Monster Card Monday: 1957 Bob “Hurricane” Hazle

Bob “Hurricane” Hazle’s 1957 card was one of the first “monster” APBA cards, that is, a super human card based on a stats of a small sample size.

Hazle’s story is simple.  He came up for the Braves in July of 1957 and for the time he played that year, it seemed no one could get him out.  He hit .403 with 7 homerunsin 155 plate appearances.  One off-season later, either the pitchers got to know him better or perhaps reality set in for Hazle.  In 1958, he hit .211 and slugged a worse .281.  The Braves ended up trading him to the Tigers that year and he never gained back that magic.

The original 1957 release of the Bob Hazle card (the one you see above taken from the Ed Zack book) is certainly a fantastic card.  However, anyone familiar with APBA baseball cards can tell that Hazle’s power was downgraded presumably because of lack of playing time.  His 1-6-6 would not be capable of recreating 12 doubles and 7 homeruns in 155 plate appearances.

The APBA Company themselves seem to agree with that.  In the 1957 reprint published in 1986, they upgraded Bob Hazle’s card to a more acceptable 1-0-0-0-0 with four 7s and four 14s.

A side note:  if anyone is looking for a fun team/season to replay, the Milwaukee Braves of 1957 are top notch.  The World Champion Braves have great starting pitching (Warren Spahn, Bob Buhl), power in Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews plus a great glove in Red Schoendienst.  And yeah, a decent pinch hitter off the bench named Hurricane Hazle, too.