Card fact: This is Ed Halicki's rookie card.
What I thought about this card then: I didn't see it. The first card of his I saw was in the 1976 Topps set. I would get him confused with John Montefusco, which is appropriate as they both threw for the Giants and both pitched no-hitters within one year of each other.
What I think about this card now: I sure would like to know who the photographer was that took all the photos for Topps in Candlestick Park during the 1970s. He was a busy guy.
Other stuff: Halicki was a big dude -- 6-foot-7 -- and quickly made an impact for the Giants by no-hitting the Mets at Candlestick Park in 1975, his second season. Two years later, he won 16 games and the Giants seemed primed, from a pitching standpoint anyway, to make an impact in the N.L. West. They also had Montefusco, Vida Blue and Bob Knepper on the staff. But the late '70s were a disaster for the Giants. Halicki didn't pitch well and had issues with how he was used. He eventually found himself on waivers.
The Angels picked him up, but he lasted just one season there and after a tryout with the Phillies, his major league career was over.
Halicki's name recently came up when Jonathan Sanchez pitched a no-hitter for the Giants in 2009. Sanchez was the first Giant to throw a no-hitter at home since Halicki.
Back facts: The 1974 World Series references continue even though we're done with the postseason subset. Green indeed was the defensive star of the Series, making several rally-killing plays.
Other blog stuff: I was recently contacted by a relative of pitcher Tom Buskey, who was featured on Card No. 403. The information that I received on Buskey's death was incorrect. I have changed it so that it is accurate, and I thank the Buskey family for contacting me about it.
4 comments:
Double whammy. First the subset reminds you the A's won the Series and then a Giant leads off. This makes 20 comments tonight...I'm officially caught up!
The photographer may be a guy named Doug McWilliams. Jim mentioned that on my blog awhile ago when I kept screwing up the fields. He's been a big help.
It was Doug McWilliams beginning around 1972. I met him at the A's fanfest a few years ago. He's from here in the Bay Area. That's why you see so many Candlestick poses and entire chunks of AL teams posed at the Oakland Coliseum at the same time of day in Topps sets from the 70's. His work is headed to Cooperstown:
http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/ex-topps-photographers-work-heading-to-hof/
Got to watch his no-hitter vs. the Mets. A Sunday afternoon game on WOR. First no-hitter I ever got to see. I did get to hear a no-hitter, or at least part of one, when I was able to pick up the Phillies radio broadcast when Rick Wise pitched his. I grew up on Staten Island, so it was pretty common to get Phillies games at night. What I remember about the broadcast of Halicki's game was that Bob Murphy kept making a big deal over the fact that Halicki was a "local" boy back here in the NYC area, especially as the no-hitter got closer. As you see on the card, he was from Kearny, NJ. Murphy must have said it 20 times, between gulps of Schaefer’s. So for the rest of history I will know two things about Ed Halicki: first, he pitched a no-hitter vs. the Mets; two: he was from Kearny, NJ.
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