#658 - Lee Lacy

I really am stretching this thing out but, trust me, it’s not intentional. Too much work and other stuff. For our third-to-last card we get Lee Lacy at Shea looking very serious. That face could have something to do with what was going on at the time in the LA infield, then Lee’s professional stomping ground. ’73 saw the initiation of that long-lasting combo of Garvey/Lopes/Russell/Cey which meant that Lee’s playing time contracted considerably from his rookie season. For a while things would stay that way and barring injury it would be tough for Lee to get any field time. But his versatility would prove to be his saving grace and that ability to play just about anywhere in the field would help him have a long fruitful career.

Lee Lacy was born in Texas and relocated to Oakland before high school. He did the multi-sport thing and then went to nearby Laney College where he played both hoops and baseball. He was drafted midway through his second year there in January ’69 and then played mostly third while producing some pretty good offense that included a .402 OBA. In ’70 he moved up to A ball and over to shortstop where he produced more good plate numbers but had a super tough time in the field. His offense got him to Double A in ’71 where on top of another good offensive season he improved at both shortstop and third but actually spent most of his time at second, which seems to have been a better fit. Lee remained at that level and position for ’72 where he banged the ball super well, putting up a .417 OBA, continued to improve his defense, and got his call up in June.

The late Sixties and the early Seventies were sort of a transitional mess for the Dodgers outside of first base. There were lots of crash and burns at third – Bob Bailey, Bill Sudakis, and Billy Grabarkewitz – and for a little bit Ted Sizemore seemed to be the man at second after his ROY season in ’69. But he went to St. Louis to get Dick Allen, Jim Lefebvre got hurt and was needed to fill the gap at third, fellow young guy Bobby Valentine played everywhere, and converted outfielder Bill Russell eventually settled at shortstop. Into this stew came Lacy in the summer of ’72 to pretty much take over the regular job the rest of the way.while plugging the gap on defense and doing an OK job at the plate. He then began ’73 in the same role, got hurt in mid-May while hitting .195, and returned to see his spot taken by Davey Lopes, who wouldn’t give it up until Lee was long gone. In ’74 his at bats fell even further during the championship season though he hit .282 and got a bit of post-season time. In ’75 LA got hit big by the injury bug which killed their playoff chances but worked nicely for Lee, who posted a .314/7/40 line in 306 at bats while filling in at second and for the first time in the outfield. After that season he joined rapidly-aging Jimmy Wynn, Tom Paciorek, and Jerry Royster in a trade to Atlanta for Dusty Baker and Ed Goodson. With the Braves, Lee took over regular duties at second before a hitting slump and then an injury took him out of action a couple weeks. But he got his average up to .272 before he was traded again, this time back to LA with reliever Elias Sosa for Mike Marshall. The rest of the way for the Dodgers he spent the bulk of his time in center and hit .266 overall, with a .385 average as a pinch hitter in what would be his busiest year for a while. In both ’77 and ’78 he did his back-up thing in both the infield and outfield, averaging in the mid-.260’s. That first year he hit very well in a return to the post-season and in that second year he added some power, with a .261/13/40 line in 245 at bats. That winter he left LA as a free agent and signed with the Pirates.

In Pittsburgh Lacy again assumed a back-up role, but this time exclusively in the outfield and there nearly all the time in left. His stats – a .249 average with 15 RBI’s in 182 at bats – weren’t anything special but his timing sure was as he joined a Series champion. He then moved into a platoon role in left and hit a ton better in ’80 with a .335/7/33 line with 18 stolen bases and 45 runs in just 278 at bats. After an off season in the strike year of ’81 he hit his stride in ’82 with .312/5/31/40/66 numbers in 359 at bats. Then followed a ..302/4/13/31/40 ’82 in 288 at bats; and a .321/12/70/21/66 ’84 in 474 at bats in his final season in Pittsburgh. After that it was another departure via free agency, this time to Baltimore where he became the regular right fielder, averaging .290/10/48 seasons in ’85 and ’86 before ending things in ’87 when he was 39. Lee finished with a .286 average with 91 homers, 458 RBI’s, 185 stole bases, and a .340 OBA. In the post season he hit .241 in his 17 games.

Lacy got into a bit of trouble when he was named late in his playing career as one of the cocaine-using players during the Pittsburgh drug trials. By then he’d had his daughter Jennifer, who would grow up to be a star hoops player at Pepperdine and is still playing in the WNBA. Lee did the year-plus in the Senior League in ’89 –’90 and appears to have remained in the Southern California area since playing for LA. He is a regular at autograph and other events for the Dodgers though I haven’t been able to nail down what he’s done professionally since playing.

Lee’s star bullets give us a look at some of his achievements in high school and at Laney. His is also the final card that gives us a look at what he did during the off-season via the cartoon.

Getting these two together is relatively lengthy:

1. Lacy and Jerry Royster ’76 Braves;

2. Royster and Jeff Burroughs ’77 to ’80 Braves;

3. Burroughs and Jim Shellenback ’70 to ’73 Senators/Rangers.

#648 - Terry Crowley

Here we have the subject of the penultimate Traded card in the set in Terry Crowley, who actually looks relieved in the hatless photo of the Traded card, which is usually why those photos were taken in the first place. Terry was actually itching for a trade as his usage in ’73 was way less than he thought was warranted. After being Baltimore’s Opening Day DH – and going 2 for 4 – he was pretty quickly supplanted by Tommie Davis after Terry’s average moved down to Mendoza levels by mid-April and never really recovered. The rest of the season he got a little outfield and first base work and also some as DH and pinch hitter. That last role would become sort of a double-edged sword for Terry since he would gain some notoriety for his performance in that position, but his degree of skill at it would limit his usage elsewhere. But all that wouldn’t happen until his second go-around in Baltimore. Regarding the trade – actually a sale – like some recent subjects, Terry wouldn’t actually play a regular season game for his new team and by the time these cards came out he’d be with a whole other team in a whole other league.

Terry Crowley grew up on Staten Island in NYC where he was a Yankees fan and a pitcher. He had acquired lots of MLB interest in that role in high school until he was injured his senior year and he had to leave pitching behind. When interest abated he decided to go to Long Island University where he relocated to the outfield and his sophomore year was an All-American. That performance got the scouts interested again and Baltimore drafted him that spring of ’66, but he took so long to sign that he only got some IL ball that year. In ’67 he played mostly first base in A ball where he hit .262 with some good power – ten triples - and stole 21 bases. He then split ’68 between Double A and Triple A, hitting a combined .265 while playing mostly outfield at the lower level and first base the latter part of the season. In ’69 he had a big year at the higher level with a .282/28/83 line before a September call-up got him in the middle of some division-run action. In ’70 he stayed with Baltimore as a reserve outfielder/first baseman and hit pretty well in his limited work, posting a .394 OBA. In ’71 he hurt his leg during spring training, missed some time, and was sent to Triple A for rehab. He had a big year, posting a .282/19/63 line with a .399 OBA in just 259 at bats while playing first, though his short time back up wasn’t too productive. But in ’72 a hot start got him a bunch of starts in right field in the wake of Frank Robinson’s trade to LA. By the end of May his average was at .378, but a sub-.200 the rest of the way would contribute to his return to the minors in ’73. In the meantime, though, he had a pretty good action card in that ’73 set.

Crowley did not make it out of spring training with Texas in ’74 and went to Cincinnati in a sale. In a prelude of things to come, he would get some outfield work, but the majority of his time was spent in the pinch. In ’74 he put up a .204/0/7 line in 59 plate appearances in that role and in the Series year of ’75 he upped it to .280/0/4 with a .357 OBA in 56 appearances. Following that year he went to Atlanta in a trade for pitcher Mike Thompson, but after just a couple games he was released. Shortly thereafter he was picked up by the Orioles and he initially put in some games at Triple A, where he hit .261, before returning to Baltimore for some games at DH but lots more in the pinch, hitting .246 overall in 61 at bats. In ’77 he was back in Triple A where he had another big year with a .308/30/80 line in just over 400 at bats before he made some late appearances with the O’s and hit .467 with nine RBI’s in just 15 at bats. That success pretty much sealed his fate the next few years as he rejoined the Earl Weaver platoon system as a sometime left-handed DH and mostly pinch hitter. He especially delivered the next two seasons with a line of .368/0/9 with a .372 OBA in 38 ’78 at bats and in ’79 of .302/1/7/.426 in 43 at bats. He became a fan favorite and was the subject of a pretty hilarious foul-mouthed Earl Weaver diatribe that can be heard on YouTube. That second year he helped Baltimore to its final pennant of the Seventies. In ’80 he got his most time at DH, putting up a line of .288/12/50 in just 233 at bats. His average came down a bit in the ’81 strike season, though his line of .246/4/25 with a .376 OBA was still impressive for just 134 at bats. He closed things out with another year as a pinch guy in ’82 before doing some time with Montreal in the same role in ’83. Terry finished with a .250 average, 42 homers, and 229 RBI’s and a pretty good .345 OBA. In the post-season he hit .273 with three RBI’s in 13 games.

After playing Crowley turned immediately to coaching for what would turn into a long run in that role. In ’84 he became Baltimore’s minor league hitting coach before joining the Orioles from ’85 to ’88. He then spent ’89 to ’90 in the Boston system as its hitting coordinator before joining Minnesota for a long successful run from ’91 to ’98. He then returned to the Orioles as the team’s hitting coach from ’99 to 2010 before giving up that role to become the system hitting evaluator, a position he still holds.

There are lots of one-liners in the star bullets. In ’70 Terry hit .310 as a pinch hitter with a .429 OBA. Regarding the homer, it won the game in the 10^th inning to put the O’s only a game back. Unfortunately some under-.500 ball the rest of the way kept them in third place.

Well, that’s a nice headline. It makes Terry seem like a box of fruit. He was sold to Texas for $100,000, not a bad price back then. This post goes up on St. Patrick's Day; I gotta believe this guy has at least a little Irish in him.

The connection here could have been Texas, had things gone a bit differently:

1. Crowley and Bobby Grich ’70 to ’73 and ’76 Orioles;

2. Grich and Juan Beniquez ’81 to ’85 Angels.

#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.

#605 - 1974 Rookie Pitchers

This next rookie card is the second one that gets an honor number designation, which is unavoidable due to the choice by Topps to issue the rookie cards sequentially. One pitcher on the card was worthy of the designation pretty much right of the bat, but we get to him last. One pitcher for sure gets photographed in a city that would be his stomping grounds years down the road. As usual, there are very few smiles; rookie jitters perhaps.

Vic Albury was a first baseman and pitcher when he was drafted by the Indians in ’65. He had helped lead his high school team from Key West, FLA, to its state championship in ’63 and two summers later began his pro career by hitting .233 in A ball while playing first. Then it was off for three full years (?!!) of military duty; that sounds a bit long to me and I have a hunch that he left baseball for a bit before reappearing with his hometown team in ’69, an A franchise of San Diego’s. Vic had a nice year, going 12-10 with a 2.32 ERA before a bit of a rough ’70 split between Triple A and A ball, going a combined 7-10 with a 5.83 ERA. He was then drafted by the Twins for whom he turned things around big in Double A, going 12-7 with a 1.73 ERA and 13 saves as a reliever and hitting .354 with 17 RBI’s in only 65 at bats that included some during a few games back at first. Unfortunately that was followed by a ’72 – during which Vic had his first rookie card – in which he hurt his elbow in spring training enough that surgery was mandated and he didn’t get on the mound until August and would only see 18 innings of Triple A ball. In ’73 he went 8-11 in the rotation with a 3.99 ERA before he was called up in August. He did surprisingly well in his 23 MLB innings, going 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA, given his walks outnumbered his strikeouts, which would become a running theme. His true rookie year of ’74 he would be mostly in the rotation with 22 starts of his 32 games, and go 8-9 with a 4.12 ERA. In ’75 his ERA elevated a bit as he took on more of a swing role, going 6-7 with his only save. In ’76 it was all relief as he went 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA in his final season up top. He went a combined 18-17 at that level with a 4.11 ERA, six complete games, a shutout, and that save. He put up 220 walks against 193 K’s. In ’77 he pitched for Syracuse, then the Yankees’ Triple A team, going 9-9 with a 5.13 ERA and a couple saves in a swing role. He was apparently on loan because after the season he declared free agency as a Twin. He pitched in Mexico in ’78 before in ’79 throwing for Puerto Rico of the short-lived Inter-American League and then signing with Cleveland the rest of the way. He went a combined 6-4 with a 3.80 ERA that year which would be his last as rotator cuff problems helped to end his career. In the minors he went a combined 54-53 with a 3.72 ERA, 29 complete games, and 19 saves. By ’82 Vic was coaching in the Cleveland system, which he would do through early ’85. At some point he appears to have returned full-time to Key West where a street and baseball field were named in his honor. According to one local chat site a Vic Albury did get back and fall on bad times and then pass away but I do not know if it is our boy here as according to baseball-reference he is still around.

Ken Frailing grew up in Marion, Wisconsin, where the baseball seasons were short and he also played football and basketball in high school. He finished his hoops career with 1,000 points and his senior year went 13-0 with a 0.17 ERA for a team that went 16-0 overall. That spring of ’66 he was drafted in the fifth round by the White Sox. That first summer was a bit tough as he went 1-6 with a 5.07 ERA split between Rookie and A ball. He then spent the next three seasons in A ball, going a combined 14-14 with a 2.97 ERA around his military time while throwing for some pretty bad teams. In ’67 only 28 of his 51 runs were earned. In ’70 he moved up to Double A where his 4-9 record was a lot more indicative of his team than him as his ERA was only 2.71. He then spent the next two years at Triple A Tucson where the dry air elevated his ERA to a combined 5.27 as he went 14-19 before his September debut in Chicago. He then had his best year in ’73, going 11-3 with a 2.86 ERA in Triple A before some more late-season MLB action. When he left the Sox for the Cubs in the Ron Santo trade the following winter he was 1-0 with a 2.11 ERA in his 14 games. With the Cubs, Ken used his lefty status as a way to lever himself into the mix as a swing guy and his rookie year of ’74 he went 6-9 with a save and a 3.88 ERA. He remained in Chicago in ’75 but early in the season suffered shoulder issues and his work was reduced to all middle relief as his line fell to 2-5 with a 5.43 in less than half as many innings. He split ’76 between Chicago – 1-2 with a 2.41 ERA in 19 innings – and Triple A where he was 2-3 with a 4.50 ERA around lots of down time. In ’77 he got his shoulder operated on and he put in a few innings but was released while in rehab. He signed with the Sox for ’78 which he spent in Triple A as a player-coach in his final season, during which he went 8-5 with a 3.11 ERA and eleven saves. Ken went 10-16 with a 3.96 ERA, a complete game, and a couple saves during his MLB time and 55-61 with a 3.73 ERA in the minors. A pretty good hitter, he hit for over a .220 average at both levels. In ’79 and ’80 he coached in the KC system before later that latter year relocating to Sarasota, FLA, where he began a new career selling insurance. He has a very nice SABR bio.

Kevin Kobel attended a Catholic high school outside Buffalo, NY, and while there made a couple all-Catholic state teams in baseball. Nabbed by the Brewers in the ’71 draft at 17 he started fast by going 5-1 with a 2.55 ERA in A ball. The reality of being in the Brewers system set in the next year when he went 3-15 with a 4.31 ERA in Double A San Antonio – more dry air – before things got back on track in ’73 with a 12-8/3.40 year at the same level. In his few games in Milwaukee that year his run wasn’t too impressive but he remained on the Milwaukee roster all of ’74, going 6-14 with a 3.99 ERA in the rotation. Though his record wasn’t too hot, he owned the Yankees, going 3-1 against them giving up just one run per in the three wins. In ’75 a tough spring training followed up by a bad shoulder sent him to Triple A where he only got in seven games but went 3-2 with a 2.40 ERA in them. He remained at that level nearly all the next two years, going 7-12 in ’76 with a 5.50 ERA and then in ’77 though the ERA didn’t drop much, his record reversed itself as he went 12-6. He got some topside work the former year but it wasn’t very good and after the ’77 season he was sold to the Mets. In ’78 a nice start in the pen in Triple A brought him up to NY in May where some initial tentative usage produced good results in the same role. With an ERA still under 1.00 in July he became a spot guy the rest of the way and finished the year 5-6 with a 2.91 ERA. In ’79 he joined the rotation full-time, going 6-8 with a 3.51 ERA for another horrible NY team. But in ’80 the shoulder pain and bad numbers returned en force and at the trade deadline he was sent to Kansas City for Randy McGilberry. That finished Kevin’s MLB time with a record of 18-34 with a 3.88 ERA, five complete games, and three shutouts. He didn’t pitch terribly well either for KC’s Triple A club and he was released by the end of the season. He then spent ’81 and ’82 pitching in Mexico before a late season tryout with the Pirates went nowhere and he was done with a 46-47 record in the minors with a 4.27 ERA. According to his Facebook page he is back in the Buffalo area where he looks pretty happy.

When Frank Tanana graduated Catholic Central High School in Detroit in ’71 he had scored over 2,500 points in hoops and had a 32-1 record as a pitcher with a 0.30 ERA. He was widely recruited by D1 schools in both sports but signed with the Angels after being the team’s first round pick that June. After briefly attending Cal State Fullerton he began his career in A ball in ’72, going 7-2 with a 2.79 ERA. In ’73 he went 16-6 with a 2.71 ERA in Double A, 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA in two starts in Triple A, and 2-2 with a 3.08 ERA after being called up to Anaheim in September. In his rookie season of ’74 he went 14-19 but with a 3.12 ERA and four shutouts to get a spot on the Topps rookie team. He followed that up with an excellent three-year run that cemented him as the best young pitcher in the game. His stat lines - 16-9 with a 2.62 ERA and 269 strikeouts in ’75; 19-10/2.42/261 in ’76; and 15-9/2.54/205 in ’77 – were all for losing teams and got him two All-Star appearances, the AL strikeout lead in ’75, and the AL ERA and shutouts – with seven – lead in ’77. In ’78 he went 18-12 but experienced some shoulder pain that led to an elevated – for him – 3.65 ERA and a dramatic drop in strikeouts. That September his teammate, outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed and Frank, before then a pretty hard partyer, became a devout religious guy as a result. In ’79 he would miss over ten weeks to a shoulder operation which would limit the range in his left arm and force him to become a control pitcher. He went 7-5 but the tiny ERA’s and big strikeout totals were behind him. In ’80 he went 11-12/4.15 before being traded to Boston with Joe Rudi for Steve Renko and Fred Lynn. After a horrible season for the Sox – 4-10/4.01 – he went to Texas as a free agent and had an even worse ’82 as he went 7-18 with a 4.21 ERA to lead the AL in losses. During the next two seasons he improved to go a combined 22-24 with a 3.21 ERA before a weak start to the ’85 season got him sent to Detroit for a minor leaguer. Frank went 10-7 the rest of the way and settled in for a long Tigers run during which he went a combined 96-82 with a league-average 4.08 ERA. He won the division-clincher in ’87 and remained with the team through ’92 before spending his final season with both NY Teams. He went 240-236 for his career with a 3.66 ERA, 143 complete games, 34 shutouts, a save, and 2,773 strikeouts. He made three All-Star teams and in the post-season was 0-1 with a 4.35 ERA in two starts. Since his playing time he has been very active in fantasy leagues and on the lecture circuit as well as with various baseball and Christian charities.

The pitchers on this card put in a collective 28 seasons with four All-Star appearances and a Rookie team membership, mostly thanks to Mr. Tanana. All these guys were still residing in their home towns at this point in their careers.

The inter-card hook-up is a quick one:

1. Frank White and Jerry Terrell ’78 to ’80 Royals;

2. Terrell and Vic Albury ’73 to ’76 Twins.

Around the card takes a little longer:

1. Vic Albury and Rod Carew ’73 to ’76 Twins;

2. Carew and George Mittyerwald ’68 to ’73 Twins;

3. Mitterwald and Ken Frailing ’74 to ’75 Cubs;

4. Frailing and Jerry Morales ’74 to ’75 Cubs;

5. Morales and Doug Flynn ’80 Mets;

6. Flynn and Kevin Kobel ’78 to ’80 Mets;

7. Kobel and Andy Hassler ’79 Mets;

8. Hassler and Frank Tanana ’73 to ’76 and ’80 Angels.

#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.

#600 - '74 Rookie Infielders

So what’s special about this card? Well it’s a milestone number which is pretty odd in that it is being used for a Rookie card. Nothing against any of these guys and one of them would certainly have some years that came close to justifying his appearance of a card of this stature, but at the time of this set there were certainly many other viable and worthy candidates for card number 600. I find it hard to believe that Topps’ intention was to give this group that number and that it was an oversight. But who knows? Maybe everything was so crazy with Watergate – I gotta get back to that – and inflation that the boys making bubble gum just said the hell with it and let the chips fall. And here are the chips...

Ron Cash had an interesting run of things before he even got to the professional level. A star third baseman in high school in Atlanta, he was drafted in ’67 in a low round by the Dodgers but instead decided to go to Manatee Junior College in Florida. He played ball there the next two years even though he was drafted each semester by, successively, the Orioles, the Braves, the Padres, and the Twins. He hit .335 his freshman year and .346 his sophomore one and made all-state both years but his biggest moment was probably a horrible car crash in October ’68 in which he nearly lost his life and did lose his spleen. After rejecting the Twins in June of ’69 he continued school at Florida State and over the next two years hit .342 with 76 RBI’s and a .451 OBA. In ’70 he helped take the team to the CWS with teammates Mac Scarce and Johnny Grubb and in ’71 he was all-Southeast. That year he was finally nabbed by Detroit and he hit .333 the rest of the summer while playing primarily left field in A ball. He would continue to do outfield time the next couple seasons and also move back to third during that time as well. In ’72 he hit .286 in a season split between A and Double A ball. Then in ’73 he split time between Double A and Triple A, hitting .303 with 73 RBI’s before a September call-up to Detroit. He hit the game-winner his first start and .410 during his MLB time while playing third. During a good ’74 spring training it was decided to move Ron to first where he could give aging starter Norm Cash – no relation – a run since third was occupied by a much younger Aurelio Rodriguez. There he continued to hit, opening the ’74 season with a .353 average, before beginning April 15 he missed a month due to “mental exhaustion.” After he returned in mid-May his average dipped a bit and early in June he was sent back to Triple A where he hit .246 while splitting time at first and third. He returned to Detroit in September but by season-end his average was down to .226 and he then spent all of ’75 and ’76 in Triple A playing both infield corners, averaging .262 in diminishing seasons. He was released after the latter season, ending his playing time, and finished with a .297 average and eleven RBI’s in his 34 games up top and a .289 average with a .366 OBA in the minors. He then seems to have returned to the Southeast where he resided in his native Georgia and then Florida before passing away in 2009 at age 59. His nephew, Kevin Cash, followed Ron to Florida State and then had a few years in the majors as a back-up catcher. He is currently the Indians’ bullpen coach.

Jim Cox played hoops and baseball at the University of Iowa after excelling in the same sports in high school in Illinois. He also got his early degree in microbiology while there, and during that time turned down two draft choices: by the Senators in ’68 (to go to school); and by the Indians in the first round in ’71 (not enough money). Since his studies were done by January of his senior year he signed with Montreal when drafted in ’72 and then hit .255 with some power in Double A. While there he worked on his D a bunch – particularly his double play pivot – and had a great spring training in ’73 before hitting .267 in Triple A. He made his Montreal debut that July but his hitting was light in his few games and by early August he was back in the minors. In ’74 he had another great camp and was named the Opening Day starter, pushing incumbent Ron Hunt to third base. Jim did pretty well defensively and was the everyday guy through early June, though he was hitting only .224. He then suffered a broken hand after being hit and after a month on the DL returned to Triple A, where he hit .252, before returning up top to finish his season. He spent nearly all of ’75 at Triple A because fellow young guy Pete Mackanin – from a few posts back – arrived to take over second and Jim hit .267 with 67 RBI’s at that level, and .259 during spare usage up top. In ’76 it was pretty much the same deal as he played behind Mackanin and Wayne Garrett in Montreal but upped his average to .274 on the right side of the infield in Triple A. ’76 would be his final MLB season and he spent the next three years solely at Triple A Denver where his stats got successively better as he put more and more time in at third: .287/4/39 in ’77; .299/10/64 in ’78; and .305/12/77 in ’79 his final year as a player. He finished with an average of .215 up top and hit .277 with 66 homers and 403 RBI’s in the minors. Then, like a lot of guys, he becomes impossible to chase, though in the early 2000’s he resurfaced a bit news-wise as an inductee into the Hawkeyes hall of fame.

Bill Madlock was born in Memphis and after being dumped by his parents was raised by a grandmother in Decatur, Illinois, a bit outside Chicago. He played the big three sports at Eisenhower High School there and as a football halfback – he once rushed for 300 yards and scored five touchdowns in a game – and shortstop he was all-county. He was drafted by the Cards when he graduated in June ’69 but he passed because he didn’t want to get stuck behind Dal Maxvill and so went to Southwestern Iowa Community College from where he was drafted in January ’70 by the Senators. He didn’t hit too well right away, putting up a .269 average in A ball that summer and a .234 the next year in Double A, the season he moved to third. But he did steal some bases and had some good camps and after a bad start in ’72 in Triple A he went back down a level and did two things that would be emblematic of his career: he hit .328 but did so in only 131 at bats because he was suspended a bunch of the season after getting into trouble on the field. He would split that year and the next between second and third and in ’73 he broke out to post a .338/22/90 season in Triple A before being called up to Texas in September, finishing with a .351 MLB average. After the season he and Vic Harris went to the Cubs for Fergie Jenkins. Bill became the regular third baseman for Chicago, hit .313 his rookie year to make the Topps team, made an All-Star team, and won batting titles the next two seasons. After he asked for more pay he was traded following the ’76 season with Rob Sperring to San Francisco for Bobby Murcer and recent post subject Steve Ontiveros. Bill played third his first Giants season and then primarily second the next year-plus, hitting over .300 each of his first two years. In ’79, after his average dipped to .261, he was sent to Pittsburgh in a June trade and promptly hit .328 the rest of the way to help his new team reach the playoffs and then win the Series. He would remain in Pittsburgh through ’85 and during that time won two batting titles, got into two All-Star games, had a big ’82 as a power guy after Willie Stargell went down – 19 homers and 95 RBI’s – and was famously ejected, fined, and suspended for pushing his mitt in the face of an umpire. In ’84 he missed two months for an operation to remove bone chips from his elbow. He again started slowly the following year and after another mid-season trade – this time to LA – again rallied down the stretch, this time hitting .360 to help another team get post-season action. He remained with the Dodgers through part of the ’87 season when shoulder surgery and then a release got him to Detroit and his last playoff push. He would finish as a player after that season and had a .305 average with 163 homers, 860 RBI’s, 174 stolen bases, and a .365 OBA. Defensively he is in the top 75 third basemen all-time in assists and double plays and in the post-season he hit .308 with twelve RBI’s and a .375 OBA in 17 games. In ’88 he went to play in Japan where he put up a .263/19/61 season and then retired. After he finished playing Bill did the Senior League thing, ran some investments he’d made while playing, and did some coaching and rep work for some Far East teams. That got him through the Nineties and from 2000 to 2001 he was Detroit’s hitting coach. In ’02 he worked in the commissioner’s office and from ’03 to ’04 he managed the Newark Bears, an independent team. He then coached a bit in Latin America and has since the mid-2000’s has run his own hitting school in Las Vegas.

This Reggie Sanders has been tough to pinpoint because of the other Reggie Sanders who played in the Nineties and 2000’s and is no relation. This Reggie was born in Birmingham, Alabama and during high school relocated to LA where he was a big baseball and football star and the A’s were so high on him when they drafted him during his senior year that there were some improprieties and the pick was voided. So Oakland snapped him up the following January of '68 and that summer Reggie, an infielder/outfielder, hit .264 with 22 homers in A ball. The next year at that level he bumped his homers to 25 with 75 RBI’s but only hit .235 with 154 K’s. In ’70 he moved up to Double A, cut his strikeouts in half, and had an otherwise comparable season. By then he was concentrating on first base and ’71 was a nearly identical season at the same place. In ’72 he bumped his average up a ton – he would hit .338 in Double A that year – but Oakland sent him mid-season to Detroit for pitcher Mike Kilkenny. He spent the final month of the year in Triple A where he would also spend all of ’73, hitting .246. In ’74 Reggie had his biggest year, hitting .292 with 14 homers and 88 RBI’s before being called up to Detroit early that September and starting at first the rest of the way, batting .273. He homered in his first at bat and generally had a decent short run but after the season was sent to Atlanta for other first baseman Jack Pierce. For the Braves Reggie resided for two seasons in Triple A where he averaged .269 with 15 homers and 73 RBI’s per season. In ’77 he went to Mexico to play, which he would also do in ’79 around a season in Double A for the Orioles in ’78. When the Seventies ended so did Reggie’s career and he finished with minor league numbers of .265 with 156 homers and 677 RBI’s. His ’74 work with Detroit was his only time up top. After that Reggie goes missing media-wise until 2002 when he passed away in Los Angeles. He was 52.

We get two guys from Decatur but in different states. Both Cox and Sanders would also have Rookie cards in ’75. Madlock would befriend teammate Steve Greenburg, Hank’s son, in his first year in pro ball and Steve would go on to be Bill’s agent after he finished playing. He then worked for the commissioner – it was he who actually enforced George Steinbrenner’s brief ban from baseball – and then moved into investment banking where, among other things, he helped engineer the Astros sale a couple years ago. We both worked at the same shop. MLB service-wise we get 15 seasons, three All-Star games, four batting titles, and a Topps Rookie Team member, nearly all from Mr. Madlock. All pretty good, but not enough to warrant the waste of a “100” card.

Now for hook-ups. A pretty good catcher helps big with the first one:

1. Ron Cash and Willie Horton ’73 to ’74 Tigers;

2. Horton and Tom Haller ’72 Tigers;

3. Haller and Steve Garvey ’70 to ’71 Dodgers;

4. Garvey and Greg Shanahan ’73 to ’74 Dodgers.

Here we go around the card. Couldn’t they put Cash and Sanders together?:

1. Ron Cash and Willie Horton ’73 to ’74 Tigers;

2. Horton and Tom Walker ’75 Tigers;

3. Walker and Jim Cox ’73 to ’74 Expos;

4. Cox and Steve Renko ’73 to ’76 Expos;

5. Renko and Bill Madlock ’76 Cubs;

6. Madlock and Willie Stargell ’79 to ’82 Pirates;

7. Stargell and Luke Walker ’65 to ’66 and ’68 to ’73 Pirates;

8. Walker and Reggie Sanders ’74 Tigers.

That’s our longest one yet.

#598 - '74 Rookie Outfielders

At first glance this card seems to not have the snap of the first two but on closer inspection we get our first major award winner, a guy who played forever and had some pretty good genes, and two guys who figured in the ’73 pennant race. So maybe I need to stop taking first glances.

One of the biggest plays in the NL East in ’73 was the “ball off the wall play” that I’ve discussed on a couple Mets posts. Going into the September 20^th games the Pirates were a game up in the division and the Mets a game and a half out. In the top of the 13^th inning of a game tied 3-3 with two outs and Richie Zisk on first Dave Augustine came up and launched a fly off Ray Sadecki that for all the world looked like a home run. But a gust of wind caught the ball and it bounced off the top of the wall directly into the glove of Cleon Jones who fired to to Wayne Garrett who in turn fired it to Ron Hodges who nailed Zisk – a notoriously slow runner – trying to score. Dave got a double but Hodges won the game in the bottom of the inning and after another win by NY the next night the Mets moved into first place for good. Dave had been a pitcher/outfielder while growing up in West Virginia and was drafted by Cleveland in a late round his senior year of ’68. He passed to go to Miami Dade and after a year there was signed by the Pirates. That summer he hit .224 with a few too many K’s in a season split between A and Rookie ball. Dave was a speedster and a top of the order guy and in ’70 A ball he improved to .309 with a .360 OBA. In ’71 at that level his average fell to .247 but he stole 36 bases to get promoted to Double A. After hitting .301 with 12 homers, 52 RBI’s, and twelve steals at that level in ’72 he moved up to Triple A Charleston the next year when he began a long residency in that city. Over the next five years Dave would average .246 in Triple A ball for Pittsburgh around his couple looks up top in ’73 and ’74. In ’77 the franchise had moved to Columbus and after that year he was traded to Houston for outfielder Jim Fuller, who will be coming up in a while. With the Astros it was all Triple A as well in their new franchise in – where else? – Charleston. This time around he hit .280 in two seasons before in ’80 splitting time at that level between Texas and Kansas City. In ’81 he re-signed with the Pirates for whom he spent the last three seasons of his career in Triple A, finishing during the ’83 season. Dave hit .207 in his 29 at bats in Pittsburgh and .257 with almost 1,300 hits and 130 stolen bases in the minors. He would return to Charleston after his playing career where he has been a long-time employee of B Stanley Gill, a furniture manufacturer.

Back in the Seventies, Ken Griffey did not need to attach a “Sr.” to his name to differentiate him from his progeny. Ken was born in Donora, PA, not terribly far from Pittsburgh and his dad had played high school ball with Stan Musial. Ken was a big deal athlete at that level as well, scoring 152 points his last two years in football, mostly as an end, and setting school game records in hoops with 40 points and 27 rebounds as his team went 21-1 his senior year of ’69. That year he tried out for the Reds and got drafted in a late round. Ken was fast – at one time he had the MLB record for circling the bases – and his first summer in Rookie ball he hit .281 while stealing eleven bases. But he had a tough time in the outfield and would have to work hard on getting his defense to match his offense the next few years. A ball in ’70 was a step back as his average fell to .244 in a shortened season that was also impacted by a hostile environment. Ken then had a huge jump in A and Double A ball in ‘71 when he hit a combined .348 with 13 triples, 29 steals, and a .425 OBA. ’72 was then all Double A where he hit .318 with 14 homers, 96 runs scored, and 31 stolen bases in 34 attempts. He didn’t lose a step the next year in Triple A where he was hitting .327 with 88 runs and 43 stolen bases before he was called up in August. For the Reds he did a nice job the remainder of the year, helping to subdue the mess in right field by hitting .384 during the pennant drive. In ’74 he began the season in a big slump, spent most of May and June back in Triple A where he hit .333, and returned in early July to boost his average 100 points the rest of the way. By then he’d settled in as Cincinnati’s every day right fielder, a role he would keep through the ’81 season. While with the Reds Ken hit .303 while scoring over 700 runs and stealing over 150 bases in a run that included three All-Star seasons. In ’82 he went to the Yankees in a trade and spent the next four-plus seasons and hit .285 while playing all outfield spots, first base, and DH. In mid-’86 he went to Atlanta until late in ’88 a slow start had him move back to Cincinnati where he did some back-up work through a mid-year trade to Seattle in 1990. There he joined his son in the Seattle outfield and finished his career in style by hitting .327 mostly as a pinch hitter his final two seasons. Ken hit .296 for his career with 2,143 hits, 152 homers, 200 stolen bases, 859 RBI’s, and a .359 OBA. In the post-season he hit .240 with eleven RBI’s and eight steals in 20 games. After playing he remained in the Seattle system as a coach through ’95 before becoming the Rockies hitting coach in ’96. He then began a long affiliation back with the Reds as MLB coach (’97-2001); admin guy and broadcaster (2002-’09); minors coach (’10); and minors manager (’11-present). He has gone a combined 193-227 in that last role. And Junior is now 44 – how old does that make you feel?

Steve Ontiveros grew up on a hay farm in Bakersfield, California where he was all-everything in baseball and drafted by the Giants after his senior year of high school in ’69. He had a tough time playing third that summer in Rookie ball but hit .278 with a .449 OBA. In ’70 he moved to A ball where he hit roughly the same and his defense improved. The next year at that level he became a slugger with a .321/18/92 season and a .445 OBA and followed it up in ’72 with a Double A year of .287/12/75 in his first season of significant outfield time. Then in ’73 he amped things up huge by hitting .357 with ten homers and 84 RBI’s in a season cut short by his call-up to San Francisco. He won the TSN Minor League Player of the Year and the duration of the season hit .242 while subbing at first and in the outfield. In ’74 he became the closest thing the team had to a regular at third and hit .265 with a .375 OBA while starting 72 games there. In ’75 he improved to hit .289 with a .391 OBA in more starts but both seasons showed limited power so in ’76 when the Giants traded for Ken Rietz, Steve was the odd man out, only seeing scattered plate time and hitting .176 in 74 at bats. After the season he and Bobby Murcer went to the Cubs for Bill Madlock and Rob Sperring. In Chicago he re-claimed his regular position in his best season as he hit .299 with 68 RBI’s and a .390 OBA. In ’78 he suffered an early shoulder injury that nagged him until he had an operation in early August that finished his season. He came back the next year after hitting .243 to raise his average to .285 with better power but then lost the starting gig the next year to Lenny Randle. This time he acted on his demotion by signing a contract to play in Japan for Seibu as the first million dollar American. He got to Japan that June and stayed through ’85, hitting .312 with a .403 OBA during his stay. His best year was ’84 when he hit .338 with 20 homers and 101 RBI’s. Twice he led Seibu to the Japanese Series crown. The ’85 season was his final one as a player and he finished with an MLB average of .274 with a .365 OBA. He returned to The States and to San Diego where he then worked in advertising and as an operations manager for a delivery service. He returned to baseball first as a volunteer coach at his kids’ high school in the late Nineties and then in 2006 as the hitting coach for the independent San Diego Surf Dogs. He continues to reside in the area. This Steve is no relation to the pitcher a few years down the road with the same name.

James Tyrone and his brother Wayne helped take the University of Texas Pan American team to the CWS in ’71, James’ senior year. He was a fleet outfielder who grew up in Texas and was drafted and signed that year by the Cubs. He would hit well in the minors, beginning that year with an A ball summer of .303 with 14 homers, a .405 OBA, and 25 stolen bases in just 238 at bats. The next year he hit .282 with 16 homers in Double A before a couple late games in Chicago. He split ’73 between Double and Triple A, hitting .261. In ’74 a .366 average at the higher level got him elevated to Chicago for most of the season during which he was then seldom-used and hit .185 in 81 at bats. He would then spend almost all the next two seasons in Triple A, hitting .301 with 73 RBI’s in ’75 and .268 with 20 homers and 17 stolen bases in ’76. Early the next season he was traded to the A’s for infielder Gaylen Pitts and after hitting .347 in Triple A his first month-plus was moved up to Oakland where he had his only significant MLB season, hitting .245 with 32 runs in 294 at bats. The next year was all Triple A where he hit .261 with 61 RBI’s and 16 steals and gave pitching a shot. He did that as well the next year when he finished his stateside career in the short-lived Inter-American League. James hit .227 up top and in the minors hit .291 with a .375 OBA and 104 stolen bases. As a pitcher he was 0-1 with a 0.75 ERA in twelve innings. Halfway through the ’79 season he did exactly what card-mate Steve Ontiveros did and went to Japan to play for Seibu. After hitting .291 the balance of that season he hit .276 with 35 homers from the top of the order in ’80 before moving to Nankai the next two years where his power declined a bit and he finished his playing career with an overall .287 average with 74 homers. He then returned to Texas in the Arlington area where he eventually hooked up with Ray Burris and ran a baseball school for many years. In 2009 he was inducted into his college’s hall of fame.

Griffey’s first real name was George. I think he made the right choice opting for Ken. Tallying up the careers of these guys we get 26 years of MLB service, the TSNMLPOY award, and three All-Star seasons. We are still on a pretty good roll.

Now for the Hook-ups. First with the former card:

1. Dave Augustine and Gene Clines ’73 to ’74 Pirates;

2. Clines and Manny Trillo ‘’77 to ’78 Cubs.

Now around the card:

1. Dave Augustine and Dave Parker ’73 to ’74 Pirates;

2. Parker and Dave Concepcion – lots of Daves – ’84 to ’87 Reds;

3. Concepcion and Ken Griffey ’73 to ’81 Reds;

4. Griffey and Champ Summers ‘’77 to ’79 Reds;

5. Summers and Manny Trillo ’75 to ’76 Cubs;

6. Trillo and Steve Ontiveros ’77 to ’78 Cubs;

7. Ontiveros and Rodney Scott ’78 Cubs;

8. Scott and James Tyrone ’77 A’s.

#585 - Merv Rettenmund

In a nearly identical pose to the one on his ’73 card, Merv Rettenmund gives us that staring down the bat handle thing. Merv’s not smiling in this photo like he was in ’72 though, and he had reason not to in ’73. After a hot start for a couple weeks his offense faded pretty quickly and by mid-season he was losing starting time in right field to new guys Rich Coggins and Al Bumbry. It was a continuation of the flameout that was initiated partly with a shoulder injury he suffered in ’72 and led to the trade pictured here. Judging from the palm trees in the background I’d say the regular card photo is a spring training shot. The Traded card photo appears to be from Yankee Stadium. It would take a little while for things to get right again for Merv but before too long baseball would be a happy place for him again in very different part of the country.

Merv Reteenmund grew up in Flint, Michigan, where he is still legendary as a football and baseball star and where his dad played semi-pro ball. Merv preferred the latter sport and his dad pushed him to sign after high school but when Ball State of Indiana offered him a full ride to play both sports Merv opted to go in that direction. Merv had great wheels and while at Ball State he broke a single season rushing record and for his career averaged 7.6 yards a carry, still the school record. He got hurt in the third game of his senior year, though, and missed the rest of the season. In baseball there he hit .321 for his career and after his senior year he played in the Basin League, the Upper Midwest and Canadian summer college showcase. He was runner-up for the league mvp in ’64 and played with and against Del Unser, Jim McAndrew, Don Sutton, Ken Suarez, Dick Billings, and Clyde Wright, to name a few. It was in that league that he first began playing in the outfield; he was normally a catcher up to that point. In November of ’64 Merv signed with Baltimore, a day before the Cowboys drafted him in a late round. He kicked things off in ’65 with a .244 season with a bit of power and lots of speed in A ball; once the O’s saw his wheels he was strictly an outfielder. In ’66 he upped his average to .307 and nearly doubled his homer and RBI totals to 21 and 69 respectively at the same level. He had a big season in Double A in ’67, hitting .286 with a .411 OBA and 29 stolen bases. That helped get him on the Baltimore roster to open the ’68 season and though Merv hit well in his couple plate appearances the outfield was crowded and he went down to Triple A where his .331 average, .459 OBA, and 22 homers in under 400 at bats got him that year’s TSN Minor League Player of the Year. It also got him a one-way ticket to Baltimore.

1969 was a good year to be a part of the Orioles, at least if you weren’t a rookie outfielder trying to get a regular spot already manned by three All-Stars. While Rettenmund performed well enough as the fourth outfield guy it was a frustrating season for him and he nearly quit to teach full time – he got his BS in Education from Ball State in ’66 – before his Series check made him decide to hang out. In ’70 his plate appearances moved up after Paul Blair went out following a beaning in late May. Merv made the most of the opportunity by leading the Orioles in hitting, stealing 13 bases, and providing pretty good power in what amounted to just over half a season. He then hit .375 with three RBI’s in his three post-season games. He continued on the same track in ’71 when he again led the team in hitting, upped his OBA to .422, and stole 15 bases. Against Pittsburgh in the Series he hit a big homer to help win the first game though he cooled off after that. Partly as a result of Merv’s performance the O’s shipped Frank Robinson to the Dodgers after the season and Merv was given the starting job in right field. But things went south for Merv pretty quickly. Pressing himself to replace Robinson’s power he messed up his already unorthodox swing and had to work his way up to a .260 average by early July when he dinged his shoulder hard making a diving catch in a game against Detroit. He didn’t miss too much time but the injury arrested his average getting better and he later went down for real that year when he tore an ab muscle. The O’s missed the post-season for the first time since ’68 and a year later Merv moved to Cincinnati.

Things didn’t improve with Rettenmund’s move to new surroundings. He returned to an outfield reserve and was basically a stopgap as the Reds transitioned to developing guys George Foster and Ken Griffey. In his two seasons in Cincinnati Merv hit only .227 in under 400 at bats, though his OBA wasn’t bad and he stole ten bases against only one pick. He also won his second Series ring but he was pretty happy when right after the ’76 season began he was sent to San Diego for infielder Rudy Meoli. That year wasn’t exactly a salve for his general hitting woes as he basically matched his Reds average overall. But his OBA was .361 and he did very well as a pinch-hitter, putting up an even .300 average in that role. That was a telling stat and would be Merv’s prime position the duration of his playing career. In ’77 he upped his overall numbers to a .286 average and a .432 OBA and in the pinch was pretty fantastic with a .328 average and a .451 OBA with a record 16 walks in that role. In May he had two consecutive rare games in the field in which he had four RBI’s. He became a free agent after that season and moved up the coast to Anaheim. There in ’78 his pinch average wasn’t so hot at .153 but of his two hits in that role one was a grand slam and his OBA was still quite good at .352. Overall he hit .269 with a .433 OBA and mot of that time was spent as a DH. In ’79 he hit .263 overall and in the pinch hit .417 with a .533 OBA. After a couple games in 1980 he was released in June. Merv was done then with a .271 average, 66 homers, 329 RBI’s and a .381 OBA. He hit .183 with eight RBI’s in 29 post-season games.

Rettenmund made a lot of fans late in his career with his pinch hit work and before he was released as a player he was already coaching for California. He did that through ’81 and was then the team’s director of minor league hitting. From ’83 to ’85 he coached at Texas for buddy Doug Rader but was let go when Rader was canned. From there it was minor league (’86-’88) and then MLB (’89-’90) hitting coach for Oakland. Then it was back down the coast to San Diego (’91-’99 and 2006-’07) in between which he coached for Atlanta (2000-’01) and Detroit (’02-’05). Since ’07 he has been retired from the MLB level but has continued to coach some travel teams in the San Diego area.

Merv sure has a full formal name, doesn’t he? It nearly crowds out his signature. He has star bullets and a cartoon that has been alluded to above. He was not a participant in the ’71 All-Star game and I do not have access to see the other members of that TSN team. Merv did one of those Orioles trips to Japan early in his career and became a travel nut in off-seasons. His wife liked it so much she became a travel agent in the southern California area.They later had a granddaughter who was the place kicker for her high school football team.

Topps gives Merv a nice little write-up on the back of his Traded card. The Orioles also got Junior Kennedy in the deal and, no disrespect to Merv, got the better half of the trade. It did get him on the way to the left coast though, where it seems he had his most long-lasting success.

The hook-up takes us through St. Louis:

1. Rettenmund and Luis Melendez ’76 to ’77 Padres;

2. Melendez and Ken Rudolph ’75 to ’76 Cardinals.