#646 - George Foster

What we have here is a high-hatted George Foster looking concerned about something, perhaps his career? Two years after coming to Cincinnati to replace the injured Bobby Tolan in center George, bedeviled by a low average and many strikeouts, was in the minors for most of the ’73 season. While his Triple A numbers were by no means eye-popping – a .262 average with 15 homers, 60 RBI’s, and 109 K’s in 496 at bats – his time there certainly seemed to have done the trick. While those K totals weren’t exactly low they were a long way better than his ratio up until then in MLB at bats, which was more than one in four. After about a year-plus of settling in time George would become the biggest slugger in the mid- to late-Seventies version of the Big Red Machine and eventually earn himself a fat payday on the free agent market. So no need for concern, at least not for another decade.

George Foster was born in Alabama but had relocated to California by the time he was in high school. Cut from his freshman team he started lifting weights and made the roster the rest of his HS time and played football and ran track as well. After graduating in ’67 he tried out for the Dodgers but didn’t make the cut and instead went to nearby El Camino College, where he continued to participate in all three sports. In the meantime he’d been selected in the January ’68 draft by the Giants and once his college season ended he signed and hit .277 in A ball with not too much power. In ’69 he put up much better numbers at that level with a .321/14/85 line and a .381 OBA before his successful September debut in a couple games. In ’70 he played nearly the whole season in Triple A where his line was .308/8/66 before he again hit well in some short time in San Francisco. Back then the Giants were awash in young outfielders, fielding two spots on the ’68 Topps Rookie team in Bobby Bonds and Dave Marshall, and also sporting a franchise roster that included Ken Henderson, Bernie Williams, Garry Maddox, and Gary Matthews. In ’71 George was pulled up to San Francisco as one of the bunch and while he hit OK while playing the outfield corners, the Giants decided they needed more help in the infield and traded George that May to Cincinnati for shortstop Frank Duffy and minor league pitcher Vern Geishert. Eventually it would turn into another monster deal for the Reds but at the time they were desperate for a center fielder to fill the spot made open by Bobby Tolan’s pre-season injury. George did not so bad defensively: he had a big arm and covered enough ground but he wasn’t the most accurate thrower. And offensively his power wasn’t too bad but he at times seemed overmatched at the plate and he wasn’t the offensive catalyst Bobby was in ’70. When Tolan returned in ’72 and the Machine made that big deal with Houston, the presence of Tolan and new guy Cesar Geronimo pushed George to a back-up role which didn’t really suit him as his average floundered and he struck out once every three at bats.

After the transitional year of ’73 Foster was back up for good. Tolan was gone, having experienced his own funk in ’73, and the outfield was populated by Pete Rose, off-season acquirees Merv Rettenmund and Terry Crowley, and a bunch of young guys including Geronimo, Ken Griffey, Dan Driessen, and George. For the ’74 season George shared time at the corner spots with Driessen and Griffey while Geronimo took over center field. George hit well enough, posting a .264/7/41 line in his 276 at bats. The Reds continued that system to start the ’75 season but then blew it up a bit in a good way by moving Rose to third base and giving Griffey and George the regular corner spots, Foster taking over left field. His numbers improved markedly to a .300/23/78 line, and he followed up his year with a nice post-season. In ’76, now a regular from day one, he became an All-Star by putting up a line of .306/29/121 while keeping the K’s relatively low and leading the NL in RBI’s which he would also do the next two years. ‘77 was his big MVP season with his .320/52/149 line with 124 runs and a .382 OBA. He led the NL with his totals in runs, homers, and RBI’s, becoming the first NL guy to post over 50 homers since Willie Mays in ’65 and the first NLer with that many RBI’s since Tommie Davis in ’62. In ’78 he again led the league in homers and RBI’s while recording a .281/40/120 line as he continued to do well despite the loss the last two seasons of Tony Perez behind him in the line-up. The next few seasons George would continue to post excellent numbers though they would be discounts to his big three seasons due to various factors: .302/30/98 despite missing over a month in the summer of ’79 due to injury; .273/25/93 after the departure of Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench’s injury meant lots less protection in the line-up; and .295/22/90 while missing about a third of the season due to the strike. By then George was looking for the big bucks and though he departed Cincy in a trade to the Mets for Jim Kern, Alex Trevino, and Greg Harris, it was really sort of his departure to free agency.

The Mets of the late Seventies and early Eighties were a pretty sorry bunch and the acquisition of Foster was hailed as the beginning of a turnaround. But even the post-Morgan, Rose, and Perez line-up of the recent Reds teams was vastly superior to the one George joined in ’82. Young outfielder Mookie Wilson and third baseman Hubie Brooks showed promise but the rest of the batting order was nothing special and the dynamic mound staff was a thing of the past. George had a pretty terrible first year as he put up a line of .247/13/70 while overswinging helped pile up the strikeouts. That didn’t make too many NY fans happy and poor George was christened with the new last name of Flopster. He would recover a bit the next two years to lines of .241/28/90 in ’83 and .269/24/86 in ’84 as some key acquisitions and the development of the young guys put the Mets in the right direction. In ’85 he had a line of .263/21/77 as the Mets moved to the cusp of the playoffs with the acquisition of Gary Carter. Early in the ’86 season George was still getting starts in left but he began to be pushed for time by kids Lenny Dykstra and Kevin Mitchell. When his complaint about playing time – either on his own behalf or that of Mookie Wilson’s, depending on the source – took perceived racial overtones he was released and missed the post-season. After playing a couple weeks with the White Sox he was done. George finished with a .274 average with 348 homers and 1,239 RBI’s. He made five All-Star teams, was a Silver Slugger once, and in 23 post-season games hit .289 with three homers and twelve RBI’s.

Despite the tough times in NY after Foster retired he made the area his home and settled in Connecticut. There he began a ministry and worked with various levels of kids in team and private baseball coaching. He initially ran a non-profit in the Dayton area and since has started his own group that benefits children of military personnel. He continues to coach privately and also does motivational speaking.

An early playoff highlight occupies one star bullet and those four homers are pretty impressive for only 39 ’73 at bats.This card is really off center.

These two were a decade apart as Mets:

1. Foster and Tom Seaver ’83 Mets;

2. Seaver and Ken Boswell ’67 to ’74 Mets.

#601 - '74 Rookie Outfielders

On this card we get two decently-long careers and a guy who probably still causes hand-wringing in Boston. One guy is a bit out of position on this card, at least for this part of his career, and not one of them looks terribly happy. This card kicks off the final eleventh of the set so let’s get to know these guys. The long delay on this one is partly because the text got lost. Now I have to publish this post in two parts because Blogger won't let me publish it in one. That always sucks.

Ed Armbrister was a happy guy pretty much all the time, despite his look here. Born and raised in the Bahamas as a kid he took advantage of the relative baseball craze that swept his nation when its first native came stateside to play MLB ball. Ed was spotted by a Houston scout in ’67 and signed in time to get in a full season in A ball, where he hit .211. He upped that by 50 points the next year and then in ’69 showed off his speed by stealing 26 bases while hitting .271. He then spent the next two years in Double A, hitting .238 in ’70 – while apparently not walking once in 442 plate appearances! – and upping it to .298 with 16 stolen bases in ’71. Following that season he was included in the big deal to the Reds and would then spend the bulk of the next three years in Triple A. He got his first rookie card that first year (and would have another one in ’75) and over that time would average .300 with nine triples, 16 stolen bases, and 63 RBI’s per year. He made his debut in late August of ’73 and worked the balance of the year in some occasional starts in center as well as pinch running and late inning work, hitting .216 before getting some playoff action. ’74 was nearly all in the minors and he would then spend the next three years strictly up top as the late-inning back-up guy. In ’75 he raised his profile huge when in the Series he put down the bunt that Carlton Fisk threw into center field after he got tangled up with Ed in front of the plate. He would hit .295 in ’76 and .256 in ’77 but the most at bats he got any of those three years up was 78. In ’78 he returned to Triple A for a year, hitting .276 with 32 steals his final stateside season. He then played in Mexico the next couple years, putting up a .291/13/62 line in ’79 but fading to .135 the next year, his final one as a player. For his career Ed hit .245 and .143 in his ten post-season games during which he garnered two rings and in the minors .273 with over 150 stolen bases. After playing he returned to the Bahamas where for years he was a croupier at local casinos and then worked in various local government roles. He has recently started an eponymous baseball league there and was donated a bunch of equipment by the Reds. He has a SABR bio.

Rick – or Rich, as Topps likes to designate him – Bladt was a Cali kid signed out of Foothill College (where he may or may not have played ball) by the Cubs in ’66. A speedy outfielder, he hit .294 in Rookie ball that year and .267 in A ball in ’67. In ’68 he improved to .293 at that level and then in ’69 he wrapped a .312 season in Triple A with 18 stolen bases around a few games in the summer in Chicago when Ron Santo was injured. After that year he and another minor leaguer went to the Yankees for outfielder Jimmie Hall and Rick would then spend the next five seasons as an outfield regular at Syracuse, the NY Triple A franchise, during which he averaged a stat line of .256/9/47 with 70 runs and 12 steals a year. His highs during that span were a .276 average with 12 homers in ’72, and 97 runs and ten triples and 19 stolen bases in ’73. In ’74 he bottomed out with a .226 average. But in ’75 he’d raised his average 40 points when Elliott Maddox tore up his knee at Shea and NY pulled up Rick that August to replace him. After a couple scattered starts he would become the everyday center fielder from early September on and hit .222 during that time. In ’76 NY picked up Mickey Rivers and Rick returned to Syracuse where he had his best year with a .285/9/60 line with 81 runs and a .385 OBA. That year he was also famously involved in a situation in which the ball from a hit he was chasing was lost in the outfield grass and had to be ruled a double. After that season he and Maddox were sent to Baltimore for Paul Blair and Rick spent his final year hitting .226 in Triple A. He finished with a .215 average in 62 MLB games and a .268 average with over 100 steals and a .350 OBA in the minors. After playing he moved to Oregon where he had a long career in construction as a carpenter and continues to reside.

By the time this card came out Brian Downing had just obtained his driver’s license which he needed to go on his first-ever date. A very shy guy who was obviously a late-bloomer, Brian’s baseball story is a great rags-to-riches one. He didn’t make his high school team in Anaheim until his senior year and then he never played. He then went to Cypress College, a local JUCO school, where he played a semester and happened to be seen by a White Sox scout in a game in which he lined a shot off future MLB reliever Al Hrabosky. When the scout heard Brian was hitting .333 he signed him up for a tryout not knowing that was his only hit of the season. Brian did well at the tryout and was signed that May. He kicked off that summer of ’70 in Rookie ball, where he hit .219 while catching. He then moved up a rung each year, hitting .246 in A ball as a catcher/third baseman in ’71 and .278 with 15 homers in Double A in ’72 when he added outfielder to his positions. He got on base at a pretty good clip - .370 in the minors – and in ’73 after hitting .246 in Triple A he was moved up to Chicago at the end of May. On his first play at third he caught a pop-up before falling down the dugout steps and dislocating his knee, missing the next two months. He returned to hit .178 while splitting time between his three positions. In ’74 he backed up Ed Hermann while hitting .225 and then Brian was the starting catcher the next two years, hitting .240 and .256. But he missed significant time both years – to an elbow injury in ’75 and a broken hand in ’76 – and in ’77 lost the starting catching gig to Jim Essian, though his numbers when he did play - .284 with 25 RBI’s and a .402 OBA in 169 at bats – were his best in Chicago. They would remain that as after the season ended he and pitchers Chris Knapp and Dave Frost went to California for Bobby Bonds, Thad Bosley, and Richard Dotson. His first season in ’78 he became the Angels’ starting catcher, hitting .255. Then in the off-season he worked on two things: weight training and opening his stance. They both worked huge and in ’79 he put up a .326/12/75 stat line with a .418 OBA and made the All-Star team. He was rolling in ’80 in the same role - .290 with 25 RBI’s his first 93 at bats – when he broke his ankle and missed the rest of the year. California then decided they liked his bat enough to put him in a safer place – he still had nagging shoulder and elbow pain – and opted for left field. Over the next ten years he would average a .267/20/70 stat line which included missed time in ’81 for the strike and in ’83, ’88, and ’90 for injuries. In his healthy seasons he averaged .275 with 25 homers and 85 RBI’s. He also put up a .370 OBA during that span and helped California reach the post-season two more times. After the ’90 season he was not re-signed and he went to Texas as a free agent where he DH’d – a role he performed primarily since ’87 – the next two years, averaging .278 with a .390 OBA. Brian finished playing at 41 with a .267 average, 275 homers, 1,073 RBI’s, and a .370 OBA. In the post-season he hit .197 with eight RBI’s in 16 games. He remained in Texas after his baseball career was over on a working farm in the small town of Celina. He was very bitter toward the Angels about his release from the team and would not show up for invitations to team events until 2000 when he was included on the franchise’s all-time team. He was inducted into the team’s hall of fame in 2009. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t make the cut in high school.

Bake McBride’s dad was a Negro League pitcher and Bake played baseball, basketball, and ran track in high school in Missouri before doing the same thing at Westminster College. Hoops was his first love, followed by track – he still holds his school’s record in the 200 – but after a shoulder injury pretty much killed his basketball ambitions he tried out for the Cardinals during his junior year and was then selected in the 37^th round (!!!) of the ’70 draft. After hitting .423 in Rookie ball that summer, he hit .294 with nine steals in only 85 at bats in A ball. In ’71 at the higher level he hit .303 with 40 steals while scoring 85 runs and in ’72 hit a combined .322 with 42 stolen bases and 92 runs scored in a season split between Double A and Triple A. After beginning the ’73 season hitting .289 with 23 stolen bases by July he was called up to St. Louis. He would spend the rest of the year getting a few outfield starts and pinch hitting and put up a .302 average. In ’74 he was named starting center fielder and he then put together an NL ROY year with his .309 average, 81 runs, and 30 stolen bases. Late that season he and Lou Brock – going for the teammate record for steals – were mailed death threats on a regular basis and required police protection. In ’75 Bake hit .300 and stole 26 bases, though he missed his first significant time to injury, this one a shoulder impairment. In ’76 he was gunning along with a .335 and an All-Star selection when his season was ended in July by knee surgery. That year he finished his degree at Westminster (he would be inducted into the school’s hall of fame). A somewhat slow comeback in ’77 and an issue with new manager Vern Rapp – Rapp wanted Bake to lose his afro - pulled down his average to .262 and restricted his playing time a bit and wound up partly forcing the deadline trade of Bake and Steve Waterbury to the Phillies for Tom Underwood, Rick Bosetti, and Dane Iorg. Bake turned it up the rest of the way, hitting .339 with 27 steals down the stretch. Bake would move to right in the Philly outfield and in ’78 he hurt his wrist which resulted in his average slipping a bunch to .269 and his being platooned with Jerry Martin. But he bounced when given the everyday gig in ’79, hitting .280 with twelve triples and in ’80 he turned on the power a bit with 33 doubles and 87 RBI’s as he spent a bunch of time in the fourth spot and hit .309 and got some significant MVP votes. In ’81 more knee injuries pulled his numbers down and after the season he was traded to Cleveland for reliever Sid Monge. In ’82 he was off to another excellent start - .365 in his first 27 games – when the injury bug really nailed him as a bad contact lens solution gave him conjunctivitis and he pretty much couldn’t see from that point on. He returned in ’83 for another injury-plagued season during which he hit .291 in 70 games. After he wasn’t signed he hooked up with Texas for whom in ’84 he hit .296 in Triple A. But at 35 his knees were toast and he retired after that seaon. He finished his MLB career with a .299 average with 548 runs and 183 stolen bases. In the post-season he hit .244 in 22 games. He returned to the St. Louis area where he has gone underground professionally but has had some relatives in the media: his son Bake is a personal trainer with a local hospital and has a YouTube video; a nephew Travis McBride was recently a local baseball star; and another nephew Joe McBride is a big deal jazz pianist.

#531 - Gene Mauch/Expos Field Leaders

Gene Mauch has the Sparky Anderson old thing going on. In this photo he is about 48 years old. But he has a fat smile on his face and he should as he was about to lead the Expos to their best season for a few years, one in which they would contend until a late-September slump took them out of the running for a division title. He used the NL’s best OBA to run his “small-ball” theme pretty well and if he had one more dependable starter he could have won the whole thing. What he did win was the NL’s Manager of the Year award. The nice thing about the ’73 fade was that it wasn’t his fault. That probably made it a lot easier to bear than that one in ’64.

Gene Mauch was born in Kansas but relocated to California as a kid and played middle infield and pitched while attending Fremont High in LA.. He was signed by the Dodgers in ’43 just out of school and that summer after hitting .322 in B ball put in a few games in Double A. Shortly after starting at Brooklyn and then hitting .283 in Double A he enlisted, spending the balance of that year and all of ’45 in WW II. He returned in ’46 to put in a full season at shortstop in Triple A, hitting .248 with a .359 OBA, but with tons of errors. After the season he was traded to Pittsburgh where he moved to second and after hitting .300 the first half of the season was promoted. He spent the balance of the season hitting .300 in a few games of infield back-up. After a flip back to Brooklyn (with Billy Cox and Preacher Roe) a slow start as a reserve got him to the Cubs on waivers. The rest of that year and the next he got 300 at bats worth of back-up infield work. Prior to the ’50 season he was traded to the Braves where he did a season-plus up top and also hit over .300 in Triple A in ’51 and ’52. In ’53 he went down to Double A as a player/manager and went 84-70 and made the playoffs. He then returned to Chicago where he played for three seasons in the PCL, hitting well each year and topping out with a .348/20/84 season in ’56. Those numbers turned on the Red Sox who purchased Gene for the stretch run – he hit .325 – and then kept him up top for all of ’57 where he split time at second and had his biggest year at that level, hitting .270 with 28 RBI’s in 222 at bats. He was then released as a player and went to Triple A to manage for the Sox and in both ’58 and ’59 took his team to its championship series, winning the whole thing the second year. He turned in some time as a player there also and finished that role after the ’59 season. Gene hit .239 in the majors in just over 300 games and .291 in the minors with a .385 OBA.

Mauch was planning on returning to the Boston organization for the ’60 season but instead got hired into the Philadelphia one as a coach up top and took over the team two games into the season. The first two seasons were pretty tough but by ’62 Gene and management had built a pretty good nucleus around outfielders Johnny Callison and Tony Gonzales and that season he won his first Manager of the Year award. Then with the arrival of Chris Short and Jim Bunning on the mound and rookie slugger Dick Allen in a couple years he had the team in first place with a bit over a week to go in September ’64. But the Phillies famously lost ten straight as Gene opted to go with his two above mound starters almost exclusively; three straight losses were to the surging Cardinals who went on to win the Series. Still Gene again won Manager of the Year again and kept the Phillies on the plus side of the win column even though the talent got scarcer and there were all sorts of fallouts between him and Allen. He was canned midway through the ’68 season and was then hired to manage the new Expos. Again the going was rough initially and while he never got to a winning record with Montreal he did get them to a respectable place pretty quickly by building around a good core and playing smart fundamental ball. He lasted with Montreal through ’75 and then was hired to run Minnesota. There he kept the team competitive even after Rod Carew’s departure, until he was let go during the ‘80 season. A year later he was following Jim Fregosi in managing the Angels and in ’82 he won his first divsion title. He was released after losing to the Brewers in the playoffs and was then hired back for ’85 when owner Gene Autry realized he acted too hastily. Again within a year Gene had California on the playoff track, winning his second division title. But reprising an old theme, after his team had its his opponent on the ropes, the Angels allowed Boston to recover to win the playoffs. Gene managed the Angels one more season and then, facing health problems, retired from managing. He was a big smoker and would have lung problems the rest of his life. Gene went 1,902-2,037 and he has coached and won the most games without winning a title. He worked for the Angels front office for a bunch of years and passed away from lung cancer in 2005 when he was 79.

Dave Bristol was born in Macon, Georgia, and was also a middle infielder in high school, as well as an all-city basketball guard and halfback. He was signed by Cincinnati in 1951 after a year at Western Carolina University – he would complete a degree there and at UNC in education – and then hit .270 in D ball that summer. In ’52 and ’53 he moved up to C ball where he hit roughly .245 before later the second season he joined the military. He returned in ’55 to hit .247 in B ball and in ’56 moved back to D ball where he hit .274. In '57 he had moved to C ball where he was hitting .333 when he was asked to manage a D club. There he hit .332 while leading the club to a record of 38-59, significantly better than his predecessors. He continued to play through ’61, recording big seasons in C ball in ’59 (.289/13/97) and in D ball in ’60 (.295/15/85) and finished with a .283 average. He remained in the Cincinnati system as a manager through ’65, running up a record of 662-562 during that time and winning league championships in five of those nine seasons. In ’66 he was brought up top to coach and early that season was named manager. As a manager he was a taskmaster and bench jockey who got in trouble for riding the umps. He did a pretty good job putting together the team that would become The Big Red Machine but couldn’t get to the playoffs so was dismissed following the ’69 season. He was hired by Montreal but then jumped ship to manage the Brewers which he did from ’70 through mid-’72. In ’73 he became a coach with Montreal for real, which he did through ’75. He then moved to manage the Braves where in ’77 he was replaced by team owner Ted Turner for a game before the league put a stop to that and Dave returned to finish the season. In ’78 he coached the Giants and then took over managing in ’79 as the team failed to move ahead in its rebuilding. But there he clashed with Jack Clark and got into a fight with John Montefusco and was done after the ’80 season. After a year out of the game he returned to coach for the Phillies (’82-’85, ‘88) and the Reds (’89 and ’93). In between and thereafter he returned to his off-season business of raising horses back in North Carolina. Dave’s record was 657-764 overall up top and he continues to reside in his base state.

Larry Doby was born in South Carolina and relocated to New Jersey when he was a kid after his father died. He spent high school in Paterson where he was all-state in the big three sports and track and he played both semi-pro (with Monte Irvin) and Negro League ball before he finished school (he adopted the surname Walker when he played in the Negro Leagues). After graduating in ’41 he went to Long Island University on a hoops scholarship. He did not finish out the year but did play pro hoops for the Harlem Rens and baseball for the Newark Eagles the following spring, playing second and hitting around .390. He then transferred to Virginia Union University and then in ’43 again played for Newark before being inducted into the military. He played some service ball over the next three seasons while being stationed in the US and the Pacific. He returned to Newark in ’46 and hit .341, which got him noticed by Cleveland owner Bill Veeck. After a winter of pro hoops for the Paterson Crescents he returned to Newark where he was hitting .458 with Negro League-leading totals of 16 doubles and 13 homers when he was signed by Veeck and later that summer became the first black player in the AL. He only got some token time at the plate that first season but returned in ’48 to take over center field and hit .301 before leading Cleveland hitters in the Series with a .318 average. In ’49 he hit .280 while upping his RBI total to 85 and increased everything in ’50 with a .326/25/102 season with an AL-leading .442 OBA. After a knee injury hurt his power a bit in ’51 he returned to put up his three biggest power years, averaging 31 homers and 111 RBI’s through ’54 while hitting about .272. During that time he led the AL in homers twice and runs and RBI’s once. In ’55 he hit .291 with 26 homers but a leg injury helped pull his RBI number down to 75 and after the season he was traded to the White Sox. His first year in Chicago he had a .268/24/102 season but he again injured his leg in ’57 and his numbers slipped to .288/14/79. He was then traded back to Cleveland where he hit .283 with 13 homers and 45 RBI’s in half a season in ’58. He then went to Detroit and back to Chicago for a few games before re-joining Cleveland at their PCL franchise. There a couple games in he broke his ankle and missed the rest of the season. He signed with Toronto of the IL in ’60 but was cut when his ankle didn’t come around. After returning to Paterson to coach and run his club in Newark he went to Japan in ’62 with Don Newcombe to play for Chunichi as the first Americans to play there. That ended his playing career and he finished with a .283 average with 253 homers, 970 RBI’s, and a .386 OBA. He hit .237 in ten post-season games and made seven consecutive All-Star teams. In ’63 he resumed his work in Paterson which he did until he became a scout and minor league hitting coach with the new Expos in ’69. He moved up top to coach from ’71 to ’73 and then returned to Cleveland to coach in ’74. There were rumors that he would become MLB’s first black manager but when the Tribe traded for Frank Robinson that opportunity slipped away and Larry was released as a coach prior to the ’75 season. In ’77 he moved to the White Sox as hitting coach and then replaced Bob Lemon as manager mid-way through the ’78 season. He went 30-57 in that role before again becoming hitting coach in ’79. He then moved on to basketball and from ’80 through ’90 worked for the New Jersey Nets in various community-relationship roles. He then did some admin work for the MLB offices but mostly retired to Montclair, NJ. He was inducted into the Hall in ’98 and passed away in Montclair in 2003 from cancer. He was 79.

Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish had a dad who was nearly a full-blooded Native American and who obviously liked names. Cal grew up in Oklahoma and was signed by the Dodgers as a bonus baby pitcher in ’44 out of high school and therefore began his career right away in the majors. He went 3-10 that summer with a 7.82 ERA and then spent the next two years in the military, grabbing an inning on his return late in ’46. He then got traded – with Gene Mauch – to Pittsburgh where he did a couple seasons in Triple A and won 12 games in ’48. But his control wasn’t great and his ERA was toppy so he was traded to the Cubs and had another mediocre season in ’49 at the same level before going 20-11 with a 3.60 ERA in ’50. That got him back up top but a ’51 season of 4-10 with a 4.45 ERA moved him back down and he spent the next four seasons in the PCL going a combined 56-53 with a 3.55 ERA and much better control. He then got purchased by Cleveland for whom he returned to the top. After a not great ’56 he put together three pretty good seasons: 9-7 with a 2.74 ERA in ’57; 16-8, 2.99 in ’58; and 19-8, 3.63 in ’59. He then went with Billy Martin to the Reds in a trade but went only 4-14. He had another losing season in ’61 with the White Sox before going to Philadelphia where over the next two years he was 24-16 with a 3.66 ERA. After a couple games in ’64 he was done and finished with a record of 92-92 with a 4.01 ERA, 57 complete games, five shutouts, and seven saves. In Philly Cal’s old buddy Gene Mauch was the manager and in ’65 Gene named Cal pitching coach which he did through ’66 before working the next two seasons as a scout for the team. He then re-joined Mauch as a coach for the new Expos which he did through ’75. He then moved on to Milwaukee as its pitching coach (’76-’82) and scout (’83- late Nineties) and then retired. He passed away in Oklahoma in 2010 at age 84 from leukemia.

Jerry Zimmerman was born in Omaha, Nebraska and moved to Oregon as a kid where he excelled as an athlete at Milwaukie High. There he was chased down by every MLB club after hitting .423 for his career – and .621 his senior year of ’52 – as a catcher. The Red Sox won him with a bonus of between $65,000 and $80,000 and he hit .230 that summer in C ball. He upped that to .265 in ’53 but with very little power. In ’54 he hit .302 in D ball, followed by a .275 in B ball in ’55 and a .231 in A ball in ’56. He was very adept at handling difficult pitches and had very low error and passed ball totals. He had one of his better offensive years in ’57 with a .266 Double A year and then hit .250 in Triple A the following year. After starting off ’59 badly he was released and picked up by Baltimore. His average didn’t improve and after the season he was sent to Cincinnati for whom in ’60 he hit .279 in Triple A. He finally made The Show in ’61 when he stepped in as part of a three-man rotation at catcher and had the best average – at only .206 – of any of the guys in that position on the pennant winner. He got some Series time and then was traded to the Twins for whom he spent the next five seasons backing up Earl Battey. He returned to the Series in ’65 and had his best season up top in ’66 when he hit .252 with 15 RBI’s. He took over as a starter in ’67 when Battey got sick and also was the club’s bullpen coach, a role he continued partly in ’68, his last season. He finished with an average of .204 in the majors, .258 in the minors, and went hitless in one at bat in the post-season. While in the minors he had played for Gene Mauch and he rejoined him as an original Expos coach in ’69, staying there through ’75. He then returned to Minnesota with Mauch and coached there through ’80 and in ’78 umped a game during the umpire strike that year. He was then a scout for the Yankees for two years before taking on that role with Baltimore, which he did through ’97. He passed away from a heart attack in ’98 when he was 63.

The double hook-up returns since Gene did some good time in the majors. For him as manager:

1. Mauch managed Mike Marshall on the ’70 to ’73 Expos and the ’78 to ’80 Twins;

2. Marshall and Mickey Stanley ’67 Tigers.

And for him as a player:

1. Mauch and Jim Piersall ’57 Red Sox;

2. Piersall and Jim Perry ’59 to ’61 Twins;

3. Perry and Mickey Stanley ’73 Tigers.

#505 - Bill Buckner

If anyone outside of Fred Merckle is a poster child for one play overriding a whole career, this guy is it. Years from the time this photo was taken Bill Buckner would be at Shea for a moment that many too many saw as defining but in reality was just a bad incident magnified by being on a large stage. But that moment is years away and when this shot was taken Billy Bucks was in the midst of his first full-time season as a Dodger. Incumbent first baseman Wes Parker retired after the ’72 season and LA was still trying to figure out to which infield corner Steve Garvey truly belonged and that transitional time gave Bill the opportunity to finally grab a starting lineup spot. So he spent a bit over half the year manning first base until Garvey segued in to do his Lou Gehrig thing, and then moved to his future permanent spot in left field (permanent being a relative term since we are talking baseball). And while Bill didn’t reach his .300-plus average of ’72, he did have a solid offensive year with the low strikeout total – 34 in ’73 – that would epitomize his work down the road. More than one time he probably wished his days at Shea were all as benign-seeming as the one this photo represents.

Bill Buckner grew up a sports star in southern California and in high school excelled at both football and baseball. In the former sport he was a speedy wide receiver who was All-America twice and still holds school records for all-time receptions and receiving yardage. His junior year in baseball he hit .667 to win the state’s Mr. Baseball award (three years after future teammate Willie Crawford won it), and he then came back to hit .529 as a senior. That year was ’68 and the Dodgers made Bill their second pick that spring. Good pick. Bill hit .344 in Rookie ball the rest of the summer while leading his league with eight triples. In ’69 he killed the ball in the IL, hit .307 with pretty good power in Double A, and upped it to .315 in Triple A. That year he also put in his first pro time at first as the outfield was crowded with young guys and Garvey was being groomed as a third baseman. In ’70 Bill put in more time at first than in the outfield in Triple A and hit .335 with 33 doubles and 74 RBI’s with only 45 strikeouts.

In ’71 spring training Buckner slammed the ball at an over .400 clip and spent just about all his time in right, splitting time primarily with Willie Crawford and taking space vacated by Andy Kosco – who had gone to Milwaukee – and Bill Russell, who was moving to shortstop. Bill’s steady numbers got him a spot on the Topps Rookie team that year. In ’72 he also filled in at first for Parker, upped his average over 40 points, and dropped his strikeouts to 13. After Garvey took over first late in ’73 Bill moved to what would be his regular spot the duration of his LA stay in left field. In ’74 he did a real good Willie Davis impersonation – though with a lot less K’s – by hitting .314 with 83 runs and 31 stolen bases as one of the big reasons LA won the NL Championship. In his first Series he hit .250 against the A’s. In ’75 LA ran into a big injury wall and one of the most devastating was to Bill’s ankle, which he severely sprained sliding into second that season. That injury and a subsequent one later that year would pretty much derail the speed upon which his game was built. But Bill was a gamer and after hitting only .243 while active in ’75 he bounced back the next year to hit .301 on 193 hits and even stole 28 bases. After the season the Dodgers had a shot at power hitter Rick Monday, who couldn’t agree to terms with the Cubs and so Bill and shortstop Ivan DeJesus went to Chicago for Monday and pitcher Mike Garman.

Buckner wasn’t crazy happy about going to the Cubs from a pennant contender (his misgivings were right on since LA won three division titles and a Series while he was in Chicago) and for a while there was a shot he wouldn’t go. The Cubbies were pretty much a .500 team during Bill’s tenure there but it wasn’t because of him. In seven full seasons back at first base he averaged a touch over .300 with over 30 doubles, eleven homers, and 74 RBI’s. He only struck out a bit over 20 times a season and he had a couple big years. In ’78 he hit .323 and in ’80 he led the NL with a .324 while hitting 41 doubles. In ’82 he moved a couple spots lower in the lineup and hit .306 with 15 homers and 105 RBI’s, both career highs to that point. In ’81 – when he was an All-Star - and ’83 he led the NL in doubles, with 35 and 38 respectively. But Bill was a big competitor and things in Chicago didn’t always go swimmingly, like when in ’82 he and manager Lee Elia got into a fight. That was also the season he had to turn to a hypnotist – ironically met through recent post subject Eric Soderholm – to help him recover his stroke. While Bil and his manager made up, early in ’84 he would be on the move again, this time to Boston for pitcher Dennis Eckersley.

Again, Buckner’s timing was short of optimal as he missed the Cubbie’s big division title push. While the Cubs got a Hall of Fame pitcher in the trade, Boston got the better deal as Eckersley became a free agent and would have been on the move anyway. Off to a crappy start in Chicago, Bill rallied the rest of the way to hit .278 with 67 RBI’s in about two-thirds of a season in Boston. He then got into the power game the next couple years, getting his lifetime  highs of 201 hits, 46 doubles, and 110 RBI’s on 16 homers in ’85 and parking a career high 18 with 102 RBI’s in ’86. By that year his ankle was affecting him a bit defensively and in a bunch of games Dave Stapleton would replace him on the field in late innings. Unfortunately that didn’t happen on the big play in Game Six of the Series and Bill accrued that negative image to his baseball resume. It would contribute to a very tough start to the ’87 season when constant riding by fans at Sox games led to a mid-’87 release though he was hitting .273 with 42 RBI’s at the time. California picked him up pretty quickly. There he raised his average 30 points as a DH the rest of the way and then reprised that role and did some work at first with Kansas City through ’89. In ’90 he re-signed for a brief stay back with Boston and retired early that season. He finished with a .289 average on 2,715 hits, 498 doubles, 174 homers, and 1,208 RBI’s. Though his speed was mostly taken away pretty early he managed 183 stolen bases and was caught only 73 times. He finished with 453 K’s or roughly one per every 21 at bats. In the post-season he hit .204 with five RBI’s in 23 games.

While playing Bill purchased some ranch property in Idaho which he continued to run with his brother for a bunch of years. He also developed some commercial and residential real estate near the Boise area. In '92 he returned to baseball as the Toronto minor league hitting coach which he did through the '95 season. He then became the White Sox hitting coach which he did through August of '97 when he was released. He then took time off of baseball though he used to do a bunch of autograph shows with Mookie Wilson in memory of that magical '86 moment. Bill returned to Boston as manager of the Brockton Rox in 2011. After doing that for a year he hooked up with the Cubs in 2012 as a minor league hitting coach. As of this writing there is noise he will re-join Brockton in 2013.

Topps doesn’t exactly do a deep dive on Bill’s back of card stuff. He does have one of the clearest signatures so far.

Bill gets with Joe through another former NL West guy:

1. Buckner and Cliff Johnson ’80 Cubs;

2. Johnson and Joe Niekro ’75 to ’77 Astros.

#464 - Jose Cruz

This card represents the last one of Jose Cruz in an unadulterated Cardinals uniform. On his ’75 card he would be air-brushed into an Astros cap with maybe the biggest star in Topps history. Up until now, Jose had shown some skills – good defense, good hustle, some nice stats in the minors – but nothing that really foreshadowed his years of success in Houston. His biggest moment in ’73 may have been when he and his two siblings – Hector and Tommy – were reunited on the team in September although all three never played in the same game. ’73 represented both a high and low for Jose’s time in St. Louis: high because he asserted himself as the regular center fielder and set most of his offensive personal highs with the team; low because he hit only .227 and the late-season emergence of Bake McBride would push him to a reserve role the following year. But a little-regarded transaction late in ’74 would fix everything pretty quickly.

Jose “Cheo” Cruz and his brothers – Jose was the oldest – grew up in Arroyo, Puerto Rico from where Jose was signed shortly after graduating high school by the Cards in ’67. He showed some speed that summer in A ball with nine triples in just over 200 at bats and the next year upped his numbers across the board at the same level. After a solid ’69 in Double A he took off at that level in ’70 and recorded an OBA of .386 with a lifetime seasonal high of 21 homers. He made his debut for the Cards in September and hit well in his few games. After an even stronger start to his ’71 in Triple A he came up for good halfway through that season.

When Cruz came up in mid-’71 he got the starting job in center field, forcing the trade of incumbent Jose Cardenal to the Brewers.  This Jose did a pretty good job his rookie year, posting a .377 OBA while homering nine times, a rate he wouldn’t approach again until he moved to Houston. But in ’72 his average fell 40 points as he and Luis Melendez, who was a couple years younger, traded starts in center. Then in ’73 most of his offensive stats picked up considerably but his average didn’t and when Bake McBride had a hot debut after his call-up both Jose and Melendez were pushed to reserve roles in ’74, though Jose had a nice rebound in his average. Shortly after the season he was sold to Houston in a deal that ended up being a steal for the Astros.

1975 was a totally crappy year for the Astros as their pitching sort of blew up and they fell to the bottom of their division. But the team was rife with young speedy outfielders and his first season in Houston Cruz split time in right field with Wilbur Howard. While Howard hit .283 to Jose’s .257 and stole 32 bases to Jose’s six, Cruz was more efficient at the plate, recording a much higher OBA on way less strikeouts. So in ’76 when the outfield was moved around a bit Jose became the regular guy in left and rewarded everyone with the move by hitting .303 with 61 RBI’s and 28 stolen bases. In ’77 the average fell a couple points to .299 as Jose moved across to right but just about every other stat moved up big with ten triples, 17 homers, 87 RBI’s and 44 steals. From then on he was an institution in Houston. In ’78 he hit .315 followed by a .289 in ’79 with comparable other stats to his ’77. In ’80 he hit .302 with his first year of over 90 RBI’s and got his first All-Star appearance as the rest of the baseball world finally caught on. He finished third in NL MVP voting  and got his first playoff action, lighting up the Phillies with a .400 average and .609 OBA. In ’81 slumps at the beginning and end of the strike year bookended a strong middle and his average fell to .267 as his stolen base totals tumbled. In ’82 he recovered to .275 and then in ’83 he had his best offensive year: an NL-leading 189 hits to hit .318 with a .385 OBA, 14 homers, and 92 RBI’s and his first Silver Slugger. ’84 was pretty much a repeat: .312, .381, twelve homers, and 95 RBI’s for another Silver Slugger and another All-Star nod. In ‘85 he had his first significant injury with a dislocated toe in his left foot but recovered to hit .300. The next year Houston returned to the playoffs but Jose spent some time on the DL with a sprained ligament in his knee, curtailing his numbers, though he had a strong finish, hitting .278. After he slumped to .241 in ’87 he left Houston as the career Astros leader in most offensive categories to sign as a free agent with the Yankees at age 40. With NY he DH’d a few games before hanging them up. For his career Jose hit .284 with 2,251 hits, 165 homers, 1,077 RBI’s, 317 stolen bases (against only 136 times being caught), and a .354 OBA. He is currently 22^nd in all-time putouts in left field and 32^nd in assists. In the post-season he hit .279 with a .380 OBA and six RBI’s in 16 games.

After playing baseball Cruz pretty much retired, occasionally coaching in Puerto Rico, but mostly teaching his son Jose Jr. – who went on to have a twelve year career of his own – to play ball. In ’95 he formally returned to baseball in the States as manager of Laredo in the new unaffiliated Texas-Louisiana league. After going 17-32 he took a year off and when Larry Dierker was named manager of Houston in ’97 he asked Jose to be a coach. Cheo lasted in that role for 13 seasons, as both a first base and hitting coach. In 2009 in a staff shake-up in the wake of Cecil Cooper’s release as manager, Jose moved upstairs as an assistant to the GM and a community-relations person. He is still in that position with the Astros.

Jose could be a streaky guy as the first star bullet implies. Pretty much every season he had hitting streaks of ten games or more. He may have the shortest name in the set that includes the parenthetical name.

The St. Louis contribution to the ’76 baseball centennial was not Bob Gibson’s overpowering Series performances but another impressive personal achievement: Lou Brock’s 105^th stolen base in 1974. In the year that Brock went on to establish his record of 118 steals, that one broke the record set in ’62 by Maury Wills. He set the mark September 10^th, in a game against the Phillies. He stole his 104th in the first inning after a single off Dick Ruthven of the Phillies and the record breaker in the seventh in pretty much the same situation. The next night the Cards played the Mets in that 25-inning marathon so Lou was a busy boy back then.

I can be a bit streaky myself in this exercise and I’m going to use a guy from the last hook-up:

1. Cruz and Cliff Johnson ’75 to ’77 Astros;

2. Johnson and Chris Chambliss ’77 to ’79 Yankees;

3. Chambliss and Pat Dobson ’74 to ’75 Yankees.

#351 - Dwight Evans

Back in the AL we move from an older vet to a younger kid. This is Dwight's first solo card and he poses in Oakland during his first year as a regular in the Boston outfield. While his offensive display in '73 wouldn't get him on anyone's radar, Dwight was already building a reputation as an outstanding fielder in the tough Fenway outfield. In a few seasons his offense would catch up and by the time he finished in Boston he would be revered nearly as much there as Bob Gibson was in St. Louis.

Dwight Evans was born in California and would return there as a kid in time to learn to play baseball. A small kid in high school he had to bust to make his varsity team and by his senior year he was league mvp and actively scouted. That summer he was signed by Boston in the fifth round of the '69 draft. An infielder/outfielder and pitcher in high school, he was exclusively an outfielder in pro ball and the next three summers gradually improved his hitting at various Single A spots. In '72 he was bumped up to Triple A where he turned on the ribbie power as he excelled under manager Darrell Johnson. By the end of the season he was in Boston for good, seeing some late-inning work and even some starts. In '73 he was given the starting right field job over a bunch of other young guys and he would hold onto it more-or-less for the next 17 years.

In '74 Evans boosted his average to .281 and more than doubled his RBI totals. In '75 he put up similar stats and after a not great playoff against Oakland had an excellent Series including a showman catch of a Joe Morgan hit that saved Game Six for the Sox until Carlton Fisk could win it long innings later. In '76 there was a bunch of pre-season noise about moving him to third base but the emergence of Butch Hobson and the offensive slowdown of Fred Lynn and Bernie Carbo kept Dwight in the outfield, where he won his first Gold Glove. In '77 he was having his best offensive season when he got hurt. The next three years saw him regularly top 20 homers a season, add two more Gold Gloves, and a first All-Star appearance in '78. Then in '81 began the second arc of his career as a legitimate substantial power hitter. That season he led the AL in homers and walks and put up his first .400-plus OBA. From '82 to '89 during his healthy seasons - he got hurt in '83 and missed about 30 games - he would average 28 homers, 102 RBI's, over 100 walks, and about a .390 OBA. During that time he won four more Gold Gloves and in '87, probably his best season - .305 with 34 homers, 123 RBI's, and a .417 OBA - he won a Silver Slugger and another All-Star nod. He returned to the playoffs three more times with the Sox, reaching the Series again in '86, again putting up great numbers. In 1990 his offense slowed down a notch as he played exclusively DH. After that season he left Boston as a free agent and signed for his final year with Baltimore. After hitting .270 in a bit over half a season with the Orioles back in the outfield he retired. Dwight finished with an average of .272 with 385 homers and 1,384 RBI's. He also had over 2,400 hits and a .370 OBA. In the post-season he hit .239 with four homers and 19 RBI's in 32 games. He did considerably better in Series play with a .300 average, three homers, 14 RBI's, and a .397 OBA in 14 games. He is surprisingly high in some lifetime stats including 49th in career extra base hits. Defensively he ranks among the top ten right fielders in putouts and assists.

After playing Evans coached in the White Sox system ('92-'93) before hooking up with the Rockies for whom he coached up top ('94). He then returned to the Red Sox, first as a roving coach ('96 -2001) and then as the hitting coach in Boston ('02). Since then he has worked for the Sox as a roving hitting coach at several minor league levels.


Dwight gets a few star bullets from his young career. The first bullet refers to his senior year ('69). He actually settled in at 6'2" and about 180 to 190 pounds so either Topps got some numbers wrong or Dwight went on a pretty serious diet.

No substantive music news and I'm too lazy to update the Watergate goings-on so let's keep it just baseball and do the hook-up. We use the same guy:

1. Evans and Rick Wise '74 to '77 Red Sox;
2. Wise and Bob Gibson '72 to '73 Cards.

#303 - George Hendrick

We're closing out the year with one last Yankee Stadium shot. George Hendrick strikes a mellow pose during his first season for his new team. Unlike fellow tradee (that probably isn't a real word) Dave Duncan, George was never able to wrangle a regular spot back in Oakland. So while it would be a long time before he would again see any Series action, that was probably OK with him since he traded the rings for a bunch more playing time. I say probably because back then George wasn't a big fan of the media so it is pretty tough to find anything he actually said. Ironically, though, he was a very stabilizing and helpful influence in the locker room and lots of fellow players were big fans. But not all of them.

George Hendrick grew up in LA and attended John Fremont High School there where he didn't play any sports (?!!). He then attended East Los Angeles Junior College - where he also didn't play baseball - and was the first draft pick in the January '68 draft by Oakland. I guess he played baseball elsewhere. The draft was interesting for a couple reasons. When Oakland took George their spokesperson said he thought he could be "a good average baseball player." Talk about low expectations. The draft also produced Glen Adams and Mickey Rivers later in the same round. The second player drafted was a pitcher from the University of Alabama named Ken Stabler. That guy picked a different sport. Meanwhile our boy here got his start that summer in A ball where he stayed halfway through '70. His averages were quite good but his power was inconsistent. He moved to Double A the second half of '70 then moved to Triple A for '71 where he put up excellent numbers. Those got him a mid-season promotion to Oakland where he put in a few games at each outfield position. In '72 he got a few starts in center while Reggie was hurt and then pretty much took his place in the post-season where he scored the winning run against Detroit but only hit .133 in the Series. Prior to the '73 season he was sent to Cleveland with Dave Duncan for Ray Fosse and Jack Heidemann.

When Hendrick moved to the Indians he really raised the bar performance-wise. In four full seasons there he averaged 22 homers and 74 RBI's while nabbing two All-Star selections. He provided the best outfield offense since Rocky Colavito was hot and began doing his mentoring thing in earnest. His one demerit was that he was sometimes viewed as a loafer. Among his nicknames were "Silent George" - for the whole press thing - and "George the Jogger." The book "The Curse of..." details a time he misplayed a fly ball that made pitcher Gaylord Perry so infuriated he announced that George would never play behind him again. But George outlasted Gaylord by a few months. After the '76 season he moved to San Diego in a trade for Fred Kendall, Johnny Grubb, and Hector Torres. George's first season for the Padres was a step up from his Cleveland days - .311 with a career-high .382 OBA, 23 homers, and 81 RBI's. But after a crappy kick-off to '78 he was traded to the Cards for Eric - or Harry - Rasmussen.

Hendrick experienced an immediate revival for St. Louis, raising his average over 40 points and tapping 17 homers and 67 RBI's in about two-third's of a season. After a '79 in which he was part of a four-starter outfield and his stats shrunk a little, he put up a bang-bang season in '80 with career-best 25 homers and 109 RBI's with a .302 average. He won the Silver Slugger that year for right field. After a pretty good year in the strike-shortened '81 he again pushed the RBI total over 100 in '82 despite missing time with elbow and leg injuries. He then put up a nice post-season with a .317 average and seven RBI's in ten games for the Series winners. In '83 the Cards traded Jack Clark and George took over first where his .318 with 18 homers and 97 RBI's won him another Silver Slugger. In '84 injuries helped pull down his numbers as he returned to right field. After the season he was sent to the Pirates with Steve Barnard for Brian Harper and John Tudor in a huge trade for St. Louis. With Pittsburgh George really couldn't get it going and that August he went back to the AL, moving with John Candelaria and Al Holland to the Angels for Mike Brown, Pat Clements, and Bob Kipper. But the late-season magic wasn't there this time and he only hit .122 the rest of the way. In '86 he settled nicely into an outfield reserve role for the division winners. After playing reduced roles the next two seasons he retired. George finished with a .278 average with 267 homers, and 1,111 RBI's. In the post-season he hit .227 in 23 games. He played in four All-Star games.

After a few years away from baseball, Hendrick returned to it via coaching. He started off as the Cards' minor league hitting and outfield coach ('93-'95) and then moved up top ('96-'97). He then moved to California ('98-'99), San Diego (2000-'01 as minor league coach and '02 as a manager), and LA ('03 up top and '03 to '04 in the minors). In 2005 he became the Rays' first base coach, a gig he has had since. His record as a manager is 75-65.


George's three homers were consecutive in that '73 game. Given the cartoon it seems he wasn't exactly a font of information for the Topps guys either. George would have some interesting cards down the road. His '75 card looks like it was taken seconds after this one and in '76 and '77 he opts for a Cleveland visor instead of a hat or helmet. Seems like he marched to his own drum.

Speaking of music, on New Year's Eve '73 two big concerts took place miles apart. In NYC local bands Kiss and Blue Oyster Cult had their first gigs in a large venue, the Academy of Music - later known as the Palladium - on 14th Street. Over in Sydney a band pefrormed its first concert at a club: AC/DC made its debut. In '74 Lindsey Buckingham and his girlfriend Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, forming the version of the band that would hit it huge in a couple years.

These two guys certainly faced each other a bunch of times:

1. Hendrick and Chris Chambliss '73 to '74 Indians;
2. Chambliss and Rudy May '74 to '76 Yankees.

Happy New Year!

#220 - Don Sutton

Don Sutton has the old uniform on with the piping which means that this shot may be from an earlier season than '73. Whatever year it is he looks like he's in a spring training compound. Don is another guy smack in the middle of a couple good runs in '73: it was the eighth of 17 straight seasons in which Don would win double-figure games; and it was the fourth of nine straight seasons in which he would have a winning record. While his numbers were a small discount to his excellent '72 he was again an All-Star, again put less guys on base than his innings pitched, and was his last season of over 200 K's. Don looks confident in his photo here...and he should.

Don Sutton was born in Alabama and moved to Florida as a kid. As has been the recent theme he was a big deal athlete in high school. After he finished he played in a summer league and was signed by the Dodgers late in '64. Don wasted no time, winning 23 in a '65 season split between Single and Double A. That got him called all the way up in '66 where right off the bat he had a premium season, winning 12. The next couple years he put up pretty good numbers but an overall losing record for a team that wasn't so hot. In '69 he had his first big wins number but it was coupled with a big losses number as well. In '70 Don got on the right side of the won-loss record but his ERA popped as he led the NL in earned runs.

From '71 to '76 Sutton really hit a groove, averaging 18 wins a year with an ERA under 3.00. In '72, probably his best year, he began a streak of five All-Star games in six years and that year led the NL with his nine shutouts. '74 was his first trip to the post-season where he threw excellent ball. He peaked in victories in '76 with 21 when he also peaked in Cy Young voting, finishing third. He stayed in LA through the '80 season, averaging 14 wins per season, when he led the NL in ERA with 2.20. That December he signed with the Astros as s free agent.

After his first stint in LA Sutton was pretty itinerant. He spent the better part of two seasons in Houston before he went to the Brewers for the '82 stretch run during which time he went 4-1. He spent another two seasons in Milwaukee as a .500 pitcher as the Brewers ran out of gas. In '85 at age 40 he went to Oakland and then went to the Angels for the final month, winning 15 games in total. For California he would have his last good year for the '86 division winners, again winning 15. After another full season there and a partial one back with LA in '88 he was done. Don finished with a record of 324-256 with a 3.26 ERA, 178 complete games, 58 shutouts, and five saves. He is high on the career strikeout list with 3,574. In the post-season he was 6-4 with a 3.68 ERA in 15 games.

After playing, Sutton became a broadcaster sandwiching 20-plus years calling Braves games around a couple doing Nationals games in the mid-2000's. He was elected to the Hall in '98.

Don has a great card back. Per the first star bullet I guess that is the Sporting News honor because Topps opted for Woody Fryman and Jim Nash that year. He gets other props for his excellent '72 and '73.

This one reaches a long way.

1. Sutton and Rick Burleson '86 Angels;

2. Burleson and Doug Griffin '74 to '77 Red Sox.

#187 - Don Baylor

Look how thin Don Baylor is! Hard to believe but when this guy first came up he was as much a threat to steal a base as hit a home run. Or get popped with a pitch. In his sophomore year of '73 this Don capitalized on Don Buford's departure to Japan which gave Baylor more playing time and his numbers picked up pretty well, especially his average by 33 points. It was also a season of firsts: his first season of over 30 stolen bases; his first post-season action; and his first year to lead the league in hit by pitch. For that last stat Don would ultimately lead the league eight times. Here, like many future Yankees, he gets a shot at Yankee Stadium in this set.

Don Baylor was an Austin, Texas kid who excelled at baseball and football in high school. Football would be a big influence on his baseball career: in '66 when he was a safety he made two successive hits with his right shoulder, the first pinching the nerve and the second dislocating the joint. Those injuries would pretty much wreck his throwing arm which would later contribute to his time as a DH. Don went to Blinn Junior College from where he was drafted and signed by Baltimore in '67. He kicked things off pretty well that season with a big year in Rookie ball, then put up pretty much identical numbers between three levels in '68, and then boosted his power a bunch the next year in Double A. Then in '70 he won the TSN Minor League Player of the Year with a big year in Triple A. After another year of similar numbers in '71 he would reach the O's outfield for good in '72 with Frank Robinson's departure to LA. Don's numbers that year were good enough to get him a spot on Topps' Rookie Team that season. His '74 was a pretty good comp to the prior year and in '75 he would set personal bests for Baltimore with 25 homers and 76 RBIs, the best power numbers by an Oriole outfielder since Frank Robinson's glory days.

In '76 Baylor was the other side of one of the big Oakland breakup trades, going to the A's with Mike Torrez for Reggie Jackson and Ken Holtzman. The fans expected Don to take Reggie's place as the big power guy but he wasn't that kind of a hitter. In an otherwise forgettable season, Don would steal 25 straight bases en route to a total of 52 as part of a team that set the single-season record and nearly got to another division title despite reduced pitching. But it was a short stay as Don would be one of the first official big name free agents and go to the Angels, along with teammate Joe Rudi and former teammate Bobby Grich. Hopes were high in Anaheim for '77 but Grich and Rudi got hurt and Don felt the wrath of the fans when another losing season resulted even though he put up comparable numbers to those of '75. He would ratchet things up seriously in '78 (34 homers and 99 RBIs) and then lead California to the division title in '79 with his MVP season. It was also his only All-Star season as he led the league with 139 RBIs and 120 runs while bashing 36 homers. He also played every game including two months during which his shoulder was dislocated. Pretty amazing numbers for a guy that injured.

1980 would be a big disappointment for Baylor as he broke both his wrist and a toe, missed a considerable part of the season, and saw his numbers tumble hard. After the strike season of '81 during which he had a nice bounce, he put up a pretty good year for another division-winner in '82, with 24 homers and 93 RBI's. By then the bulk of his time was spent at DH. He would then go the free agent route again, hooking up with the Yankees for three seasons. Two of those years he won the Silver Slugger at DH and during his NY time he averaged 24 homers and 88 RBI's. In '86 he went to the Red Sox for Mike Easler and in his last full season he won another Silver Slugger - 31 HR's and 94 RBI's - and got plunked 35 times. He also finally won a post-season series. During '87 he got sent to the Twins for their pennant run.That year he won everything and contributed by hitting nearly .400 in the two post-season series. He then went back to Oakland in his final season, again returning to the Series. For his career, Don hit .260 with 338 homers and 1,276 RBIs. He had over 2,100 hits, 285 stolen bases, and was HBP 267 times, a record when he retired. In the post-season he was a .273 hitter with four homers and 21 RBIs in 38 games.

Baylor successfully moved into coaching and managing after he played, starting right up in the majors. He coached for the Brewers ('90 to '91) and Cards ('92) before taking the job as he Rockies' initial manager in '93. In '95 he took the team to a wild card spot and won Manager of the Year. He remained with Colorado through '98 then managed the Cubs from 2000 through half of '02. In between he coached the Braves. In '03 to '04 he coached for the Mets and then the Mariners in '05. After some time away - some doing commentary - he returned as hitting coach for Colorado in '09 and then the Diamondbacks this year. His managing record to date is 627-689.

Don's Texas roots are showing in his personal info. He also gets some props for his last two minor seasons. The poetry angle is pretty interesting. His signature looks like he was trying to conserve paper.

Baylor takes a couple guys to get to Scherman:

1. Baylor and Jason Thompson '80 Angels;
2. Thompson and Mickey Stanley '76 to '78 Tigers;
3. Stanley and Fred Scherman '69 to '73 Tigers;

#131 - Bob Boone

Here we have the catcher for the 1973 Topps Rookie All-Star Team. Bob Boone was a welcome addition to a roster that had seen a not great recent history at his listed position. In '70, in the wake of a Tim McCarver injury, the Phillies used six catchers, including one they pulled out of retirement. Then, while Tim was healthy in '71 his fragility returned the following year and a mid-season deal with Montreal brought over John Bateman to take the catching lead, but that wasn't a long-term solution either. So Bob got a quick peek that September and then in spring training of '73 impressed everyone with his defensive work. He stuck, had nice rookie numbers, and made the Topps team. Not bad for a guy who didn't become a full-time catcher until the prior season. Here he gets his first solo card in this set and he looks pretty sanguine in a catcher's crouch somewhere during spring training.

Bob Boone went to Stanford where he played third base, a position he also played in the summers of '66 to '68 in Alaska. Up there he joined other alumni we have already seen (Tom Seaver, Rick Troedson, etc.). Looking at the list of Goldpanner players I noticed one of his contemporaries was Dan Pastorini who would go on to QB for the Houston Oilers (a little cross-sports reference). Bob was drafted by the Phillies in '69 and played that year in Single A where he hit .300, again playing third. After missing nearly the entire '70 season to injury, he beagn putting in some time behind the plate in a '71 spent in Double A. By '72 he was at Triple A Eugene and while his offensive numbers were pretty good - he even showed some power that year - his real strength was defense. That season he moved exclusively to catcher since there was another Eugene kid named Mike Schmidt who was a pretty good third baseman. Bob did pretty well in his late season call-up to Philly and was given the starting job in '73. He was an excellent pitch-caller right off the bat and eventually even Steve Carlton would let him call his pitches. Boone would be the primary Phillies receiver through the '80 season. He would get on a good run offensively as well; after a couple sub-.250 seasons, he averaged over .280 from '76 to '79. By then he had accrued three All-Star appearances, two Gold Gloves, four division-winning seasons, and one Series-winning season. And two serious knee injuries. The latter of those occurred in '79 and although Bob hit a ton in the '80 Series, his offensive and defensive numbers were hurting in '81, he was pissing off management by being player rep in the strike year, and he lost some starting time to Keith Moreland. After that season the Phillies sold him to California.

The Boone sale by Philadelphia would turn out to be a bad move. Bob was physically recovered by the beginning of the '82 season, threw out 21 of the first 36 guys to try to steal on him, and helped mold the Angel pitching staff into a division winner. He would go on to start the next six yearns for California, adding another All-Star season and four more Gold Gloves. In '88 he hit .295 but was released (he was 40 at the time). He then signed with Kansas City where he had a decent '89 while winning another Gold Glove. In '90 he was a reserve and after breaking a finger decided to hang them up. At that point he was the leader in games played at catcher, but that was broken almost immediately by Carlton Fisk. Bob is now third on the list. He finished with a .254 average, 105 homers, and 826 RBIs. In the post-season he hit .311 with 13 RBI's in 36 games. Defensively he caught 40% of the guys who tried to steal on him against a league average of 33% and he is in the top 25 all-time of catcher assists and the top ten in putouts and double plays.

After playing, Boone turned to coaching. In '92 and '93 he managed in the Oakland chain. In '94 he coached with KC and then took over as manager from '95 to '97. He also managed the Reds from 2001 to '03. His managerial record in the majors is 371-444 and in the minors 125-161. He has stayed in baseball since and is currently assistant GM of the Nationals.

That second star bullet shows what an easy transition he made from third to catcher. Pretty impressive. Bob's dad was an All-Star as would be both Aaron and Brett, his two sons who played in the majors. He also had a brother Rod who played for the Goldpanners right after he did. Speaking of the Goldpanners, Bob did some excellent work his summers in Alaska. For his career he put up a line of .376 with 20 homers and 139 RBI's in his 154 games. He is still the career leader in those stats plus hits and runs.

This one's easy. These guys played together:

1. Boone and Reggie '82 to '86 Angels.

#130 - Reggie Jackson

Hey, it's Reggie! In the Oakland Coliseum no less. And there are fans there! That's a nice trifecta. Around the time of this card it seemed like Reggie and the A's would be winning the Series forever. No wonder, given Reggie's swing here. That's a nice cut. If he connected, it's probably a double to deep center (if it was a homer he'd already be watching it). '73 was Reggie's MVP year and one of his best seasons. He led the AL in runs, homers, and RBI's. He finally got his first Series time and delivered, though the work that got him that Mr. October nickname would come further down the road. Lots of trivia on this post: did you know Reggie was the first player of his era to wear a mustache? Did you know the ball girl on the '73 As would go on to be Mrs. Fields, the cookie lady? I bring up that last bit because while looking for some Reggie dirt, I came upon this great site with a bunch of old photos of Oakland guys, called ronreisterer.photoshelter.com. It is linked to on the name and should definitely be checked out.

Reggie Jackson - who has a thoroughly detailed wiki page by the way - grew up in PA and went to Arizona State. He was both a football and baseball star in high school and was actually more sought after for the former sport but he ended up getting really banged up playing for Frank Kush and opted for just baseball. In his one year on the Sun Devil baseball team he hit .325 with 15 homers and 65 RBI's and was named All-American. He was then signed by Kansas City (the A's) in '66 and got things rolling pretty quickly with 23 homers in only half a season of minor league ball. In '67 he experienced his first taste of southern hospitality in Birmingham and showed some speed as well as power, hitting 17 triples. By the end of the year he was up top with his fellow ASU boys Sal Bando and Rick Monday. While that partial season was nothing special, he did connect for some massive bp homers as well as get 46 strikeouts in 118 at bats. In '68 he was a starter and led the league in K's, but he did produce 29 homers and 74 RBIs in a notorious year for AL hitters. In '69 he raised his average 25 points while cranking 47 homers and leading the league with 123 runs and a .608 slugging percentage. Oakland assigned Joe Dimaggio to help Reggie cut down on the whiffs, but Reggie wanted the long ball too badly. In '70, after an acrimonious contract negotiation, he had a huge slump, basically halving his power numbers. But in '71 he recovered to lead Oakland to the division title, the A's first post-season appearance in 40 years. In '72 he had a comparable season and scored the tying run in the last game of the AL playoffs against Detroit. Unfortunately he messed up his hamstring on the play and couldn't play in the Series that year.

In 1973, hopes were high for Oakland to repeat, but the team was playing .500 ball when June opened and Reggie was benched, something he hadn't experienced for a while. He also got into a fight with coach Jerry Adair. But the A's hit a winning streak going into the All-Star break and Reggie would go on to have his MVP season. He had big power seasons in '74 and '75, combining for 181 runs, 65 homers, and 197 RBI's. Both were division-winning seasons for Oakland and the second season Reggie again led the AL in homers with 36. But after a couple years of arbitration he and Charlie O were at an impasse and before the '76 season Reggie was sent to the Orioles with Ken Holtzman for Don Baylor and Mike Torrez. He wasn't crazy happy about going cross-country and had to tie up some business stuff so missed the first few weeks of the season but still had a fine year, with 27 homers and 91 RBI's. After that season Reggie became the biggest name free agent.

Jackson rather quickly signed for the only team that could house his ego, the Yankees, where he either was or was not "the straw that stirred the drink." But he did help NY get two new elusive Series wins in '77 and '78 in pretty grand style, especially in his three homer game to clinch the '77 win. That year he led NY sluggers with 110 RBI's. In '78 he and Billy Martin went at it pretty hard; Billy won some of the battles, actually benching Reggie for a few games, but Reggie won the war which partly resulted in Billy's firing. Plus he finished the year with yet another ring in what was his beat total post-season run - a .417 average with four homers and 14 RBI's in ten games. In '79 Reggie was about the only Yankee hitter to have a good season and in '80, tired of hearing that he couldn't hit .300, he did just that, producing perhaps his best season which included an AL-leading 41 homers and 111 RBI's. His final year in NY was a bit of a disappointment as his numbers fell pretty hard in the strike season. But it was a productive stay as in five years the Yankees made the post-season four times and won two rings.

In '82 Jackson signed as a free agent with the Angels in  what would generally be his last great season with a .275/39/101 line. A knee injury in '83 contributed to a big drop in power and a sub-.200 average. The next two seasons he would put up a combined 52 homers and 166 RBI's and then after another discounted power year in '86 - his final trip to the post-season - he returned to Oakland for his final season. He was elected to the Hall his first shot in '93 based on his 563 homers and 1,702 RBIs. He also hit .262 and stole 228 bases. He made 14 All-Star teams. His Mr. October sobriquet was earned by hitting .357 with 10 homers, 24 RBIs, and a .457 OBA in 27 Series games. Overall in the post-season he hit .278 with 18 homers and 48 RBI's in 77 games.

Reggie stayed high profile after playing. He'd started announcing before he retired and has been an avid car collector for decades. He coached in Oakland and has been with the Yankees in various posts since the mid-'90s.

That second star bullet was a big deal. Lots of attendees said it was the hugest hit they ever saw and estimates are it would have gone close to 700 feet if it didn't hit part of the stadium. He would win a couple Series MVP's before he was done. In 1972 Reggie was the first player to appear on a Topps baseball card with a mustache. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banished them back in the Twenties and nobody had worn one since. The A's jumped all over it and by season's end everyone that could grow one on the team had one.

These two guys were left coasters but in different leagues:

1. Reggie and Rick Reuschel '81 Yankees;
2. Reuschel and Chris Speier '87 to '89 Giants.