Pastor Rich sent this 1978 Ron Guidry card to me. I remember this year vividly. Not only his performance for the Yankees but the response by the APBA community. Back then, the APBA card makers didn’t give out many A&C grades. This one seemed to be a sure thing. In fact, the APBA Journal (an independent publication) headlined this article before the 1978 came out. It read “Will Guidry receive the rare A&B?”
Alas, he did not. But he was still honored with the A&CXZ grade.
| Split | W | L | W-L% | ERA | G | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 Totals | 25 | 3 | .893 | 1.74 | 35 | 35 | 16 | 9 | 273.2 | 187 | 61 | 53 | 13 | 72 | 248 |
Guidry had a pretty phenomenal year in 1978. By July 2nd, Guidry was 13-0. He didn’t lose his game until July 7th. He didn’t lose steam, though. Even in September, he went 6-1. That one loss was a doozy. Last place Toronto knocked Guidry out of the game in the second inning. Toronto added six hits and five runs (three earned) to Guidry’s stats (thanks to Tony Stevens for pointing this out).
Ron Guidry’s 25 wins and 1.74 ERA led both leagues, of course. He also led the league with nine shutouts. Not surprisingly, Guidry won the Cy Young Award that year.
I couldn’t help but notice that Guidry was blessed with a Fast baserunner rating. Why? He pinch ran twice for the Yankees in 1978 while scoring once.
Guidry’s salary for 1978 was $47,000. The next year, he got a hefty raise for his performance. He then made $233,000. While in 1979, Guidry’s ERA was a more mortal 2.78 for the Yankees but still good enough to lead the American League.
Thanks Rich!!
Do we still remember how good he was? In real life and particularly in APBA.
My grades give him the A&C dead-bang in the middle of the range (focusing on only hits & runs, ignoring W-L). HIs opponents’ BA is so impressive that with the bases empty he gets an “A-1”, meaning he kills 1/6 of PRN-7s with bases empty.
He gets the XY from me. He needs about 8.1 strikeouts per 34.9 BF in a league that will have about 3-3.5 13s per card. He’s juuust a wee shy of getting the Z.
Great, great season.
At his peak he had Just extraordinary velocity for his day from a small left-hander. Pound for pound and adjusted for era/handedness, one of the hardest throwers we’ve seen.
I got to see him pitch that year, at Minnesota. That card is wicked.