Mealticket
Bench Warmer
Random trivia out of, well, left field. This may be old news to most but just in case I'll lay it out, maybe provide some additional fun facts. The 1973 Topps Joe Rudi card shows a game action scene featuring three A's players who appear to be shaking hands. Just one problem; none of the three pictured players are in fact Joe Rudi. The guy in the middle sure looks a lot like Gene Tenace. Since I figured that the likelihood is that this is from a game in 1972, and it looks to me like Tenace is being congratulated after a homerun, a few minutes well spent in Baseball Reference can pin this down nicely, especially since Tenace only hit 5 HR in the '72 regular season (Tenace took the catching job from Dave Duncan late in the year. The rest of '72 is history; just ask Gary Nolan or any Reds player). BTW, I can't find MY '73, or I'd throw up a pic of it.
So, using the game logs section of Baseball Reference, it was easy work to find that on June 25, 1972, the A's played a doubleheader against the Angels in Oakland. In the nightcap, Tenace hit a 3-run homerun; Bill Voss and Sal Bando were on ahead of him. So from that, I'm saying the guy on Tenace's right in the card is Bill Voss, who had a bit of day himself. That would make the guy on Tenace's left Marty Martinez, who would have been on deck when Tenace went yard. All the pieces seem to fit. Bando can console himself about not being in the card, since the following inning he too went big fly against a very unfortunate Rickey Clark. And hey, most likely Tenace was only in there because it was the 2nd game of a doubledipper; he wasn't the regular catcher yet at that point. Duncan caught the first game.
It was a LONG day for the Halos. In the opener that day, one Catfish Hunter allowed 1 run in a 3-hit complete game gem, winning 6-1. The 2nd game was 6-0. Yes, I have WAY too much time on my hands...
MT
So, using the game logs section of Baseball Reference, it was easy work to find that on June 25, 1972, the A's played a doubleheader against the Angels in Oakland. In the nightcap, Tenace hit a 3-run homerun; Bill Voss and Sal Bando were on ahead of him. So from that, I'm saying the guy on Tenace's right in the card is Bill Voss, who had a bit of day himself. That would make the guy on Tenace's left Marty Martinez, who would have been on deck when Tenace went yard. All the pieces seem to fit. Bando can console himself about not being in the card, since the following inning he too went big fly against a very unfortunate Rickey Clark. And hey, most likely Tenace was only in there because it was the 2nd game of a doubledipper; he wasn't the regular catcher yet at that point. Duncan caught the first game.
It was a LONG day for the Halos. In the opener that day, one Catfish Hunter allowed 1 run in a 3-hit complete game gem, winning 6-1. The 2nd game was 6-0. Yes, I have WAY too much time on my hands...
MT
