Pastor Rich helped with this one. I was never aware Cesar Cedeno had such a good card.
1973 Cesar Cedeno
All Star, Gold Glove award
- .320 BA
- 25 HR
- 56 SB
In his fourth year with Houston, Cedeno had established himself as their centerfielder and a very good one at that. He was fast and had gap power leading the NL in doubles in 1971 and 1972. In 1973, he went for more homeruns and was able to crank out 25 longballs. At the same time, he stole 56 bases joining the 20-50 club.
If that weren’t enough, Cesar hit .320 in 1973 (second behind Pete Rose). Cedeno earned an All-Star appearance and a Gold Glove award for his work for the season.
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 Totals | 139 | 576 | 525 | 86 | 168 | 35 | 2 | 25 | 70 | 56 | 15 | 41 | 79 | .320 | .376 | .537 |
Cedeno Stuff
What makes this card so ‘Monster’? It’s a good example of balance of power and speed in the 1970s. Cedeno’s power numbers of 1-5-6-6 are very strong for the era. Add to that his steal numbers of 15-11, 25-11, 51-11 and 31-10 and that makes a very powerful card!
With all of the power and steal numbers, the APBA card makers gave ’73 Cedeno only two 8s.
Cedeno was of course, rated a fast baserunner and a top OF-3 fielder.
The one downside to this card… it has three 24s due to Cedeno’s 19 GIDP in 1973.
And that leads me to wondering where I would bat him in my lineup. He would make an excellent leadoff man except for all his power (especially his 5!). If he was still playing for power-strapped Houston, his 1-5-6-6 would be needed. Would I be willing to put up with the chance of a double play?
Thanks Pastor Rich!
This is easily the best card I have seen for Cesar. Most of the ones I have seen are 4 zeros with an 11. I feel like the Houston teams of the 70’s through the early 80’s never got the respect they deserved in APBA where I grew up learning to play.
The scary thing about this card is this was before the franchise moved in the fences at the astrodome. He probably could have had about 30-35 a year with the dimensions during the Bagwell/Biggio era.
Agree with Pastor Rich and Scott. I’ve only played Rd 1 of my 1973 Tournament “Season”, but Houston sent Atlanta to the “Loser’s” bracket in two. Cesar went 3-6, with a double and two SBs across both games. So, at least in the small sample, he played as well as advertised. Always so enjoyable to capitalize on 5-tool players. Well done, Gents. Great stuff.
He regularly batted third in our recently-completed 1973 short season. If it wasn’t for that pesky Joe Morgan he would have been the MVP. :)