Joe Liss posted this 1973 Don McMahon card on Facebook recently. Now, it’s definitely a Monster card with a total of eighteen hit numbers based on his 1 for 1 performance for the San Francisco Giants.
To me, it’s also a little strange since the card has four nines. Almost all cards have two nines unless it belongs to a typical bad hitting pitcher who will get just one. On occasion, a low average slugger with a lot of walks may receive the 8-8-9 combination. This is the rare instance when a card has more than two nines, though.
McMahon’s card has a 62-9, 53-9, 45-9 and a 13-9.
Don McMahon was a little before my time but looking at his stats, he has to be one of the under-appreciated relievers of his era. In his 18 years in the majors, he pitched in 874 games all but two of them in relief. He won 90 games and came away with a 2.96 ERA.
The card doesn’t just have four 9’s – it has SIX 8’s. I’ve never seen that before.