Topps Archive is nostalgic and gives us several throwback designs. This year, there are three 100-card subsets, each subset has its own old design. At the same time, the checklist mixes active and retired players. There are 2 on-card autographs in every hobby box. It’s highly possible to get autographs from retired players.
I usually get several packs of Topps Archive every year since some old designs are really worth collecting. This year, I got a Catfish Hunter short print. Actually, I didn’t know much about Catfish Hunter. However, I tried to find some of his information and career stats and things are getting more interesting. In Catfish Hunter’s career, he pitched 3449.1 innings. Currently, only three pitchers already threw more than 2900 innings. Well, Bartolo Colon hasn’t announced retirement yet, so let’s consider him as an active player. Justin Verlander is on the injured list and it’s still unknown whether he will be back this season. Zack Greinke is probably going to have a couple of starts this season, but it’s unlikely to reach the 3000 innings milestone at the end of this season. Verlander is 37 years old and Greinke is 36, they could pass Hunter’s inning pitched record, but they have to stay healthy and it will take at least 2 or 3 seasons. Thus, in the short term, we won’t see any pitchers pass Hunter or Colon on innings pitched.
Meanwhile, Catfish Hunter pitched 500 games, 476 of them were starts. Bartolo Colon made 552 starts. Zack Greinke made 456 starts so far in his career. If Greinke and Verlander stay healthy, they will probably pass Hunter’s games started record in 2021.
Cole Hamels hasn’t been back on the mound this season and Felix Hernandez opted out this season. Jon Lester has a tough season so far with a 5.80 ERA. It will be quite challenging for these 3 pitchers to reach the 450 games started milestone.
One unbelievable thing is that Catfish Hunter tossed 30 complete games in 1975. Yes, 30 complete games in a single season. In his career, Hunter tossed 131 complete games. “Big Sexy” Bartolo Colon threw 38 complete games in his career. There are no other active pitchers who throw more than 30 complete games. As we can see that there are more teams to use openers and bullpen workloads increase a lot, it will be really hard to see a pitcher toss a complete game.
Catfish Hunter’s career is incredibly amazing. He’s an 8-time All-Star and won the Cy Young award in 1974. Meanwhile, he had 5 World Series championship rings. From 1972 to 1974, the Oakland Athletics won 3 consecutive World Series championships. In these 3 years, Catfish Hunter made 5 starts and had 2 relief appearances, earning 4 wins in the World Series. Also, he tossed a perfect game on May 8, 1968. He struck out 11 batters, including 3 strikeouts against Hall-of-Famers Harmon Killebrew. There are only 21 perfect games in MLB history. Catfish Hunter was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1987. His performance and numbers truly tell us the story of 1960’s and 1970’s baseball.
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