The Former Bane of My Collecting Existence

Although I have finished all the regular Topps sets from 1973 through the point in the 1990s when I stopped worrying about current sets, I found some minor bumps in the road while working towards those sets. As I headed into the home stretch on a wantlist (say, 20 or so cards left), I found that certain teams -- the Reds, Red Sox and Tigers -- were among the cards left and one player's name seemed to keep popping up for many of the years:

Card #614 - 1973 Rookie Outfielders

It's that guy in the center. Dwight Evans was more than just a good player who was a constant presence in the Red Sox' rightfield position. He was one of the last few players I needed for many Topps sets of the 1970s and early 1980s. He was a part of the team through 1990, enduring four tough postseasons (1975, '86, '88 and '90) and endearing himself to the Fenway faithful. In his final season in 1991, he looked absolutely different in a Baltimore Orioles uniform.

Similarly, Al Bumbry spent a long time with one team (Baltimore) and endured some heartbreaking postseasons as well: 1973 and '74, when the Orioles were stopped by the Oakland A's in the playoffs and 1979 when they were shut down by the "We Are Family" Pirates. However, Bumbry managed to get a Series Ring in 1983. In 1985, he went to the Padres as a free agent and -- like Evans -- looked totally out of place in the uniform.

Charlie Spikes is shown airbrushed into his Indians threads on this card. That's because he was a Yankee in 1972. He would be included in the deal that sent John Ellis to Cleveland and Graig Nettles to the Bronx (and both of those players would be airbrushed -- poorly -- in the 1973 set). He would roam the outfield on four different teams through 1980.

This is the third Rookie Stars card featured in this blog. It's also the first that actually featured three players who had never appeared on a Topps card before. It also features three players who would continue showing up on Topps cards into the next decade.

Oh yeah...and you probably won't be surprised to find out this card was one of the last I needed for the 1973 set.

Before There Was Interleague Play...

...there were Topps airbrush artists.

This may actually be one of the most interesting pictures used in the 1973 Topps baseball card set:

Card #372 - Oscar Gamble, Cleveland Indians

While the card says Gamble's playing for Cleveland, he's shown sliding into second against Dave Concepcion of the Cincinnati Reds. At that time, there was no interleague play, so the cross-state teams had no reason to be squaring off. The picture was taken when he was still a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, and that's pretty evident when you take a close look at Gamble's uniform (and the outfield wall of the old Veteran's Stadium, thanks Steve). Obviously, it was an airbrush job that had to be rushed.

Beyond that, the dust kicked up from Gamble's slide gives an illusion of a floating head (another infielder, probably knocked down during the play) in the scene.

Oscar Gamble is better known today as a Yankees player in the 1970s and again in the 1980s, but among card collectors he's best known as the man with the most famous Afro in baseball. In this picture, his hair is beginning to "grow" into its own, but later in the 1970s it was awesome (here's a blog that shows an example). His hairstyle overshadowed Gamble the player, who wasn't exactly the best fielder but possessed some power at the plate. This made him an ideal designated hitter, a role he was given often in his career. He also had a good batting eye, walking more times in his career than striking out.

He also got along well with the New York press, a group that is often a source of major frustration among players in the Big Apple. His flashy manner of dressing (and this was the 1970s, so you know it was over the top), gregarious attitude and overall demeanor made him a hit with the writers. He was once quoted as saying, "They don't think it be like it is, but it do."

Stop and say that sentence a couple of times. Few players since Yogi Berra have been able to say something that you have to stop and read again.

The "Helms"man

Here's an interesting picture taken during Spring Training:

Card #495 - Tommy Helms, Houston Astros

Look past that gray Astros road uniform, which was one of the blandest in the majors. Look past those mutton chop sideburns running down his face. Look past the glove and ball laying on the ground but positioned in a way to invite unfortunate jokes at Helms's expense.

However, standing on the sidelines with a bat and a glove? Nice way to show you have no confidence in the guy at bat. That said, Helms was one of the hardest players in the game to strike out. In nearly 5,000 at-bats during a 14-year career, Helms struck out 301 times. As good as he was, the Reds still traded him to Houston as part of the deal that got them another second baseman, Joe Morgan.

Helms also replaced Pete Rose in two different ways. First, he was part of a position change the Cincinnati Reds made in 1967. Tony Perez was shifted to third base, while Holmes (the third baseman) was placed at second. He took the position from Rose, who went to the outfield. After Helms retired, he would join his old teammate when Rose became player/manager of the Reds in 1984. When baseball's all-time hit king was banned from the sport in 1989, it was Helms who took over at manager for the remainder of the season.

Now, Here's a Hitter!

This card is part of a subset in the 1973 Topps set featuring the all-time leaders in several batting and pitching categories. This is an amazing record, even today.

Card #475 - Ty Cobb, All-Time Batting Leader

The picture shows Ty Cobb late in his career, when he was a player/coach for the Philadelphia A's. Today, a .367 season average would be considered a feat -- it was last surpassed by Ichiro Suzuki in 2004 --  and Cobb managed to do that over a 24-year career. He hit over .400 three times, including one season (1922) when a .401 average wasn't good even enough to lead the league.

Take a look at the back of this card as well:

What's interesting is that there are some names here that aren't well known to even devout baseball fans today. Pete Browning and Dave Orr were 19th century players who aren't in the Hall of Fame due to short careers (though Browning still has an outside chance to squeak in someday). Two other names on the list aren't in the Hall of Fame either: Joe Jackson, whose exclusion was ordered due to his alleged part in the 1919 World Series fix, and Lefty O'Doul, who only played six full seasons.

There must have been some re-evaluation of the record books, as Baseball-Reference.com has a slightly different Top 10 list:

Ty Cobb - .3664

Rogers Hornsby - .3585

Joe Jackson - .3558

Lefty O'Doul - .3493

Ed Delahanty - .3458

Tris Speaker - .3447

Billy Hamilton - .3444

Ted Williams - .3444

Dan Brouthers - .3421

Babe Ruth - .3421

As far as the active career batting leader with at least 3,000 plate appearances, Albert Pujols is 29th with a .3323 average 

In the revised list, Orr has fallen to 11th, Browning to 13th and Keeler to 14th. That leaves Shoeless Joe and O'Doul as the only two non-Hall of Fame players on the list.

Since there haven't been any additions to the list (in fact, all the others were done playing in the majors before Williams even took his first big league swing) and the guys listed haven't had any at-bats since this card was printed to change their numbers, it must be assumed either that Topps was working with incomplete records or new information has developed that changed the numbers. For instance, it was later learned that Cobb had been given credit for two hits that were later disallowed, which explains why his average now shows as .366 instead of the .367 mark given on the card.

Ouch

Today's card features a player who's perhaps best known not for getting hits but for taking them:

Card #149 - Ron Hunt, Montreal Expos

Ron Hunt is shown here in a Spring Training shot, wearing a jacket under his Expos uniform and looking like he's standing in somebody's backyard.

In 1971, Ron Hunt was hit by pitches 50 times. That is still a record among all players after 1900. He also holds the record for being hit by pitches in one game (three). When he retired in 1974, he was the all-time leader in that category. Though that mark was eventually broken by Don Baylor and then Craig Biggio, the question remains: what was so bad about Hunt that made opponents throw at him?

In interviews, Hunt insisted he was never thrown at, at least not intentionally. However, his opponents complained that he was leaning into the pitches and that some of them were perfect strikes. I'm guessing Hunt figured whether a hit, a walk or a shot to the arm...it was all a way to get on base.

Alou Brother (Part 1)

There were three Alou brothers in the major leagues during the 1960s and '70s. All three appear in the 1973 Topps baseball set, and here's the first to appear on this blog so far:

Card #132 - Matty Alou, New York Yankees

Matty was the middle brother of the trio. The photo is obviously airbrushed: not only is he wearing a Yankees home uniform but obviously not at Yankee Stadium (seen on many other 1973 Topps cards), the interlocking "NY" logo on his chest is way too large and doesn't match the wrinkles on his uniform. The logo on the hat's also way too large.

Alou is shown airbrushed here because he had split the 1972 season between St. Louis and Oakland before being traded to the Yankees in the offesason. He would finish the '73 season with St. Louis again. In 1974, he would play for the Padres but released a couple of months into the season and finished his career with three seasons in Japan.

Yesterday, When I Was Young

I featured a Jim Palmer card from the Boyhood Photos subset a little while back. In that post I mentioned how that photo from his youth didn't show him playing baseball, which seemed strange on a baseball card. There was one player shown in his boyhood uniform, though:

Card #342 - Sam McDowell, Boyhood Photo

Sam McDowell was the very first player I featured on this blog. He was winding down his major league career in '73, so the before/after pictures are quite a contrast.

The back of the card mentions that Sam began playing baseball as an outfielder, but was converted to pitcher once his arm power was discovered. That was a better deal than my own switch from outfielder to pitcher during my Little League days. However, in my case, I was brought in because I fielded fly balls as if they were live grenades.