Monday, January 23, 2012

no. 8 - mike mc queen


Who is the man: Mike McQueen was coming off his first real season with the Braves at the time this card came out. He started 1970 in Triple A, then was called up to the Atlanta bullpen in June, before entering the starting rotation in September.

Can ya dig it: It's kind of an interesting pitching pose here. Instead of looking and throwing directly at the camera, as players often did for baseball cards at this time, McQueen is looking off to his left and you get a nice look at his pitching grip.

Right on: I really like the Braves uniforms from this time period. A lot better than those blue things with the bubble "a" that they wore through most of the 1970s.

You see this cat McQueen is a bad mother: In spring training of 1971, Hank Aaron was quoted as saying that McQueen was, "more like Warren Spahn than any young Braves pitcher I have seen."

Shut your mouth: Injury issues plagued McQueen and he missed the entire 1973 season after being involved in a serious automobile accident with teammate Jim Breazeale. He tried a comeback with the Reds in 1974, but didn't return to the majors after that season.

No one understands him but his woman: McQueen was the youngest person to appear in a major league game in 1969. At age 19, he started the last game of the Braves' season and threw three innings.


(A word about the back): Well the bio certainly ends on a downer.

1 comment:

  1. The bio started out so well too...if you like reading about his high school athletic prowess.

    ReplyDelete