a half behind the Reds (who were shut out by Bill Stoneman and the Expos).

We're set up for a pitching duel with Jon Matlack going against Larry Dierker and the game is in the Astrodome. These pitchers don't disappoint. Matlack gets out of a couple of early jams by striking out Jimmy Wynn in the 1st and 3rd. The Astros keep getting guys on base and Houdini Matlack keeps squirming off the hook (like the mixed metaphor?). Finally, in the 7th, the Astros break through for a couple of runs and tack on another in the 8th. What had the Mets been doing? Nothing. Duffy Dyer singled to start the 3rd, but he was erased in a double play. Dierker walked leadoff man Willie Mays a couple of times, but he never got past first and Dierker stops the Mets on a 1-hitter.

Pretty special. Pretty amazing stretch for Astro pitching when you look to see that the day before, Jerry Reuss didn't allow a hit until Larry Bowa doubled to lead off the 9th. It's not like a Johnny VanderMeer thing, but it's not very common for a team to pitch back to back 1-hitters.

With this loss, the Mets fell out of first place and would not again hold sole possession of 1st in 1972.

One other item from June 19, 1972. The Cubs saw the beginning of a long career this day. Rick Reuschel made him big league debut, relieving Billy Hands in the 4th and striking out Bobby Bonds. He was then lifted for a pinch-hitter, but he would go on to win 10 games that year and 214 in a long career. He went on to strike out Bonds 11 more times, but Bobby got the best of it, hitting .350 with 3 homers in his career off Rick.

#120 -- Bill Freehan

2009-06-18T07:32:00.002-05:00

Bill Freehan

Bill was one of the AL's best catchers in the era between Yogi Berra/Elston Howard and Thurman Munson/Carlton Fisk. He was good for a 20, 70, .265 season every year. He made 10 straight All-Star games (11 overall) and won 5 Gold Gloves. I didn't realize this, but his value to the Tigers is reflected in the fact that he was 3rd in AL MVP voting in 1967 and 2nd in 1968. That's not for the Tigers' team MVP, but the league MVP. In 1967 he was a distant 3rd behind Yaz' Triple Crown and Harmon Killebrew's 44 homers. In 1968, however, he was a solid 2nd, behind teammate Denny McLain's 31 wins and unanimous MVP.

Still, Freehan's stats don't really jump out and grab me and maybe that's because I've lived through the era of guys like Todd Hundley hitting 40 homers and that numbs me to good hitting catchers. It was a lot more rare in the 1960's.

Bill's a Detroit man through and through. He was a baseball and football star for the Big Blue and returned to coach the baseball team at the University of Michigan in the early 90's (just after the Jim Abbott era). The Tigers signed him in the days before the amateur draft. I'm sure Freehan never thought about signing with anyone else. He made his debut in 1961, but didn't stick until 1963. He was the Tigers' starting catcher through the 1975 season. In 1976 he played part time, but hit 5, 27, .270 in 71 games. The Tigers released him after the season (I guess deciding the future was now with Johnny Wockenfuss and Bruce Kimm) and he retired.

Bill was also involved in a couple of oddities in his career. He liked to crowd the plate. Apparently, on August 16, 1968, Jim Lonborg wanted to pitch inside because he hit Bill in the 2nd, 4th and 7th, three consecutive plate appearances. No indication of any riots. Fortunately for Bill, Lee Stange had relieved Lonborg when he came up in the 8th. Bill quietly flied to left.

An even more odd play really showed off Bill's behind-the-plate skills. I'll let you know I've never heard of a play like this and I'd love to see the video of it. On July 5, 1969, the Tigers are in Baltimore and, despite being 43-33, they're 11 games behind the Orioles already. Speedy Paul Blair led off the 3rd with a triple. According to Baseball Library, Frank Robinson swung and missed and the bat flew out of his hand. Apparently Blair had strayed too far away from the bag and wasn't paying attention (looking at the bat, perhaps?) and Freehan the catcher tagged him out. Unassisted. Speed demon Blair run down by a catcher. That's a play for the archives.

1972 Feature

On June 18, 1972, there were a few good individual performances. Skip Lockwood (who we saw a few cards ago) threw a 5-hit shutout at the Royals. Vida Blue finally won his 1st game of the season after winning 24 in 1971. Vida was 14-2 by this time in 1971. San Diego's Steve Arlin made a 1st inning run stand up and threw a 2-hit shutout at the Pirates. Cesar Cedeno showed off his all-around talent with 2 doubles, a single, a homer and a steal of 3rd in a 10-0 win over the hapless Phillies.

The Game of the Day will be in Riverfront Stadium where Tom Seaver goes against Ross Grimsley. Cincinnati leads the West by 1.5 over the Astros and the Mets enter the day a half-game behind the Pirates. The Reds get a run in the 1st. Seaver walked Rose and Morgan. He then got a force at 2nd and struck out Johnny Bench with runners at 1st and 3rd for the 2nd out before Tony Perez singled in Rose. The Mets got that run back in the 4th on a Duffy Dyer double.

Seaver was dominant after the 1st. The Reds had a little rally in the 7th, but Seaver struck out pinch-hitter Ted Uhlaender and then got Rose on a fly ball with runners on 1st and 2nd. Seaver became the Player of the Day and won his 9th game of the year when he homered off Grimsley in the 7th to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. It was Tom Terrific's 2nd homer of the year and if he hadn't hit it they might still be playing. Neither team was hitting that day. This game, coupled with the Pirates shutout loss, put the Mets in first in the East.

By the way, that win I mentioned that Vida Blue got? It was also Charlie Finley's Mustache Day in Oakland that launched the great handlebars of Rolllie Fingers. The link explains how this was all a ploy to try to get Reggie Jackson to shave the mustache he started in Spring Training, but nobody gets one over on Reginald Martinez Jackson.

#119 -- Marty Perez

2009-06-17T08:17:00.004-05:00

Marty Perez

I think I was pretty impressionable as a young baseball fan. If I ever heard something good about a player, that's what they were forever. That explains why I still can't believe Mike Rogodzinski, Tom Heintzelman or Stan Papi didn't make it big. Anyway, I must have heard something good about Marty Perez somewhere along the line because I grew up thinking he was a mid-level shortstop. He wasn't a Dave Concepcion or Bud Harrelson, but I always thought he was on a par with guys like Chris Speier or Tim Foli.

Imagine my shock when I grew up a little more and ran across his stats in the Baseball Encyclopedia. Marty was a full-time shortstop from 1971-1977 for the Braves, mostly, spending 1976 with the Giants and 1977 with the A's. But he hit .240 with no power, didn't steal bases, didn't walk a lot, and was an average to below average shortstop. But somehow he was a big league starter for most of 7 seasons. Of course, so was Mike Tyson. This just goes to show how the position of shortstop has undergone a transformation in the last 40 years. His career OPS+ was 70, hitting a high of 81. Since I don't like to use the word "suck" when I teach Sunday School, I'd have to say as a hitter, Marty verily stinketh.

He did hit lefty starters fairly well, as long as they weren't Hall of Famers. He hit over .340 against guys like Geoff Zahn, Doug Rau, Dave Roberts, Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack. Good righthanders overpowered him. He was 0-for-John Montefusco and hit under .150 against Fergie Jenkins, Don Wilson and hard-throwing Tom Phoebus.

Not much else to say about Marty except that I'll forever link him with his double play partner, Felix Millan.

1972 Feature

Now, after all that about Marty, I'm going to write something much more complimentary. He played a big part in our June 17, 1972 Game of the Day. The Expos were in Atlanta to play the Braves and Ernie McAnally took a 2-0 lead into the 9th for the Expos. Ernie got Mike Lum to ground out and struck out Rod Gilbreath (making his big league debut). However, Marty worked a 2-out walk. Lum Harris sent Jim Breazeale (winner of the 2008 Cardboard Junkie Baseball Card Tournament) up to pinch-hit for Phil Niekro. He hits it out. Game goes to the 10th.

In the 10th, Ralph Garr singles to lead off against McAnally. After a passed ball on Terry Humphrey, McAnally wisely walks Hank Aaron. Mike Marshall comes in to relieve and Rico Carty singles in the winning run. All because Marty Perez worked a 2-0ut walk in the 9th. Way to go, Marty!

While this was going on, a security guard found some tape over a door lock. He took it off, but noticed it was back a few hours later and called the police. He had no idea how much that one phone call would change politics and journalism. That tape was in the Watergate Office Complex in Washington, DC, where future NBA Commissioner and 1972 Democratic National Committee Chairman Lawrence O'Brien had an office. Arrested that night were 5 men who worked for the Commitee to Re-Elect the President.

I remember the aftermath well, but nobody really remembers the break-in. President Nixon swept to one of the largest electoral and popular vote margins of all time. That's what's ironic. They didn't have to try to get the Democrats' secrets because they didn't stand a chance anyway. The 1972 election was decided the day Senator Ted Kennedy dropped Mary Jo Kopechne in the Chappaquiddick pond in 1969.

Instead of letting a special prosecutor deal with this, President Nixon decided to cover it up. The same paranoia that led his operatives to break in and look for secrets led him to try to cover it up. I guess he must have been gone the week they taught in Sunday School that your sins will find you out.

I liked President Nixon. I may have only been 8 in 1972, but I was a big Nixon guy. I got a poster in 1973 in the school book order and hung it in my room. It was still hanging in my room 10 years later when we were trying to sell our house (that was a good point for the folks that ended up buying it). However, for all the forward thinking in the Nixon/Kissinger foreign policy, he missed it big. Because of this, people mistrust politicians now, because he looked in the camera and said, "I am not a crook."

What's also ironic is that in 1968, Nixon was elected largely on a "law and order" platform that resonated with middle America, especially after the Democrat's convention in Chicago where anarchy broke out on national TV.

It would be nice if America could remember June 17, 1972 for Jim Breazeale's dramatic pinch-homer, but, unfortunately, this date will be inextricably linked with Nixon and company.

New 1972 Cards!!

2009-06-16T08:35:00.002-05:00

There are new 1972 cards being produced!! There's a link in the comments section of the Cleo James card to a new blog featuring great photoshops of current players on 1972 designs. The site is 1972 Topps Redone.

He's taken some current player pictures and put them into the 1972 format. So far we've got Yadier Molina in get-up that Gerry Cheever (1972 Boston Bruin goalie) would have laughed at...without a mask on. Joe Torre is signing a baseball for a fan (without the mutton chops you'll see here along about card #500). Tim Lincecum is taken out of a game (looks about as happy as a 1972 starter was to leave a game). Finally, Johan Santana, in a Spring Training shot that reminds me of a Sports Illustrated cover.

I'll be looking forward to more of these and adding this blog to my list on the right for easy access.

#118 -- Skip Lockwood

2009-06-16T07:25:00.006-05:00

Skip Lockwood

This Brewers Spring Training photo includes a photo of one of the rocks that you see in the Arizona shots. If 1972 baseball cards were sent to Neptune and the inhabitants tried to figure us out from this set (scary thought, isn't it?) they'd get out the topographical map and wonder where all the mountains in Wisconsin are.

Skip also looks very 70's in this shot. He's got the sideburns coming way down and up towards his mouth. That took a lot of grooming back then. It's also a lot different from the bookish version of Skip we see in later cards with the Mets.

Skip signed with the A's as an 18 year old out of high school and was brought up in 1965. Those stats aren't on the back of his card because he hit .121 as a 3rd baseman. I guess he didn't scare Sal Bando too much. Looks like after a couple more years of trying to make it as a hitter he started pitching in 1968. For some reason, the Pilots took a flyer on him and drafted him in the expansion draft. After going 6-2 in 10 starts in AA ball, the Pilots brought him up in 1969, with just over a year's pitching experience in the minors.

He finished a couple of blowouts, giving 2 runs in 2 innings, not looking too impressive. The runs came on solo homers to Elrod Hendricks of the Orioles and Ike Brown of the Tigers, not exactly thought of as big time sluggers. However, they let him start 3 games in September and he did great. Since he was with the Pilots, he went 0-1, but he had a 2.70 ERA. He went 7 innings and gave 1 run in a 1-1 tie with the Angels, lost 2-1 to the White Sox and left after 7 against the Twins tied at 3 in a game the Pilots won in 14.

He earned a spot in the rotation from 1970-1973, but was mediocre, going 28-54 (ouch) despite a 3.70 ERA over that time. He was traded to the Angels and didn't get much work there in 1974. He was traded to the Yankees in the off-season, but was released at the beginning of 1975. The A's picked him up, but he was stuck at AAA Tucson, pitching so-so between the rotation and bullpen. The Mets purchased him for bullpen depth and he found his niche. He was a big part of the Mets bullpen in the late 70's before arm trouble shut him down in 1979. He tried to come back with his beloved Red Sox (native of Massachusetts) but he wasn't the same. The Sox released him in the last cuts before the 1981 season started. He tried to hang on with Montreal's AAA team in 1981, but that was it for his baseball career.

But that wasn't all for Skip Lockwood. He's done some baseball analyst work, but he's had a really interesting post-baseball career. He has a Master's degree from MIT in 1983, shortly after his baseball career ended. That's a pretty big accomplishment, especially given that he went from high school to baseball and he had to pick up a bachelor's degree somewhere along the way. Skip is only one of three MIT grads to have played in the big leagues with Art Merewether (1 at bat for the Pirates in 1922) and Jason Szuminski (7 games in 2004 for the Padres) are the others.

Skip is currently the CEO of a company called PACE 360, a company involved in sales and marketing.

1972 Feature

On June 16, 1972 there were 6 shutouts in the 11 games played. Joe Coleman of the Tigers threw a 3-hitter at the Angels, Jim Palmer needed Grant Jackson to get the last out with the bases loaded to preserve a 3-0 win over the Twins, the A's got 4 in the 1st and Ken Holtzman scattered 7 Indian hits to win 5-0, Ron Reed gave the Expos only 7 hits in the 2nd game of a doubleheader in Atlanta, Cub rookie Burt Hooton stopped the Dodgers on 6 hits, and the Game of the Day is in the Houston Astrodome.

The Phillies absolutely sucked in 1972. Except when Steve Carlton took the mound. They were 59-97 overall, but Carlton was 27-10. The Phillies were 29-11 when he pitched, meaning they were 30-86 when he didn't pitch. You've got to wonder how they only threw him out there 40 times. Carlton went to the mound on June 16 against Don Wilson of the Astros and they put on a pitching duel. Wilson was taken out of the scoreless game in the 7th. Don Money had singled to start the inning and Larry Bowa bunted him to second. Supposedly that would be so the next hitter had a chance to knock him in. At this point, the Astros decided to get a fresh pitcher in to face that hitter, so Tom Griffin came in. Carlton was the batter. He flied to center and the game stayed scoreless.

In the 9th, the Phillies put runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Carlton was the scheduled hitter. The Phillie bullpen was so solid that he was left in to hit and struck out. Good thing. In the bottom of the 9th Cesar Cedeno led off with a double and the meat of the lineup is coming up. Carlton intentionally walked Jimmy Wynn. Then he struck out Lee May, got Bob Watson to line out to left. He walked Doug Rader to load the bases, but the less formidable Tommy Helms came up and flied to center.

In the 10th, the Astros again got a runner to 2nd on a balk with nobody out. They bunted him to third with one out, but Carlton struck out Roger Metzger and got Cedeno to ground out and end another threat. The Phils got their leadoff man on in the 11th and bunted him to 2nd. Larry Bowa then popped up, meaning Carlton would be coming up with a man in scoring position and 2 out, just like the 9th. This time they lifted him for Oscar Gamble. Gamble singled, but the run couldn't score. The next batter groundd out. Dick Selma relieved and Jimmy Wynn promptly led off the bottom of the 11th with a homer. Sounds to me like that game was going to last as long as Carlton would.

#117 -- Cleo James

2009-06-15T07:44:00.001-05:00

Cleo James

Sometimes there's a card comes up where the player or the subject (like the Billy Cowan "halo" card or the Billy Martin "finger" card) has been written about enough that there's just nothing fresh to write. Sometimes there's a card comes up of someone I could write for hours on end how great they are, like Willie Mays. Sometimes I'll research a lesser known player and find a lot of stuff that's interesting for me.

Then sometimes there's a guy comes up like Cleo James where it's hard to find anything. Cleo didn't have a long or distinguished career, but he was obviously talented and kept at it. I couldn't find anything on what Cleo did after baseball (which I usually find interesting). But for every All-Star like Jim Fregosi or Hall of Famer like Harmon Killebrew, there are dozens of guys like Cleo James that get more than just a taste of the big leagues, but don't do enough to really leave memories. Here goes...

Cleo made the Dodgers' Opening Day roster in 1968 as a 27 year old rookie. He'd had 2 years at A, AA and one year at the AAA affiliate in Spokane for seasoning. His debut was to pinch-hit for Tom Haller against Bob Veale of the Pirates, who was a tough lefthander. Cleo struck out. His first hit came in his next at bat, almost a week later, against Al Jackson of the Mets. He only got one start that year, striking out in 3 at bats against the Reds. He was back in the minors by May 10 and was later dealt to the Cubs.

He came back to the big leagues with the Cubs in 1970, playing some centerfield and pinch-hitting. He hit his first homer off Bruce Dal Canton of the Pirates, and ended up with 5 for his career (all-time leader for big leaguers named "Cleo.") Oh, and like the cartoon on the back shows, he liked to play ping pong.

1972 Feature

June 15, 1972 had a light schedule, with only 6 games on the schedule, including the Pirates sweeping a doubleheader from the Giants in Pittsburgh. The Giants won the West last year and with this doubleheader loss they have the worst record in baseball. Things don't get better for them

The Game of the Day is in Anaheim. Vince Colbert threw a gem. He was matched up against Clyde Wright of the Angels. Colbert came in 0-4 and Wright was 5-3. However, Colbert shut the Angels down on 5 hits and 3 walks. Graig Nettles knocked in Ray Fosse with a 4th inning double and that was the only scoring through the 9th. The Angels threatened in the bottom of the 9th. With 1 out they've got Ken Berry on 1st and Vada Pinson on 3rd. Rookie Leroy Stanton, acquired in the Jim Fregosi trade, came up.

Colbert, however, met his best friend once again that day. Stanton grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, one of 3 the Indians turned that day which allowed Colbert to finish off the shutout. Today, he'd never have been allowed to make it that far, but here he was allowed to pitch through the jams.

Born on June 15, 1972 were 3 big leaguers: Ramiro Mendoza (who had a good couple of years and then flamed out), Tony Clark (who seems to have had a better career as a part-timer than a starter) and Andy Pettitte (still a big-time contributor with the Yankees).

#116 - Ed Farmer

2009-06-14T07:26:00.001-05:00

Ed Farmer

Ed Farmer was a so-so reliever through the early 70's. He made it up with the Indians in 1971 and pitched middle relief. He stayed in the same role through 1974. He had a mid 4.00's ERA and had as many walks as strikeouts. I'm surprised he made it in the big leagues that long.

When he went to the minors, he spent 1974, 1975 and 1977 in the starting rotation. He didn't do any better, but must have gotten hurt in 1975. He had a 7.00+ ERA in 13 starts in 1975 and didn't pitch in 1976. However, in 1978 the Brewers put him in the bullpen in AAA Spokane. He still had an ERA of 6.00, but he got a shot in the big leagues and did well.

In 1979, however, he was traded to the White Sox in mid-season and everything finally clicked. I don't know if he made a deal with Louis Cypher or not (like Sully said about Brad Lidge in a great post) but he started doing the job when put into "game" situations. He sure went into the right place because his competition for the closer's role with the White Sox was Mike Proly and Randy Scarbery.

In 1980, Ed made the All-Star team. He came into a pressure situation in the 6th. The NL had just tied the score 2-2 and Dave Winfield is standing at the plate with runners on 1st and 3rd with only 1 out. He got Winfield to hit a grounder to 2nd (potential double play?), but Willie Randolph made an error and the go-ahead run scored. Keith Hernandez then beat out a dribbler near the mound before Farmer got Pete Rose to ground into an inning-ending double play.

He came into the All-Star break with a 6-3 record, 17 saves in 21 chances and a 3.00 ERA. After the break he was 1-6 with 13 saves in 20 chances and a 3.80 ERA. Not quite the same. His 1981 season looked like his early 70's seasons and he signed with the Phillies as a free agent after the season. He didn't do anything good with the Phillies or A's and was done in 1983.

Farmer is most known now for being the play-by-play voice of the White Sox. Before that, he was known for a feud with Al Cowens. On May 8, 1979, he started a game for the Rangers against the Royals. He hit leadoff hitter Frank White and broke his hand. In the 4th, he hit Al Cowens in the jaw. Each missed at least 30 games, which may have something to do with why the Royals didn't win the Western Division that year. Al Cowens had a long memory. In June of 1980, He faced Farmer in Chicago, hit a grounder and ran it out.....right to the mound and sucker punched Farmer from behind. Farmer decided to press charges and Cowens had to get the heck out of Dodge. They later buried the hatchet. Al Cowens wasn't someone you'd want to have looking to get even with you.

1972 Feature

The Game of the Day is going to be in Oakland. Bobby Grich hit a leadoff homer in the top of the 10th off Catfish Hunter to give the Orioles a 2-1 win. Dave McNally and Hunter both pitched complete games in this one. You don't see pitchers going 10 innings anymore and here's 2 that did. Earl Weaver didn't feel the need to bring Eddie Watt in to pitch the 10th; he figured McNally was pitching well so he left him in.

What's also remarkable about this game was that it was finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes. That gets you into the 6th inning now. It's not like there weren't baserunners, either. The Orioles had 6 hits and the A's had 4. Hunter had the only 3 walks of the game (imagine a pitcher going 1o innings now without walking someone). There were 5 hours in the game. Still, they finished the game in just over 2 hours. What a concept......

#115 -- Jim Fregosi

2009-06-13T08:17:00.003-05:00

Jim Fregosi

Jim's gone through a lot of different phases of his career. He was one of the first California Angel wonderboys. Starting in 1972 his career went south and he became more of a utility guy and wandered around the league. Then he was a manager for several years. Now he's more of the wise old sage.

However, this makes two guys in a row who're not known for their All-Star years or other accomplishments. Instead, they're known for a single failure in their career. In Fregosi's case, it wasn't even his fault. The Mets chose to give up Nolan Ryan to pick up Fregosi to be their third baseman. In fact, as I mentioned in Gary Gentry's post, the Angels would have been fine with either Ryan or Gentry, but I think the Mets were reluctant to part with Gentry because he was more of a World Series hero. However, in some respects, this Ryan-for-Fregosi trade would have been the equivalent of the Braves trading Edgar Renteria a couple of years ago to the Orioles for Daniel Cabrera. You've got a good-hitting veteran shortstop for a talented, hard-throwing, yet erratic pitcher. Ryan could just have well turned out like Daniel Cabrera has (so far).

The Angels brought up Fregosi as a fresh-faced 19 year old in their expansion year of 1961. By August 1962 he was their starting shortstop. He was a 6-time All-Star through 1970 and was hitting for some pop. It was unusual for a shortstop to be hitting 15-20 homers a year in the 60's, but Jim was good for that. In 1971 he tailed off, largely because of a tumor that was found on his foot. He was traded to the Mets and struggled with a broken thumb in 1972. By mid-1973, the Mets had all they could take and they sold Fregosi to the Rangers. While it was kind of an insult to be sold, it might have been more of an insult to Fregosi to have been traded for any of the sack of you know what the Rangers had (Jeff Burroughs excluded).

He settled in as a backup with the Rangers into 1977 and then finished his career in Pittsburgh in 1978. He never really recaptured what he had with the Angels in the 60's, but he finished his playing career on his own terms. He retired in May to take the job managing Nolan Ryan and the Angels. He led the Angels to their first playoff appearance in 1979. He also managed the White Sox, Phillies and Blue Jays. Most remember him with the Phillies in the 1993 World Series, probably wondering why he had to put Mitch Williams out there.

1972 Feature

I've learned that when I put these dates into Google, I can get a lot of stuff. In addition to posting the Game of the Day from Major League Baseball, I can be posting highlights from transcripts of the White House tapes (tune in on card #119 for something on that), the concert tour of Led Zeppelin and Elvis Presley, and there's even a website that shows wrestling results for Superstar Billy Graham (the man who inspired Hulk Hogan's biceps and Jesse Ventura's wardrobe). However, I'm letting you off the hook (unless I see something interesting with the King or the Superstar).

The MLB Extra Innings package would have been worth having on June 13, 1972. The Angels overcame 5 errors to beat the Indians 3-2 in 11 innings. Wilbur Wood of the White Sox and Pete Broberg of the Rangers each threw 3-hit shutouts. The Braves had another come from behind victory over the Mets, 6-5 in 10 innings, tying the game with 3 in the 8th.

My Game of the Day will be in Fenway, where the Red Sox drew all of 12,000 fans against the Royals on a Tuesday night. You can't get into Fenway now unless you know someone that knows someone that knows someone (which is how my wife and I got to see a game in May 2006). Marty Pattin had the Royals shut down and, after getting help from Bill Lee to escape a jam in the 8th, the Red Sox were leading 2-0. In the top of the 9th, rookie Rick Miller is a defensive replacement for Yaz in left field, suggesting the Sox were about to salt one away.

However, Freddie Patek got a 2-run double off Lee and Amos Otis followed with a 2-run single off Bobby Bolin to give the Royals a 4-2 lead. The Royals could have tried to add to that, but Otis was made the 3rd out at 3rd base, trying to go from 1st to 3rd on a single to left by pitcher Bruce Dal Canton. Richie Scheinblum was coming up next and he was a .300 hitter.

In the 9th a Freddie Patek error and a Carlton Fisk double put the tying runners in scoring position. But Tom Burgmeier came in and got pinch-hitter Phil Gagliano and Tommy Harper out to end the game. Pretty tight finish. The Royals and Red Sox were both 5 games under .500 and floundering, but the Red Sox would get things going later on.

#114 -- Bill Buckner

2009-06-12T08:14:00.003-05:00

Bill Buckner

This is one of my favorite cards in the set. He's holding the bat in a "coming at you" pose and it intersects neatly with his Topps All-Rookie Team cup of gold. You can see under the hat he's got a full head of black hair, with long sideburns and heck of a set of eyebrows crawling over his eyes. So far we've had Buckner and Andy Etchebarren with the eyebrows. I remember there being more. Has something happened in the last 35 years? Have some of those chemicals Al Gore rails against caused guys to have thinning in their eyebrow hair? Or have some of those chemicals Bud Selig rails against caused eyebrows to thin? I just don't see thick bushy eyebrows on today's player and (except for Eric Byrnes) don't tell me they sit around and tweese or wax them.

Buckner was a good all-around player when he came up. He played first and the corner outfield spots well. He didn't remind anybody of Maury Wills, but he stole 15-30 bases a year. He had doubles power and hit for average. Then he had a horrific ankle injury and that slowed him down. Later in his career, he just didn't move around well. However, he was still a .280-.300 hitter and didn't strike out (although he didn't take a walk, either).

Buckner isn't known for having 2700 career hits, a batting title, holding the record for assists by a first baseman or an All-Star appearance. Nope. He's known for something he supposedly did wrong. We all know what it is and I don't want to go there. That seems to be all we remember. The Sox actually waived him in 1987 while he was hitting .276 with 2 homers and 42 RBI. Yep. Didn't want anything for him, all so they could bring in future Hall of Famer Sam Horn. Acutally, that was probably more of a mercy thing for Billy Buck because Boston fans can be harsh. He went on to hit over .300 for the Angels after they grabbed him up. He struggled in 1988 and 1989 with the Angels and Royals. His 1988 card still shows he had quite the head of hair.

Buckner ended up going back to the Red Sox to finish his career in 1990. He didn't do well and was released in early June. However, before he was released, he hit his last career homer in Fenway Park. Was it an opposite field shot over the Monster? Did he curl one in around Pesky's Pole? Did he pour everything he had and lay into one and hit it out to the Triangle? Nope. This 41 year old with bad ankles managed an inside the park homer. The play-by-play says it went down the right field line, which is the shortest part of the park, but has some tough angles. Claudell Washington was playing right field that day and you have to wonder if he wasn't stricken with a nasty case of something for him to mess around with the ball long enough for Buckner to circle the bases. Or maybe it was like the end of the Bad News Bears movie when the opposing team's pitcher held the ball while Tanner (?) rounded the bases. If I remember right, he was mad at his Marinovich-like father. In any event, Buckner's last homer had to be his most improbable.

Sorry Mets fans (and I know some of you admit to it). I'm not going to show the video.

1972 Feature
June 12, 1972 was a light day on the schedule. There were only 6 games in the big leagues as half the teams had the day off. There was 1 blowout, 1 slugfest and 4 pitchers' duels. Maybe that's why I still appreciate the baseball of the day.

The best of the pitchers' duels would have been Pat Dobson and the Orioles hanging a 1-0 loss on Vida Blue (0-3 now after his dual Cy Young/MVP season). However, I'm going with the slugfest down on Peach Tree Street in Atlanta for my Game of the Day.

This starts out as a pitching duel between Gary Gentry of the Mets and Phil Niekro of the Braves. After 6, the Mets are up 2-1. The only scoring has come on solo homers by John Milner and Wayne Garrett of the Mets and Earl Williams of the Braves.

In the 7th the Mets loaded the bases with 1 out. The play account says Duffy Dyer hit a grounder to Niekro and he forced the runner at the plate. I'd want to know why they weren't able to get Dyer, a catcher, to complete the 1-2-3 double play and get out of the inning. Gentry then stepped up with a 2-run single to left and, after an error, Buddy Harrelson singled in another. The Braves came back with 3 in their half of the 7th on singles by Dusty Baker and Mike Lum.

In the 8th, Buzz Hardin replaced Niekro (who'd been lifted for a pinch-hitter) and he was promptly greeted with a solo homer by Rusty Staub. That was enough and Cecil Upshaw came in and gave up a 1-out homer to Ken Boswell and the Mets were up 7-4.

The Braves then took the lead in the bottom of the 8th off Faith Hill's father-in-law. With nobody out, Rico Carty knocked in a run. Next, two runs scored to tie the game on a wild throw by Met third baseman Wayne Garrett and Darrell Evans made it to third as the go-ahead run, still with nobody out. He wasn't able to score on Earl Williams' grounder to third. He was able to score when centerfielder Tommie Agee couldn't catch Dusty Baker's fly ball (he still got credit for a sac fly). Upshaw then put down the Mets 1-2-3 and that was the end to a wild game.

# 113 -- Rogelio Moret

2009-06-11T08:00:00.003-05:00

Rogelio Moret

He's better known in later issues by the Americanized "Roger". I always connect he and Oil Can Boyd. Both were tall and thin. Roger was 6-4, 175 and The Can was 6-1, 150. They both pitched for just a few years with the Sox then went elsewhere and didn't do as much. They also each had pretty good winning percentages. Finally, they were each just a little nuts.

He was somewhat of a sidearming lefty. Not quite like Mike Myers, but he was probably more like Pedro Martinez in that he came from a lot of different angles. It must have been effective. From 1970-1975 he was 18-7 at Fenway, generally regarded as a place of death for lefties.

He was trying to get ahold of his control in the early 70's. He'd have probably stayed in the majors quicker, but he walked too many. For example, in 1971 he had a 4-3 record with a 2.92 ERA in 71 innings. Pretty good, right? Gave up only 50 hits and the league only hit .205 off him. That ought to work. He struck out 47, but walked 40. That won't keep you in the big leagues long.

He found his control in 1973 and went 13-2. In 1975 he helped the Sox to the World Series by going 14-3. There are references in the usually reliable Baseball Library and Baseball Reference Bullpen to him having a wreck at 4:30 a.m. on August 25, but going ahead and pitching that night against Jim Palmer. The game log shows Luis Tiant pitched (and lost) to Jim Palmer and that Moret didn't pitch between July 31 and August 11. Looks to me like he may have had the wreck, but didn't really pitch, simply missing that start.

He had 3 appearances in the 1975 Series. In the wild (that could have been said about many of those games) Game 3 in Cincinnati he came into a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the 10th with runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. It was that situation instead of a runner on 1st with 1 out (or nobody on and 2 out) because Carlton Fisk threw wildly to 2nd as Eddie Armbrister bunted. That was one of the most controversial plays of the Series, with Darrell Johnson certain that Armbrister interfered with Fisk. Moret intentionally walked Pete Rose to load the bases. He struck out pinch-hitter Merv Rettenmund and then Joe Morgan singled to center. Imagine. If the Sox had won this game then Fisk's Game 6 homer could have been a walk-off World Series winner.

The Red Sox sold high on Roger, trading him to the Braves for Tom House after the 1975 season. Turned out to be no big deal for either team. Moret then went to the Rangers where his career ended one day when he had something odder than a 4:30 a.m. car wreck 150 miles away keep him from a start. He was found in the locker room in a catatonic state holding a shower shoe outstretched in his arm. He never pitched in the big leagues again. He wasn't the same anyway. Still, I'll remember Moret as a skinny whip-armed pitcher that almost never lost.

1972 Feature
Juan Marichal fell to 2-10 on the season in a 4-0 loss to the Cubs. Who would have thought Marichal to have 10 losses 10 weeks into the season? Dick Drago shut out the Yankees 1-0. In the first game of a double header the Brewers and White Sox combined to hit 7 homers (2 by MVP Dick Allen) in a 6-4 White Sox win. Lots of solos that day. My Game of the Day will be the Tigers coming from behind with 1 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th to beat the A's.

Through 7 innings Ken Holtzman shut down the Tigers with 1 run on 2 hits. He'd retired 13 in a row since walking in a run in the 3rd. Aurelio Rodriguez tripled to lead off the 8th and scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the score. The A's get runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 out in the top of the 9th off Chuck Seelbach. Mike Hegan pinch hit for Larry Brown, but Seelbach picked Downtown Ollie Brown off 2nd to end the inning. Bill Freehan then sent everybody home with a homer leading off the 9th.

Billie Jean King's brother (Randy Moffitt) made his debut as a reliever for the Giants on this day. He had a pretty good career as the Giants' bullpen ace in the 70's.

# 112 -- Greg Luzinski

2009-06-10T08:30:00.005-05:00

Greg Luzinski

At 6'1", 215 pounds, Greg Luzinski was a big, burly slugger who didn't move around all that great in the field in the early 1970's. For comparison, Rick Ankiel is listed at 6'1", 210; Hideki Matsui is 6'2", 210; and Vernon Wells is 6'1", 230. I don't think any of those guys would be nicknamed "Bull" but Luzinski was thought of as a mountain of a man back then.

As you can see on his card, he had an outstanding minor league career. He destroyed the PCL in 1971 at Eugene after wreaking the same havoc in Reading the year before and with the beloved Durham Bulls before that. From what I remember of the old park in Durham in law school, it wasn't an easy place to hit 31 homers.

Some guys really hit a wall when they go from the thin air of the PCL to the big leagues. Luzinski adapted very well, hitting 18, 68, .281 in his first full season with the woeful Phillies. By the time the Phillies started winning in 1975, he established himself as a 30 homer, 100 RBI and .300 hitter at a time when that was the elite of the league. I'd honestly forgotten how good his numbers were then. He started tailing off in 1977 and never regained that form. He became a White Sox DH in the 80's. I remember when they won the AL West in 1983 there was a lot of discussion about whether Ron Kittle or Luzinski would have to play the field if the Sox made it to the Series.

Now, he runs a stand at the ballpark in Philadelphia called Bull's Barbecue. I guess now that I've plugged him and Manny Sanguillen, I'll have to find a photo when Boog Powell's card comes up.

In the comments, the Dean Family (of the 1980 Topps blog) reminds of the Bull's Miller Lite commercial from 1988 where he imitates John Daly (before Daly hit the limelight). I had to go back and put this in.

1972 Feature
On June 10, 1972 the A's beat the Tigers 5-2 in a preview of the ALCS. The A's improved their record to a league best 33-13 and opened up a 5 game lead in the West. The Twins had been close, but were fading fast. Today's Game of the Day shows this continuing to happen.

The Twins came into this game in Cleveland having lost 6 of their last 8 since June 1, when they were only 1.5 games behind the A's. Dick Woodson is cruising and has the Indians shut out on 3 hits through the first 7 innings. The Twins innocently pushed 1 across in the 4th when Rod Carew scored on a double play grounder after tripling. That was the only run through 7. In the bottom of the 8th, Del Unser gets it started by dropping down a bunt. An RBI double by Jack Brohamer tied it and, after an intentional walk to Alex Johnson, singles by Chris Chambliss and Buddy Bell make it 4-1. Steve Mingori comes in and goes through Cesar Tovar, Carew and Harmon Killebrew to close it out. The Indians aren't going anywhere, but the Twins pretty well insure they aren't either by dropping their 7th out of 9.

Single Digits

2009-06-09T22:20:00.002-05:00

I've been working on collecting this set off and on (more off than on) for the last 37 years. I put bids on the last 12 cards I needed on an ebay set break and got 4 of them tonight. I was fortunate and found a seller that charged $2.75 shipping for the first card and free on all other cards, which made it affordable.

I got those for cards for under $20 with shipping. One was a semi-high, but the other three were from the high series. I think I got a pretty good deal.

Anyway, thanks to both of you for indulging me in reading through this post with no information, no pictures and all about me. Rich Reese, Bobby Murcer, Rick Monday and some Twins Rookies: you're mine. Paul Blair, Walter Alston, Rookie Pitchers, Rookie 1Bmen, Jerry Koosman, Bobby Bonds, Jack Aker and Jim Rooker.....you're in the crosshairs. I'm a little surprised that now I'm under 10 to go that I know them all. I'm not sure I need a checklist anymore. Hopefully I'll find them all by the time I get to #660.

# 111 -- Jim "Mudcat" Grant

2009-06-09T08:45:00.005-05:00

Jim "Mudcat" Grant

People see this card and immediately see the mutton chops. However Mudcat Grant is a heck of a lot more than a set of bushy sideburns. He was a good starting pitcher for the Indians and Twins through the late 50's and early 60's. When he won 20 with the Twins in 1965 (he also won 2 games in the World Series and hit a homer that year) he became only the 3rd black pitcher to do that (following Don Newcombe and Sam Jones). He's written a book called "The Black Aces" (visit Mudcat's site) about the 13 men who've done so (Newcombe, Jones, Grant, Bob Gibson, Earl Wilson, Ferguson Jenkins, Vida Blue, Al Downing, J.R. Richard, Mike Norris, Dwight Gooden, Dave Stewart and Dontrelle Willis).

When Jim Grant came up to the Indians, he got to room with his idol, Larry Doby. I don't know if Doby remained his idol for long. It was Doby that gave him his famous nickname by saying he was as "ugly as a Mississippi mudcat." (A mudcat is a bottom dwelling catfish.) Fortunately, Jim Grant has a heart of gold and a great sense of humor and he's been proud of his nickname. There were 2 other guys named Jim Grant to play major league baseball, but only one Mudcat.

Mudcat struggled in the late 60's until he got to St. Louis in late 1969 when the Expos didn't want him any longer (Note: when an expansion team doesn't want you, things look bleak.) Red Schoendienst put him in the bullpen and he was good. He spent 1970 as the A's closer doing very well. He also pitched out of the pen for the Pirates in 1971, but missed out on a World Series ring when Charlie Finley purchased him at the end of the year for the stretch run. If Charlie Finley was willing to part with cash for you, he must think you're pretty special. Supposedly, Mudcat was the first player Finley convinced to put his first name on the back of his jersey. I guess it's OK that Suzuki doesn't do that in Seattle.

However, that was the end of the line for Mudcat. He spent 1972 at the A's AAA team in Iowa, but never got the call back to the big leagues. Mudcat's now a baseball ambassador. He signs baseball cards if you want to send to him in the mail. He makes appearances at the Negro League Museum in Kansas City. He basically loves to go places to meet people, smile and talk about baseball. Can't think of a better thing to say about a guy.

1972 Feature
June 9, 1972 was a Friday with new weekend series starting. Don Sutton lost his first game of the year to the Pirates thanks in part to 1st inning errors on Bobby Valentine, Steve Garvey and Bill Russell. Steve Blass of the Pirates threw a 3-hitter, though. The Cardinals beat the Padres 3-2 on a homer by Joe Torre in the top of the 9th. Bob Gibson and Bill Greif threw complete games in 2:05.

My Game of the Day, though, will be a rainy night in Boston. The Angels score 3 runs in the top of the 6th on homers by Bob Oliver and Leroy Stanton, 5-5. Rico Petrocelli sends one out to left-center to lead off the Sox 6th. Bill Lee comes out to relieve Marty Pattin in the top of the 7th and is ready to face pinch-hitter Syd O'Brien when the game is delayed and never restarted. Even though he didn't throw a pitch, Bill Lee gets credit for an appearance and a Game Finished. However, he didn't get the save.

That game marked the end of Roger Repoz' career. His card comes along a lot later. Suffice it to say that he blazed the way for guys like Kevin Maas in that he was touted as the next great Yankee slugger, but never fulfilled potential. Roger struck out as a pinch-hitter in this rain-shortened game, dropping his season average to .333 (1 hit and 2 strikeouts) and was never heard from again.

# 110 -- Ron Hunt

2009-06-08T08:17:00.005-05:00

Ron Hunt

Ron is best known for one thing. He got hit by pitches. He led the league in being hit the last 7 years of his career. He didn't just lead that category, he dominated it. Only once in those seven years did anyone come within 10 of him. In 1971 he was hit 50 times and 2nd place was hit 9 times.

He wasn't one of these guys that played 150 games every year. He usually played around 120 games. Back then when you crowded the plate, it was daring the pitcher to hit you.....and he often did. Now, if a batter crowds the plate, the pitcher tries to throw a slider on the outside part because he might make the batter mad if he throws inside. Ron also didn't wear any protective devices except for a helmet (although, unlike Jose Cruz, he does have a batting glove). Finally, it's one thing when a big, muscular guy like Don Baylor takes a fastball in the shoulder, but Ron Hunt was a little guy. It should be no surprise that he was hit the most often, 6 times, by Bob Gibson.

Ron wasn't just a target. He was a 2-time All-Star for the Mets, starting the 1964 game. He now runs a baseball camp outside St. Louis.

1972 Feature
From what I can tell, June 8, 1972 was a quiet day. The Game of the Day is going to be a 2-1 Dodger comeback win over the Cubs. Tommy John and Juan Pizarro hooked up for a pretty good pitcher's duel. Jose Cardenal picked up an RBI single off John in the top of the 4th. The Dodgers didn't do anything until Steve Garvey homered in the 7th. John pitched around a jam in the 8th and played small ball in their half of the 8th. Billy Grabarkewitz led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second. He then scored from second on a wild pitch by Pizarro. The Cubs then went quietly in the 9th against Brewer.

Not a lot else going on in the world. The only other thing I could find of any marginal interest was the birth of Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell. Honestly, for myself, I have overstated it when I said that's of "marginal interest." Sometimes it's good to have slow news days.

#109 -- Jerry May

2009-06-07T08:26:00.002-05:00

Jerry May

I was at our local AA Texas League team (Springfield Cardinals) the other night when the shortstop came up, hitting about .217, when it flashed on the board that he is hitting .260 at home. The scoreboard told us another player was hitting .278 in the 3rd inning. One of my colleagues was at the game with me and was asking me about those obscure stats and why they put them up. I told him it sounded to me like (unintentionally) damning with faint praise.

I tell that story because of Jerry May's card back. He had significant playing time for the Pirates in the late 70's and was around a half-time catcher for the Royals in 1971, their first really good year. Heck, his first 2 minor league seasons were pretty good. However, Topps chooses to tell us about his 6 American Legion no-hitters, which would have had to have been from 1958-1961. In order to say something nice about Jerry, they had to go back to talk about him no-hitting high schoolers in Virginia in the Eisenhower administration. Jerry must not have hit very well in the 3rd inning.

Jerry was involved in one of those lopsided Royals trades in the early 70's. He, Freddie Patek and Bruce Dal Canton came for Jackie Hernandez, Bob Johnson and a bag of chips. Jerry didn't hang around long with the Royals. He split time in 1971, but his hitting fell off in 1972 and by 1973 they sold him to the Mets and he was released after 4 games in 2 months.

Jerry was a good fielder and kind of got Wally Pipped in Pittsburgh. As mentioned above, he was the Pirates' number one catcher starting in 1967 until crashed into a dugout in Montreal in 1969. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The ambulance then had a crash and that injured Jerry's right (throwing) shoulder. Manny Sanguillen replaced him and he was never the same. Talk about circumstances that "verily stinketh."

He also caught Dock Ellis' LSD no-hitter in 1970. Dock said the only thing that let him know where to throw the ball (other than when the ball told him where to throw it) was zeroing in on the reflective tape Jerry wore on his fingers. I suppose he must have been able to surmise Dock's condition and made allowances.

1972 Feature
On June 7, 1972, Pittsburgh and San Diego played a double header that was 2 games of dichotomies. The first game was a slugfest, Pirates got ahead early and pounded the Padres, 12-5. Four Pirates and one Padre had 3 hits. Willie Stargell hit 2 homers and drove in 5. The Padres had to use 5 pitchers just to record 27 outs.

In the nightcap, they went 18 innings before the Pirates were able to push one across and win 1-0. The game only lasted 4:27, shorter than a typical 9-inning Yankee-Red Sox or any playoff game nowdays. Dave Cash and Stargell had 3 hits in both games. Spots 5-9 in the Pirate order went 3-36. The Padres only got 6 hits in 18 innings off 5 Pirate pitchers. Because the Padres had shredded their bullpen in the opener, Clay Kirby went 13 scoreless innings and Mike Corkins pitched the other 5. The Padres never really threatened. The Pirates got a runner to 3rd with less than 2 outs only twice in the first 17 innings. The Pittsburgh Lumber Company scored with some unusual small ball in the 18th. They led off with infield singles by Al Oliver and Willie Stargell. Those 2 "speed demons" then executed a double steal (I'm sure catcher Fred Kendall had to be dumbfounded). Corkins then struck out Richie Hebner and intentionally walked Bill Mazeroski to set up the inning-ending double play. He then walked Gene Alley to force in a run. He got out of the inning by fanning Manny Sanguillen and getting Clemente to ground out, but that was it. What a game.

Also, the Padres first round draft pick, Dave Roberts, who was just drafted a couple of days ago, made his major league debut in this double-header. Don Leshnock of the Tigers played in his only game. He pitched the 9th inning of a 5-1 loss to the Angels. He got Leo Cardenas on a grounder and struck out Nolan Ryan. Sandy Alomar and Mickey Rivers then got base hits before he struck out Vada Pinson. Don can say his K/9IP ratio of 18.00 was even better than Ryan's.

#108 -- Gary Waslewski

2009-06-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Gary Waslewski

Before the 2004 post-season the Boston Red Sox were most known for 6th games. Carlton Fisk’s 1975 Game 6 homer is still one of the most dramatic moments in World Series history. The collapse in the 1986 Series (I attribute that to Schiraldi and Stanley as much as the first baseman) was in Game 6 and was the most defining moment of that franchise until 2004. However, back in 1967 a Red Sox team that had been underdogs all year found themselves at the precipice after 5 games of the World Series. They trailed the Cardinals 3 games to 2. It was Gary Bell’s turn to start, but he’d been rocked in Game 3 and relieved in Game 4.

Manager Dick Williams turned to a rookie that had a record of 2-2 for this elimination game. I’m sure Sox fans were thinking “Gary Who”? Gary didn’t get the win, but he pitched into the 6th and only gave 2 runs. The Sox went on to win Game 6, but fell to Bob Gibson’s hitting and pitching in Game 7. Nobody has ever started a World Series game with fewer career wins that Gary Waslewski. Only Hong-Chi Kuo, with 1 career win for the Dodgers before starting against the Mets in 2006, had fewer career wins to start a playoff game.

Things didn’t go well for Gary after that. He never had a winning season. He didn’t pitch in the World Series again, although he was on the A’s in 1972. He only pitched 8 games in relief for Dick Williams, but, despite a 2.04 ERA that was it for him in the big leagues. He pitched well in AAA for the A’s and Red Sox in 1973-74, but it seems there wasn’t a big market for a reliever in his 30’s that hadn’t done all that well in the big leagues. Gary packed it in and raised a namesake who is a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon in the Phoenix area.

What’s cool about this card is that it shows some of the old scoreboard in Yankee Stadium before the 1974 remodeling. I don’t remember the scoreboard having that shape. At first I thought it might be old Comiskey until I saw Gary in his home whites and figured out that was the Yankee logo on top of the scoreboard.

1972 feature

June 6 is D-Day. It’s a day we kind of remember because there was a big battle that day, but I think we have no idea what a tipping point in history that day was and how the Good Hand of God was upon us. All you have to do is watch the documentaries from how the odds were against us (bad weather, steep cliffs, PT boats not able to get to shore, soldiers very seasick), but we caught some breaks with the Germans not taking the initial reports of the landing seriously. I think we would have still won World War II eventually, but it would have taken longer and cost more. There aren’t many that stormed Normandy that day still alive. If you’re fortunate enough to know one, tell them thanks.

Although there as a 15-inning game in Baltimore, won by the Twins 5-4, I’m going to pick a Mets-Reds game as the Game of the Day. The Mets were a surprising first place team with a 4 game lead over the Pirates. The Reds were only 1.5 game back of the Dodgers. Johnny Bench hit a 2-run homer off Jim McAndrew in the 4th, but the Mets answered with runs in the 4th and 6th to tie it up. Tommie Agee singled in Jim Beauchamp with 2 out in the 7th off Don Gullett to put the Mets ahead. Tug McGraw came in and faced 7 batters to close the door in the 8th and 9th. The only runner to reach off Faith Hill’s father-in-law was when he hit Johnny Bench.

June 6 was also the 1972 draft. First rounders included overall #1 Dave Roberts (who went straight to the Padres), Rick Manning, Larry Christenson, Roy Howell, Dick Ruthven (who didn’t sign), Dave Chalk, Scott McGregor, Jamie Quirk, Jerry Manuel and Chet Lemon. Further down the draft were Dennis Eckersley (3rd round), Gary Carter (3rd round), Willie Randolph (7th round) and Lyman Bostock (26th round). No real big names here and I think Eckersley and Carter are the only future Hall of Famers in this draft.

#107 -- Jose Cruz

2009-06-05T09:19:00.000-05:00

Jose Cruz

Guys don't put tape on tehir bats much anymore. However, in the days before everyone used 2 batting gloves, that was the way to keep your hands on the bat. I remember doing this some as a kid. I also remember callouses from swinging a bat a lot in the vacant lot next door. Jose looks like he's not needing the batting gloves here.

A lot of people forget that Jose came up with the Cardinals and that he finished with the Yankees. After the 1974 season he was sold to the Astros. The Cardinals were so-so at the time, but with an outfield of Lou Brock, Reggie Smith and Bake McBride there wasn't any room for Jose. That deal sure didn't work out for the Cardinals, because he went on to have 14 good years with the Astros.

In 1972, Jose was platooning with Luis Melendez in the outfield. The Cards were trying to find playing time in center and right for Jose, Melendez, Bernie Carbo and Matty Alou. Jose still got to play about half the time. But with the emergence of Bake McBride, he was out.

What I remember most about Jose was the Cardinal organization was ga-ga about the prospect of 3 Cruz brothers in the majors, kind of like the Alous. However, his brothers -- Tommy and Hector -- never really made it big. Hector lasted a few years (after failing miserably to replace Ken Reitz at 3rd) and Tommy bounced around.

Jose is still coaching with the Astros. He'll never make the Hall of Fame, but he was a solid player for a very long time.

1972 Feature
There were only 2 games on June 5, 1972. Both ended with 3-2 scores. My Game of the Day will be the A's over the Indians in 10 innings. They scored 2 early runs on Gaylor Perry, who then shut the A's down until the Indians scored in the 7th and 8th to send it to extra innings. Bert Campaneris hit a 2 out homer in the top of the 10th. Blue Moon Odom and Darold Knowles put down the Indians in the 10th to close out the win.

June 5, 1972 was also the day Mike Coolbaugh was born. He died on the field in Little Rock almost 2 years ago after being hit by a batted ball. Now, all field coaches wear batting helmets. It was a horrible loss of what everyone has said is a great guy.

#106 -- Brewers Team

2009-06-04T07:15:00.004-05:00

Milwaukee Brewers

(Apologies to Matt. I was out of town when this posted and didn't realize I hadn't uploaded scans of the cards.)

The first thing that jumps out at you are the records on the back of the card. This team only had 3 years to compile records, so they're not going to be terribly impressive. For one thing, you can tell that Tommy Harper had a good year in 1970. Of the 11 club records, Tommy set 8 of them in 1970. The only batting record that fell in 1972 was that George Scott knocked in 88 runs to take the club record.

On the pitching side, Marty Pattin had a pretty good 1971, but things were a little more spread around. No pitching records fell in 1972, but Jim Lonborg tied Pattin's 14 wins in 1970 and 1971. Interesting that Pattin and Harper (and others) were traded to the Red Sox for Scott and Lonborg (and others) and they're all over the leader board on this franchise as of 1972.

The Brewers still sucked in 1972. They were last in the AL in attendance with 600,000. That's right. The Yankees or Dodgers can pull that in on a long homestand now. It didn't matter whether Dave Bristol or Del Crandall was managing, they still lost. Heck, you could have Whitey Herzog, Billy Martin, Tommy Lasorda and Earl Weaver on the bench and this team wasn't going to win. George Scott was 4th in the league in RBI and 9th in hits and Johnny Briggs was 9th in homers and slugging percentage and that was it for Brewers on the hitting leaderboards. Oh, Rick Auerbach was 4th in outs made. The pitching side was even leaner with Ken Sanders being 4th in saves and 5th in games pitched, unless you want to consider Billy Parsons being 3rd in earned runs allowed.

George Scott won a Gold Glove at first base. I would have thought he would be the Brewer All-Star, but that honor went to Ellie Rodriguez, who had 2 homers, 16 RBI and hitting .281 at the break. Boomer was only hitting .238 at the break and there are usually a lot of deserving first basemen.

I do like the guy wearing the letterman's jacket on the left side of the picture.

1972 Feature
Being a Sunday, June 4, 1972 was a big day for doubleheaders. The A's swept the Orioles in identical 2-0 games. The White Sox came back from yesterday's 13-inning loss to sweep the Yankees, including a 3-run walk-0ff homer by 1972 MVP Dick Allen in the 2nd game. The Pirates swept the Giants. The Red Sox and Royals split. The 2nd game of the Yankees-White Sox doubleheader would have to be the Game of the Day. The Yanks took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the 9th. Wife Swapper Mike Kekich was cruising along, having allowed 2 runs on 3 hits, but had walked 6. Rick Reichardt flied out, but after Bill Melton walked and Mike Andrews singled, Sparky Lyle came in. Lyle was a stud, but he went 5 innings the day before. Weak hitting Rich Morales was due up, but Chuck Tanner sent up Dick Allen, who'd had the day off. As Ralph Cramden would say, "Bang Zoom" and the game was over.

Cy Acosta made his major league debut in this game (no doubt because of the way the Sox bullpen had been shredded), pitched a scoreless 9th and got the win.

#105 -- Gary Gentry

2009-06-03T08:38:00.001-05:00

Gary Gentry

Sometimes, when you do well in the post-season, it really doesn't matter what else you do, you're remembered for that, good or bad. Just ask Cardinal fans about Tom Lawless. He did absolutely nothing, but he homered off Frank Viola in the 1987 Series and he would be enshrined in the Cardinal Hall of Fame if they'd won the Series that year. I suppose you can also ask Tom Niedenfuer (sorry Night Owl) who was a pretty good reliever that just happened to give up kind of important homers in Games 5 and 6 of the NLCS.

Gary Gentry won a game in the 1969 World Series and the regular season pennant clincher for the Miracle Mets. For Mets fans, he'll always be beloved, even though he was pretty much a .500/league average pitcher. He and Nolan Ryan emerged at about the same time, although Ryan was in the bullpen more while Gentry and Jim McAndrew held down rotation spots behind Seaver and Koosman.

He fell off some in 1972. It turned out he had an arm injury he'd been pitching through. The Mets traded him and Danny Frisella to the Braves for Felix Millan and George Stone. Looked like a pretty even trade at the time, but Stone went on to win 12 games for the '73 Mets and Millan was a regular 2nd baseman through most of the 70's. Gentry never recovered from his arm injury and Dan Frisella was a mediocre reliever until his death on New Years' Day 1977. While the Mets made a good trade here, they should have dealt Gentry a year earlier. Supposedly, when the Mets were picking up Jim Fregosi to be their regular third baseman, the Angels wanted the guy they got or Gentry, didn't matter to them. I think the Mets exercised some emotion and the rest is history.

Looks like Gary got picked off for his photo while the pitchers were warming up at the beginning of 1971 Spring Training. Hard to tell who's behind him. They look like black right-handed pitchers, but the Mets didn't have anybody like that on their 1971 roster. I suppose it could be position players (Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee, Donn Clendenon), but the guy on the far right definitely looks like he's in a pitching pose.

1972 Feature
The Game of the Day for June 3, 1972 is going to have to be the wild, 13-inning game won by the Yankees over the White Sox at Comiskey by an 18-10 score. The Sox scored 10 in the first 6 innings against Yankee starter Fred Beene and a couple of relievers. The Yankees had put up 8 runs in the 4th and 5th innings against Stan Bahnsen and Phil Regan. The Yanks tied the score at 10-10 in the top of the 9th with 2 runs off Rich Gossage. It was then a bullpen game and the Yanks had Sparky Lyle while the Sox (who had a thin bullpen anyway) only had Steve Kealey and Bart Johnson. I think they were out of pitchers because Johnson faced 13 hitters giving up 8 runs in the 13th. He got hit for homers by Thurman Munson and Bobby Murcer, gave up a double to Sparky Lyle, walked 4 and threw a wild pitch. That was Johnson's last game of the season, but in an interview he admitted to an off-season right knee injury (he reported it immediately to the Sox) that had been bothering and caused him to have surgery after 1972. I get interested in situations like this where, in a close game, the manager leaves the pitcher out there to absorb a beating.

There were a couple of other games I'd normally pick. Don Sutton improved to 8-0 with a 1-0, 7-hitter over the Cardinals. Bill Stoneman threw a 10-inning 1-0 shutout over the Astros.

The Number One song for the week ending June 3 was "I'll Take You There" by the gospel group The Staple Singers. I have a feeling they may have had a different idea of where "there" was than many of the hippies listenting on the radio. This is from the Flip Wilson Show (No, the Devil didn't make me do it.)

# 104 -- Toby Harrah

2009-06-02T13:15:00.002-05:00

Toby Harrah

Toby Harrah. Dick Nen. Robb Nen. I know there are more ballplayers with palindromes for last names, but Harrah would have to be the longest. He had a long career. I didn't realize he broke in as a 20-year old in 1969. He pinch ran in 7 games and pinch hit in 1. Amazing year in 1969: starts the season in A ball ends the season in the big leagues playing for Ted Williams.

Even though he was an All-Star 4 times, I never thought of him among the best shortstops in the league at the time. However, he would have fit today's game very well. He was a solid, but not exceptional fielder. He had pop in his bat, hitting over 20 homers 5 times and had 5 years drawing over 90 walks. However, the typical shortstop in the 70's had good range in the field and if he did anything at the plate, it was hit for average and steal bases. That wasn't Toby's game. He hit over .270 only 3 times, but could steal bases.

Toby took the shortstop job in 1971 and didn't look back. He was the Ranger All-Star representative in 1972, but that was kind of like saying someone "runs fast for a catcher." Toby is staring off into space on the card, not because he's wondering how it would be to share a locker room with Bobby Murcer, Rod Carew, Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson, et. al. (he didn't play in the All-Star Game because of injury. Bobby Grich played the whole game because Earl Weaver was the manager, although Campaneris and Patek appeared to be available), but because he's wearing a Washington Senators cap that's not allowed in the 1972 set. I personally don't care much for this card because it just doesn't do anything.

Toby's career had a few oddities:

1. June 25, 1976. Played doubleheader at shortstop with no fielding chances. (He went 6-8, 2 HR, 8 RBI and 2 BB's offensively.)

2. September 17, 1977. Played 17 innings at 3rd without an assist (he had 1 putout, catching a throw from SS Bert Campaneris and tagging Rod Carew, who was trying to advance from 2nd to 3rd on a grounder to short, which we're taught not to try to do).

3. August 27, 1977. Along with Bump Wills, hit back-to-back jacks in Yankee Stadium. Big deal you say? Would you be impressed with the oddity if I told you they were both inside-the-parkers?

The question on the back of the card about circling the bases held too much intrigue for me to let pass. They didn't time guys hitting inside the park homers in the 20's. Apparently between games of doubleheaders (for all of you under the age of 38, a "doubleheader" is something where baseball teams used to schedule 2 games in 1 day, usually on Sunday, but also sometimes during the week, especially if there had been a rainout) they would hold contests. One of these was to have an around the bases race. Evar Swanson was an outfielder for the Reds and White Sox who'd also played in the NFL and ran track in college. Apparently he set the "record" in a September doubleheader at 13.3 seconds. Later, during his final year in 1934, he was timed at 14.8 seconds. I guess he slowed enough that he was out of the league. During that doubleheader, Al Simmons of the A's hit a fungo (throw it up and hit it) 428' and Hal Trosky threw a ball 376 feet. These contests alone make me wish they had doubleheaders now.

1972 Feature

Sorry, ladies, this is for all the guys out there. This was the cover of Life Magazine on June 2, 1972. I have to post it:

A couple of months later the movie "Kansas City Bomber" was released. I didn't see it at the theater when I was 8, but I remember seeing it several times on TV in later years. Can you imagine why Raquel Welch in a roller derby movie would stay ingrained in my pre-pubescent mind? I don't remember much of the plot, but I remember thinking "She's pretty," or something like that. She was certainly more interesting than George McGovern (I liked Nixon).

# 103 -- Checklist

2009-06-02T09:10:00.002-05:00

Checklist

There's just not much for me to say about a checklist. At least nothing to say about a checklist that doesn't have a picture of Juan Marichal or Bob Gibson on it like they did in the late 60's. I'll go by the teaching of the Bible that if you can't find something nice to say, say something nice (Ephesians 4:29):

This checklist is very yellow.

There. Post complete.

1972 Feature
June 2, 1972 was a Friday night. There was an early season matchup of the 1971 ALCS with Baltimore beating the A's 5-1. It might have been a great pitching matchup of Jim Palmer against Vida Blue, except Blue was still getting himself in shape after he held out until May 24. The 1971 NLCS teams also had a matchup in San Francisco with Juan Marichal raising his record to 2-8 (ouch) with a win over the Pirates.

Raul Ibanez was born on June 2, 1972. A guy that needs a little recognition, however, is Tim Plodinec. Who the heck is that? He was a Cardinal pitcher who played his only game on this date. He pitched 1/3 of an inning in Dodger Stadium, coming in with runners at 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs facing Manny Mota (RBI single), Steve Garvey (RBI single after wild pitch let another in), Duke Sims (single) and Bill Russell (lineout). Unfortunately, he turned a 5-1 game into an 8-1 game, was pinch-hit for and never seen in the big leagues again.

However, my Game of the Day would be between the East leading Tigers (22-17) getting past the surprising Twins (23-14) in 11 innings by a 5-4 score. Mickey Lolich was dominating the Twins until weak-hitting Danny Thompson hit a 2-run dinger in the 8th and the Twins pushed another across in the 9th. Gates Brown got an RBI double in the 11th to end it.

Raul Ibanez was born on June 2, 1972. A guy that needs a little recognition, however, is Tim Plodinec. Who the heck is that? He was a Cardinal pitcher who played his only game on this date. He pitched 1/3 of an inning in Dodger Stadium, coming in with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs of a game the Dodgers led 5-1. He faced Manny Mota (RBI single), Steve Garvey (RBI single after a wild pitch let another in), Duke Sims (single) and Bill Russell (lineout). Unfortunately, he turned a 5-1 game into an 8-1 game, was pinch-hit for and never seen in the big leagues again.

#102 -- Lloyd Allen

2009-06-01T05:53:00.002-05:00

Lloyd Allen

(Exchange between player and GM underling in California Angels spring training camp, circa 1971)

GM Underling: Hey, Rook. Yeah, you. Get over here for your baseball card picture.

Player: Here?

GM Underling: Of course here. Where did you think you were going to have your photo taken, Cooperstown?

Player: Why aren't you getting Cowan and Wright's pictures taken?

GM Underling: You don't understand the hierarchy, son. We know they're going to be with the team and Topps said they want to get their photos at the Stadium in Anaheim. Either that or they'll get some game action shots. You? Well, just in case you finally make the team they want to get something in their library so they can put you on a card next year.

Player: Oh. I see. But what will I wear?

GM Underling: Rook, you ain't funny. Just get over here.

Player: Against that temporary outfield fence? I hope Cowan and Wright get better backgrounds.

Lloyd Allen made the Angels in 1971. He was a 1968 1st round draft choice, made his major league debut in 1969 and had another cup of coffee in 1970. He broke through in 1971 and not only made the team, but, according to the Topps copy writer, was "one of the AL's top firemen..." He had an impressive year, with an ERA of 2.49 and 15 saves. He even hit a solo home run for his only career RBI off Dave Boswell of the Orioles in July.

Lloyd's 21 and has a promising future in Anaheim, right? Think again. The life of a reliever is a roller coaster. He gets off to a great start in 1972. By June 26, he's got a 2.11 ERA, saved 5/6 chances and pitching well. Well enough that the brass decides to put their 1st round draft pick into the rotation. He gets 6 starts, going 0-4, 4.97 (pretty bad in those days). He goes back to the bullpen. The last 14 games he pitched that year he went 1-0, 4.00 ERA. He blew saves in his first 2 games back in the bullpen (winning the 2nd) and didn't get another shot to save a game the rest of the year.

The win he got in relief was his last big league win. He was traded to the Rangers in early 1973, where he went 0-6. He was 0-2 in 1974 and 1975 with the Rangers and White Sox and that was it. What had been such a promising start ends with 3 years of 0-10, 8.89 ERA. He bounced around the minors through 1979 without getting back to the big leagues and then gave it up.

He also didn't get a cool background for his card like Billy Cowan and Clyde Wright did, either.

One more thing about the card. I love the cartoon. The Angels moved all the way from Los Angeles to Anaheim. However, Mr. Autry (if he was the owner at the time) could have at least let the players sit in the front of the moving van instead of sticking them in the back!

1972 Feature

On this day (June 1) in 1972, the Game of the Day was in Cleveland, where the surprising Indians (19-17) beat the Tigers 1-0 to draw them within 1 game of the lead. Gaylord Perry pitched a 7 hit shutout for his 9th victory. Cleveland scored its run with good fundamental baseball in the 3rd. Eddie Leon drew a 1 out walk, was bunted to 2nd by Perry and scored on a base hit by Tommy McCraw. Gaylord did the rest.

Also on this day in 1972, Stan Williams was released by the Angels. That was it for him.

#101 -- Astros Rookies (Greif, Richard, Busse)

2009-05-31T09:15:00.001-05:00

Bill Greif

J.R. Richard

Ray Busse

None of these 3 guys provided any production for the Astros in 1972. Therefore, we should just consider this an example of Topps getting it wrong for its Rookie Prospects. The Astros went with a very set lineup of vets in 1972 and didn't have room for any rookies to break in. The Astros lineup was so set in 1972 it's a little difficult to play Strat-O-Matic because they just didn't have very many at bats to bench players. If somebody gets injured, the only infield replacements you've got are Bobby Fenwick and Jimmy Stewart.

Back to the Rookies on this card. I misspell Bill Greif's name all the time. I give myself a lot of "grief" over that. I guess perhaps I'll use that to learn to spell it properly. Bill's most known as a losing pitcher with the Padres. The Astros got more out of Bill in 1972 than anyone else on this card, as he and Derrel Thomas were the big parts of a trade to the Padres for Dave Roberts (the lefty pitcher). Bill proceded to go 5-16, 10-17 and 9-19 before the Padres decided to turn him into a reliever. Bill didn't do much better as a reliever. His 1977 card has achieved some fame as he never played with the Expos, despite what Topps made us believe.

J.R. Richard is the centerpiece of this card. I loved J. R. Richard in the late 70's and into 1980. He was big and fierce and looked it in the Astro rainbow uniforms. He threw hard and for several years didn't really know where it was going. In 1971 he pitched at Oklahoma City and averaged 10.5 K/9IP. Unfortunately, he also walked 105, which was almost 5.5/9IP. He wasn't a regular in the big leagues until 1975. His career really was only from 1975-1980 and in those 6 years he went 96-65 with 1339 strikeouts. That's in 5 1/2 years.

I remember 1980 very well. I was rooting for the Astros because of a good pitching staff, Bill Virdon was the manager (he lives in the same area I do), the cool uniforms, and the Cardinals were still kind of sucking. The Astros had picked up Nolan Ryan, so they had 2 guys who'd been striking out 300/year and a 20-game winning knuckleballer to sandwich between the two. J.R. got off to a great start and looked like a Cy Young for sure until he started complaining of a dead arm. Nobody believed him until he collapsed with a stroke in July. I remember a "Sporting News" cover with him and "Who Shot JR's Arm?" on the cover. He tried to come back through the minors, but he couldn't do it. He ended up losing a lot of money to an oil scheme and a couple of divorces and was living under a bridge in the mid-90's. He's got things back together now, thanks in large part to friends in baseball and his faith. One of my favorite autographed cards is a 1977 J.R. Richard. I don't know if it's real or not, but it's good enough for me.

I'd like to know what would happen if J.R. hadn't had a stroke end his career at age 30. If he had another 5 1/2 years like the preceeding 5 1/2 years, he'd be looking at roughly 200 wins, 3000 strikeouts and a Cy Young or 2. I think the Astros would have pushed by the Phils in the 1980 NLCS (the best LCS in history) if he was there, so he might have even had a World Series ring. I don't think he would have retired voluntarily at age 36, so he might have hung around to rack up stats like a lot of guys do, but for the prime 10-11 years, he'd have a great start on Cooperstown numbers. What a shame.

I actually knew who Ray Busse was without having to look him up. That's because the Cardinal announcers in the 1970's made every young player out to be the next great Cardinal Hall of Famer. Therefore, I have memories of guys like Ray Busse, Tom Heintzelman, Hector Cruz, Skip Jutze, Stan Papi, and so on. What I remember about Ray was, "at 6'4", he's a little tall to be a good shortstop." I think it was Mike Shannon who said that. A guy named Ripken came along about 10 years later..... However, Busse wasn't going to be the great 6'4" shortstop. He had a career batting average of .148 over 155 at bats. (The record for lowest career batting average by a non-pitcher with 155 at bats or more is Dick Smith's .134.) Ray did hit 2 homers in his 70 Cardinal at bats. They came off Rich Reuschel and Sam McDowell, who were a couple of pretty good pitchers. Perhaps Mike Shannon's comment about 6'4" shortstops had some basis in reality: Ray had a lifetime fielding percentage of .898 in his 23 games for the Cardinals in 1973. That's really bad. What's even worse is that the Cards trotted him out there as their starting shortstop 20 times in 1973, a year they finished only 1 1/2 games out of first. Man, if only Mike Tyson had been available more.

1972 Feature

On this date (May 31) in 1972, there were 10 games played in the big leagues and 8 of them were 1-run games. That would have been an exciting night on Baseball Tonight if such a thing existed then. The Angels came back with 1 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th to beat the White Sox (2nd major league win for Lloyd Allen, who's coming up next). Detroit beat the Indians 5-4 in 10, but not before the Indians tied the game in the 9th when Jim Northrup dropped a fly ball that would have been a sac fly. Dodgers beat the Giants 5-4 in 10 on a Manny Mota triple (he was then caught stealing home). In the pitching duel of the day, Bob Gibson and the Cardinals beat Ferguson Jenkins and the Cubs 1-0.

Also on May 31, 1972, Red Sox fans everywhere rejoiced (at least those who had been in 2004 and then got in Dr. Brown's DeLorean) as Dave Roberts was born. This is for all of Chowd Nation.

#100 -- Frank Robinson

2009-05-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

Frank Robinson

When we get to the World Series subset (sometime in 2014 at the pace I'm going), I'll be able to share how Frank Robinson fits into my oldest baseball memory. As it is, he's one of the most underrated players in baseball history. When his name is mentioned now, it's more going to be associated with being the first black manager, taking over as manager of the 1988 Orioles and leading them to losses 9-20 to begin the season or doing a surprisingly good job with the Expos/Nationals.

Frank is the most underrated player of the last 50 years. He's a biscuit short of 3000 hits, has 586 lifetime homers (retired #4 on the all-time list), won a Rookie of the Year, 2 MVPs and a Triple Crown. Yet in a discussion of the greatest players, greatest right fielders, or even greatest Orioles, he seems to be forgotten.

Frank was a fierce competitor, whether as a player or a manager. I don't think you really wanted to get in his way. I heard stories about his time as a manager when he'd catch somebody jaking it. His intensity as a player was so fierce that Gene Mauch supposedly started fining any Phillie pitchers that brushed him back because his response would be to pound the ball mercilessly.

We all know the Reds traded him to the Orioles after the 1965 season. Red Owner/GM Bill DeWitt (father of Cardinal owner Bill DeWitt, Jr.) defended the trade because Robinson was an "old 30." Robinson had the greatest season of his career in 1966 winning the Triple Crown, his 2nd MVP and a World Series ring for the Orioles. Although DeWitt was gone from Cincinnati, I'm sure Frank got some satisfaction from helping the Orioles to a sweep in the 1970 World Series.

Frank had quite a career. He started as a high school teammate of Bill Russell (the Celtic, not the Dodger) and is still involved in the Commissioner's office. The Reds honored him as the Grand Marshall of their Opening Day parade in 2009 and he's still revered in both Cincinnati and Baltimore. However, no matter what he ever does, he's always going to be known for being baseball's first black manager. How did he do with that? He led the Indians to a winning record in his 2nd year (one of only 2 winning records in non-strike years between 1969 and 1985). He eased himself out of the lineup in 1975 in favor of Rico Carty at DH, but his first at-bat for Manager Robinson allowed Frank to lead by example. He homered off Doc Medich.

Frank Robinson deserves to be remembered not only as a black manager, but simply as a great baseball player.

# 99 -- Ross Grimsley

2009-04-06T07:30:00.004-05:00

Ross Grimsley

Ross had a good career through the 70's and was known as a reliable and solid, if not spectacular pitcher. He was good for 14 wins and (when healthy) 240 innings a year. The Reds had a horrible down year in 1971, in between World Series years, but Ross was a bright spot, joining the rotation in mid-May and winning 10 games. Even in the early 70's, everyone loved a lefty. That performance allowed him to win that beautiful gold cup on his card signifying him as a Topps All-Star Rookie.

In 1972 the season started a couple of weeks late because of the strike, but Ross didn't join the Reds rotation until early May. He was solid through the season and stepped up big in the playoffs. The Pirates took a 2-1 lead (best of 5 in those days) into game 4 and Ross threw a 2-hitter at the Pirate lineup (which was heavily left-handed), and then the Reds won Game 5 to go to the Series. He lost Game 2 in the Series by a 2-1 score, which was certainly no disgrace. He pitched out of the bullpen, winning Games 5 & 6 to keep the Reds in it. He wasn't scored on in Game 7, but the A's already had the runs they needed to win it.

Ross was a good free agent sign by the Expos in 1978, winning 20 and making the All-Star team, but that was it. He had arm problems and was out of baseball by 1982.

Being a lawyer, I didn't realize it, but I can appreciate that Ross is famous in employment law circles for an incident in Fenway in 1975. I'll summarize what this blog reports (I recommend clicking the link if for no other reason than to get a great picture of Fenway from behind the right field stands, a view I don't know if I'd ever seen). Grimsley was warming up on September 16, 1975 and some of the friendly Sox fans were heckling him. The visitors' bullpen is available for that. Ross got fed up and threw the ball at the fans. It broke through the netting (prima facie evidence that the netting was defective) and hit a fan. The fan, named Manning, sued Ross and the Orioles. You would think it was pretty obvious that Ross was liable, but the trial court directed a verdict in favor of Ross and the Orioles on the claim for battery and the Orioles were trying to say that when he got mad and threw a ball in the stands he was no longer in the course and scope of his employment. The Court of Appeals felt differently, reversed the trial court and also found that the Orioles were responsible for Ross' toss. The case was remanded to the trial court and I suspect the case settled.

The original blog had a great limerick about this precursor to the Rob Dibble episode:

A reliever awaiting deployment
May act in the scope of employment
If he throws some high heat
At a fan in his seat
Unless for his own sheer enjoyment.

(Side note: Ross didn't make it into that game or any other game the rest of the year. The case wasn't decided until 1981, when Ross was with the Indians, but it didn't stop the O's from picking Ross back up for a few weeks in 1982.)

#98 -- Chuck Tanner

2009-04-05T06:45:00.003-05:00

Chuck Tanner

Chuck was always known as the eternal optimist. He had to be taking over the White Sox in 1970. The Sox had contended throughout the 60's based on speed and pitching. They had nothing else. They were called "The Hitless Wonders." However, in 1969 some of the pitching started to fade, but there wasn't any hitting to replace it and they fell. They fell hard. In 1969 they were in the AL West with 2 expansion teams. They finished 1 game behind the Royals and only 3 games ahead of the Pilots. Ouch. 1970 wasn't better as they finished last and had the worst record in the AL.

Chuck was brought on in September after good guy Don Gutteridge was let go. As an aside, a fellow that I like to buy vintage cards from at my local mall shows would also do shows in Pittsburg, KS where Gutteridge lived until he died recently (I believe he was 96). He said Gutteridge would stop and chat with him, looking at his older cards and telling him about the guys. That must have been a blast.

Anyway, Chuck Tanner had to be the eternal optimist. In 1971, the White Sox moved up to a distant 3rd, 22.5 games behind the A's. Hey, I'd rather be a distant 3rd than a distant 5th. Then, in 1972, the Sox acquired Dick Allen and he went on a tear, winning the MVP and the Sox finished a surprising 2nd behind Allen, a rotation of Wilbur Wood and Stan Bahnsen, and a bullpen featuring a young Terry Forster and Rich Gossage.

It didn't last. Dick Allen didn't produce the same again, the pitching wasn't consistent and the hitting was non-existent. They fell back to 5th, 4th and 5th the next 3 years and Tanner was let go. The A's pick him up and he finishes 2nd to the Royals in 1976 in the season Finley decided to get rid of his stars to save money. Danny Murtaugh retires again for the Pirates, so they decide to trade for Tanner and he has his best years in Pittsburgh, winning the 1979 World Series.

Tanner was always a popular players manager. However, the Pirates fell in the 80's and then he managed some of the worst Braves teams in the 80's. Finishing last 4 of his last 5 years (and securing a 5th place finish the other one) caused his lifetime win/loss percentage to dip down to .495. I'm sure that didn't dim the optimism.

He's now back with the Pirates as a special assistant. That's good. He won't have to wear a uniform like the one in his 1972 card. I can't imagine that a major league team would think it was a good idea to wear a zip-up top, but the Sox were known for some imaginative uniforms. Who would have thought in 1972 that the uniform that Tanner was wearing would be the best uniform the Sox would have for over 20 years?

This Day in 1972

This was the day of a big trade for the Expos. They sent Rusty Staub to the Mets, where he would be a big part of their 1973 run to the World Series, in exchange for several starters. They got shortstop Tim Foli, outfielder Ken Singleton and first baseman/outfielder Mike Jorgensen.

The Chattanooga, Tennessee newspaper also had an article about a lawsuit seeking to stop a performance of the musical play "Hair" because of a nude scene and a message of drugs and sex. One local physician, who stayed to see the whole play in New York just so he could stand and boo it, said the play's message was to "ignore parents, ignore the schools, ignore the church and come live in the streets with us." I don't know how it came out. However, every generation has had its conflict of traditional values against what the play's supporters called "a need for rebirth, or change."

I'm not much of a hippie, I've never seen "Hair" and probably don't agree with the message, but I do like a couple of the songs from the play, including:

# 97 -- Tom Kelley

2009-04-04T06:18:00.005-05:00

Tom Kelley

Tom Kelley didn't manage the Twins to 2 World Series wins. Tom Kelly did. It's hard to find much information on Tom Kelley beyond what we can see on the back of this card. He signed with the Indians before the draft, but made it to the big leagues for a few appearances in May of 1964, but spent most of the season in the Eastern League. He tore up AAA in 1965 (16-3) and pitched well in 4 late-season starts, so things were looking up.

He's with the Indians all of 1966, but can't crack the rotation, pitching out of the bullpen about once a week and getting about 1 start a month. Then in 1967 and 1968 he's hardly pitching anywhere. That could mean 2 things in the late 60's -- arm trouble or military service. Usually, when there's an empty year and the player was in the armed forces, Topps would put a line for that.

Tom had shoulder surgery. He had 12 AA starts in 1968 and in 1969 floated between A and AA ball. Then he's released. The Braves pick him up in 1970 and put him in AA where he flourished for the first half. But he couldn't get it done at Richmond in the second half. Things aren't looking good for Tom.

Then it came back. 1971 and 1972 were Tom's 2 best season. He was a swing man in between the rotation and the bullpen and he pitched well in 1971. He went back down in 1972 and then the bottom dropped out in 1973. He struggled in the minors through 1976 when he packed it in. It looks like he had recurrence of the arm troubles. I always hate seeing that in someone who has a promising start like Tom did in 1965. The fact that he fought through the arm troubles for about 10 years tells me how much he really loved baseball.

That Rawlings glove Tom's wearing looks a lot like the Bobby Grich model I bought in 1972 when I had need for a new glove (that story will come some other time). I used that glove until about 1995 when I had to break down and buy a new one to play softball. I don't know if there was still an original string left in that glove. I had a grandpa that had a lot of leather around the house and he'd restring it when I broke one. When I got that glove, I thought it was really cool how it had the hole in the back to stick out my index finger. Since Bobby Grich debuted in 1971, I really doubt Tom's wearing the same glove I had, but it's kind of neat to see him wearing it.

# 95 & 96 -- Strikeout Leaders

2009-04-03T07:15:00.001-05:00

NL Strikeout Leaders

Tom Seaver 289
Fergie Jenkins 263
Bill Stoneman 251

There's Tom Seaver again. He's the only player in either league to appear on all 3 League Leader cards. Jenkins, Blue, Wood and Lolich were all on 2 of the 3. Joe Torre, Willie Stargell and Hank Aaron made 2 of the 3 hitting cards. Nobody in the AL made even 2 of the 3 League Leader cards.

I've also written about Jenkins and want to leave something for his regular card. He was as solid and steady as they came in that era. Once again, the names down the Top Ten on the NL card read like a Hall of Fame invitation list -- Sutton, Niekro, Marichal, Carlton, Gibson. And then Clay Kirby shows up again.

So does Bill Stoneman. If a Montreal Expo falls in the woods with no one around does it make a sound? If you pitch 2 no-hitters for the team in Parc Jarry, did it happen? Bill was pretty well unknown until he helped build a winner in Orange County. Other than 1971-72, Bill was a pretty lackluster pitcher, with a career ERA of 4.08. Most of his career highs in good categories came in 1971. It was by far his highest strikeout total, win total and his only season above .500 (barely) at 17-16. Although he had his flash here, he was a better executive than pitcher.

AL Strikeout Leaders

Mickey Lolich 308
Vida Blue 301
Joe Coleman 236

Quite a gap here between 2nd and 3rd. What you don't see are the 4 20-game winners for the Orioles, with Dobson and Palmer showing up on down the line. Just goes to show when you have an outstanding defense, you don't have to strike everyone out.

If Blue hadn't slowed down the stretch, he'd have likely won the strikeout race. I remember Lolich as a big guy and when he retired he had over 2800 strikeouts, which was a lot, considering Walter Johnson held the record then at 3,509. When he retired for good at the end of the 1979 season, he was #7 on the all-time strikeout list, but was #5 entering 1979, with a couple of guys named Seaver and Ryan passing him that year. Pretty good career.

Joe Coleman ends up on this card. He and Lolich were the Tigers pitching rotation in 1971-72. Coleman was a little less a workhorse than Lolich, only getting to the 280 innings mark. He only topped 200 strikeouts from 1971-1973 and then tailed off.

I'm in the camp of those who think we baby pitchers too much these days. However, I also look at guys like Coleman and Stoneman and see something to support the current mindset. Both of those guys had high water marks in innings and then fell off the table dramatically. I can't remember if they had arm trouble, but I know back then guys were afraid to say they hurt. I would suspect there were a lot of guys that tried to gut it out and pitch through it, but needed some rest or medical attention, didn't seek it and were never the same. I also think some of the problem today (in addition to pitchers not having the arm strength) is that I recall guys like Gibson, Seaver, Catfish Hunter, Jenkins, etc. threw a lot of fastballs, but didn't rely on the sliders and splitters that are used more frequently now. Some of that may be that with the balls, bats, ballparks and batters being juiced today, the pitchers can't get by with just fast balls, but those other pitches put more stress on the nerves and tendons in the joints. I don't know the answers, but I wish we could get back to the days when pitchers could start 38-40 games a year and were wusses if they only went into the 7th inning.

# 93 & 94 -- Pitching (Wins) Leaders

2009-04-02T07:25:00.002-05:00

NL Wins Leaders

Ferguson Jenkins 24

Steve Carlton 20

Al Downing 20

Tom Seaver 20

For some reason the category of "wins" becomes "Pitching Leaders." I suppose the real reason the games are played is to win them, not just hold the other team down on runs or strike out the other batters. Ferguson Jenkins put together another banner year in Wrigley Field and was rewarded with his Cy Young award. He'd finished 2nd and 3rd before despite this being his 5th of 6 consecutive 20 win seasons. The rest of his numbers may not have been the best around, but what Fergie did was just win. He only had 2 no-decisions in 1971 and left trailing in both of those.

This is the only leader card with more than 3 leaders on it because there was a logjam at 20 wins. There were some pretty big names there, too. This was Steve Carlton's first really big year, actually surpassing Bob Gibson in wins. As a St. Louis Cardinal fan, I don't have much else to say, because Carlton would become a fixture on the leaderboard.

We've already mentioned Tom Terrific. Let me say a little more. In the 20 games he won, the most runs he allowed in any of them was 2. He had 8 other starts where he allowed 2 earned runs or less and 5 of those were losses. Therefore, if he'd won all of his starts where he allowed 2 earned runs or less -- not exactly asking a lot from the Mets' lumber -- he'd have been 28-5.

When I say "Al Downing" you say _________. Let's hear it. "715" However, he was more than that. He'd been a fireballing lefty with the Yanks, but had arm trouble, bounced around a couple of years and finished up 1970 going 2-10 with the Brewers. Looked like he was headed for retirement. The Dodgers picked him up and he won 20. His stats neutralized to 16-11 and he never again won 10 games, but he finished 3rd in the Cy Young in 1971. He had a little more run support than Seaver.

AL Wins Leaders

Mickey Lolich 25

Vida Blue 24

Wilbur Wood 22

There were 10 different pitchers winning 20 games in 1971, 4 of them from the Orioles. We don't see as many 20 game winners anymore because (1) the best pitchers only start 34-36 games now and (2) pitchers don't stay around long enough in the game and the decision goes to the bullpen. In 1971, we had guys posting some big win numbers, but let's look at their numbers.

Mickey Lolich finished 2nd to Blue in the Cy Young. He started 45 games, completed 29 and threw 376 innings, finishing 25-14. That means he had more decisions than pitchers have starts now...and he still had 6 no-decisions. 1971 was Mickey's biggest year in terms of wins, innings and strikeouts. He could have really had a big year, because he lost his last 3 starts and still finished with 25 wins. It's not like he was out of gas, either, because threw complete games losing 3-2, 3-2 and 2-1. With a little luck here and there, we could be talking about Lolich instead of Denny McLain as the last 30 game winner.

Vida Blue did kind of run out of gas at the end of the year. That's to be expected, however, because this was his rookie year and he threw over 300 innings. He entered September 23-6, but his last 6 starts had 1 win, 2 losses and 3 no-decisions. In fairness, he didn't go long in most of those games, so the A's could have been trying to cut down on his innings late in a year they won the pennant by 16 games over the Royals.

Here's workhorse Wilbur Wood again. He only had 42 starts and didn't get his first win until May and went into the All-Star break 9-5. He had less run support than Tom Seaver and didn't get wins in 10 starts where he gave 2 earned runs or less.

# 91 & 92 -- ERA Leaders

2009-04-01T07:47:00.002-05:00

NL ERA Leaders

Tom Seaver 1.76

Dave Roberts 2.10

Don Wilson 2.45

Tom Seaver finished 2nd in the 1971 Cy Young balloting. As you can see, he won the ERA title by quite a large margin over Dave Roberts and Don Wilson. As we go through the rest of the pitching leader cards I'm wondering how he didn't win the Cy Young, or at least finish a little closer to Fergie Jenkins. His record is what got him. He was only 20-10. He had career highs in complete games (21), strikeouts (289) and ERA (1.76). His neutralized stats worked out to 24-7 with a 2.06 ERA. I'll get to Jenkins later.

Well, where the NL West wasn't well represented on the hitting leaderboards, its well-represented on the pitching leaderboards. Only the Braves don't have a Top Ten ERA pitcher and I'm a little surprised that the hapless Padres have 2 in the Top 10. Dave Roberts had his best year in the big leagues, and was rewarded with a 14-17 record for the Padres. He was sent to the Astros in 1972 and started winning games. Neutralizing his 1971 stats would have gotten him a 20-9 record. If the Pads had started league average pitchers instead of Roberts and Clay Kirby I wonder how much worse they would have been than 61-100.

AL ERA Leaders

Vida Blue 1.82

Wilbur Wood 1.91

Jim Palmer 2.68

1971 was the year of Vida Blue. Vida won everything (except the All-Star Game and his LCS start), including the hearts and minds of America's baseball fans. Who wouldn't like the stylish young man with the big windup and memorable name wearing the wild green & gold uniforms?

Wilbur Wood was a big story. He went from 21 saves in 1970 to 334 innings in 1971. He took that knuckleball to the hill for 15 starts on 2 days rest. Five of those starts came down the stretch in September. If the Red Sox threw Tim Wakefield out there like that when they were 20 games out, they'd be ridiculed for harming him. In 1972 the Sox threw him out there even more.

Jim Palmer was a distant 3rd in the hunt. Two of the other Oriole 20 game winners made the Top 10, but Mike Cuellar didn't. If Dave Roberts and Clay Kirby were the surprise names on the NL list, there's no doubt that Mike Hedlund is the surprise name on this list -- and this is after him missing 1970 with the Hong Kong Flu.

#89 & 90 -- Home Run Leaders

2009-03-31T07:32:00.001-05:00

NL Home Run Leaders

Willie Stargell 48

Hank Aaron 47

Lee May 39

The top end of the NL Home Run Leaders is certainly impressive, but there's something a little unusual about this card. I'll see if anyone can guess it and give an answer later. This tied for Hank Aaron's high water mark for season home runs with 47, and it's not enough to win the home run title. Willie Stargell's 48 was an incredible number. Nobody had hit that many in the NL since Willie Mays hit 52 in 1965 and nobody would hit that many until George Foster hit 52 in 1977.

Reggie Cleveland of the Cardinals had kind of a tough year here. Stargell got him for 3 homers, Aaron for 1 and Lee May for 2. The most anyone gave up to this Big Three was Aaron hitting Claude Osteen 4 times. May hit 3 homers in only 7 at bats off Bob Johnson of the Pirates.

Aaron really put the move on Willie Mays in 1971. At the beginning of the year, Mays led Aaron in the Race to 715 by a 629 to 592 margin. However, by the end of the year Aaron narrowed the gap to 646 to 639. Aaron took over 2nd place from Mays on June 10, 1972 with his 649th homer off Wayne Twitchell of the Phillies. By the end of 1972 Aaron was ahead 673 to 654 and, while Mays was almost done, Aaron still had a 40 homer season and 82 more homers left in the tank.

AL Home Run Leaders

Bill Melton 33

Norm Cash 33

Reggie Jackson 32

Frank Howard and Harmon Killebrew had been dominating this category in the AL for years, each of them putting up numbers in the mid-40's, but each was slowing down. Reggie Jackson makes his 2nd appearance on the HR Leaders card and it wouldn't be his last. However, just like the NL card, there wasn't a lot of depth in sluggers. In the NL, 27 homers would be good enough to make the card back and Bobby Murcer's 25 was enough here. The 1997 Rockies would have had 5 guys on this list.

These guys spread it around some. Jim Slaton gave up 3 homers to Melton and Reggie took Steve Kline long 3 times, but Cash didn't hit more than 2 off anyone.

I would have thought that Melton's 33 was the lowest total for a home run leader in a non-strike season. I would have been wrong. In fact, there were 3 seasons in the 1970's where the AL home run leader topped out at 32. We think about the AL being the hitting league now, but in the 60's and 70's, the NL was the superior hitting league.

Melton was the first White Sox player to lead the league in homers with his 33 in 1971. He really had to put on a late run to win the title. On September 28, he only had 30 homers. That same day Cash hit his last 2 and Jackson hit his last one to put both at 32. However, Melton went long twice on the 29th off Jim Slaton and his 33rd the next day off Bill Parsons. He never came close to the home run leaderboard again. He was injured in 1972 and never really recovered.

We all know Reggie's story. For Norm Cash, this may be the most homers he hit in a season in which he didn't cork his bat. He had great seasons in 1961 and 1962, but he's admitted to corking. Oops.

#87 & 88 -- RBI Leaders

2009-03-30T14:53:00.001-05:00

NL RBI Leaders

Joe Torre 137
Willie Stargell 125
Hank Aaron 118

AL RBI Leaders

Harmon Killebrew 119
Frank Robinson 99
Reggie Smith 96

Here we start seeing more of the AL stars down the depth chart, but the NL still dominates. There were only 5 guys with 100 RBI seasons in 1971. Think about that. Last year the Mets had three 100 RBI guys and the Orioles had two 100 RBI guys. I didn't know that. Those two teams that didn't make the playoffs had as many as the entire major leagues did in 1971. At the All-Star break Josh Hamilton had 95 RBI in 2008. That would have been 1 short of getting him on this League Leader card. Times have changed.

The NL guys show the top vote getters for the MVP. Joe Torre won, but Stargell and Aaron finished right behind. The voting wasn't really very close and it's interesting to examine it. Aaron had a "consistent" year with good numbers all the way across. Stargell's power numbers were out of this world, but his batting average was "only" .295. Torre had the great batting average, led the league in RBI, but only hit 24 home runs, the same as 2008's Jayson Werth or J.J. Hardy (hardly MVP candidates). However, batting average and run production mattered more than power and being in the playoffs, so Torre won. If the voting were held today, the fact that the Pirates beat the Cardinals for the division and Stargell hit more homers would have cinched the MVP for him.

Lucky for Topps that Rusty Staub didn't finish in the top 3. I wonder how they'd have handled that since they had a licensing issue with him and didn't produce a card of him from 1971-1973?

The AL again shows the dominance of pitching. Only Killer topped 100 RBI, although Frank Robinson was at 99. However the Top 10 goes all the way down to 86. If a top player in the middle of a lineup today came up with 86 RBI, it would be seen as a down season. But there's no doubt the 11 names on the AL leaders card back were some of the league's top guys (except for Reggie Jackson, who was missing with only 80 RBI).

# 85 & 86 -- NL Batting Leaders & AL Batting Leaders

2009-03-30T07:17:00.002-05:00

NL Batting Leaders

Joe Torre .363
Ralph Garr .343
Glenn Beckert .342

AL Batting Leaders

Tony Oliva .337
Bobby Murcer .331
Merv Rettenmund .318

In 1971, the NL hit .252 and the AL hit .247. That was when I started following baseball and to a certain degree, things from the 1970's are ingrained in my head as the way things ought to be. A car ought to cost about $5,000. A house should cost about $25,000. A meal at McDonald's, well, that was a luxury in the mid-1970's, not an everyday occurrence. Before I go sounding like one of those "we walked through the snow uphill both ways" kind of guys, I take my kids to drive throughs a lot more than I went to them when I was a kid.

However, it's still ingrained in my head that the average baseball game should be a 4-3 game. That's changed and I don't like it. Another thing that's ingrained in my head is .363. When I see Joe Torre, I don't think "World Series Manager" or "He just wrote a book" or even "He has a magic touch. He tamed Manny Ramirez and look what happened to A-Rod when Joe left New York." Nope, when I think of Joe Torre, I think .363 because I was a Cardinal fan as a young baseball fan and I know Torre hit .363 to win his batting title in 1971.

He didn't have competition. The Roadrunner had a great year and came up 20 points short. Glenn Beckert had a career year, hitting .341 and I thought (wrongly so) that would happen every year. As you read down the top 10 on the card back you see an All-Star team with names like Cleon, Sanguillen, Clemente, Aaron, Brock and Staub. However, despite there being 3 Hall of Famers down the line, the 3 faces on the card are Torre, Garr and Beckert. Two of them got there with by far their career best in batting average (Garr hit .353 in 1974).

The AL card shows that the AL was not a hitters league. Now there's nothing wrong with Tony Oliva, Bobby Murcer and Merv Rettenmund. However, there were only 6 guys that hit .300. Wow. Of course, the AL had all kinds of pitching. The A's and Orioles alone had all kinds of talent. I'm amazed that there was only about a 5 point difference in league batting average.

Tony O was a great player and if he hadn't torn up his knee, he'd be in the Hall of Fame. He was kind of the Billy Williams of the AL, but he just didn't have the longevity. He beat out Bobby Murcer, who was unfairly saddled with the "Next Mickey Mantle" expectations. Murcer had a great career, but he, nor anyone else that's played in the Yankee outfield in the last 40 years has been "The Next Mickey Mantle." Even though they finished 6 points apart, there wasn't a real batting race. Oliva hit .350 most of the year, but tailed off considerably the last month (he hit .217 in September) and Murcer was solidly in the .330's all year.

But there's no depth in the AL top 10. Rod Carew got his mail delivered in the AL Top 10, but there were no other Hall of Famers. Amos Otis and Roy White were solid players, but I don't think I ever knew that the recently deceased Ted Uhlaender ever finished Top 10 or that he even played enough to qualify.

#84 -- Vince Colbert

2009-03-29T07:30:00.004-05:00

Vince Colbert

Nice Spring Training shot of Vince with the Arizona mountains in the background. Vince was not related to Nate Colbert of the Padres. He'd cracked the rotation in 1971 as a spot starter at least and did reasonably well, even though he had a high walk rate. Vince was with the Indians part of 1972, but when he was 1-7 by the end of July, the Indians handed him a ticket to Portland, where he went 1-6. Ouch. He got 3 games in September and that was it for his big league career.

As the late Paul Harvey would say, there's a rest of the story that might explain why he plummeted so fast. Ken Aspromonte took over as the manager in 1972. According to an exceprt about Vince in the book "More Tales From the Tribe Dugout," Aspromonte wanted Vince to pitch at 190 pounds. He'd been around 215 to 220. He had to crash diet to lose 30 pounds, but he also lost the steam on his fastball, which was no longer in the low 90's. He looked so good at 190, he got tested for anemia. He was just never the same and the Indians gave up on him.

After the season the Indians sent him to the Rangers and in Spring Training of 1973 the Rangers sent him back (for Alex Johnson). He pitched at AA in San Antonio most of 1973, doing well with an 8-1 record and 3 saves. But when you're 27, spent most of the last 3 years in the big leagues and you can't crack the AA rotation on a regular basis, some guys decide to pack it in. Vince made it up to the AAA team for a time, but wasn't pitching regularly or terribly well, and that was a career.

I'd like to know more about Vince's basketball career. The cardback says he scored 29 in a half once. OK. What were the circumstances? Was this a state championship game or was it against weaker competition. I did see that Vince, a Washington DC native, was inducted into the College of Eastern Utah Hall of Fame in 1995. He was first team all-conference in baseball and basketball and won trophies in track. He was also the first black player recruited to East Carolina and is 2nd to former Pittsburgh Pirate reliever Bob Patterson in major league wins by ECU Pirate alums.

Vince did well against Hall of Famers. Brooks Robinson was 1/12 and Hall of Fame position players as a whole only hit .200 against Vince. The best batting average by a Hall of Famer was Jim Palmer going 2/3. Although he isn't a Hall of Famer, Frank Howard was an imposing figure at that time, but he went 0/16 against Vince.

Check out this link to his high school yearbook picture. It shows he's married with a son and 2 grandchildren and is a detective in security at Cleveland State. I did find a photo where he was recognized as a baseball/basketball letter winner at ECU and a recent photo from his Hall of Fame induction in Eastern Utah. He still looks like he's got a competitive edge, doesn't he?

I didn't know much about Vince when I started researching this post (at 2:30 AM), but I've learned a lot and glad I did. So, in honor of Vince's favorite song, according to his high school yearbook, this goes to Mrs. Colbert for her big leaguer:

Modern Card Update -- Jeff Stone

2009-03-28T13:50:00.003-05:00

I know some of you collect autographed cards. I also know some of you have the same opinion of that portion of the hobby as I did in the late 80's: why would you want to mess up a perfectly good baseball card by having someone write on it?

I got started sending cards off to get autographed on a rainy Saturday afternoon in September 1999 as something to (1) distract my 4 year old son and (2) try to give him a hook to get interested in baseball. Now, it's something I admit I do more for me than him.

Today I got these in the mail.

Jeff Stone was a pretty nondescript player who had a good half season in 1984 and was pretty mediocre thereafter. He did make somebody's top three all-time favorite Phillie list. Aside from that, Jeff's biggest claim to fame was probably a quote that was attributed to him when he was first up with the Phils and a waiter in a restaurant asked if he wanted shrimp cocktail: "No thanks. I don't drink."

Normally, I don't post my autograph successes here. That's not what this site is for, unless I post a picture of a 1972 card that's been autographed. However, I wanted to point out something unusual about these cards. I sent them to Stone in November 2001. They came back with a 34 cent stamp (I guess the post office was considering them "forevers") If this autograph request were a child, it would be finishing up first grade.

My previous long wait for a card had been a little over 3 years. At 7 years and almost 5 months, this shatters that one. Not that I think when I send a card out today, "Hmm, I'll be seeing this beaut again when the Obama Administration is history" but it does give me hope that I might see those cards I sent Cesar Cedeno in January 2000.

#83 -- Dalton Jones

2009-03-28T07:49:00.000-05:00

Dalton Jones

Dalton was a part-time player, primarily with the Red Sox and then the Tigers. He was only in a Tiger uniform for a short time in 1972 before being sent to the Rangers. The back of the card and the sponsorship of his Baseball Reference page both discuss his proclivities as a pinch-hitter. I like the comparison to Gates Brown on the card back, but not mentioning that Brown was also a Tiger. That meant that Billy Martin had the top 2 AL pinch-hitters of all-time at his disposal.

Dalton went 0-7 as a pinch-hitter with the Tigers through the end of May in 1972, so he was sent to Texas. That wasn't a good thing in 1972, but for Dalton it meant that he played under Ted Williams, who "recruited" him to the Red Sox and was one of his idols. Dalton got those 2 pinch-hits he was shy of Gates Brown, but the 2nd came on September 4 and was the last of his career. He had 81 pinch-hits at that time, but Gates had 4 by that time to hit 85 for his career and widen the gap.

This was the end of the line for Dalton in the big leagues. The Rangers released him following the season. He went 0 for his last 20 and 2 for his last 33, so it's not hard to see why. There is no card where Ted Williams is shown tutoring Dalton on hitting. Dalton caught on with the Expos and played with their AAA team for a time in 1973, but when he was hitting .208 after 59 games he gave it up for good. (The Baseball Reference beta site has better older minor league stats!)

Dalton was not a very good fielder. He primarily played second and third and his fielding percentage and range factor fall well below league average. In 1967, he played only 30 games at third for the Impossible Dream Red Sox, but he played Games 1-4 of the World Series at third, hitting .353 in those 4 games. However, after an 0-4 in Game 4 and the Sox down 3 games to 1, Dalton was pulled for Joe Foy. Foy went 0-4 in Game 5 and 1-4 in Game 6, but the Sox won both to force Game 7. Dalton got a pinch single in Game 6 and scored the run that put the Sox ahead to stay. In Game 7, Dalton drew a walk as a pinch-hitter off a dominant Bob Gibson (who only struck out 10) and the Cards won (Go Crazy Folks!). His performance in the Series was a high water mark in his career.

If you look at Dalton's home run log, you won't see any grand slams. As a pinch-hitter, he had one that headed into the upper deck in right field in Tiger Stadium on July 9, 1970, but Don Wert took it away from him. Don Wert played third, didn't he? Dalton was a Tiger and he was teammates with Wert at the time, weren't they? So how did Wert rob Dalton of an upper deck homer? I don't think Ken Griffey, Jr. ever got up that high. The porch in right field of Tiger Stadium overhung (that's got to be poor grammar) the field and Dalton hit a high fly. Instead of going halfway, Wert was retreating to first when the ball went into the seats. As the ball went into the seats, Dalton was hitting first base and Wert was retreating. Dalton passed Wert and was called out. Wert and the other two runners on got to score, so Dalton got credit for a bases clearing 3 run single. It broke a 3-3 tie and the Tigers won. At least they didn't lose by 1.

#82 -- Ron Woods

2009-03-27T06:00:00.001-05:00

Ron Woods

I don't know much about Ron except that I seemed to get a lot of his cards and I was glad he didn't play for my team. I don't know what I had against Ron, but I think he just didn't look like he was confident and in control. While it's almost a "night card" it also looks like he's gazing longingly at Gene Mauch, "Put me in, skip. I'll hit it."

When I did research about Ron, I didn't find much. Many of the "hits" had to do with him being traded from the Yankees for Ron Swoboda. OK. Swoboda was at the end of his career. Many of the rest of the items I found were Yankee fans bemoaning the bad teams of the late 60's and early 70's and Ron playing centerfield was one of their arguments. He played center about half-time for a year and a half and hit .205. I feel your pain.

Playing in Montreal from 1971-1974 was the best time of Ron's career. He wasn't bad in 1971-72 and his OPS+ was actually above 100. He had his most at bats against Steve Carlton and even hit .302 against him.

There's not much else that really stands out about Ron, so he can now fade back into obscurity.....

Speaking of sinking into obscurity..... RIP 2009 Duke Blue Devils. Better luck next year.

#81 -- Mike Hedlund

2009-03-25T11:35:00.003-05:00

Mike Hedlund

I couldn't find a lot about Mike. I know he was a starter early on with the Royals, and was pretty good. What would you say now about a guy that was 15-8 with a 2.71 ERA? However, his BB/K ratio wasn't very good (76/72) and that kind of foretold a down year in 1972. It looks like he just fell off the map after that.

The photo looks like another in a long line of Royals' photos taken at the old spring training site at Terry Park in Fort Myers. The more I see these the more I'm thinking about detouring into that part of town the next time I'm there (and hoping my wife doesn't get scared out of her wits).

Most of what I found about Mike Hedlund came from this great blog post. For those of you that read 100 blogs a day and don't have the time or inclination to spend 3-4 minutes learning about Mike Hedlund, it basically says that his nickname was "Booger Red" (after his hair color) and that he just couldn't make it back in the big leagues after being sent down following the 1972 season and the emergence of Steve Busby in the Royals' rotation. He also missed time recovering from Hong Kong flu contracted playing winter ball in Venezuela after the 1969 season. The thing that impressed me about that post was that supposedly Mike himself read it, created a blogger profile and left a comment indicating it was accurate.

After his career, he spent 35 years as a VP of Human Resources for Texas Trust Credit Union and now lives in Arlington.

#80 -- Tony Perez

2009-03-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

Tony Perez

There are many of the Topps sets where the player's position is noted on the front. Off the top of my head, it's hard to think of one where it isn't mentioned. The 1972 set doesn't have the player's position on the front, but they do have it on the back. I say that because when I mention "Tony Perez" the position most usually associated with him is first base. At this point, he'd been a regular with the Reds for 7 years, so he was fairly well established.

From 1967-1971, Tony played third base for the Reds. Looking at the stats, he was roughly league average, which surprises me some. I don't remember him being a great fielder, but I suppose this goes to show he was a good athlete. The Reds were playing Lee May at first, and there sure wasn't anywhere else he was going to play. When the Reds made the blockbuster deal with the Astros (May, Tommy Helms and Jimmy Stewart for Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Denis Menke and Jack Billingham -- who got the best of that?) in addition to picking up a lot of talent, the Reds cleared a spot to move Perez to first.

Tony had great RBI numbers. Of course, he had Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and either Bobby Tolan or Ken Griffey hitting in front of him. I'm convinced Enzo Hernandez could have hit 4th or 5th for the Reds and driven in 80 runs. Tony wasn't a loud guy who called attention to himself. He just went along and did his thing without a lot of fanfare.

The Big Red Machine suffered a blow when the Reds traded Perez to the Expos to open up playing time for Dan Driessen. That was in 1977. The next time the Reds went to the World Series was 1990. Driessen was good, but he wasn't Tony Perez good. It's true that Perez was a 10 year vet at the time and he was going to start winding down, but for the next couple of years his numbers were still better. Woodie Fryman and Dale Murray didn't really do a whole lot for the Reds, either.

I always liked Perez as a player, but I don't think he'd make my Hall of Fame. He had good lifetime numbers, especially RBI, but he just doesn't hit me in the guy as being a Hall of Famer. He was one of those guys, like Ron Santo, Dave Parker and Andre Dawson who was consistently far above average, but not dominating. Oops. I mentioned that I don't think Ron Santo should be in the Hall. I should know better than that with all the Chicago readers I have. Please forgive me guys!

Oh, and Mario had a bad encounter with Tony.

#79 -- Red Sox Rookies (Garman, Cooper, Fisk)

2009-03-20T07:20:00.000-05:00

Mike Garman

Cecil Cooper

Carlton Fisk

Here's one of the best multi-player rookie cards you'll find. All 3 had good major league careers, 2 were All-Stars and 1 is in the Hall of Fame.

Mike Garman didn't have a long Red Sox career. The Sox kept bringing him up but not for long, even in years like 1972 when they didn't have much in the bullpen. However he wasn't really putting it together. The minor league numbers on the back were also kind of unspectacular. However, when he was traded to the Cardinals, he put up a couple of good seasons and was the right-handed complement to Al Hrabosky. Then the Cardinals traded him for Don Kessinger. Whoops. However, Garman went downhill, too. He had another good year in 1977 and threw a scoreless 5 innings in the playoffs that year.

Cecil Cooper. What I remember most about him is a unique batting stance. It took him a while to establish himself as a semi-regular in Boston. Originally he would get platooned and not play against lefties. He was a great hitter. It didn't matter what anybody threw at him, he hit it. He got traded to the Brewers because there just wasn't any room for him, Jim Rice and Yaz in Boston. It opened up playing time for him and he finally got to play full time. He's 2nd or 3rd in most Brewers lifetime hitting categories. Of course, he's now the Astro manager.

Carlton Fisk. Everyone knows him for the big homer in the 1975 Series. He was a lot more than that. He was somewhat of a surprise as the Red Sox catcher in 1972. He hit 7th or 8th most of the year, despite winning the Rookie of the Year and finishing 4th in the MVP voting. He had early injury problems, but overcame that to be extremely durable. If it weren't for Yaz, he'd have been the face of the Red Sox franchise during the 70's. I have to say, I also remember him for the commercial where he was splitting wood in his flannel shirt hawking Skoal. I guess it was better than cigarettes, but looking back it's probably not the best product to endorse.

I have to show it:

#78 -- Steve Arlin

2009-03-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

Steve Arlin

We hear a lot now about how expansion has watered down the pitching. I happen to agree with that and think it's one reason (including bat technology, smaller dimensions in the ballparks, stronger ballplayers and wussified training techniques for pitchers) that baseball has more offense now than 40 years ago. That debate was going on in the early 1970's as the mound had just been lowered and there was another round of expansion that increased by 25% the number of teams -- and pitchers -- in the league. We went from 20 teams to 24 teams. I happen to think that's still a perfect number of teams in the league, but I know we won't go back to that.

Steve Arlin might have been the kind of guy to be pointed at as an "expansion" pitcher. I remember him for 2 things: he wasn't very good, he lost a lot of game and he was a dentist. I guess that was 3 things, but I lumped the first 2 together. Check out his stat lines:

IP W-L H BB K ERA
1971 228 9-19 211 103 156 3.48
1972 250 10-21 217 122 159 3.60

Those were his best years. Granted, the ERA and the H/IP numbers aren't bad (ERA was slightly above league average), but the other numbers are bad. They got worse. Arlin was traded to Cleveland in 1974 where he finished off a 3-12 year to complete his career at 34-67 .337. He played on some really bad San Diego teams, but his stats would only neutralize to 33-51 .393. That's bad, too.

He did have 11 career shutouts in his 34 wins. Playing for San Diego, you almost had to toss a shutout to get a win. In 1972 he went at least 9 innings and allowed 1 or 2 hits 5 times. His record: 3-1. That includes a loss and a 10 inning no-decision where he only allowed 1 hit and a 2-hitter where no hits were allowed until 2 outs in the 9th. Three of those low hit games came in a 4 start stretch in June-July.

If you just looked at the numbers, like I did when I was 8, you'd be like me and think Arlin wasn't a very good pitcher. However, looking a little deeper, you'd see why the Padres kept throwing him out there. You just didn't know when he was going to "get it," turn the corner and become a superstar. Unfortunately for Steve, that never happened in the big leagues. He wore out guys like Willie Mays (3-24, 10 Ks), Lou Brock (2-15) and Willie Stargell (5-27, 8 Ks). But he got beat around by guys like Dal Maxvill (8-12), Wayne Garrett (7-19, 3 HRs) and Willie Crawford (7-23, 3 HR, 9 BB).

I joke with my wife when I try a home improvement project like, "You know, if this law thing doesn't work out, I could go into laying ceramic tile." Steve went ahead and studied dentistry for when the baseball thing didn't work out. In fact, he missed his first Padre Spring Training in 1969 because he was in dental school. I have to repeat my sorry comment from a Stats on the Back post, but I think he played a character in some North Pole claymation special on TV where he told Preston Gomez, "I don't want to pitch for the Padres and lose 20 games a year. I want to be a -- a -- a -- dentist!"

#77 -- Ron Theobald

2009-03-19T07:45:00.001-05:00

Ron Theobald

I actually remember Ron Theobald. How, I have no earthly idea. Why I can remember Ron Theobald, but not remember to get the trash out on Thursday mornings is an enigma that provides mild frustration to me and something more than mild frustration to my wife. If there's a forgettable player in this set, it's probably Ron Theobald.

The Brewers picked him up as a minor league throw-in in 1970. He'd been in the minors since 1964. That may not be all that unusual, except that Ron was a college player, so he should have been a little more advanced. Still in 1971 he won the second base job from Ted Kubiak and hit well enough to bat second most of the year. He hit .276, which wasn't bad, although he didn't even have gap power.

In 1972 he fell to earth, hitting just .220, although he drew enough walks that his OBP stayed at its 1971 level of .342. His power numbers still weren't there and his "slugging" percentage was an anemic .256. Ouch. He still got most of the playing time at 2nd base, mostly because he was slick with the glove. He teamed with Rick Auerbach for a keystone combination that combined for 3 HR, 49 RBI and hit .219. Oh. Ron was also 0/7 on stolen base attempts. Needless to say, the Brewers found a new second baseman in 1973 and Ron never saw the big leagues again.

I hate to talk about how somebody looks (well, not really, but I'd hate to offend Ron or his family if they happened to Google this), but in this photo Ron looks like he's about 50. He just doesn't look like a pro baseball player. Ron does show excellent form for executing the sacrifice bunt. I think he was a fundamentally sound ballplayer who wasn't much for hitting. Baseball had a lot more room for guys like Ron in 1972 than it does today.

#76 -- Don Carrithers

2009-03-18T13:30:00.001-05:00

Don Carrithers

If Don's biggest thrill in his high school sports career was 17 K's in a one-hitter in the first game of the season, I guess he didn't win a state championship. Don was kind of a fair-to-middlin' swingman that went between middle relief and spot starting. He wasn't ever really spectacularly good or bad. As a Cardinal fan, I'd probably compare him to Brad Thompson (I know, most of you don't know who WonderBrad is).

Don pitched in the 1971 playoffs. He didn't do very good. He came into the 7th inning of Game 2 with the Giants down 4-2 in the game after winning Game 1 on the road. Hits by Dave Cash, Al Oliver and Roberto Clemente were enough for him to be pulled without getting anyone out and the Pirates won. Nobody ever likes their post-season career ERA to be "inf."

Don's picture looks like he'd been banished off the Phoenix practice field into the desert. Where Bert Campaneris' card was full of green, there's nothing living in this card. Kind of an interesting contrast.

Don was in the Giant rotation down the stretch in 1971, but he was consistent. In his 8 August-September starts, he had a complete game 1-0 shutout of the Astros and 2 other wins, but also had 2 games where he didn't get out of the 2nd inning. That inability to find consistency was the story of his career.

Don rode the shuttle between AAA, the DL and the big leagues with the Giants and later with the Expos. The Twins purchased his contract for the 1977 season, but after getting into a car wreck, he only appeared in 7 games (ineffectively) and was finished.

1972 Feature

I found 1 event that occurred on March 18, 1972. Comedian Dane Cook was born today. Some find him funny. I'm kind of, eh. What I did find funny was the movie "Dan in Real Life" where his brother stole his fiance. But the funny part was when his brother got set up on a blind date with that gal from his high school days and the whole family burst into song about Ruthie "Pigface" Draper.

#75 -- Bert Campaneris

2009-03-18T07:21:00.001-05:00

Bert Campaneris

Campy was one of the first of the A's from the glory days of the 70's to come along, just after Dick Green and a few weeks before Dave Duncan and Blue Moon Odom came up. As I mentioned earlier, Campy is Jose Cardenal's cousin. He made a splash right off the bat for the woeful A's.

I remember Campy hitting leadoff and being a speed demon on the bases. Through the early 70's, he was the sparkplug for the team and a All-Star. He was the starting shortstop for the 1973 game in KC that I got to attend as a 9 year old. When he was announced as the leadoff hitter, the AL fans booed him and every other Oakland A that was announced. I didn't understand and my dad had to tell me that the KC fans were still bitter at the A's moving out of KC.

This card features Campy in a bunting pose. There's a lot of green around, with the border, the uniform, the hat, the wall, the grass and the rest of the players in the background. I wish I'd timed this to come out on March 17.

On September 8, 1965, Campy got to play all 9 positions in a game. He got into some plays. In the 2nd he was involved in a rundown. In the 4th, he caught cousin Jose's flyball to left. In the 5th he caught Paul Schaal's fly to center. In the 6th he botched Jim Fregosi's fly to right, allowing a runner to score from 1st. In the 7th, he caught a popup at first, but didn't have to handle a throw on a ground ball. He pitched the 8th, getting Cardenal to pop up as the first man he faced. He walked the next 2 and then a run scored on a base hit. He then struck out Bobby Knoop and a runner was thrown out trying to steal. He caught the 9th and Ed Kirkpatrick stole 2nd on him. Later, however, Kirkpatrick was thrown out trying to advance to home (I couldn't tell if it was a wild pitch, passed ball, etc.) The game went extra and Campy went out.

Campy went at 160 pounds, so I don't think he was on steroids in 1970 when he had his "Brady Anderson" season hitting 22 homers, when his next highest total was 8. He didn't draw a lot of walks. If he played now, he'd be seen as an average shortstop with a below average OPS+. However, he was a top star that was universally well-liked (except for Lerrin LaGrow and Billy Martin).

Campy did learn his lesson about throwing that bat in the 1972 playoffs. He was hit twice in the 1973 Series and once in the 1974 Series without incident.

I liked watching Campy. I still don't know why those people were booing him at the All-Star Game.

#74 -- Cecil Upshaw

2009-03-17T12:30:00.000-05:00

Cecil Upshaw

In the late 60's, Cecil was a top reliever in the league. He and Claude Raymond teamed up to make a good late innings combination for the Braves. He helped them to the NL West title in 1969 and pitched well agains the Mets as the Braves were swept out. He even hit his only homer in 1969.

However guys who are 26 sometimes do things they regret. Cecil fit that category. In the off-season he's having dinner with friends when he decides to show off how he can jump to touch a sign. He was 6'6", after all. He gets his ring finger caught and severs the nerves. He had a lot of surgery and missed the entire 1970 season. Whoops. That's got to go into the list of baseball injuries along with Vince Coleman's tarp, Mike Matheny slicing a finger open and missing the playoffs, Clint Barmes slipping while carrying in groceries and Moises Alou's treadmill. Cecil should have just said he was washing his monster truck.

Cecil came back strong in 1971, but he wasn't the same. He slipped further in 1972 and started bouncing around in 1973. His final season was in 1975 and his K/BB ratio had eroded significantly. Cecil was a sidearmer and I suspect he needed movement to be successful and the injury affected his grip. Cecil had a heart attack and passed away in 1995. He and BJ Ryan of the Blue Jays are the only pitchers from Centenary to play in the big leagues.

Cecil got to play with his cousin, George Stone, with the Braves. Of his 78 Braves' saves, 12 of them came in George Stone's wins. That would have made nice talk around the Thanksgiving table at their grandparents' house.

1972 Feature

Here's a brief return, but it doesn't have much to do with the world 37 years ago. On March 17, 1972, future baseball wife Mia Hamm was born. She seems to be a nice gal for a Tar Heel.

Older sets featured in blogs

2009-03-17T11:53:00.012-05:00

As I'd mentioned a long time ago, I got the idea to do this from Andy's 1988 Topps blog. I'm not going at the breakneck pace Andy went at.

In browsing before I started this, I'd also seen Kevin's pursuit of the 1965 set. He's still plugging along and is almost half done.

I've found a couple of new blogs that deal with what I consider to be older sets. Steve is featuring his 1970 set in his blog. He's only 53 cards short of completing it, so I think this will be somewhat like Kevin's 1965 in that we'll get to see him finish it up. While I don't share his love for the Cubs, I'm also trying to get this set finished, although I'm about 365 cards short of the whole thing. His profile says he lives in Sarasota. That's one of my favorite vacation places. I love the beach on Longboat Key.

Finally, I saw a link on Steve's page to a new one that the Pack Addict is doing on completing a 1969 set. He's got a healthy want list up, so you might stop by to see if you can be of some assistance. I'm now considering starting a 1969, but I've only got about 120 of those and I should probably finish off my 1964, 1972 and 1970 sets before starting another one with expensive stars and high-numbers.

Project '62, among other things, also chronicles the completion of a 1962 set.

There may be others out there, but we've got blogs that feature the 1962, 1965, 1969, 1970 and 1972 set. I know there are some that go into the 1980's and 90's, but I'll leave those for someone a little younger than me.

NCAA tourney under 1972 rules

2009-03-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

This will be a little bit of a feature on how much has changed in sports in 37 years. There are some big differences in how college basketball looks now than how it looked in 1972.

The biggest deals with how the NCAA selection is done. In 1972, only one conference -- the ACC -- had a postseason tournament. That was how they selected their NCAA representative. What's that? Their representative? This year the ACC has seven teams? You're sounding like they only got one.

That's right. Through 1974 each conference got one representative and every conference used the regular season except for the ACC. 1974 was the catalyst for change. At the end of that season everyone knew the best teams in the country were UCLA of the Pacific 8 and NC State and Maryland of the ACC. Only 2 of those teams would make the tournament. The fact that the ACC had a tournament made the final in Greensboro between NC State and Maryland one of the greatest college games ever. If you ever have a chance to catch that on one of the classic networks, watch it. NC State won and got to go to the NCAA. Maryland lost and had to go to the NIT.

In 1972 there were 25 teams in. In that day there were also more independents (like Notre Dame) that could be invited. If the NCAA kept to that selection criteria, here are the teams that would be in this year:

America East Binghamton *(won head to head)
Atlantic 10 -- Xavier
ACC -- Duke (takes tourney champion)
Atlantic Sun -- Jacksonville
Big 12 Kansas
Big East Louisville
Big Sky Weber St.
Big South Radford
Big 10 Michigan State
Big West Cal St-Northridge
Colonial Virginia Commonwealth
Conf. USA Memphis
Horizon Butler
Ivy Cornell
Metro Atl. Siena
Mid-American Bowling Green *(won head to head)
MEAC Morgan State
Mo. Valley Creighton *(tied head to head…better record)
Mtn. West BYU *(tied head to head…better record)
Northeast Robert Morris
Ohio Valley Tennessee-Martin
Pac-10 Washington
Patriot American
SEC LSU
Southern Davidson
Southland Stephen F. Austin
SWAC Alabama St.
Summit North Dakota St.
Sun Belt Western Kentucky *(won head to head)
West Coast Gonzaga
WAC Utah St

You'd look at this and think that the 4 #1 seeds would have to be Louisville, Memphis, Duke and Kansas. However, in 1972 they didn't balance the regions. You'd go to "your region." By that logic, you'd have the #1 seeds being Duke (East), Louisville (Mideast), Kansas (Midwest) and Washington or Gonzaga (West).

Louisville should be the overall #1 in this scenario, but they'd have the toughest bracket because they'd likely have to deal with LSU and Memphis in their bracket (unless Memphis was put in the Midwest).

Here's how I'd seed:

EAST (cupcake city, baby)
1. Duke
2. Siena
3. American
4. Binghamton
5. Radford
6. Robt Morris
7. Morgan St
8. Cornell

MIDEAST
1. Louisville
2. LSU
3. Butler
4. Davidson
5. Jacksonville
6. VCU
7. Bowling Green
8. Tn-Martin

MIDWEST (monster region)
1. Memphis
2. Kansas
3. Mich St.
4. Xavier
5. Creighton
6. W.Ky.
7. N.Dak.St.
8. Alab. St

WEST
1. Gonzaga
2. Washington
3. BYU
4. Utah St.
5. Weber St.
6. SFA
7. Northridge

In 1972, they didn't seed, either. However, under this scenario, Duke has the easiest cakewalk, but they wouldn't win the championship. The dream would be a Louisville v. Memphis finals matchup with Duke and Gonzaga playing the third place game (yes, they did that in 1972).

There are many things that I like about 1972, but I like the changes that have brought about the college basketball tournament as we know it. If this were how the tournament were selected, we wouldn't have had the conference consolidation we've had over the years. The old Metro conference and the Southwest conferences would still be around. (Imagine the Metro conference tournament final under 1972 rules -- Memphis v. Louisville with everything on the line.) Freshman eligibility, allowing players to dunk and the revamped tournament have turned this into a time of the year I like. At least until Duke loses and the tournament ends for me.

#73 -- Steve Huntz

2009-03-17T08:07:00.003-05:00

Steve Huntz

There aren't many in this set that I have no recollection of. Steve is one of those. Most of what I know about Steve is that I have his 1969 Cardinal Rookie Stars card that he shares with Mike Torrez. When I think of Steve Huntz, that's what I think of. I'd even forgotten he was in this set.

This photo does a pretty good job of showcasing the White Sox red uniforms. The Sox have had several major overhauls to the uniform. They had a grey color scheme for a lot of their years, but in 1971, Mr. Veeck must have wanted to liven things up, so he went to the red/powder blues. Then, by 1976, they went to the familiar dark grey pajamas and even wore shorts a game or two. They also had some funky futuristic fonts in the late 70's and 80's before settling into a more traditional uniform style in the early 90's. The uniform Steve has on also has the large TV numbers on the sleeves. you just don't see those very often.

One of the reasons I don't remember Steve is that he didn't play in the big leagues in 1971. He was with the Cards most of 1969 as a reserve infielder, but didn't hit at all. About the only offensive tool he had was that he could draw a walk. That's about the only way a .194 hitter with no power could get his OPS+ up to 74. The Cards sent him to San Diego and he exploded with 11 of his 16 career homers, 7 of them in the month of May. I guess the league then figured him out. If someone did that today, there would be "shades of Brady Anderson" rumors flying around.

The Padres "sold high" on Steve. He was with the Sox for 1971 and he didn't get much time. His only 2 homers of 1971 came on August 17 off Mickey Lolich. Based on that and his May 1970, I guess you could say he was a streak homer-hitter. He reappeared in 1975 with the Padres for 53 at bats. That was enough to get him a card in the 1976 SSPC set. If you've never collected that, you've missed out. They're the full-bleed pre-cursors to the Donruss set and have some wild photos.

Steve's 1971 card pictures him with the Giants. The Pads sent him to San Francisco in December 1970, just in time for Topps to airbrush the Padre logo off his helmet. During spring training the Giants moved him for reliever Steve Hamilton. So he gets a White Sox card for 1972. In December 1971 he's part of the Tommy John-Dick Allen deal and goes to the Dodgers, for whom he never plays. When we see John and Allen later, we'll see them with their new teams. I guess life's better when you hit more than .206 for a career.

Steve's back living in the Cleveland area where he grew up. I found a State Farm insurance agent named Steve Huntz in the area and the chances are it's the same guy. If you need a good neighbor in the Cleveland area, look him up and ask him about playing with Bob Gibson, Nate Colbert and Walt "No-Neck" Williams.

#72 -- Bruce Kison

2009-03-16T14:41:00.000-05:00

Bruce Kison

Kison was brought along by the Pirates in 1971 and was in and out of the rotation. That was the story of his career. He was the epitome of the swingman/5th starter in the 70's when most teams went with a 4 man rotation. He had a nice long career, mostly as a starter, but never pitched 200 innings in a year. That's not unsual now, but in the 70's, 300 innings was what 200 innings is now.

It seemed like I had a lot of this card when I was growing up. Either that or I had it out a lot because it's very familiar. I like the foul line running through the photo in this shot. I also like the fans along the rail down the left field line, hoping to get an autograph of Clemente or Stargell, but likely getting stuck with Gene Alley, Bob Johnson or Milt May.

Bruce also became well known for throwing inside. He plunked 11 in only 129 innings in 1974. Wow. Supposedly in his final year as a Red Sox in 1985 he threw at Jorge Bell. Bell came to the mound to fight and tried to throw a karate kick, missed because Kison stepped aside and laid him out. At least that's according to an internet report and we know those are always right.

Kison's probably most known for being the winning pitcher in the first night World Series game in 1971. He wasn't the starter, but relieved Luke Walker who had a rough first inning. Kison kept the Orioles off balance most of the rest of the way. That might be due in part to the fact that he hit three of them (a World Series record tied by Jose Contreras of the White Sox in 2005) so nobody wanted to dig in too deeply.

One of the most curious stats about Bruce was his hitting performance in 1978. He was a reasonably good hitter, but in 1978 he only had 4 hits: a single (10th inning of a tie game off Terry Forster), a double (September 1 off Mickey Mahler), a triple (September 7 off Pete Falcone) and a homer (September 29, last at bat of the year, off Steve Carlton). He had a "season cycle." I suppose, since they were in order, you could call this a natural season cycle. This doesn't happen often because it means you can't get more than 4 hits in a season. One other pitcher (Ray Poat in 1947) and three position players (Fred Manrique, 1985; Curtis Pride, 1993 and Matt Diaz, 2004) have "accomplished" this feat. Most players -- even pitchers -- prefer to have more than 4 hits in a season.

Bruce was also late for his wedding on October 17, 1971. It took a police escort, a Lear jet and a helicopter to get him and his best man, Bob Moose, there close to time. It almost seems a cliche from a teen movie, but Bruce and Bob showed up reeking of alcohol. However, this was one time that I don't think the bride or future in-laws were upset. You see, Bruce and Bob had to cut short their celebration of a Game 7 World Series win over the Orioles to get there. This story from Sports Illustrated is pretty cool.

NCAA Tournament Invades Baseball Card Blogs

2009-03-16T12:26:00.003-05:00

I can't help it. I went to school at Duke. It's been transplanted into my very being, although Duke sucks at about every other athletic endeavor except basketball.

We've been paired with Binghamton in the tournament, which I understand is the former SUNY-Binghamton. Normally, I would write bad things about Binghamton because it is the ancestral home of former North Carolina point guard King Rice (I know. Nobody out there remembers King Rice from the early 1990's or even cares).

However, I've learned that 2 of my favorite blogs have ties to Binghamton, NY. So as not to insult the Night Owl and Easy Life Steve, I've learned there's more to Binghamton than being the home of a Tar Heel.

Now that doesn't mean I'm rooting for Binghamton or anything, but I'll at least cut out the vitriol and hatred until the second round. Then, unless I learn of a reason not to, I'll be able to pick on either the Texas Longhorns or the Minnesota Gophers (I'm hoping Minnesota wins!)

#71 -- Angels Team

2009-03-16T07:15:00.003-05:00

California Angels

The Angels finished 5 games below .500, but that was only good for 5th in the West at 18 games behind the A's. Even at that, they overachieved. They really didn't have much offense, with Bob Oliver being about all they had. The coolest thing about this card has to be the dude in the sky blue leisure suit on the right hand side of the card. Based on the fire orange jacket I saw Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl wearing over the weekend, I have to wonder if that guy borrowed that jacket from Dean Smith. ("Go to hell, Carolina, go to hell!")

Their strength was in the starting rotation. Nolan Ryan came over from the Met bullpen and joined Andy Messersmith, Clyde Wright and Rudy May to form a formidible roation. Unfortunately, they didn't have much of a bullpen. They had 16 saves that year. Sixteen. Francisco Rodriguez was getting that many a month last year.

The Angels were kind of stuck as a franchise. By this time, they were in their 12th season and they were going nowhere. In their 2nd year (1962), they'd had a surprising 3rd place finish in a 10 team league. But 10 years later, they weren't going anywhere. They'd also traded the "face of the franchise" Jim Fregosi for a talented pitcher named Nolan Ryan that didn't have the control to pitch regularly with the Mets.

We've been told a lot about the curse of the Red Sox and the Cubs. However, the Angels were thought to be a cursed franchise. There were a lot of accidents, injuries and illnesses that kept them down. There wouldn't be much happen for the Angels for several years except for Nolan Ryan, who became a pretty good pitcher once he was allowed to throw, no matter how many he walked.

In 1972 the Angels didn't have any award winners. They only had the one All-Star everyone gets. Nolan Ryan was named to the team, but he didn't pitch in the game. The Angels really didn't have much in the minor leagues, either. The only players they really produced in the first 15 years of the franchise were Andy Messersmith and Frank Tanana. They do much better now.

The next year they tried to develop more talent through trades by trading Messersmith and Ken McMullen to the Dodgers for Frank Robinson, Bill Singer and some young guys, but that didn't really work out. It wasn't until they could pick up some stars through free agency (Don Baylor, Joe Rudi, Bobby Grich, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson) that they broke through.

At this point in time, however, for the Angels, contending was like Fantasyland and they were as likely to find that at the Big A as they were down the road at the land of Disney.

#70 -- Mike Cuellar

2009-03-15T14:00:00.003-05:00

Mike Cuellar

Mike grew up in Cuba before Fidel Castro came to power. He was a ballplayer. My recollection of him is how much fun he had playing ball. The story is that he was discovered while pitching for a Cuban army team. The Reds picked him up and had him playing in local Havana. He came up for a couple of games and was hit hard. He went back to the minors and roamed around several years. He had a little bit of a chance with the Cards in 1964, but they traded him to the Astros in 1965.

He made a team's rotation for the first time in 1966 at the age of 29. However after he took a step back in 1968 (at age 31) the Astros cut their losses and sent him to Baltimore for Curt Blefary. Orioles really got the better of that deal. Mike really kicked it up a notch and became one of the elite pitchers in the American League. He won a Cy Young in 1969 with 23 wins (and wasn't an All-Star). From 1969 through 1974, he won at least 18 games/year.

Mike was so-so in the postseason. He had a lot of opportunities, because the O's were always there. In 12 postseason starts, he was only 4-4, but his ERA was only 2.85. Those numbers would deify anyone now.

1975 was the start of Mike's decline. He really fell in 1976 and only got into a few games in 1977. Too bad that he didn't start having success until later on. He'd have had quite a career if he wasn't such a late bloomer. That, however, may be more a matter that he was a screwball pitcher and he it took a while for him to perfect it. At age 42, he tried to come back, but could only make it in the Mexican League, but he had a winning record at 7-6. Remember, in the late 70's we really didn't see anybody pitching in their 40's (except knuckleballers like Hoyt Wilhelm).

Mike has been a pitching coach in the Independent leagues lately. He's been in Orioles spring training this year, but as a special instructor and not as a prospect. He's only 71.

#69 -- Roger Freed

2009-03-15T07:30:00.001-05:00

Roger Freed

Roger had a monsterous minor league career. Check out those numbers as he came up the ranks in 1968 (31, 103 .289), 1969 (22, 90 .298 in the Texas League, which has always been a pitcher's league) and 1970 as the International League MVP (24, 130 .334). Nobody likes to do this, but he came back to AAA ball with the 1976 Denver Bears, hitting 42 homers and winning the league MVP. It's a good sign for a major leaguer to be the MVP 6 years apart, but nobody wants to win a second MVP at a minor league level.

I think Baltimore must have recognized Roger's talent being a little one-dimensional as he was coming up. They didn't have room in the outfield for him and sent him to the Phillies for Grant Jackson. Jackson had a good career with the O's, but Roger couldn't get established for the Phils.

The Phils gave him a shot in 1971 with a lot of playing time in right field, but he didn't hit like they'd wanted. I don't think the Phillies would have been disappointed with him finishing 4th on the team in homers as a rookie, but for that number to be only 6 homers (tied with Oscar Gamble, Joe Lis and Rick Wise) was a disappointment. He also didn't hit for average and struck out a lot. His playing time reduced in 1972, sharing time with Tommy Hutton, Mike Anderson and Gamble. He still didn't hit for average, had disappointing power and struck out too much.

He wandered around after that, through the minors with the Indians, Reds and Expos. He even had a year in the Mexican League. After his monster year with Denver in 1976, the woeful Cardinals took a flyer on him in the Rule 5 draft (largely because Vern Rapp had managed him in the minors) and he had a great year as a pinch-hitter (5 homers, 11 walks and only 9 strikeouts in 83 at bats). Did I mention he also hit .398! His production as a pinch-hitter declined and after a couple of more years the Cards released him.

Before being released, he had one of those magic moments. Bottom of the 11th, bases loaded, 2 out. Astros scored three in the top of the 11th, so this is it. Astros have Joe Sambito on the hill, and he's one of the top relievers in the league. The air in the stadium was deflated because Garry Templeton had just struck out for the 2nd out. Freed pinch hits for Jerry Mumphrey as the last chance. Bang! Game-winning grand slam! A loser becomes a winner. Way to go, Roger!

Roger had heart trouble and died at age 49 in 1996. When googling him, I found a link to help find his gravesite, for anyone who's into that.

#68 -- Jim York

2009-03-14T17:30:00.002-05:00

Jim York

Jim's pictured here at the Royals' old spring training location at Terry Field in Fort Myers. I'll occasionally hear Buck Martinez talking about that site on his XM Radio show. From the looks of some of the Florida spring training sites in this set, the teams have certainly gotten an upgrade. Those complexes (a generous word) such as pictured in Jim's card look like nothing more than today's rec league softball complexes. I'd say that only Dodgertown was better than what we see on most of these.

Jim went to UCLA and was on a team that went to the College World Series. As you can see from the stats on the back of his card he flew through the minors and rarely met any resistance. He was also a reliever all the way through. Even if a guy is projected as a reliever, a lot of teams like to have them start through the minors to give them innings, experience and build arm strength.

I hadn't known Jim was a sidearmer, but his card back says that. Funny, because the pose on the front of his card doesn't look like he's finishing a sidearm delivery. That Royals team also had Ted Abernathy, who was a sidearmer, too.

I don't really know much about Jim and wasn't able to find much. He went to the Astros before the 1972 season as the main part of the John Mayberry trade. That trade worked out very well for the Royals because they got a power hitting first baseman that anchored the lineup for most of the 70's and Jim never approached the success he had in 1971 and spent some time in AAA every year for the rest of his career. That's one of the dangers in putting too much value in a middle reliever. Most of them are very up and down from year to year.

Jim made his debut in the second game of a double header against the cellar-dwelling White Sox in Comiskey. He came into a 1-1 game in the 4th and went the rest of the way to earn the win. For some reason when I think of the Royals playing in Chicago, I think of the moron and his son that rushed the field to attack coach Tom Gamboa (No, I don't think all Sox fans are like that. In fact, I've gotten to know some pretty decent Sox fans on here.) However, there wasn't much chance of York getting bumrushed that night. There were only 674 fans in attendance. That was back in the days when they counted actual attendance, rather than the number of tickets sold.

#67 -- Red Schoendienst

2009-03-14T07:05:00.006-05:00

Red Schoendienst

I have this card autographed and it's one of my favorites. Partly because Red is hit and miss through the mail and this was my one and only attempt. But it's partly because he looks a lot like one of my grandfathers. My grandpa was a redheaded of Irish and German ancestry and he was a ballplayer growing up in the 20's and 30's. He told of going to a Cardinal tryout camp on a damp and cold day and doing well. The scout told him there'd be a place for him if he'd come back the next day. Unfortunately, his knee had gone out and he couldn't make it. The only other time his knee ever went out was at his World War II draft physical, so that knee kept him out of the minor leagues and out of the Pacific Theater.

Red became the Cardinal manager when some internal wranglings led ownership to dump Johnny Keane, who had just won the World Series in 1964. This was a tough spot to step into because of the expectations, the Cards were just in their second year in the post-Stan Musial era and they played .500 ball the first couple of years. However, Red persevered and led the Cards to a World Series title in 1967 and within a flyball misjudged by the usually sterling Curt Flood of winning the Series in 1968.

The Cards stayed competitive through the early 70's, but when Bob Gibson started fading, the rest of the team followed. By the mid-70's, Red and Lou Brock were not enough to keep the team at the top of the league and they fell into the second division. Finally, management made a change and brought in Vern Rapp for the 1977 season. The team fell further.

Most of the time when a manager is let go, they move on to other organizations. There are exceptions. Billy Martin kept coming back to the Yankees. Danny Murtaugh had 3 separate stints with the Pirates in the 60's and 70's. Cito Gaston and Bobby Cox are both currently working on their second stints with their teams. Whitey Herzog kept Red close to the action when he was brought in. Whitey was hired in 1980 and given free rein by Gussie Busch. After running the team a few weeks, he stepped aside as manager and turned it over to Red for the rest of the year so he could concentrate on evaluating the team. When Whitey decided to step down in 1990, Red was named the interim manager. Even now, Tony LaRussa keeps Red around and values his input. This link is to a video of Red helping out at Cardinal Spring Training in 2008. Here he is this Spring with the owner and GM.

Red was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the old Veterans' Committee as a second baseman. No matter how much of a Red Schoendienst fan I might be, I have to admit that he wasn't a Hall of Fame player. His OPS+ for his career was 93. That was brought down a lot by his latter years. He does have 2 World Series rings as a player (1946 and 1957) and was a 10-time All-Star. There weren't many tougher than Red, who came back from a bout with tuberculosis to resume his career. TB killed people back then and everyone thought Red was done. Red proved he wasn't done.

Red still ain't done.

#66 -- Ray Corbin

2009-03-13T15:30:00.000-05:00

Ray Corbin

Ray's got a start on a set of eyebrows, there. He was a reliever/spot starter for the Twins who had some moderate success. There just wasn't much that stood out about Ray as a pitcher, except for one flukey stat. In each of his first 3 seasons (1971-73) he struck out exactly 83 hitters. I suppose that's consistent, but his usage was also pretty consistent as he faced 620, 657 and 622 hitters those seasons. He had to finish with a flourish in 1973 to get there, striking out 11 in his last 2 games.

In 1974 Ray was less effective, didn't pitch as much and his strikeouts fell. He had arm surgery in 1975 and never made it back. Ray was born in Florida and is living in western North Carolina now.

The big question I have is about the card photo. The inside fo the bill of the hat looks like it says "11". In 1971, Ray wore 23 and Brant Alyea wore 11. Ray continued to wear 23 and Steve Brye took over #11 in 1972. I've tried to zoom in, but it's not clear enough. This is the 1971 Twins' road uniform (no pinstripes), but with the blue sky above there's no way to tell where Ray is.

#65 -- Cesar Cedeno

2009-03-13T07:40:00.003-05:00

Cesar Cedeno

Cesar was one of my favorite players in the 70's. The back of his card says it all, "Hailed as NL's next superstar...." He had a breakout season in 1971 and was one of the players that scouts drooled over. He had all 5 tools. He started the 1973 All-Star Game for the NL in centerfield and won 5 consecutive Gold Gloves. The Astrodome was long known as a pitchers' park and a hitters' nightmare, but the Astros of that day had quite a bit of power with Cedeno, Jimmy Wynn, Lee May and Doug Rader.

Cesar was going to be the next Willie Mays, just like Bobby Murcer was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. Unfortunately Cesar had some run-ins with the law and the Astrodome held him down. Still, despite the precipitous decline in his power numbers following the 1974 season, he still had OPS+ well above league average almost every season.

Cesar's Astro teams weren't very good. There always seemed to be something missing or the Reds and Dodgers were just too good. They had decent pitching, but no real Cy Young candidates until the late 70's. The hitting was strong in the early 70's, but then Wynn, Rader and May were traded away and not really replaced, leaving Cedeno in the lineup with Jose Cruz and Bob Watson, but it wasn't the same.

Finally the Astros improved, largely because of a monster pitching staff, and won the West in 1980. Cesar was a big part of their lineup and carried them. However, he didn't produce in the playoffs. I still think that series with the Phillies is the best post-season series I've ever seen. At this time, Cesar was still a veteran force, although in decline. He was only 29 years old.

When Cesar went to the Reds for Ray Knight, he wasn't the same. You could still see the talent, but he wasn't producing. Finally the Reds gave up on him after a subpar 1985 and let the Cardinals pick him up in late August for a minor leaguer. It looked like his last hurrah, but the Cardinals needed some firepower with Jack Clark out.

Somehow, Cesar summoned up his "next Willie Mays" talent and put the Cardinals on his back. In 28 games he had 6 homers, 19 RBI, 5/6 in stolen bases and .434/.463/.750 in average/on-base/slugging. He hit .476 in his first 22 games with the Cards as they took control of the East. His 6 homers were good for 6th on the team that year and he was only with them for about 1/8 of the season.

He cooled the last 7 games of the season and went into the deep freeze in the post-season, hitting only 4-27 with 1 RBI. He did draw a walk in the 8th inning of Game 6 to move Terry Pendleton into scoring position for Brian Harper to knock him in and give the Cards a 1-0 lead. Every Cardinal fan knows what happened after that.....

Cesar tried to come back in 1986 and had nothing in the tank. For a while in the 90's, if anyone came along with the name "Cedeno" it was thought he'd be a can't miss prospect. At least that's the only way I know to justify the hype given to the late Andujar Cedeno.

Last year Cesar was a coach for the Nationals' Gulf Coast League affiliate. He had a great career. Bill James ranked him as the #21 all-time centerfielder in baseball history. That may not be the "next Willie Mays", but Cesar had a great career and is fondly remembered.

Mailbag, featuring Bob Vila

2009-03-13T03:57:00.011-05:00

This is about as far from 1972 as you can get. So, hop back in the DeLorean because we're about to go 88 mph and run up to the 1990's and 2000's.

Recently, Stats on the Back asked readers to comment on who was better, former Pirate lefty Bob Veale or TV handyman Bob Vila. I offered some of my smarmy comments and, because there weren't many that answered, I won a Bob Vila card and some assorted baseball players. That added 23 to my many tens of thousands of baseball cards and 1 to my collection of 1 carpenters' cards. Looks like Bob's working on some kind of small engine. Why do TV handymen wear khakis? If (no, scratch that) when grease pops out of that thing it'll go straight for the zipper and make him look like he needs to visit a urologist. Why don't they wear jeans or navy, if they have to wear something dressier?

Hey, I didn't anticipate getting to use the back of this card as a coupon. Too bad I found a deal at my Black and Decker outlet store last weekend. Well, let's see....10% off on Craftsman ought to bring them down to.... Wait, "Expires 12/31/96." I doubt I can get that past the Sears employee.

I also got some newer (for me) Cardinals and Royals cards. Here's a sampling of what was good and bad with the Royals' franchise from about 1995-2005:

Let's start with the good. In 1991, Score called George Brett The Franchise for the Royals. Sad to say, but in 2009 that's still true. This is the 40th anniversary of the first Royals' game and the face of the franchise is still a guy that hasn't played in 15 years. Johnny Damon had a chance to be the new franchise man, but he took advantage of changes in the game that gave him bargaining power the Royals couldn't match, so they had to trade him. If the rules/money had been in 1973 what they are now, I don't know who and what Score would have put on this card because I don't think the Royals would have been able to keep Brett.

There was a time the Royals developed players who were really good and consistent for a number of years. Guys like Brett, Paul Splittorff, Dennis Leonard, Frank White, Willie Wilson, and even more recently Kevin Seitzer (see, I'm stuck in the past if I think Kevin Seitzer is "more recent"). But part of the Royals' legacy from 1995-2005 has been flashes in the pan. Both of these guys were Rookies of the Year. Neither of these guys had any long term success. Hamelin was a nice guy that mashed as a rookie, but then lost his stroke which was attributed to vision problems. Berroa, well, who really knows. Let's hope guys like Alex Gordon, Billy Butler, Zack Grienke and Luke Hochevar wind up being more like Brett, Leonard and White than Berroa and "The Hammer."

One of the best things about the Royals' franchise continues to be the Stadium. I know most of you have never been there, but it's a beautiful place to watch a game. Unfortunately, it's all too often a good place to study for finals. I haven't made the journey to a Royals' game in 3-4 years, but I hear they really only get excited now about Opening Day and the Yankees.

There were also recent cards of the Cardinals, the other team I grew up rooting for. Let's see the differences in the fortunes of the two franchises.

Let's start with a beloved Hall of Famer. Growing up in the 70's I was all about Lou Brock and Bob Gibson. I thought Brock should have been the 1974 MVP over Garvey. Guess maybe the Cardinals should have won a few more games and made the playoffs, perhaps. But remember, the 70's valued the stolen base more than baseball does now. However, while Brock is still a hallowed figure in St. Louis, he's not still the face of the franchise.

Brock isn't still the face of the franchise partly because another beloved Hall of Famer came along within a few years of Brock's retirement. The 80's were the Ozzie Smith and Willie McGee show. Once Ozzie got to St. Louis, nobody remembered Garry Templeton's middle finger or Ozzie taking out an ad offering to do odd jobs in San Diego as a ploy to renegotiate his contract with Mrs. Kroc.

Lee Smith may make it into the Hall of Fame. He'll have a place with the other Cardinal Hall of Famers, but his career wasn't primarily in St. Louis, so it won't be as prominent. I'm just glad that nobody did a "Smith Bros." card with Ozzie like 1983 Fleer did with Ozzie and Lonnie Smith.

This is my first UD Masterpiece. I was a little blown away at Mark's generosity here. I was expecting a smattering of 90's commons and I'd have been happy with that, but these cards are fantastic. Can't you just hear Paul LoDuca there saying, "Uh-oh?" Oh, and don't think that the Kansas City Royals don't realize the Albert Pujols went to high school and junior college just a few miles from beautiful Royals Stadium. Talk about a guy who could be on the 2011 Score The Franchise card.....

I'm going to be getting rid of this card. Not that I'm ungrateful for it. Quite the contrary. This card is going in the mail with a SASE to Chris Perez for the new Cardinal closer to sign. I got to see him when he came through town with the AA Cardinals a couple of years ago. It was fun to watch Jason Motte come in throwing 98 in the 8th and Perez throwing 96 in the 9th with a wicked slider. He's got a pretty bright future and I hope he can fill the shoes of some former Cardinal relievers (Hrabosky, Sutter, Worrell, Smith, Henke, Eckersley, Isringhausen...)

That's about it for this brief interlude from funky vintage cardboard. I appreciate Mark's generosity and encourage you to visit his site if you don't already have it bookmarked into your favorites. He's on a series of his Top 3 all-time best at each position and it's a thought-provoking look at baseball history. Oh, and with the season about to open, I'm sure he'll keep us updated on the exploits of another former Royal that got away, Carlos Beltran, Johann Santana, Jose Reyes and David Wright.

# 64 -- Pete Broberg

2009-03-12T07:15:00.001-05:00

Pete Broberg

A few cards ago we saw the Cubs 1st round pick in the secondary phase of the 1971 draft went to the big leagues, Burt Hooton. Hooton was the #2 overall in the secondary round. Pete Broberg was the #1 overall pick in the secondary phase of the draft and he went straight into the big leagues. Other picks in that first round were Phillie shortstop Dane Iorg, Twin catcher Glenn Borgmann and Expo righthander Steve Rogers.

Like Hooton, Pete was an accomplished college pitcher, coming out of Dartmouth. There aren't a lot of good pitchers to come out of Dartmouth. The list is Broberg, Mike Remlinger and Jim Beattie. Pete and Chuck Seelbach led Dartmouth to its only College World Series appearance in 1970. Pete was the 2nd overall pick in the 1968 draft by the A's, but he chose to go to school, in part at the urging of his father, a judge in Palm Beach County, Florida. It worked out because he had a good college career and then was the #1 pick.

The Senators put Pete in the rotation right away and his first start was against the Boston Red Sox. His line in 6 1/3 innings was only 2 runs, 3 hits and struck out 7, but he walked 4. He left the game ahead 3-0 with runners on 1st and second, but Paul Lindblad let them and one other score. He ended up with a no-decision. After a rocky 1-3 start, he went on a 4 game winning streak, including a shutout over the Indians. Manager Ted Williams is supposed to have said of Pete, "He'll never pitch a day in the minor leagues." He then lost 6 of his last 7 starts of the season, although he didn't pitch poorly.

Pete didn't really pan out and Ted Williams was wrong, he did see the minor leagues. He also saw the Brewers, Cubs and A's before being released by the Dodgers in 1979 spring training. He was an expansion pick of the Mariners and has a beautiful (gag) airbrushed 1977 Mariners' card, but was traded to the Cubs before appearing in a game for the Mariners. Speaking of airburshed, you also see the "W" logo airbrushed off his hat. I'm sure looking back he wishes they'd airbrushed out those sideburns. Check out how different his 1976 card looks from a more recent photo

After his career he went back to school and earned a law degree at Nova Southeastern University. He now practices zoning law at Coe, Broberg & Austin in Palm Beach. I think that guy on the right is going to be better at going before the city council to get a zoning variance.

1972 Topps Traded Mike Schmidt

2009-03-11T20:32:00.004-05:00

Mike Schmidt

I haven't numbered the checklist yet, but we now have the 2nd card in this set, if I want to consider the Duke Sims a couple of posts up (I hope I can improve on it). Jeff "Huck Finn" Wolfe, the Card Junkie, sent this neat 1972 Schmidt by email. Either he's extremely talented in the art of manipulating photographs and templates or he had this on hand, because he was offering this within hours of me posting the invitation for help with this project.

He's got a great photo of Schmidt here, posing a batting stance at what looks like a Spring Training site. It's a road uniform, and the sideburns are definitely from the early 1970's. I see some guys in the background over Schmidt's hands, but can't tell who they are. There's also a red grandstand roof on the left side of the photo, but I'd like to think it's one of the old helmet golf cards that would bring relievers in from the bullpen.

Schmidt made his major league debut on September 12, 1972 against the Mets, going 1-3. He entered the game in the top of the second, replacing Don Money. He struck out against Jim McAndrew in his first at bat and then singled off McAndrew in the fifth. Mc Andrew then struck him out again in the seventh. In the 9th, with the Phils trailing 4-2 he drew a walk to load the bases, making him the tying run. He was then pinch run for by Larry Bowa. Bob Boone singled in a run and then the game ended when Deron Johnson hit into a double play.

Schmidt's batting average didn't approach .333 for the rest of the year. A few days later he hit his only homer of the year (and the first of 548 in his career) in the 7th off Balor Moore of the Expos to provide all the Phils runs in a 3-1 win. It was also 1 of only 2 game that year with multiple at bats that he didn't strike out. He struck out 15 times in 34 at bats that year.

He took over as the regular third baseman in 1973 and remained the regular third baseman for the Phils until he gave way to Charlie Hayes.

#63 -- Duke Sims

2009-03-11T07:31:00.002-05:00

Duke Sims

That gal over Duke's shoulder in the crowd really seems to be giving the business to someone. You usually don't see the hand on one hip for nothing. Glad it's not me.

Duke had a great baseball name for a catcher. Short, tough and to the point. He started out with the Indians and platooned with Joe Azcue through the late 60's, developing some pop. However, when Ray Fosse came along, and there wouldn't be any platooning. Duke had enough power that the Indians wanted to keep him in the lineup, so they gave him at bats at first and the outfield, but Duke was built to be a catcher (how's that for being nice?).

The Dodgers traded a couple of pitching prospects for Duke in the 1971. He hit well, sharing time with Tom Haller (who also hit lefthanded). Unfortunately, he got off to a bad start in 1972 and the Dodgers waived him, since they had Chris Cannizzaro and were bringing Steve Yeager and Joe Ferguson along.

The Tigers picked him up and he went on a tear, hitting .316 in the August/September pennant race, picking up the slack when Bill Freehan went down in late September with a couple of weeks to go. In the ALCS he got his only postseason opportunity. He was behind the plate when Lerrin LaGrow hit Bert Campaneris and Campy helicoptered his bat past LaGrow's head.

Duke's 100 career homers are tops among ballplayers born in Utah. Chris Shelton, recently of the Tigers and Rangers, is second with 37. That record looks to be solid for a few more years.

1972 Topps Traded Set

2009-03-10T17:44:00.006-05:00

I was researching the upcoming post for Ray Corbin (card #66) when I came across a 1971 card of his that was signed on SportsCollectors.Net. I checked and Ray Corbin didn't have a 1971 card. I got in touch with the guy that got the autograph and he made the card himself. He even found a 1971 photo of Ray that had the correct uniform (changes were made to the collar in 1972). I know many of you are fantastic at doing this and I marvel at your skills. My skills are more reflective of the paint job I did on the Rich Chiles post a few back.

This got me to thinking that if Topps started its Traded set in 1971 instead of 1981, this card would have been in it. So, the logical conclusion for me was to think, "Gee, I know Topps put some "Traded" cards in the 6th Series (Carlton, Cardenal, McLain, Morgan, Frank Robinson), but if they'd had a full 132 card set, what would it have been.

So, I started on a checklist. I found about 140 possible cards to choose from. Now, I know I don't have the time, inclination or artistic ability to create this Traded set. I searched for a photo of Duke Sims with the Tigers and the only 2 I could find were a back view of him catching (which you'll see tomorrow) and his 1973 card. I suppose I could be lazy -- it was good enough for Topps with Earl Wilson, Ralph Garr and Leo Durocher (thanks, respectively to Mark's Ephemera, the Night Owl and Wrigley Wax) so perhaps it isn't so lazy.

Among the highlights would be the true rookie cards of Mike Schmidt, Rich Gossage and Rick Reuschel. Willie Mays and Yogi Berra would be with the Mets and Sparky Lyle to the Yankees. There were also players that Topps completely left out (licensing issues?) such as Rusty Staub, Luis Tiant and John Hiller. Also, like a lot of the Traded sets, there would be the "one-hit wonders" that neither you nor I had heard of and never would hear of again, like Padre Mark Schaeffer and Twin Tom Norton.

Maybe I'll play around with this a little and see what comes of it. Of course, if I can pull a Tom Sawyer and get one of you Huck Finns out there to whitewash my fence it would be much better than this:

#62 -- Angel Mangual

2009-03-10T07:10:00.001-05:00

Angel Mangual

Angel has the big Topps Rookie Cup on his card. He also finished 3rd in the 1971 AL Rookie of the Year balloting behind Chris Chambliss and Bill Parsons. He played part time in center field for the A's that year and moved over to right and Reggie Jackson played center. He still played part time, but his production fell off.

In the 1972 World Series, the A's were behind the 8-ball a little bit because Reggie Jackson was out. They went into Game 4 up 2 games to 1, but they go into the bottom of the 9th trailing 2-1. Angel got the game-winning pinch-hit off Reds' supercloser Clay Carroll and the A's went up 3 games to 1. Good thing because the Reds won the next 2 games to force Game 7.

That was the highlight of his career. He won 3 World Series rings, but the A's released him in 1976 and that was the end of his big league career. His brother Pepe Mangual played with the Mets and Expos in the 70's.

Looks like his card is taken before a game at Oakland. It looks like the lefthander on the mound is wearing jeans or some kind of dark sweats. I see someone over at third base, so it looks like he might be one of the coaches throwing batting practice. The other thing I notice is that even though the A's didn't draw well despite winning 3 World Series, there's a good number of fans in the lower bowl for the pre-game. The upper deck is empty.

I didn't find much about Angel after his career, except for a mention that he was arrested in Puerto Rico on drug charges in 1997. Hate to see that happen, especially when he was so popular with the A's through the 70's.

#61 -- Cubs Rookies (Burt Hooton, Gene Hiser, Earl Stephenson)

2009-03-09T07:00:00.002-05:00

Burt Hooton
Gene Hiser
Earl Stephenson

The Cubbies in this set were in the beginning stages of going through a change. Ernie Banks had retired and had no card in this set. Ron Santo, Fergie Jenkins, Glenn Beckert and Don Kessinger would largely be gone by 1975. We've already seen Bill Bonham's rookie card and he would be in the rotation through the mid-70's. Rick Reuschel would make his debut in 1972. Jose Cardenal came to the Cubbies for the 1972 season.

Burt Hooton is another one of those changes. He was an accomplished college pitcher at Texas and was the Cubs #1 draft choice in 1971. They threw him right in with a start against the Cardinals, but he only lasted 3 1/3 innings and gave up 3 runs, including a solo homer to Joe Torre. He got a couple of more September starts and shined, striking out 15 Mets in a 3-2 complete game win and shutting out the Mets a week later on 2 hits in Wrigley. His next start was on April 16, 1972 when he no-hit the Phillies. Pretty darn good stretch. He ended up 11-14, 2.80 in 1972 and was a big part of the rotation.

Hooton had good stuff, including the "knuckle-curve," but couldn't get over the hump in Chicago. His record and ERA did not improve and he was traded to the Dodgers in 1975 for Geoff Zahn and Eddie (also known as "Buddy" in the 1978 set) Solomon. That didn't work out for the Cubs. "Happy" Hooton went on be a regular part of the rotation for the Dodgers through 1981. He finished 2nd in the Cy Young in 1978, was an All-Star in 1981 and won World Series games in 1977, 1978 and 1981.

Burt is now the pitching coach for the Round Rock Express, the Astros' AAA affiliate. Unfortunately, he hasn't had much to work with lately. On a sad note, his cousin used steroids to try to get an edge in high school and committed suicide because of depression after he went off steroids. The Hooton family now runs the Taylor Hooton Foundation to raise awareness of the dangers of steroids and focused on keeping kids away from drugs.

Gene Hiser was the Cubs' #1 draft choice in 1970 and made a quick jump to the big leagues. Gene was an outfielder from the University of Maryland, but didn't have the success Hooton did. He was a pinch-hitter/defensive replacement in the outfield and never got to play much. In 1973 he appeared in 100 games, but only got 109 at bats. He hit his only homer that year, off Buzz Capra, tying a game in the 9th that the Cubs went on to win.

After his career, he founded the investment firm of Barrett & Hiser, which has now become GCG Financial. So, if anyone's interested in some investments, here's his business bio.

Earl Stephenson played his college baseball for the mighty Campbell Camels of Buies Creek, North Carolina. When I was in law school in the late 80's, Campbell was just going Division I in basketball, so we'd hear about them. I decided one day to drive by their campus. Let me just say that in the late 80's that if you got a haircut in Buies Creek, it might have been from a guy named Floyd, and you'd better watch your step or a deputy named Barney might get in your business. The best former Camel ever in the big leagues? Jim Perry.

Earl was not with the Cubs in 1972. He was part of the Jose Cardenal trade. He got his most career action for the Brewers in 1972, doing reasonably well as a spot-starter/middle reliever, going 3-5, 3.25 (league ERA was 3.01). After the season, he was sent to Philadelphia with Ken Brett and Jim Lonborg for Don Money and a couple of others. It's not Earl's fault, but he was a throw-in on a couple of trades that didn't work out for the team acquiring him......

He gave up 7 homers in his career and not a one was to a slap hitter: Dick Allen (351 homers), Lance Parrish (324 homers), Bobby Murcer (252 homers), Bobby Darwin (83 homers, but seasons of 22, 18, 25 & 13 from 1972-1975), Reggie Smith (314 homers), Willie McCovey (521 homers) & Reggie Jackson (563 homers).

Earl then bounced around the minors and got into 3 games for the Orioles in 1977 and 1978.

#60 -- Manny Sanguillen

2009-03-08T07:30:00.006-05:00

Manny Sanguillen

Manny Sanguillen was one of the most fun guys playing ball in the early 70's. You could tell he loved what he did because he almost always had a smile on his face and was as chatty as any catcher around. He was a good hitting catcher and came to field his position OK. He's got 2 World Series rings and was a force in 1971. If it weren't for Roberto Clemente completely taking over that Series, Manny could have been the MVP because he hit .379. He went 1-2 in the 1972 All-Star Game (grounding out against Gaylord Perry and singling off Wilbur Wood).

One thing Manny didn't do was walk. Jeff Francouer and Vlad Guerrero could aspire to be as big of a free-swinger as Manny was. He had 6 straight seasons (1969-1974) where he had over 475 plate appearances and his highest walk total was 21. Still, his OPS+ never dipped below 94. If he'd had a little more discipline his stats would look better today, but in his day, Manny was thought of, along with Johnny Bench, as an elite catcher in the NL.

After the 1972 season, Manny had some tough times. He was great friends with Roberto Clemente. He didn't go to Clemente's funeral after the plane crash. Why? He refused to believe his friend was dead and he spent that time diving in the area of the crash looking for Clemente. The Pirates had a tough choice to make in 1973 with who was going to fill the huge void in right field. Since Manny had good speed and a rocket arm, they tried him. It didn't work and by July Richie Zisk and Dave Parker started getting time there and Manny went back behind the plate.

Manny was also part of a strange trade. Danny Murtaugh stepped down (again) after the 1976 season. In November Manny was traded to the A's for manager Chuck Tanner. It worked out well for the Pirates because Tanner led them to another World Series win over the Orioles in 1979. Manny played 1 year in Oakland and was traded back to the Pirates. By that time, he was a pinch-hitter, but he was also an excellent clubhouse guy. When Tony Armas, Jr. went to spring training with the Pirates a year or two ago, the first person he sought out was Manny Sanguillen. Why? His father made his big league debut with the Pirates and when the rest of the team was hazing him a little too hard, Manny took him under his wing and he never forgot that.

Manny now has a barbecue joint in PNC Park, kind of like Boog Powell in Baltimore and Greg Luzinski in Philadelphia. I know if I ever get to go to PNC I'll be finding his spot and having that for dinner. Manny just seems like one of those guys that if you get to spend 5 minutes with him, your day is going to go better. Just look at this guy! Buy another sandwich from him, will you?!?

#59 -- Fred Stanley

2009-03-07T07:49:00.001-06:00

Fred Stanley

This is not a good airbrush job on Fred's hat. The coloring just isn't right. The only thing I'll give the artist credit for is they made the hat on the guy in the background match the Indians' dark hats of the time. The rock in the back tells me this is an Arizona spring training site, which both the Indians (Tucson) and the Brewers (Tempe) had at the time. I'm going to say Fred's got a Milwaukee Brewer hat on because the Indians acquired him in late March 1971, so he would have spent most of 1971 in Brewers' camp. This raises an interesting question: could the guy in the background have truly an Indian in a Spring Training game between the Tribe and the Crew?

Fred was not the best "Frederick Stanley" that ever played. However, I've got to play a trick to make that statement. The best was Frederick Stanley McGriff. However, Chicken had a long and interesting career. He was a Pilot (so he goes on that checklist). In 1972 he was sent from the Indians after only 6 games to the Padres for the rest of the year. The Yankees picked him up for the 1973 season and he stayed with them through the 1980 season. He then finished up with a couple of years in Oakland.

Fred was never a regular. He got his most playing time in 1975, but only got into 117 games and had 252 at bats. In 1976 he started 87 games at short, the most games started in his career. He didn't have any real production, but the Yankees made the playoffs anyway (their appearance in the World Series was tainted by Chris Chambliss' failure to touch home plate in Game 5 of the ALCS). The next year they picked up Bucky Dent and Fred was back to the bench.

Fred only hit 10 homers, but 2 of them were grand slams (1973 off Kevin Kobel, 1978 off Mike Torrez). Fred was one of the worst "sluggers" of modern times. In 1976 he had 260 at bats and 5 extra base hits. He had a lifetime batting average of .216, slugged .263 and a career OPS of .564. That's not very good.

"Chicken" is now the director of player development for the Giants. He had a lot of years to sit on teh bench and continue working his butt off to be ready. Guys like Fred may not have been the kind of ballplayer that you'd build a team around, but every team that wins has a guy like Fred that's versatile and ready to step in and get the job done.