buybacks as i see them

Back again with another batch of buybacks that Jim (GCRL), who is now at the helm of cards as i see them, was kind enough to send my way.

Since the current highest number I have for this ongoing frankenset is 721, I figure that with this group and the previous two, Jim has now contributed to 1/7th of this set build so far.

This lot was a bit different than the previous two, in that it contained a quite a few players of note, which meant this post took a little longer to put together (not that I'm complaining)  than the last two.

On the last day of the 1976 season, Hank Aaron got the final hit and RBI of his career, off of Dave Roberts.

Tim Foli was the number one pick in the 1968 draft, and played a major role in Pittsburgh's '79 championship.

In May of 1981, Bo McLaughlin was hit in the face by a line drive that not only nearly ended his career, but it nearly ended his life. It's amazing think that a fellow, who's injuries were so severe that doctor's thought he might not survive that first night in the hospital, would be able to recover enough to come back and pitch in September of the same year.

I think by now everybody knows the story of the 1970 No-hitter thrown by Dock Ellis, while under the influence of LSD (not to mention the laundry list of other incidents that he was involved in). On a bit of a side note, I finally saw No No: A Dockumentary a few months back, and I must admit I was somewhat disappointed with it. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I thought it was terrible, it just didn't seem to be as good as everyone was making it to be at the time of it's release.

You could say Lenny Randle is infamous for two different incidents. The first being in 1977, when he punched and severely injured his then Texas manager, Frank Lucchesi, after losing his start at second base to Bump Wills. His other bit of notoriety came in 1981 as a member of the Mariners, with the famous "no blow rule"...

Much like Dock Ellis, I'm sure everyone is already familiar with the antics, on and off the field, of Bill Lee. I know a lot of the other card bloggers are fans of his, but to me, it seems like he was always trying a little too hard to be weird. But, it's still nice to have a recognizable name in the set.

Cesar Geronimo had the great fortune (or misfortune) to be the 3,000th strikeout victim of both Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan.

Looking at Lee May's career stat line of 354 HR's, 1244 RBI's, and 2031 hits. With a lifetime batting average of .267 over 18 seasons, left me wondering when those numbers would have been enough to make it in to the hall of fame. They certainly are enough for him to garner any consideration in this day and age. But I have to believe that if he had put up those numbers sometime between the 30's to maybe the mid 50's, and he was eligible before say the mid 60's, that they would have earned him a spot in the hall.

Seeing the Kingdome in the background of the Mariners team card above, takes me back to watching Seattle's home games on television as a youngster. Which then reminds me of what an ugly stadium that was, especially that hideous Astroturf. I am of the opinion that newer ballpark's aren't usually better looking than the ones their replacing, but in Seattle's case, Safeco Field was around 10,000 times better than the Kingdome.

This batch also gave me four more cards in the 600's, which is really nice, since I had only one previously.

Jim, thank you for sending another great group of cards. And you will be happy to know that at the card show I attended last weekend (see next post), I came across a bit of a Dodgers mother lode, some of which will be headed your way in a couple of days.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.