I ran across this 1973 Barry Foote card on Facebook. Bruce Pratt posted it. He had just purchased the new 1973 season and is loving Foote’s fantastic albeit limited, card for the Expos.
Foote was a late season call-up for the Expos and made the most of his time. He went 4 for 6 with a triple. Interesting thing though… the Expos lost five the six games he appeared in. Foote can hardly be faulted since he was only a pinch hitter in all six games.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 Totals | 6 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .667 | .667 | 1.000 |
It’s an abnormal card for Footie. While he may have deserved the Catcher-6, why the 33-6? He didn’t hit a double in his six plate appearances. Regardless, it’s a monster card with five 7s stretching out to 25 and four 8s and two 9s, giving him a 62-9. He gets a 36-14 (again, with no real life walks).
It appears that for as much as Foote’s 1973 card is a Monster Card, it’s been normalized in many ways (strikeouts, DPs, walks). Considering his limited playing time, that may not be a bad thing depending on your point of view on the subject.
It is interesting also how we (I, at least) tend to glamorize players from our past. Barry Foote, yeah, he was pretty good. Well, looking at his stats, he only batted .230 for his career. His other offensive stats aren’t much better. I’m pretty sure he solidified his defense to a decent level, though.
I blame APBA for this. I know Foote for his halfway decent year for the Cubs in my 1979 APBA card set when he hit 16 dingers and hit .254.
…or maybe I just liked the nickname, “Footie”.
In my 79 replay, after 10 games, Barry has 13HR and 53 RBIs. He is batting 322 – I think he is stealing all of the good rolls from Ontiveros and Martin.