One-card wonders, update 9

Last Friday was "One-Hit Wonder Day," and I missed it. But we'll catch up with this post and with a 50th anniversary celebration!

I was sitting in the dentist chair last month. It's always an uncomfortable experience, but also awkward, too. To take my mind off the issue at hand, I'd like to make some conversation with the dental assistant, but you can't do that when she's jamming instruments in your mouth.

So it's all very unpleasant and the best I can do to distract myself is with whatever media the dentist office offers. In the past, there would be TV monitors in each room and I'd vacantly listen to Rachael Ray or whatever morning show I didn't care about to make the time pass.

Then the TVs disappeared and all that was left was the image of an electronic flower. What the hell?

At last, radio music has been playing during my last few visits. It's the perfect distraction. The dentist office is finally airing a music streaming service and while I was there in my chair, the first song I heard as the first dental tool went in was ... "In The Year 2525".

I hate that song.

Oh, it's OK as a thought-provoker. Some of the stuff they sang about has already come true. And it's perfect for the year in which it came out. Space travel. The future, all of that was a big deal in 1969. But it's both depressing AND not catchy at all. I'll forgive a tune being a downer -- some of my all-time favorite songs are downers -- if the song is melodic. "In The Year 2525" is a dirge all the way to the apocalypse.

Imagine contemplating your own mortality -- the whole world's mortality -- while you're having plaque scraped off your teeth: What the heck am I doing in this dentist chair -- I have a life to live!

Anyway, "In The Year 2525" by Zager and Evans is a one-hit wonder that went to No. 1 for six weeks. It also went to No. 1 in Great Britain. Zager and Evans is the only music artist to go No. 1 in both the U.S. and the U.K. and then never have another Top 40 hit in either country.

Seems like a fitting sentence for forcing that musical depression on all of us.

But there were some other more pleasant one-hit wonders in 1969:

Spirit -- I Got A Line On You

Mercy -- Love (Can Make You Happy)

The Brooklyn Bridge - Worst That Could Happen

The Youngbloods - Get Together

Spiral Starecase - More Today Than Yesterday


And of course ...

Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, by Steam, which really should be titled "Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Goodbye".


These are all very familiar songs to me, which is interesting because the One-Card Wonders from 1969 are not familiar to me at all.

I wanted to go back to the '60s for this particular post. But tracking '60s players who appeared on only one card and one card only in a mass-produced set -- they couldn't have appeared on a multi-player rookie card either, although showing up in oddball sets or minor league issues won't disqualify them -- is not easy when you started collecting in 1975.

A lot of the players then are unfamiliar, meaning like half the set could potentially be a one-card wonder from my viewpoint.

But 1969 isn't like 1961 or something earlier in the decade (now that will be a pain). I do know a fair chunk of the players. And after going through the 1969 Topps set, these are the one-card wonders:

317 - Bruce Look, Twins
361 - Gary Holman, Senators
378 - Jose Herrera, Expos
437 - Luis Alcaraz, Royals
632 - Jon Warden, Royals

Five players.

I expected more with all of the expansion teams in the set. But there are no Padres or Pilots on this list.

It's a fairly interesting assortment. For starters:

Gary Holman got a rookie trophy on his card and never appeared on another card again!

Luis Alcaraz is wearing a Dodgers uniform on his card.

Jose Herrera, who shares his name with the Oakland A's player of the 1990s, appears in the 1967 Venezuelan set, but I won't hold that against him for this exercise.

Bruce Look's brother, Dean, also played briefly in the majors then became an NFL referee.


I don't have the other 1969 One-Card Wonder, Jon Worden, but his story is interesting, too. Worden pitched in 28 games for the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers. He appears in several Tiger-centric card sets, from both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, as well as a Dominos set.

Worden went to the Royals in the expansion draft, but he never played for them. He was sent down in 1969 and never came back up.

We never really heard from him again.

But we're still hearing about what two dudes in 1969 thought was going to happen in 2525.

OK, here's the One-Card Wonder list updated with 1969:

1967 Topps

#344 - Ossie Chavarria, A's
#388 - Arnold Earley, Cubs
#489 - Doug Clemens, Phillies
#497 - Ron Campbell, Cubs

1969 Topps:

#317 -- Bruce Look, Twins
#361 -- Gary Holman, Senators
#378 -- Jose Herrera, Expos
#437 -- Luis Alcaraz, Royals
#632 -- Jon Warden, Royals

1974 Topps:

#8 - George Theodore, Mets
#33 - Don Newhauser, Red Sox
#37 - Dave Sells, Angels
#77 - Rich Troedson, Padres
#421 - Dan Fife, Twins
#457 - Chuck Goggin, Braves
#573 - Mike Adams, Twins 

1975 Topps

#288 - Bruce Ellingsen, Indians
#407 - Herb Washington, A's
#508 - Bob Hansen, Brewers
#524 - John Doherty, Angels
#587 - Chris Ward, Cubs
#651 - John Morlan, Pirates 

1977 Topps

#118 - Rick Jones, Mariners
#132 - Chip Lang, Expos
#137 - Jeff Terpko, Rangers
#616 - Tommy Sandt, A's
#641 - Dan Larson, Astros 

1978 Topps:

#224 - Jerry Tabb, A's
#303 - Sam Hinds, Brewers
#311 - Jose Baez, Mariners
#386 - Bob Gorinski, Twins
#502 - Pat Rockett, Braves
#516 - Gary Beare, Brewers
#521 - Steve Staggs, Blue Jays
#591 - George Zeber, Yankees
#667 - Jeff Byrd, Blue Jays
#719 - Randy Elliott, Giants 

1979 Topps:

#172 - Mike Bruhert, Mets
#222 - Bob Beall, Braves
#292 - Don Reynolds, Padres
#336 - Bobby Thompson, Rangers
#363 - Craig Skok, Braves
#371 - Jeff Holly, Twins
#427 - Andy Replogle, Brewers
#658 - Taylor Duncan, A's
#676 - Johnny Sutton, Twins

1980 Topps:

#59 - Eddy Putman, Tigers
#72 - Fred Howard, White Sox
#156 - Tony Brizzolara, Braves
#221 - Joe Cannon, Blue Jays
#233 - LaRue Washington, Rangers
#291 - Randy Scarberry, White Sox
#347 - Harry Chappas, White Sox

1981 Topps:

 #491 - Gordy Pladson, Astros

1982 Topps:

#356 - Denny Lewallyn, Indians

1984 Topps:

#116 - George Bjorkman, Astros
#159 - Darryl Cias, A's
#163 - Lorenzo Gray, White Sox
#337 - Kevin Hagen, Cardinals
#382 - Chris Nyman, White Sox
#474 - Greg Bargar, Expos

1986 Topps:

#451 - Mark Brown, Twins
#502 - Glen Cook, Rangers
#567 - Jeff Barkley, Indians

1994 Topps:

#491 - John Hope, Pirates

1986 Donruss:

#32 - Johnny Abrego, Cubs
#42 - Rick Surhoff, Rangers
#461 - Dave Leeper, Royals
#510 - Steve Engel, Cubs
#595 - Carlos Ponce, Brewers


I think I'll stay in the '60s for the next edition. I better start brushing up on some of those names now.