Sunday, April 1, 2012

Blow Out the Candles April 1

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.


2 comments:

  1. Someone told me a great Rusty Staub story about 2 years ago. Check it out in the 5th comment under this blog post.

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    Replies
    1. Great story. Ernie should have had 513 and not been tied with Eddie Mathews for all these years.

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