Our next action shot has Pat
Dobson pitching from the stretch in a rare Yankee away shot. My guess is that
the photo is from an old stomping ground of his – Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium
– and should be from the same series as the Jim Palmer and Fritz Peterson shots
many moons ago. That would make this photo one from a game September 16th,
the second game of a double header, in which Pat won 7-5. That must have felt
good since before the season Baltimore sent Pat
to Atlanta
where in the early first half of the year he had a miserable time going from a
team with one of the best MLB defenses to a team with one of the worst. And Pat
wasn’t shy about making his feelings felt so when he mouthed off that a ground
ball pitcher – like him – needed a hard-working defense behind him and the Atlanta sluggers weren’t
doing the trick, it wasn’t long before he was sent packing, moving to NY for
four – mostly – minor leaguers. His ensuing performance certainly seemed to
back up his assertions since with the Yankees he shaved three-quarter’s of a
run from his ERA and bettered his record by five wins. In ’74 he would do even
better.
Pat Dobson was born in Buffalo and raised in a small town in upstate NY named Depew. There in high school he went a combined 19-1 his
two varsity baseball years and, according to his coach, never gave up more than
two hits and struck out 17 batters a game. In ’60 when he graduated he was
signed by a local scout for the Tigers and he went to B ball the rest of the
summer. There he was a bit wild and his numbers weren’t too hot and it took Pat
a while to get any real traction in the minors. In ’62 he went 8-7 in D ball
with a 2.56 ERA and over a strikeout an inning and in ’63 he had a nice stint
in Double A: 5-1 with a 1.33 ERA. In ’64 and ’65 he lost some time to the
military but the latter year went a combined 4-1 with a 1.38 ERA split between
Double and Triple A. In ’66 he went 12-9 with a 3.45 ERA at the higher level
and finally got his curveball in line, significantly reducing his walk totals.
Then in ’67 a 4-1 start with a 1.47 ERA in Triple A got him finally promoted to
Detroit.
Dobson had a Topps rookie
card in 1967 which is mentioned here because it had an odd narrative on the
back: Topps spent the whole space given to the other guy on the card letting us
know they screwed his card up the first time. Called up in May Pat put up some
pretty good numbers from the pen as mostly a middle-innings guy. In ’68 he
nearly tripled his innings as a swing guy and added seven saves. Tigers
pitching coach Johnny Sain was doing some nice work with Pat, especially in
helping him refine his curve. He got his first post-season action, relieving in
three games against St. Louis.
In ’69 he reprised his ’68 role, grabbing nine saves and finishing more games
but the lower mound helped add almost a run to his ERA and when Sain was
released as pitching coach, Pat let it be known that he wasn’t a fan of the
move, so he was sent off as well, going to San Diego with Dave Campbell for Joe
Niekro. Pat’s first shot in the NL was pretty impressive as he finally got a
shot in the rotation full-time and had an awfully good record for a terrible
team. But he wasn’t there too long as after the season he came back to the AL in a big trade: he and Tom Dukes went to Baltimore for Enzo
Hernandez, Tom Phoebus, and Al Severinson.
For the Orioles, Dobson again
got regular rotation work and with the stellar Baltimore defense behind him put up some
excellent numbers, becoming one of four 20-game winners on the ’71 O’s pitching
staff. He returned to the Series where he did a so-so job in the loss to the
Pirates. In ’72 he led the AL
with 18 losses as the Birds missed the post-season for the first time in four
years even though his ERA was considerably better and his other stats were
roughly parallel with 71’s. After the season when the power-hitting Earl
Williams became available to solve the Baltimore
catching issue, Pat, Roric Harrison, Johnny Oates, and Davey Johnson were sent
to Atlanta for
Williams and Taylor Duncan.
In ’74 Dobson had one of his
best seasons, tying Doc Medich for Yankee team leader with 19 wins while
posting a 3.07 ERA. The next year was a bit of a letdown. After starting the
year 2-5 but with a very good ERA he went on a 6-0 run to pull his ERA below
3.00. But then NY went to a five-man rotation – Pat worked much better under a
four-man one – and he went 3-9 the rest of the way and spent some time in the
pen. After the season he asked out and was sent to Cleveland for Oscar Gamble. There he was
reunited with Frank Robinson and recent post subject Boog Powell and like Boog
Pat had a nice comeback, going 16-12 in a – yes – four-man rotation while
lowering his ERA over half a run. Early the next season he hurt his back and
the ensuing season was pretty disastrous: 3-12 with a 6.14 ERA. Early in ’78 he
would be optioned to the minors and then released, ending his pitching career.
Pat finished 122-129 with a 3.54 ERA, 74 complete games, 14 shutouts, and 19
saves. He went 0-0 in the post-season with a 3.97 ERA in six games.
After sitting out most of the
’78 season Dobson hooked up with the short-lived Inter-American League as a
coach and later manager of the Maracaibo, Venezuela team.
After that league folded mid-season he got hired as a Class A pitching coach
for the Indians. He then spent ’80 and ’81 as a pitching coach in the Yankees
system before moving to the Brewers one, where later in ’82 he moved up to
Milwaukee. He stayed with the Brewers through ’84 and then coached in Seattle’s system through
’87. From ’88 to ’90 he was San Diego’s pitching
coach and in ’91 for most of the year he was Kansas City’s before resigning. In ’92 he
became a scout for the Rockies until ’96 when
he was the Orioles pitching coach. He then became a scout for the Giants in ’97
and had moved up in the organization to become assistant to the GM when in 2006
he was discovered to have lymphoma. The day after his disease was diagnosed Pat
passed away at age 64.
Topps brings out the obscure
stuff for Pat’s star bullets but the cartoon is pretty significant. It’s hard
to believe that it took over 30 years – from when the first night game was
played – to get a nighttime Series game.
The Yankees offered up Don
Larsen’s perfect game from the ’56 Series as the team’s contribution to the ’76
baseball centennial. Hard to top that one. Ironically, as this post is being
written, Larsen’s uniform from that game is about to be auctioned off to help
pay for his grandkids’ college educations. Don threw a pretty good game at Brooklyn, only once getting to three balls on anyone. The
fifth was a nail-biter with Jackie Robinson and Gil Hodges both flying out deep
in the outfield. Pee Wee Reese and Sandy Amoros also had some deep fly balls
later in the game. The last out was made when pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell looked
at a called third strike setting the stage for the famous shot of Yogi Berra
jumping into Larsen’s arms.
So the last card marked the
70% mark of this set. Time to do the tally:
Post-season: Thanks to Dave
Winfield teams that have appeared in post-season play has been expanded
somewhat. From ’57 to ’95 there is at least one player from a team that went to
the playoffs or beyond except for these years: ’60 (still!); ’91, and ’93 to
’94. Maybe some upcoming rookies can help fill the gaps. ‘73 leads the way with
71 players.
Awards: These ones have sort
of flat-lined a bit. There are now 22 players who were MVP’s of their
respective leagues; 14 Cy Young winners; ten Firemen of the Year; 18 Manager of
the Year winners; 21 Rookie of the Year winners; and 22 Comeback Player of the
Year winners.
Milestones: We are up to 34
Hall of Fame inductees. There are 36 players for whom this year’s Topps card is
their first and 41 for whom it is their final card, which I believe is the
first time the balance has tipped to the latter group. We are also up to 47
players – roughly 12% of the set – who are now deceased.
Topps Rookie All-Star Teams:
Every year except the current one (’74, but that will change) is now
represented by at least one player who was named to the Topps team. Here is the
breakdown:
1959 – 3 1963 – 3 1967 – 5 1971 – 6
1960 – 1 1964 – 3 1968 – 6 1972 - 8
1961 – 4 1965 – 3 1969 – 6 1973 - 9
1962 – 1 1966 – 5 1970 – 5
Miscellaneous: There are 101
action shots in the set. There are cards of 150 players in their home uniforms
and 257 of players in their road ones. We have had 45 players represented by official
or unofficial Traded cards and 33 by a parenthetical name, a good indication of
players from Latin America. We are still stuck
at 14 Washington Nat’l cards. There are still only five cards which I have
designated as ugly, but I may be being generous. We are up to five guys who
served in Viet Nam
which I still regard as the most surprising stat of this set.
These two very nearly played
with each other in Cleveland:
1. Dobson and Chris Chambliss
’74 to ’75 Yankees;
2. Chambliss and Eddie Leon
’71 to ’72 Indians;
3. Leon and Luis Alvarado ’73
to ’74 White Sox.
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