Who is the man: Jack Heidemann was a 20-year-old rookie in 1970 and had just finished his first full season when this card was issued in 1971.
Can ya dig it: Quick! Which stadium is that? New York? Oakland? I'm just not old enough to guess these early '70s baseball backgrounds.
Right on: This is the fourth straight card with a player with a long last name. And the streak ends with the next card.
You see this cat Heidemann is a bad mother: He doesn't look "bad" at all on this card, and it's even worse when you turn the card over. But if you look at a later card, you can see that badness come out all over.
Shut your mouth: During the 1970 season, Heidemann went 5-for-5 in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game, he went 0-for-4.
No one understands him but his woman: Heidemann was the youngest player on the Indians in 1970, which means he got left behind by his older teammates periodically. But Heidemann said he did get to hang out with them after the game, too.
(A word about the back): He looks positively Howdy-Doody-esque.
You can see Heidemann's 1970 stat line. He got 445 at-bats despite hitting .211 with little power. That's the way things were for the Indians in the '70s.
Stragely enough, he was a co-leader of the AL in Sacrifice Flies in 1970....
ReplyDeleteI agree about 445 at-bat hitting .211, thing, the thing about Indian's shortstops was not only that they generally weren't very good, but they only played about 4 for most of entire 10 year span from 65 to 75, Larry Brown, Eddie Leon, Jack H, and Frank Duffy.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to mention something about picture background mentioned in can you dig it the answer is Old Yankee Stadium OYS...I viewed the whole set and their is only one card in the whole set, Ken Berry, (air brushed CWS uniform) that I could be certain was taken at Oakland stadium. OYS and Shea stadium are generally of any MLB backdrop of the 1971 set (although I would say there are some Pittsburgh and Cleveland, some cool in action shots at Shibe Park, Richie Allen pic at Dodger stadium). Oakland Stadium didn't become staple backdrop until 72 and then several years after.
Without looking at his stats, you could guess his numbers weren't good when the back mentions he's the regular SS and then goes on to site his three All-District selections in high school.
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