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| 1977 Topps Ted Simmons #470. I think this is such a cool photo. |
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| The back of Ted Simmons' 1977 Topps card. |
With the election of Ted Simmons to the Baseball Hall of
Fame this week, I thought I should take a look at my favorite baseball card of
his: 1977 Topps #470. I’ve always liked Ted Simmons, partially because he played
for my second favorite baseball team: the St. Louis Cardinals. I think his
election to the Hall of Fame is long overdue.
Simmons was overshadowed by Johnny Bench during the
beginning of his career, and then by Gary Carter during the latter part of his
career. There’s certainly no shame in being upstaged by the two best catchers
in baseball history, according to WAR.
Simmons’ 1977 Topps card is a really cool photo. It shows
Simmons in profile, head down, catcher’s mask and hat in one hand, glove on the
other. Is Simmons listening to the national anthem before the game starts? Or did
the camera just catch him in a moment of contemplation between innings? The
photo also shows the National League Centennial patch that all the NL teams wore
during the 1976 season, and the pillbox hats that some of the NL teams wore
that season. This photo also gives you a good look at Ted Simmons’ awesome
hair. Earlier in the 1970’s Simmons had been wearing his hair much longer,
leading to his nickname of “Simba,” as it resembled a lion’s mane.
Simmons was a great hitter during his years with the St.
Louis Cardinals, 1968-1980, putting up an OPS+ of 127, and a slash line of
.298/.366/.459. Simmons became an everyday player in 1971, and from 1971-1980
he caught an average of 135 games a year. Simmons’ career in St. Louis came to
an end when Whitey Herzog took over as manager and general manager in 1980.
Herzog loved the catcher he had managed in Kansas City, the bespectacled
Darrell Porter, and Herzog just didn’t like Ted Simmons—specifically, his defense. After
signing Porter as a free agent after the 1980 season, Herzog wanted to move
Simmons to first base, and then move Keith Hernandez to left field. Obviously,
Herzog didn’t understand that he had maybe the best-fielding first baseman of
all-time on his team. (In a terrible move in June of 1983, the Cardinals traded
Hernandez to the Mets for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey.) Simmons asked to be
traded, and so the Cardinals sent Simmons, Rollie Fingers, (who was only a
Cardinal for four days) and Pete Vuckovich to the Brewers for David Green, Dave
LaPoint, Sixto Lezcano, and Lary Sorensen. The Cardinals had traded two future
Hall of Famers, and the 1981 and 1982 AL Cy Young Award winners. Oops. But
Lezcano was one of the players the Cardinals sent to the Padres for Ozzie
Smith, so it all worked out. The Cardinals and the Brewers ended up facing off
in the 1982 World Series. The Cardinals triumphed in 7 games. Fingers was
injured and didn’t pitch in the postseason. Simmons slugged two home runs for
the Brewers. Darrell Porter was the World Series MVP.
In addition to being a great catcher, Ted Simmons also seems
like a very cool guy. For a baseball player, Simmons was a bit of an
iconoclast. In addition to his long hair, Simmons was also a vocal opponent of
Richard Nixon’s administration. Simmons might have become baseball’s first free
agent, as he started to play the 1972 season without signing his contract.
Simmons eventually signed his contract in late July of 1972, thus making the
point moot. Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally did the same thing in 1975,
pitching for the entire season without contracts, and an arbitrator ruled that
they were free agents, thus ending baseball’s reserve clause. Simmons was a
collector of antiques and a trustee of the St. Louis Art Museum. In an article
from Sports Illustrated from 1978, Simmons is quoted as “authoritatively
discussing the evolution of the fireplace in American households.” The whole article is worth reading, as it gives you a glimpse of a very intelligent man.
As a young man, Simmons had sleepy eyes and long, dark hair,
so I think the obvious choice to play him in a 1970’s made-for-TV movie would
have been Tony Danza. Okay, so Simmons isn’t Italian, but it would have worked.
“The Ted Simmons Story: From Simba to Museum Trustee,” airing next week on NBC.
