I'm going to make an attempt to collect as many baseball cards as possible from 1976. I was 9 when the 1976 Topps baseball cards came out. I have most of those cards, but I'd like to expand and get the other cards from this great year.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
1976 Topps #250 - Fergie Jenkins
Ferguson Jenkins pitched for four teams from 1965-1983. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991. He had 284 career wins, 3,192 career strikeouts, and a 3.34 career ERA.
Jenkins had a long and successful career. I'll put up some highlights, but a much better place to read about Fergie is in this link to his SABR biography.
He was originally drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies and was traded to the Chicago Cubs with a couple of other guys for Bob Buhl and Larry Jackson. Buhl won six games for the Phillies and was done in 1968. Jackson had a couple of pretty good years but retired after the 1968 season after he was drafted by Montreal in the expansion draft.
Fergie started out as a reliever/spot starter and was moved into the Cubs starting rotation in 1967.
Jenkins was a league leader in victories (2 times), complete games (9 times), and home runs allowed (7 times). Fergie won the 1971 NL Cy Young Award.
Traded to the Texas Rangers after the 1973 season for Vic Harris and Bill Madlock.
Fergie had one good year (25-12 in 1974) and one so-so year (17-18 in 1975) for the Rangers before being traded to the Boston Red Sox for Steve Barr, Juan Beniquez, and Craig SkokJ
Things didn't really work out in Boston--Jenkins was 12-11 in 1976 and 10-10 in 1977. He ended up in Don Zimmer's doghouse and was traded back to Texas after the '77 season for John Poloni and cash (April 1978 Baseball Digest - Fergie Jenkins and the Red Sox: A Marriage That Failed).
Jenkins had a good comeback season in 1978 (18-8, 3.04 ERA). May 29, 1978 Sports Illustrated - Back on the Comeback Trail Again. He was 16-14 in 1979 (August 1979 Baseball Digest - Fergie Jenkins Wants to go out a Winner) but fell to 12-12 in 1980 and 5-8 in 1981. Jenkins was arrested while crossing the Canadian border with a small quantity of drugs in 1980. He was permanently suspended by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn (the first time this was ever done for a drug-related offense) but was reinstated a couple of weeks later by an arbitrator.
After the 1981 season Jenkins signed with the Cubs as a free agent and pitched for them in 1982 and 1983. He was released during spring training in 1984.
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