# 112 -- Greg Luzinski

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.

#69 -- Roger Freed

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.

1972 Topps Traded Mike Schmidt

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.

#43 & 44 -- Rick Wise & "In Action"

Rick Wise







When you talk about good hitting pitchers, Rick Wise is one that comes up. He’s the only person to ever hit 2 homers while pitching a no-hitter. Not much drama about who the star of the game was that night, but he wouldn’t have predicted a great game as he said he was weak from just getting over the flu. We should all be so sick. It should have been his second no-hitter. He lost his first on what he says was a poor scoring decision. Jeff Torborg was credited with an infield hit on a roller to short that the shortstop bobbled.

Otherwise, he was a league average pitcher. He was a 19 game winner for the Red Sox team that went to the 1975 World Series and had a ringside seat for Fisk’s game winning homer. Unfortunately for Rick, he's always going to be best remembered in Missouri for going 17-17 in 1972 instead of 27-10. When the Cardinal brass got sick of Steve Carlton, the Phils gave up Rick to get him. Not Rick's fault, but he was given shoes too big to fill.

There are identifiable guys in the background. From Baseball Almanac's roster page that shows numbers from 1971, I can tell that the guy on the left (#37) is Billy Wilson. The guy on the right is a minor leaguer (doesn't look old enough to be a coach), because the Phils didn't have any numbers in the 50's on their active roster. The guy in the middle is a future Hall of Famer that looks like is receiving a wedgie from Wilson. My hint is that he could slap a contempt citation on Wilson for that disrespecful act now. That pitcher is Senator Jim Bunning.


The "action" card is pretty good, given what we've seen so far. It was taken on a sunny day in Candlestick, and there's a pretty full house. Of course the Giants won the West in 1971. Rick pitched there twice. He got beat 6-0 on August 18, but that was a Wednesday with an attendance of only 10,000, so I don't that that was the game. I'm going for the first game of a June 6 doubleheader where Rick threw a 3 hit shutout with 9 K's to win 1-0. It's good to see the subject of the "action" card also be a good day for the ballplayer.

#14 -- Phillie Rookies (Koegel, Anderson, Twitchell)

Pete Koegel (minor league record)

Mike Anderson

Wayne Twitchell

Generally, I didn’t like the rookie cards. I didn’t know the players and you didn’t know if they’d ever be any good. For example, Pete Koegel hit one big league homer. It came with 2 outs in the 9th off Tommy John in 1970. Sounds like potentially a big hit. Wrong. It spoiled a 5-0 shutout. Otherwise, the only thing I know about him is that he was big (6-7), hit for power, struck out a lot and was a nomad between catcher, first and the outfield. Mike Anderson and Wayne Twitchell had better careers, but neither were world-beaters. Twitchell was the Phillie All-Star representative to the 1973 game in KC. He threw a scoreless 6th, giving up a leadoff double to John Mayberry, striking out Reggie Jackson and then getting Carlos May and Bobby Murcer out.

This brought up a big question for me at first thought. Why did Sparky Anderson pick Wayne Twitchell over Steve Carlton when everybody knows Carlton was a better pitcher? In 1972 Lefty was 27-10 with over 300 K’s and a sub 2.00 ERA. Wayne Twitchell’s first half split was 8-3 2.29 ERA, 2 shutouts and 103 K’s in 137.2 innings. However, in the first half of 1973 Carlton was 7-7, 4.28 on his way to a 13-20 season with a 3.90 ERA. So, upon further review, Wayne Twitchell really was the more deserving Phillie All-Star representative in 1973. Sadly for Wayne, that was the only year he won more than 6 games or had 200 innings pitched.

Mike Anderson was a good defensive outfielder with gap power. He went on to be a solid pinch-hitter/role player with the Phillies and Cardinals. One day in 1979 the Phils had a tough day in Wrigley. They were down 11-2 in the 8th and they’d already run through a lot of their bullpen. Mike went to the mound. (I love these kind of games.) He strikes out former teammate Jerry Martin (ouch). Then he strikes out Mike Vail……looking!!! (double ouch). Steve Ontiveros and Barry Foote follow with singles. The Cubbies decide you never have enough runs in Wrigley and a 9 run lead isn’t safe, even with Bruce Sutter in the bullpen, so they send Larry Biitner to pinch-hit for Dick Tidrow. Biitner grounds to second. Threat over. Mike strikes out 2 in one inning. Despite giving up the hits, this has to be one of the best non-pitcher appearances in terms of strikeouts (Andy, maybe there’s a Stat of The Day column here somewhere……).

1972 Feature

In 1972 I thought pro wrestling on TV was real. We didn't get the WWF telecast out of New York. We got a local promotion in Missouri called the Central States. The big names there were Harley Race, Rufus R. Jones, Bulldog Bob Brown and Lord Alfred Hays. I don't think Skandor Akbar had made his presence felt yet, but he was probably the most infamous name. I couldn't believe they would allow someone as vile and anti-American as that heel Saudi (later, after Ayatollah Khomeini took American hostages, Akbar became an Iranian) on the TV. Compared to what came later, it was hokey and schlocky, even by pro wrestling standards. However, the steel chairs became imprinted with men's heads and we had the great interviews, with lines like, "______, when we come to St. Louis on Saturday night, October 12th at the Checkerdome, I'm gonna beat you like the dog that you are." They didn't bother with political correctness. Chief Frank Hill was like every other American Indian wrestler in that he had a tomahawk chop as his finishing more and his opponents referred to him as a "broke down Injun."

The company that publishes Pro Wrestling Illustrated starting giving year end awards in 1972:

Wrestler of the year: Pedro Morales

Tag Team of the year: Dick the Bruiser and The Crusher

Match of the year: Bruno Sammartino wins Los Angeles Battle Royal

Most Popular Wrestler: Jack Brisco and Fred Curry (tie)

Most Hated Wrestler: The Shiek (not the Iron Shiek)

Most Inspirational Wrestler: Lord Alfred Hayes

Rookie of the year: Mike Graham

Manager of the year: Bobby Heenan

Midget Wrestler of the year: Little Bruiser

The big promotions at the time were the NWA and the WWF. Pedro Morales was the WWF champ and Dory Funk, Jr. (Terry Funk's brother) was the NWA champion. However, the most notable development on the pro wrestling scene came in Atlanta, where an upstart UHF channel called WTCG put on a show called Georgia Championship Wrestling hosted by legendary wrestling announcer Gordon Solie. Most wrestling fans know that show grew as the upstart UHF channel went satellite as WTBS and when I was in high school, I could go to a friend's house and watch it Saturday nights from 5-7 p.m. That, along with the McMahon's taking the WWF national on the USA network took wrestling to popularity in the 1980's that was unmatched.