#244 - 1979 Pirates Team Card
What a great card to start things off with, the 1979 "We Are Family" World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. Prominently featured is manager Chuck Tanner, whose mother passed away during the World Series that season. This is the first team/checklist card to make my set, and it's certainly a worthy choice. This is one buyback I actually sought out and picked out specifically, the other nine cards I have today are from that big buyback lot I've been chipping away at...
#46 - 1974 Pat Kelly
Pat Kelly was actually the final out of that very 1979 World Series (as a member of the Orioles). When outfielder Omar Moreno caught Pat's pop fly, the Pirates clinched the title with a game 7 road win.
#628 - 1973 Jim Slaton
This one is pretty badly miscut top to bottom. Random bit of trivia, did you know that Jim Slaton has the most career wins in Milwaukee Brewers history? It's true, and it doesn't look like anyone is threatening to knock Jim from his perch anytime soon.
#486 - 1978 John Curtis
John actually began his career with my hometown Boston Red Sox. To me, the most interesting statistic from his career has to be the fact that he was the last pitcher to ever have an at-bat in Fenway Park (before the DH came into play in 1973).
#58 - 1979 Bob Randall
I confess to not knowing a single thing about Bob Randall. He played 5 seasons of MLB ball more than I ever will, but other than that I'm at a loss for words. Bob better hope another card #58 doesn't pop up at some point, it won't take much to give him the boot.
#390 - 1974 Lou Piniella
Now there's a much more familiar name! Given how long the practice of Topps giving stars card numbers in multiples of ten went on for, it's not surprising that some of the better players in my set so far are these nice even card numbers that end in zero. It certainly looks like Lou just had a big swing and a miss, I'd imagine this is close to what I look like when I rip through a swing at the driving range only to find the ball still on the tee.
#87 - 1970 Steve Renko
I really can't say anything negative about vintage Montreal Expos cards. I'm a total sucker for franchises of the past, possibly stemming from my Hartford Whalers fandom. Here's another nice piece of baseball trivia for you...did you know that Steve Renko nearly had a no-hitter in Oakland while pitching for the Red Sox in 1979? It was broken up in the ninth inning when some young rookie named Rickey Henderson roped a double. That same day, Nolan Ryan also took a no-hitter into the 9th inning, and had his broken up by Reggie Jackson. Is this the only time in baseball history that two no-hitters were broken up in the 9th, and both by future HOFers? I'm guessing so.
#182 - 1979 Tim Johnson
1979 was the final year of Tim's career. He went on to manage the Blue Jays a couple of decades later, but got in some hot water over lies he told about Vietnam war experience (never a good idea).
#395 - 1973 Roger Metzger
These Astros uniforms are not in the least bit familiar to me. This card is kind of cool in that Roger won a Gold Glove, the lone Gold Glove of his career, in 1973. Apparently his career came to a premature end after an unfortunate encounter with a table saw left him with a few fingertips less than he had previously. Yikes!
#246 - 1961 Bob Davis
Final card for today is also now the oldest card in my franken-set, a 1961 Topps Bob Davis. Bob never actually played for the upstart (and short-lived) Los Angeles Angels. After the 1960 season the Angels selected him from the Kansas City Athletics in the expansion draft, but Davis chose to retire to pursue his education. Hard to knock a guy for that I guess.
Ten more down, closing in on triple digits pretty quickly here!
Franken-set Progress: 91/792 (11%)
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