Wednesday, February 1, 2012

But still....

I found this oddity on the back of Bill Stoneman's 1968 card. Stoneman came up through the Cubs system, but was later taken by the Expos in the expansion draft. He tossed a no-hitter for Montreal in 1969 and another in 1972, the second one being the first ever no hitter in Canada. He finished his active career with the Angels in 1974 and then worked in the front office of both the Expos and the Angels, eventually become general manager of each team.

But in 1968 he was just another young pitcher coming up with the Cubs. They had several promising young arms at the time, Fergie Jenkins, Bill Hands, Ken Holtzman, Joe Niekro, Rich Nye, and Bill Stoneman.

The front of his card...



shows the 24 year old in front of the Cubs dugout at Shea Stadium. Nothing unusual here. The back however has something amiss.



Take a good look and see if you spot an error. Here's a better look,



which should make the error easier to spot. It looks like the last sentence of his write up was deleted. Instead we end with, "Bill was used sparingly but still"

"But still" what???

Bill was used sparingly but still....
...impressed the team brass.
...managed to strike out 52 batters.
...stayed with the team because of the incriminating pictures he had of skipper Leo Durocher.
...kept a positive attitude by hanging out on Rush Street every night.

Please add your own!

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