#53 - Fred Kendall (SD/WASH)

Here's another San Diego Padres card that was also initially released under a potential Washington, DC team at the beginning of the Topps printing schedule before the Pads announced they'd stay in San Diego.  I think I had the Washington card since I was ten, and later acquired the San Diego card.  Notice how great a condition the back of the card is in.  It is clearly legible with sharp edges, and there are no wax stains or ten year old kid dings.

I always liked Fred Kendall as a player.  He was the typical weak hitting catcher, yet valued for his experience and ability to handle a pitching staff.  I got to see Fred play as well as his son, Jason, also a catcher.  I've also seen Fred as a bullpen or pitching coach and even heckled him a time or two in the 'pen while observing his pitchers warm up.  Fred spent ten of his twelve seasons with the Friars, with brief lunch engagements in Cleveland and Boston near the end before returning to SD.

Cartoon:  It's a good thing Fred didn't play Bob Uecker ball.

Ballpark background: I had a tough time with the location of this photo.  It's clearly a wide open space, wider than many spaces.  The Padres used to play spring training in Yuma, AZ in the old days.  I don't know if they did in '73 when this picture was likely taken.  This was their home yellows in '73.  (Notice the yellow tongue flap on his spikes!  Brian Wilson eat your heart out!)  There's something above Fred's helmet at the top of the picture that goes from his helmet to the right of the card.  It looks like the top rail of the chain link fence in the background.  At first, I thought that looked like the bridge that goes from San Diego to Corona island, and that the photo might have been taken in San Diego.  I'm not even sure that bridge would have been built in 1973.  But there's just not enough other things in the background for it to be San Diego.  Plus the bridge really does appear to be the top rail of a fence after all.  So, I'm going to guess Yuma at spring training.

#50 - Rod Carew (MIN)

Rod was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991 for his great career with the Twinks and Halos.  He had some huge glasses on at his induction.  You know, those 80's deals that were way too big?  Those made him look mighty preppy.  Carew played 2nd base for the first half of his career, and 1st base generally the rest.  This '74 season would be his last as a full-time second bagger.  In '75, he played mostly 2nd base, but had about 15 games at first.  In '76 he was a full-time first baseman.

I remember the image of Carew most in a Twins uniform, but saw him play mostly as an Angel.  As I recall, he had a sweet swing.  Either case, this guy could hit.  He collected his 3000th hit in his last year with the Angels.  His '73 season was his first of four 200 hit seasons.  I wonder if anybody back then in '74 had somebody like Carew pegged as a future 3000 hit Hall of Famer?  I probably didn't.  But heck, I was ten. 

Cartoon: If Rod were truly one of baseball's finest bunters, then he would be holding the bat without his fingers wrapped around the bat exposing them to the 98 mph heater coming at him.  Additionally, Rod bats left, but bunts right?  The player in the cartoon also seems to be a white guy.  I think I recalled that the cartoonist must have been left handed.  I just reviewed the cartoon on Manny Sanguillen's card, and danged if he ain't a left handed catcher.  Even though, this cartoon shows a good bunt laid down.


Ballpark background: The small stands behind the plate indicate that this photo was from spring training. 

#49 - Steve Renko (MON)

A veteran with numerous ball clubs (Expos, Cubs, White Sox, A's, Red Sox, Angels, Royals), Steve wore many different uniforms.  He finished his career 12 games under .500 with an ERA of about 4.00.  He's also the first above 200 pounds card seen in a while.  I always loved these cards with the player wearing the wind breaker under his uni.  Was it a fad back then?  I see this all the time in the 70's cards.  Steve was traded in the middle of a year to an expansion team in its first year - for Donn Clendenon.  This would figure in Steve's ring total - Zero!  What a bummer, to be traded away from a team just before they win a Wolrld Series, and to never win one yourself.

Cartoon:  I wonder if Steve also enjoys horseback riding.  Are they the same, riding horses and horseback riding?  The only thing missing is a polo mallet.

Ballpark background:  This is a recurring theme in Expos ball cards, it seems.  The spring training site.  You can see the palm trees over Steve's right shoulder.  What I like, though, is the transformer on the telephone pole.  Didn't Candlestick have one of those?  I forget. 

#44 - Mel Stottlemyre (NYY)

This is not only one of my favorite cards in the 1974 Topps set, it's one of my favorite cards of all time.  It's Mel's pose, simply classic for a pitcher, and that cartoonish smile on his face.  Mel's body type and his long, slender nose just make this card perfect.  Mel is so form-fit for this pose that a majority of his cards have this stance in the pic.  I love them all.  A few have slight variations of this pose or a wind-up pose.  One action card of Mel exists as a specialty card in the 1965 set showing game 2 of the 1964 World Series.  This '74 card was Mel's last card of his career, as 1974 was his last season.  His '74 offensive stats show him "appearing" in 3 games, with no at bats and 1 run scored.  I'm guessing he was a pinch runner at least once, and may have pitched in a game where the manager made a move that caused a loss of DH privileges, but where Mel never came to bat.

Mel had a pretty decent career in pinstripes when you figure in the Yanks performance over that 11 year span.  Mel was unfortunate enough to play his 11 year career smack in the middle of the Yankees 15 year World Championship drought between 1962 and 1977.  He did, however, play in the 1964 Series his rookie year in a losing effort to the Cardinals.  Mel had two sons that played in the majors, Mel, Jr., who had a brief stint in 1990, and Todd, who pitched longer than his father, for 14 seasons spanning the late 80's to the early 00's.  Todd ran up some post-season appearance totals, and although his dad played his entire career with the Yankees, Todd racked up two WS championships with the Blue Jays in '92 and '93.  I also love how Mel crosses all three T's in his autograph with one stroke of the pen.  This wasn't the first shot in the photographer's set, as Mel's grass stain on his left knee indicate a variety of poses in total.

Cartoon: Thanks to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, Mel's home movies are now available on YouTube.

Ballpark background: Mel is wearing the classic Yankee road uniform.  I much prefer the plain gray threads with no trim and the plain letters (no trim either) to their current duds with the piping and letter outlines.  Much more classy.  Well, that's beside the point.  The only ML park I can think of that would match this photo is Shea Stadium with it's two-pole light tower and open view with trees in the background, but I don't think the Yanks played there in '73.  So, I'm going to give an educated guess that this pic was snapped at somebody else's spring training yard.

#36 - St Louis Cardinals (STL)

One of the things that immediately stood out to me as I read the back of this card was that the great, all-time Hall of Fame name of not only one of the Cardinal greats of all-time, but one of the all-time greats, Stan Musial, is completely missing.  Huh?  What!!!???  Yeah.  There's Hornsby, Brock, Medwick, and Mize on the offensive side, and Dizzy Dean and Bob Gibson on the pitching side.  Stan the Man?  Yoohoo, where are you?  Wow.  Have all of his great feats been surpassed by one player or another over the years?  This is hard to believe.

For some reason, the Cardinals of the 70's don't register too well with me.  I looked at and played with those cards just as much as I did the other teams, but those teams just didn't click with my inner kid.  I recognize all the players just like any other team, but the teams didn't make as much of an impression.

Cartoon:  None.

Ballpark background:  This photo looks like spring training with the big palm tree in the background.  There are scores of onlookers behind the team, and it wouldn't surprise me at a Grapefruit League event.  Team photos taken during the season in a team's home park usually occur with empty stands in the background.

#31 - Mgr/Coaches Preston Gomez (HOU)

This is the first manager/coach card in this set.  The manager's photo is smaller due to the cut and paste heads of the coaches.  This is just classic ballcard type of stuff.  Off the top of my head, I don't know if the '74 Cubs team card is this way, but I've seen at least one Cubs team card that was made up of all cut and paste heads.  There really aren't stats on the back, but there is a handy little summary of each one's playing experience.  I like seeing the coaching staff, because it places them in time with a team, and there's little to no other stats for coaches.  Managers have their own pages on stat websites, but where would one go for coaches or even bullpen catchers? 

Anyway, I remember little about Preston Gomez, but I do remember hearing his name all the time.  This card probably helped that greatly.  Roger Craig and Bob Lillis have certainly made the rounds in ML history.  I couldn't have possibly known this from this card, but a bit over a decade later, Craig would become one of the most popular skippers for the Giants.  The world of baseball, with it's inside, good ol' boys network is an interesting study in itself.  I wonder if anybody's written a book about it.  Gomez was born in Cuba.  I'm wondering when he came here to the States.  Surely before Castro took power.

Okay, here's the first airbrush job on a non-Trades card.  It's only a small head shot, but notice that Roger Craig's hat has been airbrushed.  He wasn't a coach for the 'Stros in 1973, so Topps took the liberty to paint him up like one.  I 'spect Hub Kittle's probably fairly old by now, being born back in nineteen and seventeen.

Cartoon:  None

Ballpark background:  This looks like a dugout to his right, and the fence has non-major league advertising.  I'm guessing this is spring training.

#25 - Ken Singleton (MON)

Ken Singleton had a pretty good career spanning 15 seasons.  He played in two World Series with the Orioles, winning the second in 1983.  Here, he just got through his best season in Montreal, at .302/23/103.  He looks really young and really good.  One batting glove.  Cool old Expos hat.  Ken's ready to play, and he could be on my team. 

Cartoon:  Ken throws either righthanded or lefthanded?  Huh?  In baseball?  His card says he throws right, and so does Baseball Reference.  He was a switch hitter.  Did the cartoonist mess up?  Or does he really throw with both hands, but only with right in a real game?  I like how he makes downward arm motions and the balls come out perpendicular to his motion.  Singleton has some guns, I guess.  Mechanical help.

Ballpark background:  It looks like Ken was posing behind the Little League snack shack.  You know, the one where I bought much of my 1974 set.  Singleton's got on a home uni, and after looking at some Google images of Parc Jarry, I'm sure this pic was snapped during spring training.  There appears to be a foul line crashing into a chain link fence with no foul pole.  Maybe this was on a practice field.  [Update: 1975 Topps has a card of Expos' Bob Bailey showing the same building.  The palm trees in that card give it away that this is indeed spring training.]  [Update: Notice the wax stain down the middle of the back of the card.  I think the wax from the packs picked up some dirt from grubby little kid hands like mine.]

#21 - Bob Gallagher (HOU)

Bob had a short stint in the majors spanning four slightly active years between the Red Sox (1972), Astros (1973-74) and Mets (1975).  It looks like 1974 was his most active year, with 102 games played.  Most of those games were as late inning defensive replacements.  Bob only had 87 at bats in those 102 games.  Bob was traded to the Giants in March of 1976, but by the looks of it, he never set foot on the field with the Giants.

Cartoon:  Bob's grandfather was active in the majors?  He had a 16 year career between the White Sox and Red Sox.  Pretty dang active if you ask me.  And he got a ring with the 1917 Pale Hose.  Although he had a long career, he wasn't a superstar.  In 16 seasons he hit .264 with only 22 homers.  See Shano Collins' career stats here.  He was a 1B-OF, just like his grandson.


Ballpark background:  Bob was definitely hitting rocks against the backside of a stable in Boone Co., Arkansas.  Arkansas isn't far from Houston, if you take the train.  Looks like he had a real bat.  Carved from some ol' hickory tree, no doubt.  I'm going to give this shot of downtown Manhattan the "spring training" label, despite not knowing if this was from spring training.

#19 - Gerry Moses (NYY)

Gerry Moses' stint with the New York Yankees was very short, and already over by the time this card was released.  Moses didn't play for the Yankees in 1974.  He was traded during spring training to the Tigers, yet didn't have a card in the Traded set.  So, along with Paul Popovich, (card #14), I'm adding a new "Traded with no Traded Card" label.  I'm wondering if the Traded set had its own deadline for making the set.  Moses played all of 18 games in 1973 for the Pinstripes, 17 at catcher, and one at DH.  The following year, 1975, was his last in the bigs, and played a mere 7 games split between the Padres and White Sox.

I remember this card from when I was a kid, but nothing stood out about it other than it was a baseball card in my set.  Of course, when you play behind Thurman Munson, you might not get much playing time at all.  And just how his Moses' first name spelled anyway?  This card says "Gerry," but the Baseball Reference [dot] com website spells it "Jerry."  I typed in "Gerry" and it came up anyway.  Maybe the web designers at BR had the same question and decided to allow both spellings get to his stats.

Cartoon:  Wow, small world, to play sandlot ball with Archie Manning.  What I wonder about Manning is why he would wear a football uniform playing sandlot ball.  Maybe Moses is the one who convinced him that he had a brighter future on the gridiron.  Don't look now, but I think Pig Pen grew up in their neighborhood, too.

Ballpark background:  I really can't figure out where this photo was taken.  It's likely that it was at a Spring Training facility of another Grapefruit League team, given the Yanks' road threads.  There's a chain link fence at the stands, and there's no warning track before the fence.  I've never seen a big league park like this, so I'm giving this card the spring training location label.