#27 Garry Templeton - GM Whitey Herzog declared that Templeton was the only untouchable player when it came to trades. Kellogg's called him "The Franchise". He was the first player to get 100+ hits from both sides of the plate in a season. Not on the card - the untouchable shortstop was traded to San Diego after the 1981 season in a deal which sent Ozzie Smith to St. Louis.
#26 Rod Carew - the card talks about his career .333 average and his ""so-so" .331 average in 1980.
#25 Steve Henderson - he was traded by the Reds in a deal that sent Tom Seaver from the Mets to the Reds. "Last season Steve's bat may have shown a few signs of things to come" reads the back. Not on the card - I should check my garage for signs since somewhere in there I have a game-used bat of his.
#24 Willie Wilson - he had 200 college football scholarship offers and chose Maryland. But, when the Royals drafted him No. 1 he chose baseball.
#23 Vida Blue - Kellogg's called his 1979 ERA of 5.01 "national-debt size". His career ERA through 1980 was 3.11. Not on the card - our national debt has gone up a lot more than the ERAs of any pitcher, even Blue's 1983 ERA of 6.01.
#22 Joe Morgan - "Little Joe's final statistics don't reveal the leadership role he played in Houston's successful and exciting drive for the NL West pennant." Not on the card - his stats weren't good - 11 HR, 49 RBIs and an average of .243 in 141 games.
#21 Dave Winfield - he just signed with the Yankees for $1.5 million making him baseball's highest paid player. Not on the card - Golfer Jason Day made more money than that last week, Oprah and Michael Jordan made more than that while I wrote this post and deceased celebrities and sports stars make that weekly.
#19 Chet Lemon - moving him to the lead-off spot in the batting order helped Lemon's hitting. He played high school football with the NFL's Rickey Bell. Not on the card - he played centerfield for the White Sox in those softball-uniform shorts a few years back.
Nice comment on Temptleton ("the untouchable") and Joe Morgan!! I would have liked to have seen that Reds team play, though.
ReplyDeleteChet had a good career.