Sunday, May 14, 2023

Cake or gum? 1975 Freddie Patek

Last time the bubblegum card squeezed by with a 5-4 victory. Who comes out on top this time?

Mr. Patek - either Fred or Freddie - has two fairly similar cards. Both are at spring training, quite possibly taken at the same time, though the backgrounds are different enough it is hard to tell. Maybe someone who is an expert at 1970s spring training venues could confirm whether it is the same ballpark or not. 

The smallest player of his era, "The Flea" was best known for his speed and defense. Interestingly, Hostess calls him "infield" and not "shortstop", but he hadn't played a game at a position other than short since his rookie year of 1968. A three-time all-star, Patek led the AL in triples in 1971 and steals in 1977. Overall in 1,650 games, mostly with KC, he hit .242 with .216 2B, 55 3B, 41 HR, 490 RBI and 385 SB. After his career he was a youth baseball coach for over 30 years. He is now retired and living in Missouri.


10 comments:

  1. tough one here. I'll go with cake as there are people in the background.

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  2. Not much to decide it, so I'll go with gum because I like how the border matches with the Royals uni.

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  3. Going to go with the gum for the color and for Freddie.

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  4. "Cake" or "gum" but I gotta pick "cake" much harder to get a set and harder to convince your parents to buy hostess

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  5. Gum - no one remembers him as Fred!

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