#127 -- Duffy Dyer

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.)

#120 -- Bill Freehan

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.

#109 -- Jerry May

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.

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

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:

#63 -- Duke Sims

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.

#60 -- Manny Sanguillen

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?!?

#39 & 40 -- Bob Barton & "In Action"

Bob Barton

The only year Bob was a semi-regular player was 1971. His OPS+ was a lofty 94, by far the highest of any season in which he had more than 10 plate appearances. His .250 average for a team that hit .233 was 5th for players that had 300 at bats. It was by far his best year. His competition for the spot came from rookie Fred Kendall (.171) and Chris Cannizzaro (.190). The good times stopped rolling when Bob got off to a bad start in 1972 and the Padres put Fred Kendall in to catch regularly.

I never knew Bob had a place in baseball history, especially with these numbers. However, Bob had a profound place. Marvin Miller was negotiating with the owners over the reserve clause. The owners were arguing that the reserve clause, which kept a player from being a free agent, protected players. Miller responded with “What about Bob Barton?” Miller was wondering how the reserve system protected a player like Bob Barton who’d been a 3rd string catcher with the Giants for 5 years and was getting nowhere. The owners had no response. That helped convince Miller that the reserve clause was worth fighting over. So put Bob Barton up there (but quite a bit lower on the page) with Curt Flood, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally as heroes of free agency.

Topps made 72 “in action” cards for 1972, 12 in each of the 6 series. If I were a Topps card executive as this was being considered, I would look at this as a way to get more cards in of players that baseball fans wanted to see. That’s why we had Carl Yastrzemski and we’ll see Willie Mays, Bobby Murcer and Johnny Bench. You also need to get in someone from every team. However, why in the world were there 5 Padre “in action” cards? This would average 4 cards per team and the Pads weren't exactly the team you'd think to go over the average.

We’ll see Clay Kirby, Clarence Gaston, Nate Colbert and Ollie Brown coming up to go with Bob. I understand Nate Colbert as he was unquestionably the star of the team. Gaston and Brown were solid and Kirby was their top starter. I do not know why they have an “in action” card of Bob Barton. I’ll have the same question when we get to Pat Corrales of the Reds. Johnny Bench’s backups rarely saw any “action.” The “action” on this card is certainly questionable as it looks like he’s just chased a foul ball to the screen and is lingering to look at the attractive young lady or a kid eating ice cream in the third row. The best part of the card is the security guard. How often do you see that guy in the picture? Based on how tough he looks, I don't think they're expecting Colonel Ike Dubaku to be perpetrating any hijinks in the stadium today.

About the only other comment about Bob is that 1/3 of his 9 career homers came off Hall of Famers (Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro and Ferguson Jenkins).

#26 -- Andy Etchebarren

Andy Etchebarren

Andy had the bushiest eyebrows in the league. Leonid Brezhnev and a Jonas Brother (OK, I'm not hip enough to know which one) say he should wax those things. I’d always known him as a backup for the Orioles and was astonished to see he made 2 All-star teams and even garnered MVP votes in 1966, when he hit an astonishing .221 with 11 homers. Kevin must have been in charge of the MVP voting (don’t know how you can do that pre-natal….good job, Kevin!) because Frank Robinson was the unanimous MVP, Brooks Robinson was second followed by Boog Powell; Luis Aparicio was 9th, Stu Miller 11th, and Andy finished 17th. I don't have any problem with the Robinsons and John Wesley Powell, but I probably wouldn’t have voted Etchebarren as even the 17th most valuable Oriole.

He may not have been a relief pitcher, but Andy posted the most important save of 1966 for the Orioles. At a private party on August 22, 1966, Frank Robinson was struggling underwater until Andy dove in and saved him. Can’t you see Andy as a guest celebrity lifeguard on Baywatch, running through the sand with the other lifeguards, bushy eyebrows flapping in the breeze along with Pam Anderson’s…..wait, this is a baseball site. Maybe he got those MVP votes for making sure Frank Robby was around for a full season.

Andy was also the last man to bat against Sandy Koufax. If I were him, I'd be saying that facing me convinced Sandy to take early retirement. The truth, however, was that Andy hit into a double play in the 6th inning of Game 2 of the 1966 Series. After his playing career, Andy coached in the minors for a long time (dismissed by the Ripkens from managing Aberdeen at the end of 2007) and spent 2008 coaching in the independent Atlantic League.

#17 -- Dave Duncan

Dave Duncan








This obviously isn't the prettiest card I own. I scanned this card because it was autographed. It still shows a babyfaced Dave Duncan, especially compared to the more "seasoned" pokerfaced guy we see sitting in the Cardinal dugout now. Dave's almost got a smile going in this card. He usually shows no emotion in the dugout now. The pose is the traditional catcher's pose and we'll see more of this later. He's obviously not from the Johnny Bench school of catching because he's got his throwing hand exposed.

As you can see from the card back, Dave came through the minors as a slugger. I think his 46 homers in 439 ABs in 1965 is still 2nd in the California League record books, even though the Cal League is thought of as a hitters' league. He still had a slugger's mentality when he came to the big leagues, but his secondary numbers weren't strong. I was surprised he went 3/6 stealing bases for Cleveland in 1973. Must have went to his head because he was 0/4 the next year.

Dave was a 1971 American League All-Star. He was 11 27 .245 at the end of the first half, not hardly All-Star numbers. A little more investigation and I see he was an injury replacement for Ray Fosse (who may have not wanted to go back after what happened in 1970). Duncan didn't play (Bill Freehan and Thurman Munson were the AL catchers), but had a front row seat for Reggie's titanic blast off Dock Ellis.

His teams typically had better batting average against with him catching, except for 1972 when his was slightly higher than Gene Tenace. After being swept out of the playoffs by the Orioles in 1971, Dave and the A's got that World Series championship in 1972. However, that was the end of the line with the A's. The A's made a curious move. Gene Tenace emerged in the Series and the A's traded Dave and George Hendrick to the Indians for Ray Fosse and Jack Heidemann. Heidemann was nothing more than infield depth and didn't last. Fosse wasn't an All-Star again, but Hendrick went on to blossom.

Dave's known now for all the great reclamation projects he done with pitchers, from Dave Stewart, Bob Welch, Todd Stottlemyre, Jeff Weaver and Kyle Lohse. Now that Leo Mazzone is retired, he's known as one of the top pitching coaches around. His sons, Shelley and Chris, are following in his footsteps somewhat as one dimensional power hitters, although Dave was far superior to either of them in the field. Dave now has a condo on a quiet part of Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo. As a Cardinal fan, I sure hope you've got more tricks up your sleeve this year.

1972 Feature
I've looked back through some of 1972's movie titles and I don't think I went to a movie that year. If I had, it would have been to the drive-in. I don't think my folks took me to see Shaft's Big Score, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things or Play it Again, Sam.

I do remember around that time really liking the Planet of the Apes movies. I've looked and the original with Charlton Heston came out in 1968 ("You blew it up.....Damn you all to hell!!"). In 1972 the 4th out of the 5 Ape movies came out, "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes." It was pretty unremarkable. This is the one where the apes were slaves and Cornelius (son of the "good apes" Charlton Heston would encounter later...come sort of time travel thing) started a revolt to overthrow the humans. By the way, even though this movie was set in the futuristic world of 1991, I don't remember any references to the Bash Brothers, Wide Right or that dang Saddam.

The storyline was kind of cool on the surface, especially seeing all these apes hopping around. There was some shoot-em-up and action. However, I can kind of remember even as an 8 year old getting sick of the preachy message of "The apes are better than the humans, until the apes start acting like the humans."

CBS had a short-lived TV series based on the first movie that came out later. I think I may have even had a Planet of the Apes action set. I didn't watch the remake movie that came out. I've seen a few of those and have been disappointed. I've kept my memories of the originals of Planet of the Apes, Brian's Song, Rollerball and Death Race 2000.

#5 -- John Bateman

John Bateman

John was a fair to middlin’ catcher for most of his big league career. He was good defensively, but couldn’t hit or run enough to stay in a good lineup. Still, name me a Houston Astro catcher that’s bested his 16 homers in a season. Can’t do it, although I think that’s got to be beaten in the next 5-7 years. He was also the first ever catcher on the Expos. The best team he was on was the 4-man King and His Court, Eddie Feigner’s traveling 4 man team that beat 9 man All-star teams in softball.

John died in 1996, but that hasn’t stopped him from maintaining a Myspace page. Check it out. There are some interesting stories about how he didn't get along with Gene Mauch in Montreal, but did fancy himself as a 1970's Jack Bauer.

1972 Feature
Probably the most heinous event of 1972 occurred on September 5 in Munich, Germany. This will be written about separate from the Olympics, because I have such fond memories of the Olympics that year I don't want to ruin it again with this.

Members of a Palestinian group called Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village and got to the condo where the Israeli Olympic team was staying. They kidnapped and killed 11 Israeli Olympians. Three of the terrorists were captured, but later released in exchange for release of a West German airliner that had been hijacked. No bother. Israel has its own way of dealing with terrorists. Those were called Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God.

I don't think we realize what a big event this was. This Olympics was something special for Israel. Only 27 years before, the nation of Israel did not exist and Jews were being slaughtered by the millions by Nazis at the Dachau Concentration Camp, only 10 miles from the Olympic Village. Yet Israel could now send a team to the Olympics in Germany. What started out with so much promise ended with so much tragedy and sorrow.

The world had dealt with terrorism before. There were groups all over the place perpetrating bombings and assassinations. This was different, however. The Olympics should have been a safe, hands-off area and these athletes weren't combatants. However, the reason you don't negotiate with terrorists is that terrorism has no rules. This event changed the world because Jim McKay broadcast it to the world. We had to see it, feel it and deal with it. I remember it, but as an 8 year old I had no idea how it would change the world.

"Our worst fears have been realized......They're all gone."