no. 395 - roy white

Who is the man: Roy White established career highs in games played, at-bats, runs, hits, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases, batting average, slugging, and several other stats in 1970. It was pretty much a career year as he wouldn't exceed several of those stats for the next 10 years.

Can ya dig it: This card features a great look at White's memorable pigeon-toed batting stance, and also his habit of choking up on the bat.

Right on: The bluish uniforms of the visiting team almost threw me (I'm a '70s kid -- powder blue automatically means "Royals" to me), but I think the Yankees are playing the White Sox in this photo. The catcher, based on what appears to be an "ON" at the end of his name, would be Duane Josephson.

And, of course, I realize this has been perceived as a challenge to someone to double-check my work. Go nuts.

You see that cat White is a bad mother: If the Dodgers didn't exist, White would have been my favorite player when I was a kid. It was mostly because his name was "Roy", but I found out later that he was the calm in the Yankees' late '70s storm and that made me like him even more.

Shut your mouth: White was a steady force during the Yankees' transition from the Mantle-Maris days to the Bronx Zoo. But fans had a difficult time adjusting to a clean-up hitter who wasn't Mantle or Gehrig. A headline for a "Sport" magazine article in 1971 read: "The Yankees Have a Cleanup Hitter Who Chokes the Bat".

No one understands him but his woman: White played for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan for three seasons after ending his Yankees career in 1979. He was a teammate of the legendary Sadaharu Oh in 1980.

(A word about the back): White does "pensive" very well.