Monday, February 1, 2016
no. 496 - woody woodward
Who is the man: Woody Woodward was entering his final major league season when this card was issued. He would play in 136 games in 1971 -- the second most of his career -- but retire at age 29 at the end of the season.
Can ya dig it: Woodward's eyes match the sky.
Right on: I can't imagine how many fans gave him the Woody Woodpecker laugh.
You see that cat Woodward is a bad mother: Woodward was on the field for his glove. In 1967, he led all National League second basemen in fielding percentage.
Shut your mouth: Woodward hit the only home run of his nine-year career in 1970, a two-run shot off the Braves' Ron Reed. Afterward, teammate Wayne Granger said, "We figured out that if he keeps hitting home runs at this pace, it will only take him 4,198 years to catch Babe Ruth."
No one understands him but his woman: Woodward's only four-hit game came in the same game that pitcher Tony Cloninger hit two grand slams.
(A word about the back): Something happened between 1971 and now because Woodward's .984 fielding percentage in '67 is now listed at .982.
It doesn’t say it on this card, but it seemed to say on every other one of his cards that Woody Woodward was the cousin of Joanne Woodward and when I was a kid I’d think, "Who the hell is Joanne Woodward?" At around the same time the Reds also had a utility infielder named Jimmy Stewart, and it wasn’t till I was an adult that I realized there was an actor named Jimmy Stewart who was more famous than the baseball player named Jimmy Stewart. I wasn’t much into movies as a kid.
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