Cards from the Old Man Part 12: Steve Carlton

This is the twelfth in a series of posts about cards I received from the old collector in our town who had library catalogs full of cards from the 1950's-1970's. You can see those original posts here and here if you missed them.

This player has made two previous appearances in this series. He was on the 1973 Topps 1972 Strikout Leaders card with Nolan Ryan. He was also featured on his 1972 Topps card. Since we're going in reverse chronological order, you should know what this one is if you've been following along.




This a nice 1971 Topps Steve Carlton. The bottom corners are soft, the centering is about 60-40 and the edges are really pretty solid.

This is another card I chose from the Old Man's collection because of my connection to Steve Carlton. You've been reading so you know that Steve Carlton was the first card I pulled from my first pack of cards ever--1981 Fleer. I knew Carlton because of the 1980 World Series and was glad to get him. When I was going through the Old Man's cards, I pulled any Steve Carlton's that he had dupes of and asked if "this one's ok".



I rehashed Carlton's career numbers in the earlier posts so I won't do that again. I think it's interesting to note that the card back tells us Carlton went 17-11 in 1969. In 1970, the only season shown on the back, he went 10-19. It was definitely a down year for Carlton. He would come back to 20-9 and 27-10 the next two seasons.

The back of the card also mentions that Carlton struck out 19 agains the Mets on 9-15-69 and lost. I looked that game up and this is how it unfolded.

1st Inning--One reached on an error, one single, three strikouts 0 runs
2nd Inning--One single, three strikouts 0 runs
3rd Inning--One bunt single (Carlton picked him off), one strikeout 0 runs
4th Inning--One walk, 2 run Homer (Ron Swoboda), one single, 3 strikeouts 2 runs
5th Inning--One popfly, two strikouts 0 runs
6th Inning--Two flyball outs, one strikeout 0 runs
7th Inning--Flyball, groundout, single, walk, one strikeout 0 runs
8th Inning--Single, 2 Run Homer (Ron Swoboda) groundout, two strikeouts 2 runs
9th Inning--Three strikouts 0 runs

He lost 4-3. His line was 9 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 19 K, 2 HR

Not a bad game if you ask me.