Reader Ken Castro just got an 1973 baseball season and ran across this Cleo James card. He thought it would be a perfect fit for the Terrible Tuesday Column. Indeed, I’ve done this feature for a while now and this is one of the strangest cards I’ve seen.
But first, let’s get to his stats. Cleo James did manage to put in close to 50 plate appearances for the Cubs in 1973. He hit .111 (5 for 45) with one walk. Looking at his game logs, I can tell he did a fair amount of pinch running which accounts for his high proportion of stolen bases (5) and runs (9). Also of note, James hit into two double plays.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 Totals | 44 | 7 | 47 | 45 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6 | .111 | .130 | .111 |
Again, what a strange card! You gotta like the four 11s, right? But there’s no number anywhere on the card higher than the 66-9. That’s right, James’ 1973 card has four result numbers better than the one that’s on 66.
The 33-13 is a bit of downer should you roll that. So is the 11-40. Ugh!
Ugly numbers: 11-40, 33-13, 55-30, 22-13… I could keep going.
Note: along with the 55-30, he also has a 35-30 right next to it.
Yet, by my calculations, James should hit better with this card than his real life .111 thanks mostly to the 11s. He should probably hit around .140. If the card isn’t bad enough, James does have four 24s. The last 24 is moved back to 23 because of APBA’s placement of the 12 at 46.
Great card suggestion, Ken!! I remember Cleo James from my brother’s 1970 set when his card was much more serviceable but not near as memorable.
11-40? That’s bowling shoe ugly.
That’s Phyllis Diller ugly! Fang.
That’s plaid on argyle ugly.
I think there was a player for the Expos in the ’73 set that had a worse card than Cleo James. I may break out my old cards and look it up. I remember the James card because of the 11-40 and 66-9. It was the 2nd season I bought (’71 was first)and had not seen a card this bad before.