1977 Topps Baseball #465 - Rico Carty
- Rico Carty actually played for the Cleveland Indians in 1977. The Toronto Blue Jays selected Carty in the expansion draft in November 1976 but a month later they traded him back to the Indians for Rick Cerone and John Lowenstein.
- Rico played in 123 games as a designated hitter and two games at first base.
- Carty clashed with Cleveland manager Frank Robinson. He was fined and sent home in early June. The team wanted to suspend Rico, but since he was already on the disabled list with a pulled hamstring they couldn't do it.
- 1977 Stats: .280, 15 HR, 80 RBI
- 1977 Highlights:
- Other card blogs: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980
FYI, the 1977 O-Pee-Chee card of Rico Carty went into production after he'd been traded back to the Indians, so they used the original un-airbrushed photo.
ReplyDeleteThe (est?)strange(d) saga of Toronto and Rico continues in later years;
ReplyDeleteMarch 15, 1978: Traded by the Cleveland Indians to the Toronto Blue Jays for Dennis DeBarr.
August 15, 1978: Traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Oakland Athletics for Willie Horton and Phil Huffman.
October 3, 1978: Purchased by the Toronto Blue Jays from the Oakland Athletics.
November 2, 1978: Granted Free Agency.
January 11, 1979: Signed as a Free Agent with the Toronto Blue Jays.
March 29, 1980: Released by the Toronto Blue Jays.
Basically in the first 4 years of Blue Jays exsistence, Rico is with them 4 separate times but only plays with them in 2 seasons. Carty is a contradiction, maybe one of best hitters of the late 60's and still good mostly into the 70's, medical issues took out a couple of seasons, a so-so fielder, and some clubhouse conflicts (leading to off season) greatly diminished his value.