OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 SAL BANDO

On the blog today, we take a closer look at another OPC/Topps image variation, this one the odd 1977 cards for former All-Star third baseman Sal Bando, who was airbrushed into the uni of his new team, the Milwaukee Brewers:

OPC VERSION

TOPPS VERSION

 

Now, for some strange reason except to the fine people at Topps/OPC, the difference between the two cards were that Bando was "flipped", a luxury that the "M" on the Brewers cap allowed since you wouldn't really know the difference.

Though seriously, why even bother then?

Would love to know the reason behind this!

As for Bando the player,  a huge cog in that Oakland machine of the mid-70's, he would end up making four All-Star teams over his career, while placing top-4 in MVP votes three times with a high of second place in 1971 when teammate Vida Blue took home the honors.

Bando put together a very solid Big League career that saw him take home three championships, participate in four all-star games, and finish in the top-10 in MVP voting three times.

His five 20-homer and two 100+ RBI seasons were a nice compliment to Reggie's offensive exploits, and with Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace and Bert Campaneris thrown in you can see why those A's teams were so strong.

Then again, with starting pitching like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Rollie Fingers et al, yeah, they were going to kick-ass no matter what…

He retired in 1981 with 1790 hits, 982 runs scored, 242 homers, 1039 runs batted in and a .254 batting average.

EXPANDED LEAGUE LEADERS: 1977 A.L. HOME RUNS

Greetings everyone!

Up on the blog today, we move along in my on-going “expanded league leaders” thread to the top three American League home run hitters for 1976, proudly displayed on a 1977 card:

 

 

This would have been an awesome card to have issued by Topps, as we’ll see later on.

But first, we begin with the home run champ for the Junior Circuit in 1976, third baseman Graig Nettles of the New York Yankees, who hit 32 homers for the American League champs, a career-best for him at that time.

Normally, 32 homers would not lead your league, but the 1970’s was somewhat of a “dead-ball” era for homers, with the low-to-mid 30’s being a great total for the A.L. then.

Nettles also set career-bests at that time with 88 runs scored and 93 runs batted in, all numbers (including his home run total) he would top the very next season with 99, 37 and 107 respectively.

Behind him with 27 homers in 1976, a tie between Sal Bando of the Oakland A’s and Reggie Jackson of the Baltimore Orioles, who BOTH found themselves on new teams for the 1977 season, while also airbrushed into these new uni’s for their 1977 Topps card.

Now THAT is the reason this expanded league-leader card would have been awesome to pull from a pack back then, as we would have had Bando as an Oakland A’s player while a Milwaukee Brewer on his base card, but more importantly to us card nerds, PROOF that Reggie Jackson was an Oriole for a year, with this card showing him in Baltimore garb.

Certainly a small twist on the 1977 Topps set if this card were included in that set!

Amazing to think that Jackson led the American League in 1976 with a slugging percentage of only .502! Talk about a sign-of-the-times!

Next, week? We move on to the 1976 RBI leaders for the National League!

See you then!

1970 IN-GAME ACTION: SAL BANDO

On the blog today, we add former Oakland A's great third baseman Sal Bando to my on-going 1970 "In-Game Action" set:

 

Bando had what turned out to be the best year of his 16-year career in 1969, hitting 31 homers while driving in 113 runs, scoring 106 and collecting 171 hits, all career-bests, while making his 1st All-Star team and finishing 16th in the MVP race.

A huge cog in that Oakland machine of the mid-70's, he would end up making four All-Star teams over his career, while placing top-4 in MVP votes three times with a high of second place in 1971 when teammate Vida Blue took home the honors.

Bando put together a very solid Big League career that saw him take home three championships, participate in four all-star games, and finish in the top-10 in MVP voting three times.

His five 20-homer and two 100+ RBI seasons were a nice compliment to Reggie's offensive exploits, and with Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace and Bert Campaneris thrown in you can see why those A's teams were so strong.

Then again, with starting pitching like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Rollie Fingers et al, yeah, they were going to kick-ass no matter what…

He retired in 1981 with 1790 hits, 982 runs scored, 242 homers, 1039 runs batted in and a .254 batting average.

EXPANDED LEAGUE LEADERS: 1975 A.L. RUNS BATTED IN

Next up in my ongoing "Expanded League Leaders" series is the 1975 A.L. Runs Batted In leader card featuring the top three RBI men of the 1974 season for the Junior Circuit:

 

We start off with the top RBI man, the Texas Rangers' Jeff Burroughs, former #1 overall pick and young stud, who paced the league with 118 "ribbies" in 1974.

Burroughs was still only 23 years of age by season's end, hitting 25 homers with a very nice .301 batting average to go with the RBIs all leading to him taking home the American League MVP Award and making his first All-Star team.

He would end up putting in a very nice 16-year Major League career, hitting 240 homers before he was done by the end of the 1984 season.

In second place with 103 RBIs is a man that is terribly overlooked these days, Oakland A's All-Star third baseman Sal bando, who topped 100 RBIs for the second and final time over his excellent 16-year career.

Bando would finish third in the MVP race for 1974, helping the A's to their third straight championship, hitting 22 homers and making his fourth All-Star team, this after coming in fourth in 1973 and second in 1972.

The man was so good yet gets forgotten these days when talking about 1970's baseball.

In third place with 99 RBIs for the 1974 season, another Oakland A's star, Joe Rudi, who finished second in the MVP race that season, the second time doing so in three years.

Rudi led the A.L. with 39 doubles, hitting .293 with 22 homers and taking home his first of three Gold Gloves while making his second All-Star team for the loaded A's offense.

Incredibly, as with the other two players featured today, he also put in exactly 16 seasons as a Major Leaguer, with three All-Star nods, three Gold Gloves and two second place MVP finishes to go with his three championship rings.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1977 SAL BANDO

This week's re-done 1977 "former" Oakland A's star is All-Star third baseman Sal Bando, who signed on with the Milwaukee Brewers before the 1977 season began, thus ending his great run as an Athletic after 11-years:

 

Bando broke many a heart in Oakland on November 19th of 1976 when he signed with the Brewers, part of the mass exodus of Oakland's stars that brought the city three straight World Championships between 1972 and 1974.

A huge cog in that machine of the mid-70's, he would end up making four All-Star teams over his career, while placing top-4 in MVP votes three times with a high of second place in 1971 when teammate Vida Blue took home the honors.

Bando put together a very solid 16-year career that saw him take home three championships, participate in four all-star games, and finish in the top-10 in MVP voting three times.

His five 20-homer and two 100+ RBI seasons were a nice compliment to Reggie's offensive exploits, and with Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace and Bert Campaneris thrown in you can see why those A's teams were so strong.

Then again, with starting pitching like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Rollie Fingers et al, yeah, they were going to kick-ass no matter what…

Sadly for Milwaukee however, though he did stick with them for the last five years of his Big League career, he never reached the solid numbers he put up while with Oakland, topping out at 17 homers, 82 RBI's and a .285 batting average as highs between 1977 and 1981 before retiring at the age of 37.

ON-CARD ALL-STAR: 1970 SAL BANDO

Here's a fun card to "fix", the 1970 Sal Bando, showing the fact that he was the American League starting third baseman in the 1969 All-Star game:

It's amazing to think that he beat out perennial All-Star and legend Brooks Robinson, but when you look at the season Bando put in that year, it was much deserved!

Bando had what turned out to be the best year of his 16-year career in 1969, hitting 31 homer while driving in 113 runs, scoring 106 and collecting 171 hits, all career-bests, while making his 1st All-Star team and finishing 16th in the MVP race.

A huge cog in the machine that would eventually be the three-peat World Champion A's teams of the mid-70's, he would end up making four All-Star teams over his career, while placing top-4 in MVP votes three times with a high of second place in 1971 when teammate Vida Blue took home the honors.

Bando put together a very solid 16-year career that saw him take home three championships, participate in four all-star games, and finish in the top-10 in MVP voting three times.

His five 20-homer and two 100+ RBI seasons were a nice compliment to Reggie's offensive exploits, and with Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace and Bert Campaneris thrown in you can see why those A's teams were so strong.

Then again, with starting pitching like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Rollie Fingers et al, yeah, they were going to kick-ass no matter what…

 

1975 IN-ACTION: SAL BANDO

Time to go and give former all-star third baseman Sal Bando an In-Action card in my running 1975 sub-set, celebrating his excellent run as one of the leaders of the Oakland A’s dynasty that saw them win three straight World Series between 1972-1974:

Bando was a consistent RBI-man during this period, giving the A’s some pop at the plate while manning third base on a team that also had all-stars Joe Rudi, Reggie Jackson and Gene Tenace.
Three times he would finish in the top-5 for American League MVP voting, with a high of second place in 1971 behind teammate Vida Blue.
Of course, like many of his teammates in 1976, he would leave the A’s via Free Agency and sign with the Milwaukee Brewers, playing out the final five years of his very nice 16-year career before retiring in 1981 with 242 homers, 1039 runs batted in and a .254 batting average over 2019 games and 7060 at-bats, with four all-star nods.

FUTURE STARS: SAL BANDO

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.

MISSING 1970 ALL-STAR: SAL BANDO- 3B

Here's the next "missing" all-star card from the 1970 Topps set: Sal Bando, the starting American League third baseman.

Now, I don't know why Brooks Robinson wasn't the starter, as it seems he wasn't injured or anything, but Sal Bando joined fellow teammate Reggie Jackson in the starting line-up, and were giving everyone a look at the budding dynasty the Oakland A's were about to become.

Bando put together a very solid 16-year career that saw him take home three championships, participate in four all-star games, and finish in the top-10 in MVP voting three times.

His five 20-homer and two 100+ RBI seasons were a nice compliment to Reggie's offensive exploits, and with Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace and Bert Campaneris thrown in you can see why those A's teams were so strong.

Then again, with starting pitching like Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Rollie Fingers et al, yeah, they were going to kick-ass no matter what…

MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" #34: 1972 SAL BANDO

Today we give former Oakland A's star third baseman Sal Bando a "missing" in-action card in the 1972 set.

Take a look:

It's so easy to forget that Bando was such a solid player throughout the decade.

You look at the fact that he finished in second place for MVP in 1971 (behind teammate Vida Blue), fourth place in 1973 (behind teammate Reggie Jackson), and third place in 1974, and he really could have been remembered as one of the best of the wild-70's.

One of the anchors of the Oakland A's dynasty during the decade, he easily get's lost behind former teammates Jackson, Rudi, Campaneris, Hunter, Blue et al.

A four-time all-star, Bando moved on to Milwaukee after 1976 during the Oakland "exodus" of stars and put together a few more solid years before his career petered-out by 1979.

He retired after a 16-year career in 1981, with 1790 hits, 982 runs scored, 242 homers, 1039 runs batted in and a .254 batting average.

And thanks to blog follower Joe, I've now realized that he was denied an all-star card in the 1970 set! So what for that card in the near future…

AIRBRUSHING THE OAKLAND A'S AWAY IN 1977

The free-agent "boom", and the trades resulting from it, caused a ton of bad airbrushing in the '77 set league-wide. But I was drawn to an unusually large number of former teammates that were part of this group: former Oakland A's.
For any fans of the A's in the mid-70's, it must have been brutal watching the mass exodus of such an awesome three-peating dynasty pretty much all in one fell-swoop, either by trade or free-agency.
After Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson left before the 1975 and 1976 seasons respectively, the true dismantling occurred during the off-season between '76 and '77, when no less than SIX star players were wearing another teams uniform for opening day.
Because of the madness of all this player shuffling, Topps had their hands full with all of these former A's, having to airbrush their cards to stay up to date with the players new team depictions.
Of course, with an already shaky hand at the airbrushing game, the added rush of players to "fix" only added to the mess, and we were presented with some funny cards for the history books.
Check out some of the cards here:

The Rudi card was actually a great job of airbrushing. But just look at that Bando card! Hilarious. Looks like some bad decal of a cap was slapped on top of the original photo, and then colored in with crayon.
Even though he wasn't actually part of the dynasty A's teams, Don Baylor was on the team for the 1976 season, and his card is also a classic, with the Angels' logo not skewed correctly, giving us a twisted perspective only the Twilight Zone could have given us. Awesome!
Looking at all these guys, it truly drives home just how awesome those 1972-1974 A's teams were. Throw in Reggie and Catfish, and consider Vida Blue, Claudell Washington, Ken Holtzman, and even Blue Moon Odom, and you wonder what they could have done if they stayed together a bit longer.
Would have been great seeing this team grind it out against the "Big Red Machine" at THEIR peak just a couple years later in 1975-76.