#100 -- Frank Robinson

Frank Robinson

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

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

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

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

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

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

# 99 -- Ross Grimsley

Ross Grimsley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#98 -- Chuck Tanner

Chuck Tanner








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


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

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


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


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


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

This Day in 1972

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

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

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

# 97 -- Tom Kelley

Tom Kelley





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


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


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


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


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

# 95 & 96 -- Strikeout Leaders

NL Strikeout Leaders

Tom Seaver 289
Fergie Jenkins 263
Bill Stoneman 251







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

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


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

AL Strikeout Leaders

Mickey Lolich 308
Vida Blue 301
Joe Coleman 236










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


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

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


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

# 93 & 94 -- Pitching (Wins) Leaders

NL Wins Leaders

Ferguson Jenkins 24

Steve Carlton 20

Al Downing 20

Tom Seaver 20

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

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

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

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

AL Wins Leaders

Mickey Lolich 25

Vida Blue 24

Wilbur Wood 22

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

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

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

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

# 91 & 92 -- ERA Leaders

NL ERA Leaders

Tom Seaver 1.76

Dave Roberts 2.10

Don Wilson 2.45

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

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

AL ERA Leaders

Vida Blue 1.82

Wilbur Wood 1.91

Jim Palmer 2.68

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

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

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

#89 & 90 -- Home Run Leaders

NL Home Run Leaders

Willie Stargell 48

Hank Aaron 47

Lee May 39

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

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

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

AL Home Run Leaders

Bill Melton 33

Norm Cash 33

Reggie Jackson 32

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

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

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

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

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

#87 & 88 -- RBI Leaders

NL RBI Leaders



Joe Torre 137
Willie Stargell 125
Hank Aaron 118








AL RBI Leaders

Harmon Killebrew 119
Frank Robinson 99
Reggie Smith 96








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


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


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

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

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

NL Batting Leaders


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








AL Batting Leaders

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






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


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


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


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


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


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

#84 -- Vince Colbert

Vince Colbert





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

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

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

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

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

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




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

Modern Card Update -- Jeff Stone

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





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





Today I got these in the mail.


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

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

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

#83 -- Dalton Jones

Dalton Jones

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

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

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

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

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

#82 -- Ron Woods

Ron Woods

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

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

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

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

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

#81 -- Mike Hedlund

Mike Hedlund

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

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

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

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

#80 -- Tony Perez

Tony Perez

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, and Mario had a bad encounter with Tony.

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

Mike Garman

Cecil Cooper

Carlton Fisk

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

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

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

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

I have to show it:

#78 -- Steve Arlin

Steve Arlin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#77 -- Ron Theobald

Ron Theobald

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

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

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

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