I happen to remember Wilbur Wood from his late pitching days. I was never a White Sox fan or anything; I just liked that he lost 20 games twice, including one year (1973) when his W-L was 24-20!
You want to talk "innings-eater"? Wood pitched over 300 innings four years in a row, and almost did it a fifth year as well (291 innings in 1975). Those same four years, he pitched over 20 complete games each year. He actually went through several years as a reliever before becoming a workhorse starter, too, and appeared in 88 games (!) for the 1968 Chicago White Sox. No wonder the guy looked pretty old by the time I started to become aware of him in the mid-70s.
He seemed like a guy whom it would be good to collect the baseball cards of. So that's what I'm doing. Here's what I've gathered so far.
I’m a collector of “fan favorite” players like that too. Wilbur Wood is just one of those guys like Charlie Hough and Jamie Moyer who seemed to stick around forever.
ReplyDeleteHis '74 is in my White Sox team page.
ReplyDeleteNice look at the different uniforms they wore.
How many players stay with the same team long enough to go through two total changes of the color scheme?
ReplyDeleteSeriously! I'm just bummed we couldn't see the "shorts" version of those White Sox uniforms on his 1977 card...
DeleteBig Wilbur Wood fan/collector here. His last card ('79 Topps) might actually be his best. And baseball needs more guys named Wilbur.
ReplyDelete(Also, got your PWE yesterday, thanks so much!)
That All-Time Fan Favorites card is cool. As much as I love vintage... I think that card is my favorite in the post.
ReplyDelete