Moving right along with my "missing" 1972 All-Star sub-set, we come to the second starting All-Star outfielder for the American league in 1971's Midsummer Classic, the great Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles:

 

On the blog today, we come to the American League's top firemen of 1973 with my 1974 expanded league leader card:

 

Next up in my recent custom set to be profiled here on the blog, all-time great Cristobal Torriente, who is grossly overlooked even when talking about legends of the Negro leagues:

 

Torriente holds the Cuban Winter League career high-water mark for batting average at .352, and also went on to retire with a .340 Negro League BA, winning titles in 1920 and 1923.
One of my favorite quotes in ANY baseball lore is one attributed to Indianapolis ABC’s manager C.I. Taylor, who stated, “If I see Torriente walking up the other side of the street, I would say, ‘There walks a ballclub.’”

From the pitching side of things, Torriente posted a career 13-7 record over 32 appearances, 23 of them starts, completing 13 games and tossing two shutouts with 60 strikeouts in 179.2 innings, with an ERA of 4.46.

In 2001 Bill James rated Torriente as the 67th greatest baseball player ever for his book “The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.”
In 1939 he was one of the first to be elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, and though it took a long while, he was finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

On the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 19769 card for former Chicago Cubs infielder Mike Sember, who played the last of his brief Big League career during the 1978 season:

 

Sember appeared in nine games for the Cubs in 1978, this after making his Big League debut the season before with a scant three games as a 24-year-old.

Over those nine Major League appearances, he'd end up picking up two hits in seven at-bats, good for a .286 batting average, with two runs scored and a walk.

He’d play all of 1979 in the Minors for the Toronto Blue Jays organization, hitting only .150, which would be the last professional action he’d see in his career.

I recently gave former pitcher Chuck Taylor a "do-over" for his 1974 Topps card, which originally had him airbrushed into a Montreal Expos uni after coming over from the Milwaukee Brewers.

Well today we backtrack a season and do the very same for him, as his original 1973 card had him airbrushed into a Milwaukee uniform:

 

It's funny because Taylor actually finished the 1972 season with five games as a Brewer, the only games he'd appear in for the franchise before moving North of the border with the Expos.

Yet for whatever reason Topps didn't get him photographed with his new team before the production of the 1973 cards (??).

Nevertheless, here you go, with a nice shot of him as a Milwaukee Brewer that, believe it or not, TOPPS took!

Taylor went over to Montreal after a split season in 1972 when he suited up for both the New York Mets and Milwaukee.

In his first year with the Expos, he appeared in eight games, going 2-0 with a very nice 1.77 earned run average over 20.1 innings of work out of the bullpen.

He had a decent run as a reliever the last three years of his career after coming up with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1969 as a starter.
He would end up at 28-20 with an impressive 3.07 ERA over 607 innings and 305 appearances, all but 21 in relief.

This week's 1970 "In-Game Action" card is none other than the great Johnny Bench, who was just beginning to build on what would become considered the greatest Major League catching career the game has ever scene:

 

Still only 22 years old, Bench was a Rookie of the Year in 1968, a two-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner by the end of 1969, and would go on to take home the first of his two MVP Awards at the end of the 1970 season.

All-time best at his position? I'd be hard-pressed to argue this.

Of course as we all know, he would go on to put together a career rarely seen by ANY player, let alone a catcher: TWO N.L. MVP Awards, 14 all-star games, 10 Gold Gloves, two home run titles and three RBI titles, all while donning the “tools of ignorance” for 17 seasons, all with the Reds.
As a kid growing up in the 1970’s, this man was a mythic figure, a “god”.

On the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1979 card for two-year Major League pitcher Willie Mueller of the Milwaukee Brewers:

 

Mueller made his MLB debut during the 1978 season, appearing in five games and posting a record of 1-0 with an earned run average of 6.39 in 12.2 innings of work.

He would spend the next two seasons in the Minors before getting another chance at the Big League level with one solitary game in 1981, throwing two innings and allowing one run, for a 4.50 ERA, not factoring in a decision.

He'd find himself in the Montreal Expos Minor League system in 1982 before coming back to the Milwaukee system in 1983, but never getting another shot at Major League ball, retiring after that season.

All told, Mueller finished with six appearances and a 1-0 record, with an ERA of 6.14 over 14.2 innings pitched.

On the blog today, we take a closer look at another of my custom "Negro League Greats" cards from my recently released set, this one of the great James "Cool Papa" Bell:

 

One of the most popular players of the Negro Leagues, Bell put in over 20 years, starting out with the St. Louis Stars in 1922, for whom he played through the 1931 season, before playing for various other teams including the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords.
An 8-time all-star, he finished with a Negro League career batting average of .316, yet he originally came up as a pitcher!
As a matter of fact the genesis of his all-too-familiar nickname came about because of a strikeout against legend Oscar Charleston early in Bell’s career.
But once he was switched to the outfield, it was ON!
Perhaps the fastest player to ever run the base-paths, the anecdotes and legendary stories of his speed are endless.
One of my favorites:
“Bell was so fast he could turn off the light and be under the covers before the room got dark.”- Satchel Paige.
Classic!
Even at the age of 43, Bell was raking it, as evidenced by his .402 batting average over 95 games for the Homestead Grays in 1946! The year before? A cool .380!
A great player, and from everything I have read from his contemporaries, a great man.

On the blog today, we move ahead with my on-going "missing" 1972 All-Star sub-set, with starting outfielder Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox:

 

"Yaz" made his eighth All-Star team in eleven seasons as a Major League superstar, already the possessor of an MVP Award and five Gold Gloves since bursting onto the Big League scene in 1961.

All he'd do is go on to make another ten All-Star teams before he was through after the 1983 season, along with two more Gold Gloves, eventually taking up his rightful spot in Cooperstown in 1989 on his first year of eligibility.

As someone who grew up in New York City during the second half of his career, it's really easy to forget that Yastrzemski was a Long Island, New York boy before he went on to become a New England legend.

And how could he NOT become a legend, what with 23 years of Major League ball, all with the Red Sox, turning in three batting titles, a Triple Crown in 1967 along with an MVP Award, seven Gold Gloves, 18 all-star nods, and 25 league-leads in primary offensive categories.

By the time he did the retirement tour in 1983, he scored 1816 runs, collected 3419 hits, 646 doubles, 452 homers, 1844 runs batted in along with a .285 batting average.

He was just plain awesome…

Up on the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1979 card for former utility player Dane Iorg, who didn't get his actual Topps RC card until 1980 even though he appeared in Big Leagues games as far back as 1977:

 

On the blog today, we have the third "missing" card created here for former infielder/outfielder Mike Adams, who put in parts of five seasons in the Big Leagues:

 

Adams appeared in only two games for the Chicago Cubs during the 1977 season, going hitless in two at-bats.

In 1978 he'd find himself a member of the Oakland A's, where he'd play in 15 games, the last of his career which began back in 1972 with three games as a Minnesota Twin.

Those 15 games with the A's would end up not only being the last of his MLB career, but his professional career as well, retiring at the age of 29, playing parts of five MLB seasons and appearing in 100 games, hitting .195 with 23 hits in 118 at-bats, with 27 runs scored and nine runs batted in.

Today on the blog we have a career-capping 1976 card for former All-Star infielder Dick McAuliffe, who closed out a very nice 16-year career with seven games for the Boston Red Sox in 1975:

 

The long time Detroit Tiger infielder collected only two hits over 15 at-bats for the Red Sox before calling it a career at the age of 35, with an RBI and a walk.

However in 1974 he did appear in 100 games for Boston, batting .210 over 316 plate appearances.

Those two seasons would be the only ones where McAuliffe didn't suit up for the Tigers, for whom he played between 1960 and 1973 manning both second and shortstop.

He made three consecutive all-star teams between 1965 and 1967, and even finished seventh in MVP voting in 1968 when the Tigers won it all.

All told he batted .247 for his career, with 197 homers and 697 runs batted in over 1700 games, with 1530 hits and 888 runs scored and a World Championship with the 1968 Tigers, who defeated the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

Thought it'd be fun to give former outfielder Bobby Tolan a "do-over" on his 1974 Topps card, since the original had him hilariously airbrushed into a San Diego Padres uni after four solid seasons with the Cincinnati reds:

 

For those that need a refresher on the original, take a gander at this:

 

Tolan was traded to the Padres on November 9th of 1973 with pitcher Dave Tomlin for starter Clay Kirby, a trade that didn't work particularly well for either sides.

His best years were with the Cincinnati Reds between 1969 and 1973, topping .300 a couple of times and leading the league in stolen bases in 1970 with 57 and even slamming 21 home runs in 1969 with 93 runs batted in.

Sadly for him, the trade to the Padres had him miss out on the tremendous "Big Red Machine" run the next few years, and being a part of two world champion teams.

In all he'd finish with a .265 average with 193 steals and 1121 hits over 1282 games and 4238 at-bats between 1965 and 1979, as well as a World Series ring as a member of the 1967 St. Louis Cardinals, when they defeated the Boston Red Sox.

Up on the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1978 card for former St. Louis Cardinal outfielder Mike Potter, who put in parts of two seasons in a brief Major League career:

 

Up on the blog to close out another week, an expanded 1974 league leader card for the National League's top relief pitchers of 1973:

 

Up on the blog today, the next card profile from my recently released "Negro Leagues Greats" custom set, the all-time great Buck Leonard:

 

Leonard played for the Homestead Grays between 1934 and 1950, often batting cleanup behind Josh Gibson, with whom he was nicknamed the “Thunder Twins” because of their legendary power.
The team were three-time Negro World Series Champions, in 1943, 1944 & 1948, while Leonard was a 13-time all-star selection at First Base and took home the batting title in 1948 with a .395 average.
After his Negro League playing days were over he went on to play in the Mexican League where he would continue playing until 1955, even though he was actually offered a Major League contract in 1952.
However, due to his age, he felt he would hurt the integration of baseball and embarrass himself, so he stayed in Mexico, playing for various teams such as Torreon, Xalapa and Durango.
Fittingly, in 1972 he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame along with former teammate Josh Gibson, and in 1999 he was ranked #47 in the Sporting News list of “100 Greatest Baseball Players”, only one of five players who played the bulk of their career in Negro League ball.

Thought it'd be fun today to take a closer look at Mike Torrez's 1977 Burger King image used for his card, an airbrushed "update" if you will over his regular Topps 1977 base card which showed him as an Oakland A's player:

 

The updated Burger King Card has him as a member of the New York Yankees, to whom he was traded just as the new season was underway.

Torrez was dealt East on April 27th for three players, including Dock Ellis, so Topps understandably couldn’t get him airbrushed in a N.Y. uni in time for their 1977 set.
Torrez would go on to help the Yankees, winning 14 games after posting three wins for Oakland, giving him 17 on the season, while in my opinion was the Yankees MVP (outside of Reggie Jackson of course) of the World Series when he went 2-0 over two starts, with two complete games and a 2.50 ERA with 15 strikeouts.
I’ve always been fascinated by Torrez’s run between 1974 and 1978 when he posted 15+ wins each and every year, playing for a different team each and every season!
In 1974 he won 15 for the Montreal Expos, then 20 for the Baltimore Orioles in 1975, then 16 for the Oakland A’s, then the aforementioned 17 combined wins with the Yanks and A’s in 1977, then finally 16 for the Boston Red Sox in 1978.
Toss in his 16 wins for the Expos in 1972 and then another 16 for the Red Sox in 1979, and we are talking a solid eight-year run of dependability that gets overlooked.
By the time he retired after the 1984 season, Torrez fashioned himself a solid 18-year career that saw him go 185-160, with a 3.96 E.R.A., 1404 strikeouts and 15 shutouts over 494 games, 458 of which were starts.
He also won two games in the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers, pitching a complete game in both starts, yielding a 2.50 E.R.A. with 15 strikeouts. Not bad at all…

Today on the blog we have a 1973 "career-capper" for former Los Angeles Dodger Rookie of the Year and future manager Jim Lefebvre, who played the last of his Big League games during the 1972 season:

 

On the blog today, we have a 1972 career-capping "not so missing" card for former Minnesota Twins catcher Tom Tischinski, who played the last of his Major League games during the 1971 season:

 

With all the talk these days about the Hall of Fame and who is worthy or not, I thought it'd be fun to revisit my blog post from just about eight years ago, and my 1970 Hall of Fame "induction" card of former pitcher Jesse Haines:

 

Hello everyone! Today I wanted to begin devoting a bit of time to my recent Negro League custom set that was a hit with many of you a few months back when I had them printed up.A few of you who didn't pick one up asked if I could profile some of the cards here on the blog (or on Twitter), and it makes perfect sense! 

So we begin with all-time great catcher Biz Mackey:

 

Here's my original write-up for the man when I profiled him for my 1972 "Negro Baseball Legends" thread some four years ago:

 

"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!"

The next card in line in my on-going "expanded league leaders" sub-set is the A.L. 1974 strikeout leaders card:

 

Adding to my new 1970 "In-Game Action" thread, we have the great Pete Rose, a Hall of Famer in my book, and smack in the middle of his career-peak when this card would have seen the light of day:

 

Rose was coming off his second straight batting title, hitting .348 after a league-leading .335 in 1968.

He also reached 200+ hits for the fourth of what would end up being a record ten such seasons, with 218 in 1969.

Those numbers got him a fourth place finish in the MVP race at season's end, along with a Gold Glove for his work in the outfield after coming up as a second baseman.

Growing up in the 1970's as a baseball nut, Pete Rose was an almost mythic figure. Even though his Reds steamrolled through "my" Yankees in the 1976 World Series, Rose, along with his all-star teammates, seemed like something made-up, not real.

I guess a part of that could be that the very first Pete Rose baseball card I ever saw, at the age of seven, was his 1976 Topps masterpiece, which had that glare of his, staring down the camera, showing that intensity that created the "Charlie Hustle" legend.

What a player, a Hall of Fame player. But I won't get into THAT here.

The "Player of the Decade" for the 1970's, Rose etched his name into the history of the game many times over.

Really, along with guys like Tom Seaver and Reggie Jackson, you just can't have too many Pete Rose cards from the 1970's in my eyes.

Today's blog post has a career-capping "not so missing" 1978 card for former pitcher Mickey Scott, who finished up a five-year Big League career with 12 appearances for the California Angels in 1977:

Scott went 0-2 with a 5.63 earned run average in those 12 games, throwing 16 innings out of the bullpen with five strikeouts and four base on balls.

Up on the blog today, we have a 1977 "not so missing" card for former Montreal Expos pitcher Bill Atkinson, who made his Big League debut during the 1976 campaign with four appearances:

 

On the blog today, we have a 1972 "not so missing" card for former speedster Frank Taveras, who made his MLB debut with one single game in 1971:

 

Taveras didn't have an official plate appearance in his first Big League appearance, and the following season only had him appear in four games for the Pittsburgh Pirates, going 0-3 at the plate with some time out at shortstop.

He'd spend all of 1973 in the Minors before finally getting some substantial playing time in 1974, appearing in 126 games, hitting .246 with 82 hits over 333 at-bats, with 13 stolen bases and 33 runs scored.

It would be more of the same in 1975, as he would hit .212 over 134 games, upping his stolen base total to 17, with 44 runs scored and 80 hits.

1976 would be a strong season for the shortstop, as he would hit .258 but steal 58 bases for the Pirates, scoring 76 runs over 144 games and 519 official at-bats.

Between 1977 and 1979 Taveras would have his best Major League seasons, collecting as many as 182 hits (1978), scoring as many as 93 runs (1979), and leading the league with 70 stolen bases in 1977.

In 1979, unfortunately for him, he was shipped off to the New York Mets after appearing in only 11 games for Pittsburgh, going from a team that would eventually win the World Series that year to the basement dwelling Mets.

He would play full-time over the next two years with the Mets before finding himself North of the border in 1982 with the Montreal Expos, appearing in only 48 games, the last of his Big League career, hitting only .161 with 14 hits in 87 at-bats, with four steals.

All told, Taveras played parts of 11 seasons, hitting .255 over 1150 games, collecting 1029 hits and stealing exactly 300 bases, with 503 runs scored and 214 RBIs.

The next legend featured in my new 1970 "In Game Action" sub-set is "The Great One", Roberto Clemente, who was already well on his way to a Hall of Fame career by the time this card would have seen the light of day:

 

In November of 1954 the Pittsburgh Pirates made one of the all-time greatest moves when they purchased Clemente in the Rule 5 Draft, having him become one of the greatest, if not THE greatest player in franchise history.  
Clemente's career is the stuff of legend: His fiery play on the field, his good deeds, and his absolute adoration by teammates and fans alike.
On the field Clemente's numbers were incredible: four batting titles, five seasons batting over .340, four 200 hit seasons, 12 all-star nods, 12 Gold Gloves and a Most Valuable Player Award in 1966.
Throw in his 3000 hits, 1416 runs scored and 1305 runs batted in and you see how the man was a lethal threat at the plate.
And a prime example of Clemente's importance to the game was his immediate induction into Cooperstown by special committee in 1973, waiving the standard five-year wait before a player joins the Hall ballot, as well as the establishment of the "Roberto Clemente Award", given every year to the player that exemplified "outstanding baseball playing skills who is personally involved in community work."
Just an amazing human being.

Happy New Year everyone!

I totally spaced out and forgot to post my newest custom set!

Thank you all who ordered my latest release, "1963 Fleer Lost Second Series", featuring 20 stars who never made it into the original release before Topps shut that door.

Along with the 20 1963's, there are also two bonus 1961 Fleer "Greats" cards of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, a Second Series Checklist card, and of course, a cookie!

For those that missed out, I do still have some available at $17 per set, plus one-time $4.50 postage fee, no matter how many you buy. Email me at: slogun23@gmail.com to order or ask any questions.

This was a really fun set to get produced! Glad I finally got around to it.

Next up in the "expanded league leader" thread is my 1974 National League Strikeout kings celebrating the top three pitchers of 1973 for the N.L.: