TRADED- 1974 WALT WILLIAMS

Today we have a “Traded” 1974 card for Walt “No Neck” Williams, who was actually on a Cleveland Indians Topps card, but was part of a three-team trade which landed him in the Bronx on March 19th, 1974:

Williams came to the New York Yankees along with pitcher Rick Sawyer in a trade that also included the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers, with Jim Perry going back to the Indians and catcher Jerry Moses going to the Indians.
Turns out Williams would spend the final two years as a Major Leaguer with the Yankees, getting released right before the 1976 season and retiring for good in 1980 after two seasons in Japan and two more in the Mexican League.
Originally up to the Majors in 1964 as a 20-year-old for 10 games with the Houston Colt .45’s, he’d spend the next two seasons in the Minor Leagues before making it back, now as a member of the Chicago White Sox, in 1967, where he’d go on to play for the next six years before moving on to the Indians for one season.
By the time he was done, he finished with a nice .270 batting average, with 640 hits over 2373 at-bats in 842 games, scoring 284 runs and driving in 173, while also leaving us with one of the great nicknames of the era, “No Neck”, and if you look at any of his Topps cards, you’ll see why.
As for the card template, I was never a fan of that GIANT yellow "Traded" banner Topps used on their version in 1974, so I just went with a horizontal layout, which I am a big fan of.

NICKNAMES OF THE '70'S #43: WALT "NO NECK" WILLIAMS

Time for me to create a “Nickname of the 70’s” card for one of the best of the decade: Walt “No Neck” Williams.
Check it out:

Williams, who sadly passed away this past January at the age of 72, had the best year of his 10-year career in 1969, so I went with a 1970 template in honor of his .304 average for the Chicago White Sox.
What a classic nickname this guy had! And his cards clearly showed us why he was tagged with it.
I especially LOVE his 1974 Topps card while with the Indians, cool shades and all.
Williams retired with a respectable .270 lifetime average, playing for the Houston Colt .45’s, White Sox, Indians, and finally the New York Yankees before finding himself out of the Majors at a young 31 years of age.
But oh that nickname!!!
Rest in Peace brother....

A DECENT AIRBRUSH JOB THAT WAS INEXPLICABLY CUT SHORT...

The 1973 Walt “No Neck” Williams card is an interesting one.
Check it out:

Weird how the Topps folks went and airbrushed the “C” for Cleveland onto the old red White Sox cap, doping a decent job of it at that.
Yet you can clearly see the “S” from “Sox” on the right side of the jersey along with the red pin-striping of the Chicago jersey.
Reminds me of the 1972 Rich McKinney card with the same type of incomplete airbrushing job.
Gotta say though, I love stuff like this. Made it so much fun to notice these things as a collector.
Sadly, Williams passed away this January at the age of 72, leaving us with one of the best nicknames of the 1970’s, or any other decade for that matter.
RIP “No Neck”...

REST IN PEACE WALT "NO NECK" WILLIAMS

Yeah I know I'm a bit late with the news, but here's a tribute to former Major League player Walt "No Neck" Williams, who passed away on January 23rd at the age of 72 in Texas.

With one of the all-time classic nicknames in baseball history, Williams fashioned a nice 10-year career in the big leagues playing for the Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees.
Rest in Peace brother...

"HEY BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE SOME NECK?"- THE THINGS YOU NOTICE AS A KID...

First off, I mean no disrespect to the two guys I'm about to talk about.
As a matter of fact, it's nothing BUT respect why I still remember the quirky things I do about certain players from over 35 years ago that, quite honestly, would have faded away into the deep corners of my mind by the time the '80's hit.
But, here we are in June, 2013 and I STILL remember Walt "No Neck" Williams and Ed Brinkman.
Why would I still remember these two players all these years later? Sure, they put together respectable careers and managed to get themselves on a good number of baseball cards along the way. But why them two as opposed to a Skip Jutze or Steve Arlin?
Well, I always got a kick out of the fact that Walt truly had NO neck, while Brinkman had the longest neck I ever saw on a player in my life!
Put cards of these two players together, and you have a funny sight for a kid who memorized every card that touched his hand!
Walt, who looked like a Paul Bunyon-sized fullback, was actually a small 5'6", barely tipping the scales at 175lbs! But he managed to forge a decent 10-year career which ended after the 1975 season as a member of the Yankees. He hit .270 for his career, which wasn't bad in a light-hitting era that was the late 60's/early 70's.
Nevertheless he always left a big impression on me back then because of the "no-neck" photos on his cards. Hilarious!
At the same time Walt was manning outfields around the Majors, you had Ed Brinkman, a shortstop who put together a 15-year career that, ironically enough, also ended in 1975 for the very same team, the Yankees.
Brinkman, a notoriously light-hitting infielder if there ever was one, still garnered a Gold Glove AND even finished in the Top-10 in MVP voting for the Tigers in 1972 while hitting .203/.259/.279!
Ahh, baseball during the modern "dead"-era. Imagine a guy hitting under .210 today and getting THAT much respect?
Anyway, while I had Walt Williams and his "no-neck" screaming out at me from his baseball cards, I also remember Brinkman and his giraffe-neck cracking me up every year!
Just look at it! It's quite impressive isn't it? Take a look:

"No-Neck" keepin' it cool in 1974

Seriously! How long is that thing? Brinkman on HIS '74 card

Not to get all "preachey" here, but this is a good example of one of the things I miss so much about baseball back then. No matter what you'd always have players that really did look like someone you'd run into at the schoolyard or at the store. Guys that looked "human". Guys that didn't look like the perfectly proportioned  6'4"/ 225lb. "professional athlete" that we see High Schools and Colleges pumping out of their programs every year.
Ah well. Progress I guess.