Doing what I want to do (as pathetic as that may seem)

 

Today is Father's Day, which as I've mentioned before means doing what I want to do, and only that, all day.

 

For some that may mean boating, fishing, golfing, going to a ballgame, some of the typical stuff. For me, and most Father's Days now, it means nerding out over baseball cards. As pathetic as that may seem to some people -- probably most people -- I'm perfectly happy doing this. What? You want me to go to Dave & Busters? Come on.

So I've got something here that will interest a very limited amount of people. Heck probably most readers and bloggers don't care. But that doesn't matter today on the day of doing what I want.

I've long been interested in the phenomenon of players disappearing from card sets. They're in a card set year after year and suddenly they vanish, and then they appear again!

 

This happens a lot, but you need to pay attention year after year. A very specific example of this is when a player does not come to an agreement on using their name and likeness. There have been articles written (including mine) about that.

 

I'm not getting into that, instead I'm focusing on my very favorite card set again, 1975 Topps. I just got done recognizing the players from that set through an entire year of birthday wishes on Twitter. While doing that for 12 months, I realized some players from that time, NEVER SHOWED UP IN 1975 TOPPS!

What a terrible fate. I can't imagine being a player in the '70s and getting left out of that magical set.

I came across four examples of a player who appeared both in 1974 and 1976 Topps but did not show up in the '75 set (I'm sure there are other examples, maybe one day I'll write an article about that). Let's go through each of them and I will try to come up with a reason why each sadly didn't make the '75 set.

RANDY HUNDLEY

Starting appropriately with a player whose son also played in the majors. Randy Hundley played in just 32 games in 1974 but that's not why he didn't make the '75 set. Hundley appeared in 21 games in 1971 yet showed up in the '72 set.

Hundley was traded from the Cubs to the Twins in December 1973. He appeared with the Twins through 1974 but he was released by Minnesota in October of '74. He was not picked up by the Padres until April of '75. Prime card-making time back then was around November/December so as far as Topps was concerned Hundley was a man without a team.

 

MIKE KEKICH

Mike Kekich was traded from the Yankees to the Indians in June of 1973 and he finished out the season with Cleveland. The Indians released him in March 1974, just when Topps photographers would be snapping pictures for the 1975 set.

The Rangers signed him in April of '75 but he didn't play for them at all in 1974, playing for Texas' Triple A club and also playing in Japan. He re-emerged with Texas for the 1975 season.

MIKE SADEK

Mike Sadek is the only one of these four examples who remained with the same team from 1973-75.

Sadek was just starting out in the majors at this time and appeared in just 39 games for the Giants in 1973, yet Topps feature him on a card in the '74 set with that .167 batting average for all to see. He spent the entire 1974 season in Triple A Phoenix so Topps scrapped him from the '75 set. He also spent a good portion of 1975 in Phoenix but was called up for 42 games with the Giants.

 

JIM WILLOUGHBY

 

Jim Willoughby had appeared on Topps cards for a couple of years already, including his great '74 card but he vanished off cards in 1975.

 

Willoughby was still pitching for the Giants in 1974, he appeared in 18 games and started four. At the end of the year he was traded in October to the Cardinals. I'm not sure why he didn't show up in the '75 set as an airbrushed Cardinal. He wasn't acquired by the Red Sox until July of 1975 so when Topps was making cards, he was a Cardinal. Maybe they didn't have a photo that could be painted?

 

I was kind of a Willoughby fan in '76 -- he was a figure on that famed '75 Red Sox team -- so that's the one that hurts the most.

 

If I was a custom-card maker I would have whipped up a '75 of each of these players, but there are plenty of people who know how to do that better.

 

Maybe someday I'll find some more players that the '75 set skipped but that's all I want to do today. And you know what the theme of Father's Day is each and every year:

 

Don't push yourself.

 

So I'm done. Happy Father's Day.