“Terrible” Tom Zuppa comes through with this week’s Tuesday submission. It’s Dick Tracewski of the 1968 Detroit Tigers.
Tom writes:
“I picked up GTOP2, which included the ’68 Tigers. Most people know about Ray Oyler’s terrible .135. And I knew Detroit forced Mickey Stanley into short in the World Series to get a bat into the lineup.
I did not realize the Tigers tried three SS that year … and they all were bad. Tom Matchick lit it up with .203, while Dick Tracewski hit .156.
Worst platoon ever?”
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 Totals | 90 | 57 | 240 | 212 | 30 | 33 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 3 | 24 | 51 | .156 | .239 | .236 |
Tracewski did manage four 14s and a respectable SS-8 but other than that, he doesn’t bring much to the table.
Two zeros, three 8 and two 9s. That gives him a 25-39. And while he does have a a fair amount of second column ones, he has a lot of singles out there too.
Ugly numbers: 25-39, 33-8, 56-11 (in the second column)
Note that APBA put the 12 at 36 so they employed the switcheroo. They moved the 33 that some players get to the ever useful 23.
With the original set, they added an extra hit number to all cards to balance the hitting and pitching. I wonder if they did that with this reprint.
thanks Tom! I’m saving Matchick for another Tuesday!
This card looks great compared with 2014 Leury Garcia, who may be playing a lot of games for the Northboro Phoenix next year.
That card looks to me like it will hit more than .156. More like .190!
Regarding Ray Oyler, the next year he was the primary shortstop for the only year of my beloved Seattle Pilots. He amped it up to .156 and somehow managed seven home runs. Too bad we didn’t have the Mendoza line back then…