#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).

#37 & 38 -- Carl Yastrzemski

Carl Yastrzemski

If Rico Petrocelli is a Red Sox hero, here's a guy who's in the Red Sox Pantheon of Gods. He’s a Hall of Famer, but on a back field in Spring Training in the main card. I think at this time the Red Sox were in Winter Haven, FL. (They shouldn’t complain….when Babe Ruth played for them, Spring Training was in Hot Springs, AR. Of course, that may have been so Mr. Ruth could play the horses.) Looks like the same dumpy place Rico Petrocelli was, without the other player in the background.

Yaz looks young on the main card. I remember him more from the mid-70's when he'd gotten the older and harder look to him. The card pose is the classic batting stance, which I like. The only complaint about the card is the cartoon on the back. If it's talking about him leading the league in assists, why does it show him making a catch? Would it have been too difficult to draw an infielder tagging a guy with the ump in the background making an out sign with the infielder having a word balloon saying something like, "Thanks, Carl!!"?

During a stretch in the late 60’s, Yaz was as good as anyone in the League. He was hitting .300 in 1968 when no one else in the AL could. He was hitting 40 homers when the mound was high and pitchers ruled. He was also the best defensive left fielder of his day and was remarkably consistent at the plate.

OK, the photo on the action card isn’t horrible. Looks like Yaz has smoked one on a hit and run. Is that Munson behind the plate? It looks like he's got dark Yankee colors, but that could also be Billy Freehan of the Tigers or Ray Fosse of the Indians.

Think about Yaz’ career. He replaced Ted Williams in left field for the Red Sox. How does it go replacing a legend? Ask Gene Bartow when he was at UCLA or Bobby Murcer following Mickey Mantle into centerfield. Sometimes no matter how great you are in your own right, it'll never be good enough.

Yaz was one of the few that could follow a legend. Then, Jim Rice replaced him in 1975, as Yaz moved to DH and play 1B until 1983. Just think, from about 1939 until 1986 the Sox had 3 regular left fielders and all of them were dominant MVPs during their career (Mike Greenwell was looking good to extend this. For a while). And now, they’re all in the Hall of Fame.

#35 & 36 -- Jerry Johnson & "In Action"

Jerry Johnson










In 1971 Jerry was the top reliever on the Giants team that won the NL West. His 18 saves were 4th in the league. To make the All-Star team now, you’ve got to have more saves than that by the break. Of course in 1971 (1) more pitchers were throwing something called a complete game, so they didn't need relievers and (2) managers didn't give a rat's ass if a pitcher got a stat or not. The only important stat for Charlie Fox in 1971 was something called a "win."

Jerry didn’t repeat his success in 1972, going 8-6 4.42 with 8 saves. The Giants waived him. Didn’t even try to trade him. He had MVP votes the previous year and they didn’t think they could get any value for him. I guess you could do that when you had a few thousand tied up in a guy rather than a few million. Again, the rationale for whether to play or waive a guy in the early 1970's had nothing to do with contracts, but was all about winning. Today, a guy can lose his effectiveness as a closer, but he stays around. Heck, Eric Gagne just signed a minor league deal with the Brewers. Gagne was a great reliever before arm problems, but if you look at his anticipated effectiveness for 2009, you would think he would be a little less desirable than somebody like Jerry Johnson.

Unfortunately, the rest of Jerry’s career was mediocre at best. He bounced around with the Phils, Cards, Indians, Astros, Padres and Blue Jays. He was the winning pitcher in the Blue Jays first game, helping bail out Bill Singer, who we saw recently.

I can’t tell anything about the "action" in the In Action card. I know the game isn’t in June, because this photo was taken in Candlestick Park, the shadow suggests it’s late in the day and the few fans in the background aren’t huddled in blankets. But what’s Jerry doing? Is he walking off the mound after getting an inning-ending strikeout? Did he just get caught finishing his windup in warm-ups? Is he going to cover first on a bouncer to McCovey? It’s a good thing they’ve cropped this to close up on Jerry so we can’t see the rest of the field because the shadow keeps us from seeing Jerry’s face.

#33 & 34 -- Billy Martin and "In Action"

Billy Martin

















This is a famous card of Billy. Look at the middle finger on his left hand. Is he really flipping the photographer the bird or is he just comfortably leaning on the bat? I'll leave it to you.





The Tigers took the pennant this year, becoming the second team Billy led to the playoffs. He won the AL West with the Twins in 1969, but beat up a starting pitcher and ignored the owner, so he got canned anyway. I wonder if he was trying to "instill hustle and desire" into him like the cardback suggests.


He took over the Tigers and led them to within an eyelash of the World Series (a rare Eddie Brinkman throwing error led to the game winning run in Game 5), but got fired anyway after finishing 3rd the next year. Billy was fired more than any other manager, but the only one of his teams to not make the playoffs were the sad sack Rangers, although he guided them to a surprising second place finish in 1974. He "left" 9 managing assignments and the only two where he "left" with a less than .500 record in his last year was with the Rangers and the '82 A's.


Don’t tell me you didn’t see the "In Action" card coming. What is Billy Martin’s In Action card going to have? He’s arguing with the ump. He’s probably using the kind of language his left hand did in the previous card, but he hasn’t boiled over to kicking dirt around yet. Check out that vein about ready to pop on the right side of his neck. This may be the most appropriate In Action card in the entire set.

#31 & 32 Cleon Jones w/ In Action

Cleon Jones










Cleon Jones is a big guy in Mets’ lore. In 1969, he hit .340 to lead the team to an improbable Series and used the Nippy Jones trick to show shoe polish on the ball to convince the umpire to let him take first base as a hit batsman in Game 5 of the Series.

Cleon was one of the best all-around outfielders the Mets would have until Darryl Strawberry. He drew some complaints from the front office for supposedly having a cavalier attitude and being lazy (he was once pulled off the field like Jimmy Rollins), but when you're a star, you can get away with it. However, in 1975 some of his attitude met up with owner Donald Grant’s, uh, disappointment at being caught with drugs and a white woman to whom he wasn’t married. I only add the part about the woman being white because that was important in Grant’s furor. The only baseball Cleon played after that was a month with the White Sox. Still, I think Cleon is beloved to

This is the first in the "In Action" subsets. When you look through this set, almost everything is posed. In the 1971 set, there were several action shots. They went back to action shots in the 1973 set, but the photography on them looks like a 6 year old did it with one of those old Brownie cameras that you look down into the top. The 1973's are often grainy and at a distance. This was the only year that Topps used the "In Action" subset, possibly to emphasize "This is an action shot!" While it was a way for them to get additional cards of popular players in the set (they don't still do that, do they?), as you'll see, it also led to some questionable selections getting additional cards. As a whole, I think the "In Action" subset was a failure, but these cards are contained in all 6 series.

The First Series In Action cardback reminds me of when Little Ralphie Parker got his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring in "A Christmas Story" and the message turned out to be "Drink more Ovaltine." His response: "A stinking commercial" That's how I feel about these cardbacks. There's nothing there but a stinking commercial for the 3rd through 6th series.

Let’s take a look at the “action” going on. If that’s the pitchers mound in the background, then is he going to tag up at second on a fly ball? I guess he could be running from first to second and that’s the right field bullpen mound. Not a lot of action there.

#30 -- Rico Petrocelli

Rico Petrocelli








Among those adorable Chowds, Rico is a folk hero. He was made for Fenway Park. I heard an interview last fall on XM’s Baseball Channel (before Sirius took over and ruined it) of he and Jim Lonborg talking about the Impossible Dream Red Sox team from 1967. He talked about how he tailored his swing for the Green Monster and the thrill of having the soft liner that was the last out in the pennant clincher land in his glove. He's written a book about that team called "Tales From the Impossible Dream."

He was a big part of their team, hitting 40 homers as a shortstop in 1969 while making only 14 errors. He started having injury problems in 1974 and was never the same after being hit in the head in 1975, although he fared well in the Series against the Reds.

Looks like a Spring Training pose on this card. George Toma sure wasn’t the groundskeeper here. That patch on the right side of the card looks about like some of the softball fields I’ve played on. I can’t figure out who that is in the background. I’m going to say it’s some pitcher, although there’s really no telling.

Small card show report -- Last Hole Filled In

I took some time at a small card show over the weekend at the mall. There were only about 10 vendors. The one that has older vintage cards I like wasn't there. It didn't look too promising.

However, I saw another guy that I'd never seen before. He had a lot of cards from the early 70's back through the 60's in a dollar box. He also had a good trove of 1972 high numbers. I picked up one card I need for my 1964 set. I'm down to 13 needed.

I picked up about 12 of the high numbers needed for my 1972 set. I'm down to 13 needed on it.

The real big thing that came of this for me was that I got the last few cards for my 1971 set. It's finished. I now have complete Topps sets for 1971, 1973-2008. I'm about 1/2 way through a 1970 set. I have this thought that I'm going to work backwards, but I don't know how far I'll go. At the same table I saw a guy buying up 1957 singles. He was looking at a checklist. He asked how much it was. "It books for eight, but I'll let you have it for four and a half." Somehow, I don't think he was talking about dollars. That makes me wonder how far back I'll be able to go....

I wish Kevin could have been there. There were a lot of 1965's in those dollar and two dollar boxes.

#29 - Bill Bonham

Bill Bonham

This was Bill Bonham, set-up reliever/spot starter. He was decent in this role, with an ERA+ at 122 and 130. When the Cubs converted him to a starter, he was less effective, but his record was 11-22, 13-15 & 9-13. Then his fortunes changed. He went 11-5, 9-7 & 2-1. What changed? He went from pitching for the Cubs to pitching for the Reds. Arm problems brought a quick end to his career.

A highlight of his career: striking out Mike Torrez, Ron Hunt, Tim Foli and Willie Davis in order in the second inning of a game against the Expos. (Torrez reached on a passed ball and stole second for his only career steal. His only other attempt came a couple of months later when he was caught trying to steal 3rd. Had to have been a busted hit and run.) He also had 4 shutouts. He was a decent hitter for a pitcher and used 7 times as a pinch runner.

A lowlight was allowing Dave Cash (single), Larry Bowa (single), Garry Maddox (homer), Greg Luzinski (single), Jay Johnstone (double), Tommy Hutton (double) and Mike Schmidt (homer) to all get hits before he hits the shower in the first inning. This is the record for most consecutive hits allowed to start a game. Ken Crosby relieved and allowed a single to Johnny Oates before the parade was ended on Dick Ruthven’s sacrifice bunt. Why in the heck was Michael Jack Schmidt hitting 7th behind the illustrious sluggers Tommy Hutton and Jay Johnstone?

#28 -- Twins Rookies (Gebhard, Brye & Haydel)

Bob Gebhard
Steve Brye
Hal Haydel





More rookies. Steve Brye was the star of this show. The same Steve Brye that allegedly let a shallow fly off George Brett’s bat fall in on the final day of 1976 so he would win the batting title instead of Hal McRae. There are those who have opined he did so for not very nice reasons that aren’t worth repeating here. No matter what, it was an interesting day. Brett went 3-4, finishing at .333. McRae went 2-4 and finished at .332 and Rod Carew was 2-4, finishing at .331. Brye went on to be a somewhat below-average, weak-hitting outfielder with the Twins throughout the 70's, finishing up with the Pirates in 1978. Steve was also on a Twins Rookies card in 1971. If what he's alleged to have done on the final day of 1976 is true, there's not much reason to write more about him.

Bob Gebhard: as a 44th round draft pick, he overcame the odds by making the big leagues and getting 1 win and 1 save, later becoming the first GM of the Rockies. He looked like a genius with Andres Gallaraga, Vinny Cash-stealer, Dante Bichette and Larry Walker. However, a team ERA of over 6.00 doomed him. He then was Walt Jocketty's chief assistant in St. Louis and is now working with the Diamondbacks as a special assistant to GM Josh Byrnes.

Hal Haydel: his last game was in 1971, but only allowed 2/19 inherited runners to score in 1971. Don't know why he didn't get more of a chance. I guess Jim Strickland was just too much. Hal is from Houma, Louisiana, landfall point for Hurricane Gustav in 2008 and ancestral home of my father-in-law.

Card Show coming up

Living in southwest Missouri there aren't a lot of card shows. When I was in law school at Duke, I could find something in driving distance at least once a month. I even drove to Charlotte once for a big show at the Convention Center (coming back in an ice storm in a '84 Camaro with rear wheel drive...dang glad to have made it).

We have a mall show this weekend. Because it's Valentine's weekend, I'll have to squeeze it in Friday afternoon. I don't think I can get my wife out shopping this weekend and I sure don't want to take my kids. It's not like the neat shows I'd go to in the '80's, but there are 2-3 guys that bring stuff I like. There's one guy that I know will get about $50 from me, just on old assorted cards from '58 - '69 that he puts out. I'll spend a couple of hours at his table talking about old ballplayers and looking at cards. I end up getting a lot of his autographed.

I'm really looking this time to knock out a lot of my want list on the 1971 and 1972 sets. If I can find anything for 1964, I'll see about it, but those cards are probably going to go beyond what I forecast my budget for this show will be.

Anyway, guys like Cesar Gutierrez, Rick Monday, Bobby Murcer and Willie Davis can get ready to say "Hi" to me a little later on. Unless I'm really bowled over, I just don't see me picking up any 2009 cards at all.

#27 -- Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson




Bob's another guy that lost an entire year to military service. He was cruising before leaving and struggled a little coming back, but rebounded well. His numbers look better than his win-loss record for the Royals. Believe it or not, Bob was responsible for building the Royals. He was in the trade that brought Amos Otis to the Royals from the Mets and the Pirates gave up Freddie Patek to get him. Those were two cornerstones of the Royals in the '70's.

It's kind of neat to see all the guys hanging around behind him. I wonder if they're making fun of his bent-over, finishing up the fake pitch pose? Bob was 6-4 and 220, which was a big guy back then, so if anyone was poking fun at him, I'll bet little Jose Pagan wasn't one of them.

That 1971 playoff game on the back of Bob's card was a big deal. The LCS (best of 5) was tied 1-1 and the Giants were going with Juan Marichal. Marichal shut the Pirates down on 4 hits, only allowing solo homers to Richie Hebner and Bob Robertson. Bob had to be better and he was, scattering 5 hits and allowing only an unearned run over 8 innings. The Pirates won that game to go up 2-1 and then closed it out in Game 4. Bob wasn't so strong in the Series against the Orioles. He started and lost Game 2, getting knocked out in the 4th.

There were 4 Bob Johnsons to have played in the big leagues. This Bob wasn't the best, but he's the only one with a World Series ring.

Blog Bat Around #4 -- Where your heart is......

What card or set with have value in ten years?

That's a simple question in 1979. (I start there because I didn't have any cards in 1969) The answer would be the T210 Wagner and Topps. There really wasn't anything else. However, what was the rage in 1989? There are some cards that will always have value. The Honus Wagner is one and the 1952 Topps set is another. What I remember (I did no research) was that the 1984 Fleer Update set was a big deal, with rookie cards of Puckett and Clemens. The 1984 and 1985 Topps sets were big because of the rookie cards of Mattingly ('84), Gooden ('85), Clemens ('85) and McGwire ('85 Olympic).

Ask that question again in 1989? You'd think the Clemens, Gooden and Mattingly cards would be the big deals by the time Prince would be partying (1999). If you were talking about 1989 products, you'd expect Gregg Jeffries, Ken Griffey, Jr. and 1989 Score to be big deals. Possibly even Upper Deck, but it was such a new product that I wasn't quite ready to jump in with both feet until I saw if it was going to last.

I couldn't tell you what was big in 1999. I'd kind of moved away from collecting cards because I'd had kids and was buying diapers instead of cards in the mid-90's. I'd started to get back in and there was so much.......crap. There were all these insert cards that weren't part of the sets. What was that all about? I really wasn't knowing what to collect then. If you'd have asked me in 1999 what would be valuable in 10 years, I couldn't have answered it.

So that gets us to 2009. If you asked me what the big development has been in the last 10 years I'd give you 2. First, the development of ebay and the internet as the primary marketplace for cards. Second, the number of card companies has shrunk to 2, although they produce too many cards.

What developments will we see in the next 10 years? Who the heck knows. I can tell you that if the card market progresses on the same general path as the last 10 years, there may not be any "sets" that "valuable" because the card companies are getting away from set collectors with all the short prints, etc., even now supposedly getting into the flagship sets. However, I see a lot of cry on the blogs for more attention to the set collector....Hmmmm....perhaps the tide will turn.

I'd have to say that monetary value will be with vintage cards (vintage being anything before 1973). However, I'll place my own subjective value. In 10 years, I'll be 54 years old and the Duke Blue Devils will be celebrating another 2 national championships in college basketball as Coach K steps down (we're getting the crap kicked out of us by the Heels as I write this. Grrrrr....). Frankly, I value all the cards I have. Whether it's a Bob Gibson rookie card, my (almost complete) 1964 set, any Roberto Clemente card or a 1976 Randy Tate, a 1986 Bob Gibson (the Milwaukee Brewer) or my 1972 Johnny Bench with part of the front ripped off when I took it down from the bulletin board I'd taped it to in 1973, they'll all be worth more than what somebody would want to pay me.

When it comes down to it, I have always found "value" in my cards from my heart, rather than from a price guide. I hope that never changes, whether it be 10 years or 40 years from now.

#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.

#25 -- Bill Singer

Bill Singer

Bill was a good middle of the rotation starter. He had a couple of 20 win seasons, but he was still the second banana to Don Sutton and Claude Osteen with the Dodgers and Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana with the Angels. 1972 was a down year, with only a 6-16 record. In 14 of his 25 starts he got 2 runs or fewer of support and he won 2 of those games. However, moving down I-5 to Anaheim in the offseason did him a lot of good, winning 20 and throwing 315 innings in 1973.

Bill had quite an interesting and up and down career. He threw a no-hitter in 1970, striking out 10 and walking nobody. He could have had a perfect game if he hadn't hit Oscar Gamble in the 1st and made a throwing error on a Don Money grounder. A few weeks before that he had a no-hit bid spoiled by Clete Boyer of the Braves with 2 out in the 8th. He had the 2 20-win seasons and 2 All-Star Games. He also had a season interrupted when he had to have surgery to repair a circulatory problem.

I kind of remembered the save became an official stat in 1969. It was unofficial before that and statisticians have gone back and credited pitchers in prior years. Bill is usually thought of as a starter, but he was credited with the first official save on April 7, 1969. That's one of those things that makes you sit there and say "Hmmmm." I have to wonder, however, if relief pitchers would be used as they are today if the save was not an official statistic. I hate hearing announcers talk about "this is a save situation" or "that hit by Damon just put the Yankees ahead by 4, so it is no longer a save situation for Rivera. He'll sit down in the bullpen and Bruney will loosen." BFD.

Finally, Bill was the first starting pitcher for the Blue Jays. He was eminently forgettable as a Jay, his ERA never dipping below 5.90 that season.

#24 -- Ted Ford

Ted Ford

Imagine being a Cardinal fan (like I am) and hearing that prospects Colby Rasmus and Bryan Anderson are going to be in Iraq. Indian fans find out Matt LaPorta is being deployed as are David Price of the Rays, etc. It wasn't until more recently that the story of Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals became unusual. Athletes don't serve in the military any longer. Ted Williams did. Twice. Ted Ford not only served our country in Vietnam, he was in a troop that saw real action (according to B-R Bullpen). It sounds like it wasn't one of those assignments where he was the captain of the Army baseball team. Tip of the hat, Ted.

This is another of the large number of Yankee Stadium photos, as seen by the façade in the outfield foul area down the left field line. I also like Ted’s pose with the bat as if he’s swinging and he’s got his eye on the imaginary ball getting ready to rocket off his bat. 1972 was the only year Ted didn’t play for the Indians. The Rangers gave up Roy Foster and Tommy McCraw to get Ted. Ted had the best year of his career, hitting 14 homers. But he only hit .235, so the Rangers sent him back to Cleveland, where he didn’t play much.

I also got interested about the note on the back of his card about brother Lambert Ford (sounds like a car dealership). Lambert was a 1st round pick of the Indians in 1968, but didn't sign. He eventually was drafted and signed with the Astros. He didn't make the big leagues, but was described in a book about a Williamsport minor league team he was on as a speedy centerfielder. It looked like he was also taken to play in the Mexican League at Jalisco.

#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.

#22 -- Rob Gardner

Rob Gardner



New York must love Rob. He played for the Mets and the Yankees on several occasions. However the only thing New York must love more than Rob Gardner is an Alou brother. On two occasions, Rob was traded by the Yankees to the A’s for an Alou (Felipe in 1971 and Matty in 1972). I guess by the time the A’s acquired Jesus, the Yankees didn’t have Rob to trade for him.

That transaction line is funny. In April 1971 the Yankees send Rob and pitcher Ron Klimkowski to the A's for Felipe Alou. At the end of May, the A's send Rob back to the Yankees for Curt Blefary. Rob's a Yankee then for all of 1972, but after the season, the Yanks send him and Rich McKinney to the A's for Matty Alou. 1973 wasn't any less weird for Rob. In May the Brewers purchase his contract for the A's. Six weeks later the sale was "voided" and the player returned to the A's. He didn't pitch again in the big leagues. It's almost like the Brewers called up and said, "Look, we've got our receipt. Rob pitched 12 2/3 innings for us, but he walked 13 and gave up 17 hits, for an ERA of 9.95. (Somehow, he got a win and a save with those stats....) We'd rather send Kevin Kobel out there than Rob. We want our money back." In terms of the law, a contract that is voided is as if it never existed.

1972 was by far Rob's best year. He went 8-5 for the Yankees with a 3.06 ERA. Looking at the volume of stats on the back, it appears he was one of those AAAA pitchers....too good for AAA, but not for the majors. If he pitched now with 30 teams instead of 24, he'd have a long, Ron Villone-esque career as a lefty specialist. But whenever I think of him, I always think there's got to be an Alou around somewhere.

(Postscript: This card looks suspiciously close to a Night Card. However, I think it would have to be classified as a Dusk Card.)

#21 -- Atlanta Braves Team

Atlanta Braves

The shot here looks like a Spring Training facility. This was a team that had been fairly strong and had a 3rd place finish in 1971. But they were headed into a brick wall in 1972.

Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews came in to manage toward the end of the year. That didn’t help. They had Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Phil Niekro. That didn’t help. They had the 1971 NL Rookie of the Year Earl Williams behind the plate. That didn’t help. Ralph Garr and Dusty Baker both hit over .320 in the outfield. That didn’t help.

They finished last in the NL in pitching. That sure didn’t help. The only thing that did help is that the injury-decimated Giants and the expansion Padres were in their division so they only slipped to 4th. They had an odd year. They split with division-winning Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, but were a combined 10-19 against the Padres and Expos.

In addition to Williams, Aaron, Garr and Baker, the lineup had Darrell Evans, Mike Lum and Rico Carty, so there was plenty of pop. The middle infield of Felix Millan and Marty Perez were weaker than average at the plate. Millan was strong in the field, winning a Gold Glove, but Perez wasn't. The pitching staff was horrible that year. They were last in ERA, last in shutouts, last in strikeouts and 8th (of 12) in walks allowed. I know the Launching Pad of a stadium they played half their games in had something to do with it, though. Niekro and Ron Reed were the only decent starters they had, and Reed was below league average that year. After Niekro and Reed, 8 other guys got at least 5 starts. That's not a good thing.

Hank Aaron started the All-Star Game in right field, but that was all the Braves had. This was the start of a long descent. They finished above .500 in 1974, but then had 4 last place finishes to round out the '70's and then in the late '80's finished last 4 out of 5 years. They did manage to fit in 3 winning seasons in the glory days of Dale Murphy, but that was short lived.

1972 feature

I was having fun with this, but it's getting time consuming. I've recently (and unexpectedly) had some big time commitments come up. This is going to be an intermittently recurring feature and I'll focus more on the baseball aspect of the cards, players and teams involved.

# 20 -- Don Wilson

Don Wilson

I like to see Don Wilson smiling. You see baseball gave him a lot to smile about. He was the ace of the Astros staff. He threw 2 no-hitters and was working on a third in 1974 when lifted for a pinch-hitter trailing 2-1 (walks and an error in the 5th). After that game, Don only pitched 4 more times, his last start a 2-hit shutout over the Braves.

There are some cards I hate to write about. This is the first. That's because Don's career ended when he was found dead in the passenger seat of his Thunderbird in the garage with the engine running. Cause of death was officially listed as accidental. As if this isn't enough, another tragic note to the story is that the garage was attached to the house and the carbon monoxide killed his son and put his daughter in a coma. Their bedrooms were above the garage. He was one of the first ballplayers I was familiar with that died during his career. I remember thinking the 10-11 year old equivalent of "Damn."

Don had several more good years left. One can only imagine what the Astros could have done if Don had been around to tandem with J.R. Richard through the late 70's and early 80's........There would have definitely been a lot of smiling.

1972 Feature

Harry Truman may be the most famous person from Missouri, unless you're a big fan of Yogi Berra, Samuel Clemens, Walt Disney or Bob Barker. He's certainly had the most historical significance of any Missourians. He ended World War II by having the guts to make a tough decision to drop the A-bomb on Japan, forcing their surrender.

He was the last President who didn't have a college education. Can you imagine that happening now. His education came in working under a political machine in Kansas City and rising through the ranks. There would usually be two reasons you'd rise through the ranks. One would be because you were talented. Just like today, the other reason would be because you were an obsequious butt kisser.

Truman died in 1972 at his home in Independence, Mo. The Truman Library is still a big tourist attraction in the K.C. area. I've been there and heartily recommend it to anyone in the area with even a passing interest in history. I do have to admit it's not as cool as the Ronald Reagan Library, where you can tour an actual Air Force One.

I remember watching Truman's funeral when I was a kid and listening to the commentary. Lyndon Johnson died in early 1973, so there were two big state funerals in a short time, but after that we didn't have any presidential funerals until President Nixon died. However, watching Truman's funeral fascinated me and the memory of it was enough to make me want to tune in to watch the funerals of Nixon, Reagan and Ford. When the next happens (it could be a while...although we have 2 ex-Presidents in their 80's, both Bush and Carter appear to be very strong and active. Clinton may be the most vulnerable, but that would be more because of a jealous husband's shotgun instead of his heart), tune in and watch, not just for the fawning and respect shown to whatever that President did, but to see the pagentry and respect given to the Office of the President of the United States.

#19 -- Billy Cowan

Billy Cowan

Billy wasn't the best ballplayer out there. Only once did he get 200 plate appearances in the big leagues. In 1964 he was the regular centerfielder for the Cubs as a rookie. Even though his batting average was only .241, hitting 19 homers was pretty good for that day and very good for a rookie. He stole 12/15 bases that year, which was a good clip. So why didn't he ever get 200 plate appearances again?

The answer might be hiding in the fact that in 1965, despite getting 183 at bats for the Metropolitans and Braves, he didn't get 200 plate appearances. In fact, he really wasn't close. In that year he had 4 walks, got hit once and had 1 sacrifice bunt...189 plate appearances. He struck out 54 times. Go back to that rookie season where he played regularly, hit .241 and had 19 homers. He had 497 ABs, 18 walks and 128 Ks. Thats a line of .241/.268/.404 for an OPS+ of 84. That 1965 season had an OPS+ of 42. For comparison, Bob Gibson's lifetime OPS+ was 49.

Billy is very appropriately posed with the scoreboard halo over his head. Although he had a decent 1971 as a part-time leftfielder and pinch-hitter, he was about to enter Baseball Heaven. In 1972 the Angels gave some playing time in the outfield to Leroy Stanton and Jim Spencer and Andy Kosco came in to take Billy's spot. Billy's last 3 plate appearances were in 1972: foul pop to the catcher off Dave LaRoche, struck out by Paul Lindblad, and struck out by Lindblad again, both times to end a game with the tying run on. (Career against Lindblad he was 0-7, 3 Ks)

But Billy's famous for this photo of him entering the pearly gates of the California Angels....

1972 Feature
"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!"

I listened to those words most every week when I was a kid. There might be a ballgame on another network that I liked, so I didn't watch every week. But many weeks I'd have to see what Jim McKay was doing next. There was such a variety of sports.....and sport-like events. You know, it's been years since I've seen barrel jumping on ice skates. For those of you younger than 40 you might find it hard to believe that such a thing exists, but one of the annual staples of ABC's Wide World of Sports was the world barrel jumping championships. You'd have a rink (or a pond somewhere). "Athletes" in speed skating suits were out there. Then they'd bring in barrels that looked like kegs with numbers on the outside. I remember these Evel-Knievels-on-ice-skates jumping 12-13 barrels. But when they'd crash it was good.

This link is to the 1952 Barrel Jumping Championships. It's not Wide World of Sports, but it's the kind of thing you'd get to watch. It's also cool because of a certain Baseball Hall of Famer who is spotlighted in the stands watching. I would never in a million years have equated this particular Hall of Famer with barrel jumping.

I'll come back to more Wide World of Sports "sports" like demolition derby, etc. I'll leave you with my favorite reference to this long running ABC show at about the 1:17 point of the clip. Any offensive material is courtesy of the wit of Mel Brooks.

#18 - Juan Pizarro

Juan Pizarro

Juan debuted with the 1957 Braves. What a team to get started with. He won a World Series ring his rookie year and went back the next year when the Yankees got revenge on the Braves. He didn't sniff the post-season again until 1974, when he got 2 outs in a playoff game for the Pirates against the Dodgers.

As you can see from the back of his card, he had a lot of stops. I couldn't find anything to say for sure, but it looks like he hit some arm trouble in the mid-60's and never was the same. Juan was a good lefty starter, going 19-9 in 1964 for a punchless White Sox team and was a 2-time All-Star. His 1965 season was cut short and he was mostly out of the pen after that. In 1972 he was a part-time spot starter for the Cubs.

In September 1971 he beat Tom Seaver 1-0, with the only run being his homer in the 8th. He hit 8 homers and had a lifetime batting average of .202, so he could take care of himself. Today, in a scoreless tie, would a starter (1) be allowed to work in the 8th inning and, if so, (2) would he be allowed to bat for himself? How things change.

1972 feature

The 1972 Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo, Japan. Sapporo was supposed to host the Winter Olympics in 1940, but had to resign that because of this little matter of invading China. Then the whole 1940 Olympics was called off.

I don't remember much of this Olympics, if anything. Our "darling" of the ice skating rink was Janet Lynn. She couldn't match Peggy Fleming's 1968 gold and took bronze. She also couldn't match the crush I had on Dorothy Hamill in 1976. The real star of figure skating in that Olympics was Soviet Irina Rodnina. She won the first of her golds. Her more famous gold came later when she paired with Alexander Zaitzev, even skating without music when there was a technical glitch in the 1973 World Championships.

The Damn Commies won the most total medals (16) and most gold (8) of this Olympiad. We only won 8 medals, 3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze. Our ice hockey team (with Robbie Ftorek and Mark Howe) took silver, but Canada didn't send a team in protest of the professionals used by the Soviets. We also took 2 gold a silver and a bronze in women's speed skating.

We kind of sucked at this Olympics. I'll have several posts about the Summer Olympics, but the Winter Olympics that year were pretty much a big dud all the way around.

#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.

# 16 -- Mike Jorgensen

Mike Jorgensen







Mike is very appropriately shown in a fielding pose. His glove was his greatest baseball weapon. His card even talks about him being valuable as a centerfielder. I had to look that up to make sure it was right. Sure enough, the Mets usually trotted him out to start in center 20-25 games/year. Usually a first baseman has to take a corner outfield spot (think Willie Stargell or Greg Luzinski), but there are rare guys like Jorgensen and Wes Parker that can play center. I don’t think we’ll be seeing Carlos Delgado or Albert Pujols in center, but I could see the Dodgers put James Loney out there in a pinch.

Jorgensen was an adequate hitter, but not good enough for a regular first baseman. He found himself on several teams, mostly with the Mets and Expos. Just as the 1972 season began, he was traded to the Expos with Tim Foli and Ken Singleton for Rusty Staub. The Expos sure plugged a few holes with that trade. Jorgenson played first allowing Ron Fairly to move into Staub’s old position in right field; Foli replaced .200 hitting Bobby Wine and Singleton replaced a revolving door in left field. Mike missed out on being a part of the 1973 Mets team that went to the Series, but was a bit player on the 1985 Cardinals team that went to the Series. Since his retirement, he’s been a part of the Cardinals front office, working with the guy on the next card.


1972 Feature

There are many reasons I prefer baseball to football. One of the sillier is that baseball is the only major professional team sport (sorry World Team Tennis and Major League Soccer) that has their entire season in the same calendar year. When I think about the NFL in 1972, I obviously think about the Dolphins perfect record. That occurred, but the Super Bowl was in 1973. The 1972 Super Bowl, or Super Bowl VI, was for the 1971 season.


The 1972 Super Bowl was the first one I remember. I may have watched a previous one, but I don't remember it. This one had the Dallas Cowboys against the Miami Dolphins. The Cowboys seemed to be the Red Sox of the NFL. They could get to the championship game, but they hadn't won. They made it to the previous Super Bowl, only to lose to the Colts on the last second field goal of Jim O'Brien. They made it back the next year and they were loaded. The Dolphins were making their second run to the playoffs under Don Shula.


The Dolphins finished 10-3-1 in 1971, losing 2 of their last 3. To make the Super Bowl they had to outlast the Chiefs in double overtime in the longest game in NFL history (I watched that game on the black & white TV in my bedroom on Christmas night.....I learned to hate tie salesmen named Yepremian) and a rematch with the Colts who'd beaten them down the stretch. Paul Warfield caught a couple of bombs from Bob Griese, who threw only 8 passes in the conference championship. The Dolphins strength was a backfield of Jim Kiick, Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris.


The Cowboys had a 10-3 regular season, winning their last 7. They got to the Super Bowl stuffing the Vikes and the 49'ers. They were led by Roger Staubach, in his second year at quarterback, with Craig Morton as a backup. They had a solid rushing game with Duane Thomas, Walt Garrison and Duke All-American Grant Hill's daddy.


What really defined the Cowboys was their defense. Jethro Pugh, Bob Lilly, Chuck Howley, LeeRoy Jordan, Herb Adderly, Mel Renfro and Cliff Harris. They were brutal. In the Super Bowl they held the Dolphins to 80 rushing yards and forced Griese to chuck it 23 times. I know, those numbers don't make any sense in today's game. The Cowboys won decisively 24-3. They punctuated the game with Mike Ditka catching a TD pass. They ran for 252 yards. The one play I can remember from the game was Bob Lilly chasing Griese all over the field and finally sacking him for a 29 yard loss. Yep, you read that correctly.


Facts from that Super Bowl:

• Coach Landry said the Dolphin defense concerned him, but he didn't know the names of any of the players, leading to the famous nickname "No Name Defense"


• Dolphin safety Jake Scott had a broken left hand. During the game he broke his right wrist, but wouldn't come out. Later, having casts on both hands, he realized that "You find out who your true friends are when you have to go to the bathroom."


• President Nixon called Coach Shula after the win over the Colts and gave him a play. Shula used it late in the first half, but the pass was broken up.

Finally, if you put "super bowl vi" into YouTube, you'll find a couple of cool videos, one showing interviews with some hippies to see who they thought would win and the other has game film, showing goalposts on the goal line, linemen who went about 260 and straight on kickers.