REVISITING A POST FROM 2013: MISSING IN ACTION: 1976 TOM KELLY

Good day everyone!

Thought it'd be fun to revisit a blog post from over 10 years ago, this one my "missing" 1976 card for future World Series winning manager Tom Kelly:

Here's the original post write-up for the card:

While trolling around online recently, I came across an old photo of former Twins manager Tom Kelly as a player from 1975.
I've always known that he didn't have much of a Major League playing career, but never realized that he saw enough action in his only year, 1975, to warrant a card being issued for him in the 1976 set.
In his only season up in the big leagues, Kelly played in 49 games for 147 plate appearances, hitting a not-so-impressive .181 while playing first base and some outfield. Not much, but enough in my eyes for Topps to give him a card.
Nevertheless, after that brief time in the "bigs" he bounced around the Minors until 1980, suiting up for the Twins and Orioles.
He did have some pretty decent seasons, showing some "pop" to go along with some solid averages, and he even got to pitch in a few games, going 1-0 with a 1.88 E.R.A. in 24 innings, yet for some reason he never got the call back up.
Well as we all know, Kelly found his way to leading teams on the field, starting out as skipper for Visalia in A-Ball at the ripe old age of 26 in 1977 as a player-manager.
By the time 1986 rolled around, he was managing the Minnesota Twins, and it was a position he'd hold onto for 16 years, even leading the team to two world championships in 1987 and 1991.
Some of the players he managed were stars like Kirby Puckett, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield and Jack Morris.
He finally retired after the 2001 season, getting himself a bunch of baseball card appearances of the managerial variety along the way.
But today, I post a 1976 player card I designed for the former Twins leader reflecting his cup-of-coffee back in 1975.
Seems the Twins didn't have a card of a first baseman in the 1976 set. I had to "cut out" the player icon in the lower left from a George Scott card and recolor the border for the Kelly card shown below. Go figure...

AN ODDBALL FANTASY CARD- 1970 TOM (JAY) KELLY

Came across this image of “Jay” Kelly, which turns out is none other than one-year wonder (and future long term Major League manager) Tom Kelly, and decided to make a 1970 card with it, since you can never have enough Seattle Pilots cards out there:

Kelly, who I still cannot find out whether he went by “Jay” at that time since the image was named this, was actually drafted by the Seattle organization back when he was a 17-year-old in 1968.
He put in a few seasons in their Minor League system before getting released in April of 1971, then getting signed by the organization for which he’d spend his long MLB life with, the Minnesota Twins less than a month later, on April 28th, 1971.
Basically a career-Minor Leaguer, Kelly would get the only taste of Major League playing time in 1975 when he appeared in 49 games for Minnesota, batting .181 with 23 hits over 127 at-bats.
He’d play another five years in the Minors, before retiring as a player in 1980 and moving on to coaching/managing soon after.
In 1986 he would become the Twins manager with only 23 games left in the season, a gig that would last another 15 years, guiding the team through two World Championships in 1987 and 1991.
He’d spend 16 years as a manager, all with the Twins, winning 1140 games and being the American League Manager of the Year in 1991.
Neat to find this image of the young teenager, almost 20 years before he’d find Major League glory with a championship, leading a team with stars like Puckett, Hrbek, Viola and Blyleven.

MISSING IN ACTION- 1976 TOM KELLY

While trolling around online recently, I came across an old photo of former Twins manager Tom Kelly as a player from 1975.
I've always known that he didn't have much of a Major League playing career, but never realized that he saw enough action in his only year, 1975, to warrant a card being issued for him in the 1976 set.
In his only season up in the big leagues, Kelly played in 49 games for 147 plate appearances, hitting a not-so-impressive .181 while playing first base and some outfield. Not much, but enough in my eyes for Topps to give him a card.
Nevertheless, after that brief time in the "bigs" he bounced around the Minors until 1980, suiting up for the Twins and Orioles.
He did have some pretty decent seasons, showing some "pop" to go along with some solid averages, and he even got to pitch in a few games, going 1-0 with a 1.88 E.R.A. in 24 innings, yet for some reason he never got the call back up.
Well as we all know, Kelly found his way to leading teams on the field, starting out as skipper for Visalia in A-Ball at the ripe old age of 26 in 1977 as a player-manager.
By the time 1986 rolled around, he was managing the Minnesota Twins, and it was a position he'd hold onto for 16 years, even leading the team to two world championships in 1987 and 1991.
Some of the players he managed were stars like Kirby Puckett, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield and Jack Morris.
He finally retired after the 2001 season, getting himself a bunch of baseball card appearances of the managerial variety along the way.
But today, I post a 1976 player card I designed for the former Twins leader reflecting his cup-of-coffee back in 1975.
Seems the Twins didn't have a card of a first baseman in the 1976 set. I had to "cut out" the player icon in the lower left from a George Scott card and recolor the border for the Kelly card shown below. Go figure...

The future World Series winning manager as a player in 1976.