Sunday, May 20, 2012

no. 52 - braves rookie stars


Who is the man: Both Oscar Brown and Earl Williams made their major league debuts in 1970 with a certain degree of success. Brown would hit better than he ever would, batting .383 in 47 at-bats. Williams also hit above .300, going 7-for-24 for a .368 average.

Can ya dig it: As I've mentioned before, I like the old-style Braves uniforms and seeing two guys wearing them just reinforces that.

Right on: This is the first rookie stars card of the four that have been shown that features two African-American prospects.

You see these rookies are bad mothers: They're bad at something, and that's at being bad-ass. Rookies can't be bad-ass.

Shut your mouth: It's interesting that Williams is listed as a first baseman, as he would go on to a career as a catcher. Williams didn't move to catcher permanently until early in the 1971 season. He would go on to win Rookie of the Year honors that year. But he became known as a subpar defensive catcher, specializing in passed balls -- with a whopping 28 in 1972.

No one understands him but his woman: Oscar Brown is not the same person as outfielder (Downtown) Ollie Brown. That is his brother. Oscar Brown played exclusively with the Braves, lasting until 1973. He played in a career high 76 games in 1972, but hit just .226.


(A word about the back): I never knew Earl Williams was so tall.

3 comments:

  1. Give Earl Williams a break, he had both Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Niekro on the staff. That would lead to a lot of passed balls for Johnny Bench.

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  2. That looks like the same mountain (hill) as the Paul Blair card.

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    1. I would say WPB Municipal Stadium. Baltimore was in Miami at that time. I used to live in Ft. Lauderdale and would go to ST games and FSL games (WPB Expos) quite a bit there. Looks like the stands down the 3B line. Williams is wearing the home pinstripes and Blair in his card is wearing a road uni.

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