Hall of Fame knuckleballer, Phil Niekro is celebrating his 73rd birthday today.
1969 Topps #355
Phil won 318 games in his 24 seasons (16th all-time). 268 of them were with the Braves. His 3342 strikeouts is 11th all-time and only three men pitched more innings in their careers than Phil's 5404 (Cy Young, Pud Galvin and Walter Johnson).
1965
Phil pitching a no-hitter against the padres on August 5, 1973.
Phil pitching at Wrigley in the 80's
"Trying to hit him was like trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks."
--Bobby Murcer
Phil was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997.
The great Rusty Staub is 67 today.
1964 Topps #109
Rusty a .279 lifetime hitter with 2,716 hits is the only major leaguer with 500 hits with four different teams, (Astros, Expos, Mets and Tigers)
"Le Grand Orange"
This is a great video if you have time to watch it.
Someone told me a great Rusty Staub story about 2 years ago. Check it out in the 5th comment under this blog post.
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Ernie should have had 513 and not been tied with Eddie Mathews for all these years.
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