That '70s Card

Which baseball pitcher had the nickname “Mayday”?

Why, it was the fictional Sam Malone, of course. Sam Malone, portrayed by Ted Danson, was an ex-Boston Red Sox pitcher who ran a Boston pub called “Cheers”, which the show was also called. Cheers aired for 11 seasons from 1982-93, and after the series was cancelled when Danson decided to leave the show, a spin-off entitled Frasier - named for a regular patron of Cheers - aired for another 11 seasons.

Sam Malone was portrayed as a reliever whose career fizzles due to an alcohol problem. When the show begins in 1982, he has been running Cheers for five years. A couple of different blogs have given Sam Malone the PhotoShop cardboard treatment. The first is an excellent rendition of a 1976 Topps card, courtesy of a political blog.

1976 Topps Sam Malone

There is also a slightly odd version of a 1972 Topps card (although no more odd than some other Topps airbrush jobs of the 1970s), courtesy of The Writer’s Journey blog.

1972 Topps Sam Malone

1972 Topps Sam Malone back

I remember a conversation that happened during my freshman year of college: Name as many bands as you can that are in the format of “Person’s Name and the Name of the Band”.

I’ll get started, list yours in the comments below.

1. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
3. Bruce Hornsby and the Range
4. Buddy Holly and the Crickets
5. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

Zelmo Beaty had a name for Rock ‘n’ Roll. He was also the leading scorer on the 1970-71 ABA Champion Utah Stars. He apparently had the attitude of a Rock ‘n’ Roll front man: He “moves about the court like a snobbish butler, but works like laborer under boards” [Remember the ABA]. Nicknamed “The Franchise”, Beaty pulled down over $100,000 a year in the fledgling ABA.

1972-73 Zelmo Beaty All-Star

This All-Star card of Beaty is a little miscast, as Beaty (#31) watches Manny Leaks attempt a sky hook. By all accounts, Beaty was a banger and tenacious defender.

1971 ABA Playoffs - Zelmo Beaty and the Stars

After the 1970-71 Championship season, Beaty led the Stars to first place finishes in the ABA’s Western Division the next 3 seasons. He returned to the NBA for the 1974-75 season, rounding out his career with the Los Angeles Lakers after starting with the St. Louis and Atlanta Hawks.

I started collecting baseball and football cards in 1977. That same year, Royal Crown (“RC”) Cola featured baseball players on the side of their soda cans in a collector’s series of 70 different cans. These days, Pepsi and Coca-Cola reign supreme – but back then RC was prevalent, and there was an RC vending machine in the front of the grocery store in the no stoplight hamlet where I grew up. It used to be everywhere, even crowning young hurler Nolan Ryan (RC was a sponsor of the New York Mets in the early 1970s).

1971 Topps Nolan Ryan

I didn’t drink much soda pop back then, but I supplemented my budding collection of baseball cards with these cans that I picked out of the garbage cans in front of the grocery store and at the softball diamonds. I do remember one time even spending a quarter of my own money, buying a can of RC out of the machine, dumping out the contents and returning home with another can for my collection.

1977 RC Cola Collectors Series Carl Yastrzemski

RC Cola baseball cans returned in 1978, by then I had more of a taste for the dark, sweet taste of cola. For the next few years, RC was my soda of choice. It was “Me and My RC”

I think my collection of cans survived a couple of moves before being lost or thrown out (My Mom didn’t throw out my baseball cards, though). I picked up a 1977 Yaz can and a 1978 Schmidt can in recent years which I display in my office – a can to symbolize each year of the great RC run of the late 1970s which influenced my childhood.

LeBron James is known as “King James”. If you’re looking for a commoner James, look no further than Po James. Ronald James acquired his nickname, not because he was poor like the Cajun Po Boy sandwich, but rather after the lead character in the Pogo comic strip – Pogo Possum.

Pogo Possum

So, Po James – the awesome possum – grew up, played high school ball for the New Brighton Lions before taking his talents down south to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the New Mexico State Aggies.

New Mexico State - a po man's South Beach?

He made an immediate impact for the Aggies, rushing for over 100 yards in each of his first eight games as a freshman.

Drafted in the 4th round by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1972, he rushed for 565 yards as a rookie that fall. His workload fell after that, rushing for just 650 yards over the next 3 seasons. He was a roster casualty when the Eagles hired Dick Vermiel in 1976, who notably signed wide receiver Vince Papale – the inspiration for the movie “Invincible“. He was claimed by the expansion Seattle Seahawks, but was cut before he saw game action with them. His career would be over at that point.

1976 Topps Po James

Following his career, he survived being shot in a YMCA sauna after a pickup basketball game in 1993. He has worked as a director of the Baptist Children’s Services, and also for the Mobil Chemical Company. This Po the Possum is still living, and is one of the iconic names of 1970s football cards.

Quick, name the two men who have played in both the Final Four of the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Tournament and the World Series.

Many of you in your 30s and 40s can name Kenny Lofton, who played for the University of Arizona Wildcats in their 1988 Final Four appearance, as well making World Series appearances as a member the 1995 Cleveland Indians (who lost to the Braves) and the 2002 San Francisco Giants (who lost to the Angels).

Kenny Lofton, college hoops star

It takes a keener, and perhaps older, fan to identify Tim Stoddard. The 6’7″ Stoddard was a starting forward for the 1973-74 North Carolina State Wolfpack championship team. He later pitched in the 1979 World Series for the Baltimore Orioles (who lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates). He did not pitch in the 1983 World Series for the Orioles, but earned a World Series ring as a member of that championship team. He is the only person to have earned a NCAA Men’s Division 1 championship basketball ring and a World Series ring.

Was forward on N.C. State basketball teams of 1973 and 1974

Despite logging appearances with the 1975 White Sox and 1978 and 1979 with the Orioles, he didn’t garner his first cardboard treatment until 1980. His final appearance on a card was in the 1990 Topps Senior Baseball set as a member of the West Palm Beach Tropics, which is truly Tekulvian.

1990 Topps Senior League Tim Stoddard

Bonus trivia question: Name the only baseball player to have earned a NCAA Division 1 Football championship ring and a World Series ring. We’ve got a prize for this one! First correct answer wins!

11 players in Major League baseball history were born on “Leap Day” February 29, including 2 of the 15 players with “Long” as a surname – Bill and Terrence.

Of these 11 players, two made appearances on cardboard in the 1970s.

1973 Topps Steve Mingori

Born 2-29-44

1979 Topps Jerry Fry

Born 2-29-56

Curiously, if we step back into the 1950s, Al Rosen – whose birth date according to Baseball-Reference.com was February 29, 1924 – shows a different birthdate on the back of his Topps cardboard.

1952 Topps Al Rosen, born March 1, 1925?

Can anyone out there enlighten me on the discrepancy?

Just 3 basketball players were born on this day, Chucky “Wild Thing” Brown being the most well-known.

According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, there are 18 football players with this unique birthday, including the immortal Dick Wood.

1966 Topps Dick Wood "woody" card. Heh heh...

No cardboard appearances for Al Clark, the sole member of this club to log playing time in the 1970s.

8 hockey players were born on February 29, including Hall-of-Famer Henri Richard, and current stars Cam Ward and Simon Gagne.

1966-67 Topps Pocket Rocket "woody" - um yeah!

Good night, Kid

Gary Carter [April 8, 1954 - February 16, 2012] succumbed to his battle with brain cancer today. He was a true superstar of the game.

It was perhaps the most overvalued card in Echo Elementary School. He was the kicker for the Dallas Cowboys, who had recently trumped the Minnesota Vikings in the 1977-78 NFC Championship Game. Dallas had become “America’s Team“, and even though I wasn’t taking the bait – enough kids were. Even though kicker was by no means a glamorous position, it had enough mystery attached to it – most of the school boys could pass and catch with decent success by that time, but few could kick the ball long and straight consistently. His name was Rafael Septien.

Rafael Septien 1979 Topps

Even though he wasn’t the kicker during Super Bowl XII (that was Efren Herrera, another kicker from Mexico), Septien was a cardboard prize. His name wasn’t an alliterative one, but it possessed the right beat and enough foreign intrigue to make us want to repeat his name as we attempted to line up and do what Charlie Brown never could. “Ra-fa-el Sep-ti-en!”

Beats the hell out of Fred Cox

After spending the 1977 season with the Los Angeles Rams, Septien played 9 years for the Cowboys 1978-86. He was indicted for sexual assault of a minor in 1987, and pleaded guilty to indecency with a child and received 10 years probation and a $2000 fine. He never played again in the NFL. By then, us elementary kids had grown up into high schoolers, and our refrains had changed to “Don-ald Ig-we-bui-ke!”

Indicted on heroin-smuggling charges

Don’t idolize kickers…

Otis Sistrunk was a big, bald, bad dude who played for the Oakland Raiders in the 1970s. He entered the United States Marines after graduating from high school. After playing semi-pro ball in Wisconsin, he played for 3 years for the Norfolk Neptunes of the Continental Football League.

Norfolk Neptunes

The Oakland Raiders signed him in 1972, at which time he became the only active player in the NFL to not have played college football. His entry in the team program was listed as “U.S. Mars” (short for United States Marines).

During a Monday Night Football telecast, a camera panned to the steaming bald head of Sistrunk. ABC commentator Alex Karras, noting this alien-like presence and the program information quipped that Sistrunk’s alma mater was the University of Mars.

University of Mars

Sistrunk was also active away from the gridiron, appearing in 4 movies, including the 1976 Richard Pryor comedy Car Wash. He also appeared in Miller Lite beer commercials, and in this Bic razor commercial:

After his football career ended, he tried his hand at professional wrestling. He won the National Wrestling Alliance tag team title in 1981, pairing with Michael Hayes to defeat Jimmy Snuka and Terry Gordy.

More awesome than Snuka!

Sistrunk’s complete Topps football card collection can be viewed on TradingCardDB.com. My favorite is his 1975 Topps card. He pities the fool.

1975 Topps Otis Sistrunk