#23 -- Ted Kubiak

Ted Kubiak

Check out Ted’s flowing hair. Another Spring Training shot. Those look like blue chaise lounges in the background on the hillside. Ted was one of the rotation of second basemen in Oakland, along with Tim Cullen, Dick Green and Larry Brown. Dick Williams would sometimes start one of them and then pinchhit every time the second baseman came up, even requiring Gene Tenace to put on a fielders mitt and play second. Ted couldn’t hit his way out of a wet paper bag, his best slugging percentage only being .337. But he could play the field….

Most of the Rangers don't have a logo on their hats because Topps didn't want the Senators' logo on there. Ted, however, is showing off his thick rug because he finished 1971 with the Cardinals, coming to the Rangers for Shaky Joe Grzenda. Hard to tell if that's a photo taken with the Cardinals in late '71 or the Brewers in '70 or early '71. I'm going with the Brewers. I also found out in my research that he married the daughter of Irv Noren, a good 1950's outfielder and early 70's A's coach.

Ted was absolutely horrid with the stolen base. His best overall hitting season was 1970 with the Brewers, where he finished in the Top 10 in the AL in triples, sacrifice bunts, being difficult to strike out and intentional walks. They didn't list it, but I'm sure he was also Top 10 in lowest stolen base percentage (minimum 10 attempts). He was 4/13. For his career he was 13/35. That's below the Bill James line of 67%.

Ted wished Ed Phillips stayed in the big leagues longer than the 23 innings in 1970. Ted faced him 3 times, going 2-3 with a solo shot and a grand slam to right-center in Fenway. That was Ted's only 4-run homer and it came in a game that he had 4 hits and 7 RBI. He wasn't much at the plate, but he had hair! He's now the minor league defensive coordinator for the Indians.

The only other fun fact I could dredge up on Ted is that he has the same pose for his 1971 and 1976 cards (except for the cool, mid-70's mustache), shown below. I also got a much cooler signature on my 1972 card than appears as a facsimile on his 1971 card.

#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.

#15 - Walt Williams

Walt Williams





Walt Williams is an athlete that needs a nickname. The NBA player was known as The Wizard. Pro Bowling's all-time leading money winner uses his middle name and goes by Walter Ray. The MLB outfielder was dubbed “No-Neck” by former Houston Colt .45 (no, I’m not making any comments about that) teammate John Bateman. I think he got the worse end of the deal, but look at him. He wasn’t tall (5’6”), but went 185 and was very powerfully built. He’s also got great mutton chops, but is not John Olerud’s uncle, despite seeming to wear a batting helmet (no flaps in the early 70’s) while fielding. Bruce Markusen writes a great blog and I stole liberally from his article about Walt.

I got this card autographed through the mail a few years ago. I love the way he uses one W for his first and last names. He just oozes coolness in a way few people do. Can't you see Walt dressing -- no, he wouldn't just dress -- he'd be stylin' and profilin' after the game walking down Michigan Avenue in Chicago after games.

Walt did break up White Sox teammate Stan Bahnsen’s bid for a no-hitter when he was with the Indians in 1973 with a 2 out single in the 9th. In 1972, he platooned in RF with Pat Kelly for an overachieving White Sox team that finished 2nd. At the end of the year he was traded to the Indians and then went on to the Yankees. Supposedly, New York was quite to Walt’s liking because he could go out after games with teammates and put away a lot of food. That reminds me of something a guy I was on a business trip said to me a couple of years ago while we were eating in O’Hare on the way home: “You don't drink, but you can sure eat a lot of food.” Everybody’s got to have a talent. Make sure yours is socially acceptable. One thing I did find out about No Neck in researching him is that he is almost universally beloved, especially by White Sox fans.

1972 Feature

My modern translation of General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous quote would be "War sucks." I had a grandfather that used to quote President Franklin Roosevelt's statement, "War. I hate war." I remember a Star Trek episode where a couple of "advanced" civilizations tried to sanitize war and make it less gruesome, so they continued at war for several centuries. Don't get the idea that I'm anti-war. I'm not. When we have a legitimate foreign policy objective to achieve and military force is necessary, I'm in favor of that and in favor of giving our military what they need to win in terms of supplies and political guts.

Another quote I hear about war is to tell someone, "The War's Over" to get them to quit being stubborn. However, in the 21st century, I think a lot of us forget the genesis of that statement. Part of it comes from Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi. Sgt. Yokoi was forced into Japan's Imperial Army in 1941, taken from his life as a 26 year old tailor. I suppose when you sneak attack a superpower, you'd better get a bunch of soldiers ready. In 1943 he was stationed on Guam. In June 1944, United States forces landed to retake the island and Yokoi was separated from his platoon. He went to the jungle to hide out. He stayed in the jungle until this date in 1972, when he was subdued by a couple of local fishermen. He was there for almost 30 years.

I can't say he continued fighting the war. The accounts I have read say he'd seen flyers announcing the war was over and he was hiding mainly to avoid harsh treatment he'd heard that Japanese soldiers were receiving. He returned to Japan, became a celebrity of sorts and received back pay of about $300. What, the Japanese paid their soldiers about $10/year? Now that his war was over he settled down, married and died in 1997 at a ripe old age of 82.

However, World War II was still not over. There were two more Japanese soldiers discovered in 1974. Then, the war was over.

#10 - Amos Otis

Amos Otis

Amos was the Royals’ first big star and fan favorites. I remember going to games and getting sick of the fans chanting “A-O, A-O” incessantly. He could do it all: run, field, throw, hit for power and average. He didn’t get a lot of attention, but was an All-Star and one of the best Royals ever. I got to see him play at Royals Stadium in the 1973 All-Star Game and he went 2-2.

Think of the best AL centerfielders of the 70’s. Fred Lynn comes to mind. Mickey Rivers was a good leadoff hitter. Reggie Jackson played center until the A’s got Billy North in 1973. Bobby Murcer was there for the Yankees in the first half of the decade. The Orioles had Paul Blair and Al Bumbry. However for consistency over the entire decade, a case could be made that Amos was the best of the bunch in the AL, but he’s probably not going to come to mind in that discussion.

I got this card autographed through the mail by Amos in the early part of this decade. I think I counted about 67 different 1972 autographed cards. That's my other enjoyment in the hobby. It started on a rainy Saturday in September 1999 when I decided to send off some of my doubles for autographs to fuel my 4 year old son's interest in baseball. When the cards started coming back, he loved it, but I realized it would be just as easy to put 2 cards in the envelopes as 1. He's 14 now and I'm not sure how into autograhped cards he is when there's skateboards, Facebook and video games. But we still collect and recently went over the 1900 mark on autographs from different ballplayers. According to SportsCollectors Net, Amos still signs through the mail, but now he charges $5/card.

1972 Feature

At this point, the only radio I ever listened to was an AM station in the car that my folks liked that played Top 40 music. I'd also listen to Cardinal games, but only if I was home because they came in on a local FM station and the car (1970 Monte Carlo) didn't have FM. I've looked back over the Billboard Number Ones for the year and I wasn't really a big fan of any of them.

However, there were two 1972 song I heard more than any other and neither one was a Number One. The first finished the year as #93, the other was #72. I'm going to go with the #93 song and leave #72 to later. The New Seekers sang this song at #93 that became a cultural landmark for 1972 (Gag, I'm starting to sound like Casey Kasem.) You see, the Coca-Cola corporation changed a couple of the words and made it a famous commercial. Coke may not have brought world peace, but they did achieve world domination.