It has happened a couple
times in this set where Topps goes from a guy just beginning his career to one
just ending it. In the latest rendition of that segue the guy on the back end
is Hal Lanier, shown in the on-deck circle at Yankee Stadium. Hal was really
done in that the stats on the back of his card would be his final ones up top
and by the time this card came out he wasn’t a Yankee any more but the property
of the Cardinals. In ’73 Hal backed up Gene Michael at shortstop during one of
Gene’s busier seasons so Hal didn’t get too much work. He’d backed up third
base the prior year as one of several guys to man the position between Jerry
Kenney and Graig Nettles. So his time in NY was all reserve stuff and he was
basically in wind-down mode for a while. But it wouldn’t be too long before he
raised his profile again
Hal Lanier was born in North Carolina in 1942,
smack dab in the middle of his dad’s MLB career. Max Lanier was a pitcher for
the Cardinals and by the time his career ended he had relocated first to California and then to Florida where Max attended high school. A
pitcher and infielder at that level, he took his school to the state finals and
then was signed by the Giants that June of 1961 for a $50,000 (or $75,000) bonus.
He had also passed on a full ride to play hoops at the University of Florida.
He would hit at a nice clip in the minors, beginning in D ball in ’61, when he
batted .315 while playing shortstop. He moved to second base the next few years
as he moved up the ladder: In C ball in ’62 he hit .312; in Double A in ’63 it
was .282 as he led his league in hits; and in ’64 when he hit .327 before being
called up to San Francisco. In one of the odder stat items I have seen Hal had
only six walks that year in 270 plate appearances. He may have hit well in the
minors but he was no Joe Morgan at getting on base.
In 1964 the Giants had Jim
Davenport and Chuck Hiller splitting time at second base during the first half
of the year. Neither of the two was hitting very well so San Francisco called up the hot-hitting
Lanier to add some offense in the middle. To a degree Hal delivered and his
.274 average was good enough to get him named to that year’s Topps Rookie Team.
But other stats – especially the walk total of five in his 400 plate
appearances – were more telling of his future offensive behavior. That would
become evident in ’65 when Hal’s average dropped nearly 50 points though he
continued to build his reputation as a very good defender. That year he also
suffered a pretty nasty beaning. In ’66 Tito Fuentes came up and since he was a
more natural second baseman, Hal put in some time at shortstop and by ’67 it
was his full-time position. That year he topped out in RBI’s with 42 though his
average continued to slide. He remained the starter through ’70 when he had his
best offensive season since his rookie year. In ’71 new kid Chris Speier took
over the position and Hal spent most of the year at third base. Just prior to
the ’72 season he was sold to the Yankees for whom he proved to be a helpful
stopgap that year since the anticipated starter at third base, Rich McKinney,
sort of crashed and burned. Hal was released following the ’73 season and
before ’74 opened hooked up with the Cardinals. For them that year he played
every infield spot in Triple A while hitting .269 and the next year had a gig
as a player coach for the same team. That pretty much wrapped up his playing
career and along with the stats on the back he had one post-season at bat
without a hit and hit .295 in the minors.
Following the ’75 season Hal
was given his release by the Cards and found a job selling cars back in San Jose, California,
where he continued to live after he left the Giants. That December the Cards
came back to him, though, and offered him a job managing in the team’s system
on which Hal pounced. ’76 wasn’t too hot but the next four years Hal won his
league’s title twice and in ’81 was pulled up to coach in St. Louis. He did
that through ’85 when he was hired away to manage the Astros. Installing a
Cards-type running game in Houston
he won 96 games and the division his first year as well as NL Manager of the
Year. But the next two years weren’t as successful and Hal, sort of an old
school guy, had some tension brewing between him and some of his players. He
was dismissed after the ’88 season after having gone 254-232 in his three
years. After a year off he coached for the Phillies for ’90 and ’91. He
interviewed for the Yankees manager job and a couple others in ’92 but didn’t
get back in baseball until ’96. Since then Hal has been managing in the
independent leagues, a bunch of that time in Canada. Through 2011 he took his
team to the playoffs nine of his 16 seasons and during that time he went
1,020-857. After a year of in 2012 he was named manager of the independent Yuma
Desert Rats but that team later pulled out of the new league – the American
West Baseball League – of which it was to be a part so as far as I can tell Hal
continues to be retired.
Hal is in the top 100
all-time in fielding percentage for shortstops. His dad, Max, had a pretty good
run as a pitcher, mostly with the Cards during the WW II years. He was 108-82
with a 3.01 ERA and in ‘43 had probably his best season, going 15-7 with an
NL-leading ERA of 1.90. He got in three straight Series with St. Louis, winning two, and went 2-1 with a
1.71 ERA in his seven games.
Hal and Larry get helped out
big by an ex-Giant:
1. Lanier and Bobby Bonds ’68
to ’71 Giants;
2. Bonds and Garry Maddox ’72
to ’74 Giants;
3. Maddox and Larry
Christenson ’75 to ’83 Phillies.
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