Wednesday July 10 marks 40th anniversary of a Pinch Hitter getting into the MLB record book
1980 Topps #6 Highlights Del Unser
That pinch hitter was the Phillies Del Unser who tied a mark first established a year prior by the Dodgers Lee Lacy.
Unser's streak commenced on June 30th. In the 9th inning of game versus the Cardinals at Busch stadium the Phillies were down 4-2 with 2 out in the 9th inning. Phillies Center Fielder Garry Maddox was on base when Unser was sent to the plate to bat for Manny Trillo. Unser homered off of reliever George Frazier to tie the game which the Phillies won
6-4 in extras.
The 2nd Home Run came in a
3-2 loss to the Mets. Unser hit a solo home run in the 7th inning while batting for Larry Bowa in what was basically a convoluted double change. The victim was starting pitcher Craig Swan.
Del Unser finished his Home Run trifecta facing Padres future Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers. The Phillies went into the 9th inning down 5-1, four batters later the Phillies had pulled to 5-3 on a 2 Run single by Bob Boone.
A hit and an out later Del Unser found himself once again pinch hitting for Larry Bowa. This time out he hit a Walk Off Home Run to give the Phillies a
6-5 victory.
The streak ended 2 days later when Unser was Intentionally Walked by Fingers. The first time Unser was retired following the streak was July 23, Also by Rollie (strikeout).
1980 Topps Hilights
Hilights opens the 1980 set occupying the first six cards. The subset includes three Hall of Famers across two cards: Lou Brock & Carl Yastrzemski share card #1, While Willie McCovey resides at #2. In addition to Del Unser the Phillies are also represented in the subber by Pete Rose at #4.
Dennis Rasmussen?
1987 Topps #555 Dennis Rasmussen
What the heck is Dennis Rasmussen doing in the middle of a Del Unser column??, well lets turn over this card and see.
1987 Topps #555 Dennis Rasmussen (b-side)
Ok we are going to bypass that this card discusses Hall of Famer Larry Bird and move down to the On This Date section. Check it out we have today's hero Del Unser! and it mentions his 1979 Pinch Hit Home Run heroics too!
Finally Topps honors their history by mentioning Unser's 1979T card, lets have a look.
1979 Topps #628 Del Unser
Unfortunately Unser is repping a different team, however it always feels good to post and Expos card. Lets flip this one over and see if we have anymore fun items.
1979 Topps #628 Del Unser (b-side
)
Well Check it out, we have another This day in History. This time it goes back to
May 8 1968. On that date Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter tossed a Perfect game for the Oakland A's as they defeated the Minnesota Twins
4-0.
And just because I am chaining together cards today, I am going to add one final card.
1969 Topps #235 Jim "Catfish" Hunter
The first card issued of Catfish following his Perfect Game was in 1969 Topps. This is back when Topps was putting -Toons on the back of cards, surely the Catfish comic would be dedicated to his big Game...
1969 Topps #235 Jim "Catfish" Hunter (b-side
)
or.....maybe not
The game mentioned in the cartoon was a 15 inning affair won by the National League
2-1. In Hunter's defense he pitched FIVE innings that day, the difference was a Home Run by Tony Perez.
Topps does mention the Perfecto in the text. It also mentions that Hunter's game earned him a $5000 raise, that is a $36,000 raise in 2018 dollars.
Game Dated Cards
Ok that is enough card chaining, At some point I will be adding each of these cards to the Phungo
Game Dated Cards Index.
1980 Phillies
Next Year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Phillies first World Championship, I hope to feature that team throughout 2020. Since I am not writing as many columns these days I am getting an early start on the feature and will open my Anniversary series a full six months in advance.
Sources and Links
1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies
1980 Topps Hilights
No-Hitter Index
Catfish Hunter index
Larry Bird Index
baseball-ref
Baseball Card Database
