Show Sports thoughts I Baseball cards are focused on the year that they were Issued and In later years what was considered to be a serious topic Is looked on in later years to be beon beon beon on the funny side An example Is a baseball card which was entitled 1963 Rookie Stars Members of the squad were Pedro Gonzales New NewYork NewYork NewYork York Yankees second basemen Ken McMullen Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Al AI Weis Wels Chicago White While Sox shortstop and Pete Hose Rase Cincinnati Reds Heds second basemen Pedro Gonzales Ken McMullen McMullen Mc Mc- McMullen Mullen AI Al Weis and Pete Rose Hose were predicted to have great and glorious careers However only one of the four lour made it Inthe in inthe inthe the world of baseball Gonzales batted in 1963 for the New York Yankees He lie batted balled for the Yankees in 1964 and seemed to be on his way to greatness However the superstar title did not apply to Gonzales as he slumped to for the Yankees and the Cleveland Indians in 1965 The second basemen Gonzales dropped drooped even further from the superstar class when he batted for the Indians in 1966 Gonzales batted in his final year with the Indians in 1967 AL AI WEIS batted only in 1962 12 but in 1963 as a member of the Chicago White Sox he had a batting balling average of Weis had a bad year in 1964 when he batted balled He recovered in 1965 and slugged a average All the effort that tha t Weis used to recover from his bad year of 1964 went out the window when he dropped from his good season of to the rotten 1966 mark of as a member of the Chicago White Sox Weis had another sub-par sub year jear in 1967 and so in 1968 he was a member of the New NewYork NewYork NewYork York Mets We Weis is had rotten rollen years ears of 1968 1969 1970 and 1971 In 1969 Weis gained some fame as a member of the New York Mets who came from nowhere in 1968 to whip the powerful Baltimore Orioles in World Series Weis who had hit hib only two homers during the 1969 season season sur- sur Orioles with a home run in the fifth game of the World Series which tied lied the game for the Mets New York went onto to win the contest 5 to 3 and the World Series title tille KEN MCMULLEN l batted for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1962 McMullen was unable to shake the sophomore jinx as he batted only in 1963 McMullen was traded to Washington Senators in 1965 The third baseman joined the California Angels in 1970 lie He rejoined the Dodgers in 1973 and then finished his career in inthe inthe inthe the early part of the 1977 season with the Oakland As McMullen never reached the stardom that was predicted for him as he spent most of his career as a sometime starter or a ben ben- Pedro Gonzales Al AI Weis and Ken McMullen failed to live up to the greatness that was predicted for them on the 1963 Rookie Stars baseball card However Pete Rose lived up to the greatness that was predicted for him Rose Hose batted balled in 1963 In his second year jear ear of baseball he slipped to Rose Hose silenced critics who figured the second basemen of the Reds Heds wasn't baseball material when he batted in 1965 He followed that hitting year with ten more Roses Rose's batting marks are as follows follows- 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 18 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 and 1976 Rose has batted balled over in 11 of out of or his 14 years o of baseball Rose Hose led the National League in the batting average department in 1968 and 1969 J TI ROSH HOSE is also blasting the baseball in the 1977 season Rose is ii ba batting tUng so far ar in the 1977 season It looks as if Rose Hose Rosemay Rosemay may end up with another hitting season if all goes well Some players are limited to toone toone one roe position since that is the only roly place where they can play well defensively However that thatis is not the problem for or Rose Hose Rose Hose began his career at second base Rose Hose played well at second but was moved to the outfield When the Reds Heds developed problems at third base Rose Hose was moved to that position The last two years Hose Rose has played extremely well at third base The funny item about the 1963 Rookie Stars Stan is that a superstar like Pete Rose Hose is on the same card with such a dud dudas dudas dudas as Ken McMullen Pedro Gonzales Gonzales Gon Gon- zales tales and AI Al Weis |