Who is the man: Brant Alyea had completed his best season in the majors when this card arrived. He hit 16 home runs in just 94 games in 1970, his first year with the Twins, who acquired him from the Senators in March of that year.
Can ya dig it: Alyea is posing in Yankee Stadium. You can barely make out the Yankee logo on the scoreboard.
Right on: Alyea's full name is Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea. Good to see he at least got the "R" in the signature.
You see that cat Alyea is a bad mother: Alyea hit a three-run home run in his first major league plate appearance on Sept. 12, 1965.
Shut your mouth: Alyea's son played pro ball in the minor leagues for the Blue Jays, Rangers and Mets organizations in the late 1980s. But Brant wasn't aware that his son, also named Brant, was in pro ball until his son had already been signed and had started playing in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Alyea's boss at a casino alerted him to the fact.
No one understands him but his woman: Alyea met a woman while playing winter ball in Nicaragua and fathered Brant Jr., not realizing he had a son until returning the country the following year. He then lost touch with his son due to the political turmoil in the country until Brant Jr.'s career was under way.
(A word about the back): Two 7-RBI games in one season is awesome. Aylea hit five home runs and drove in 23 runs in his first 53 games with the Twins in 1970. He made the cover of The Sporting News in May of that year.
Medicine Hat is in the province of Alberta (same as Calgary). What you wrote was kind of like saying Spokane, Seattle. Great blog though - awesome research.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I meant Alberta, obviously. I'll fix it.
DeleteAt least TSN didn't use a caption on Brant's cover like the one it had on Danny Walton's cover that spring: "The Next Killebrew?" Come on, TSN. At least require a guy to ride a hot streak for more than a couple hundred ABs before comparing him to a HOFer! (BTW, I was a subscriber for over 30 years, beginning at about age 13. Excellent magazine/newspaper back in the day.)
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