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1977 Topps Pat Zachry (#86) - Card of the Day
If Pat Zachry was at all intimidated by trying to break in with the 1970s Cincinnati Reds, it didn’t show up in his record.
After the Reds selected him in the 19th round of the 1970 June draft out of high school in Waco, Texas, Zachry got right to work. That first summer featured stops in Rookie-level and low-Class-A ball, followed by a full season at Class-A Tampa in 1971.
From there, Zachry logged two full summers with the Double-A Trois-Rivieres Aigles and two more with the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. By the end of 1975, the 23-year-old right-hander was a bona fide rotation prospect fresh off back-to-back 10-7 seasons but lowering his ERA from 3.52 to 2.43 from 1974.
That offseason, with the Reds having just revved up the Big Red Machine for real, Reds general manager Bob Howsam and manager Sparky Anderson decided Zachry was ready for the big time.
At the December Winter Meetings, Cincinnati traded 10-game winner Clay Kirby to the Montreal Expos for first baseman Bob Bailey. Zachry spent Spring Training 1976 with the Reds, broke camp with the team, and pitched two and two-thirds innings of relief in the third game of the season.
In that home win against the Astros, Zachry struck out four batters and didn’t yield a run despite allowing three hits and two walks. He also singled to center field against Mike Barlow in his only at-bat.
After that mostly auspicious debut, Zachry made two more relief appearances before drawing his first start on April 24 — his 24th birthday!
Zachry didn’t get a decision in that one, but he went six innings and yielded just two runs in a 6-4 Reds win over the Expos.
As the spring progressed, the youngster was picking up more starts and, by the stretch run, he was a full-blown member of the rotation. The final tally on Zachry’s rookie season was 28 starts in 38 appearances, good for a 14-7 record with a 2.74 ERA and team-leading 143 strikeouts.
In November, that performance landed Zachry a share of the National League Rookie of the Year Award, along with Padres starter Butch Metzger.
Before he could collect that hardwared, though, Zachry and the 102-win Reds had some business to take care of.
First up, Cincy swept the Phillies in the National League Championship Series, with Zachry winning one of those.
It was the same story in the World Series, where Zachry beat the Yankees in Game 3 of Cincinnati’s four-game sweep.
By then, collectors had already received their first cardboard dose of Zachry, too, courtesy of card #599 that he shared with Rob Dressler, Bob McClure, and … Ron Guidry. Of course, Louisiana Lightning dominated that card from at least 1978 onward, but it’s Zachry’s rookie card, too!
And, of course, the next spring, Topps treated the hobby to the scowling first solo card of the co-ROY that you see up top.
As fate would have it, though, Zachry’s stellar debut would stamp his ticket out of Cincinnati in no time flat. With the 1977 club looking mortal from the start after trading Tony Perez in the offseason, Howsam decided he had to do something to keep up with the Dodgers.
So, on June 15, the Reds traded Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, and Dan Norman to the New York Mets for Tom Seaver. You can find any number of Mets fans who will tell you what they think of that trade nearly 50 years on.
Plenty of them will be happy to recount Zachry’s performance in Flushing, too.
What’s important for us here, as old-time collectors — or at least collectors of old cards — is that Zachry’s 1977 Topps card ended up being his only solo Reds card.
That’s not quite the hobby travesty that Earl-Campbell-only-had-one-card-ever is, but it’s pretty jarring for Reds fans. Especially considering how key Zachry was to one of the greatest teams of all time.
At any rate, that lone wolf makes it easy to pick a card to celebrate what would have been Zachry’s 72nd birthday. Sadly, the one-time Reds hero passed away a mere 20 days ago, on April 4, 2024.
Go East, Young Men
It’s been a rough stretch for the Big Red Machine rotation, as staff ace Don Gullett passed away back in February.
Gullett and Zachry also have something else in common, as the former led the way out of Cincy and toward New York.
In Gullett’s case, it was a free agent deal with the Yankees that pulled him away from the Riverfront and toward Topps’ infamous airbrush in their 1977 set (#15).
You can read more about Gullett and his first Yankees card right here.
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Hope this mini-tour of 1977 Topps Reds/NY pitchers helps ease you over the hump of Hump Day. At the very least, you could find worse cardboard eye candy — these aren’t 1991 Fleer cards we’re talking about!
Thanks for reading.
—Adam