Who is the man: Joe Rudi had just completed his first 100-game season when this card hit packs. He played in 106 games, batting .309.
Can ya dig it: Terrific shot of a common scene at first base that you don't see a lot on a baseball card. How can you beat Rudi in that gold-and-green ensemble?
Right on: I don't know my early '70s Yankees well enough to identify a player with a shadow across his face. My guess is Curt Blefary.
You see that cat Rudi is a bad mother: Rudi hit the game-winning and Series-clinching home run in Game 5 of the 1974 World Series against the Dodgers.
Shut your mouth: Rudi has been a longtime ham radio operator going back to his playing days.
No one understands him but his woman: It took several years for Rudi to stick with the Oakland A's. In 1969, five years after Rudi's first year in pro ball, manager Joe McNamara said of Rudi: "It's hard to say what his future might be with the team. There are a number of question marks."
(A word about the back): Rudi's .309 batting average in 1970 was the best of his 16-year career.
I'll always remember Rudi for his leaping catch against the left field wall in game 2 of the '72 World Series. I was still smarting from Cincinnati's 9th-inning win against the Pirates in the final game of the NLCS, and I took great pleasure in the A's taking down the Reds.
ReplyDeleteI love this card! It was one of a handful of 1971s when I was a kid and it always made me wonder about the rest of the set.
ReplyDeleteRudi played 1B in a day game at Yankee Stadium only once in 1970, on July 16. It was the first game of a doubleheader. A's won 8-2. Five Yankees reached first that day - White, Blefary, Murcer, Kenney and Cater. It's definitely not White. Beyond that, I can't say, but Blefary is a possibility.
ReplyDeleteIt's also not Kenney.
DeleteHave you noticed how many photos/action shots were taken in Yankee Stadium? Topps was located in New York and so I'm guessing they must have trotted down to Yankee Stadium to get a photo/action shot of the players they missed in spring training. Then again, there doesn't seem to be that many shots in Shea.
ReplyDeleteIn 1968, Rudi began the season in the minors. On his first day back, he was inserted into the starting lineup, and made a great defensive play to save Catfish Hunter's perfect game.
ReplyDeleteThe picture on this card is from the same game as the Thurman Munson card. At first I thought the Yankee guy was Danny Cater, but it probably is Blefary. Both Cater and Blefary had two hits in the game. Each had a single, Cater also had a double and Blefary a HR. But Cater's single was in the ninth inning and by that time the Yankees were losing 8-2 and I doubt the A's would have been holding him that closely on first base with that score at that time of the game. Blefary's single was in the second inning when the score was still close.
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