1976 Hostess #142 - Gary Matthews

* Gary Matthews was one of the really good outfielders that the Giants came up with in the early 1970s. Things could have been different if the Giants would have been able to keep Gary Matthews, Garry Maddox, and George Foster.

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1976 Hostess #142 - Gary Matthews

• Gary Matthews was one of the unsung young stars of the game in 1976. Playing for several bad Giants teams didn't help him gain much notoriety.
• In 1976 Matthews batted .279 with 20 HR and 84 RBI.
• After the 1976 season Gary signed a multi-year contract with the Atlanta Braves.
• The Braves lost a first round draft choice and were fined for contacting Matthews without permission before the opening of the free agent season.
• Before peak, peak, or after peak? peak

6 in 30 -- My Memories of 1974 Topps

My first year of collecting was 1974. I was seven years old and really didn't know what I was doing. I'm sure I was hoodwinked a few times in trades with the neighborhood kids. I figured for this "6 cards in 30 seconds" activity I would pick the six cards from this set that are the most memorable for me.

In my first pack of 1974 Topps I got one of the Hank Aaron Special cards. This is probably the one I got, but I'm not entirely sure. It was cool to see what the older cards looked like and I learned some historical things by reading the back of the card. I don't know how many hours I spent reading the backs of cards and memorizing stats. When I first got the card I wasn't sure who Hank Aaron was, but I learned all about him when he broke the HR record early in the season. I remember seeing it on TV at the house down the street. After that I figured that anyone who got the first six cards in the set had to be a great player. Topps should do a subset of "special" cards when a veteran is at the end of his career. They did one in 1985 when Pete Rose was about to break the hit record. More of these subsets would be cool.

The team checklist cards were a good way to keep track of team sets. It was nice to have a separate team checklist card instead of marking up a team photo card. These were inserted in each pack, so they weren't scarce. It would be nice if Topps would start doing this again.

This is an example of the great action shots that were in this set. I didn't notice it much at the time, but the '74 set is probably one of the better sets for action photos in the 70s and 80s. The horizontal orientation is also cool. There were several horizontal cards in this set, but Topps didn't overdo it. This was the last year Topps did horizontal cards for quite a while.

Here's another good action shot of my favorite player of the time. Pete really messed up later in life, but he was a lot of fun to watch back in the 70s. It looks like he's going to war in this picture.

You're probably thinking, "What the heck is he doing here?" This card is memorable because the one copy of the card that I had for quite a while (until I bought a mint set years later) had the right corner torn off of it. My neighbor Jimmy and I were flipping cards on the family room floor of his house and his little sister came crawling over. She was crying and screaming like little ones often do. She picked up my Brent Strom card and stuck it in her mouth. It didn't take long for the top right corner to disappear. I still have that card somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment.

I preferred the Cubs and White Sox team cards during this era. I could actually see who was who in these pictures. It was a mystery why Topps did team cards in which the players were virtually unrecognizable. Now it's fun to scan a team card from that era, enlarge it, and see how many players I recognize on the photo.

The 1974 set design is kind of bland, but I think it's an underrated set.

1976 Topps #133 - Gary Matthews

Gary Matthews was an outfielder for five teams from 1972-1987. He was the San Francisco Giants' first round draft pick in 1968. Gary spent two years in AA ('69 and '70), one year in AA ('71) and a year in AAA. His .313 batting average and 21 home runs in Phoenix in 1972 showed that he was ready for the big leagues. Gary had a September look-see and batted .290 in 62 at bats.

• Matthews was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1973. He batted .300 with 12 homers and 17 stolen bases in 148 games for the Giants. Gary batted .287 but with a bit more power (16 homers) in 151 games in 1974. Matthews settled into a pattern of batting around .280 with about 15-20 homers for the next several years.

• Gary was granted free agency after the 1976 season and signed with the Atlanta Braves. He had two more of his typical .280, 20 HR years in 1977 and 1978. Matthews had one of his best seasons in 1979. Gary batted .304 with 27 HR and 90 RBI and made the NL All Star Team. Matthews followed that up with one of his typical years (.278, 19 HR, 75 RBI) in 1980, then was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Bob Walk.

• Matthews spent three years in Philadelphia. He batted .301 in the strike-shortened 1981 season, then hit .281 with 19 homers in 1982. It looked like he was tailing off in 1983 when he had his lowest batting average to that point (.258) and hit only 10 homers.

• Before the 1984 season Gary was traded by the Phillies with Porfi Altamirano and Bob Dernier to the Chicago Cubs for Bill Campbell and Mike Diaz. That ended up being quite a trade for the Cubs. Matthews batted .291 with 14 homers, 82 RBI, 101 runs, and a league-leading 104 walks for the NL East champions. Gary finished 5th in MVP voting that year.

• That was Gary's last really good season. He started to slow down, batting .235 in 1985 and .259 in 1986. After starting the 1987 season batting .262 in 42 at bats, Gary was traded to the Seattle Mariners. Matthews batted .235 for the Mariners and retired after the season.

• After his career Gary was in private industry until 1995. He then did some coaching and broadcasting for various teams. Matthews is now the color commentator on Philadelpha Phillies broadcasts.

• His son, Gary Matthews Jr., is an outfielder for the California Angels.