196(9) At A Time - Page 21

Enough of the faux vintage cards from O-Pee-Chee. It's back to the real thing.

Deuces are wild on this page: two hatless, two airbrushed, and two ex-Cubs



#177 - Ron Reed A two sport player, Reed played for the Pistons from 1965- 1967 and averaged 8 points per game. In baseball, he was an All Star in 1968, with an 11-10 record. In 1969 he won a career high 18 games for the division winning Braves, yet didn't make the All Star team.



#178 - Ray Oyler Hatless Ray is wearing a Tigers uniform, a team he played on for four seasons. After being with the World Champion Tigers in 1968, he moved to the hapless expansion Pilots in 1969, going from the penthouse to the outhouse.



#179 - Don Pavletich This back up catcher spend his entire career in the Reds organization before being traded to the Sox after the 1968 season. He, like many other Reds in the set, had their picture taken at Wrigley Field in 1967. The Wrigley identifier in the picture is the upper deck grandstand and roof to the left of his face.



#180 - Willie Horton Willie had a great year in 1968 for the Tigers, slugging 36 homers and finishing fourth in MVP voting. He's shown taking a cut at spring training.



#181 - Mel Nelson This is the second time that a Cardinal card follows a Tiger card in the set. Two strange things about that; these were the World Series opponents in 1968 and the teams share the same card color scheme, yellow circle, red last names. There are very few instances in the set where the same color scheme is in consecutive cards. Mel Nelson lasted on 8 games in 1969 before his big league career was done.



#182 - Bill Rigney Bill was the Angels first skipper in 1961 and by 1969 was still with the team. Expansion teams aren't that patient anymore. The Angels ran out of patience in 1969 and fired him after 40 games. He resurfaced as the Twins manager in 1970 and ed them to a division title.



#183 - Don Shaw Don's Mets cap is airbrushed. He was one of many young arms the Mets had and they felt he was expendable. They were right as he went 2-5 with a 5.21 ERA for the Expos working out of the bullpen



#184 - Roberto Pena This is a really old picture of Pena in a Pirates uniform, as he was traded by the Bucs to the Cubs in 1964. The light hitting shortstop was given a chance with the Cubs in '64, but lost the job to future all star Don Kessinger. He hit .250 for the Padres and was there staring shortstop in 1969, but was traded to Oakland after the season



#185 - Tom Phoebus Phoebus is the forgotten starter on the Orioles. He was not Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, or Mike Cuellar, but did an adequate job for the O's, winning 15 in 1968 and following it up with 14 wins in 1969. But in 1970, he slipped to 5-5 and his career was in free fall. He ended up with the Cubs in 1972 going 3-3 out of the pen. He was finished after that.



Overall Set Totals (player cards only)
Hall of Famers - 11
Hatless - 43
Airbrush - 35
Cubs (includes past, present, or future) - 30