Playing career, in brief: By the time this card came out Manuel had played his last game in the US, playing parts of six seasons for the Twins and Dodgers. In 242 games he hit .198 with 4 HR and 43 RBI. After the season he signed with the Yakult Swallows and played the next six seasons in Japan. He won an MVP award in 1979 and had four seasons of 35+ HR and 90+ RBI.
Post-playing career, in brief: Manuel managed twelve seasons in the major leagues for Cleveland and Philadelphia. He had winning record in ten of those seasons, and was fired mid-season in the other two. He led the Phillies to a World Championship in 2008. He is now retired and lives in his home state of West Virginia.
My collection: I have three of his cards: 1970 Topps, 1971 Topps and this one. I would be interested in trading for 1971 Dell Today's Team Stamps #NNO.
Interesting he got a card in this set despite not playing much at all since '72.
ReplyDeleteHad no idea he played in Japan... but it looks like he has some Calbees out there.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that while playing in Japan, he was closing in on the single season homerun record (held by a Japanese player), and so he was plunked (and missed time), to prevent a non-Japanese player from breaking the record.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while a player he was known as Chuck Manuel.