1976 ASG +40: Don Money 1979 Topps #265

The Phillies hosting the Brewers for a four game set this weekend gives us the chance to discuss a 1976 All-Star with ties to both clubs.

1979 Topps #265 Don Money (AS)

1976 marked the second time that Don Money made the All-Star Team but it was the first time that he got to play in the game.

Money came into the 1976 ASG in the 6th inning replacing George Brett at Third Base. He would later bat in the 9th popping out versus Astros Pitcher Ken Forsch. Looking back today the AB is a bit of an oddity as at the time, Money was repping the AL as a Brewer and Forsch the NL as an Astro, Since then the two teams have flipped leagues.

1979 Topps
I selected 1979T card for our Don Money posting because it is the one time that he received the All-Star flair from Topps. This does cause a bit of a discrepancy...

Notice that we specified that Money played Third in the 1976 ASG, however are cover card lists second base as the position. To accommodate the Brewers Free Agent Signing of Sal Bando the Brewers moved Don Money to 2nd Base prior to the 1977 season.

The move worked out for Don as he would eventually get his only starting assignment as an All-Star in 1978. Money went 0-2 in the game including going down on strikes versus Vida Blue. The 1978 ASG was played in San Diego which will be also be the home of the 2016 Mid-Summer classic.

Flip

1979 Topps #265 Don Money (AS - bSide)

Not sure how accurate it is but despite

The game referenced in the text at the bottom of the card was a 7-1 Brewers victory over the expansion Seattle Mariners.  The Pitcher who induced all those ground balls was rookie Larry Sorensen who pitched a complete game in only his 4th career start. 

Don Money was the 5th player to achieve the feat. Since 1977 five other second baseman have recorded a dozen assists in a game including the Phillies own Juan Samuel in 1985 and Former Phillies Manager and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg (1983).

Stray Observation: Larry Sorensen made his only All-Star Appearance in the 1978 game that Don Money started. Sorensen pitched 3 shutout innings for the AL squad which was the strongest outing among the squads six pitchers.

Baseball Dates
A fun nuance of 1979 Topps is the Baseball Dates feature on each player card. Jim Umbarger recorded the unusual unassisted Pitcher DP while pitching for the Texas Rangers in a 2-1 Win over the Cleveland Indians. I could not find any additional footage or Info on the DP beyond the Box. It did occur with the bases loaded pop up. I can only assume that it was a Hit and Run or a freak play where the Infield Fly Rule was invoked and a runner got caught off a bag.

The Double Play occurred in the 2nd inning and was a big help towards giving Umbarger the W in the game.  According to the b-ref Win Expectancy chart for the game, prior to the play the Rangers had a 45% chance of victory. The double play increased that number by 17 points to 62%, the greatest impact of any single AB in the game.

The Indians batter was Catcher Alan Ashby, B-ref does not indicate the runner but the 3 men on base at the time were Rico Carty, Charlie Spikes and Buddy Bell.

Jim Umbarger was only involved in 5 other Double Plays in the remaineder of his 4 year 133 game career.

WAR Stories
Don Money put up much better career numbers that I realized. Among Third Baseman his career 36.3 WAR ranks just above Hall of Famer Pie Traynor (36.2). Among notable contemporary players he ranks somewhere between Troy Glaus (37.9) and Ryan Zimmerman (35.1)

More Money
1972 Ticketron Phillies

Sources and Links
1976 All-Star Game Index 
Baseball-ref
Baseball Almanac (1978 ASG)
Baseball Almanac (Assist Record)

1979 Topps #31 Tom House: Relief Pitcher and Quarterback Coach?

I have started hearing Tom House's name a lot recently.

1979 Topps #31 Tom House

For me, the former major league relief pitcher first reappeared in connection with the Million Dollar Arm film.

More recently House has emerged locally in discussions of the Football team. The Philadelphia Eagles have picked up Tim Tebow as a QB based off of Tom House's endorsement.

The trivia in the Tom House Bio doesn't end with Film and Football. In a 2005 USA Today article he admitted to using steroids as far back as the 1960s. He estimated 6-7 pitchers on every team were experimenting with Steroids or HGH.

On a much happier note, House is also the know for catching Hank Aaron's record break 715th Home Run.

I hope that Tom House is right about Tim Tebow, I find him fun to watch and he is always great press.

I also hope House is wrong about the steroids. 

Sources and Links
Business Insider - Tony Manfred
USA Today

Tug McGraw would have been 70: 1979 Topps #345

Over the weekend found out via @HighHeatStats that this past Saturday would have been Tug McGraw's 70th birthday. McGraw seemed perpetually young, his 2004 death from brain cancer at age 59 felt so premature. 

1999 09 15 Tug McGraw Event Poster for Chester County Historical Society Speaker Series. Artwork by Dick Perez
1979 Topps #345 Tug McGraw

15 years ago I got to see Tug McGraw speak as part of a baseball exhibit at the Chester County Historical Society, which at the time was a block away from my apartment.

As one can imagine Tug was a great speaker, He talked about his days as a starting pitcher with the Mets and as a reliever for the 1980 Phillies.

Some of the interesting tidbits I remember are that he pitched against Sandy Koufax. He also batted against him and said that one of his proudest moments was putting the ball in play off of the Hall of Famer.

He brought his personal World Series Trophy (the players each get a smaller replica trophy from the league) from the Phillies 1980 World Championship. He also had his 1969 World Series Ring from the Miracle Mets triumph. McGraw explained that he knew it was a Phillies event but that the then current year (1999) was a Mets Anniversary Year and he wore that ring. The following year would be the Phillies 20th anniversary and he would switch rings in 2000.

Amazingly McGraw passed both items through the audience. He said he had done this has similar speaking engagements and knew he would get them back.

Autographs
The night of the CCHS event Tugger signed autographs for all in attendance. There was youngster in front of me that had a baseball that literally had the cover ripped away. The boy asked McGraw to sign the ball on the inside of the cover. McGraw mentioned that he had signed thousands of autographs but had never signed on the inside of the horsehide.

McGraw signed both poster that accompanied the event and a 1979 Topps Card that I brought. Both autographs contained his trademark smiley face.  

Sources & Links
Baseball Card Database

Check out 1979 Topps

Over at 1979 Topps today's Card is of Steve Carlton 



1979 Topps #25 Steve Carlton

1979 Topps will always be special to me as the set was given to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid - I still have the set in a nice box sorted by team.  I have a post about the set floating around in my head - just haven't commited it do a posting.

Wanted to give 1979 Topps a shout out and a thanks for recognizing our work over here at Phungo - also nice to get Bobby V off of the most recent post marquee.