TTM Stats
- Sent: 7/10/2020 | Received: 7/24/2020 | 14 Days
- ’79 Topps
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Ken Holtzman is a former pitcher in the major leagues. His career spanned 15 seasons from 1965 to 1979. During that time he played for the Chicago Cubs (twice), Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, and New York Yankees.
Holtzman was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He went to the University of Illinois and then was selected by the Cub in the fourth round of the 1965 MLB Draft. After only a short time in the majors in which he pitched in 24 games, he made his major league debut in that same 1965 season on September 4, 1965.
He made the starting rotation out of Spring Training the next season and went 11-16 as a rookie. But they Cubs turn around the franchise a bit the next season and Holtzman went 9-0 with a 2.53 ERA in 12 starts. He was part of the National Guard and could only make starts on the weekends. He continued to pitch well for the Cubs through the 1971 season and then in November the Cubs traded him to the Oakland A’s for Rick Monday.
Holtzman was great for the Athletics in their run to three consecutive World Series wins from 1972 through 1975. He went 19-11, 21-13, and 19-17 in those years respectively. He left Oakland in April of 1976 like many others did around those years while they dumped salary. He was traded with Reggie Jackson to Baltimore for Don Baylor, Paul Mitchell and Mike Torrez. But he didn’t make until June before they traded him to the Yankees with Doyle Alexander, Jimmy Freeman, Elrod Hendricks, and Grant Jackson for some great future Birds in Rick Dempsey, Tippy Martinez, Rudy May, Scott McGregor, and Dave Pagan.
He was a starter at firs in New York but they began to move him to the bullpen. He was traded back to where he began for the last two years of his career – Chicago. In his final season of 1979 he put up a 6-9 record witha 4.59 ERA. Overall he had a career 174-150 record with a 3.49 ERA and 1601 Ks.
The Score on Ken Holtzman – 4.0
Ken is pretty famous for giving you his Holtzman ballpoint scribble on one card. From what I gather, if you are paying for his autograph it’s a bit better. But you can see I got a scribble return and in some way, I love it even more. It’s almost like it’s one of the TTM things you have to do.
Thanks Mr. Holtzman! I’m giving this return a 4.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.