The next rookie card gives us
four young AL
outfielders, though by the time this card came out one would be over in the NL.
Two of these guys appear to be at Yankee Stadium and one at Comiskey. God knows
where Jim Fuller is but he sure does look tall, which is fitting because he
was/is. And those mutton chops are something else.
Jim Fuller could hit the crap
out of the ball. Unfortunately he could also miss the crap out of the ball and
his senior year of high school in ’68 in San
Diego he hit .260, not exactly a number that points to
pro ball. After graduation he attended San Diego City
College from where he was
drafted the following year by the Dodgers but passed. He’d hit .360 that year,
in part because he started taking lots of protein supplements his mom used to
sell. After another good year of fall ball he was drafted in January ’70 by the
Orioles in the second round and this time signed. That summer he played first
base in A ball and began his hitting assault with a .247/9/64 season in 373 at
bats. He also had 83 strikeouts and his big issue was that his K’s could
outnumber his hits on a regular basis. In ’71 the O’s realized his arm was too
good to keep at first and he was moved to the outfield where he would regularly
be among league leaders in assists. In A ball that year he put up a .326/33/110
stat line with 105 runs and 129 strikeouts. He then split ’72 between Double A
and Triple A, going a combined .255/34/107 with 165 K’s. He would settle into a
fairly long run at the higher level beginning in ’73 when his stat line was
.247/39/108/197. In his few appearances for Baltimore
that year he hit .115 with 17 K’s in his 26 at bats. But he then spent most of
’74 with the O’s where he hit .222 with seven homers and 28 RBI’s in 189 at
bats but also struck out 68 times. He spent most of the summer back in Triple A where he hit .278 in a slow power year. The next couple years were spent
exclusively at that level where his power fell off but his strikeouts didn’t:
in ’75 his line was .213/17/50/133 in 362 at bats and in ’76 .227/19/55/92 in
269 at bats. That winter he signed with Houston as a free agent and in ’77 he
would see his final MLB action in a couple stints, hitting .160 with 45 K’s in
his 100 at bats. His career line at that level was .194/11/41 with 130 K’s. In
Triple A that year he hit .233 with eleven homers and 31 RBI’s, most of the
season as a loaner to the ChiSox. He then split ’78 between the KC and Pittsburgh organizations
at the same level with not too many at bats. It was his last year as a player
and his final numbers in the minors were a .254 average with 170 homers, 554
RBI’s, and 919 K’s in his 2,811 at bats. Tracking Jim down since then has been
tough – he has a pretty common name and is not related to the pitcher from a
generation later – but he appears to now reside in Apple Valley, California.
If that is the correct Jim he sadly just lost a son who was a director for
“Glee”, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”,
and other shows.
Wilbur Howard was drafted as
a pitcher by the Seattle Pilots out of his Lowell, North Carolina
high school, just after leading his team to a state title in ’68. The Pilots
fielded an A team that year before their MLB franchise played and Wilbur led
the team in victories, going 8-5 with a 3.87 ERA. But he was a fast guy and the
Pilots moved him to the outfield the following year where he hit .287 at that
level with 20 stolen bases and then upped his numbers to .321 with 15 steals –
on less at bats – in the fall Instructional League. In ’70 he hit .304 with 41
stolen bases and 73 runs scored in a season spent in A ball with a few late
games in Triple A. Willie could obviously hit and run but he didn’t walk much
and he put up a lot of K’s for a contact guy. He would then spend nearly all
his time the next three years in Triple A where he averaged 72 runs, 28 stolen
bases, and 111 K’s per season while hitting .240, .286, and .270. In September
of ’73 he made his debut, hitting .205 in 16 games. After the season he was
traded to Houston
for a package that included Larry Yount, Robin’s older brother. He returned to
Triple A to start off the ’74 season and after hitting .296 with 13 stolen
bases at that level, came up to the Astros in June to hit .216 the rest of the
way as a back-up outfielder. In ’75 the Astros went with four regular
outfielders and Wilbur had his biggest season, hitting .283 in 392 at bats with
62 runs scored and 32 stolen bases. But in ’76 an early slump had him back in a
back-up role which lasted the next three seasons, his best year being ’77 when
he hit .257 in 187 at bats and stole eleven bases in twelve attempts. During
that time he also played a little second base and even a few games at catcher.
He also spent a bit of ’77 in the minors and in ’79 he spent the whole season
in Triple A, hitting .241 his final season stateside. He then spent the next
four years playing for Yucatan
in the Mexican League, with ’83 being his final year of pro ball. Wilbur
finished with a .250 average with 60 stolen bases in a bit more than 1,000 MLB
at bats and a .275 average with 174 stolen bases in the minors. And then he
disappears media-wise although he may be still residing in the Houston area (I guess that Astro blood runs
deep).
Tommy Smith graduated from
high school in ’66, having played the big three sports, and then went to NC
State on a hoops and baseball scholarship. He played both sports his first two
years and then concentrated on baseball when he stopped growing his junior year.
Initially a pitcher in college he threw the team’s final game in its first CWS
appearance in ’68, a 2-0 loss to USC. He hadn’t been used terribly much as a
pitcher – the staff ace was Mike Caldwell – and his senior year of ’70 he was
converted to an outfielder and responded with a .379, five home run, 33 RBI
season that got him named all-ACC. It also helped get him selected by the
Indians in that year’s draft. Tommy was a huge guy – check him out in the Cleveland team photo –
but wasn’t particularly a big power hitter. But he could hit for average and
his first year put up one of .360 with 48 RBI’s in only 200 at bats between A
and Double A. He then had a couple relatively low average seasons the next two
years in Double A, with a .263 average in ’71 and .277 in ’72. But in ’73 he
moved up to Triple A where he rallied with a .342 with 82 runs scored before
making his September debut in Cleveland and hitting .244 the rest of the way.
That off-season he broke both bones in his left forearm playing a pick-up
hoops game and had to have metal rods inserted to help repair them. And though
he hit horribly in his short time up in ’74 with an average below .100, he did
pretty well back in Triple A, putting up a .312/10/67 season in 381 at bats,
the only year he’d reach double figures in homers. ’75 was nearly all the lower
level, with a .302/4/63 stat line with a personal best 25 stolen bases. Then in
’76 he upped his numbers to a .335/9/54 first half before getting recalled to Cleveland. That summer
would produce his biggest year up top as he hit .256 with two homers and twelve
RBI’s as the team’s fouirth outfielder down the stretch. After the season he
was selected by the Mariners in the expansion draft where he hit well enough in
a pinch and reserve role - .259 in 27 at bats – before being sent down to
Triple A, where he hit .284 the rest of the way. Outside of a brief comeback try in the
Inter-American League in ’79, Tommy was done. He put up a .232 average in his
271 MLB at bats and hit .312 in the minors. After playing he returned to the Raleigh area of North
Carolina where he established his own baseball
school, Diamond Stars, which he continues to run.
Otto Velez was a corner
infielder when signed by the Yankees as a free agent in ’70. An admittedly
horrible fielder he could bash the ball pretty well and that first summer hit
.369 with seven homers, 44 RBI’s, and a .472 OBA in rookie ball. Though he
didn’t hit too well in his few at bats in A ball, the next year at that level
he put up a .310/16/73/.420 stat line. In ’72 he had his best
fielding year in Double A but his offensive line fell a bit to .249/13/68/.371. Then in
’73 he got moved to both Triple A and the outfield and Otto responded with a
.269/29/98/.450 line with 130 walks and 92 runs scored in just over 400 at
bats. He came up to NY in August after the Yankees pared away the Alou brothers
and hit .195 the rest of the way while playing right field. He returned to
Triple A the first half of ’74 where he was moved to first base and in under
half a season had a line of .310/13/35/.483 now from the top of the order,
where he scored 44 runs in just 200 at bats. When new Yankee first baseman
Chris Chambliss went on a cold snap in mid-June, Otto was recalled, had a hot
start while getting some starts that month, and then settled to .209 in a
back-up role the rest of the way. In ’75 he played both corners in Triple A
where his offense came in a bunch after he missed time with a broken wrist,
though his OBA remained super strong at .445 while when up in NY he barely
played as those two positions were handled by guys who never sat. In ’76 he had
a pretty good spring, made the cut as the Yankees cleared house in the
outfield, and hit .266 with a .410 OBA as the team’s fifth outfielder before
seeing some post-season action. After that season he was taken by Toronto in
the expansion draft and Otto began his Blue Jays career in a monster fashion,
winning the April ’77 AL Player of the Month by hitting .452 with five homers
and 18 RBI’s in his first 17 games. He would then miss a few weeks later in the
summer and would finish his first year as a regular with a .256/16/62/.366 line
and earn the nickname “Otto Swatto” in Canada. That year he had DH’d a
bunch but in ’78 the Jays acquired Rico Carty to handle that spot full-time and
though Otto had one of the best bats on the team, his defensive inabilities
caused his playing time to come in as his line came to .266/9/38/.380 on a
third less at bats. Same deal in a ’79 that produced a .288/15/48/.396 line
with 21 doubles in just 274 at bats and a request to be traded. But in ’80 Otto
got the DH spot outright and got off to a huge start, hitting .362 with nine
homers and 29 RBI’s in his first 27 games. Then his shoulder got dinged in a
near-brawl against Oakland
and while he didn’t miss too much time, his offensive production came in pretty
big the rest of the way as he did
miss a couple weeks due to an auto accident. Still, he put up one of his best
lines in his busiest season with a .269/20/62/.365 year. But in ’81 more
shoulder pain helped induce a much lower average and he split ’82 between Toronto and Triple A, not getting too much plate time at either level.
Following the season he went to Cleveland as a free agent and in ’83 only got
into a few games for the Tribe, though in Triple A he hit .310/9/42/.435 in
just 142 at bats. It was his final season in the continental US as he spent ’84
in Mexico
and that year also wrapped up his winter time playing in PR. Otto finished with
a .251 average, 78 homers, 272 RBI’s, and a .369 OBA for his MLB line and hit
.282 with 97 homers and a .428 OBA in the minors. He went hitless in his four
post-season at bats.He would return to PR to coach, his most high-profile
stints being in ’92 for the Olympic team, ’94 for the Baseball World Cup team,
and ’95 for the Intercontinental Cup team. He then coached a bunch at the
island’s Roberto Clemente Sports Complex, which he may or may not still be
doing.
These guys give us a combined
16 MLB seasons and no awards. They are another pretty big bunch, particularly
Fuller, and Smith. Maybe there was something in the water in ACC territory.
The inter-card hook-up takes
us through Boston:
1. Frank Tanana and Jerry
Remy ’75 to ’77 Angels and ’81 Red Sox;
2. Remy and Bob Watson ’79
Red Sox;
3. Watson and Jim Fuller ’77
Astros;
This one will involve another
one of those splits where one guy is used as an independent link to two other
ones:
1. Jim Fuller and Wilbur
Howard ’77 Astros;
2. Howard and Cesar Cedeno
’74 to ’78 Astros;
3. Cedeno and Alan Ashby ’79
to ’81 Astros;
4. Ashby and Tommy Smith ’75
to ’76 Indians; Ashby and Otto Velez ’77 to ’78 Blue Jays.
And there’s our record.
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