Wednesday, October 5, 2016

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.

9 comments:

  1. Love the 79T Mariners team card. Heck... I love any card featuring the famous Kingdome.

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    1. It sounds like you have fonder memories of the building than I do.

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    2. It played a small part in me becoming a Seahawks fan back in the early 80's.

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  2. I actually got to play softball with Lee a couple of times. It was a fund raiser in town and he would show up with a team. Afterwards he would always hang around with us guys and shoot the shit.tell stories and have a few beers. Just saw him recently at a signing. I asked him if he remembered coming to town. He did recounting many of the details of the day and field. He is pretty genuine.

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    1. That is really neat! Around what year(s) was this? And, how was he as a softball player? It's always nice to hear about athletes, especially successful one's, that are cool to be around. Although, I already had a favorable opinion of him, after hearing an interview with him on the radio around 5 or 6 years ago. He came across as very gracious and humble. If you don't already have one, you should really try and get him to sign a softball.

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  3. He was pretty impressive.. He played all over the field. Play d shortstop left handed and made all the plays. Got up to bat both lefty and righty and hit it out. It was late 80's.

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    1. It really shows then, that those charity games weren't just another event for him if was able to remember specifics from 20+ years ago.

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  4. Went to a show this morning. Lee was signing. Saw him sign a Stan Papi bat. He had a good laugh with Tommy Harper who was also there

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    1. You sure get to do a lot of neat things and meet a lot of interesting people. One has to wonder why someone wanted him to sign a Stan Papi bat?

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