#333 - All Star Second Basemen

On to the second basemen. For the AL Rod Carew continues the trend of being photographed in a batting helmet but he is right outside a cage, so that works for me. In every card in this set Rod looks pissed, like he just had another conversation with the Twins' miserly owner Calvin Griffith. Maybe he did. Everything I've read about Rod indicates he was a sweetheart. Maybe he just hated to pose. Joe Morgan, on the other hand, just looks stoned. I want to say Joe's at Shea but his uniform looks too white so maybe he's at Riverfront. Wherever he is he's sweating up a storm, judging by his hatband. Plus he's pretty off-center.

Let's look at the AL second basemen:

Rod Carew - .350 with 6 homers and 34 RBI's
Cookie Rojas - .263 with 4 homers and 47 RBI's.

Rod's average is something else and he was in the middle of a pretty dominating run in the Seventies nabbing batting titles. Cookie Rojas seems like an interesting choice until you look around the league. Dick McAuliffe had been a regular All-Star but he was on his way out. And Bobby Grich was just getting established in Baltimore. For all the other AL teams second base was pretty much a crapshoot so maybe Cookie was the best guy after all. Now for the NL guys:

Joe Morgan - .295 with 12 homers and 48 RBI's
Davey Johnson - .251 with 23 homers and 62 RBI's.

Joe was kicking butt back then with his offense and Davey was in the midst of his huge power surge. His average isn't anything special but the rest of his stats are. That must have felt pretty good to him after he was cut loose by the O's. At this position I gotta go with the NL. That .350 is tough to beat but Joe probably had the higher OBA even with the 55 point discount.


Here we have puzzle piece number two. This one is a lot more descriptive and pretty much seals the deal on the identity of the game's mvp. At least it does once you realize who the San Francisco reps were since the face is almost entirely in the dark. I like these puzzles but, honestly, it's not a very good photo.

So in music I blew it yesterday. There WAS a big Valentine's day event. In '74 David Bowie was performing at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. He was wearing a dress and he got mobbed while onstage by a fan who tried to kiss him. Of course the fan was a guy who knocked Dave on his ass. Shortly after Bowie collapsed and the show had to be cut short. Talk about tough love.