Cowboy Gene Autry's foray into Free Agency finally paid dividends in the form of the Halos' first post season appearance in their 19th year of existence. Make no mistake about it the Angels did not stink for the previous 18 years. In fact, up until the 1999 Dback, the Angels were the first ever expansion team to finish in the first division. For many years they had good teams that could pitch, but not necessarily hit a lot. 1979 saw both come together as the Angels finished 88-74 and won the AL West by 3 games over the three time defending division champ Royals. The Angels offense was #2 in average and #1 in OBP, which is fantastic news for MVP Don Baylor (.296-36-139) and "should be HOF'er" Bobby Grich (.294-30-101). This Angel team had 4 guys with 20 or more homers. "Disco" Dan Ford (21) and DH Willie Mays Aikens (21) backed up Grich and Baylor in the lineup. Thirdbaseman Carney Lansford hit .287 and also chipped in with 19 homers. Perenial batting machine Rod Carew stole 18 bases and hit .318 in his first season in Orange County via Free Agency. Baylor himself stole 22 bases. Lansford stole 22 and 37 year old platoon shortstop Bert "Campy" Campaneris pilfered 12 himself. It also doesn't hurt your offense to have a catcher, Brian Downing, who can hit .326 in 148 games behind the dish.
The bench is led by clutch veteran Joe Rudi, who despite hitting just .242 did have 11 homers and has the aura of "clutch-a-bility" as evidenced by all the big hits he had in Oakland during their dynasty years. The rest of the bench is pedestrian at best. Veteran DH/PH Merv Rettenmund will give you a .263 bat in less than 100 plate appearances. Rettenmund's experience with the dynasty Orioles of the late 60's / early 70's will help in pressure situations. Bobby Clark will give the Halos a great glove man to replace Baylor late in games or Ford. An impressive rookie, Dickie Thon, hit .339 in very limited action and he won't see much time with Grich anchored at second. When Downing is DH'ing Tom Donohue will be behind the plate. Donohue can catch and throw, but his .224 average is over 100 points below Downing's potent bat. California's bench has two well traveled and well respected veterans who are at the end of the line. Ralph Garr, who was a hitting machine with the Braves and Chisox throughout the decade is an old 33 who's .125 average just doesn't justify him any time in the lineup. Willie "3-dog" Davis, who made a name for himself as the underachieving star center fielder for the crosstown Dodgers is back from his 2 year excursion in the Japanese leagues. 3-dog is 39 years of age and his legs are shot. The days of him sucking up fly balls in the vast outfield expanse of Dodger Stadium are all but a memory. What we have left is a .250 hitter with no pop, limited corner outfield range and a lot of sentimentality.
Nolan Ryan is the staff's ace. There, I said it, as if it needed to be said. The "Express" had a bit of an "off year going 16-14 with a 3.60 ERA. He still averages 1 strikeout per inning and he did complete 17 games, so don't sell him short. Frank Tanana was supposed to be the #2 guy on the staff, but he only started 17 games while battling injuries. His 7-5 (3.89) record is not indicative of what was expected of him. If he produced the same results that he had in previous seasons the Halo's would have run away with this division and easily won 100 games. 26 year old Dave Frost stepped up beautifully and filled the void let by Tanana by going 16-10 (3.57). He had 12 complete games and logged even more innings than Ryan. Jim Barr (10-12, 4.20) apparently left his heart in San Francisco, where he toiled on the mound for the better part of the last decade before arriving in SoCal. Don Aase (9-10, 4.81) and Chris Knapp (5-5, 5.51) are placeholders who will log innings and hopefully get you to the pen with a 1 or 2 run lead supplied by the potent offense. Mark Clear is the man in the pen who you will entrust a late inning lead. Clear (11-5, 3.63, 14 sv) will give you multi-inning outings and gain plenty of wins when this offense rallies late in games. Lefty Dave LaRoche (7-11, 5.13, 10 sv) will also chip in with double digit saves, but he is not to be trusted with protecting a close lead due to his penchant for giving up the long ball late in games. Dyar Miller, who only pitched 35 innings, and must be used judiciously, could be the wild card in this pen. Used in the right spots he can bridge the gap between the 4th and 5th starters and clear.
Returning for his 11th season as the Angles pilot is Douglas Zaner. "Dee-Zee", the man from the Holy Land, has carved out his own unique niche' in KOD lore. Douglas, who joined us in KOD4 has made numerous playoff appearances. Most times he will find a way to make poor teams overachieve. If only the "Cowboy" hired him instead of Mauch... Douglas' resume includes: 1 World Championship (KOD10), 3 Pennants and 6 AL West Division Titles. To say that Douglas is one of the elite managers in KOD is like saying Nolan Ryan throws hard.
In total it took 25 new cards to finish off the '79 Angels Topps set. This production was purely a collaborative effort between Robert Chisholm and myself, who I like to refer to as the Lennon-McCartney of Card creation. Just like Lennon and McCartney, who agreed to co-authorship on all their work, "Chiz" and I have done most of our work solo with a tweak here and there added by the other guy. This production was our "A Day in the Life", where both parties contributed equally. "Chiz" created the card template and then proceeded to knock out 4 or 5 cards as a sample. I created the balance of the set and did all of the colorization. I guess our next collaboration will be our "We Can Work It Out" ?
The bench is led by clutch veteran Joe Rudi, who despite hitting just .242 did have 11 homers and has the aura of "clutch-a-bility" as evidenced by all the big hits he had in Oakland during their dynasty years. The rest of the bench is pedestrian at best. Veteran DH/PH Merv Rettenmund will give you a .263 bat in less than 100 plate appearances. Rettenmund's experience with the dynasty Orioles of the late 60's / early 70's will help in pressure situations. Bobby Clark will give the Halos a great glove man to replace Baylor late in games or Ford. An impressive rookie, Dickie Thon, hit .339 in very limited action and he won't see much time with Grich anchored at second. When Downing is DH'ing Tom Donohue will be behind the plate. Donohue can catch and throw, but his .224 average is over 100 points below Downing's potent bat. California's bench has two well traveled and well respected veterans who are at the end of the line. Ralph Garr, who was a hitting machine with the Braves and Chisox throughout the decade is an old 33 who's .125 average just doesn't justify him any time in the lineup. Willie "3-dog" Davis, who made a name for himself as the underachieving star center fielder for the crosstown Dodgers is back from his 2 year excursion in the Japanese leagues. 3-dog is 39 years of age and his legs are shot. The days of him sucking up fly balls in the vast outfield expanse of Dodger Stadium are all but a memory. What we have left is a .250 hitter with no pop, limited corner outfield range and a lot of sentimentality.
Nolan Ryan is the staff's ace. There, I said it, as if it needed to be said. The "Express" had a bit of an "off year going 16-14 with a 3.60 ERA. He still averages 1 strikeout per inning and he did complete 17 games, so don't sell him short. Frank Tanana was supposed to be the #2 guy on the staff, but he only started 17 games while battling injuries. His 7-5 (3.89) record is not indicative of what was expected of him. If he produced the same results that he had in previous seasons the Halo's would have run away with this division and easily won 100 games. 26 year old Dave Frost stepped up beautifully and filled the void let by Tanana by going 16-10 (3.57). He had 12 complete games and logged even more innings than Ryan. Jim Barr (10-12, 4.20) apparently left his heart in San Francisco, where he toiled on the mound for the better part of the last decade before arriving in SoCal. Don Aase (9-10, 4.81) and Chris Knapp (5-5, 5.51) are placeholders who will log innings and hopefully get you to the pen with a 1 or 2 run lead supplied by the potent offense. Mark Clear is the man in the pen who you will entrust a late inning lead. Clear (11-5, 3.63, 14 sv) will give you multi-inning outings and gain plenty of wins when this offense rallies late in games. Lefty Dave LaRoche (7-11, 5.13, 10 sv) will also chip in with double digit saves, but he is not to be trusted with protecting a close lead due to his penchant for giving up the long ball late in games. Dyar Miller, who only pitched 35 innings, and must be used judiciously, could be the wild card in this pen. Used in the right spots he can bridge the gap between the 4th and 5th starters and clear.
Returning for his 11th season as the Angles pilot is Douglas Zaner. "Dee-Zee", the man from the Holy Land, has carved out his own unique niche' in KOD lore. Douglas, who joined us in KOD4 has made numerous playoff appearances. Most times he will find a way to make poor teams overachieve. If only the "Cowboy" hired him instead of Mauch... Douglas' resume includes: 1 World Championship (KOD10), 3 Pennants and 6 AL West Division Titles. To say that Douglas is one of the elite managers in KOD is like saying Nolan Ryan throws hard.
In total it took 25 new cards to finish off the '79 Angels Topps set. This production was purely a collaborative effort between Robert Chisholm and myself, who I like to refer to as the Lennon-McCartney of Card creation. Just like Lennon and McCartney, who agreed to co-authorship on all their work, "Chiz" and I have done most of our work solo with a tweak here and there added by the other guy. This production was our "A Day in the Life", where both parties contributed equally. "Chiz" created the card template and then proceeded to knock out 4 or 5 cards as a sample. I created the balance of the set and did all of the colorization. I guess our next collaboration will be our "We Can Work It Out" ?
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