#656 - Adrian Garrett

Technically, this is the third rookie card for Adrian Garrett, big brother to the Mets’ Wayne. Adrian had a rookie card in the ’71 set and also back in ’66, when he had one under his nickname, Pat. That’s a mighty long gap and I would bet that Adrian had about the longest one between his initial rookie card and his first solo one – eight years – but I have not the time to research that one. This card commemorates his busiest MLB season to date during his second go-round in Chicago. After returning via a sale from Oakland late in ’72, Adrian had a short .377/8/20 line with a .515 OBA in just 53 at bats in Triple A and was recalled for some back-up work. Despite his card’s designation most of his plate time came as either a catcher or pinch hitter; his best offensive work was in the latter role in which he hit .286. Despite the minimal plate appearances to date Adrian was in the midst of a very long baseball career at the time of this card, in which he appears to be squirreled away somewhere in Candlestick. He wouldn’t see another card until ’76 when he would get his final MLB one on a different team and plate appearance-wise he was still a rookie. That, too, has gotta be about the longest run for anyone with that many cards. So in his own way Adrian helps get to the end of the set with some record-type tidbits.

Adrian Garrett was a big deal halfback and baseball player at Sarasota High School when he was signed by the Braves in ’61 and began his career that summer in D ball, hitting .242 for a couple teams. After ramping that up the following year to a .254/19/87 line with a .385 OBA, he would begin a long run at stops with an A at the beginning. He split ’63 between A and Double A, recording a .249/13/60 line in his 277 at bats while missing half the season for his military commitment. ’64 was spent entirely at the higher level where his power was reduced a bunch but his average moved higher in a .280/7/48/.355 season in 477 at bats. In ’65 he moved up to Triple A and earned his first rookie card on the basis of his .224/20/63/.319 season in which he was one of the Braves’ system’s biggest homer producers. But that year, despite his debut in Atlanta, he slumped pretty hard - .196/16/40 in 342 at bats – and he spent most of ’67 in Double A. That year he put up much better numbers with a .257/28/92/.350 line and hit .310 in his few games up in Triple A and also began playing third base in addition to his outfield duties. ’68 was a bit messy as his line slid to .212/12/37 in 363 at bats at both levels. But he enjoyed a big bounce in a ’69 spent primarily in Double A, putting up a .254/24/77/.382 line. After the season he was released by the Braves, picked up and released by the Phillies, and picked up by the Cubs.

With Chicago in ’70 Garrett would get some more MLB at bats and would spend most of his time in Double A where he had a .277/29/86/.365 line while leading his league in homers. He then moved up to Triple A, where he enjoyed his biggest season, posting a .289/43/119/.406 line that drew attention from the vastly improving Oakland A’s. Late that August they picked up Adrian for catcher Frank Fernandez and Adrian spent the balance of the season doing some left field and pinch hitting work for the division champs. He also spent a bit of the summer with the team as well in ’72 but most of the year was spent in Triple A where he posted a .277/12/32.372 line in his 220 at bats. Then came the September sale to Chicago and after his work in ’73 he got a few more at bats up top but spent most of ’74 back in Triple A where he had another big season, in just 318 at bats posting a .280/26/83/.414 line. He pretty much mirrored that success in ’75 when he put up .321/12/48/.380 numbers in half a season before a sale to California, where he finished the year with his best MLB totals by far: a .262 average with six homers and 18 RBI’s in 107 at bats, nearly all at first base or DH. In ’76 he caught a few games for the Angels before a sale to San Diego landed him back in Triple A where he again hit well, with a .310/9/31/.360 line in 126 at bats. That would be it for his time in The States and Adrian finished with MLB totals of a .185 average, eleven homers and 37 RBI’s in his 276 at bats. He also had 87 strikeouts which helps explain why he never stuck. In the minors he hit .259 with 280 homers, 961 RBI’s, and a .360 OBA.

As has been a recent trend, Garrett moved on to Japan after his US playing time ended and had a pretty good run there, pretty much parallel with Gail Hopkins from a few posts back. He spent three seasons with Hiroshima where his first two were by far his best: a .279/35/91/.358 line in ’77; and a .271/40/97/.378 line in ’78. In ’79 his numbers fell to .225/27/59/.326 but that was the year he helped the Carp take the Japanese Series, a fitting way to go out as a player. He then returned to the US, spending a few years in the White Sox system, as a coach (’80-’81); minor league hitting instructor (’85); and manager (’82-’84), going a combined 169-150. After a year off he moved to the Kansas City system where he coached a season in the minors (’87) and then five in Kansas City (’88-’92). Then it was on to the Marlins where he was a minor league hitting coach (’93-’98) and hitting coordinator (’99-2001). After another year off he hooked up with Cincinnati where from 2003 through 2011 he served as the Triple A hitting coach. Since 2012 he has been employed by the Reds as a part time coach. Busy boy.

This being Adrian’s first solo card, he has yet another tidbit of never having his annual minor league stats appear on a Topps card. Expanding on the star bullets, he led four leagues in homers in the US and did so once in Japan. He got into catching in spring training of ’73 when Pete Reiser, a Cubs coach at the time, suggested he give it a shot to help him stick. So he did tons of bullpen and batting practice catching and it would be his primary position in three MLB seasons. Another brother Charlie also played pro ball but he only got as high as Double A as his career was interrupted by two full years of military duty. Adrian has a very expansive “Bullpen” tab on baseball-reference.

Sometimes for these guys with limited at bats these paths can be pretty long:

1. Garrett and Joe Lahoud ’75 to ’76 Angels;

2. Lahoud and Reggie Smith ’68 to ’71 Red Sox;

3. Smith and Mike Tyson ’74 to ’76 Cardinals.

#640 - Milt Pappas

After a few card hiatus we get back to the final cards with this panoramic action shot of Milt Pappas on the mound at Wrigley Field. Judging by the guys in the bullpen behind him it looks like Milt is facing either Atlanta or Houston, so that the crowd is huge is a big testament to the durability of Chicago fans. I think these panoramic action cards are among the best in the set since there can be lots of interesting background noise but there’s no way I’ll be able to get a handle on the bullpen members in the background. There is also a shot this photo isn’t even from ’73 since other Chicago action shots have been quite dated. If this shot is from ’73 and that warm-up jacket towards the end is a Houston one, then this game is from May 30 and was a loss for Milt. That means it was a sadly typical effort for him that season since his record more than reversed it self from the dynamic one from ’72. Run support was a bit of an issue for the Cubbies in ’73 but Milt too had issues: too many hits, particularly homers, and too few strikeouts led to an unusually elevated ERA his final year in Chicago. Towards the end of spring training in ’74 he was released and the only team that showed any interest was San Diego, pretty ironic after what happened in ’72, which gets covered below. Milt was a loudly opinionated guy, which did not make him friends in management but which could be glossed over when he won but impeded his hooking up with anyone after this season. So a guy who once seemed a shoo-in for the Hall was done at age 34. But he left behind quite a legacy.

Milt Pappas grew up in Detroit where he attracted tons of looks from MLB teams due to his pretty awesome fastball and excellent control. His senior year at Cooley High School he went 7-0 with a 0.50 ERA and during the season Milt and his dad reviewed all the AL and NL pitching staffs to see which one was oldest and therefore had better potential to open up a roster spot to him. The winner was Baltimore and that spring of ’57 Milt signed for a $4,000 bonus, finished his American Legion season, and then joined the Orioles for whom he made his debut in August, throwing a couple shutout innings at the Yankees and calling out Mickey Mantle in the process. He threw another inning against NY, got three starts in A ball which would be his only time in the minors, and finished the season back in Baltimore. In ’58 he stayed there as a spot guy until he missed some games in May due to an injured shoulder. He came back to go 7-3 with a decent ERA through mid-year but then reversed that record the rest of the way as his ERA fattened. In ’59 he joined the rotation full-time with his new pitch, a slider, which would help his control considerably as he became the first official member of the Orioles “Kiddie Korps.” In ’61 he again missed most of May to an injury but then in ’62 rode a fast 9-4 start to his first All-Star game before cooling off the rest of the way. He bounced to record his best seasons in Baltimore in ’63 and ’64 and then in ’65 took another fast start – 9-3 with a 1.74 ERA – to another All-Star game though he missed some more time to injury, of course in May. By the end of that year he was only 26 with 110 wins under his belt with an excellent ERA and great control numbers on a team that seemed on the cusp of greatness.

By the end of ’65 Baltimore had a pretty impressive team with an excellent infield anchored by Brooks Robinson and a new bunch of young starting pitchers developed in the highly-touted farm system. The only missing ingredient, it was generally agreed, was another big power guy, preferably an outfielder. And one of those was on the market in Cincinnati’s “aging” Frank Robinson. Unfortunately for Pappas he would be the main piece of the big trade that hooked Robinson and in December he, Dick Simpson, and Jack Baldschun went over to the Reds in what would become one of the most lopsided trades ever. Milt’s ’66 started off well enough but he would have a hard time finishing games and a lousy summer moved his ERA to nearly two runs higher than the prior year. His numbers improved substantially in ’67 but after a slow start to the ’68 season the Reds decided to cut their losses and sent Milt to Atlanta in June with Ted Davidson and Bob Johnson for Tony Cloninger, Clay Carroll, and Woody Woodward. For the Braves Milt had a pretty rocking second half, shaving over three runs off his ERA. His good fortune did not carry into ’69, though, as some nagging injuries restricted his mound time late in the season and his record deteriorated followed by a not great post-season. Then, as in ’68, his ’70 season kicked off with a bad run in limited use before a June trade to a new home in Chicago, this time in a sale. Again, Milt went 10-8 in the second half while posting another excellent ERA for a new club. This time he remained on track with two successive 17-win seasons. In ’71 he led the NL with his five shutouts and in ’72 he had arguably his best season, certainly his best August-on run as he won his eleven games in a row. Game number six of that run was pretty special: a no-hitter against San Diego that was only spoiled by a two-out walk in the ninth inning about which – according to many sites – Pappas still fumes. After his discounted ’73 season he was done. Milt finished with the record on his card back supplemented with 129 complete games, 43 shutouts, and four saves. In the post-season he put up an 11.57 ERA in a few innings. As a hitter he wasn’t so hot with a .123 average but he did clout 20 homers, including two in one game (though they were gimme’s).

In off-seasons Pappas had returned to Baltimore in a business sense to open and run his restaurant. After playing he also returned to the Midwest where he was a distributor and salesman for a wholesale beverage company. Then in ’83 he became a salesman and then officer at Prime Source, a building supplies company, with which he is still affiliated. He has done some pitching coaching work as well and does the card show circuit. There are a few recent interviews with him around the web.

Milt has zero space for star bullets so he only gets the cartoon. As usual the player rep gig was the kiss of death career-wise.

The big Watergate-related news is coming to a climax in the summer of ’74 now:

7/29-7/30/74 – The last two Articles of Impeachment are adopted by the House Judiciary Committee on these dates (I erroneously said they were all adopted July 27 on my earlier post). On the 29^th, the Committee adopted the Article charging President Nixon with misuse of power and violation of his oath of office. On the 30^th, the Committee adopted the Article charging Nixon with failure to comply with House subpoenas. The Committee was made up of 21 Democrats and 17 Republicans. On each of the first two charges all Democrats and six Republicans voted for the Articles; on the last one all Democrats and two Republicans voted for the articles.

8/4/74 – in a last ditch effort to appease the Committee and the Special Prosecutor, President Nixon released six specific tapes he’d withheld until then in spite of the subpoenas and later the decision by the Supreme Court. All six were made shortly after the ’72 break-in and the subject matter was nearly exclusively the break-in and its aftermath. One tape, from June 23, 1972 – which would earn the nickname the Smoking Gun tape – includes a specific discussion regarding the FBI investigation into the break-in. H.R. Haldeman suggests, and Nixon then reinforces, the notion of having the CIA tell the FBI to back off the investigation with the implication that those orders came from the White House. Once details of the tape are made public, all Republican members of the Committee who’d voted against the first two Articles of Impeachment indicated they would now change their votes to for as well.

Another kid and old guy hook-up, though Pappas was only 34 when his card came out:

1. Pappas and Fergie Jenkins ’70 to ’72 Cubs;

2, Jenkins and Joe Lovitto ’74 to ’75 Rangers.

#616 - Larry Gura

If you were a Yankee fan in the mid-Seventies you’d have thought this poor guy was a mixture of Satan and Liberace. Billy Martin hated Larry Gura for some reason and would on a regular basis question his toughness, which is a little bizarre because Larry never actually pitched in one regular season game for Billy. But Martin’s doghouse was a tough place from which to extricate oneself – ask Reggie – and Larry didn’t have Reggie’s leverage so when Billy said “begone” off he went. I remained an NY fan through all its Billy and non-Billy incarnations but I always thought Larry was unfairly dissed so – outside of playoff time – I have to admit I was pretty happy when he beat the Bombers, which he did a lot. But that was years away and in ’73 Larry was a struggling pitcher having a nasty time as a spot guy in the NL and  not much of a better one in Triple A. But things changed for the better after the trade indicated here though he never threw one regular season game for Texas. By the time ’74 spring training was over Larry was in NY, pitching for the Yankees for whom he did a pretty good job, actually. His regular card shows him in a home uniform in what must be spring training while his Traded card features a not-too-bad airbrush job in Candlestick. It would be in KC, though, where the lights came on for Larry.

Larry Gura grew up in Joliet, Illinois where he was a pitching star and once threw two successive no-hitters in an American Legion tournament. He then went to Arizona State where as a sophomore he won a game in relief during the CWS championship season of ’67 and then as a senior in ’69 went 19-2 while pitching in four of the team’s six CWS games as ASU won it all again. He was then drafted by the Cubs that spring in the second round. At first he would work fast through the minors, beginning his career that year in Triple A before throwing great ball in the Instructional League that fall. He began ’70 in the minors also but was called up at the end of April where he got into one game in a month before returning to do some work in Triple A. He was back in Chicago by late June but was barely used the rest of the way, though he did record his first win in his first start, a complete game. In ’71 he did the back and forth though his time was nearly all in Triple A. ’72 was looking to be a repeat of the past when he asked the team to just keep him at the lower level so he could get in more games. Then in ’73 he stayed up top until August when he went down for the last month of the minor league season. To punctuate his frustrating time in Chicago his best effort in ’73 in a start was cancelled because of darkness. For the trade illustrated here Larry went to Texas as the player to be named later when the Cubbies got Mike Paul.

Gura had a '74 training camp that didn’t make Texas manager Billy Martin too happy and Larry spent the first month of the season in Triple A, where he went 1-1 with a 3.10 ERA in four starts before a May trade to the Yankees for catcher Duke Sims.  He remained at that level for NY and in his 17 games – 16 starts – he went 7-7 with a 2.14 ERA and a save. Larry was a control guy and when he was on a roll did a great job brushing the corners. NY liked his Triple A work and called him up in late August and for the stretch run he was the team’s hottest pitcher, going 5-1 with two shutouts and a 2.41 ERA in his eight starts. ’75 would be tougher, though, as both Larry’s and the team’s performance was uneven, his appearances would be irregular, and his role was best described as a spot guy. Still, his numbers weren’t too bad at 7-8 with a 3.55 ERA. Then along came Billy again and Larry got minimal time in spring training ball and none at the top of the regular season before an early trade sent him to Kansas City for catcher Fran Healy.

Gura’s initial experience in KC wasn’t exactly a panacea for his career to date. He had some rough outings in May, wasn’t used at all in June, and then righted his ship a bit in July, all his games in relief to that point. In August he pitched well in a loss to Chicago but his best effort of the year would be his eight innings of one-hit relief vs. Billy Martin’s Yankees his next game. From there it was nearly all good, culminating in an important shutout win against Oakland in late September. Larry went 4-0 on the year with a 2.30 ERA and a save. He pitched not too badly in the AL playoffs and came back in ’77 to be a swing guy as he went 8-5 with a 3.13 ERA and ten saves in his 52 games. He really hit his stride in ’78 when he finally joined the rotation full-time mid-year and went 16-4 with a 2.72 ERA. In ’79 he went 13-12 as his ERA fattened a bit but he got things right again in ‘80 when he was 18-10/2.95, was the AL All-Star starting pitcher, and had an excellent post-season. In ’81 he was 11-8/2.72 despite a late season hand injury and in ’82 he won 18 again. Things shifted pretty radically the next couple seasons as his ERA spiraled up and he went a combined 23-27. In ’85 he returned to the Cubs where he finished out his career, unfortunately missing out on the KC Series run. Larry finished with a record of 126-97 with a 3.76 ERA, 71 complete games, 16 shutouts, 14 saves, and only 600 walks in his over 2,000 innings, not bad for a guy Billy Martin once said couldn’t find the plate. He was 2-3 with a 3.89 ERA in his nine postseason outings.

Gura had settled into an off-season life in Arizona while playing and it was to there he returned professionally after playing. For the past bunch of years he has taken over running a family organic farm there that was started by his in-laws. He will sign pretty much anything for a small fee that goes to cover farm expenses.

Larry has about the cleanest signature I’ve seen to date and gets star bullets that could have easily been exceeded by some college info. He was admitted into the ASU hall of fame in ’78 and his local Joliet one a couple years later. Two things I remember about him in relation to his Yankees days. One is recounted in “The Bronx Zoo” when during ’75 spring training Billy Martin spotted Larry and Rich Coggins playing tennis. According to Sparky Lyle Martin thought tennis was “a pussy game” and it was one of the reasons he wasn’t a Gura fan. Another was that I always had the impression Larry bulked up after he left NY. His neck looked a lot thicker and his guns a lot bigger on his KC cards than on his earlier ones. It’s tough to tell from his card backs though. Here he’s listed as 185. On his ’80 card he’s 178 and on his ’81 card he’s 195.

Topps doesn’t give us too much trade-specific info here. As noted above Larry went to the Rangers in November for Mike Paul, who’d gone from Texas to the Cubs back in August. Ironically Larry played the bulk of his career under Whitey Herzog, another guy displaced by Billy Martin.

In Watergate news, we are up to April of ’73:

4/3/73 – G. Gordon Liddy had been testifying in front of the Grand Jury and gave them absolutely nothing which infuriated Judge John Sirica who already wasn’t a fan. Sirica imposed an additional eight to 18 months on Liddy’s sentence for contempt of court. Around now H.R. Haldeman’s name was being leaked from testimony as another co-conspirator in the bugging and other “dirty tricks.” Haldeman was Nixon’s Chief of Staff.

4/5/73 – Nixon withdraws his nomination of Patrick Gray as permanent FBI director. Gray, who’d been the acting director after J. Edgar Hoover’s death in ’72 hadn’t won any fans in Congress when he revealed he turned over FBI documents regarding Watergate to White House counsel John Dean.

4/17/73 – The White House announces that a new internal investigation had been initiated in late March because of “serious charges.” The announcement is made by Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler who earlier had written off the Watergate affair as “a third-rate burglary attempt.” When asked by the press to define the current status of the White House’s understanding of the Watergate affair Ziegler indicated that statement made this day was “operative.” When further asked what that meant he replied that all past statements were “inoperative.” This instance and one other sort of immortalized Ziegler’s involvement in the scandal.

These two were both in Chicago uniforms in ’73 but things can’t be that easy:

1. Gura and Ed Herrmann ’75 Yankees;

2. Herrmann and Johnny Jeter ’73 White Sox.

Or maybe they can.

#607 - '74 Rookie Shortstops

This card gives us another bunch of young unhappy faces. Given that two of them are standing under a doom-filled sky and that one – Dave Rosello – appears to be standing in front of an oil pump, I sort of get why. But why Leo Foster? Perhaps he is rehashing his MLB debut from a couple years earlier. It was no fun at all.

According to a Mets site, Leo Foster was a high school star in Kentucky in the  big three sports as well as track and that certainly seemed to be seconded by the Braves, who made Leo a second-round pick in the ’69 draft. That summer he hit .229 in A ball before having a bang-up fall in the Instructional League, hitting .321 with a .397 OBA and ten stolen bases. He would then begin his military service, missing some time each of the next few years. When he showed up to training camp in West Palm in ’70, he and Dusty Baker were kicked out of a pool hall because of their color. Nice start and Leo would get a few of those. But he hit .263 with 16 stolen bases that year in Double A and the next year upped his average at that level to .296 before a July call-up to Atlanta where regular shortstop Sonny Jackson had to play the outfield due to Rico Carty’s injury. Leo’s debut was memorable, but not in a good way. On his first play at short he made an error on a Dave Cash hit, and Cash would later score. He then flew out his first at bat, hit into a double play his second, and a triple play his third for the wrong kind of cycle. He went hitless in his ten at bats and then returned to the minors, hitting .180 the rest of the way in Triple A. In ’72 he hit .233 at that level and in ’73 .210 before another few MLB at bats late in the season. In ’74 he spent the full year on the Atlanta roster, backing up Craig Robinson at short while hitting .196. After that season he was traded to the Mets for catcher Joe Nolan and for NY he would hit substantially better at the Triple A level while also branching out to play second and third. In ’75 he hit .247 with a .354 OBA, his best by far since his first year. In ’76 he hit .287 with 39 RBI’s in a bit under half a season and in ’77 .274 in his couple months at that level. He also did better up top, in ’76 hitting .203 with 15 RBI’s in just 59 at bats deep on the depth chart and in ’77 hitting .227 while again playing behind Bud Harrelson and Mike Phillips. That was his final MLB time and Leo finished at that level with a .198 average. After the ’77 season he was traded to Boston for pitcher Jim Burton. After hitting .239 for the Sox Triple A club in a reserve role he finished things up the following year in the short-lived Inter-American League, leaving behind a .248 average for his minor league time. What Leo has done since is a big mystery.

When Tom Heintzelman was born his dad had just returned stateside from his WW II duty to return to his pre-war profession as an MLB pitcher. Ken Heintzelman won 77 games, mostly as a reliever for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia from the late Thirties to the early Fifties. Tom was born in Missouri where he played third base and pitched a bit in high school before moving on to Parsons College in Iowa where he continued to play both roles. Parsons was sort of a high-profile school back then, not all for good reasons, and it would shut down in ’73. When Tom finished his four years there he was drafted by the Cards in ’68 and was then able to get a year in of Rookie and A ball, during which he hit .270, before he was drafted again, this time into the military. Unfortunately for Tom he went high and was unable to do reserve duty even though he was married with a daughter, so he did two full years of stateside service, missing all of the ’69 and ’70 seasons. When he returned in ’71 to Double A ball he had an understandably off year, hitting .219 while playing mostly second. In ’72 he improved to hit .263 with 13 stolen bases at that level and then in ’73 in Triple A he hit .284 before debuting in St. Louis in August, hitting .310 the rest of the way and helping fix the middle infield morass that was plagued by a couple burnouts by the shortstops. Tom then got some spring and summer work in St. Louis the following year backing up Ted Sizemore but only got 74 at bats in which he hit .230. Around that time he hit .258 back in Triple A before being traded to San Francisco after the season for pitcher Jim Willoughby. That first year he split time between second and third in Triple A while hitting .245. The next season he became a power guy, hitting .277 with 15 homers and 103 RBI’s and 92 runs. He maintained that pace the next year with a .266/8/85/80 season before he was moved up to San Francisco where he rarely played. He then began the ’78 season with the Giants but with Bill Madlock ahead of him at both his spots he barely played, hitting .229 in a few at bats. He spent most of the rest of that season in Triple A and all of the next, his final year as a player. Overall Tom hit .243 in his 140 MLB at bats and .259 with 57 homers and 67 stolen bases in the minors. He’d ended up putting in most of his time at Phoenix while with the Giants and it appears that is where he remained on a full-time basis after playing, with Mesa listed as his home when his dad passed away in 2000, but I have no idea what he did after playing.

Dave Rosello got signed by the Cubs after playing summer ball in his native Puerto Rico late in ’68. He didn’t hit too well his first summer in the States, hitting .189 in A ball in ’69, but he was never supposed to have a great stick. He did better in ’70 with a .243 split between A and Double A but then sank to .228 at the higher level in ’71. But then came a long residency at Triple A Wichita during which he found some offensive magic. In ’72 he hit .271 while making his league’s all-star team which he would also do two of his next three seasons. He hit .250 during his short look in Chicago during which he played shortstop, his regular position to date. In ’73 it was back to Triple A where he hit .313 with 51 RBI’s in his 367 at bats, by far his best run production. When Dave was up for his late summer time that year he played second, mostly because Glenn Beckert was declining faster than expected. Then in ’74 Dave stayed there after new guy Vic Harris sort of exploded in a not good way where the two split starting time with three other guys. By late summer it was clear that Dave wasn’t much of an improvement over Harris and while Billy Grabarkewitz was getting the most starts there Dave got back to Wichita where the last two months he hit .389. He remained there for pretty much all of ’75 where he also got back to short and put up a .259 average with 29 doubles in his busiest year. The next two years were all Chicago as he hit .242 backing up Mick Kelleher at short in ’76 and .220 while doing the same – but on a much less regular basis – for fellow ’74 rookie Steve Ontiversos at third. That December Dave went to Cleveland for a couple minor leaguers and in ’78 he had one of his best years in Triple A with a .282/9/71 season while putting in most of his time at third. The next three years were spent in Cleveland where Dave did back-up work at second, averaging .244 in just over 300 at bats. In ’82 it was back to third base and to Triple A in his final season as a player. Dave finished with a .236 MLB average and hit .258 in the minors. From what I can tell he returned to PR after he played.

Like Dave Rosello, Frank Taveras was signed as a free agent from his island home in ’68, except that Frank was Dominican, was signed by Pittsburgh, and was signed early enough to get in some games that summer. He had a bipolar first year, hitting .340 in Rookie ball, but only about .200 in A ball. In ’69 he hit .222 in A ball and then in ’70 got up to .260 with 35 stolen bases, his first season in which he concentrated on shortstop after playing mostly second until then. He split '71 between Double A and Triple A, hitting .226 with 30 steals and then spent nearly all the next two years at the higher level, averaging .244 with 29 stolen bases a season. After some short MLB looks those years he got pulled up in ’74 after Gene Alley was officially done and he and fellow rookie Mario Mendoza took over shortstop. For the next two seasons Frank got the most work of the two. His offense was a bit light but the Pirates had plenty of that and he hit better than Mendoza. In ’76 he won the position outright and both his average and his stolen base totals moved up significantly: in ’76 he hit .258 with 58 steals; in ’77 .252 with 70; and in ’78 .278 with 46. He led the NL that middle year. In ’79 he would prove that timing is everything – in a bad way for him – when early in the season he was traded to the Mets for Tim Foli. Foli went on to win a Series ring and poor Frank got to hang out with one of the NL’s sorriest teams. He hit .263 and .279 for NY the next two years as its regular shortstop and then fell to .230 in ’81 as he split time with Bob Bailor. After that year he went to Montreal where he occupied a reserve role in his final season, finishing with a .255 average and 300 stolen bases for his career. In the post-season he hit .111 in five games. Like the rest of these guys he pretty much disappeared profile-wise after he played.

Outside of Tom Heintzelman, these guys were all pretty small, no surprise given their positions. They totaled 17 MLB seasons with a stolen base title.

Some NY guys help getting from the last card:

1. Otto Velez and Mickey Rivers ’76 Yankees;

2. Rivers and Bud Harrelson ’80 Rangers;

3. Harrelson and Leo Foster ’76 to ’77 Mets.

More of the same for around the card:

1. Leo Foster and Joe Torre ’76 to ’77 Mets;

2. Torre and Ken Heintzelman ’73 to ’74 Cardinals;

3. Heintzelman and Reggie Smith ’74 Cardinals;

4. Smith and Rick Monday ’77 to ’81 Dodgers;

5. Monday and Dave Rosello ’72 to ’76 Cubs;

6. Rosello and Bill Madlock ’74 to ’76 Cubs;

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

8. Stargell and Frank Taveras ’74 to ’79 Pirates.

Madlock had the good timing for that ’79 Pirates team; Taveras didn’t.  

#604 - '74 Rookie Infielders

As has been the recent trend, on this infielders card we get a couple guys who had significant MLB careers and a couple who didn’t stick around terribly long. Andy(?) Thornton looks like he’s up on a mountain somewhere and appears to be in his Braves uniform which I only know about pre-research because he was on the Atlanta team card. Two of these guys appear to be smiling and Frank White actually seems to be suppressing a laugh which would make this by far the most jovial of the rookie cards to date.

Terry Hughes grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina where he was a local basketball and baseball legend and had been scouted in the latter sport since he was in eighth grade. Given what was generally viewed as “can’t miss” status, he was playing high school ball that year and during his HS Career hit .288, .321, .400, and .615. He only has four seasons because during his junior year he was suspended from both his hoops and baseball team (I do not know why). He also played American Legion ball in the summers and hit .415 prior to his senior year in that league. Apparently every team scouted him and in the ’67 draft the Cubs made him the second pick after Ron Blomberg (and before Bobby Grich). Terry eschewed another American Legion season to play Rookie ball and hit .278 at that level. In ’68 he moved around a bit and in A ball that summer hit .283 while on loan to Boston, .221 back in the Chicago system, and .328 with a .424 OBA in a month of Double A ball. ’69 was all Double A around some military time and was the first year he played principally at third as he had specialized in shortstop until then. In an off year he hit .249 but in ’70 he bounced to hit .286 in Triple A and made his MLB debut in September. The next two seasons were spent strictly in Triple A and both years he missed some time to injury. In ’71 he hit .255 while playing mostly in the outfield and in ’72 he had his best offensive season, hitting .302 with a .385 OBA and 13 homers as he returned to third base. Just prior to the start of the ’73 season he was sold to the Cards for whom he also played in Triple A, hitting .289 with 51 RBI’s before being called up in August to do late inning work the rest of the season. That year he also had his first Toops rookie card and so, like Sergio Robles on the prior post, this card isn’t technically Terry’s rookie one. After the season he was involved in a big trade, going to Boston with Reggie Cleveland and Diego Segui for John Curtis, Lynn McGlothen, and Mike Garman, another heralded ’67 draft pick. In ’74 Terry spent all of the season on the Boston roster, putting in time at third behind Rico Petrocelli and Dick McAuliffe. In ’75 he was the last guy cut in spring training and he returned to Triple A where he hit .253. He then put in a partial season back with the Cards at that level in ’76 and was done. Terry hit .209 in 54 games up top and .269 in the minors. By the early Seventies he was taking college classes and he eventually got a degree in education. After playing he returned to South Carolina where since 1989 he has been a baseball coach and teacher at Boiling Springs High School.

John Knox is listed here as a third baseman but he would play nearly exclusively at second for Detroit; Ron Cash from a few cards back was listed as a second baseman but he played both corner infield positions. With Reggie Sanders from Ron’s card the whole infield was covered almost so Detroit was sure in overhaul mode at the time of this card. John was born in Newark, NJ, but by the time he was in high school had relocated to Ohio and then went on to Bowling Green State University there where he graduated with a degree in education and finished as the school record holder with 107 career hits. He was drafted by Detroit in ’70 and that summer hit .315 in A ball with a .437 OBA. The next year he put up .271/.368 numbers in Double A before spending most of the next two seasons as a Triple A Toledo Mud Hen. He had pretty similar seasons, posting a .294/.374 year in ’72 and .274/.367 numbers in ’73. He made his Detroit debut the former year in August and then in ’73 hit .281 while playing sparingly, both years behind Dick McAuliffe and Tony Taylor. He then spent all of ’74 and ’75 on the Detroit roster where he hit a combined .287 while playing behind light-hitting Gary Sutherland. The knock on John back then was that he wasn’t a great fielder and in ’76 when Detroit had a bunch of younger infielders in the wings, he was sent back to Triple A. Early that year he was sold to Cincinnati – not exactly an open book at second – and for them stuck at the Triple A level. In ’77 he stopped playing to sell real estate and life insurance in the Toledo area and after a failed comeback in ’78 he was done. He finished with an MLB average of .274 in 219 at bats and a minor league average of .276 and did an inning of late defensive work in the ’72 playoffs. It has been hard to track this guy since then but he was later admitted to his school’s hall of fame and he does some work with a greyhound rescue group down in Texas so that may be where he now resides.

Andre Thornton would hold onto the “Andy” tag on his Topps cards through the ’76 set. Born in Alabama, he and his family relocated to a suburb of Philadelphia where in high school Andre was a big three sports star. He was also a bit of a pool hustler and when he was signed it was in a pool hall, by the Phillies in the late summer of ’67. He only hit .182 in a few games in A ball that year but upped it in ’68 at the same level to .249 with 31 RBI’s in 185 at bats. In ’69 he missed a bunch of time for his National Guard military hitch but hit .251 with 13 homers and a .373 OBA around that in the year he became deeply religious. In ’70 he was off to yet another A team but his at bats went south by about 100 as he missed time to both The Guard and to a broken hand. In ’71 he had a strong bounce. Finally up to Double A he hit .267 with a .399 OBA, 26 homers, and 76 RBI’s. He had one ten-game streak during which he hit nine homers. That got him promoted to Triple A the next year where Andre continued his improvement with a .290/20/65 season in just 300 at bats for two teams since he was traded mid-year to Atlanta with Joe Hoerner for Jim Nash and Gary Neibauer. He remained at that level to start the ’73 season but after a poor start he was sent to the Cubs for Joe Pepitone where he would have a huge slugging binge the next two months, putting up a .289/17/45 run with a .484 OBA in just 135 at bats. That prompted his late July call-up to Chicago where he hit .200 in the few games in which he saw action the rest of the way. In ’74 he split time at first base while putting up a .261 average with ten homers, 46 RBI’s, and a .368 OBA. The next year he got more starts there and responded with a .293/18/60/.428 year that seemed to solidify his hold on the spot after he missed the first month-plus with a broken wrist. But a poor start in the ’76 season got him benched and then traded to Montreal for Larry Biitner and Steve Renko where his slump continued. After that season he was sent to Cleveland for pitcher Jackie Brown. A famously slow starter Andre was hitting only .150 and had been benched in favor of Bill Melton at first when he got back in the line-up and went on a tear, putting up a .286/25/65/.400 stat line in the last 100 games. From there he didn’t look back and over the next two seasons he would average .248 with 30 homers and 99 RBI’s as the club’s leading slugger while providing excellent defense at first. Amazingly those seasons came after a horrible accident in the ’77 off-season in which his wife and daughter were killed and Andre and his son badly injured. In spring training of ’80 he suffered a knee injury which required two operations and caused him to miss the whole year. Then, between the strike and a broken hand, ’81 was pretty much a hot mess. But in ’82 Andre recorded probably his best season, putting up a .273/32/116/.386 stat line while winning the AL Comeback Player of the Year award. By now mostly a DH, Andre would record four more pretty good power years  - in ’84 he won a Silver Slugger - before retiring during the ’87 season. He finished with a .254 average with 253 homers, 895 RBI’s, and a .360 OBA and was twice an All-Star. By that time he was in wide demand as a speaker and he also owned a string of Applebees restaurants for a time after playing. After he sold his chain to the parent company he founded GCI, a logistics company. That firm merged with ASW, a supply chain management company, in 2007 and since then Andre has been the firm’s CEO. He has a SABR bio and a whole chapter devoted to him in Terry Pluto’s “The Curse of...”

When Ewing Kauffman founded the Royals in the late Sixties, one of the first things he did was establish the Royals Baseball Academy, a team-run institution that took select local kids to Florida each year and would teach them a higher level baseball they would otherwise have not been able to access. In the first class of ’70 Frank White was a member, having played ball in high school and even a bit at a local JUCO before the family ran out of money. After a year in the Academy he went to Rookie ball as a shortstop in ’71 where he hit .247 and then moved fast. He split ’72 between A and Double A, hitting .267 with 12 homers and 24 stolen bases. In ’73 he moved up to Triple A, began putting in most of his time at second base, and hit .264 around two stints up in KC where he did support work at short and second and hit .223. Technically he wasn’t a rookie in ’74 because he got into too many games in ’73 and his second year he also put in some time at third, producing roughly the same numbers. He did one more year of reserve work in ’75 when his average took off to .290 and early the next season established himself as the regular second baseman, a position he would then hold for 14 years. He would be middling on offense for a bunch of years and his OBA was never very high, but he didn’t strike out too much, and he would occasionally do pretty well, hitting .275 in ’78, stealing 28 bases in ’79, and hitting .298 in ’82. Frank’s forte was his defense and beginning in ’77 he would win six consecutive Gold Gloves and during that time make four All-Star teams. In ’83 he was moved up in the line-up and that year he had 77 RBI’s. In ’84 he hit 17 out and he then became an outright slugger, the next three years averaging 20 homers and 77 RBI’s. In the ’85 Series he batted in the clean-up spot and in ’86 and ’87 won two more Gold Gloves while also returning to the All-Star game and winning a Silver Slugger the first season. He remained with KC through the ’90 season, finishing with a .255 average, 160 homers, 886 RBI’s, over 2,000 hits, and 178 stolen bases. Defensively he is 12^th all-time in assists and putouts at second base and ninth in double plays. In the post-season he hit .213 with 16 RBI’s in 42 games. After a year off in ’91 he became the first black manager in the Boston chain when he manged the Rookie franchise in ’92. He then coached a year in the minors before moving up to Boston from ’94 to ’96. From there he returned to KC as a coach (’97-2001); assistant to the GM (2002-’03); manager of the team’s Double A franchise (’04-’06); and director of player development and community relations (’07-’10). That last year the Royals got real miserly with his salary and he quit the community relations role and after the 2011 season he was fired from his part-time announcing role because the team claimed he was too critical. Since 2012 he has been a coach for the independent Kansas City T-Bones and a sales representative for a roofing company.

This group raises the bar pretty high with 34 MLB seasons between them, as well as seven All-Star games, eight Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and a Comeback Player award. Reading their last names in succession sounds like an amusing headline: “Hughes Knox (Knocks) Thornton White.” I guess it would have worked if Andre was a pitcher.

Pitchers come in handy getting from the last card to this one:

1. Sergio Robles and Jim Palmer ’72 to ’73 Orioles;

2. Palmer and Dick Drago ’77 Orioles;

3. Drago and Terry Hughes ’74 Red Sox;

Then we get a pretty efficient ‘round the card:

1. Terry Hughes and Dick McAuliffe ’74 Red Sox;

2. McAuliffe and Willie Horton (watch this guy) ’64 to ’73 Tigers;

3. Horton and John Knox ’72 to ’75 Tigers; Horton and Andre Thornton ’78 Indians;

4. Thornton and Pete LaCock ’73 to ’76 Cubs;

5. LaCock and Frank White ’77 to ’80 Royals.

#603 - 1974 Rookie Catchers

At the other side of the battery we get four catchers, one of whom had a solid career, one of whom had a couple good seasons, and two who get represented just on rookie cards, and that right here.

Barry Foote played all over the infield and outfield in high school in Smithfield, NC. A first round pick by the Expos in the ’70 draft, the team immediately turned him into a catcher and in Rookie ball that summer he hit .266 with some power and a .379 OBA. While mastering his position he would put up some high error totals but he was very aggressive and normally led his league in assists and double plays. In A ball in ’71 his average fell to .230 as his strikeouts ratcheted up but he continued to impress behind the plate and in ’72 in Double A he turned on the power with a .253/16/75 line. ’73 was all Triple A where he put up a .262/19/65 season prior to his September debut during which he hit .667 in his few at bats. In ’74 he would take over as starting catcher and his .262/11/60 season would get him on the Topps Rookie team. Unfortunately it would also be his best year. While his freshman season was good enough to keep Gary Carter in the outfield most of the next couple seasons, Barry's sophomore jinx year was pretty terrible as his stat line fell to .194/7/30 on just a few less at bats. He rebounded a bit to hit .234 in ’76 but by the end of the year Carter had claimed the starting role and he would retain it to start the ’77 season. After getting only a few at bats, Barry would get traded to the Phillies at the '77 deadline with pitcher Dan Warthen for catcher Tim Blackwell and pitcher Wayne Twitchell. Through ’78 he would be the third-string guy behind Bob Boone and Tim McCarver and get very little plate time. Prior to the ’79 season he would join Ted Sizemore, Jerry Martin, and a couple minor leaguers in a trade to the Cubs for Greg Gross, Dave Rader, and Manny Trillo. That trade got him back into a starting role and he responded with his best numbers since his rookie year with a .254/16/56 season. But Barry then began experiencing some extreme lower back pain and the next year he lost his starting role, ironically to Blackwell, and hit .238 in just over 200 at bats. In ’81 young Jody Davis supplanted Blackwell, Barry slid to third on the depth chart, and another mid-season trade had him on the move, this time to the Yankees, where he had more activity the second half but hit only .208. In ’82 his injury and the depth chart kept his time minimal and he did a few games in Triple A in his final season. He hit .230 for his career, with 57 homers and 230 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .333 in five games. Defensively he led the NL in assists once and double plays twice and picked off 38% of runners that ran on hm, a pretty good premium to the league average. He remained in the NY system as a coach in the minors before managing in the team’s chain from ’84 to ’86, winning his league championship one year. From ’87 to ’89 he managed in the Toronto chain, again winning a championship. He then coached up top for the White Sox (’90-’91) and the Mets (’92-’93). During that time he also started up Tri-State Homes, a construction company that built homes in North Carolina. He then stayed busy locally, helping to establish the Carolina Mudcats, build an oil and gas exploration company that was a player in Alaska, and do cell spectrum work for the National Wireless Network. Since the mid-2000’s he has been running his two companies: Streamer Video, which teaches lay people how to watch baseball games; and F2 Technologies, a wirelss communications company.

Tom Lundstedt played the big three sports in high school outside Chicago in Illinois. In all three sports one of his teammates was Dave Kingman. Tom was selected in a late round by the Dodgers in ’67 but instead went to the University of Michigan on a basketball scholarship. He averaged over 20 points a game for his freshman team and then played his sophomore year with Dan Fife and Rudy Tomjonavich. After that year he switched his scholarship to baseball which he’d also been playing all along. He was then taken by the Cubs in the first round of the ’70 draft and though he fielded well that summer in A and Double A, he hit terribly and spent the ’71 season in A ball where he hit considerably better, with a .266 average and a .410 OBA. In ’72 he returned to Double A where he hit .255 and the next year moved up to Triple A where he maxed out with a .295/11/57 stat line in 322 at bats with a .402 OBA. He made his MLB debut that September and then remained in Chicago in ’74 where he was behind George Mitterwald and Steve Swisher and only got into a few games before knee surgery ended his season in June. Prior to the ’75 season he was traded to the Twins for Mike Adams. That year he moved back and forth between Minnesota and Triple A where he hit .264 but considerably lower up top. It was his final season and he finished with a .092 average in 65 MLB at bats and .256 with 30 homers in the minors. After playing he finished his business degree at the University of Minnesota and then fell into commercial real estate in the Twin Cities area. He then started doing seminars on real estate investing which he continues to do from his own shop.

Charlie Moore was drafted by the Brewers upon graduating high school in Birmingham, Alabama in ’71. He hit .297 that summer in A ball and .259 the next at the same level. In ’73 he combined for a .269 season with 15 homers and 70 RBI’s between Double A and Triple A – he hit better at the higher level – before making his September debut. He then spent the next three seasons backing up Darrell Porter behind the plate and initially doing some DH work. In ’75 Charlie hit well to open the season – he would hit .290 on the year – so the team also had him play in the outfield to keep his bat in the line-up. But Charlie had a tough time out there and in ’76 his average fell 100 points, partly in response. In ’77 Porter was traded to Kansas City and Charlie got the starting catcher role, upped his average nearly 60 points, but had a bad defensive season – he led the AL in errors and passed balls – as his skills seemed to have left him while he was in the outfield. In ’78 Buck Rodgers began to work with Charlie on restoring his defense and while that year he would lose his starting status to Buck Martinez, his catching improved markedly as did his offense, as he hit .269, .300, and .291 the next three years. He also recaptured the starting role in ’79 and ’80. Prior to the ’81 season the Brewers picked up Ted Simmons in a huge trade and though Charlie hit .301 he played behind Simmons and also did some outfield work. He was far more successful in that role than earlier and for the next three seasons he would play primarily in right where he shone defensively, once leading the AL in double plays, and once in putouts. He hit .254 in ’82 and .284 the following year and in between had an excellent post-season in the Series run. He missed time in ’84 to a knee injury and in ’85 returned to the starting role behind the plate. He split time in that role in ’86 and then finished out his career with Toronto in ’87 doing his dual thing. Charlie hit .261 for his career with 43 triples, 36 homers, and 408 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .354 in 16 games. Following his playing career he returned to the Birmingham area where he has since been a salesman in various industries.

This is technically not the rookie card of Sergio Robles as he had another one in the ’73 set. Sergio was a pretty little guy and a big deal catcher in his native Mexico. Signed by the Dodgers after being scouted playing for state teams below the border in ’68 he spent the next three seasons in A ball where he hit a combined .264 and was an excellent fielder. In ’71 he moved up to Triple A where he hit .265 before being traded to Baltimore as part of the package that moved Frank Robinson to LA. He hit .266 in ’72 before making his MLB debut that August but fell to .207 in ’73, the year he saw his most action in Baltimore. He then spent ’74 playing in Mexico City before being sold to St. Louis prior to the ’75 season. After hitting .217 in Triple A that year he spent ’76 in both the St. Louis and LA organization, and put in his final MLB time that year for the Dodgers. He then returned to Mexico where he would continue to play ball year-round for the next ten years. He finished in The States with a .095 MLB average and hit .251 in the minors. He has managed and coached in Mexico for much of the time since. He has s SABR bio.

We get 21 MLB seasons out of this group and that parenthetical name of Sergio’s looks familiar but I do not believe he and Fernando are related. Lundstedt was certainly tall for a catcher.

Let’s see how we do for the hook-up. From the last card we start with the ’74 Twins:

1. Rod Carew was on the ’74 Twins;

2. Carew and Jose Morales or Bombo Rivera ’78 Twins;

3. Rivera and Morales and Barry Foote ’74 to ’76 Expos.

Each of Lundstedt and Robles only got tiny MLB at bats but we make them count:

1. Barry Foote and Andre Thornton (coming up) ’76 Expos;

2. Thornton and Tom Lundstedt ’74 Cubs;

3. Lundstedt and Larry Hisle ’75 Twins;

4. Hisle and Charlie Moore ’78 to ’82 Brewers;

5. Moore and Bill Travers ’73 to ’80 Brewers;

6. Travers and Bobby Grich ’81 and ’83 Angels;

7. Grich and Sergio Robles ’72 to ’73 Orioles.

#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.