Not deserving of the added In Action card…a career on life support…Started
in Yankee farm system….Early on had reputation as temperamental…Like Mike
Epstein, he played in Oriole organization with big power numbers in AAA….Called
up to the big club in 1965 and responded with ROY honors…Topps touted
his versatility but in reality he was a liability in field and it cost him future work…butt
of a joke by Frank Robinson who called him “Clank”…Hit over 20 hrs first three
seasons with Baltimore plus a good eye at the plate…but BA declined over time…Bottomed
out with a .200 in 1968…Next year was shipped to Houston for Mike
Cuellar…Cuellar subsequently won over 140 games for Orioles and took an AL Cy
Young award…while Curt had modest comeback numbers he lasted only one year…Traded
to Yankee for flamboyant Joe Pepitone…Rumors of personal troubles abounded and
playing time was cut in half and production plumented…spent next season and
half on West Coast playing for Oakland and San Diego…Tried to come back with
Braves in 1973 and went 1 for 20 in AAA….Died in 2001.
Extensive background and story is found on the Sabr web
site: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/4aa82107...held
many jobs during and after playing days…wanted back in baseball but less than
stellar reputation preceded him… an enigma of a man.
Photo: it is rare
footage…Curt only played 12 games as catcher in 1971….what game is anybody’s
guess…
Interesting how so many of these high number cards I've never seen before.
ReplyDeleteThis is the last of the high number In Action set. When I had my cards I had everyone of the In Action set shown except for Corralez's regular card. I was a real late season purchaser of card. I don't know how many people reading purchased entire boxed set, but if you bought packs it was almost impossible to complete the entire set without breaking your allowance.
ReplyDeleteI get the "I've never seen this before" feeling the 1971 set. That year I didn't collect many cards at all.