1967 Topps Bud Harrelson New York Mets

Today's entry for my collection of 1967 Topps Autographed Baseball cards is about a player, coach and manager who is known as a light hitter with a bat, but a big hitter during a fight. It is Bud Harrelson of the New York Mets, card number 306 in the 1967 Topps Baseball card set of 609 subjects.

This autograph from Bud Harrelson was obtained with a through the mail request to his residence in New York on December 11, 2008. Eleven days later, I received the card back from Mr. Harrelson with a beautiful blue sharpie signature. Thank you, Bud! As of September 6, 2010, I have accumulated 510 different signatures for the collection.

Darrel "Bud" Harrelson played 16 seasons of Major League Baseball from 1965 to 1980. The majority of his career (1965-1977) was played for the Mets. After the Mets, Bud was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and played there until 1979, then was traded to the Texas Rangers, where he played his last season, 1980. Known as an excellent fielding shortstop during his career, Bud had a .969 career fielding percentage and won the Gold Glove in 1971. As a hitter, Bud's career batting average was .236 with 1120 hits, of which 7 were home runs, drove in 267 runs and stole 127 bases. Bud Harrelson was named to the 1970 and 1971 National League All-Star teams and won two World Series rings, in 1969 as a player for Amazin' Mets and in 1986 as a coach for the Mets.

Always a fiery competitor, Bud Harrelson let his emotions get the better of him in the 1973 National League Championship Series against Pete Rose and the Cincinnati Reds. During game three of the series, Pete Rose slid hard into Harrelson at second base while trying to break up a double play. Bud Harrelson took exception to the aggressive slide and a fight ensued between Rose and Harrelson and the benches from both teams joined the fray. The Mets fans were so upset by the fight, they started throwing objects onto the field and the game was almost called off. It took several members of the New York Mets to calm the crowd and let the game resume.

After his playing days were over, Bud Harrelson became a coach for the Mets for several seasons and finally got his chance to manage the Mets in 1990 and 1991. He posted a career managerial record with 166 wins versus 151 losses. He was never given another opportunity to manage in the Major League after the firing. To learn more about Bud Harrelson, go to his biography at wikipedia.org.

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