Comments on: 1973 Most Valuable Players

By: brent67

brent67 — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:33:50 +0000

Wondering if, due to the empty seats in the background of the Rose picture, that the pic from his 1973 card may have been taken pre-game, possibly during batting practice or during a fungo drill.

The Reggie Jackson picture from that year is definitely unique. It reminds me of a late-’80′s era Orel Hershiser card (sorry, I can’t remember the maker…Donruss, maybe) that had him posing with a bat. Somewhere in the demilitarized zone between the sublime and the ridiculous.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:47:51 +0000

Yeah, these guys took turns killing my team, and I didn’t like them because of it, but if I ever met them now I’d thank them. They did as much as any two players to make 1970s baseball a beautiful world.

By: shealives

shealives — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:31:48 +0000

This card reminds me of the love/hate feel I had about these two players as a Mets fan.
I hated them both but I knew how important they both were to baseball as a whole. As a result, when I see them now (or many other players) I have nothing but good memories.
I don’t think kids today look at players that way.

By: gedmaniac

gedmaniac — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:35:49 +0000

Okay, wait–I did find a fly out to right he had in the Thursday June game that year. It could have been that, if Topps was there in mid-season on a weekday. Anything’s possible. (He also had a line out to right in a May game but that was a night game, second game of a twi-night DH, so that one’s out.) But those were the only two balls he hit in the air to the right side–none to infielders.

By: gedmaniac

gedmaniac — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:29:22 +0000

“On second thought it may have been a pop in foul territory that was caught by the 1st or 2nd baseman.”

I liked your first thought better–like I said above, he did not pop out to first or second, or fly out to right field in any of his at bats in Candlestick in ’72.

I do think it just went out of play, as he is looking way to the right, but it could be a ball he took a bad cut on, popping it down the line, paused to see fair/foul, and then immediately took off, and reached first as it fell in. I checked articles from that weekend and I saw no mention of his hit to right field at all, to tell if it was a bloop or not. I was hoping for a “Rose’s bloop single proves inconsequential in Reds win…” headline.

By: dave15

dave15 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:40:59 +0000

On second thought it may have been a pop in foul territory that was caught by the 1st or 2nd baseman. Rose has that look to him like he’s hoping the ball will go into the stands down the 1st base line.

By: dave15

dave15 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:37:51 +0000

Regarding the Rose pic I’d have to think it was a foul popup with no chance of being in play, if it was a high pop close to fair territory Rose would certainly have dropped the bat and started hustling to 1st and not looking up with bat in hand to see where it was headed.

That Garvey photo would have been better had it been taken a second or two later from the exact same spot, he’d be crossing the plate after a HR being congratulated and you’d see his whole body.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:29:54 +0000

livnlegend:
Shysterball also mentions that Garvey card as evidence of the lackluster image cache of 1973. I wanted to get a look at it, so I found an image of it, and, whew, it’s pretty lame:
https://www.beckett.com/images/pgitems/269890101.jpg

mbtn01:
Thanks for the description of the manager silhouette. I was wondering what that looked like.

gedmaniac:
Nice work. Could there really be a chance that the Rose card is showing him hitting a bloop single? My thought was that the craning of his neck was such that the ball had to be hit too high to have a chance of falling safely.

By: gedmaniac

gedmaniac — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:18:41 +0000

Been trying to figure out the day of the Rose shot. It’s guaranteed ’72 because that was the first year of the new Reds unis with the built-in belt. (Though die-hard Giants fans would know the shot from the shorter fence which started in ’72–8 ft high, compare to this with the white extensions.)

The Reds played several day games at Candlestick that year, but only one weekend series, which was in September. Since late-season and weekends seem to be common for Topps, I’m narrowing it down to that–Sat, 9/9 and two games on Sun 9/10.

Plus, in all his games at SF that year, Rose did not hit one pop-out or fly out to the right side of the field. I would think the ball he hit here fell harmlessly into the seats on the right side. However, one could make a case for this being his single to right field in game one on 9/10, leading off the seventh. It would’ve been a bloop, obviously–and yes, he would’ve been batting left-handed off of righty Randy Moffitt.

The old farmer’s almanac shows this series took place on 70 degree days with high visibility and no precip, which matches the card it seems.

Johnny Bench’s card from the same year (where he’s catching a pop-up right in front of the Giants dugout) is probably from the same day, as he caught two foul pops by righties in game one and another in game 2.

By: sb1902

sb1902 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:45:46 +0000

Great entry, Josh (great closing line, especially). I, too, the same about the passage of time. I’m shocked to see my peers for the first time in years. I always imagine time blissfully passing over my head, leaving me untouched, and seeing people I knew twenty or twenty-five years ago reminds me my perception is probably off a touch.

I always found those ’73 cards kind of depressing. It seems that, like the Rose card, every game was played in a cookie-cutter turf stadium in front of mostly empty seats. (If it weren’t for the name on the card, I would never had recognized that was Reggie Jackson pictured.)