Thursday, January 2, 2014

no. 247 - royals future stars


Who is the man: Both Jerry Cram and Paul Splittorff spent most of 1970 as members of the starting staff for Triple A Omaha. Splittorff did get into two games with the Royals in '70, throwing up a 7.27 ERA in 8-plus innings.

Can ya dig it: This card has the well-worn look of one of my first 1971 cards, obtained from the older brother of my friend. But I don't remember it coming in that trade nor have any memory of it.

Right on: I do not recognize Splittorff without his glasses.

You see these rookies are bad mothers: Stop it. Rookies on second-year major league franchises are not bad-ass.

Shut your mouth: Splittorff was an announcer for 24 years after his successful 15-year MLB career until his death in 2011.

No one understands him but his woman: This is the only Topps card of Cram, but he did get one solo card -- as a Met in the 1976 SSPC set.


(A word about the back): Splittorff's first year in pro ball was with the New York-Penn League's Corning Royals. I've been to Corning many times, not that this interests anyone.

2 comments:

  1. I miss Splitty so much. His passing is what ultimately resulted in KC ending up with Rex Hudler and Steve Physioc in the booth. It's hell on earth.

    Splittorff was also the first ever draft pick in Royals history.

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  2. I would always buy Mets yearbooks when I was a kid, and the first couple of yearbooks I have included Jerry Cram towards the back as a sort of implied "Future Met".

    ...So when I saw this card, I said "What the WHAT???" It never occurred to me that he was someone else's "Future Star" before he was a Future Met.

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