Stylin'

1970s style is often funny, even if the humor was purely unintentional. Perhaps things like bell bottoms, platform shoes, mood rings and polyester suits contribute to the 1970s' bad reputation fashion-wise, they bring back fond memories to some who lived through the decade. Another fashion staple that is often derided by critics involves hair, which is on display right here:

Card #71 - Johnny Briggs, Milwaukee Brewers

This card exhibits two examples of 1970s hair. Not only is Johnny Briggs sporting mutton chop sideburns, but you can see a small afro peeking out from under his seemingly new cap. While there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with long sideburns in pictures of gentlemen from the 1800s, they're sometimes considered tacky when they appear on 1970s-vintage photos. However, the use of one batting glove was a good decade before Michael Jackson made the look his own.

Johnny Briggs was a regular in left field for the Brewers in 1973, joining the club two years earlier after seven and a half seasons in Philadelphia. The Paterson, New Jersey native and Seton Hall alum was also a regular in Topps sets between 1964 and '76. That last year, he was out of the majors and playing in Japan.

I've Got It!

Here's a rare, one-of-a-kind "traded" version of Tommie Agee's '73 Topps card:

Card #420 -- Tomie Agee, Houston Astros

That's Tommie off to the left side of the photo, preparing to catch a shallow fly ball. You see the umpire holding out his right hand, getting ready to call the batter out but waiting for the catch before making it official. But something isn't right here...Met shortstop Buddy Harrelson is clearly seen right in the middle of the action. Agee and his former teammates have all been airbrushed to look like Astros, a team that Harrelson never suited up with.

Tommie Agee is perhaps best remembered as one of the sparkplugs of the 1969 Amazin' Mets and a hero of that year's World Series. Two tremendous catches by Agee in the third game of the Series saved five runs and were big blows to the Orioles' chances. In 1971 and '72, Agee developed chronic knee problems that hampered his abilities on the field. As the card above originally indicated, he was dealt to the Astros before the '73 season. In August, he was traded to St. Louis (also indicated on this card) and finished his season with the Cardinals.

Although Agee's major league career ended in 1973, he was given two Topps cards in 1974: a regular card showing him in his Cardinals uniform and a card in the Traded set that reflected his trade to Los Angeles after the '73 season. That card was airbrushed, as Agee never played with the Dodgers. Agee died of a heart attack in January 2001; he would be inducted into the Mets' Hall of Fame the following year.

The Battling Bengals

I've been a baseball fan for over 30 years and have observed that fans of certain teams have similarities. Yankee and Red Sox fans are perhaps the most noticeable, Cubs fans live with a century-old streak of bad luck. Among other teams, I've found that fans of the Cardinals and Tigers are perhaps the most loyal and underappreciated in the game. They are also some of the most knowledgeable fans I've encountered when it comes to baseball history and tradition.

That said, Tigers fans also tend to make it tough for me to complete baseball card sets. It seems that when I have a set wantlist that has dwindled to about 20-25 cards, an inordinate number of the commons I still need tend to be Tigers. It also means that I end up with cards like this one that exhibit a flaw:

Card #191 -- Detroit Tigers Team Card

The 1973 Tigers would finish with a winning record but finished third in the American League East (their division at the time). After winning the division in '72, it was considered a disappointing season. Manager Billy Martin was fired in August after making no secret of the fact he was ordering his pitchers to throw at opposing batters. Coach Joe Schulz (shown here sitting next to Martin) filled in as skipper for the rest of '73.

The team wouldn't be competitive in their division for nearly another decade, until they hired Sparky Anderson and developed a new generation of Tigers that became one of the better teams of the 1980s. And you can bet the Tiger faithful stayed with the team for all those years, through good times and bad.

A Yankee Catcher...No, Not THAT One...

Last week marked the anniversary of the 1979 plane crash that killed Yankee catcher Thurman Munson. My other blog ran a tribute last Monday that's worth reading if you missed it. Rather than showing off Munson's card, I'm featuring another Yankee backstop today.

Catcher is a physically demanding position, so most teams have three of them on the roster. When Munson needed the day off, Gerry Moses was his primary backup in '73:

Card #431 -- Gerry Moses, New York Yankees

Gerry (both Wikipedia and Baseball-Reference.com refer to him as "Jerry" even though Topps didn't spell it that way until '75) Moses was beginning the year as a new Yankee, so the picture here shows him with another team. He spent '72 with Cleveland but since they wore red caps in '72 it's likely the picture was from his 65-'70 tenure with the Boston Red Sox. His '71 team was California but the picture can't be from that year, as it appears an Angel is crossing the plate.

Despite the bemused look on his face as an opponent scores on him, the back of Moses's card mentions that he was a "fine defensive catcher," which is a polite way of saying he wasn't much of a hitter. Despite having a good glove, it seems he wasn't able to stick with any club for long. The 1973 Yankees were the fourth team in as many years to feature him on their roster, but Moses would spend '74 with Detroit and split '75 between the Padres and White Sox before being released.

The Best of Intentions

Among the 1972 Topps All-Star Rookie Team, there is one Hall of Famer (Carlton Fisk) and several hot prospects who played major league baseball into the 1980s. And then there was this guy:

Card #241 -- Dwain Anderson, St. Louis Cardinals

Of the entire All-Star Rookie team, all of the honorees would play at least until 1980 except one. Dwain Anderson never lived up to his early promise and was out of the majors by 1974. In fact, he would set a dubious record in 1973: he would go the most at-bats (144) for any position player after the end of the dead ball era without getting an extra-base hit.

Anderson is shown here as a member of the Cardinals, but began the '72 season with Oakland before being traded to St. Louis. For all the prestige of being on the All-Star Rookie team, Anderson would be traded twice in 1973: during the season, he was traded to San Diego and then to Cleveland in the postseason. He would appear in two games for the Tribe before returning to the minors for good.

Keeping Track, Part 2

Out of 660 cards in the 1973 Topps baseball card set, five were included to let collectors know which players are on each card.Here is the second of those cards:

Card # 264 -- Checklist 2

Presented 132 at a time, checklist cards let those collecting a complete set know what they were missing. The boxes between each name and number allowed collectors to keep track of their sets-in-progress. As a result, many checklist cards were marked up, which means fewer copies remain in higher grade when compared to regular 1973 Topps cards.

This one looks great...I featured another checklist card in an earlier post, and this card survived the years a lot better than that one did.

Odd Choice for a Picture

After years of boring, predictable pictures, Topps decided to use game-action photos on their baseball cards during the early 1970s. The change was good, since they allowed cards to show players doing their job. However, Topps did go through a learning curve regarding their photo choices.  Sometimes, the picture that actually shows up on the card can be interesting:

Card #213 -- Steve Garvey, Los Angeles Dodgers

In actuality, this card sows more of Wes Parker than it does of Steve Garvey. As Garvey is coming to the plate and scoring, Parker is reaching out to shake his hand before facing the pitcher. Unfortunately, Parker obscures Garvey and covers up part of his face. This picture could have been better at a different angle or a half-second later...but sometimes the man with the camera can only get so close to the action.

While we're on the subject of the picture, couldn't the umpire's arm and catcher's gear at the far left be cropped out?

Garvey spent eight years as one-fourth of the longest-lasting infield tandem in baseball history along with Ron Cey, Bill Russell and Davey Lopes. In 1974, he would win the National League MVP award. The next season, he started a streak of 1,207 consecutive games that was impressive until a youngster named Cal Ripken came along. As a photogenic player who lived in Los Angeles, Garvey would show up on TV and became one of the Dodgers' more popular players. He would spend his entire playing career in the National League West (and Southern California), playing his final five seasons with San Diego.

Lastly, Garvey carefully crafted an image as "Mr. Clean" and harbored political aspirations, only to have them fall apart after details of his personal life were made public. As somebody who came of age while Garvey's playing career was winding down, I didn't see the problem with those allegations: after all, a person who is tagged as a serial adulterer and illegitimate father is only doing what politicians routinely do to taxpayers.