222 - Rob Gardner

About This Player
Rob Gardner spent eight seasons in the Major Leagues bouncing around between six different teams. Originally signed out of high school by the Minnesota Twins in 1963, Gardner was selected by the New York Mets in the 1963 first-year draft. He made his big league debut in 1965 and spent two seasons with the Mets before being traded to the Chicago Cubs. He would later be traded throughout his career to the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Oakland A's before playing his last game for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Gardner does hold a distinction for being traded for two of the three Alou brothers throughout this career. In 1971, Gardner was traded from the Yankees along with one other player to the A's for Felipe Alou. (Gardner was traded back to the Yankees two months later.) He would be traded again from the Yankees along with a player to be named later (who would be Rich McKinney) to the A's prior to the start of the 1973 season for Matty Alou.

About This Card
Just as Gardner had bounced around different Major League clubs, he also bounced around the minors. His Topps card states that we has pitched in 10 minor league cities. Gardner will have pitched for 12 different minor league clubs by the end of his professional career.

Gardner had only spent four games with the A's in 1971; hardly enough time for a photograph in an A's uniform.

550 - Dave Johnson

About This Player
Davey Johnson played 13 years in the big leagues and three of them with the Atlanta Braves.  Johnson began his playing career and spent the majority of it with the Baltimore Orioles.  During his tenure with the O's, Johnson started at second base for four American League pennants and two World Series Championships. He also made three of his four All-Star appearances as an Oriole and won three Gold Glove Awards.

Johnson, after a poor 1972 season, was traded to the Atlanta Braves and responded with the best offensive numbers of his career.  Johnson had career numbers in 1973 in runs (84), hits (151), home runs (43) and RBI (99).  He earned his fourth All-Star selection that year.  Johnson tied Rogers Hornsby's single season record for home runs for a second baseman with 42; one on Johnson's home runs came as a pinch-hitter.  The 1973 Atlanta Braves also featured the first trio of teammates to hit 40 home runs in a season; Darrell Evans hit 41 and Hank Aaron hit 40.

After getting a hit in his only at bat in 1975, Johnson was released by the Braves.  He spent 1975 and 1976 playing in the Japanese league.  He returned to the play in the U.S. in 1977 with the Philadelphia Phillies and finished his playing career with the Chicago Cubs in 1978.  In the 1978 season, Davey Johnson became the first player to hit two grand slams in pinch-hit at bats.

Johnson is probably more profilic for his career as a manager.  Johnson has spent 16 seasons as a manager at the Major League level with division pennants with the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals and a World Series Championship with the Mets in 1986.  Johnson was selected as American League Manager of the Year in 1997 with the Orioles. 

Johnson is the current manager of the Washington Nationals.

About This Card
To reflect many of the trades that had taken place during the offseason and current season, Topps often airbrushed the new uniforms on a player.  Davey Johnson appears in this photograph in a Braves uniform at the end of the first turn of a double play with New York Yankees' Felipe Alou having slid through second base even though the Braves did not play the Yankees.

This play took place, with Johnson as an Oriole, on September 17, 1972.  Alou hit a single in the bottom of the second inning.  Thurman Munson followed by grounding into a 6-4-3 double play.

In addition to Johnson having been airbrushed into a Braves uniform, Topps also airbrushed over the first half of the scoreboard on the right field wall in Yankee Stadium.

Special thanks to Chris Stufflestreet and his 1973 Topps Photography blog.

93 - Jesus Alou

About This Player
Jesus Alou played 15 seasons in the Major Leagues with four different teams.  Alou made his Major League debut with the Giants in 1963 where he joined his older brothers, Felipe Alou and Matty Alou.  On September 10, 1963, the three Alou brothers become the first trio of brothers to bat in the same inning, as well as the same team.  On September 15, all three started in the same outfield.

Alou was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 expansion draft and was part of the infamous trade to the Houston.  Prior to the 1969 season, Alou and Donn Clendenon were traded to the Houston Astros for Rusty Staub.  However, Clendennon refused to report to Houston.  To satisfy the trade, Jack Billingham, Skip Gunn and cash were sent along with Alou to Houston and Clendenon remained in Montreal.

Alou spent seven seasons with the Astros, but his playing time decreased significant in 1972 with only 14 starts in the outfield (versus 103 starts the year before) and being used most frequently as a pinch hitter or pinch runner.  Alou was sent to the A's in the middle of the 1973 season and played on their 1973 and 1974 World Series teams.  Alou signed with the Mets in 1975 and was released before the start of the next season.  After a two year hiatus, Alou signed with the Astros in 1977 and played his last game in 1978.

In addition to his two brothers, Jesus' cousin, Jose Sosa, and nephews, Moises Alou and Mel Rojas played in the Major Leagues.

About This Card
On his left sleeve, Alou bears the classic Houston Astros logo patch.  This was the first logo the Houston ball club used when they moved into the Astrodome.