TTM Stats
- Sent: 12/3/2021 | Received: 12/14/2021 | 11 Days
- ’75 Topps, ’76 Topps, ’77 Topps
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Buzz Capra is a former right-handed pitcher in the major leagues. He played in both starting and relief roles from 1971 to 1977 with the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves.
Capra is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He grew up playing shortstop. When he went to college at Illinois State he added pitching to his game and got pretty good. Good enough that he helped the Redbirds win the 1969 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship. The Mets then drafted him with a 27th round pick in the 1969 MLB Draft. He spent two years in the minors and made his major league debut on September 15, 1971.
He bounced between the minors and majors while with New York and mostly pitched in a relief role. He was part of the team that reached the World Series in 1973, but he never appeared in a game. His contract was sold to the Braves during Spring Training of 1974.
While he started out the 1974 season in relief he was forced into a starting role due to injury. This would become his career year. He went 16-8 with a major league leading 2.28 ERA in 39 games with 27 starts, including five shutouts. He earned his one and only All-Star appearance and even earned Cy Young and MVP votes.
Unfortunately the rest of his career didn’t see the same success. He was released in 1978 and retired shortly thereafter. He went on to coach at Illinois State. Later he would work as a pitching coach and manager in the Mets, Phillies, and Braves organizations.
The Score on Buzz Capra – 6.0
Buzz doesn’t have the smallest signature ever, but it is on the smaller side. I love how the blue marker comes out on these cards with the old blue in the Braves uniforms. I think my favorite of these is the 1976 Topps card. I know that is blue on blue, but I am kind of partial to the 1976 cards anyway.
Thanks Mr. Capra! I’m giving this return a 6.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.