#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.

#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.

#504 - Joe Niekro

Here we have an air-brushed card of Joe Niekro in a probably air-brushed place. Joe is in his Tigers uniform which indicates the photo is at least from as far back as ’72. The top of his cap looks like it’s dissipating into the ether which may be how Joe felt his career was going in ’73. He was 28 and had been in pro ball since ’66 but after a promising start to things mediocrity set in and after some not great seasons in Detroit he was shipped off to Triple A to begin the ’73 season where he went 7-10 with a 3.71 ERA in the rotation but by late July was placed on waivers. He was then taken by Atlanta who gave him a few innings for its miserable stretch run during which he got three saves but not terribly much else. He did, however, re-unite with brother Phil who pushed Joe to get back on the bus of a pitch their dad had taught them when they were kids. He honed his knuckleball while in Atlanta though the Braves would not be the beneficiaries of one of the more dramatic turnarounds career-wise in history. Those would go to another team and Joe, seemingly washed up at 28, would go on to pitch meaningful ball well into his Forties. So from this seemingly innocuous undated and edited photo very good, if not great, things were about to issue.

Joe and Phil Niekro grew up in Ohio where their dad went to work in the mines and where they played lots of baseball while kids. Their dad, who was a pretty good semi-pro player, taught them to throw the knuckleball when they were relatively young. Phil would ride it to pretty consistent success during his career but Joe eschewed it for a pretty good heater and a nice slider. He also played hoops and was all-district in both sports. Upon graduating in ’62 Joe went on to West Liberty State College where he continued to play both sports and was captain of each his senior year. In ’64 he led his school to the NAIA CWS championship and he was all-conference in both his junior and senior year. In January of his senior year he was taken by Cleveland in the draft but opted to return for his senior season. The Cubs then selected him in the third round of the June ’66 draft and he signed and spent the rest of the summer posting a 6-6 record and 2.08 ERA split between Rookie, Single A, and Double A ball. For a long time that was it for Joe in the minor leagues.

Niekro’s fine summer in ’66 took him to Chicago to start the ’67 season where he eventually worked his way into the rotation and had a quite good rookie year. At the plate he knocked in eleven runs in only 46 at bats. His follow-up season wasn’t crazy bad as he added four wins to his ’67 mark, but his ERA popped big in a year that just about everyone else’s went down hard and his control got a little dicey. It was widely viewed as a disappointing season even though he had the second-best mark of staff starters and early in ’69 he was traded to San Diego with pitcher Gary Ross for Dick Selma. Joe pulled his ERA back down to league average but it didn’t help him too much as his record tumbled and after that year he was sent to Detroit for infielder Dave Campbell and other hard luck pitcher Pat Dobson. Joe spent all of ’70 in the rotation where his record improved substantially but his other numbers didn’t. In ’71 he became a swing guy, more by necessity than design as his walks topped his strikeouts and his ERA topped out in a bad way. In ’72 he was used much less in the same role and also pitched a couple games at Triple A where he performed pretty brilliantly. Nevertheless, by ’73 Detroit was done and by the end of the next year he was back in the NL.

For Atlanta Niekro again did the back and forth between the big club and the minors, but now it was to refine his rediscovered pitch. The results in Triple A were impressive as he went 8-1 with a 2.08 ERA and seven saves as strictly a reliever. While they weren’t as impressive up top, they were still an improvement over his past couple seasons as he went 3-2 with a 3.56 ERA and much better control. Late in ’75 spring training Joe was purchased by the Astros for $35,000 and put back in the pen where he went 6-4 with a 3.07 ERA and four saves. In ’76 he moved back to a swing role where his ERA at 3.36 was pretty good, but his 4-8 record wasn’t so hot. Things changed markedly in ’77 when in mid-season Joe moved from his swing role to the rotation and finished 13-8 with a 3.04 ERA. After a .500 season in ’78 he took off in ’79 when he went 21-11 with a 3.00 ERA and an NL-leading five shutouts to help lead Houston to its first meaningful pennant run. He got his only All-Star nod that year and finished second to Bruce Sutter in Cy Young voting. In ’80 Joe went 20-12, won the division clincher against LA, and then pitched ten innings of shutout ball against the Phillies, though Houston lost that series. In the ’81 strike year he recorded his lowest ERA of 2.82 and then did it again in the playoffs with eight shutout innings against LA. He came back to win 17, 15, and 16 games the next three seasons, twice leading the league in starts – and twice in wild pitches – and during that time posted ERA’s significantly better than league average. In ’85 he slid to his first losing record in a bunch of years and that September was traded to the Yankees for Jim Deshaies and a couple minor leaguers. By the time he left Houston Joe had won 144 games, pretty good for $35K.

Niekro’s ERA popped a bunch back in the AL, in part due to a bad shoulder. After going a combined 14-15 with a 4.58 ERA in a spot role for NY through mid-’87 he was traded to Minnesota for Mark Salas. It was an opportune move for Joe and while he didn’t pitch particularly well down the stretch – he went 4-9 with a 6.26 ERA – he did get into his first Series where he – guess what – pitched shutout ball. He got a ring but when he returned in ’88 his shoulder was toast and after a couple games into that season he was done. Joe finished with a record of 221-204 with a 3.59 ERA, 107 complete games, 29 shutouts, and 16 saves. He recorded 72 RBI’s during his career and in the post-season was about as perfect as you can get with 20 shutout innings, but with no decisions.

Before ’88 was over Niekro took on a pitching coach role in the Minnesota system. He remained there through ’91 when he moved to the Colorado one, where he stayed through ’93. In ’94 he joined up with brother Phil to coach the Silver Bullets, a women’s professional baseball team sponsored by Coors. That lasted through ’97 after which the team folded. He also continued to coach, mostly one-off deals in which he was brought in to help work on other knuckleball pitchers. He also took time to help develop son Lance who played ball the last decade including a few years up top with the Giants. In 2007 Joe was out shopping for a tuxedo for his daughter’s wedding when he felt a searing pain in his head. It turned out to be a brain aneurysm and two days later it would be a fatal occurrence. Joe was 61 when he passed away. Since then his daughter Natalie has run a site that enlists help to combat what killed her dad. It is linked to here and for those with a longer attention span there is an interview with her here.

I like that first star bullet but I do think the Perfect designation makes the No-Hit (all oddly capitalized) designation unnecessary. Joe hit only one homer during his career and it was off Phil. Plus when he got his 21 wins in ’79 he co-led the league; Phil was the other leader.

These guys both played a bit with NY, but let’s go elsewhere:

1. Niekro and Bill Hands ’67 to ’69 Cubs;

2. Hands and Eric Soderholm ’73 to ’74 Twins.

#341 - Dan Driessen

This is our first true rookie card in a long while. It also represents the first Topps 1973 Rookie All-Star Team honoree in over 100 cards. I love this card. You have the subject, Dan Driessen, in a posed shot way out of position. You have a billboard ad for Sunbeam in the background. You have Don Gullett looking huge on the mound in the background. And you have a beautiful sunny spring training day that looks like it was a great one in which to do even the tedious workout stuff. Dan had a fun year in '73 and filled a big hole for the Reds when he came up. Denis Menke, who'd been the starter at third completely stopped hitting and Cincy was in a jam. But they had this guy and his .409 average at Indianapolis and when they pulled him up and slotted him in the line-up he didn't disappoint. Dan went on to hit .301 and provide good enough D at third to make the Reds stop worrying. He also put in a bunch of games at first - and in fact played many games at both - which enabled the Baseball Digest guys to throw him on their rookie team at that position (they picked Ron Cey for third). Dan came in third in NL ROY voting in a strong year for rookie third basemen (besides Cey, Ken Reitz was a rookie, as was Bill Madlock, Mike Schmidt, and Jerry Terrell) so copping the Topps spot was a pretty big deal.

Dan Driessen came out of what was back then a pretty rural Hilton Head, South Carolina, before the place turned into a resort vacation destination. His high school did not have a baseball team, so Dan - who was a catcher - and his older brother Bill both played for a rec league team many towns away. Since Dan had no real organized footing he flew under the radar and his rec coach wrote letters to every big league team advocating for both Bill and Dan. They both got tryouts with the Braves and Dan was the last guy cut. Then he had a Florida tryout for the Reds and made the cut. That year - 1970 - he got off to a rocky start in A ball by hitting only .223. But he played excellent D at his new position, first base, and was able to return the next year to add over 100 points to his average at the same level. In '72 he moved up to Double A and put in some time at third so the Reds must have known what was coming. Then to kick off '73 it was third base all the way at Triple A where he hit .409 and had a nearly .500 OBA before he was called up that June.

After his impressive debut, Driessen pretty much took over third the next year, hitting pretty well with a .281 average but having a bit of trouble defensively. In the meantime fellow '73 rookie Ken Griffey was stepping things up huge and George Foster was finally coming around so with Pete Rose and Cesar Geronimo Cincy had four starting outfielders. Beginning in '75 Dan would be the odd man out as Rose was moved to third and he backed up first base and the outfield. He hit .281 again in '75 but slid to .247 the next year, but both years put up nice OBA and power numbers. He got almost zero playoff time each year but in '76 they incorporated the DH in the Series for the first time and Dan was the Reds' guy, hitting .357. The next year Cincy let Tony Perez leave as a free agent and Dan took over first. He had a nice '77, continuing Doggie's run of 90-plus ribbie seasons by posting 91 himself while hitting .300. He also stole 31 bases that year. He then settled into a long run as the regular guy at first, excelling defensively and being a middling hitter for the position. In '80 he led the NL in walks and he continued as the number one guy midway through the '84 season when he was traded to the Expos for Andy McGaffigan and a minor leaguer. He then became a journeyman, moving to San Francisco and Houston before settling in St. Louis in '87. He actually spent most of that season - as he had in '86 - in Triple A and was called up after Jack Clark got hurt. He had a couple key hits in the post-season that year but it was his last hurrah as he was released that November. Dan finished with a .267 average with 153 homers and 763 RBI's. He also stole 154 bases and had a .356 OBA. In the post-season he hit .212 with a homer and four RBI's in 23 games. Defensively he is 19th all-time with a .995 fielding average at first base.

Driessen had spent some winters playing ball in Mexico and even won a batting title there in the mid-Seventies. In '88 he played there during the regular season and then in '89 returned to the States to play in the Senior League which he did for both its seasons. He would eventually return to Hilton Head year-round where he started his own excavating and truck business and spent a bunch of years as the assistant baseball coach at the high school. This year he will be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame.

Dan has one of the more qualitative card backs I have seen in this set. Topps needs to let us know in the first star bullet that he was "completely" overlooked in the draft. And the second part of the last star bullet is great. I guess that .327 average in '71 was done with a cricket paddle. The "Cobra" nickname came from Dan's habit of sort of unwinding into his swing.

Let's get the hookup with the '76 Series opponent now. The middle guy was already mentioned above:

1. Driessen and Don Gullett '73 to '76 Reds;

2. Gullett and Thurman Munson '77 to '78 Yankees.

#326 - Sparky Anderson/Reds Field Leaders

Look at all of Sparky's white hair. And those wrinkles on his neck. This is an old baseball guy in what I am labelling as - yes - an action shot. Sparky is 39 years old in this photo at Riverfront. Look at how baseball can age a guy.

There were some question marks for Sparky going into the '73 season. It was only his fourth season but he'd already been to the Series twice. But his best power guy, Johnny Bench, was coming off lung surgery. His fastest guy, Bobby Tolan, though he had a huge comeback in '72 was still a question mark after missing all of '71 with a leg injury. Pitching was spotty and there may or may not have been a big hole at third base. By mid-season he had most of his answers: Bench was fine; Tolan's speed was gone; Denis Menke was pretty much toast but new kid Dan Driessen was able to take his spot and hit the hell out of the ball; and after Jack Billingham and Don Gullett, starting pitching was middling. So they weren't all good answers and by the end of June an under-.500 month had the Reds in fourth place. But they acquired a little guy who'd pitched them tough earlier in the season and Fred Norman went on an 8-0 run as they put together a killer July and August and finally nudged the Dodgers out of first in September. Then it was all Reds and all they had to do to get back in the Series was beat a team that could barely play .500 ball. Oops.

Sparky Anderson was a hustler of a second baseman who was signed by the Dodgers out of high school in South Dakota in '53. He started things off that spring in C ball and hit OK but had a rough time in the field. He spent the next five seasons working up the Brooklyn/LA chain, producing very good defense and some nice averages - .296 in '54 and .298 in '56 - with not much power, although he did hit 35 doubles in '58. That was his third year of Triple A and after it he was traded to the Phillies for three guys. Philly immediately pulled him up and he was their second baseman for all of '59, hitting .218 with 34 RBI's. That was it for Sparky up top and the next four seasons he spent at Triple A Toronto for various franchises. For his minor league career he hit .263.

In '64 Anderson returned to Toronto but this time as a manager. After a winning season there, he moved to the St. Louis system for three years and to the Cincy system for one, establishing a record of 395-295 over that time. In '69 he became a coach with the new Padres and in '70 was signed away as the Reds manager. Sparky had immediate success in Cincy, going to the Series with the Machine. Sparky was famous for his bifurcated system of letting his players play but having a quick hook for his starting pitchers. After his '71 hiccup, he led the Reds to four more Division titles, three NL Championships, and two straight Series titles, all by '78, after which he was canned. Sparky was quickly named manager of Detroit and while the success there wasn't as immediate, it came soon enough as the Tigers rode a fast '84 start into the Series. Another Division title came in '87 and while in Detroit he won two Manager of the Year awards, ironically after none in Cincinnati. Sparky stuck with Detroit through '95 when at 61 he stepped down, leaving behind a lifetime 2,194-1,834 record. Following his managing he did some broadcasting for the Angels through '99 and was inducted into the Hall in 2000. Over the next ten years his health slowly deteriorated until, suffering from dementia, he passed away in 2010 at 76.


Alex Grammas was born and raised in Alabama and after high school and his military hitch was a star in Mississippi State baseball from '47 to '49. That last year he was signed by the White Sox. His next four seasons he spent in the minors playing the left side of the infield and, like his manager, was an OK but generally light hitter (though he did hit .327 in A ball his first season). In '53, after being traded to the Cards, Reds, and back to the Cards, he put up a .307 average with 62 RBI's while playing exclusively shortstop at Triple A Kansas City. The next year he hit the majors, playing the same position as Red Schoendienst's DP partner. His 401 at bats were a career high and after another season as the primary guy he would move to Cincinnati where he backed up Roy MacMillan a few seasons. Following his minor league path he returned to St. Louis in '59 where he was the regular guy for a season before settling into his backup role the rest of his career. He finished that out with two seasons for the Cubs ending in '63 with a lifetime .247 average. Like Sparky, Alex moved right into managing, running a Double A Cubbies club in '64. He then coached for the Pirates from '65 to '69 when he also managed the last five games of the MLB season, going 4-1. But The Pirates were able to wrangle a return out of Danny Murtaugh so Alex moved to Cincy where he coached third from '70 to '75. He then got the managing gig for Milwaukee but after two terrible seasons in '76 and '77 he was done as a manager, finishing with a record of 221-264. He returned to coaching for Cincy ('78), Atlanta ('79), and Detroit ('80-'91) and then retired.

Ted Kluszewski had by far the biggest playing career of any of these guys. A big boy from Illinois, he went to the University of Indiana on a football scholarship where he also played baseball, leading the football team to an undefeated Big Ten championship and hitting .443 as a center fielder his senior year of '45-'46. He was signed later that year by the Reds and in A ball later that summer hit .352 with 87 RBI's in 90 games. After a .377 follow-up in Double A in '47 he made the Reds lineup for good the following year, taking over first base and hitting .274. He upped that to .309 in '49 and .307 with 25 homers and 116 RBI's in '50. By then he had taken to cutting off his jersey sleeves to free up and show off his huge pipes. After a setback in '51 he went on a huge run, averaging 38 homers, 108 RBI's, and .315 over the next six seasons. He was an All-Star every year from '53 to '56. He then ran into a wall that was his bad back and was not able to put up a full season as he moved to Pittsburgh, the White Sox, and the Angels. His last hurrah was in the '59 Series for Chicago when he hit .391 with three homers and ten RBI's in six games against LA. Klu finished up with California in '61 with a .298 average, 279 homers, and 1,028 RBI's. After some time away from baseball he returned to Cincinnati and was the club's hitting coach from '70 to '78, Sparky's duration as manager. From '79 to '86, when he suffered a heart attack, he was a minor league hitting instructor for the Reds. He retired after his '86 episode and passed away two years later from a heart ailment. He was 63.

George Scherger was signed by the Dodgers out of his high school in North Dakota in '40. A second baseman, he put in three seasons at the D level before he then put in three years in WW II. When he returned in '46 he went to B league ball but that was the highest level he reached as a player and the next season he began managing as well. George would play through '56 and finish with a .270 average in the minors. He also managed through that year and from '57 to '60 coached in the Brooklyn/LA system. He returned to managing from '61 to '65 and then moved to the Cincinnati system, coaching in '66 and managing the next three years. He was named first base coach by Sparky in '70 and stayed with him his full time in Cincy. In '79 he returned to the minors to manage, which he did through '82. From that year through '87 he returned to coach up top. After one last season as manager in the minors in '88 he retired to Florida. His lifetime record as manager was 1,312-1,253. George passed away in 2011 at age 90.

Larry Shepard was a pitcher out of Ohio who went to McGill University in Canada. Signed by the Dodgers upon graduating in '42 he won 15 that year in C ball. He then missed the next three-plus seasons for WW II, returning in '46 to win 12 in B ball and the following year 15 in A ball. Despite his upward mobility and apparent success he was 28 that year and prospects were slim for hitting the majors before he was 30 so the next year he started managing as he continued pitching. He went 22-3 in D ball in '48 and the next three years averaged 22 wins as a pitcher at Class C Billings. From then on he focused on relief and managing and in '52 he moved to the Pirates system. He pitched through '56 and finished with a record of 179-84 with a 3.31 ERA. By '58 he was up in Triple A where he continued to manage through '66. In '67 he moved to Pittsburgh to coach and in '68 was named the Pirates' manager. He kept that gig through a pretty good '69 but was fired with five games left that season (and ironically replaced by Alex Grammas). Like all the other guys he joined Sparky in Cincinnati from '70 to '78 as Reds pitching coach and then for a season did the same thing in San Francisco, retiring after the '79 season was over. He finished with a managing record of 168-156 in the majors and 1,232-1,100 in the minors. Larry moved back to Nebraska where he did some consulting coaching to the Lincoln team he had managed in the late Fifties. He passed away there in 2011 at age 92.

This is the first time we get a double hook-up in a while. First for Sparky as a manager:

1. Anderson managed Tony Perez from '70 to '76;
2. Perez and Tommy Harper '64 to '67 Reds.

And as a player:

1. Anderson and Don Cardwell '59 Phillies;
2. Cardwell and Art Shamsky '68 to '69 Mets;
3. Shamsky and Tommy Harper '65 to '67 Reds.

#282 - Doyle Alexander

I need to get going this month after a pretty poor showing in November (only 11 posts). It was a crazy busy month so I am going to try to step it up now. We lead off December with this guy who I will always remember from his partial season with the Yankees in '76. It seemed that year in just about every other start he would take a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He had a pretty good run that year for NY, helping the Yankees get to their first post-season appearance in 12 years. It was a habit he would continue later in his career.

Doyle Alexander was born and raised in Alabama and was drafted and signed by the Dodgers out of high school in '68. He had a rough start that season in the low minors but turned it around up a level in A ball in '69. The next two seasons he would put up quite good numbers in the rotation for Double A Albuquerque and Triple A Spokane, undoubtedly helped by the monstrous lineups those teams featured. He came up top in mid-'71 into the rotation and pitched pretty well. After the season he was involved in his first big trade, joining a bunch of minor leaguers in a swap to Baltimore for Frank Robinson and Pete Richert.

For the Orioles Alexander would move between the rotation and long relief the next few years. Although his ERA was pretty high by AL standards, he posted his best season for the O's in '73 when he got his most starts for them. In '74 and '75 he pitched mostly out of the pen and after a 3-4 start to the '76 season he was part of another big trade, going to the Yankees with Elrod Hendricks, Grant Jackson, and Ken Holtzman for Rudy May, Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, and Dave Pagan. For NY Doyle went 10-5 strictly as a starter the rest of the way. He would get shutout from pitching in the playoffs and lose his only start against the Reds. Following the season he would be signed as a free agent by the Rangers.

For Texas, Alexander recorded his best season to date, going 17-11 with a 3.65 ERA to lead a surprising team in wins. Texas' fortunes faded the next season as did Doyle's and his record fell to 9-10 and then 5-7 in a '79 during which he was injured. Doyle was sort up serially unhappy with his contracts and he then began a pretty itinerant part of his career going to Atlanta in '80 (14 wins) and San Francisco in '81 (11 wins with a 2.89 ERA in the strike season) before returning to NY in '82. The return trip didn't work out too well as injury and ineffectiveness led to a 1-9 record and a release early in the '83 season. But that June Toronto grabbed him as a free agent and after a couple games in the minors they brought him up. He then went 7-6 in a little under half a season, as the start to the best run of his career. In '84 and '85 Doyle won 17 each season as the Blue Jays moved into contender mode. In the middle of the '86 season he was sent to the Braves for Duane Ward. Similar to his Yankee experience the return wasn't so hot and after going 11-16 in a little over a season Doyle was sent to the Tigers in August of '87 for a minor league pitcher. He energized Detroit for its stretch drive, going 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA in eleven starts and twice beating his former teammates in Toronto to put Detroit into the post-season. It was an amazing run that ended in the playoffs when he went 0-1 with an 8.71 ERA in two starts against the Royals. And to top it off, the minor leaguer for whom he was traded turned out to be John Smoltz.

In '88 Alexander went 14-11 for a Detroit team that crashed and burned, making his first All-Star team after an 8-4 start to the season. After going 6-18 in '89 he retired, leaving behind a record of 194-174 with a 3.63 ERA, 98 complete games, 18 shutouts, and three saves. His post-season numbers weren't so hot: 0-5 with an 8.83 ERA in six games. But when you add in his clutch numbers for Detroit, Toronto, and the Yankee pennant drives, his numbers at crunch time get pretty good. After he played Doyle's activities are a bit of a mystery and all a day of looking has got me is that he apparently still resides in Arlington where he may or may not be involved in insurance.

That second star bullet is pretty ironic due to the first big trade. Doyle was a groundball specialist and pretty much all his pitches were sinkers, including a curve and a changeup. I checked baseball-reference to see how accurate my memory was of Doyle's '76 season in NY. Three times with the Yankees he went deep into the game not yielding any hits: on June 24th against Cleveland he went seven; on July 23rd against Boston he went eight; and on August 2nd against Detroit he went six and two-thirds.

On December 1 of '73 the Carpenters took over number one in the States with "On Top of the World," an appropriate title. They were always on TV back then, and it used to crack me up that she was the drummer in the group. It wasn't until much later that the tragedy of her anorexia came to light.

So they share colors but let's see how quickly Doyle gets with the Giants:

1. Alexander and Vida Blue '81 Giants;
2. Blue and Willie McCovey '78 to '80 Giants;
3. McCovey was on the '73 Giants.

#187 - Don Baylor

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baylor takes a couple guys to get to Scherman:

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

#140 - Darrell Evans

Now here's a fat smile! And that can't possibly be a comfortable pose either. Darrell Evans should be smiling, though. He's about to have his huge '73 season if this is a spring training shot, which I believe it is. And '73 WAS huge for our boy here. He joined Hank Aaron and Davey Johnson as the first trio from the same team to hit 40 or more homers. He was also part of the record-setting infield in the same category (they had 108). He led the league with 124 walks and posted an over .400 OBA, earning his first All-Star slot. Darrell would show a pretty good eye throughout his career even though he was pretty blind - uncorrected he was about 20/80 - and needed contacts just to get out the front door. Here, while doing his best to stay in the frame, he gets to wear sky blue cleats and nobody can say anything because it matches his uniform. And he gets a "10" card.

Darrell Evans was a Cali kid. Born and raised in Pasadena he went to the Pasadena City College where he was a baseball and basketball star. His final season there he was the captain of the state champs in both sports. After being drafted by - and turning down - the Cubs, Yankees, Tigers, and Phillies, Darrell was drafted and signed by the A's in June of '67. He'd shot down all the other guys because the big plan was to play ball at USC. But he instead opted for KC/Oakland and its bonus and that year got off to a pretty good start, hitting over .320, mostly at the Single A level. He then got called into the marines for a six-month hitch. He was about 180 pounds when he went in and 240 when he came out. He started off '68 in Double A but hurt his arm. The Oakland guys got nervous about his physical issues and that winter left Darrell unprotected and he got plucked by the Braves in the Rule 5 draft. He got lucky because over the next two years while moving from Double to Triple A in the Atlanta system he ran into Eddie Matthews who taught him both how to field at third base and how to pull the ball. In '69 he hit .360 with some nice power at the higher level and in '70 he hit .300 with 20 homers and 83 RBIs and did much better in his late season call-up than he did the prior year. A fast start in '71 - .327 with 30 RBI's in just 101 at bats - got him up earlier in the season to be part of the revolving door at third. His timing was pretty good because incumbent Clete Boyer's offense declined every year since his big '67 and the succession of guys brought in to shore things up were either too old (Bob Aspromonte, Zoilo Versalles) or better positioned elsewhere (Earl Williams). So by the end of the season Darrell was the everyday guy.

In '72 Evans posted the best Brave numbers at third since Clete Boyer's '67 and in '73 he upped his performance and his profile considerably  In '74 he again led the league in walks while hitting 25 out and in '75 he topped 100 BB's with 22 homers, both times posting an average around .240.. In '76 Jerry Royster took over third base and Darrell moved to first. He started off horribly that year and in June went to San Francsisco with Marty Perez for Willie Montanez and Craig Robinson.

Evans took Montanez's place at first for San Francisco the rest of the '76 season. While his first day as a Giant he won both games of a double header with home runs, his offensive swoon really didn't abate all year and it would be by far the worst season of his career. In '77 he put some time in the outfield also, but for most of his time as a Giant Darrell played third. From '77 to '82 he averaged about 18 homers and 71 RBIs a full season. Late in '82 he was sitting on the bench at 35 contemplating the end of his career and when he got home that night he and his wife saw a UFO. To that sighting he attributed a career resurgence. It must have worked because in '83 he hit 30 homers and had 83 RBIs while hitting .277, about 25 points higher than his average while a Giant He also got his second All-Star nod that year. After that season he became a free agent.

In '84 Evans signed with Detroit and that year spent most of his time as a DH. While his numbers declined to just under his SF norm, he did get to the post-season and he would hit .300 against KC in the playoffs (although considerably worse in the Series). He was a happy winner and the next season he moved to first base and hit 40 homers with 94 RBI's. He became at the time the oldest player to ever lead a league in home runs at 38. The following two seasons he would average over 30 homers and 90 RBIs. In '87 he got 100 walks, becoming one of a few players to reach that total for three different teams. He played another season for the Tigers before wrapping things up in '89 back in Atlanta. He finished with a .248 average, 414 homers, and 1,354 RBIs. He posted a .361 OBA with over 1,600 walks (he is 12th all-time). He, like Reggie, hit 100 homers for three different teams. While he hit only .214 in the post-season, he got on base at a .365 clip in his 13 games.

After playing Evans did some coaching, including a stint with the Yankees in '90. From the late '90s through 2010 he managed teams off and on in the Golden Baseball League, an independent league in California. His record in that capacity is 421-498.

Bradenton was the A's Rookie League team, which is why the season was so short. Darrell became quite a good fielder, both at third and first.

We get to employ a couple Royals here which is nice because so far there have been so few of them:

1. Evans and Bruce Dal Canton '75 to '76 Braves;
2. Dal Canton and Bob Oliver '71 to '75 Royals;
3. Oliver and Aurelio Monteagudo '70 Royals.

#136 - Rick Reuschel

Another action shot, this one at Wrigley, of a young Rick Reuschel. It's funny, but I don't ever picture this guy as young but he'd be only about 24 in this photo. Rick would have more career resurgences than anyone outside of Tommy John. He was definitely a tribute to determination. That quality was already being tested in '73, only his second season. After a fine rookie year, Rick came out of the box strong in '73 and was 9-4 with a 1.92 ERA through the end of June when the Cubs were on top of the division by seven games. But then came the annual Chicago collapse and Rick went 5-11 the rest of the way. Overall, it was still a decent season and Rick would be a mound mainstay in Chicago - and then elsewhere - for a while.

Like a couple subjects of recent posts, Rick Reuschel was a local kid who grew up in Illinois and attended Western Illinois University out of which he was drafted and signed by the Cubs in '70. He pitched excellently in the minors the next three seasons, starting all the way, and dropping about an earned run as he moved from Single to Triple A. In '72 he got called up to Chicago and had an outstanding rookie season. He was named to Baseball Digest's rookie team (Topps had Dick Tidrow in that position). Beginning in '73 and then moreso thereafter with the departure of Fergie Jenkins, Rick would be Chicago's most consistent winner the next seven seasons. He was a sinker ball and speed change specialist and he would regularly be among the league leaders in fewest homers allowed per nine innings. In '74 the ERA spiked a bit but he still won 13 and in '75, an otherwise tough year (he led the NL with 17 losses), he threw a shutout with his brother Paul, the only brother act to pull that off. '76 would be a big improvement and then in '77 as the Cubbies made a pennant run, Rick had his best season, going 20-10 with a 2.79 ERA. He won 14 in '78, 18 in '79 and 11 in '80, all for not-great teams and all while posting ERA's that had a significant premium to league average. Then in '81 almost right after expressing his desire to be a life-long Cub he was traded to the Yankees for Doug Bird and Mike Griffin. For NY Rick performed well down the stretch, going 4-4 but with a 2.67 ERA. That year he would see his first post-season action.

In '82 Reuschel was diagnosed with "the shoulder of a 70 year old" and while his rotator cuff wasn't torn, it did require an operation. That wrecked his '82 season and in '83 after a not great start for rehab in Triple A for NY he was released. He called some contacts in Chicago and was shortly pitching for the Cubs' Single A team in Quad Cities. While it must have been a bummer being 34 with over 100 major league wins in his pocket, Rick kept a positive attitude and went 3-4 with a 2.42 ERA in 13 starts. That September he was called up and went 1-1 for the Cubs in four starts. In '84 he spent a bunch of time on the DL - shoulder again - and went 5-5 as a starter and sometime reliever. But his ERA bloated to above 5.00 and he was left off the post-season roster. The Cubs then did not sign him for the next season.

In '85 there were no takers for Reuschel's services. His agents went into full offensive and cadged him a tryout with the Pirates. Chuck Tanner and GM Pete Peterson thought he was worth a shot and sent him to Hawaii, their Triple A team. There he went 6-2 with a 2.50 ERA and was free of pain. He was called up to a terrible Pirates team and proceeded to go 14-8 with a 2.27 ERA and won Comeback Player of the Year. In '86 the Pirates were equally bad and Rick's record suffered. In '87 as the Pirates improved substantially due to a couple newcomers named Bonds and Bonilla, Rick was 8-6 with a 2.75 ERA when he was traded to the Giants for their stretch drive. He went 5-3 for SF but then had a pretty poor playoff, going 0-1 in two starts. In '88 he won 19 and led the league in starts at age 39. In '89 the Giants were playoff-bound again and Rick won 17 before again having a poor post-season. He stuck around SF for another year-plus and then hung them up. Overall he went 214-191 with a 3.37 ERA, 102 complete games, 26 shutouts, five saves, and over 2,000 strikeouts. He was named to three All-Star teams, starting the '89 game. He was a very good all-around player, posting 79 RBI's, winning two Gold Gloves, and even getting some pinch running shots despite his size. In the post-season he was 1-4 with a 5.85 ERA in eight games. A farm boy, Rick turned to managing the family farm with his brother after playing.

I have never seen Ricky as a given name before.  His sophomore year at school in '69 he went 10-0 with a 1.29 ERA but I assume his junior year was a bit of a discount to that or I imagine he'd have gone higher than the third round. Between the cartoon and the star bullets, Rick's big league beginnings get a lot of coverage. He started his career going 3-0 and besides his sinker toted a pretty good fastball. He could also throw his slider and slurve at multiple speeds, keeping hitters off-balance. His nickname was "Big Daddy" and despite the 215 pounds listed here, is thought to have been closer to 240 for much of his career.

These guys missed being teammates by a couple seasons:

1. Reuschel and Reggie Jackson '81 Yankees;
2. Jackson and Roy White '77 to '79 Yankees.

#129 - Chris Speier

Now this is an interesting photo, not only because it is an action shot at Candlestick. It is interesting also because a little due diligence needs to be done to figure out who that is playing third in the background. It's not Jose Pagan because all he did that year was pinch hit at Candlestick. It's Cesar Tovar who sort of filled the transitional gap for the Phillies between Don Money and Mike Schmidt. But let's turn to the subject of the card. Chris Speier was everyone's favorite young NL shortstop in '73. Tito Fuentes loved him. Sparky Anderson loved him. All-Star voters loved him. Topps loved him. He was a man with a serious shot at the HOF if all the early print on him was to be believed.

Chris Speier was drafted out of the University of California by the Giants in 1970. He'd been drafted by the Senators out of high school in '68 but wanted to stay closer to home and passed. He went to Double A Amarillo for the '70 season and had a good enough year that he was pegged for Triple A when '71 spring training started. But after a great spring in '71 he not only made the Giants, but was named the starting shortstop, beating out incumbent Hal Lanier. Chris proved to be a whiz at playing the artificial turf and had great range which was a huge help for Tito Fuentes at second. He made the Topps rookie team that year and played well in the playoffs. In '72 he pushed his offensive numbers up to the best of his career and was named to his first All-Star team. In '73 he kept his run production up but in August hurt his shoulder and his average tumbled a bit. But he was named the All-Star starter. '74 was his third and final All-Star selection though his offensive output continued to be hindered by his recovering shoulder. He had a good bounce in '75 with a .271/10/69 season topped with a career-best OBA of .362. But in '76 he got hurt again, his average nosedived, and he gave away some starts to Johnnie LeMaster. Shortly into the '77 season he was sent to Montreal for fellow shortstop Tim Foli.

For the Expos Speier would pick up as regular shortstop. His average never really recovered to his first season level and in general his offense would be compacted a bit from his best days on the left coast. His best two seasons up north were his busiest ones: '78, when he posted a .251/5/51 line; and '82, with a line of .257/7/60. But the rest of his time in Montreal was negatively impacted by two knee injuries, in '79 and '83, though he was an integral part of the Expos' first division winner in '81. Those last two injuries also affected his once-infinite range and in '84 Chris moved to a back-up role and also moved geographically, going to St. Louis and then Minnesota. Following that season he went to the Cubs as a free agent. He would generally reprise his back-up role for Chicago and saw some offensive revivals, like when he hit .284 in '86. He then took the free agent route again, landing back in San Francisco for his final three seasons. After 19 years in the bigs he finished with a .246 average, 112 homers, and 720 RBIs. In the post-season he hit .280 with a .368 OBA in 17 games. He is also one of a handful of guys who hit for the cycle twice, once with Montreal and once during his second Giant stint. Defensively he places quite high in lifetime rankings for shortstops for games (25th); putouts (42nd); assists (32nd); and double plays (31st).

Speier was always an inspired guy per the cartoon and was an intense player. After he finished playing he moved into coaching, first as a roving hitting instructor for the Giants ('90 to '94) and then the Cubs ('95). From '96 to '99 he managed in the Arizona chain, going 256-240. He then coached in the majors for the Brewers (2000), Arizona ('01), the Cubs ('05 to '06) and the Reds ('07 on). The last two gigs he has worked with his friend Dusty Baker.

I like using HOF guys for this exercise:

1. Speier and Gaylord Perry '71 Giants;
2. Perry and John Ellis '73 to '75 Indians.

#98 - Bert Blyleven

It's nice how these work out sometimes. The last post with a HOF guy had a lefty pitcher on the left side. This one has a brand new Hall of Fame pitcher on the right side who was a right-handed pitcher. Here Bert Blyleven is showing a pretty intense gaze in Oakland. '73 was a pretty intense season for Bert. Despite pitching pretty well, by mid-May he was 2-6 with a 4.08 ERA and he felt his rhythm was off. It was decided that he had developed a hitch when releasing the ball which was affecting the break on his famous curveball. As a cure, a handkerchief was placed on the mound in front of the rubber and each time he completed his motion he would follow through and pick up the hanky. The exercise must have worked because he went 5-1 immediately after its employ and then went 13-10 the rest of the way. It would be his only 20-victory season. I gotta admit it's a little surprising that for all the good numbers Bert put up in '73 he doesn't get an honor card, not even a "5."

Bert Blyleven was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Canada and California. Drafted by the Twins in '69 he flew through the minors and when Luis Tiant got hurt in 1970 Bert was called up to replace him in the rotation. He threw a shutout in each of his first two starts and went 10-9 with a 3.18 ERA. He then assumed duties as ace of the Twins' staff, a position he held through early '76. At the time of this card Bert was mid-way through a streak of six years in which he would record 200 or more strikeouts a season. Continuing to put up very good pitching numbers, he continued his - barely - winning ways with the Twins through '75. In '76 frustration with the Twins' mediocre records caught up to him and he complained to management. The response was a trade to Texas during the season with Danny Thompson for Roy Smalley, Mike Cubbage, and Bill Singer. Bert kept on putting up nice numbers for his new team over the next season-and-a-half, recording around a 2.75 ERA to match a .500 record. Prior to the '78 season he went to Pittsburgh in a huge four-team trade that moved Al Oliver, Willie Montanez, and John Milner, among others.

Blyleven's move to the NL was nearly perfectly-timed as he joined an emotional, rising club. For the Pirates he threw well though his ERA would move up a notch to the top side of 3.00, though it was still well better than league average. After winning 14 in '78 he went 12-5 in a '79 in which he satisfied his post-season jones, pitching superbly, and winning a game in both the playoffs and the Series. In '80 he had a losing record, was unhappy again and was traded to Cleveland prior to the '81 season. For the Indians he pitched very well in the '81 strike year, going 11-7 with a 2.88 ERA. But he then got hurt in '82 and in '83 and went a combined 9-12 with a high ERA. In '84 he came back strong with a 19-7 record, 2.87 ERA, and his highest Cy standing, third place. But in '85 Cleveland was going nowhere and when Bert asked to be traded mid-season he was sent back to the Twins in a deal that brought the Indians Jay Bell, among others. He finished strongly that season, won 17 in '86, and as the young Twins were establishing themselves rode his 15 wins with them to be a Series championhip again in '87. That year he won two against Detroit and went 1-1 with a 2.77 ERA against St. Louis. A poor '88 followed - he led MLB with 17 losses - and for '89 he went to California. There he had his last hurrah, going 17-5 with a 2.73 ERA and five shutouts, winning Comeback Player of the Year. He had a subpar '90 for the Angels, got hurt in '91 and wrapped things up in '92. He went 287-250 with a 3.31 ERA, 242 complete games, 60 shutouts, and 3,701 strikeouts. He was a two-time All-Star as well and his post-season stats were quite good: 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA. He was elected to the Hall this year.

Since '96 Bert has been an announcer, establishing himself as a fun-loving opinionated color guy. While researching this post I found it pretty amusing how often he was described as "shy" when he was younger. It sure ain't the case now.

The Dutch certainly comes through in Bert's formal name. In '70 TSN gave him quite an honor. Both Topps and TSN named rookie teams and awards. Topps didn't even have Bert on its '70 team. They had Carl Morton and Les Cain. I think TSN gets the nod in this case.

Let's connect the two B boys like this:

1. Blyleven and Willie Stargell (coming up soon) '78 to '80 Pirates;
2. Stargell and Bob Bailey '62 to '66 Pirates.