From the days when major league baseball players drove '78 Pontiacs (thanks, Timothy K. Ready!) and the fine MopUpDuty blog comes this fascinating 1979 public service announcement, in which Toronto Blue Jays DH Rico Carty promotes safe driving in Ontario.
With a personality so volatile that he once provoked normally staid Braves teammate Hank Aaron into a fistfight, the self-proclaimed "Beeg Mon" seems like an odd choice for a safety promotion — but maybe after sitting out the entire 1971 season (after leading the NL with a .366 batting average the year before) due to injuries suffered in winter ball, he began to see the value in taking care of himself. (Or maybe, after sustaining permanent eye damage during an early 70s altercation with Atlanta police, he didn't want to run afoul of Canadian cops by driving belt-free.)
In any case, the once-fearsome Carty was definitely slowing down by the time this ad originally saw print; 1979 would be the final season in the beegs for the Beeg Mon, in which he posted a .256/.322/.390 line, belting only 12 homers and 55 RBI in 132 games. Carty spent spring training with the Blue Jays in 1980, but the team cut him in late March, about a month after the Topps card below was released.
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