Harry Hamels nominated 1981 Bill North for Weird Card Wednesday on the APBA Baseball Facebook group. He counts a total of 34 asterisks on North’s card (I’ll take his word for it :) ).
With the Giants, it was Bill North’s last year in the majors. While hitting only .221, he still went out doing what he did best, stealing bases. In 46 games, he stole 26 bases during the strike shortened year.
| G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 | 161 | 131 | 22 | 29 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 26 | 8 | 26 | 28 | .221 | .354 | .298 |
What Harry Hamels doesn’t know is that Bill North was on my first Illowa APBA League back in 1981. I remember my first draft weekend in the league. I had Cesar Geronimo slated for CF. Former manager Tedd Mallasch smooth-talked me into trading me North for Geronimo straight up. “It was a deal already in the works”, he assured me. I was young and naïve. “Sure!”
As it turned out I got the better of the deal anyway. For his last two years with me, Bill North stole 105 bases including 46 in this last very limited year. For Tedd’s Champions, Cesar Geronimo hung on till 1984 as a pretty limited player.
Thanks Harry!
Also a good example of the advantage of speed with a good on base percentage. Not all sabermetrics are useless.
agreed, Bob. If I remember correctly, his 1980 card was very similar but better since he hit somewhat higher.
I guess you can call your trade a “steal” of a deal.
LOL!
You know what, I’m very much inclined to agree.
I used Bill North quite a bit using the ’73 A’s in various games. Oh the speed!