1976 SSPC: #47 Jim Crawford

…As we continue to hopscotch through the 1976 SSPC set…

Jim Crawford Says… Huh? Whuzzat? You wanna see my Don Wilson memorial patch? Sure, check it out.

‘Round here, folks call me:  Catfish

You may remember me from… Pitching in relief with the Astros and Tigers for several years.

In 1976, Crawford… Was largely a guy out of the bullpen, but did pitch the only complete game of his career, which is notable given that over his career he had just 14 starts in 181 games.

So… take your time… and tell me… Is it Shea?  Yes, it’s Shea.

About the back of the card:  There’s a reference to Arizona State being “the baseball factory”, and that’s a reference both to ASU’s status as one of the premier college baseball programs, but also to the impressive bunch of players to come out of ASU in the Sixties and Seventies.  At the top of the heap were Sal Bando, Rick Monday and Reggie Jackson, but at the time this set came out there were other Major Leaguers like Duffy Dyer, Larry Gura, Gary Gentry, Lenny Randle, Craig Swan, and Eddie Bane.

After the set, you had players like Bob Horner, Bump Wills, Ken Landreaux, Hubie Brooks, Marty Barrett, Mike Devereaux, Paul LoDuca, Dustin Pedroia, Ian Kinsler, Andre Ethier… Oh, and Barry Bonds. Yeah, him.

One other thing about the back… “Denver” refers to the Denver Bears, the Astros’ AAA team in 1974.

More about that memorial patch…Don Wilson was an outstanding Astros pitcher in the Sixties and Seventies who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in January, 1975. At the beginning of the 1975 season, the Astros retired Wilson’s #40 and they wore the above patch for the 1975 season.

Where Topps Got The Design For The 2013 Archives Wrapper

Don’t be deceived by the image; this is not a review of 2013 Archives… well, not entirely.

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that one of the the best things about this year’s Archives set is the wrapper. It reminds me of a line from a Beach Boys song:

I threw away my candy bar and I ate the wrapper
And when they told me what I did, I burst into laughter

Obscure pop culture references aside, I got to wondering where Topps got the wrapper design from. I mean, it’s Archives, it’s supposed to be pilfered from somewhere in Topps’ stockpile of designs.

A quick bit of research turned up the above image of a 1971 Topps Super Baseball wrapper. For those who aren’t familiar with the set, they’re oversized cards a little bigger than 3″x5″, and much thicker than a regular baseball card. The corners are rounded and the back is similar to the regular 1971 cards.

I don’t actually have any 1971 Supers – lo siento -  but I do have a couple of 1970 Supers, like this Rusty Staub.

For me, both years of Topps Super fall into the category of “Why don’t I have more of these?”

I suppose I should say something about 2013 Archives, shouldn’t I?  Well, I appreciate that they made the cheap card stock  more cardboard-like this year, but the set still leaves me a bit cold.  Maybe if they used designs that resonated more with me, emotionally… If 2014 Archives uses designs from 1974, 1976, 1983 and 1991, and if they’re done reasonably well, then we might be on to something… but again, that’s just me.

Hostess Card Of The Week: 1976 Dave Cash

Dave Cash came up through the Pirates system, and took time at second base away from fading Hall Of Famer Bill Mazeroski. Cash put in some good seasons with the Pirates, but also had to contend for playing time with Rennie Stennett. The Pirates also had minor league prospect Willie Randolph coming up, so after the 1973 season, Cash was traded to the Phillies for pitcher Ken Brett.

I guess something about Dave Cash and Philadelphia just clicked, because the three years he spent with the Phillies from 1974 to 1976 were the best of his career.

This is what he accomplished with the Phillies that he didn’t manage elsewhere: Three All-Star game appearances, three years of MVP votes, three years of leading the league in at-bats, leading the league in hits in 1975, leading the league in triples in 1976. In fact, in all his time with the Pirates, Expos and Padres, Dave Cash never lead the league in any sort of significant category.

After 1976, Dave Cash became a free agent and signed a 5 year/$1.5 million contract with the Expos. He had two good seasons in Montreal, but lost the starting job to Rodney Scott and was traded to the Padres where he played one last year before retiring.

Oh, and his 65th birthday is this coming Tuesday! Happy birthday, Dave!

1998 Pacific Online Gets Whacked!

I’ve always liked to get cards of current players that I don’t already have cards of, so over the years I’ve bought a lot of cards from sets like Upper Deck 40-Man or my beloved Topps Total (sniff… Died before it’s time, it did).

Pacific’s one-and-done Online set falls into the same category.  Thing about it is that I never intended to complete Online, it was a just a set that was all-too-easy to buy a cheap wax pack or two and see which rookie, utility guy or reliever I might get.  Also, it was a tempting target when going through dime boxes… “Oh, look!  Sean Runyan!  I don’t have a card of him yet…”

But now 15 years have passed, I need the space, it’s an ugly set, and at this stage of the game I really don’t need extra cards of Eddie Perez or Ricardo Jordan… so they have officially been purged from the collection.

Kurt Manwaring would normally fit into the “Do I really need extra cards of this guy?” category as well, but this is a cool-enough action shot that a reprieve was given by the Governor.  (All he wanted in exchange was for me to give him Michonne…)

It’s also amusing to think that URL’s were novel enough to include on a card.  Too bad they couldn’t include a link or something, I have my doubts about how many people would’ve typed in those long URL’s.

The addresses are all dead-ends, by the way… There’s probably been a half-dozen complete revamps of the MLBPA’s website since then.

I’m also… for the time being , anyway… saving this card of Josh Booty.

It’s not a terribly exciting card, but Mr. Booty won MLB Network’s “Next Knuckler” competition a couple of months ago, so that’s good enough for me.

I also saved the card because Josh Booty’s name reminds me of a particular character from the movie “The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension”…

Better Late Than Never: Chris Davis Was The A.L. Player Of Last Week

On Monday, Chris Davis was awarded his second A.L. Player Of The Week Award of the season.

Last week, Davis led the league in average, hits, total bases, slugging percentage and runs scored, was tied for the lead in homers and was tied for second in on-base percentage.

As of this morning, he leads the Majors with 20 homers, a .740 slugging percentage and is tied with Miguel Cabreara for the lead with 7 intentional walks.

…and he still carries a career 0.00 ERA!

1976 SSPC: #28 Clay Kirby

You may remember me from… …Striking out 231 guys in 1971 and losing 20 games with the expansion 1969 Padres!

In 1976 Clay Kirby was… On his way out, going 1-8, 5.72 for the Expos. He’d pitch in AAA in 1977 before calling it a career.

Sad to say: Kirby died in 1991 at the age of 43.

You don’t see that on cardboard every day: I like the shadowy figures pulling the tarp off the field.

So… take your time… and tell me… Is it Shea?: Hard to say for sure in the dusk, but that looks very much like the Shea batter’s eye.

Nit-picky comment from a guy who used to do a lot of proofreading: If you told me that “Cincinnati” would be misspelled on the back of this card, I would’ve expected to see two T’s or a misplaced N… But I would never expect to see “Cincinnato”.

And now a word from the proprietor, Joe Shlabotnik: This SSPC set is generally numbered by team, sort of like Fleer of the early Eighties. Because of that, as I feature these cards I’m going to skip through the set, team by team, and feature whichever card strikes my fancy. I’ve done the Braves and Reds so far, next up we have the Astros.

1976 SSPC: #16 Dusty Baker

You may remember me from… 19 years as a player and 20 years as a manager, including managing the the Cincinnati Reds since 2008.  I also won a Gold Glove and played in the 1981 and 1982 All-Star Games!

In 1976, Dusty Baker was… Disappointing, hitting .242/4/39 for the Dodgers after going .261/19/72 with the Braves in 1975.  (Don’t worry, he bounced back in 1977)

SSPC vs. Topps:  Both sets picture Dusty in a Braves road uniform, but SSPC acknowledges his trade to the Dodgers, something Topps didn’t do until the Traded set.

1976 Joe says:  Why does the National League think Atlanta is in the west?

2013 Joe says:  I am glad to see that the concept of “stadium tilt” was not a Topps exclusive.

So…take your time… and tell me… Is it Shea?:   Most of the photos for this set were taken in Shea Stadium, and I was confident that this was no exception… But when I asked myself which part of Shea was pictured here, I said “Um… It’s… aahhhh… well… oh.” I ended up digging up my 1970′s Mets yearbooks, and I’m pretty sure this lovely bit of scenery is right behind home plate, with the corrugated metal filling a gap between the Field Level and Loge seats.  

And Now, A Word From Joe Shlabotnik:  Here we go with the first of what will likely be a very long series of posts featuring cards from the 1976 SSPC set.  I gave some serious consideration to doing it up as a separate blog, but I’ve only got so much time and I didn’t want to dilute my brand (as they say on Madison Avenue).  I’m also a bit wary of presenting myself as any sort of expert on the set, because I am anything but.  Whatever knowledge about the set that I’m passing along is most likely stuff I just learned myself.