no. 664 - rookie stars pitchers

Who is the man: From left to right, we have three guys who spent most of their time in Triple A in 1970. Archie Reynolds appeared in 7 games with the Cubs and the rest of his time in Triple A Hawaii. Bob Reynolds spent all of '70 in Triple A, with Buffalo. And Ken Reynolds made his first four MLB appearances in 1970, but appeared in 29 games with Triple A Eugene.

Can ya dig it: This, right here, is proof that Topps has (or had) a sense of humor. For maybe the only time a rookie stars card is not categorized by team, position or league, but by name. Somebody at Topps apparently noticed three pitchers named Reynolds on their way up and thought it would be amusing to put all three on the same card but make no reference to the fact that they were doing it.

Right on: To add to the amusement, Archie is wearing the brightest hand-drawn cap ever. I suppose this is the artist's idea of an Angels cap as Archie went from the Cubs to the Angels.

You see these rookies are bad mothers: It may be the most unusual rookie card ever, but no I can't call any of them bad-ass. Collectively, they had five solo cards.

Shut your mouth: I mentioned this on the 1975 blog, but it's worth saying again. Bob Reynolds was involved in a famous dust-up with Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. When Robinson was the player/manager for the Indians, he sent Reynolds down to the minors. Later that same spring, Reynolds faced Robinson in an exhibition game. He yelled out to Robinson asking him why he was sent down. Robinson responded by coming across the field and knocking him off his feet with a punch. Reynolds later said it was a misunderstanding.

No one understands him but his woman: Ken Reynolds became a physical education teacher after his baseball career and said that he enjoyed his teaching career much more than his baseball career.

(A word about the back): All of them were born in January. I still think there's a Topps employee out there who has a chuckle every time he sees this card.