Cleaning out the inbox

The inbox filled up faster than expected,so time for a dumping!
This has some good stuff,so I hope you'll enjoy this one!

I stumbled upon this by accident,but I really enjoyed reading this by Paul Putz from 2013 about the old Kansas City-Omaha Kings and their three seasons that the vagabond franchise spent playing a handful of games in Omaha with their main base in Kansas City,
The article is a tremendously detailed article on those Kings and focuses on their players and the Omaha games in particular.
I love this type of article on the lost era,yet my era of the NBA (and ABA),so I'm always on the lookout for them.
I only wish that Putz would consider a book on the years of the K.C-Omaha Kings-It was that good.

The San Antonio Current posted an oral history of the USFL's San Antonio Gunslingers last fall and it was filled with things that made me laugh.
I've been planning a USFL show for the podcast all winter,but not sure if it will happen right away,but I will get one finished sometime.

Bruce Markusen's Card Corner for the baseball hall of fame writes an excellent article on Bobby Bonds.
Bonds was one of my favorites as a kid and it's so easy unless you are my age to just classify him as "Barry's dad".
Bonds was easily one of the most exciting players to watch of my childhood and to this day provided me with a childhood memory with just a few words.

The Hardball Times in a post from a few years back caught my interest as it covers the career of former Dodger catcher John Roseboro.
Roseboro,who was the long time catcher of Sandy Koufax,hailed from Ashland Ohio (my old residence) and I remember Roseboro's picture being painted on the side of a building downtown that has since been painted over.

Mary Beth Marsden has been a long time favorite of mine with her television and now radio work through the years.
I have been reminded more than once on a statement that I made at a ballpark once that "the only thing that I'm interested in listening to or seeing in the city of Baltimore is Mary Beth Marsden".
Marsden will be leaving WBAL radio and is uncertain of her next stop,but will continue to do videos on the autism spectrum,which has a personal appeal to Marsden as her daughter has an autism spectrum disorder.
I'll miss her work and for now-there is nothing that I'm interested in listening to or seeing in the city of Baltimore. HA HA!

Susan Petrone is an author that also blogs and does some interesting writing about the Indians,but this hit isn't about either.
Petrone smacks a double into the gap with a post about her daughter,who is entering the "tween" years and her letting go of her first favorite doll.
It hit home to me as someone sentimental about such things for me and my children and brought some remembrances of me.
Very touching,I thought.
Susan has agreed to do a podcast down the road and we'll talk about her book,the Indians and maybe even a question or two about "Big Baby".

We wrap with a goodbye to Charlie Fulton.
Charlie was one of the better "bad guy" wrestlers on the televised squash matches of my childhood,which basically meant that he would be able to get some moves in during these matches and show a little more talent.
Fulton was a talented wrestler that just didn't have the charisma to be a bigger star despite having the skills to do so.
Fulton appeared most often on WWF television and the Jim Crockett ran Mid-Atlantic territory and was just one of those guys that never got a break.
The former Vietnam veteran left the ring on a regular basis in 1985 with heart issues and his final match was 1992.
Fulton trained wrestlers after his retirement with his best known protege being Scott Levy AKA Raven.
Fulton was 67...

Bobby Bonds for Bobby Murcer

Today I wanted to discuss the biggest one-for-one baseball trade of the '70s, although not the most influential to a kid from the '70s (who happens to write this blog), that is for another day.

In the winter of 1975, the New York Yankees swapped their most popular player Bobby Murcer to the San Francisco Giants for Bobby Bonds in a deal that involved two terrific outfielders who were disappointments to fans of the respective teams.
Murcer was heralded as the "next Mickey Mantle", while Bonds was regarded as the "next Willie Mays" and despite becoming terrific players, neither was able to live up to those high standards.
After all, those are two of the greatest players ever.

Murcer arrived in San Francisco at the age of 29 and had made the American League All-Stars for the previous four seasons.
Murcer's 1974 numbers were down from three terrific seasons previously but the numbers could have been affected by the Yanks' temporary move to Shea Stadium.
The lefty swing of Murcer produced many homers down the short right field line in the Bronx but was not enough to leave the park in the larger Shea.
Murcer's power numbers fell from 22 to 10 and his average tumbled 30 points as well.
Murcer had spent the season in right field after spending his career in center and the move likely did not help his adjustment to the larger confines of Shea Stadium defensively either.

Bonds appeared in Gotham at 29 as well and was a two-time National League All-Star member.
Please remember though the NL was the far superior circuit at the time and it was much harder to make an All-Star team in the National League than in the younger league.
Bonds numbers had slid a bit in 1974, but one could not expect less after just missing by one homer being the first man to ever hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in one season in baseball history in 1973.
Bonds's average spiraled downward 27 points, his power numbers moved from 39 to 21 and his RBI totals dropped from 96 to 71.

So looking at this deal beforehand, Bonds hit more homers and stole many more bases than Murcer, but Murcer generally hit for a higher average and struck out far less than Bonds.
Both are the same age and except for the one-year stint in right for Murcer were center fielders.

Do you make this trade?
Honestly, looking at things from the 1975 perspective, I would be more likely to pull the trigger if I was getting Bonds than I would if I was getting Murcer, but I can see getting the more reliable Murcer than the boom or bust of Bobby Bonds.

Ironically, neither player was playing in their new home by 1978.
Bonds spent one season in New York in which his numbers looked great, but was never truly accepted by the Big Apple faithful in adding another 30/30 season with 32 homers and 30 steals and making the AL All-Stars.
Bonds was shipped to the California Angels after the season for two players that would figure prominently in the Yankees pennant-winning teams of the late 70s Ed Figueroa and Mickey Rivers.
Bonds would travel from team to team for the next few years going from the Angels to the Chicago White Sox to Texas to Cleveland putting up his usual numbers at all stops before finishing his career as a backup for the Cardinals and Cubs.

Murcer would make the NL All-Stars in 1975 in a .298 and 91 RBI season but hit just 11 homers.
Murcer changed his swing in 1976 and increased his power numbers by hitting 23 homers but watched his average plummet almost 40 points in doing so.
Murcer was sent to the Cubs in 1977 as part of a multi-player trade where the main return for the Giants was Bill Madlock, where he hit 27 homers before eventually returning to finish his career as a Yankee as a backup outfielder and pinch hitter.

In the end, both of these players are excellent, top-of-the-line players, but if I had to choose between them-I give the edge to Bobby Bonds.

A one-for-one trade of superstars in their prime does not happen much anymore, but when they do they always are remembered fondly.

Bullpen Notes

I admit I was a Bonds fan more than a Murcer fan when I was a young baseball fan.
My fondest memory of Bonds was a pregame hand slap during my first visit to Cleveland Stadium in 1979 as Bonds was spending his only season with the Tribe in what proved to be his last good season.

Take a look at the airbrushed hats on the 1975 cards of Murcer and Bonds that are pictured.
The trade happened late in the Topps press run and they had to settle for that instead of cards that showed them with the new caps on.

An excellent blog by Joe Posnanski on the Bonds-Murcer trade can be found here.

Look for the next poll to be on the Bonds-Murcer trade.

Billy Packer is out at CBS and Clark Kellogg is in?
I know many hate Billy Packer, but I have always enjoyed the honesty and candor of his work.
Plus living in MD, ACC fans got Packer way before the national fans as part of his terrific team with the late Jim Thacker on the Pilot Life ACC network.
Maybe sometime during hoop season, I will reflect on Packer and Thacker.

On the other hand, Kellogg is the basketball model of Jim Palmer in sounding like he is almost asleep.
I don't hate Kellogg, but far from a fan either.

Photo Credits Topps