Today I have for you a re-done 1973 card for the great, and somehow underrated Hall of Fame slugger Frank Robinson, straight up as a Los Angeles Dodgers player since all he had to show for his time in L.A. Is the “traded” card in the 1972 ground-breaking sub-set:


Now, I did create a re-done card for him as an Angel way back when, but came across this image of him and it was too cool to pass up!
He’d have a great year for California in 1973, posting the final 30+ homer season of his magnificent career while driving in 97 runs in the newly formed “DH” role.
Of course, he’d soon move on to Cleveland where he would soon become the first African-American manager in Major League history, while wrapping up his playing career to the tune of 586 home runs, 2943 hits, 1829 runs scored and 1812 runs batted in.
Only in an age that also saw the likes of Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente could a guy like Robinson (and former teammate Vada Pinson, among others), get overlooked!
An amazing era of baseball to say the least!

Love producing cards for guys like this!
Here’s a “not so missing” 1976 card for former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jim Minshall, who played the last of his six Major League games in 1975:


Minshall appeared in one single game for Pittsburgh in 1975, on September 11th, throwing a scoreless inning in relief where he walked two and struck out two.
He didn’t factor in a decision, and when added to the five appearances he had when he first had a taste of big league ball in 1974, he’d finish his brief career with a record of 0-1 over those six appearances, with five K’s over 5.1 innings pitched.
I couldn’t help but notice his year in the Minors in 1972 when pitching for the Salem Pirates in A-Ball, as he posted a record of 16-1 with 12 complete games in 26 starts along with an earned run average of 3.38.
Sadly, that would be the only season in his 11-year pro career that he would top 10+ wins, finishing up with a record of 59-53 between 1966 and 1976.

Next up for the all-time greats of the Negro Leagues is one of the, if not THE best double-threat “Bullet Joe” Rogan, who some consider the greatest pitcher in the Negro Leagues’ long, rich history:


Casey Stengel once claimed Rogan was, “one of the best, if not the best, pitcher that ever lived.”
According to some records, Rogan won the most games in Negro Leagues history, while ranking fourth all-time in career batting average!
Consider these numbers: 116-50 career win-loss record, along with a 2.59 earned run average, as well as an incredible .338 batting average. Just amazing numbers.
In 1924, the man would hit .395 while going 18-6 on the mound, leading the Kansas City Monarchs to their second title, then going on to defeat the Hilldales of the Eastern Colored League in the very first Black World Series.
The following year, all he would do is post a record of 17-2 while batting .381, once again leading the Monarchs to a league title, though he would injure his knee before a rematch with Hilldale in the World Series, in which the Monarchs lost in six games.
Historian Phil Dixon compiles all of Rogan’s stats in all league play over his 23 years and has him at over 350 games won with over 2000 strikeouts, while also collecting over 2500 hits with 350+ home runs and over 500 stolen bases!
Just an amazing pro career that needs further appreciation, though the ultimate compliment would come Rogan’s way in 1998 when Cooperstown came calling, inducting him into the Hall of Fame, joining the other greats of the Negro Leagues that also deserved their place in those hallowed Halls.

Here’s a 1975 card for former pitcher Barry Lersch, who finished up a six-year Major League career with one single game in 1974 with the St. Louis Cardinals:


After playing the first five years of his big league career with the Philadelphia Phillies, Lersch took the mound for a single game on September 21st 1974, and it wasn’t pretty, as he gave up six earned runs on three hits and five walks in only 1.1 innings.
That adds up to an earned run average of 40.50, but he didn’t factor in a decision, ending his career with a record of 18-32 with a 3.82 E.R.A., 317 strikeouts and six saves over 169 appearances and 570.1 innings of work.

Just four seasons after clubbing his 500th career home run, Willie Mays was at it again in 1969, smashing his 600th career homer, so let’s celebrate that feat with a 1979 “Turn Back the Clock” card:


Mays became only the second player all-time to reach the lofty height, joining Babe Ruth and eventually retiring with 660 homers.
And if it wasn't for military service in 1952-53, he easily would have been the second "700 Homer" guy, beating Aaron to the finish line by a couple years for sure.
As we all know, there would be quite a few more players joining Ruth, Aaron and Mays with 600+ homers decades later.
But if you were a kid growing up in the 1970's and '80's, those three were the "Mount Rushmore" of home run power, forever burned into our minds.
Ruth…Aaron…Mays.
Classic…

Today we look at a great card, the 1977 Kurt Bevacqua, which is an airbrushed image so Topps could show him, as all others in this thread, as members of the new clubs in town, the Seattle Mariners (or Toronto Blue Jays):


Interesting thing is, Bevacqua would end up never playing an inning of ball for the Mariners, getting released by the team before the season even started after being purchased from the Milwaukee Brewers just a few months earlier.
Nevertheless, Topps managed to get some “real” images of him in a Mariners uni before he was let go, so I re-did the original, so here you go:

Bevacqua managed to sigh with a new team less than a month after being released by Seattle, the Texas Rangers, where he’d play for the next couple of seasons before moving on to the San Diego Padres in 1979.
He’d be on the move once again in 1980, getting traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for, among others, the ever wonderfully-named Rick Lancellotti, before making it back to the Padres in 1982.
Of course, that last stint in the Majors, with the Padres from 1982 through 1985 would give him his the most memorable moment in the Majors (well unless you consider that sweet 1976 Topps bubble-blowing card the peak of his career), when he hit a three-run home run in Game Two of the 1984 World Series against the eventual World Champion Detroit Tigers, giving the Padres their only win in the series.
Overall, he’d end up playing 15-years in the Majors, mainly as a platoon or part-time player, batting .236 over 970 games with 499 hits over 2117 at-bats for six teams.

Today we celebrate the 1971 Major League Rookies of the Year in my ongoing “Awards” series, with Earl Williams of the Atlanta Braves and Chris Chambliss of the Cleveland Indians sharing the spotlight:


Williams slammed his way to the award in the National League, clubbing 33 home runs while driving in 87 and batting .260 while doing something very uncommon, playing 72 games as catcher along with another 42 at third base and 31 at first base. Something you definitely do not see often!
He would follow that season up with another solid year in 1972 when he added 28 homers while equaling his RBI total of 87 and again playing the same three positions.
He would move on to Baltimore in 1973 before returning to Atlanta in 1975 for a year and a half, splitting time with the Montreal Expos in 1976.
He’d end up playing eight years in the Majors, finishing up with the Oakland A’s in 1977 before moving on to the Mexican League for a couple of years.
I never realized that he lived in the very town I moved to, Somerset, NJ and passed away just a few years ago at the age of 64.
Over in the American League we have the Indians’ Chris Chambliss, who had a very productive freshman season in the Majors when he batted .275 with nine homers and 48 runs batted in in only 111 games and 458 plate appearances.
The career 1st baseman would turn out to have a very nice 17-year career in the Major Leagues, winning two championships with the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978, of course also having his finest moment in the big leagues when he homered to clinch the American League pennant for the Yankees in the Bronx, culminating in one of the iconic sports moments of the decade as he raced around the bases trying to avoid the rushing fans who poured onto the field in celebration (can you imagine that now!?).
He would finish his career with over 2000 hits, a .279 average and 185 home runs with just under 1000 runs batted in calling it a career after one single at-bat for the Yankees in 1988.

Here’s a “not really missing” card for a guy who we’d see around through the latter part of the 1970’s into the 1980’s, former catcher Larry Cox, who started out with the Philadelphia Phillies and gets this 1974 card based on his 1st taste of the big leagues, a single game in 1973 as a defensive replacement:


Oddly enough, that game came on April 18th of 1973, not at the end of the year as some late-season call-up. Nevertheless, it would be the first of his 348 career games, spanning 1973 through 1982.
He’d see his most action in 1979 & 1980 while with the Seattle Mariners, appearing in over 100 games for the only two times in his career.
Overall, he’d finish his career with a .221 batting average based on his 182 hits over 825 at-bats, with 12 home runs and 85 runs batted in while playing all of his games behind the plate.

Time to give long-time reliever Wayne Granger a career-capping 1977 card as he closed out a nice nine-year career in 1976 with the Montreal Expos:


Granger appeared in 27 games for Montreal, going 1-0 with two saves over 32 innings of work along with a 3.66 earned run average.
Of course, his MLB heyday were the early-1970’s with the Cincinnati Reds when he posted 27 and 35 saves respectively in 1969 and 1970, appearing in as many as 90 games during that ‘69 campaign.
After the 1971 season he moved around a lot, playing for the Twins, Cardinals, Yankees, White Sox, Astros and Expos over what would be the last five years of his career.
He finished up with an even 35-35 record, along with 108 saves and a 3.14 E.R.A., with 303 strikeouts over 451 appearances and 638.2 innings of work.

Here’s a “not so missing” 1978 card for former pitcher Dennis Lewallyn, who had an eight-year playing career that totaled only 34 games, evenly distributed between 1975 and 1982:


Lewallyn’s career is an odd one, in that he had “cups-of-coffee” eight times! Never getting a chance to put in significant time in any one season during his eight-year run.
His 1977 season for the National League champ Los Angeles Dodgers could be considered his best, as he posted three of his four career wins when he went 3-1 with a 4.24 earned run average over five appearances while collecting his only MLB save.
He’d finish his playing career after the 1982 season, playing for the Cleveland Indians, again appearing in only a handful of games in 1981 & 1982, seven and four respectively, going 4-4 with a 4.48 E.R.A., 28 strikeouts and a save over 80.1 innings and 34 appearances.
He never pitched in more than seven games in any one season, while appearing in only one in 1978, yet playing in every season nonetheless between 1975 and 1982.
Does anyone remember another player who played in as many seasons consecutively, yet only appeared in so few as well?

Here’s a 1971 card for Mike Derrick, whose career entailed two dozen games during the 1970 season for the Boston Red Sox:


Derrick, who toiled in the Minor Leagues since 1962 when he was playing in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, finally made it to the big show in 1970, batting .212 with seven hits over 33 at-bats while playing Left Field and First Base.
Sadly for him however he’d be back in the Minors the following season and stay there until he left pro ball for good after the 1972 campaign playing for Tacoma in the Twins organization.
He did have some solid years in the Minors, including what is easily his best in 1965 when he clubbed 28 homers and drove in 103 runs for Kinston in the Carolina League.
Over 11 years in Minor League play he hit .276 with 131 home runs and 663 runs batted in, collecting 1057 hits over 3836 at-bats.

Today we celebrate who many consider the greatest catcher in Negro Leagues history, even over the legendary Josh Gibson, fellow Hall of Fame member Biz Mackey, in my running “Negro Baseball Leagues All-Time Legends”:


Though certainly no slouch at the plate, as evidenced by his .329 career average in league play including four recorded seasons of batting over .400, it was at defense that many consider Mackey the superior player over Gibson.
While playing the position full-time even into his 40’s, he was even a mentor to a young Roy Campanella, who openly stated that Mackey taught him everything he knew about playing the position.
Mackey put in 24 seasons in Negro League play, while also playing in the California Winter League for 26 seasons, ranking third all-time in that league’s home run list, behind only two other Hall members, Turkey Stearnes and Mule Suttles.
On top of all of his exploits in the Negro Leagues, he even spent a year traveling in 1932, which took him to Japan where he helped influence the formation of their professional league.
Quite a baseball life!
Read up on his biography for so much more on the 2006 Cooperstown inductee!

Hey everyone!
My second card set, the "1910 Baseball Stars" set is now available for purchase. Please see images:


The set consists of 48 cards, evenly divided between American and National League players, and will come bundled as such. They are printed on "mini business card" size 19pt card stock with a silk matte finish.
The cards come bundled by league (24 A.L. / 24 N.L.) along with two strips of three custom stamps, as well as a title-card insert and an authentic 1910 cigarette insert (either a silk, leather patch or card) inside a card-stock wallet, which ALL comes inside a burlap bag tied shut with a hang-tag that's stamped/cancelled.
I only made 25 sets, and I keep two of them, so there are only 23 to go around so if you want to pick one up please contact me at john@slogun.com to reserve one.
The set is $21 postpaid, and my paypal is at the same email, john@slogun.com
Thanks!
Gio/wthballs

The next super-star to get the 1975 “In Action” treatment is “Charlie Hustle” Pete Rose, who was tearing up the league for a while before this card would have seen the light of day:


Rose already had a Rookie of the Year and MVP Award under his belt as well as three batting titles, and was just about to go on a lead the “Big Red Machine” to consecutive World Series wins in 1975 and 1976.
During the mid-70’s he was baseball royalty, on baseballs most vaunted team, a team that had future Hall of Fame members Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez.
Of course, he would go on to play another 11 years, retiring as baseball’s all-time hit king as well as the all-time leader in games played, plate appearances and at-bats over his 24-year career.
I'm not even going to get into that "other stuff" since for me, that has no basis on keeping him out of the Hall. Just my opinion, but if Rose isn't in the Hall of Fame representing the 1970's, the "Player of the Decade", then it's all a joke.

Just one season after the Major Leagues saw opponents no-hit each other when Gaylord Perry and Ray Washburn pulled off the trick during the “year of the pitcher”, the improbable happened when two pitchers managed to do the very same in 1969, Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds and Don Wilson of the Houston Astros.
Here’s a 1979 “Turn Back the Clock” celebrating that feat:


On April 30th, Reds fireballer Jim Maloney pitched what was considered then his third career no-hitter, beating the Astros 10-0 after striking out Doug Radar for the last out & his 13th strikeout of the day.
This was an Astros team that had Joe Morgan and Jimmy Wynn in the line-up, so it wasn’t exactly a piece of cake, though Maloney was credited with facing only 26 official batters after the Reds pulled off a double-play to erase of of five walks the hurler issued that game.
Now, years later in 1991 when baseball changed the rules, Maloney had one of his no-hitter taken away when it was now not considered a no-no if you eventually gave up a hit in extra-innings, which is exactly what Maloney did against the Mets in June of 1965 when Johnny Lewis tagged Maloney for a homer in the 11th inning of what was, up to that point, a no-hitter.
Nevertheless, Maloney went down in history as a two-time no-hit pitcher, three if you want to count that Mets game, and wouldn’t you know it, the very next day the Astros would send to the mound a guy who would also end up with multiple no-hitters during his strong, though tragic career, Don Wilson.
Facing a strong Reds line-up that included Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and the eventual N.L. batting champ that season, Pete Rose, Wilson would fan 13 and walk six, but keep Cincinnati hitless for the no-hitter, and baseball history in the Astros 4-0 win.
Wilson would also finish his career with two no-hitters, famously losing a possible third when his manager, Preston Gomez, took him out for a pinch-hitter on September 4th 1974 with the team trailing 2-1 to the very same Reds, eventually losing the no-hitter and the game.
Sadly, however, just a few months later on January 5th 1975, Wilson was found dead behind the wheel of his car in his garage, overcome by exhaust fumes, which also tragically killed his five-year-old son who was sleeping in a bedroom above the garage.

Here’s a 1975 “not so missing” card for former pitcher Pat Osburn, who put in a total of twelve games over two seasons in his Major League career:


Osburn appeared in six games for the Cincinnati Reds during the 1974 season, not factoring in a decision and posting an earned run average of 8.00 over nine innings.
He’d make it back to the big leagues the following seasons, this time with the Milwaukee Brewers, again appearing in sex games, going 0-1 with a 5.40 E.R.A., with a strikeout and nine walks over 11.2 innings of work.
After a nice 1976 season in the minor leagues for the Kansas City Royals, which saw him go 7-4 with a 2.32 E.R.A., he would be out of baseball for good, finishing with an MLB record of 0-1 with a 6.54 E.R.A. Over 12 appearances and 20.2 innings.

Here’s a 1973 “missing” card for long time Minnesota Twins 1st baseman Rich Reese, who was coming towards the end of a 10-year Major League career:


Reese appeared in a whopping 132 games for the Twins in 1972, with 223 plate appearances, yet was left out of the 1973 set. Wonder why!?
He batted .218 with 43 hits over 197 official at-bats, and would go on to play in 81 games during the 1973 season, his last year in the big leagues, split between the Detroit Tigers and Twins, batting a combined .144 with only 18 hits over 125 at-bats.
That would wrap up a career that saw him bat .253 with 512 hits in 2020 at-bats and 866 games, but I would always remember him as the guy who was on the back of the 1970 “A.L. Batting Leaders” card, even though he didn’t have enough plate appearances in 1969 to even qualify!
I’m still a bit perplexed by it. He did bat a nice .322, 61 points better than his second-best season, but he only had 451 plate appearances, with 135 hits over 419 at-bats.
What is really strange is that he wasn’t pictured on the front, which was the second highest average, behind teammate Rod Carew, yet there he is listed on the back as in second place.
Anyone know why this even happened?
Curious to know after all these years...

The next card in the “Founders” series is an interesting figure in early Major League history, “slugger” Charley Jones, once the all-time home run king after the first nine years of big league play:


Jones was the first player in Major League history to club two homers in the same inning, doing so on June 10, 1880 when his Boston Red Stockings club pummeled the Buffalo Bison 19-3, with both homers coming off of aptly named Tom Poorman.
A popular player in his time, he led the National League in home runs and RBI’s in 1879 with 9 and 62 respectively, and would lead the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the American Association with 80 ribbies three years later after missing the 1881 & 1882 seasons when he was black-listed for playing with independent teams.
Between his 1st season as a pro player in 1875 and his final season in 1888, he finished with 56 homers and a very respectable .298 batting average in just under 900 games, collecting 1114 hits in 3738 at-bats.
An interesting aside in Jones’ story was the fact that his death was a mystery for just over 100 years until SABR members in 2012, finally found out that he died in New York City’s Bellevue Hospital on June 6th, 1911 after some illness.

Title Card Insert

1. Cy Young
2. Walter Johnson
3. Christy Mathewson
4. Ty Cobb
5. Honus Wagner
6. Nap Lajoie
7. Tris Speaker
8. Joe Wood
9. Eddie Collins
10. Jack Coombs
11. Eddie Plank
12. Addie Joss
13. Ed Walsh
14. Tommy Leach
15. Howie Camnitz
16. King Cole
17. Zack Wheat
18. Hal Chase
19. Russ Ford
20. Fred Schulte
21. Sherry Magee
22. Bill Donovan
23. Sam Crawford
24. Jack Powell
25. George Mullin
26. Frank Chance
27. Joe Tinker
28. Johnny Evers
29. Mordecai Brown
30. Doc Crandall
31. Larry Doyle
32. Earl Moore
33. Roger Bresnahan
34. Fred Clarke
35. Bob Bescher
36. Nap Rucker
37. Vic Willis
38. Ed Reulbach
39. Hooks Wilts
40. Orval Overall
41. Babe Adams
42. Bobby Wallace
43. Frank Baker
44. Clyde Milan
45. Rube Waddell
46. Chief Bender
47. Doc White
48. Harry Davis

Here’s a 1972 card for former pitcher Greg Garrett of the Cincinnati Reds, who appeared in two games during the 1971 season, the final two games of his brief career:


Garrett came over to Cincinnati from the California Angels, for whom he came up with the previous year, appearing in 32 games and posting a 5-6 record with a nice 2.65 earned run average over 74.2 innings pitched.
For the Reds, he posted a 0-1 record with a 1.04 E.R.A., starting one of those two games while in a Cincinnati uniform, throwing 8.2 innings and walking a whopping ten batters.
Turns out those two brief seasons would be it for his Major League career, ending up with a 5-7 record, with a 2.48 E.R.A., 55 strikeouts and 54 walks over 83.1 innings.

Next in my on-going “Awards” sub-set is a 1972 card celebrating the 1971 Most Valuable Players, Joe Torre and Vida Blue from the National and American Leagues respectively:


Starting with Torre, after a handful of solid all-star seasons since coming up to the Majors in 1960, he put it all together in 1971 when he led the league in batting (.363), Hits (230), Runs Batted In (137) and Total Bases (352), while being named to his seventh all-star team while playing a position full-time for the first time (3B).
All of that easily handed him the award over Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell, 318 points to 222, with Torre getting 21 of 24 first place votes.
In the American League, we already saw what the Cy Young winner, Vida Blue, accomplished on his way to taking home the two big awards in the Junior Circuit.
Posting a 24-8 record while completing 24 of 39 starts, the 21-year-old also led the league with a 1.82 earned run average and eight shutouts while also striking out 301 batters for the burgeoning baseball dynasty in Oakland that would take three straight championships between 1972 and 1974.

Revisiting my thread where I re-do the original Topps 1977 Blue Jays & Mariners cards, today we have a re-done Pete Vuckovich card, with the original for comparison:

Re-done

Original

Of course, we all know that Topps was scrambling to get cards in their 1977 set to represent the two new Major League franchises that would start play that season, so it was an admirable job to get two full teams worth of players in there.
So this is more of a respectful task with time on our side, replacing the airbrushed photos Topps had on the cards.
It’s easy to forget the rather pedestrian career Vuckovich had leading up to his 1982 Cy Young Award when he led the Milwaukee Brewers to an American League title, eventually losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
Some may even question if Jim Palmer or even Dan Quisenberry were more worthy recipients of the award (I thought “Quiz” was ripped off three awards to be honest, from 1982 to 1984).
Nevertheless, Vuckovich had his high-point that season, going 18-6 with a 3.34 earned run average, beating out future Hall of Fame Orioles pitcher Palmer for the Cy Young honors.
Sadly for Vuckovich, however, he came up with arm troubles the following year and only appeared in three games before missing the entire 1984 season before returning in 1985, playing for two more seasons before retiring for good after the 1986 season.
He’d win only eight games after his award winning season, finishing with 93 career wins against 69 losses over 11-years and 286 appearances.

Here’s a card that wasn’t really “missing” from the 1976 set, but since he never got a card in the first place for his brief two-year career, Jack Lind gets one now:


The former infielder appeared in the final 17 games of his Major League career in 1975, collecting one hit over 20 at-bats with a run scored.
This was after his first taste of the big leagues in 1974 when he was a late-season call-up for Milwaukee and appeared in nine games, batting .235 with four hits in 17 at-bats.
After spending the 1976 season in the Minor Leagues, he tried his hand in Japan where he played for the Yomiuri Giants in 1977, batting .237 with nine homers before calling it a career.

The next 1975 “In Action” card up in my thread is none other than the great Rod Carew, penultimate hitter of that generation as he was racking up batting titles while with the Minnesota Twins:


Carew was on his way to a fourth straight title in 1975, and fifth in seven years when he’d bat a cool .359 while also leading the league in On-Base-Percentage with a .421 mark.
He would have two more titles ahead of him, including his mesmerizing run at .400 in 1977 when he ended up at .388 and an American League MVP Award and an eleventh-straight all-star birth.
As a matter of fact, Carew would be named to the A.L. All-Star team for 18-straight years between 1967 and 1984, every single year of his career except his last in 1985 when he collected his 3000th hit while batting .280 at the age of 39.
The man was a hitting machine, and his .328 career average attests to that, along with his Hall of Fame induction in 1991 in his 1st year of eligibility, being named to 90.5% of ballots cast (42 ballots managed to leave him off if you can imagine!).

I have always wanted to re-do the 1972 Ron Santo “In-Action” card, so today I’ll post it up here, for better of for worse:

Re-done custom

Original back in 1972

It’s not that I hate the image Topps used for the original, but I have always had a problem with an image on a card that had the subject-player BEHIND another player, no matter what the composition.
On this card that catcher, I believe the San Francisco Giants Dick Dietz, has much more prominent a position on the card, and man that never sits right with me.
Nevertheless, I found a nice time-period shot of the all-time Cubs great third baseman up at bat, so I decided to use it for the card.
Great player who finally got his due in Cooperstown way too late in my opinion. Sometimes the player should be considered for more than just stats or dominance (Vada Pinson, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker, Dick Allen, et al).

Today I post up my “missing” 1970 card for former outfielder Ron Davis, who wrapped up a five-year career in 1969 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates:


Playing in 62 games, Davis batted .234 with 15 hits over 64 at-bats while manning all three outfield spots, driving in four runs and scoring 10 with a couple of extra-base-hits.
His career started as one of the many youngsters for the Houston Colt .45’s back in 1962 as a 20-year old, appearing in six games before spending the following three seasons in their minor league system before making it back up in 1966.
In 1968 he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in mid-season, getting to play in the World Series as a member of the National League champs who’d end up losing to the Detroit Tigers, going 0-7 at the plate, before playing that final year in ‘69 over in Pittsburgh.

Here’s a “not so missing” 1974 card for former pitcher Tommy Moore of the New York Mets, who appeared in three games for the eventual National League champs:


Moore had his second MLB tour during the ‘73 season, posting a record of 0-1 with a 10.80 earned run average in those three games and 3.1 innings pitched.
In 1972, he had his first taste of the “big show”, also appearing in three games, not figuring in a decision with a much nicer 2.92 E.R.A.
After spending the 1974 season in the minors, he’d make it back in 1975, splitting the season with the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers, appearing in 22 games, going 0-2 with a 6.13 E.R.A. over 39.2 innings, the most action he’d see in any of his 4 seasons as a big-leaguer.
After yet another season in the minor leagues in 1976, he would play the final 14 games of his career as a member of the inaugural Seattle Mariners team in 1977, winning two games against one loss with a 4.91 E.R.A., finishing his career with a 2-4 record over 42 games and 88.1 innings.

Next in my “Turn Back the Clock” running thread is the wonderful “Miracle Mets” season of 1969, just about as amazing (pun intended) a turnaround for a franchise as you could imagine:


After a ninth-place finish in 1968 with a record of 73-89, the Mets shocked the sports world in 1969 when they marched to a record of 100-62, led by a pitching staff that would make most envious with the likes of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan and Gary Gentry.
Of course the road wasn’t easy, as they had the Chicago Cubs to deal with, and with the newly placed play-off format that did not ensure a pennant for coming in first, they had to go on to play the Atlanta Braves in the first National League Championship playoffs.
But again, the Mets were here to shock us all, as they swept the Braves and were to face the American League juggernaut Baltimore Orioles, who put together one of the most dominant team seasons of the modern era when they stormed to a record of 109-53, then sweeping the American League West champ Minnesota Twins 3-0 in the playoffs.
However, 1969 was all about the Mets, as they proceeded to take the series, and the World Championship 4 games to 1, giving New York an unlikely championship that was also paired with the New York Jets Super Bowl III win and the New York Knicks NBA championship, a brilliant sports trifecta the Big Apple could boast about until this very day.

Haven’t done a “Then and Now” card in a while, so today I post up a 1979 edition for Alomar patriarch Sandy Alomar Senior, who put together a nice 15-year career before retiring after the 1978 season:


Alomar came up with the Milwaukee Braves back in 1964, but didn’t get to play full-time until he joined the California Angels in 1969, where he would play until he was purchased by the New York Yankees in July of 1974.
He’d play the last two seasons of his career with the Texas Rangers, retiring after the 1978 season before moving on to coaching for various organizations.
Of course, he also had a couple of sons who became pretty good baseball players themselves, 1990 American Rookie of the Year Sandy Alomar Jr, and future Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar.
Not a bad baseball family tree!

We move on to the 1972 and imagine what an awards sub-set (other than the joke of one they had in there) would look like had I been running the show.
Here’s my take on a “Cy Young Award” card reflecting the 1971 winners:


Fergie Jenkins was posting 20-win seasons like they were going out of style by the time he finally took home the award in 1971, going 24-13 with a 2.77 earned run average and 263 strikeouts, completing 30 of his 39 starts!
Monster year for “Fly”, as he’d march his way to the Hall of Fame with 284 wins and 3192 strikeouts, becoming the 1st pitcher in history to rack up 3000+ K’s while walking under 1000 batters.
Over in the American League we had what was the story of the year in baseball, Oakland A’s 21-year-old stud Vida Blue, who not only took home the Cy Young Award but the MVP as well.
All Blue did that year was post a record of 24-8 with a league-leading 1.82 earned run average and 301 strikeouts along with eight shutouts as he completed 24 of his 39 starts for the burgeoning baseball dynasty that would take home three straight world championships between 1972 and 1974.
It was one of those seasons a player has that grabs the attention of baseball and NON-baseball fans alike. Incredible year for the young lefty.

Here’s a 1971 card that truly is “not missing in action” since not only did the player barely play the previous season, but he appeared on a multi-player rookie card in the 1971 set, Minnesota Twins pitcher Hal Haydel:


Haydel appeared in four games for the Twins in 1970, posting a 2-0 record with a 3.00 earned run average over nine innings pitched as a September call-up.
The following season he’d appear in another 31 games, going 4-2 with a 4.28 E.R.A. and a save in 40 innings, but those would be the last of his big league appearances.
After playing for the Twins’ minor league AAA affiliate Tacoma Twins in 1972, having a rough season that saw him go 2-8 with a 7.14 E.R.A., he retired from pro ball, finishing his MLB career with a 6-2 record along with a 4.04 E.R.A. in 35 appearances and 49 innings pitched.

The next Negro Baseball League legend we spotlight in my long-running series is “Cyclone” Joe Williams, one of the greatest pitchers to take a mound in the first third of the 20th Century:


Pitching an incredible 27-years, he starred in the Negro Leagues as well as the Mexican and Caribbean Leagues between 1907 and 1932.
According to some sources, some of his pro seasons included records of 28-4, 20-2 and 32-8 playing for teams such as the Chicago Leland Giants and Homestead Grays.
While the great Satchel Paige gets much of the attention of baseball fans and historians, there is a frequent debate as to whether Williams is in fact the greatest pitcher to toe the rubber in Negro League history, even being recognized as such in a 1952 poll held by the Pittsburgh Courier.
Even noted Baseball historian Bill James named Williams the 52nd greatest player (and 12th greatest pitcher) in baseball history when he released his “100 Greatest Players in Baseball History” some 20-years ago.
In 1999, Cooperstown gave Williams his rightful place in their hallowed halls, electing him for enshrinement by the Veteran’s Committee.

Next up in the “Future Stars” thread is all-star third baseman Sal Bando, yet another former star at Arizona State who went on to Major League fame:


Bando was coming off of three championships as part of the Oakland A’s dynasty, anchoring their infield with three top-4 finishes in the American League MVP voting before signing with the Milwaukee Brewers during the great “purge” of Oakland after the 1976 season.
He’d play the final five years of his big league career with Milwaukee before retiring after the 1981 season, but never really put together the numbers he had while out West.
Nevertheless, he’d finish with 242 homers with 1039 runs batted in and 982 runs scored in his 16-year career, with six 20+ homer seasons along with two 100+ RBI campaigns.