Houston Astros.

Date of birth: December 15, 1946 Pittsburgh, PA

High School:  Shaler Area High School. Pittsburgh, PA

College: University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY)

First Impression; To me at the time this guy was the Astros, with Jose Cruz and Ryan. Great card in his first baseman stance, other players in the background.

Career stats player: Art, how did you do in your first breakout season 1979? 8 HR .264. Im not going to continue this third person Art, how thing, it feels sillier than funny. He had his best season the year of this card hitting 10 homers and batting .283 with a .350 OBP. Art couldn’t pull a Gordie Howe and play until he was 70, he missed 1983 with an injury and had two years with the Cardinals, the last only 4 games.

All Time Stat: Very similar career to Larry Biitner, offensively. Both fit in the criteria of at least 890 games played and 287 or less strikeouts. Both had 287. Biitner hit .273 to Howe’s .260 but Howe had a higher OBP and more homers.

Career stats manager: 1129-1137. Art started out where he was comfortable, in Houston. He was hired in 1989 as manager and started off well, winning 86 games, then came 87 and 97 losses, then back to .500 and then 85-77. He sort of suffered for the inconsistent play of the team who was just entering the Biggio/Bagwell era. The Stros let Howe go in 1993 and hired Terry Collins.

Then he would go to the West Coast to replace Tony La Russa in Oakland. The cupboard was bare at that point, and they struggled his first few seasons, but they stuck with Howe and started to turn it around, and ending in the start of the Moneyball era.

They made the playoffs in 200-2002 and won 91, 102, and 103 games in those years. But they lost in the division series each year. If you have seen the movie Moneyball I am certain that Art Howe wasn’t the stewing jerk that he was portrayed to be. I am sure that he was not pleased about the way the roster was run and how his lineup was being taken out of his hands, that had to be annoying for a baseball lifer.

And so Art and Billy parted ways and Howe was let out of his contract and allowed to sign as manager of the Mets. Howe’s two years in New York were unsuccessful. The Mets won only 42 percent of their games, the front office went through three general managers, and attendance at Shea Stadium fell. Howe won his 1,000th game as manager on April 20, 2003, in a 7–4 victory against the Florida Marlins. In September 2004, word of Howe’s impending firing was leaked to the media two weeks before the season ended, but he was allowed to finish the season. Ultimately, general manager Omar Minaya replaced Howe with Willie Randolph.*

Fun Fact: Though he missed all of 1983 and was granted free agency the Topps set includes him as an Astro in 1984 set.

Ever a Future Star?  No

Rookie or final card? No, he would later have manager cards in 1990-1993 and 2001-2005. He had more manager cards than player cards.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? No

Links to stories including Art Howe.

*wikipedia