The Nitty Gritty Card of the Early Evening...

Today’s second Nitty Gritty Card of the Day comes from the 1979 Topps set. It is card #226 of Cleveland Indians catcher Ron Pruitt. I was a bit unsure about going with such a new card, but even though I had many cards of catchers from the 1960s, you can’t tell they are catchers from the hatless headshots on the front of the card. I went into the closet and dusted off the 1979 Topps binder in search of a catcher in full gear. I will admit that my ’79 set is far from complete-I think I still need at least 100 cards to finish it off, but I searched the entire binder and this is the only card I have from 1979 showing someone with a face mask on. In the case of this card, that is all that it shows… It does have a Nitty Gritty look to it though and it does stand to remind everyone to vote on the poll for greatest catcher ever. Ron Pruitt isn’t on the list. Although he is the guy I have seen wearing a mask in the 1979 set he only started 3 ballgames behind the plate that year. Over his 9 year career he was the starting catcher 48 times for a total of 4 different teams. He spent 6 seasons in Cleveland and had his best year in games (78), RBI (32) and average (.288) in 1977. His best homerun total came in ’78 with 6 of them for the Indians. This will not be the final card posted here today. It might be the last guy in a mask, but not the last card. 31 years LATER!