Of all teams of the 1972 set, I believe the Cardinals
had the most veterans playing out their last year hoping to catch on before getting
their outright release…other Cardinal wantabes for 1972 included ex NL stars, Don
Clendenon, Jim Maloney, Art Shamsky, and long time Houston reserve, Marty Martinez…Prime of career was spent the Braves organization....Most famous moment was two grand slams in one game...All
but Maloney appeared for the Cards in 1972… but it was the end of the line for
Tony after 1972…1970 card showed his pitching stats in hitter format an error
that was never corrected…had one his better ERA as part of the big Red Machine of 1970 but only garnered nine wins…He like his team had considerable drop in
production in 1971.
In 1967, when I started following MLB and collecting cards (and thereby learning about who was who), I heard about Tony Cloninger on the radio.
ReplyDeleteLater that same season, I heard talk of slugging outfielder Tony Conigliaro. "Wait, I thought he was a pitcher...". Only after getting both their baseball cards that year did I realize they were 2 different people.
I was 1969 that I realized that professional baseball existed as concept of individuals and teams, teams that play each other, playing for a championship. Before that it was background noise on my Grandfather's TV and the odd baseball card lying around the house.
ReplyDeleteNow at that time baseball cards to me were the primary way you could relate to player as an individual. After that you would have see/hear of a player on TV (I was too far to see the game in person). But if didn't get a player's card in a given year you did not know of him. Cases for me were Julian Javier or Vada Pinson. Never heard of those guys until I got cards of them later in their career. Conigliaro is different because he had a lot of press billing (and huge offensive numbers) when he started.
My family did have a Cloninger card before 1969. Problem was it during the cap-less head shot year of Braves cards. I believe a card loses memory power if it is a hatless close up.
"I believe a card loses memory power if it is a hatless close up."
ReplyDeleteWell, that's probably true in all cases except this one.