Back
to the final cards, and in this case the plural works two ways. For the record
of the last eight non-team cards in this set, six have been the final ones
issued during those players’ careers. And Tommie Agee gets to go out with a
double, just like Felipe Alou did a bunch of posts back. These aren’t great cards
– Tommie looks pretty unhappy as a Cardinal and that look up on his Traded card
could be years old. But he did have some great ones. In ’71 he slides into
second as Joe Morgan and (I think) Dennis Menke try to get a ball that appears
trapped in Tommie’s underarm while the umpire – in a uniform out of 1920 –
looks like he’s about to signal an out, which would make no sense. I think that
one gets topped in ’73 when Tommie is making a catch in center with Rusty Staub
– our last post subject – jogging over from right and (again, I believe) Ken
Boswell doing a crossover in back of another ump in a photo in which all three
guys – a record? – had to be air-brushed because Tommie went to Houston before that
season. He’d been having a rough time since about mid-’71 when extensive knee
pain took away lots of his power and a year later his speed. And though he
spent less than half his career in a Mets uniform, it is odd to see him out of
it. His last year really was his last year – no more stats after the ones on this
card – and after the trade mentioned above sort of fell flat. Despite hitting
well in a couple early starts in left field for Houston, the dereliction of his
knees contributed to most of his time being spent in reserve work where it was
difficult to maintain a consistent average and the strikeouts- Tommie always
had a problem with those – were a bit high for the decreased power production.
By mid-August he was the team’s fifth outfielder and was soon after traded to St. Louis for infielder
Dave Campbell. With the Cards Tommie got some starts in center – he was
acquired because regular guys Jose Cruz and Luis Melendez were hurt and stopped
hitting, repectively – but the average continued to taper. After the season the
Dodgers got super busy in early December with trades. Their long-time starter
in center, Willie Davis, was sent to Montreal
for big-inning reliever Mike Marshall and Tommie was acquired in this trade to
fill the gap. But the next day his former teammate Jimmy Wynn was picked up by
LA for pitcher Claude Osteen. Jimmy would have a monster season in helping LA
to the Series while Tommie wouldn’t get out of spring training. So he returned
to NY, just not as a baseball player.
Tommie
Agee grew up in and around Mobile,
Alabama, where in high school he was
a star in the big three sports plus track. In football while he was a
three-year starter his team lost only one game. He was an end while future Mets
teammate Cleon Jones was a halfback. In baseball he was an outfielder/pitcher
and his senior year of ’60 he hit .390. He then went to Grambling on a baseball
scholarship where he added first base to the above positions and hit .533 his
one season before being signed by Cleveland for a big bonus. In D ball the rest
of the summer he hit .261 with 15 homers and 40 RBI’s in under half a season.
Tommie almost always hit from the top of the line-up and was super fast. In ’62
he moved up to B ball where he put up a .258/7/55 line with ten triples and 25
stolen bases before a couple games in Triple A and then his first look in
Cleveland. In ’63 he moved to Double A where he experienced his first lost time
from his knee, had a line of .274/5/36 in just under 300 at bats, stole 19, and
recorded his best OBA of .354. He also returned to Cleveland at the end of the season for look
number two. Then in ’64 it was off to Triple A Portland where he became a
slugger with his .272/20/62 line with 35 steals but 144 K’s. After his third
late crack at the Cleveland outfield he, young pitcher Tommy John, and John
Romano went to the White Sox as part of a three-team deal in which Cam Carreon
went to Cleveland (from Chicago); Mike Hershberger, Jim Landis, and Fred Talbot
went to KC (from Chicago); and Rocky Colavito returned to Cleveland (from KC).
Initially,
Chicago smelled a lot like Cleveland for Agee. He began the season in
Triple A, where his .226/8/33 line was a significant discount to his prior
season and his September call-up worked about as well as his previous ones did.
But in ’66 Tommie had a real good camp and in the wake of Danny Cater’s trade
to KC, incumbent center fielder Ken Berry moved to Cater’s spot in left opening
up center for Tommie, who made the most of his opportunity. Still a rookie, he
led the Sox in runs (98), hits, doubles, triples, homers, RBI’s, average, and
stolen bases (44). He made the All-Star team, won a Gold Glove, and finally was
named AL Rookie of the Year. ’67 would be a mixed year though. While Tommie hit
OK during the season’s first half and again was an All-Star, he had a nasty
slump in the second half which was pretty lousy timing since the Sox went to
the wire on the pennant. After the season he was on the move again, this time to
the Mets with infielder Al Weiss for Tommy Davis, Jack Fisher, and a couple
minor leaguers.
While
Agee’s first year in a new town was better than the last time he tried that
trick, it wasn’t by much. Acquired to finally fill a defensive hole in center
that had been there since pretty much the Mets themselves had, and to add some
pop to the top of the line-up, Tommie did pretty well in the former department
but pretty badly in the latter. Off to a pretty good start at the plate he ran
into an early wall in that monster 24-inning game against Houston in which he
went 0 for 10 to begin a season-long slump that didn’t allow him to break .200
until the last couple weeks. He went from being the everyday center fielder to
missing starts and his RBI total was pretty horrendous as he came in with north
of 100 strikeouts. But ’69 was a whole new year and Tommie put up his best stats
since his ROY
season. While he was still toting a high K total – 137 that year – he delivered
in the role for which he was acquired while scoring 97 runs. Then came his
headline-worthy post-season in which he hit .357 with two homers against Atlanta and then had those two circus catches against Baltimore that saved a
game in the Series. As another reward Tommie was named the AL Comeback Player
of the Year. ’70 was better for Tommie personally as he improved in runs (107),
hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases (31 vs. 12), and average and won his
second Gold Glove. By the end of the year, though, his knees were causing him
some serious pain and in ’71 Tommie missed a combined six weeks to injury. He
kept his average up there and stole 28 bases but his power subsided quite a
bit. In ’72 he missed time to both injury and the return of Willie Mays as that
year the average and the stolen base total (8) fell prey to his knees.
Following the season he was sent to Houston
for Rich Chiles and Buddy Harris. After the ’73 season he was done, finishing
with the stats on the back of this card and 167 stolen bases. In the
post-season he hit .250 with three homers, five RBI’s, and three steals in his
eight games.
Agee
had while still a Met purchased an interest in The Outfield Lounge, a bar
pretty close to Shea Stadium in Queens. After
he was done playing he pretty much took it over as a full-time pursuit. He was
also heavily involved in local PR events for the Mets and other NYC youth
programs. He then became associated with a company called Stewart Title
Insurance with whom he was working while attending a meeting in NYC in 2001. It
was there he was stricken with a heart attack that would prove fatal. Tommie
was only 58. A year later he was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. He has a
SABR bio.
Tommie
gets a big number and a big star bullet on his card back. Those catches robbed
Andy Etchebarren and Paul Blair (who just recently passed away) of multi-base
hits that would have likely driven in five runs. When he was traded to the Sox
it was part of an arranged deal. The Tribe wanted Rocky Colavito back and he
was in the hands of the A’s. Chicago
wanted catcher John Romano because he hit with some power although his defense
was very suspect. Cleveland told Chicago they could get
Romano if they picked up Colavito which they were able to do principally
because he’d had a big ’64 and wanted a raise and KC owner Charlie O Finley
didn’t want to pay. So Cleveland got Rocky, Chicago got Romano, and the two throw-ins to the deal from
the Cleveland
side were Tommie – whose stats are all above – and a guy who won 286 more
games.
Tommie
had a one-day run as LA’s newest center fielder. Ah well.
By
mid-August of ’73 most of the big names had already testified before the Senate
Committee, which was still pursuing some of the tapes from the White House:
8/15/73
– President Nixon delivers a televised address for the first time in three
months. In it he indicated it was time to stop using Watergate as a diversion
and/or an obstacle to getting real work done, notably dealing with inflation
and Viet Nam.
He opined that “it (was) clear that both the hearings themselves and some of
the commentaries on them have become increasingly absorbed in an effort to
implicate the President personally in the illegal activities that took place”
in another clear indication of his belief of myriad conspiracies against him.
He reminded people that he already accepted responsibility for abuses that
occurred during his administration but then also reminded everyone that he was
innocent of all activities related to the scandal. He reiterated that he would
not turn in any tapes on the basis of national security. The presentation
didn’t go terribly well; the next day a poll revealed that 31% of the populace
were in favor of the President’s job performance, a 20-year low in that poll.
As
that ’73 card of Tommie’s illustrated, this is an easy hook-up:
1.
Agee and Rusty Staub ’72 Mets.
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