no. 191 - mike andrews

Who is the man: Mike Andrews had completed his fourth and final season with the Red Sox in 1970 and had been traded to the White Sox by the time this card appeared in packs. Andrews was dealt in the trade that brought Luis Aparicio to the Red Sox. Aparicio appears later in the set with the Boston.

Can ya dig it: Well, I'm digging that the '71 Topps blog is back. I apologize for the hiatus. Scanner issues.

Right on: I don't think I've mentioned this yet: When '71s are in almost-out-of-the-pack condition, there is no finer-looking card.

You see this cat Andrews is a bad mother: Andrews hit .308 (4-for-13) in five games of the 1967 World Series, which was his rookie year.

Shut your mouth: Andrews committed 74 errors in 114 games during his first season in pro baseball with Olean in the New York-Penn League in 1962. Wow.

No one understands him but his woman: My first knowledge of Andrews was reading about his infamous final moments as a major league player. After committing two errors against the Mets for Oakland in Game 2 of the 1973 World Series, A's owner Charlie Finley forced Andrews to sign an affidavit saying he was disabled and couldn't play. The public outrage helped return him to the lineup for Game 4, but after grounding out in a pinch-hit appearance, Finley demanded him benched for the rest of the Series.

(A word about the back): "An ideal leadoff hitter ..."

OK, let's see what that entailed in 1970, besides the mentioned being third on the team in games played and first in at-bats.

Andrews hit just .253 in 1970, but did walk 81 times, leading to a mediocre .344 on-base percentage. He did have 17 home runs.