Cards That Never Were is a recurring series in which I create virtual trading cards for players missed in various sets over the years. It is a concept I have borrowed from far too many to list, but I apreciate all of their efforts.
Rico Carty was signed as an amateur free agent by the Milwaukee Braves and made his MLB debut with them in 1963. He stayed with the Braves through the 1972 season, when they were in Atlanta. He missed the 1968 and 1971 seasons due to injuries.
After the '72 season, he was traded to the Texas Rangers and then purchased by the Chicago Cubs midseason and then purchased by the Oakland A's late season. The A's released him after the season and he went to play in Mexico.
The Cleveland Indians signed him late in the '74 season. After the 1976 season, the Toronto Blue Jays picked him in the Expansion Draft, but traded him back to Cleveland almost immediately. The Indians traded him back to Toronto before the 1978 season. Toronto traded him to Oakland late in the 1978 season, but purchased him again after the season. His MLB career finally ended when Toronto released him before the 1980 season.
For his efforts, aside from a lot of frequent flyer miles, he played 15 seasons, collecting 1,677 hits for a .299 career batting average. Three more hits and he would have had the magical .300, but still it was a solid career.
Topps deemed him card-worthy from 1964 through 1980, except for 1974, which is understandable. Heading to Mexico, it looked like his career might be over or at least he wouldn't be on an Opening Day roster.
Since he did play in 1973, I wanted to give him a 1974 card. He ended the year with Oakland, which would have been his normal hard. When researching this, I saw Gio over at When Topps Had (Base)Balls already created a "missing in action" card for Carty. Still, I wanted to see his Cubs stint showcased, even if Topps didn't do "update" cards back then. That's where my "Mids" come in.
I have previously done a couple Mids, which are cards that I define as featuring a player who spent a short time with a team (usually midseason), before joining another team. Even if/when Topps did updates, they probably would have shown him with his last team. Hence the need for my Mids.
Below is the 1974 Carty card with the A's created by Gio and my 1974 Carty Mids. Now, the Carty collection is complete.
2 comments:
His 1968 season was missed due to having tuberculosis.
Also notable is that Carty was voted to the starting lineup for the 1970 All-Star game AS A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE.
You are correct. I missed that. Thank you.
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