Here's my first attempt at a Rookie Card....
I never had this Twins rookie card but I'd loved to have it growing up in Central Minnesota...as rookie cards go it's fairly typical in terms of the overall players careers. A short timer (Strickland), a 3-4 MLB year
career man (Albury) and Rick Dempsey, who logged in over 20 years as a sometime
starter but a pretty memorable backstop.....So let’s start with Rick…As far as Dempsey and the Twins they never
quite meshed. Over four seasons as cup
of coffee guy, Rick had 66 Abs, no homers, no runs batted in and was pretty
much off the radar buried behind several backstops, Mitterwald, Borgman, Phil
Roof, Paul Ratliff, even Tom Tichinski and catcher convert Danny Walton…having
grown up and following the Twins closely I had never heard of him before
leaving for greener pastures. ..Dempsey then get traded to the NY Yankees before the 1973 season and
while he never becomes a regular he is serviceable as Thurman Munson's backup....Then in 1976 he was part the
trade to Baltimore It is here Dempsey
makes a name for himself for most of the eighties....Most memorable, sometime in the early 80’s,
there was a rain delay in regular season game, Dempsey takes it upon himself to
stuff his gut, walk out to the tarp and pantomime a comical home run trot…For
the time it was viral been the put in blooper reels, TWIB, and TV rain delay
footage…I wonder what the grounds crew thought.. The other moment was after
being named 1983 World Series MVP Rick received a phone call from President
Reagan, Rick then proceeded to tell how the Russians would be better off if
they played baseball…Rick appears to be never at the loss for words…
Albury did not make it to the Twins in 1972 and most of 1973,
but able to be a regular Twins spot starter middle reliever for about 3
years. He was primarily a reliever in
the minors. I often confuse him with
Twin Ray Corbin had a similar role around the same time. The background of pictures is that of Orlando
Tinker field…which was dwarfed by the
adjacent Orlando Citrus Bowl
Strickland appears to have trouble with injuries, collects a
4-2 record in 60 games. Strickland appearance in this RC is somewhat
of a misnomer for he appeared in 24 games and 31 innings during 1971 campaign. Started as a Dodger farmhand and ended career
in Cleveland organization
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