In 2005, I started to get the collecting itch again after purging most of my collection in 2002 to assist with the purchase of my first house. With $10 burning a hole in my pocket at a flea market in Ohio, I purchased a lot of 50 hockey rookie cards from an older lady selling mostly knitted dolls. She wouldn't let me look inside the small box, but she said her son had collected up until a few years ago and these were his "leftovers." I figured most of the cards were commons and I remember when I got back to my house, I had heard of a few of the guys, but some of the cards were from players in the 1970's. Not all are in the best shape, but for $10, what do you want? After a while, I decided just to put the box in the corner of my closet, and I simply forgot about it. So, 14 years later, I decided I would take out a card from the box at random and write a small post about the player. I'll count down from 50. Here goes:
47. 1978/79 O-Pee-Chee John Baby RC #366
It's been a while since I actually posted one of these. Probably 5 years to be exact, but here we go. Last Sunday, I was rooting through our storage area in our house looking for my chameleon mask to wear while I take the kids trick or treating around our neighborhood. In the corner of my eye, I saw a box. Just a normal Amazon box sitting on the top shelf and it was unmarked. I looked inside to see 2 small boxes of sports cards and one of them was the small box full of crappy hockey rookie cards for this blog that I bought off the nice old lady in Ohio. Yay! So, here we go again.
John Baby or "Butch" as he was nicknamed was born May 18, 1957, in Sudbury, Ontario. His father, John Sr., was a member of the Sudbury Wolves when they won the Allan Cup in 1954. As a youngster, Baby was known for being an offensive defenseman, not like his father who was more of a defensive defenseman. Baby would start his junior hockey career with the Kitchener Rangers in the OHA. In his first season there in 1974, he would put up 13 goals along with 26 assists for 39 points. Not only showing off his offensive skills, but also with a little snarl to his game by sitting in the penalty box for 112 minutes. The next season, Baby played 3 games with Kitchener before being dealt to his hometown Sudbury Wolves. This is when Butch's career took off. Playing on a team in Sudbury with players like Rod Schutt, Ron Duguay, Alex McKendry, Randy Carlyle, Mike Foligno, Wes Jarvis and Dave Farrish, Baby would find himself in a great situation to put up points and solidify his draft status. During his second season in Sudbury, Butch would become the #1 defenseman for the Wolves due to Carlyle being drafted by the Maple Leafs and heading out to play with the Dallas Black Hawks in the CHL and David Farrish being drafted by the Rangers and suiting up that same season for them. In 1976/77, John Baby would become a star for the Sudbury Wolves. Playing in 61 games, Butch had 32 goals, 61 assists for 93 points. Also, don't forget that Baby played with a bit of a mean streak, he also added 118 penalty minutes! Putting up 93 points as a defenseman in your draft year should solidify you as a 1st Round Draft Pick, however, Baby was selected in the 4th Round, 59th overall by the Cleveland Barons. He would also be selected in the WHA Amateur Draft by the New England Whalers in Round 3 at 23rd overall. Baby decided to play for Cleveland rather than try his luck out in New England with the Whalers. John would start his rookie year in the NHL with Cleveland, playing for most of the month of October and a game in November in the 1977/78 season. He would be sent down to the Phoenix Roadrunners for 16 games and with the Broome Dusters of the AHL for 25 games before being called back up to the NHL in March to finish out the season with the Barons. He scored his first NHL goal during this call-up in March against the New York Rangers and against goalie John Davidson. This would be the only goal for the Barons that day in a 6-1 loss.
The next season (1978), the Cleveland Barons and Minnesota North Stars would merge their teams due to financial struggles. The merged franchises decided to continue on as the Minnesota North Stars. This would be the end of the Cleveland Barons in the NHL. There was a Dispersal Draft before the rosters were set in stone. The merged team was allowed to protect 14 players. Baby was left unprotected for the Dispersal Draft but went unselected in this draft meaning he would stay as a part of the Minnesota North Stars. The only players who were selected in the Dispersal Draft were Mike Crombeen by the Blues and Randy Holt by the Canucks. If Baby were selected by another team in this draft, it's very possible his career could have went in a different direction. However, in the 1978/79 season with the Minnesota North Stars, John Baby would play his last 2 games in the NHL scoring 1 assist. The remainder of that season he played with the Oklahoma City Stars (76 games, 40 points). Then in the 1979/80 season, the NHL was expanded and 4 WHA teams merged into the NHL. John Baby was claimed by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1979 NHL Expansion Draft at 23rd overall. Baby would never end up suiting up for the Nordiques. Instead, he played out his career in the minors with the Syracuse Firebirds in 1979/80, the Binghampton Whalers in 1980/81 and 1 final season 2 years later with the Kalamazoo Wings in the IHL in 1983/84. He would finish his career with 26 games under his belt, scoring 2 goals and 8 assists for 10 points to go along with 26 penalty minutes.
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