AL Pitching Leaders (#68, #70, #72)

Here are the AL ERA, Wins, and Strikeout leaders for the 1969 season.

ELEVEN starting pitchers had an ERA under 3.00! What gets ignored on the card front are the relievers, but the back shows that Angels' reliever Ken Tatum had an ERA of 1.36, and two others were lower than Dick Bosman's "league leading" mark.

All six 20-game winners are shown on the middle card, with Denny McLain in his final year of glory.

Sam McDowell leads the league for the last time (and 4th time in the past 5 years!) Mickey Lolich is right behind him, but Andy Messersmith finished a distant third, 60 strikeouts behind Lolich.

The Orioles are well-represented with Mike Cuellar (twice), Jim Palmer (in his comeback season), and Dave McNally. We also have two Twins (Dave Boswell and Jim Perry, but surprisingly not Jim Kaat) and two Tigers (McLain and Lolich). 

New Acquisitions

Last week I emerged from my pandemic hibernation and bought some baseball cards for the first time in almost 2 years. I snared 16 vintage 1970 cards on my want list, which leaves me with only 22 cards to complete the set.

Almost all the remaining cards I needed were high numbers. Joining my binder are #590 Mike Cuellar, and these 15 high numbers: 

647 – Tom Matchick
664 – Bob Robertson
667 – Bob Meyer
669 – White Sox Rookies
675 – Jose Cardenal
678 – Dave Duncan
679 – Ray Sadecki
685 – Tom Haller
691 – Joe Grzenda
695 – Bobby Knoop
697 – Jim Hannan
704 – Frank Baker
717 – Tom Phoebus
719 – Jim Roland
720 – Rick Reichardt

 

Still to go are these cards:

611 – Norm Cash
634 – Bud Harrelson
665 – Jim Lonborg
683 – Reds Rookies
688 – Ted Kubiak
689 – Frank Tepedino
699 – Hank Aguirre
702 – AL Rookies
705 – Tony Cloninger
708 – Jose Santiago
709 – Mike Fiore
710 – Felix Millan
714 – Al Spangler
715 – Mickey Lolich
716 – Cardinals Rookies

 

What’s that you say? That’s only 15 cards? Oh yeah, these 7 also:

189 – Yankees Rookies (Thurman Munson)
580 – Pete Rose
600 – Willie Mays
640 – Al Kaline
660 – Johnny Bench
700 – Frank Robinson
712 – Nolan Ryan

I have no expectations that I will get those last 7.