Before there was Mike Tyson, the boxer, there was Mike “Rocky” Tyson, the Cardinals’ scrappy mid-’70s second baseman/shortstop born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on this day in 1950. When Garry Templeton took over at shortstop for the Cardinals in mid-1976, part of what made him so exciting is that he was the polar opposite of what the Cardinals had at the position for the previous decade in guys like Tyson, Dal Maxvill, and Don Kessinger—dull, white, slow, and terrible offensively.

Tyson had moved to second base by the time Templeton arrived on the scene, but he was the more-or-less starter at short from 1973–1975, where he led the NL in errors in 1973 with 33, and had the fourth-most in 1974 with 30. Despite all the errors, both baseball-reference and Fangraphs have Tyson as not terrible (a bit below average) at short, and actually decent in 1974. Second base, though, was his “natural” position, but until 1976 he was blocked there by veteran Ted Sizemore, another white, slow, terrible hitter in the middle infield. Garry Templeton had risen quickly through the system, batting .401 in 184 at-bats at AA Arkansas in 1975 after beginning the season in A ball, and was the heir apparent at short; Sizemore, once OK defensively and merely bad at bat, was awful all around in 1975 and on the wrong side of 30, and the Cardinals, needing a change, decided to move Tyson to second for ’76 and acquired the veteran gloveman Don Kessinger from the Cubs to hold down the fort at short until Templeton was ready.

Now the second-base starter for 1976, Tyson singled and tripled in an opening day win over the Cubs, but the next day was injured running to first in his first at-bat, and was out for a month. Returning to the lineup on May 11, he then started each of the next 57 games, suddenly playing like one of the best second baseman in the league, batting .305/.343/.462, with 19 extra-base hits—including 8 triples—and 25 rbi. But on July 18, after homering in his first at-bat to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead against the Giants, Tyson injured his thumb on a play at second, and missed another six weeks.

When Tyson returned in the second week of September, with the Cardinals far out of contention, Templeton was the starter at shortstop, having been called up in August with Kessinger moving over to second after a couple stopgaps there had proven ineffective. Tyson, at probably less than 100 percent thumb-wise, and Kessinger split time at second for the remaining four weeks while Templeton showed that the anticipation of his arrival had been merited.

Tyson wound up playing just the equivalent of about half a season in 1976, and despite tailing off terribly after his September return, still ended up fifth among all NL second basemen in WAR (bb-ref version), and second, behind MVP Joe Morgan, in OPS plus, at 117. That would represent his career peak, as he never again came anywhere near approaching that level of offensive production. Still, by getting hurt when he did he allowed Cardinals fans a bit of salvation in an otherwise forgettable season by accelerating the debut of Templeton, who would explode in 1977 as one of baseball’s brightest young stars. Alas, his is another story.

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