Bert Campaneris led the league in stolen bases for the 4th consecutive time in 1968. He also earned himself his first All Star Game appearance. He had a career high 62 stolen bases.
Jose Cardenal was traded from the Angels to the Indians after the 1967 season. The Angels got Chuck Hinton, who had been a threat on the basepaths. But Hinton was 34 and clearly on the downward side of his career. At 24 year, Cardenal stole a career high 40 bases for the the Indians in 1968.
Cesar Tovar had 35 stolen bases in 1968. But that was not his most impressive feat that year. He mimicked Bert Campaneris's 1965 act by playing all 9 positions in one game. On September 22nd, with the Twins 26 games out, He played all nine positions against Campaneris and the Oakland A's. He actually was the starting pitcher for the Twins and didn't surrender a hit or a run. In fact, nobody hit a ball in play. He got Campy to foul out, then struck out Reggie Jackson! Next he issued a walk to Danny Cater then balked to send him to second. Finally he got Sal Bando to pop out in foul territory. He then moved to catcher in the second, then 1st, 2nd, SS, 3rd, LF, CF and RF all for 1 inning each. At the plate he walked, singled, stole a base and scored a run in 4 plate appearances. In a game with 3 fielding errors, none went to Tovar.
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Update:
My last version had a shot of Luis Tiant instead of Jose Cardenal. Fortunately, it was caught by one of the readers. Thanks Greg!
That's Luis Tiant in place of Cardenal
ReplyDeleteFantastic card though.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I grabbed it from a site that had mis-identified him as Jose. Had me fooled until you pointed it out. Now it looks so obvious. I gotta work on fixing it now.
ReplyDelete