#500 - Lee May

If anyone can bring us back to the simple joy of baseball, it’s this guy. Lee May, an original Big Red Machine member gets one of those action shots in which Topps liked to inform us how fallible baseball players were. I want to say his swing and a miss is taken at Riverfront since that right field dimension is right, but I believe all the dimension markings at Riverfront were in yellow, so I may be wrong. Regardless, the shot does give us the chance to see the frame that generated all of Lee’s power. ’73 was the second year of Lee’s three-year stay in Houston and despite the less favorable Astrodome dimensions he still brought the big power. The Dome shaved about ten homers per season from his home run totals but he found other ways to get in the runs. He put up a then club record 21-game hitting streak during the year and gets rewarded with a big milestone number from Topps. The card guys taketh away and the card guys giveth.

Lee May grew up with his younger brother Carlos in Birmingham, Alabama. In ’77 when Topps did those brother cards they said that Lee and Carlos used to go to the ballfield with their mom, who used to pitch to them, field grounders, and shag flies. That image used to make me smile (seeing my mom do any of those things would have been a trip). Lee was signed out of Parker High by Cincinnati in ’61 but only got in a few games in D ball that summer because he was already playing industrial league ball. In ’62 at that level he hit ten homers and in ’63 in A ball moved up to 18 with 80 RBI’s. Lee was also a pretty good fielder and his only real demerit was a strikeout tally that ran to about one every six at bats. That would never really go away, but as he climbed through the minors his numbers got progressively better: in ’64 he hit .303 with 25 homers and 110 RBI’s in Double A; and in ’65 .321 with 34 dingers and 103 RBI’s in Triple A. That year he made his debut for the Reds in a game and in ’66 he hit very well up top before spending most of the season back in Triple A where he hit .310 with 16 homers and 78 RBI’s in an abbreviated season.

When May came up in ’67 to stay first base had recently been shared by Gordy Coleman, a power hitter who pretty much just ran out of gas, and Tony Perez and Deron Johnson, who both could also play third. Coleman was done by the time ’67 got rolling, Perez pretty much took over third from Johnson, and Deron and Lee took turns at first base. Lee also worked a bunch in the outfield, but he was much better defensively at first. Still, he showed enough power flashes to get TSN’s Rookie of the Year in the NL. Tom Seaver won the official award but Lee did also make the Topps team. In ’68 he spent a lot less time in the outfield and his stats showed a complete ignorance of the sophomore jinx or the dominance by pitchers that year. In ’69 he had his biggest offensive year, receiving his first All-Star nod, and in ’70 he, Perez, and Johnny Bench officially christened The Machine by combining for 119 homers and 371 RBI’s. Lee got his first whiff of post-season action and while he had a mediocre playoff he was about the only Red that remembered his stroke against Baltimore in the Series. In ’71 his numbers made him team mvp and brought him back to the All-Star game in an otherwise disappointing year. After that season he went to Houston with Tommy Helms and Jimmy Stewart for Joe Morgan, Jack Billingham, Ed Armbrister, Denis Menke, and Cesar Geronimo.

Houston was a tough place to be a power guy but May did an excellent job in the RBI department though the homer tallies went south. In ’72 he helped get Houston off to a great start and the team finished with the best record in its history. In ’73 the team posted its second-best record but by ’74 it became apparent the team wasn’t going to be able to keep up with Cincinnati and LA through power. So even though Lee hit 24 out and put up 85 RBI’s he was traded after that year to Baltimore for Enos Cabell and Rob Andrews. His homer totals remained relatively light compared to his Cincy years but he got the RBI totals back up. In ’75 he drove in 99 on 20 homers and in ’76 he led the AL with 109 RBI’s on 25 dingers. That second year he DH’d a bit as Tony Muser got some starts at first. In ’77 Lee hit 27 out with 99 RBI’s and in ’78 he had 25 homers but the RBI total slipped to 80 since he was now hitting behind Eddie Murray, who both cleared the basepaths a bit more than Lee was used to and exchanged positions with him, making Lee a full-time DH. In ’79 Lee’s plate time decreased by 100 at bats and his totals fell to 19 homers and 69 RBI’s. He got some playoff work against California but almost none in the Series since that year was an off one for the DH. In ’80 he was part of a revolving door at DH, splitting time pretty evenly with Terry Crowley and Benny Ayala. In ’81 he moved on to Kansas City as a free agent and for the next two seasons hit over .300 in some pinch and DH work. When he was done after the ’82 season Lee had a .267 average with 354 homers, and 1,244 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit ,263 with two homers and eleven RBI’s in 13 games.

May moved into coaching shortly after his career ended. In ’83 he returned to Baltimore where he coached in spring training and then did some roving work during the season. He then sandwiched two stints with Kansas City (’84-’86 and ’92-’94) around time back in Cincinnati (’88-’89). From ’95 to ’99 he coached back in Baltimore and from 2000 to 2002 with Tampa. He was inducted into the Cincinnati hall of fame in 2006 and has done some community work on behalf of the Reds. His son Lee May Jr. was drafted by the Mets in ’86 and worked his way up to Triple A but was a light hitter with lots of speed but little power. He is now a coach.

Lee gets a tie for the shortest name in the set. Career-wise defensively he is 67^th in putouts, 66^th in assists, 55^th in fielding percentage, and 47^th in double plays for first basemen. In that last category he also led his league in ’69, ’72, and ’75.

These two nearly played together at KC in the early Eighties:

1. May and Jim Palmer ’75 to ’80 Orioles;

2. Palmer and Andy Etchebarren ’65 to ’75 Orioles;

3. Etchebarren and Rusty Torres ’76 to ’77 Angels.

#418 - Walt Williams

Just two posts after the big ChiSox team one we get this guy, who played the bulk of his career in Chicago. Plus he is photographed at Yankee Stadium which – were it not for renovations – would have been his new home by the time this card came out. Walt “No Neck” Williams sports some shades and a rarely-seen unhappy demeanor close to the on deck circle. Walt was normally a gung-ho positive guy but playing for the Indians back then put lots of people in a funky mood. ’73 was his only season in Cleveland, though, and it wasn’t a bad one as his average rebounded a bunch and he recorded his personal best in RBI’s. He also broke up former teammate’s Stan Bahnsen’s potential no-hitter with a shot in the ninth inning which must have made Stan real happy about the trade that made Walt an Indian late the prior year. If Walt’s sunglasses are prescription ones they contributed to his not having a card in the ’75 set. More on that below.

Walt Williams was born in Brownwood, Texas, and while growing up would relocate to San Francisco where he was a big three sports star at Galileo High, home a couple decades earlier to the Dimaggio brothers. Always knocked for being small, he would go to City College of San Francisco where he majored in criminology – he wanted to be a cop – and played baseball. After a year there he was signed by Houston and did a number that summer on A ball pitching, hitting .341. Walt was a speedster and batted at the top of the order and he would debut up top the beginning of the ’64 season when he went o-fer in a few at bats and was then plucked off waivers in May by the Cards. For St. Louis he returned to the minors and hit .318 the rest of the way. In ’65 he moved up to Double A Tulsa and hit .330 with 106 runs, 36 stolen bases, and a .375 OBA. When Tulsa moved up to Triple A the next season so did Walt as he produced identical numbers, save for runs (107) and steals (25). After the season he was traded to the White Sox with Don Dennis for catcher Johnny Romano.

The White Sox were a bit more perceptive than the Cards and decided Williams’ numbers the past few seasons warranted a serious look up top and they gave Walt a regular gig in the outfield. He responded with enough hustle – he ran to first base on walks and on one play in the field got an assist on a throw to second from backing up first base after throwing the ball in from the right field corner – to make that year’s Topps rookie team. Though he hit only .240 he had to do so with a recovering broken hand and finished third on the team in average to Ken Berry and Don Buford who both hit .241. But the Sox were good that year and battled for the pennant until the final weekend. In ’68 the team collapsed big, Walt played almost exclusively in right, and after a sophomore jinx start got replaced there by Buddy Bradford and returned to the minors. There he hit .319 with 12 steals in Triple A Hawaii which couldn’t have been all bad. In ’69 he returned to The Show for good, hit .304, and then asked to have his salary doubled, pissing off management. The deal was that he got his wish but was told his playing time would be vastly reduced, which makes no sense to me. The stress of the issues with management and the reduced time contributed to a big drop in his average, but in ’71 under new management he put up probably his best numbers in Chicago. But then in ’72 Walt was the odd man out after Chicago traded for Dick Allen and returned Carlos May to the outfield. Just like in ’70 his numbers came in hard and after that season the Sox, still looking for infield help after trading Luis Aparicio a couple years earlier, sent Walt to the Indians for Eddie Leon.

After his bounce in Cleveland, Williams was traded to the Yankees in a three-team deal in spring training of ’74. He and Rick Sawyer went to NY; Gerry Moses went to Detroit from NY; Ed Farmer went to NY from Detroit; and Jim Perry went to Cleveland from Detroit. But the Yankees had also acquired Lou Piniella from KC and Elliott Maddox from Texas so Walt got precious little time. And when he did play he didn’t hit as his average crumbled to .112 in only 53 at bats. It turned out that his new eyeglass subscription was a tad off and he repaired that by getting new contacts in the off-season. Topps must have figured those numbers were his death knell and didn’t give Walt a card for ’75. But Walt came back, hit .281 as primarily a DH, and made even The Boss happy with his hustle. It was a short-lived comeback, though, as another off-season stockpiling of outfielders led to his release early in ’76. That would end his playing time in the States and he finished with a .270 average.

In ’76 Williams hooked up with the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan for whom he hit .288 his first season but then soured on what he considered a lack of aggressive play and came back west after the ’77 season. He then played for three years in Mexico, for Monterrey, Chihuahua, and Juarez, hanging his spikes up after the ’80 season. While playing in the US he had returned to Brownwood and from ’81 to ’87 worked at the city’s community center as a mentor for troubled kids. In ’88 he returned to baseball as a White Sox hitting and outfield instructor. In ’89 he played in the Senior League before returning as a coach, first in the Houston system, and then for the Texas one. From ’92 to ’94 he was a manager in the latter chain and went a combined 187-228. He then returned to Brownwood where since ’95 he has been the city’s director of recreation. He also plays a mean game of golf and a couple times has shot under his age which is pretty impressive given that he’s only 68.

Both of the seasons mentioned in the star bullets Walt was his league’s MVP. If his signature is any indication he was probably a pretty good artist.

Folkers and Williams sounds like another law firm but let’s hook them up through baseball:

1. Williams and Dick Allen ’72 White Sox;

2. Allen and Lou Brock ’70 Cards;

3. Brock and Rich Folkers ’72 to ’74 Cards.

#295 - Rick Monday

Bummer! I missed posting Rick Monday's card on a Monday by a day. But I'm generally behind so I didn't want to slow my postings down any more. Rick is smiling broadly at Candlestick in what was arguably the best season of his career to date in '73. A power-hitting center fielder who would bat at the top of the Chicago order, he recorded highs until then in runs - 93 - and homers, both of which he would surpass in '76. Rick got there in time to solidify the outfield with Jose Cardenal, Billy Williams, and Jerry Morales; unfortunately though, that time coincided with the vaunted infield shutting down and it would be a while before he would again see any post-season action with a whole other team.

Rick Monday was born in Arkansas and when he was a year old moved to California. He grew up a local multi-sport star and when he came out of high school was being chased by a bunch of teams. He opted for Bobby Winkle's pitch and went to Arizona State instead in '63. After sitting out his freshman year he played summer ball for the Goldpanners in Alaska with Tom Seaver, Graig Nettles, and Gary Sutherland. Returning to ASU he won College Player of the Year with a .362 average and led the team to the CWS title (though Sal Bando was the tournament MVP). He was then drafted and signed as the first guy ever by Kansas City in '65 for $104,000. He finished up the year in A ball where he poked 13 homers and 44 RBI's. In '66 he moved up to Double A and again showed pretty good power with 23 homers and 72 RBI's. He also posted a .384 OBA and struck out 143 times. Big K totals would be a feature of his career. After a couple games up top that summer he returned in '67 to fill the starting spot in center field. While his rookie numbers were nothing special, his homer and RBI totals led the team. He also made that year's Topps Rookie All-Star Team. The next year he was one of the few AL guys to pull his average up and he enjoyed his first All-Star selection, but the arrival of fellow ASU stars Bando and Reggie pushed him all over the lineup so his power numbers came in a bit. As the A's improved markedly with the addition of other players, Rick's lineup movement would be characteristic of his stay in Oakland. After a couple seasons under John McNamara, the team was led by Al Dark in '71. Dark began platooning Rick with Angel Magual, which meant that Monday wasn't one of his manager's biggest fans. After playing only one game in the AL playoffs that year Rick was traded to the Cubs for fellow '65 All-American Ken Holtzman.

For the Cubs Monday would be a welcome addition. Always a hustler who played a very good center field, he enjoyed lineup stability he never had in Oakland, always appearing near or at the top of the order. His walk to K ratio improved and his numbers became more consistent. In '74 he hit .294 as the rest of his numbers nearly matched '73's. In '75 he maxed out his doubles with 29 and nearly had as many walks as strikeouts. In '76 he finished third in NL homers and runs scored, with 32 and 107 respectively. That April he also raised his profile significantly when in LA he rescued an American flag from a couple of fans who jumped on the field and were about to burn it as an act of protest. After that season he was traded to the Dodgers with Mike Garman for Bill Buckner and Ivan DeJesus.

Monday kicked off his LA career as the primary guy in center although his at bats came way in since he shared time there with Reggie Smith and Glenn Burke. His homer totals more than halved but that turned out to be OK since there was plenty of power in the lineup. That year he also returned to the post-season for the first time since '71. The next year he split center with Billy North, who ironically more-or-less replaced him in Oakland. Rick's offensive numbers improved that season and in '79 he was off to a nice start when he injured his ankle and missed pretty much the rest of the season. By the time he returned in '80 Rudy Law and then Ken Landreaux - yet another ASU guy - had taken over in center and Rick would be a reserve guy. But his '80 numbers were pretty good and in '81 he was a super-sub, hitting .315 with 11 homers and 25 RBI's in only 130 at bats. The icing on the cake that year was when he hit a playoff-winning homer against Steve Rogers to put LA in The Series. After another clutch year in '82 - 42 RBI's in 210 at bats, Rick then played out his career in LA until released in June of '84. He hit .264 lifetime with 241 homers, 775 RBI's, and a .361 OBA. In the post-season he hit .210 in 30 games.

Immediately after playing Monday moved into broadcasting, hosting a local pre-game show for the Dodgers beginning in '85 as well as a play-by-play gig on cable. He also did some newscasting and called the '88 CWS. From '89 to '92 he called Padres games on television. He returned to LA in '93 and since then has done both radio and TV work as both the color and the play-by-play guy.

Rick has some pretty good star bullets. Defensively he also led the NL in fielding in '72 and ranks high in lifetime stats in center: he is in the top 75 in assists and double plays and in the top 50 in putouts. He also played in the game in '76 in which Mike Schmidt hit four out so he's been on both sides of that one. He may be the first guy in this set who actually ended up doing for a living what his cartoon indicated.

Big trades are big helps here:

1. Monday and Fergie Jenkins '72 to '73 Cubs;

2. Jenkins and Steve Foucault '74 to '75 Rangers.

#285 - Reggie Smith

Ah. We haven't seen one of these in a while: the non-Traded traded card. Reggie Smith looks concerned. Maybe because he wasn't the other Reggie!, but no, this guy always seemed pretty content in his own skin. Maybe because even though he'd just put up another awfully nice season, he was tired of all the verbal and physical abuse that used to come his way from the Red Sox fans. Add in a bunch of games missed from a torn knee ligament and a locker room smackdown of Bill Lee, normally a friend, and you can see the forehead lines forming. Yeah, that's probably it. Reggie asked to be traded twice during the '73 season and at the end of it he got his wish. He got to leave the land of busing boycotts and go to the land of the arch and the Gibson and the Brock. Despite the shift of latitude it was a great place to be. Just ask Dick Allen.

Reggie Smith was born down in Louisiana and relocated to LA while a kid. There he would play some serious ball eventually producing an all-state high school career in both baseball and football. From his mid-teens he also played on a local team run by a guy named Chet Brewer, a former Negro Leaguer. The team was pretty high profile and Reggie generated lots of interest. After graduating school in '62 Reggie attended Compton Junior College for a year before being signed by the Twins in '63. He'd been an infielder in high school and that summer in rookie ball put up a .257 with pretty good power for a middle infielder. But the Twins left Reggie unprotected and that December Boston grabbed him in the first year draft. in '64, moving around some service duty, he hit .318 with 15 homers and 60 RBI's in half a season as a third baseman in A ball. In '65 at Double A he played outfield and second, hitting .259 with a similar power discount. But in '66 he shot up to .320 in Triple A Toronto for manager Dick Williams and in '67 when Williams took over as Boston's manager Reggie came with him.

Smith had a gun of an arm and was fast and strong and in '67 after starting off at second base - fellow rookie Mike Andrews got hurt in training camp - he was the everyday center fielder as a rookie. He'd been a switch hitter since a teen and although he hit only .246 he set the tone for his batting style: high and away right-handed for a higher average on that side; and low and in on the left side where he was quicker and generated more power. He hit two out in the Series that year and finished second to Rod Carew in ROY voting. In '68 he decided to forgo the whole sophomore jinx thing, leading the AL in doubles and winning a Gold Glove. In '69 his numbers got him his first All-Star nod and in '70 he scored over 100 runs the only time in his career. Then in '71 he had his best season, again leading the AL in doubles and also total bases. But that was also the season of "The Conigliaro Affair."

Smith had for a while been feeling the wrath of the Sox faithful. Similar to Dick Allen's experience in Philly, Reggie had to take to wearing a batting helmet in the outfield to protect him from the metal objects tossed his way. On top of his being black - already a sin up in those parts - there was a perception that despite his steadily improving numbers that Reggie was not a hustler. But in the confines of the locker room all was generally good relations-wise and Reggie's best friend on the Sox was probably Yaz. Prior to the '71 season after continuing a pretty amazing comeback from a horrible beaning, local boy Tony Conigliaro was traded to the Angels. According to Tony's brother Billy, still with the Sox, and the rest of the C clan the trade was made because Yaz and Reggie insisted on it. Billy C called them both out on his supposition at various points during the '71 season and it made for a stressful environment for Reggie in the one place he actually got to relax. While Billy C was traded in '72, a couple nagging injuries pulled Reggie's stats down that year and after the big rebound in average in '73 there was anticipation that he would ask for a raise when his contract came up before the next season, further infuriating fans that thought he only put up better numbers when he had to. That October he went to the Cards with Ken Tatum for Rick Wise and Bernie Carbo.

In '74 a healthy Smith was ready to go in the NL. And he did, hitting .309 with 23 homers and 100 RBI's for the first and only time in his career. Reggie, now in right field, Bake McBride, and Lou Brock produced the first all-.300 outfield since '70 (by the Reds). In '75 he kept the average up but the arrival of Willie Davis meant Reggie sat a little or played some first base and his power stats declined. Then in '76 Willie Crawford arrived, Reggie played everywhere including both infield corners, and he experienced an early-season slump in the final year of his contract. That prompted the Cards to send him to LA for Joe Ferguson and the change of scenery must have helped because he boosted his average 68 points. Then in '77 Reggie led the NL in OBA with a .427 in his first 100-walk season while joining Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, and Dusty Baker in becoming the first foursome on a team to each hit over 30 homers. He returned to the Series that year and the next after a comparable season. In '79 he got badly hurt in an outfield collision with Dusty Baker and missed a considerable part of the season, putting up his worst numbers to date. But in '80 he recovered nicely and though, now 35, he lost some starting time as well as missing games from injuries, he put up a .322 average. In '81 he barely played, not able to get on the field due to reconstructive surgery in the off-season on his right shoulder. He was pretty much exclusively a pinch-hitter and only batted .200. His best hit that year was on a Giants fan who hit him with a batting helmet while he was stretching. Reggie jumped into the stands and wailed on the guy - think Ron Artest - and got suspended for a couple games. But he did finally get to be part of a Series winner that year and then ironically signed a free agent contract with the Giants. After a pretty good season at first base - .284 with 18 homers and 56 RBI's in 349 at bats - Reggie left the States to play ball in Japan. He finished with a .287 average with 2,020 hits, 314 homers - second at the time for switch hitters to Mickey Mantle - and 1,092 RBI's. He hit .234 with six homers and 17 RBI's in 32 post-season games.

In Japan Smith produced pretty good numbers his first year - .285 with 20 homers and 86 RBI's - but trouble with management, fans, and injuries led to a short season. After a partial '84 in which his average slipped to .255 he quit playing at 39. He returned to the States to be LA's minor league hitting coordinator. From '94 to '98 he moved up top as the hitting coach. He then began his own baseball school and returned a few times to coach - in the '99 Pan Am Games, the 2006 World Baseball Classic, and the '08 Olympics. I have linked to his website here and his SABR bio here.

Reggie gets some good star bullets. He was also big in music - he could play at least seven instruments - tennis, and could pilot an aircraft.


Let's bring out an old character to help with the hook-up:

1. Smith and Ken Harrelson '67 to '69 Red Sox;
2. Harrelson and Dave Duncan '64 and '67 A's.

I think everyone knows who "Hawk" is so I'll leave that one alone.

#80 - Tom Seaver

If there is a New York icon in this set, this guy is it. Tom Terrific (I never liked that nickname) was the most consistent NY All-Star of his time and again was a pivotal reason the Mets got into the post-season. While he came up just shy of 20 wins, his miniscule ERA, NL-leading strikeout totals, and very nice post-season work helped him grab his second Cy in '73. Here he is pitching at Shea with John Milner in the background as well as some blob-like thing right over Tom's butt. It looks like Topps blurred that bit out intentionally, but I wonder why? If it was something untoward in the stands, I cannot imagine it would be seen clearly, since nothing else that far back is. It does look like Tom is throwing heat here, so maybe it's just something thermal.

Tom Seaver had an interesting time of things even before hitting the majors. He graduated high school in Fresno in '62 and did a stint in the Marines. He attended Fresno City College from '63 to '64 and in the summers of '64 and '65 played baseball in Alaska. He initially went there at the suggestion of Rod Dedeaux, the USC coach, who was interested in signing Tom but wanted to see him first against some major college competition. Tom passed the test and went to USC for the '65 and part of the '66 seasons. He was drafted by the Dodgers in '65 but shot them down (he thought it would take too long to reach the majors with them). The Braves signed him in early '66 but the signing was voided as a sort of tampering case. The Mets then signed Tom as a free agent to their Triple A Jacksonville Suns team and he had a nice season in his only minor league time, going 12-12 with a 3.13 ERA. Then it was all MLB time.

Seaver came up in '67 and went 16-13 for a team that would lose over 100 games. He won that year's Rookie of the Year award and never looked back. In '68 he won 16 again and put up his first year of over 200 K's under Gil Hodges. Then came the magic year of '69: 25 wins, a 2.21 ERA, his first Cy Young, and the big Series win. From then until '73 he would average over 20 wins, over 200 Ks and never top 3.00 in ERA. In '70 he led the NL in strikeouts and ERA. He turned that trick again in '71, posting a sick ERA while coming in second in the Cy race. After another excellent '72, by '73 he had begun acquiring his vineyard interests in California and he hurt himself moving cases of wine, missing some starts and almost for sure another 20-win season. He also won the division-clincher against the Cubs and had that excellent post-season, even though he only went 1-2 (he put up 35 Ks in 31 innings and had a 2.00 ERA). In '74 hip problems dropped his record to 11-11 as he missed a few more starts and had a tough time completing games - the Mets were pretty awful that year - but he bounced back in '75 to win 22 and grab his third Cy. '76 was Jerry Koosman's year and Tom would post the last of his nine successive 200 K seasons as his decisions dropped substantially and he went only 14-11 despite another excellent ERA of 2.59. The next season, in the wake of bitter contract negotiations between Seaver and Mets GM Donald Grant, Tom was on a nice early season roll when at the June trading deadline the unthinkable happened: he was sent to the Reds for a bunch of young players: Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, Pat Zachry, and Dan Norman.

For pretty obvious reasons the trade of Seaver was hugely unpopular in NY, and while a couple of the kids would have some decent seasons, that Tom went on to win 21 games that year really cemented the bad feelings generated by the transaction. It certainly wasn't all bad for him though. NY was at the beginning of a downward spiral that would produce some ugly teams and last though the early Eighties. Meanwhile, Cincy was still tough and after a 16-14/2.88 year in '78 that was his final one of over 200 strikeouts, Tom returned to the post-season in '79 with a 16-6 year. In '80 he missed a bunch of starts to the hip again and his record fell to 10-8 in the first year his ERA was sub-par to the NL's. But a big season followed in the strike year of '81 when Tom went 14-2 with a 2.54 ERA to nearly nab another Cy. Unfortunately that year was followed by an '82 when he had his arguably only bad season: 5-13 with an ERA that exceeded 5.00.

In '83 Seaver returned to the Mets in another trade with a bunch of kids on the other side. NY made a huge deal about Tom's return but after a middling year for him they then left him unprotected following the season. The White Sox picked him as a free agent compensation pick as they had lost Dennis Lamp to Toronto. Then any team losing a player to free agency had the right to pick any unprotected player from any team. Tom then won 31 games in two years for the Sox, including his 300th win at Yankee Stadium. In '86 he pitched for both Chicago and Boston. It was his final season and he saw no action in that post-season. Seaver retired with a record of 311-205, a 2.86 ERA, 231 complete games, 61 shutouts, a save, and 3,640 strikeouts. In his three post-seasons he was 3-3 with a 2.77 ERA and 51 strikeouts in his eight games. On top of his three Cy Young's and ROY he made 12 All-Star teams. He went in the Hall on his first ballot in '92. He has become a professional vintner and done lots of broadcasting, first for the Yankees and then the Mets.

At this point in Tom's career he could have had about 30 impressive star bullets. The game with the 10 consecutive K's was against the Padres in which he struck out a total of 18. He actually did enjoy playing bridge. That was what he was doing when Jerry Koosman had a locker room guy impersonate Howard Cosell on the radio in the early 70's and say Seaver had been traded to Houston for Doug Rader. At the time trading Tom was unimaginable. Little did they know...

Tenace and Seaver again met in the '73 Series. How do we get them together?:

1. Seaver and Keith Hernandez '83 Mets;
2. Hernandez and Gene Tenace '81 to '82 Cards.

Another All-Star. That's appropriate.

#50 - Rod Carew

This looks like a home uniform Rod Carew is wearing so I am tempted to say this shot is from Metropolitan Stadium. I am pretty sure that by '73 the Twins stopped wearing pinstripes but perhaps I am wrong. Every other Twins card was photographed in Anaheim but this is the only jersey that is not that grey/blue color in the set. But Rod certainly does look pissed, doesn't he. Maybe he just had a contract meeting with the generous Mr. Griffith. And who's that in the batting cage? I am going with Mike Adams, but let's not pretend I really have a clue.

Not too much to reveal about this guy. I remember watching a show where they had Rod batting super-slow motion and you could actually see him adjusting his swing halfway through the swing itself. It was pretty amazing. This man could just hit his ass off. And in '73 he did just that, leading the AL with his .350 average and his hits and triples totals. Plus he stole 41 bases, until then his MLB high.

Rod Carew was born in Panama in interesting circumstances (see below). While he was in high school his mom moved with Rod and his brother to NYC to get away from Rod's dad, who was an abusive guy. Rod played some club ball, got a tryout with the Twins when they were in town to play the Yankees, and got signed on the spot in '64. He then put in three seasons in the minors - a year in Rookie ball and two in A ball - during which he of course averaged .300, stole 114 bases, and also found time for military reserve work (and he wasn't even a citizen!). In '67 he got promoted all the way to the top.

Carew moved right into the starting second baseman job for the Twins and won the '67 AL Rookie of the Year. He was also an All-Star which he remained every season but his last, or 18 consecutive years. That first year was extra fun because Minnesota was in it until the final game of the season. '68 was a little bit of a discount but so was just about EVERY hitter's '68. But he made up for that in '69 by winning his first batting title and stealing home seven times. In '70 Rod was cranking when he got taken out by a Mike Hegan slide at second and missed over half the season to leg surgery. '71 was a nice comeback year, '72 another hitting title, and '73 ushered in the big stolen base totals. In '74 (.364) and '75 (.359) came two more titles. That second year Rod began putting in some time at first, a position he would then play for pretty much the duration of his career.. In '76 he missed another title by three points and in '77 he had his best year, flirting with .400 - he finished at .388 - and having his only 100-RBI season, as well as a .449 OBA. He won the AL MVP that year. After one more season - and title (.333) - he finally got out of Calvin's miserly domain and went to the Angels in a pretty big trade. Four guys came over from California. I remember one of them, Ken Landreaux, said he should have been traded even-up (what a boob!) for Rod.

With California the batting titles stopped but the hitting sure didn't and his first season of '79, though he missed nearly two months with a broken thumb, Carew was rewarded with his first post-season time in almost a decade.He added 13 points to his average in '80, kept it north of .300 during the strike year and in '82 helped the Angels to another post-season berth with his .319.He topped out for California with a .339 in '83 and then played two more years, retiring after the '85 season. Rod finished with a .328 average, 3,053 hits, over 1,000 stolen bases, and a .393 OBA. The only real viable knock on him was his poor post-season average of .220 in his 14 games. Defensively he is in the top 100 for major fielding categories at both first and second base. He made the Hall on his first shot in '91.

Following his career Carew ran his own hitting school from his California home. He then began a long run as hitting coach for the Angels ('92-2001) and the Brewers (2002-'03). He made headlines in the mid-90's when his daughter got sick and he pleaded for bone marrow donors. She sadly passed away at an awfully young age.

Some tidbits on the back of the card include his full name (Rodney Cline was the name of the doctor who delivered him - on a train!), and his apparent ability to bunt from the wrong side of the plate.

Given Steve Renko's movement during the second half of his career, this one is easy:

1. Carew and Steve Renko '81 to '82 Angels.