Who is the man: Ed Brinkman spent the last of his 10 seasons with the Washington Senators in 1970. He was traded on Oct. 9, 1970 in the eight-player deal that sent Denny McLain to the Senators.
Can ya dig it: Brinkman is wearing a Senators jersey in this very photo. Topps thought it could fool ya by taking off Brinkman's cap.
Right on: Brinkman can barely contain the tobacco chaw in his mouth. I'm sure if my mother saw this photo, she would have never bought me my first packs of baseball cards.
You see that cat Brinkman is a bad mother: Brinkman established four single-season fielding records for shortstops when he won a Gold Glove with the Tigers in 1972: consecutive errorless games (72), consecutive errorless chances (331), fewest errors (7) and fielding percentage (.990).
Shut your mouth: When the Tigers clinched the AL East pennant in 1972, Brinkman said to a reporter live on local TV, "This is the best bunch of f---ng guys I ever played with."
No one understands him but his woman: Brinkman was activated as a member of the District of Columbia National Guard in 1968 to help halt riots in the city. He missed half the season that year.
(A word about the back): Notorious for his inability to hit, Brinkman's career batting average was at its peak on this card. He batted in the .260s in 1969 and 1970 and those were the only seasons in his 15-year career in which he batted above .240. Just two seasons prior, his career batting average was .206.
Those were the only 2 seasons where his manager/hitting coach was Ted Williams.
ReplyDeleteI have seen a lot of stories in which Williams helped individuals improve their batting or pitching. Despite Williams' lack of success as a manager, he seemed to do quite well for the individual players under his command.
DeleteEd Was a High School Baseball Teammate with Pete Rose while at Western Hills High School in Cincinnati. Cool.
ReplyDelete