"Hey, it's-a me!"

I redeemed a few more Topps Million Card Giveaways today.  One of them provided an interesting moment - the 1977 Topps Astros Team Card:

My first thought was how it is quite a sight to see that many of those Astros uniforms all grouped together in one picture.  But then I noticed the guy in the bottom row, third from the left....



I had no idea Super Mario was a ballplayer before embarking on an exciting career in the field of plumbing!

I decided I had to figure out who this guy was, but despite looking all over the rosters of the 1976 and 1977 Astro teams I could not find a picture to definitively ID our hero in orange, yellow-orange, and puke-orange.  My best guess is that it may be reliever Gene Pentz:



I dunno....the mustache doesn't look dark enough.....

Assuming it was Pentz, I looked up his numbers - going by the stats he appears to have been a solid relief pitcher.  In 104 games appearances he want 8-9 with a 3.63 ERA in 191 Innings, and also had 116 strikeouts and 7 saves.  It appears his career was cut short due to injury in just his third full season in the majors.

Another First

Hot on the heels of my first decent autograph pull (Mike Stanton), I attended Pack Wars at my local card store last night and pulled my first ever 1 of 1!:

So...who is Casey Haerther???

A read of the back of the card combined with a quick internet search reveals that he was drafted out of UCLA by the Angels in the 5th round (171st overall) in 2009.  He had actually been drafted in a prior year, but decided to return to school instead.  In 2010 he first spent 50 games with the Orem Owlz of the Pioneer League, and in 206 ABs he hit .350 with a .386 OBP, 0 HRs, and 35 RBIs.  He then was promoted to Class A Cedar Rapids, where in 113 games (433 ABs) he hit .307 with a .352 OBP, 8 HRs, 74 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases.

It'll be pretty cool to have a young guy to follow outside the Brewers organization.  Hopefully he hits it big in the majors~!