#59 - Ross Grimsley (CIN)

Ross Grimsley was a respectable pitcher, and more than a bit player in Cincinnati's 1972 season.  I remember him from my childhood both as a player and from his baseball card.  Ross had a career that spanned 12 years and he won 124 games.  I also remember him with the Baltimore Orioles.  More than coincidental, he was traded to the O's during the winter meetings in 1973, and never played a '74 game in the Reds threads.  This fact shows in the next card which is a card of Grimsley in the Trades set.

On the back of the card is something interesting that I came across at work last week.  Grimsley is called "Ross Albert Grimsley II."  This means that he was Ross Albert Grimsley, Jr. until he named a son after him and his father.

Cartoon:  Boy, his eyes really do look crazy!  No wonder they gave him the nickname of Crazy Eyes. 


Ballpark background:  Here we have the first appearance of Grimsley's home yard, Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.  I can tell by the bland green fence with green concrete behind it, along with Grimsley wearing a home uni.  The elements in this photo remind me of a very ironic story some years future from this photo.  At the end of his career, the Reds offered Rollie Fingers a contract to play on one condition - that he shave his trademark handlebar mustache off since the Reds had a no facial hair policy.  Fingers would play only if he got to keep his waxed stache.  Team owner Marge Schott - known for her bizarre public comments - made it known that the Reds were a traditional team and believed in tradition enough to not sign a reluctant Fingers.  Now, let's see.  A team that wore double-knit polyester pullover pajama uniforms with an elastic wasteband and played in a circular, multi-purpose facility that was shared by a football team, with perfectly symmetrical dimensions, artificial turf and who was owned by a woman is traditional?  I dunno.  There seemed to be quite a few players on the old traditional tobacco pack baseball cards that wore a mustache.

#57 - Darold Knowles (OAK)

Another of my childhood A's memory players who played for the World Champs. I didn't know there was a league named after Ban Johnson, as one of the "stars" shows.  Babe Ruth, yes.  Cal Ripken, yes.  But Ban Johnson?  He's the founder of the American League in 1901.  Darold has some interesting post-season numbers.  He has no stats at all for either the 1972 or 1974 post-seasons despite being with the A's then, and no stats for the 1973 ALCS.  He did, however, pitch in all seven games of the 1973 World Series against the Mets.  Just days after the 1974 World Series victory, Knowles was traded to the Cubs for Billy Williams.  The 1974 season, with the DH being only one year old by then, was the only season of Knowles career that he didn't have a single plate appearance.

Cartoon: Darold pitched a no-hitter before his career even began?  Was this in the minors?  Little League?  Playing Strat-O-Matic with his kid brother?  And he lost the no-no.  But back in the 80's or 90's sometime, MLB revised their rules for deciding what a no-hitter was.  They concluded that a no-no must be a nine inning game for the pitching team.  So if Darold lost a no-no, he could have pitched only 8 innings as the visiting pitcher because the home team didn't need to come to bat in the bottom of the ninth.  I remember a number of no-hitters were erased by the rule change, including losing no-no's and rain-shortened ones that completed 5 innings.  So, sorry Darold.  Your cartoon might even be obsolete today.

Ballpark background: Texas Ranger gray uni's combined with California gold tops and wedding gown white bottoms combined with the outfield fence in Oakland means that this was played in Oakland.  At the Coliseum.

Situation ID: I believe I've identified exactly when this picture was taken.  I checked games in 1973, and determined that it was taken on July 28, 1973.  Card blogger "wobs" at 1974 Topps - Pennant Fever (who is now far ahead of me in blogging this same '74 set - click here for his post) suggested some Ranger names for the runner on second base.  What's interesting about this "action" shot is that the runner is standing on top of the base with his hands on his hips.  That's because, as a relief pitcher, this photo was taken during Knowles' warmups.  Checking all the 1973 home games vs. the Rangers when Knowles relieved while a runner was on second revealed only one possibility.  The runner is Jim Mason and Knowles is relieving John "Blue Moon" Odom after Mason's single knocked in Billings from second base and Mason took second on the throw back in, knocking Odom out of the game.  So, this was taken in the top of the 5th inning on 07/28/73.  Here's the link with the box score and play-by-play account.

#54 - Elias Sosa (SF)

I don't remember Sosa pitching for the Giants very well, but I do remember his card.  The 1974 season would be his last with the Giants, and would go on to play for 8 teams in his 12 years.  He would make one World Series with the dreaded Dodgers in 1977, for which I am glad they lost.  He also, along with almost every other player in the late 70's it seems, played a short stint for Charlie Finley's A's in 1978. 

Cartoon: I'm guessing that Elias' idol is Marichal because they both came from the Dominican Republic.  Marichal was known as the "Dominican Dandy."  I wonder if Sosa was ever known as Baby Dandy.  Who knows.  But, the cartoon figure has a high leg kick proving without any doubt whatsoever that the Topps cartoonist knew what he (or she) was doing.

Ballpark background: Candlestick Park.  There's no doubt.  A Giant in his home uni on AstroTurf with a chain link fence w/ the orange "375" sign and football bleachers tucked under the upper deck.  Yup, that's the 'Stick all right.

#45 - Dave Johnson (ATL)

Dave Johnson, who would later(?) be known as Davey, had a career of 13 seasons in the bigs, a majority of them with the Orioles.  This card is the first card in the set showing a full time second sacker.  It's also the first card in the set, to my knowledge, where the player had at least one World Series ring each as both a player and manager.  Davey got rings with the O's in '66 and '70 and as manager of the famous Mets team of '86.  His 1974 season would be his last full season in the bigs.  He had a blowout year in '73, smacking 43 homers (breaking Rogers Hornsby's all time 2B HR record) and batting in 99.  His numbers were way off in '74 (.251/15/62), and after only one at bat in the 1975 season - a run scoring double - Davey was released by the Braves early in April.  He missed the rest of the '75 season as well as the entire '76 season.  Does anybody know why?  He was signed as a free agent by the Phillies in '77, seeing limited action in '77 and in '78 as well, when he was traded to the Cubs in August.  He played his last eight weeks of big league ball on the North Side before being cut after the season ended.

This photo is a bit strange for an action shot.  The ball is seen behind Davey's behind.  It is easy to jump to the conclusion that he swung and missed.  But... He hit right handed, so this was snapped on his follow through swing.  It looks like he either fouled the ball at the plate and it bounced up behind him or maybe it hit off the catcher or umpire and ricocheted back.

Cartoon:  Davey is a licensed pilot.  Speaking of pilot, here he is shown in a TV cartoon series pilot flying by the Umpire State Building, cutting in front of Bugs Bunny who is waiting on top of the tower to catch that ball.  The show never debuted.  This blog post used two past tense conjugations of verbs that ended in silent T's, just so you know.  Ricocheted and debuted.
Ballpark background:  I can see Mets uniforms in the dugout beyond Johnson, and this looks like the Shea Stadium dugout shown in other card shots over the years.  So, I'm going with Shea Stadium.  Final answer.

#43 - Jim Wynn (HOU)

Jim Wynn was also known as the Toy Cannon.  This was a rather colorful nickname, and I never knew if he received this because he had a great arm or not.  Maybe he had a bad temper, but his nickname might have more appropriately been the Loose Cannon.  I wonder who gave him that nickname.  Wynn played most of his career with the Astros including his first few when they were known as the Colt .45's.  Jim was traded during the off season to the Dodgers and appeared in their '74 World Series loss to the A's.  This was as close as he would ever come to a ring.  He played for the '77 Yankees, but was realeased during the season.  He was traded for the card previous in this set, #42 Claude Osteen.  Wynn's Trades card will appear next in this blog.

Wynn had some pop in his bat, hitting 291 homers in his career, but batted for a fairly poor average, only a .250 clip.  Each game I did research for to try to pin this photo down had Jim as the 'Stros leadoff hitter.  He hit only .220 in 1973.
Cartoon:  Look at those musical notes just floating by.  That's a sure indication of jazz.  Snapping one's fingers is Jazz, too.  Hey, this guy's also wearing a long sleeve undershirt, just like Wynn in the photo.  Typical Candlestick day game in June or July.  Frigid winds and players wearing sleeves.

Ballpark background:  Here, Jim hits the ball up in the air at Candlestick Park.  I did some research on the '73 game logs between the Astros and Giants to see if I could place this photo to a specific plate appearance, and I couldn't pin anything down on Wynn.  He popped up a couple of times, and flied out to left, and flied out to center a number of times.  There were also some nondescript accounts such as "Wynn made an out to second" where it doesn't say if he lined out, popped out or grounded out.  For all I know, this shot could have been taken on a foul pop that made the stands during an at bat that had a completely different outcome than a pop up.  Judging by the angle of the sun, it's a day game rather than a night game that starts in the summer still in daylight.  There's a Giants player in the background, and by the look of the angle it's probably the first baseman.  Willie McCovey spent some time on the bench against the Astros in '73, and from the logs it looks like this player might be Dave Kingman, as this player is right handed.

#42 - Claude Osteen (LA)

Claude Osteen pitched for a long time, an 18 year career, most impressively with the Dodgers.  Although he pitched for a successful team in the Dodgers, with a WS victory ('65) and a pennant ('74) the season after his trade, the bookends of Osteen's blue tenure, he finished his career just one game over .500, just shy of both 200 wins and 200 losses.  He was a permanent fixture in the Dodger rotation, albeit not the most successful one.

Claude was traded in the off season to the Astros, so his '74 picture never had its fulfillment.  In fact, he was traded yet again late in the '74 season from the Astros to the Cardinals.  He finished his ML career the following year with the White Sox.  With Osteen's card, every baseball team has now been represented in this 1974 set. 


Cartoon: Well, somebody needs to have a nickname of Goober.  Wonder who it might be?  The cartoonist got the TV series reference right with the combat boots, the helmet and grenade.  I wonder if he ever threw that pitch.  Now that's what would be known as an exploding fastball.  Yuk, yuk, yuk. 


Ballpark background: It really looks to me like there's ivy on the centerfield fence behind him.  I know of only one place that could have happened in a 1973 photo shoot.  Wrigley Field.  I'm a bit troubled by the lighter green above what appears to be the top of the ivy, but from an angle such as this, the wire "fan guard" as it were might look like this.  I know there are some bleacher seats left empty for a batter backdrop, and they are painted green.  I sat there once in the mid 80's.  The "400" distance marker would be a clincher, but maybe Osteen is blocking it due to the camera angle?  I don't know.  If this is Wrigley, it would be the first appearance in the set.

#40 - Jim Palmer (BAL)

Nineteen seasons in the big leagues, six World Series appearances, three rings.  I'd say Palmer belongs in the Hall of Fame, for sure.  He was the center of a great Baltimore pitching staff of the late 60's and 70's.  He also did underwear commercials, and the chicks dug him.  Or is that digged him?  My spell checker is placing a squiggly red line under the word digged, so maybe the chicks dug him.  I remember great matchups between the A's and O's in my childhood: Blue, Odom, Hunter and Palmer, Dobson, McNally, Cuellar.  Never were it an easy task to beat the Orioles.  The A's took them down twice in the '73 and '74 ALCS, and the O's won in '71.  I remember this card when I was a kid, but somehow the image isn't what I remember about Jim Palmer.  Maybe it's the shadow from his hat that crosses his eyes.  I don't know.  Either way, it wouldn't have been easy to get a hit off him.

Cartoon: What happened in game 11?  How lucky were his socks then?  Did this have anything to do with underwear?  Socks are classified as underwear, right?

Ballpark background: Palmer is wearing home whites, and the batter's rump is in road gray.  The blueish fence in the background is consistent with other Oriole players in this set whose card photos were obviously taken at Memorial Stadium.  So, that's what I'm guessing.

#27 - George Scott (MIL)

I always like seeing players with the same last name as me.  Knowing my family tree extensively, I am sure there is no relation.  Other notables are Jake Scott, the Miami Dolphin safety from the undefeated team, Fast Freddie Scott from the Detroit Lions past, Luke Scott who played for the Astros a few years ago, and a few assorted NFL linemen.  There's also that Astros dude that used sandpaper on the ball, Mike.  Byron?  A few namesakes include a professional mile runner, professional golfer and a Chicago news anchorman.  George Scott had a decent career of 14 years, was a slugger for a good part of it, and was coming off one of his two best years when this card was released.


Cartoon: Note, George is only ONE of the flashiest fielding first sackers in the bigs.  We all know the cartoonist knows Willie Montanez is simply THE flashiest, he just can't say it.  Not PC, even in 1974 terms.  And George's cartoon is backhanding a ball from behind.  His next move is to cross dribble between his legs twice, then an alley-oop to Michael Jordan at the hoop.  Oh, wait.  Maybe it will be to Wilt the Stilt at the top of the key for a sky hook.  Okay, wrong sport.  After I post this, I'll go onto YouTube to try to find some George Scott flashy action.  I know he was flashy, because his last year he played part of a year with the Royals and his uniform number was 0.  Having a number of 0 in the 70's was flashy, almost by definition.

Ballpark background:  Add one part Brewers road uniforms, one part yellow shirt behind George's right thigh, one part yellow sock just below George's right knee, then we sprinkle a bunch of yellow in the crowd beyond him, top with a sloping dugout roof toward the field, mix well, bake at 475 for 15 minutes, and out pops the Oakland Coliseum.

Situation ID: [Updated 03-20-11]  This action shot of Scott was at the Oakland Coliseum.  It looks as if he is watching a popup.  If this photo was taken in 1973, then it was likely on Saturday, August 18, a day game, when cleanup hitter Scott fouled out to first baseman Deron Johnson leading off the second inning off of pitcher John "Blue Moon" Odom.  The A's took the game 6-3, on their way to their second of three consecutive WS victories.  Here, George has no middle name shown on this card, while his BR page lists Charles as his mid-moniker.

#20 - Nolan Ryan (CAL)

Uhhhhhhm, now how cool is this.  My next card in the set is Nolan Ryan, just a couple of hours at most after the Texas Rangers win the AL pennant.  I didn't plan this either.  I was sitting here uploading the scans and the highlights were on the TV.

Okay, what can I say about Nolan Ryan?  All time strikeout leader with 5714.  Twenty-seven big league seasons, 324 career wins, all time walks leader with 2795, all time record seven no-hitters.  member Baseball Hall of Fame.  Only one World Series appearance, with the 1969 Mets, where he got a ring.  He finished out game 3 with 2.1 innings pitched in a 5-0 Mets win over the Orioles.  This 1974 card came just after his record setting single season record of 383 strikeouts.  As a batter, he had a lifetime .110 average, and hit twice as many career home runs as Duane Kuiper, with two.

Ryan pitched in the radar era, where the speed of his pitches could be measured, even if not on every pitch.  He was the fastest pitcher of my childhood for sure, and I'm certain he would be amongst the top today.  Maybe still the fastest.  I certainly wouldn't want to face him.  Everybody knew he was the fastest pitcher and struck out the most batters.  There were always arguments against him, even for the Hall of Fame because of his W/L record, and how he never played for many great teams.  His long stints with the Angels, Astros and Rangers were with some sub-par teams.  My biggest mistake of his career was staying home from his sixth no-hitter in Oakland because I was sick that night.  I was planning to go sit in the bleachers, like I normally did.

Cartoon:  Nolan sells footballs.  Now nice.  And pricey ones, judging by the tag.  I'm not sure he operates a sporting goods store anymore.  He's going to the World Series and runs a team.  Probably doesn't have the time.  "Hi, I'd like to purchase some Nolan Ryan commons.  Got any?"  "Not in my store, son.  They're all star cards here."

Ballpark background:  I simply can't make out what is behind Ryan.  The blue fence looks like it could be Dodger Stadium, but all the stuff behind it kind of eliminates that.  The background is too blurry.  Are there trees?  People?  I think the Angels played spring training in Palm Springs in the 70's.  Could this be another Cactus League park?  Ryan has an Angels road uniform on.  There seems to be a tunnel over the fence, but what is all the yellow stuff?  Mystery to me for sure.  Any input? [Update: Fleerfan - see comments below - has identified the ballpark in the background as Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.  I'm not very familiar with that old ballpark, especially with all the blurry background in the photo.  But after looking at Fleerfan's link, calling that one out must have been a slam dunk.  So, I'll update my labels for this post.  Thanks, Fleerfan!]

#15 - Joe Torre (STL)

Joe Torre held a rather dubious (or should I say sad?) major league record.  As player and manager, Joe participated in more games than anybody else in history without ever being in a World Series.  Until the Yankees beat the O's in the 1996 ALCS.  As manager, Joe cried.  Literally.  He then won four of the next five World Series.  It's actually a bit of a touching story.  As much as I hate things Yankees, Joe Torre is maybe the least offensive thing to ever live in the Bronx Zoo.  I actually developed respect for him over the years.

Joe's picture here looks like he's just accidentally downloaded some chin music to his iPod.  He's bending backward, having just avoided a stint on the DL, and his bat shows no signs of going around to get a strike call from the ump.  A few things to notice here.  Joe has 2000 career hits at the printing of this card.  Joe was a multiple position player for nearly his entire career.  Starting out as a catcher, he later took up first base, being C-1B for years.  Then he switched from 1st to 3rd to be a C-3B, then later to 1B-3B, with most of his games at third.  In '73, Joe flipped to mostly first base for the remainder of his career.

Cartoon:  Joe certainly has MVP numbers in '71.  Like batting .363.  But, his trophy looks more like an urn.  There's a lid with a handle on top.  Wonder what goes inside?  Whatever the design, Joe really loves it, as we can tell by the cartoon.  I wonder if he takes it to bed at night.  I never saw one like it in Little League.

Ballpark background:  Joe is wearing a gray uni, so the Cards are on the road.  I'm not familiar enough with Shea Stadium's dugouts, but this is a dugout, and I can see box seat bars on each side of Joe's waistline.  This gives me inclination to guess Shea Stadium, but I'm not totally sure.  So, I'll label this as "undetermined" and maybe come back to it later in the set in case I find other cards similar enough to convince me one way or another.

#10 - Johnny Bench (CIN)

One of the greatest catchers to ever play baseball.  Today, Johnny and Yogi Berra are viewed just about as the two greatest ever.  Johnny revolutionized catching with his patented one hand behind the back style.  Not many injuries from foul tips or wild swingers.  And this is the guy flat in the middle of that monster Big Red Machine lineup.  It's enough to be a power hitting catcher, but that fact is overwhelming in knowing just how good a hitter he was.  I hated the Big Red Machine back in the 70's, being a Giants fan myself, but just to be honest, it was a very respectful hatred.  Except for Pete Rose.

Do you get the idea that the Topps editors wanted its collectors to know about Johnny's 1970 and '72 seasons?  I wonder why.  But I'd like to call attention to the double-knit polyester pullover pajama uniform Bench is wearing.  And the half-calf stirrups.  You won't find that in today's game, although it's nice that he didn't pull them up high enough to just see the stripes up the sides of the legs.  Solid leggings look a bit better.  Especially on a player like Bench.  If Johnny ever had an air-brushed card photo, would the artist use Krylon paint?

Cartoon: I didn't know that Johnny sang country music.  He's from Oklahoma, so I could guess that he listened to it.  I wonder if his singing ever started any bar fights.  Say, it looks like the Topps cartoonist had a good job for a while.  Must have been seasonal work.  Did this guy file for unemployment once the season started?

Ballpark background: Johnny is sporting the Reds road uniforms, and the players in the dugout in the background are displaying New York Mets home threads.  My eddicated guess is that this ballpark background is Shea Stadium.

#7 - Jim Hunter (OAK)

Jim "Catfish" Hunter.  Or, simply Catfish Hunter, as I knew him as a kid.  I grew up 20 miles east of Oakland and the A's won their first of three consecutive World Series in 1972 when I was eight.  These came in the middle of five consecutive division titles.  It was a great time to be a kid.  I wasn't old enough to know that the Charlie Finley A's were a tiny blip invaders in a market that had been dominated by the Giants and Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Cepeda, Perry and Bonds.  Their three trophy seasons only produced one season with a million in attendance.  When you're a kid, things like that don't matter.

Catfish would end up in the Hall of Fame, and looking at his numbers from '71-'73 here, it's no wonder.  All the A's players were intimate household names.  Here, he's seen with a mustache, another crazy scheme of eccentric owner Finley.  Finley paid any of his players 50 bucks to grow a 'stache.  In those days, fifty bucks was a lot of cash, so most players joined in.  Finley also relaxed facial hair and hair policies from the rest of baseball.  The A's were also known as "The Mustacheo A's" in the early 70's.  Rollie Fingers grew a handlebar mustache during that time and it became his career trademark.

Finley also started a uniform revolution.  The A's started wearing white shoes in the 60's, along with a bit of color with their yellow vest uni's and green undersleeves.  In 1972, the A's changed their look radically, with the donning of double-knit polyester pullover jerseys and pants without a belt, favoring an elastic waistband instead.  Their hats took the traditional Gothic "A" and added an apostrophe and an "s."  Their official colors were Kelly Green, California Gold and Wedding Gown White.  Announcer Monte Moore always talked about the colors.

This picture of Catfish was taken on a Sunday, as the A's wore white on Sundays and either green or gold the rest of the week.  This 1974 year would be his last with the green and gold, as he had a dispute with Finley and ended up with the Yankees the next year.  Catfish Hunter will always hold a special place in my heart, as such things stick in the mind of a kid the rest of his life.