NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 ALAN CLOSTER

Here’s a 1974 card that wasn’t really “missing”, an Alan Closter Atlanta Braves card, for whom he played the final games of his brief Major League career in 1973:

Closter appeared in four games, all out of the ‘pen, getting hit hard with seven earned runs and seven hits over 4.1 innings, to the tune of a 14.54 earned run average.
Originally up with the Washington Senators in 1966, he wouldn’t see a Major League mound again until he was back, now with the New York Yankees, in 1971, for whom he’d play the next two seasons, albeit briefly.
The only big league decisions he’d get were in 1971, when he posted a record of 2-2 along with a 5.08 E.R.A., appearing in 14 games with a start thrown in among them.
After those aforementioned four games with Atlanta in 1973, he would pitch for the Braves Minor League system through the 1975 season, then call it a career after eleven seasons as a pro, four of them in the Major Leagues.

ANOTHER HEAD SCRATCHER- 1973 ALAN CLOSTER

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for cards of non-rookies that barely, and I mean BARELY played the year before, like today's subject, Alan Closter and his 1973 card.

Closter appeared in a scant two games during the 1972 season, posting an 11.57 ERA while not figuring in any decisions.

His workload amounted to 2.1 innings that year, yet he got a slot in the 1973 set.

I do understand that building the roster for their upcoming edition must have had Topps in fits, so some "busts" were sure to happen (as we have seen), but I still get a kick out of profiling these cards since we've also seen just how many players "should have" had cards in sets during the decade.

Closter's career would end after appearing in four games during the 1973 season with the Atlanta Braves, again going 0-0, this time with a 14.54 ERA over 4.1 innings of work.

Over parts of four seasons, he'd finish with an even 2-2 record, with a 6.62 ERA and 26 K's over 21 games and 35.1 innings playing between the Washington Senators, Yankees and Braves.

It's also fun to point out that those two games and 2.1 innings in 1972 got him his own card in 1973, while 14 games and 28.1 innings of work in 1971 only managed to get him on a multi-player rookie card in the "oh-so-funky" 1972 set.

Go figure…