El Tiante!

Every now and again I get the idea to collect a certain player whom I hadn't considered before, and I proceed accordingly. One of you bloggers out there posted a Luis Tiant card recently and I got to thinking that he might be the guy I go with next. I'm old enough to remember Tiant as both a Red Sox ace and a Yankees starter; his days with Cleveland and Minnesota pre-date my baseball sentience. 

So I hopped on over to the usual sites and rustled up some Luis Tiant cards - the ones I'm posting for you here. I'm now 5-deep into a Tiant collection, and have a couple of questions. What was the deal with him in 1971, when he pitched for two different teams in the minors, before coming up to the Red Sox and going 1-7? (Mind you, this is after going 21-9 with a 1.50 ERA for Cleveland in 1968!). Probably just an injury and rehab, right? By 1972 he was certainly back on the horse - 15-6 with a 1.91 ERA. Phenomenal.

Then there's that mustache/beard combo he was rocking in 1976 - check out the '77 Hostess card below. I don't really have a question on this one. This is the Tiant I remember. I suppose my question is: weren't the 70s something? 

Any of you have any Tiant doubles sitting around gathering dust & want to make a swap of something, you just give Card Hemorrhage a holler now, you hear?