Friday, February 12, 2010

1967 Topps Dick Radatz Cleveland Indians The Monster


The streak is up to 5 days now without a new addition for the 1967 Topps Autographed Baseball card set. Without being discouraged, I found a card in my collection to share today. It is Dick Radatz, pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. Card number 174 out of 609 cards.

This card was obtained from a respected dealer on ebay.com on May 20, 2009. It is signed with a blue ballpoint pen. Dick Radatz passed away in 2005 after falling down a flight of stairs at his home in Massachusetts at the age of 67.

Dick "The Monster" or "Moose" Radatz career lasted 8 seasons. He played for the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers and Montreal Expos. Known for his tremendous fastball, Dick was used as a relief pitcher his entire career. He was the first pitcher to save 20 games in 4 consecutive seasons. He won the Fireman of the Year Award in 1963 and 1964. He made the American League all star team in those years as well. He still holds the single season record of strikeouts by a relief pitchers with 181 Ks in 157 innings. During his career, Dick Radatz won 52 games, saved 122, struck out 745 batters in 693 innings and had a career 3.80 earned run average.

Dick Radatz was elected to the Boston Red Sox's Hall of Fame in 1997. Find out more about his career at wikipedia.org.  

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