UNISSUED PROOF SPOTLIGHT: 1971 MARV STAEHLE

Up on the blog today, an interesting unissued proof card to take a look at, the 1971 card for former second baseman Marv Staehle:

Unissued proof

As-issued 1971 Topps card

 

Topps did have a version of him with the Montreal Expos, for whom he played in 1969 and 1970, but they had enough time to go ahead an whip up an airbrushed version to accommodate his signing with the Atlanta Braves just as the 1971 season was beginning, on April 3rd.

Staehle, who played the first four years of his Major League career with the Chicago White Sox, made it back to a Big League field in 1969 during the Expos inaugural season, appearing in just six games, collecting seven hits in 17 at-bats for a stellar .412 batting average with four runs scored and a home run.
The following year he would see the most playing time of any of his seven seasons, playing in 104 games and batting .218 with 70 hits over 321 at-bats.
In 1971 he appeared in 22 games, which would be the last of his career, batting .111 with four hits over 36 at-bats while playing some middle-infield.
All told, over those seven seasons as a Big League ballplayer, Staehle hit .207 with 94 hits in 455 at-bats over 185 career games, with 53 runs scored and 33 runs batted in.

UNISSUED PROOF: 1977 ALAN ASHBY

Today on the blog we take a look at another unissued proof card, this the 1977 card for former catcher Alan Ashby, who was one of the "original" 1977 Toronto Blue Jays, coming over from the Cleveland Indians:

Unissued proof

Topps issued card

 

Ashby appeared in 89 games for the Indians in 1976, hitting .239 with 59 hits over 247 at-bats, scoring 26 runs while driving in 32.
After being traded to the Jays from the along with Doug Howard for pitcher Al Fitzmorris in November of 1976, Ashby would go on to put in two seasons for the expansion team before moving on to play for the Houston Astros for the next eleven years.
I never realized that his career took him all the way to the doorsteps of the 1990 decade, finishing up with 22 games for the Astros in 1989 after 17-years as a Major League catcher.
In those 17 seasons he batted .245 while playing in 1370 games, collecting 1010 hits with 90 home runs and 513 runs batted in over 4123 official at-bats. After his baseball career ended as a player he hung around the game as a coach in the Astros system as well as a broadcaster for the Astros in both radio and television.

UNISSUED PROOF: 1977 DAVE DUNCAN

Up on the blog today, we take a look at a 1977 unissued Topps proof card, along with the issued version, of former catcher and longtime MLB coach Dave Duncan:

 

Though he never ended up playing for the Chicago White Sox after two seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, he was traded to the South Siders in November of 1976, deciding to retire as an active player, but not before Topps airbrushed him into his new uniform.

On March 30th, just before the season started, the White Sox released Duncan, who decided to retire and finish up his 11-year playing career.
Originally up with the Kansas City Athletics in 1964 as an 18-year old, Duncan had a decent career, hitting as many as 19 home runs one season and making the American League All-Star team in 1971.
After his days with the A’s he went to the Cleveland Indians for two years in 1973 and 1974, before his stint with Baltimore the following two seasons.
Of course, he will always be remembered as the celebrated pitching coach between 1979 and 2011, generally while working with Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa, in which he’d list no less than four Cy Young winners under his guidance and being a part of three World Champion teams: 1989 A’s and 2006 & 2011 St. Louis Cardinals.

UNISSUED PROOF: 1977 WAYNE GARLAND

Up on the blog today, another fun "un-issued" proof card to spotlight, this one a 1977 proof of former 20-game winner Wayne Garland of the Baltimore Orioles and soon to be Cleveland Indians:

 

Garland was coming off a great 1976 season with the Orioles that saw him go 20-7 with a very nice 2.67 earned run average over 38 appearances, 25 of which were starts.

It was certainly a "career-year" and one that got him a fat Free Agent contract with the Indians over the Winter, sadly one that the Indians would definitely want back.

Arm injuries set in soon after and Garland never got close to his 1976 numbers, going 13-19 in 1977, and never winning more than six games in any of his remaining four seasons after that before retiring in 1981 at only 30 years of age.

Of his 10140 career innings over his nine year career, a whopping HALF of those were thrown in the two seasons of 1976 and 1977, with a high of 282.2 in his first year with Cleveland in 1977.

All told he finished with a 55-66 career record along with a 3.89 ERA and 450 strikeouts over 190 games, 121 of them starts, with seven shutouts and six saves.

SPOTLIGHT: UNISSUED 1977 GARY MATTHEWS PROOF CARD

On the blog today, we take a closer look at an unissued 1977 proof card for former outfielder Gary Matthews, who signed as a Free Agent with the Atlanta Braves after starting his career with the San Francisco Giants:

 

The former N.L. Rookie of the Year signed with Atlanta on November 17th of 1976, in time for Topps to airbrush him into a Braves Uni for the 1977 set.

n 1973, he would really make his mark, hitting an even .300 with 162 hits over 540 at-bats, with 74 runs scored and 58 runs batted in during the 1973 season.

Those numbers would be good enough to take home the N.L. Rookie of the Year Award, easily finishing ahead of the Montreal Expos Steve Rogers for top freshman honors.

It would pretty much be steady straight from there, as he’d go on to consistently put similar numbers up through his tenures with the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs until he’d retire after a brief stint with the Seattle Mariners in 1987.
By the time he left the game as an active player, he racked up a lifetime .281 average, with 2011 hits and 234 home runs to go with his 1083 runs scored and 978 RBI’s.
He’d also put in some excellent postseason performances, as he’d hit .323 over 19 games with seven home runs and 15 RBIs, including an MVP performance in the NL Championship series while with the Phillies when he hit three homers and drove in eight runs in only four games against the Dodgers, helping the “Wheez Kids” make it to the World Series.

SPOTLIGHT: UNISSUED 1977 STEVE STONE PROOF CARD

On the blog today, thought it'd be fun to take a closer look at another unissued 1977 proof card, this of future Cy Young winning pitcher Steve Stone, who found himself "across town" before the season, going from the Chicago Cubs to the White Sox:

 

By the time the 1977's were out, Topps went ahead and airbrushed Stone into a Sox uni, but as you can see from the unissied proof, they originally had him in a Cubs uniform in a posed photo.

Stone spent the previous three seasons on the North Side of Chicago playing for the Cubs, winning 8, 12 and 3 games respectively between 1974 and 1976.

Funny enough, before his Cubs tenure he played one season with the White Sox in 1973, going 6-11 over 36 appearances with a 4.24 earned run average.

He'd have his best season yet in 1977 with the White Sox, winning 15 games against 12 losses, posting an ERA of 4.51 over 31 starts, with eight complete games.

He'd go on to win 12 more games in 1978 before finding himself in Baltimore for the 1979 season, where he'd go 11-7 with a 3.77 ERA over 32 starts.

Of course, the 1980 season was one for the ages, as he would come out of nowhere to win 25 games, make his only All-Star team, and eventually take home the A.L. Cy Young Award.

Along with the hefty win total he posted an ERA of 3.23 over 37 starts, with a shutout and 149 strikeouts in 250.2 innings of work.

However, sadly for him he would develop arm troubles during the 1981 season, and incredibly would see his Major league career end just like that, finishing 4-7 with a 4.60 ERA over 15 games, 12 of them starts, throwing only 62.2 innings.

All told, Stone finished with a record of 107-93 in 11 seasons, with a 3.97 ERA and seven shutouts over 320 games, 269 of them starts, and 1788.1 innings pitched.

SPOTLIGHT: UNISSUED 1977 PAT KELLY PROOF CARD

Up on the blog today, I came across an amazing unissued 1977 proof card for former outfielder Pat Kelly, showing him a member of the Baltimore Orioles after coming up with the Chicago White Sox. Take a look:

 

After six relatively successful seasons with Chicago, Kelly found himself a member of the Orioles after being traded for catcher Dave Duncan in November of 1976.

Topps had enough time to get him airbrushed into his new uniform, but not before laying out their sheets for the upcoming 1977 set, giving us some unique proof-cards that were "fixed" before printing began.

For those that need a refresher, here's the as-issued Topps card that year:

 

A solid fourth-outfielder over his 15-year Major League career, Kelly was an All-Star in 1973 while with the White Sox, pretty much setting career-bests across the board while hitting .280 with 154 hits and 77 runs scored.

By the time he retired after one season with the Cleveland Indians in 1981, he finished with a career .264 average, with 1147 hits over 4338 at-bats in 1385 games between 1967 and 1981, playing all three outfield positions while getting some DH time in as well.