1968 Topps NL Home Run Leaders
Hank Aaron- HOF
Willie McCovey- HOF
Ron Santo- Perennial All Star and Cubs legend
Jim Wynn- He ummm, wait... who?!?!
Right there, nestled in between Aaron, Santo and McCovey, Jim Wynn for the '67 NL Home Run leaders. But who the flying frog fish is Jim Wynn?
Again, this is a bit before my time, so maybe he's one of those guys that just never transcended generations. Let's a take a look a...
Signed by the Reds as an amateur free agent in 1962, he made his major league debut in '63 with the Astr... excuse me, the Colt .45's
Wynn played in 15 seasons and actually, he had a very impressive career:
.250 BA
.366 OBP
285 2B
291 HR
964 RBI
225 SB
I'm beginning to wonder why I've never heard of this guy. Maybe if we dive into the accolades a bit, we'll see why:
1967 All Star
1974 All Star
1974 NL Comeback Player of the Year
1975 All Star
2005 Number #24 Retired by the Huston Astros
OK, reallllly starting to wonder why I've never heard of this guy. Of course the Comeback Player of the Year Award caught my attention. It's a reward that's designed for Underdogs, I fucking love it! Let's compare his '73 and '74 seasons, just for funzies.
'73- 139 G, 106 H, 14 2B, 20 HR, 55 RBI, .220 BA
'74- 150 G, 145 H, 17 2B, 32 HR, 108 RBI, .271 BA
Huge jump in BA and RBI in '74 but everything else is still very respectable in '73.
As I dug for info, I found this to be pretty interesting...
"Wynn was a player who walked a lot, giving him a very high on-base percentage. Moreover, he played in the 1960s, a low run-scoring era, as well as in the Astrodome, a low run-scoring park. This has led to many statistical analysts (or proponents of sabermetrics) to argue that Wynn was a very underrated player who might even deserve the Baseball Hall of Fame.[1]"
-Wikipedia
There's even a few websites dedicated solely to "The Toy Cannon"!
Pretty crazy, so still I ask why have I never heard of this guy?
Final Verdict:
This is an easy one. Wynn was a 3x All Star, was consistently among the leaders in Home Runs, has his number retired and is a "boarderline" Hall of Famer.
The "Other Guy"- 3
Joe- 0
(...Joe)
Yeah, why have you never heard of that guy? The Toy Cannon was the man! Great arm and a great bat. One of Houstons best players period.
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