#616 - Larry Gura

If you were a Yankee fan in the mid-Seventies you’d have thought this poor guy was a mixture of Satan and Liberace. Billy Martin hated Larry Gura for some reason and would on a regular basis question his toughness, which is a little bizarre because Larry never actually pitched in one regular season game for Billy. But Martin’s doghouse was a tough place from which to extricate oneself – ask Reggie – and Larry didn’t have Reggie’s leverage so when Billy said “begone” off he went. I remained an NY fan through all its Billy and non-Billy incarnations but I always thought Larry was unfairly dissed so – outside of playoff time – I have to admit I was pretty happy when he beat the Bombers, which he did a lot. But that was years away and in ’73 Larry was a struggling pitcher having a nasty time as a spot guy in the NL and  not much of a better one in Triple A. But things changed for the better after the trade indicated here though he never threw one regular season game for Texas. By the time ’74 spring training was over Larry was in NY, pitching for the Yankees for whom he did a pretty good job, actually. His regular card shows him in a home uniform in what must be spring training while his Traded card features a not-too-bad airbrush job in Candlestick. It would be in KC, though, where the lights came on for Larry.

Larry Gura grew up in Joliet, Illinois where he was a pitching star and once threw two successive no-hitters in an American Legion tournament. He then went to Arizona State where as a sophomore he won a game in relief during the CWS championship season of ’67 and then as a senior in ’69 went 19-2 while pitching in four of the team’s six CWS games as ASU won it all again. He was then drafted by the Cubs that spring in the second round. At first he would work fast through the minors, beginning his career that year in Triple A before throwing great ball in the Instructional League that fall. He began ’70 in the minors also but was called up at the end of April where he got into one game in a month before returning to do some work in Triple A. He was back in Chicago by late June but was barely used the rest of the way, though he did record his first win in his first start, a complete game. In ’71 he did the back and forth though his time was nearly all in Triple A. ’72 was looking to be a repeat of the past when he asked the team to just keep him at the lower level so he could get in more games. Then in ’73 he stayed up top until August when he went down for the last month of the minor league season. To punctuate his frustrating time in Chicago his best effort in ’73 in a start was cancelled because of darkness. For the trade illustrated here Larry went to Texas as the player to be named later when the Cubbies got Mike Paul.

Gura had a '74 training camp that didn’t make Texas manager Billy Martin too happy and Larry spent the first month of the season in Triple A, where he went 1-1 with a 3.10 ERA in four starts before a May trade to the Yankees for catcher Duke Sims.  He remained at that level for NY and in his 17 games – 16 starts – he went 7-7 with a 2.14 ERA and a save. Larry was a control guy and when he was on a roll did a great job brushing the corners. NY liked his Triple A work and called him up in late August and for the stretch run he was the team’s hottest pitcher, going 5-1 with two shutouts and a 2.41 ERA in his eight starts. ’75 would be tougher, though, as both Larry’s and the team’s performance was uneven, his appearances would be irregular, and his role was best described as a spot guy. Still, his numbers weren’t too bad at 7-8 with a 3.55 ERA. Then along came Billy again and Larry got minimal time in spring training ball and none at the top of the regular season before an early trade sent him to Kansas City for catcher Fran Healy.

Gura’s initial experience in KC wasn’t exactly a panacea for his career to date. He had some rough outings in May, wasn’t used at all in June, and then righted his ship a bit in July, all his games in relief to that point. In August he pitched well in a loss to Chicago but his best effort of the year would be his eight innings of one-hit relief vs. Billy Martin’s Yankees his next game. From there it was nearly all good, culminating in an important shutout win against Oakland in late September. Larry went 4-0 on the year with a 2.30 ERA and a save. He pitched not too badly in the AL playoffs and came back in ’77 to be a swing guy as he went 8-5 with a 3.13 ERA and ten saves in his 52 games. He really hit his stride in ’78 when he finally joined the rotation full-time mid-year and went 16-4 with a 2.72 ERA. In ’79 he went 13-12 as his ERA fattened a bit but he got things right again in ‘80 when he was 18-10/2.95, was the AL All-Star starting pitcher, and had an excellent post-season. In ’81 he was 11-8/2.72 despite a late season hand injury and in ’82 he won 18 again. Things shifted pretty radically the next couple seasons as his ERA spiraled up and he went a combined 23-27. In ’85 he returned to the Cubs where he finished out his career, unfortunately missing out on the KC Series run. Larry finished with a record of 126-97 with a 3.76 ERA, 71 complete games, 16 shutouts, 14 saves, and only 600 walks in his over 2,000 innings, not bad for a guy Billy Martin once said couldn’t find the plate. He was 2-3 with a 3.89 ERA in his nine postseason outings.

Gura had settled into an off-season life in Arizona while playing and it was to there he returned professionally after playing. For the past bunch of years he has taken over running a family organic farm there that was started by his in-laws. He will sign pretty much anything for a small fee that goes to cover farm expenses.

Larry has about the cleanest signature I’ve seen to date and gets star bullets that could have easily been exceeded by some college info. He was admitted into the ASU hall of fame in ’78 and his local Joliet one a couple years later. Two things I remember about him in relation to his Yankees days. One is recounted in “The Bronx Zoo” when during ’75 spring training Billy Martin spotted Larry and Rich Coggins playing tennis. According to Sparky Lyle Martin thought tennis was “a pussy game” and it was one of the reasons he wasn’t a Gura fan. Another was that I always had the impression Larry bulked up after he left NY. His neck looked a lot thicker and his guns a lot bigger on his KC cards than on his earlier ones. It’s tough to tell from his card backs though. Here he’s listed as 185. On his ’80 card he’s 178 and on his ’81 card he’s 195.

Topps doesn’t give us too much trade-specific info here. As noted above Larry went to the Rangers in November for Mike Paul, who’d gone from Texas to the Cubs back in August. Ironically Larry played the bulk of his career under Whitey Herzog, another guy displaced by Billy Martin.

In Watergate news, we are up to April of ’73:

4/3/73 – G. Gordon Liddy had been testifying in front of the Grand Jury and gave them absolutely nothing which infuriated Judge John Sirica who already wasn’t a fan. Sirica imposed an additional eight to 18 months on Liddy’s sentence for contempt of court. Around now H.R. Haldeman’s name was being leaked from testimony as another co-conspirator in the bugging and other “dirty tricks.” Haldeman was Nixon’s Chief of Staff.

4/5/73 – Nixon withdraws his nomination of Patrick Gray as permanent FBI director. Gray, who’d been the acting director after J. Edgar Hoover’s death in ’72 hadn’t won any fans in Congress when he revealed he turned over FBI documents regarding Watergate to White House counsel John Dean.

4/17/73 – The White House announces that a new internal investigation had been initiated in late March because of “serious charges.” The announcement is made by Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler who earlier had written off the Watergate affair as “a third-rate burglary attempt.” When asked by the press to define the current status of the White House’s understanding of the Watergate affair Ziegler indicated that statement made this day was “operative.” When further asked what that meant he replied that all past statements were “inoperative.” This instance and one other sort of immortalized Ziegler’s involvement in the scandal.

These two were both in Chicago uniforms in ’73 but things can’t be that easy:

1. Gura and Ed Herrmann ’75 Yankees;

2. Herrmann and Johnny Jeter ’73 White Sox.

Or maybe they can.

#604 - '74 Rookie Infielders

As has been the recent trend, on this infielders card we get a couple guys who had significant MLB careers and a couple who didn’t stick around terribly long. Andy(?) Thornton looks like he’s up on a mountain somewhere and appears to be in his Braves uniform which I only know about pre-research because he was on the Atlanta team card. Two of these guys appear to be smiling and Frank White actually seems to be suppressing a laugh which would make this by far the most jovial of the rookie cards to date.

Terry Hughes grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina where he was a local basketball and baseball legend and had been scouted in the latter sport since he was in eighth grade. Given what was generally viewed as “can’t miss” status, he was playing high school ball that year and during his HS Career hit .288, .321, .400, and .615. He only has four seasons because during his junior year he was suspended from both his hoops and baseball team (I do not know why). He also played American Legion ball in the summers and hit .415 prior to his senior year in that league. Apparently every team scouted him and in the ’67 draft the Cubs made him the second pick after Ron Blomberg (and before Bobby Grich). Terry eschewed another American Legion season to play Rookie ball and hit .278 at that level. In ’68 he moved around a bit and in A ball that summer hit .283 while on loan to Boston, .221 back in the Chicago system, and .328 with a .424 OBA in a month of Double A ball. ’69 was all Double A around some military time and was the first year he played principally at third as he had specialized in shortstop until then. In an off year he hit .249 but in ’70 he bounced to hit .286 in Triple A and made his MLB debut in September. The next two seasons were spent strictly in Triple A and both years he missed some time to injury. In ’71 he hit .255 while playing mostly in the outfield and in ’72 he had his best offensive season, hitting .302 with a .385 OBA and 13 homers as he returned to third base. Just prior to the start of the ’73 season he was sold to the Cards for whom he also played in Triple A, hitting .289 with 51 RBI’s before being called up in August to do late inning work the rest of the season. That year he also had his first Toops rookie card and so, like Sergio Robles on the prior post, this card isn’t technically Terry’s rookie one. After the season he was involved in a big trade, going to Boston with Reggie Cleveland and Diego Segui for John Curtis, Lynn McGlothen, and Mike Garman, another heralded ’67 draft pick. In ’74 Terry spent all of the season on the Boston roster, putting in time at third behind Rico Petrocelli and Dick McAuliffe. In ’75 he was the last guy cut in spring training and he returned to Triple A where he hit .253. He then put in a partial season back with the Cards at that level in ’76 and was done. Terry hit .209 in 54 games up top and .269 in the minors. By the early Seventies he was taking college classes and he eventually got a degree in education. After playing he returned to South Carolina where since 1989 he has been a baseball coach and teacher at Boiling Springs High School.

John Knox is listed here as a third baseman but he would play nearly exclusively at second for Detroit; Ron Cash from a few cards back was listed as a second baseman but he played both corner infield positions. With Reggie Sanders from Ron’s card the whole infield was covered almost so Detroit was sure in overhaul mode at the time of this card. John was born in Newark, NJ, but by the time he was in high school had relocated to Ohio and then went on to Bowling Green State University there where he graduated with a degree in education and finished as the school record holder with 107 career hits. He was drafted by Detroit in ’70 and that summer hit .315 in A ball with a .437 OBA. The next year he put up .271/.368 numbers in Double A before spending most of the next two seasons as a Triple A Toledo Mud Hen. He had pretty similar seasons, posting a .294/.374 year in ’72 and .274/.367 numbers in ’73. He made his Detroit debut the former year in August and then in ’73 hit .281 while playing sparingly, both years behind Dick McAuliffe and Tony Taylor. He then spent all of ’74 and ’75 on the Detroit roster where he hit a combined .287 while playing behind light-hitting Gary Sutherland. The knock on John back then was that he wasn’t a great fielder and in ’76 when Detroit had a bunch of younger infielders in the wings, he was sent back to Triple A. Early that year he was sold to Cincinnati – not exactly an open book at second – and for them stuck at the Triple A level. In ’77 he stopped playing to sell real estate and life insurance in the Toledo area and after a failed comeback in ’78 he was done. He finished with an MLB average of .274 in 219 at bats and a minor league average of .276 and did an inning of late defensive work in the ’72 playoffs. It has been hard to track this guy since then but he was later admitted to his school’s hall of fame and he does some work with a greyhound rescue group down in Texas so that may be where he now resides.

Andre Thornton would hold onto the “Andy” tag on his Topps cards through the ’76 set. Born in Alabama, he and his family relocated to a suburb of Philadelphia where in high school Andre was a big three sports star. He was also a bit of a pool hustler and when he was signed it was in a pool hall, by the Phillies in the late summer of ’67. He only hit .182 in a few games in A ball that year but upped it in ’68 at the same level to .249 with 31 RBI’s in 185 at bats. In ’69 he missed a bunch of time for his National Guard military hitch but hit .251 with 13 homers and a .373 OBA around that in the year he became deeply religious. In ’70 he was off to yet another A team but his at bats went south by about 100 as he missed time to both The Guard and to a broken hand. In ’71 he had a strong bounce. Finally up to Double A he hit .267 with a .399 OBA, 26 homers, and 76 RBI’s. He had one ten-game streak during which he hit nine homers. That got him promoted to Triple A the next year where Andre continued his improvement with a .290/20/65 season in just 300 at bats for two teams since he was traded mid-year to Atlanta with Joe Hoerner for Jim Nash and Gary Neibauer. He remained at that level to start the ’73 season but after a poor start he was sent to the Cubs for Joe Pepitone where he would have a huge slugging binge the next two months, putting up a .289/17/45 run with a .484 OBA in just 135 at bats. That prompted his late July call-up to Chicago where he hit .200 in the few games in which he saw action the rest of the way. In ’74 he split time at first base while putting up a .261 average with ten homers, 46 RBI’s, and a .368 OBA. The next year he got more starts there and responded with a .293/18/60/.428 year that seemed to solidify his hold on the spot after he missed the first month-plus with a broken wrist. But a poor start in the ’76 season got him benched and then traded to Montreal for Larry Biitner and Steve Renko where his slump continued. After that season he was sent to Cleveland for pitcher Jackie Brown. A famously slow starter Andre was hitting only .150 and had been benched in favor of Bill Melton at first when he got back in the line-up and went on a tear, putting up a .286/25/65/.400 stat line in the last 100 games. From there he didn’t look back and over the next two seasons he would average .248 with 30 homers and 99 RBI’s as the club’s leading slugger while providing excellent defense at first. Amazingly those seasons came after a horrible accident in the ’77 off-season in which his wife and daughter were killed and Andre and his son badly injured. In spring training of ’80 he suffered a knee injury which required two operations and caused him to miss the whole year. Then, between the strike and a broken hand, ’81 was pretty much a hot mess. But in ’82 Andre recorded probably his best season, putting up a .273/32/116/.386 stat line while winning the AL Comeback Player of the Year award. By now mostly a DH, Andre would record four more pretty good power years  - in ’84 he won a Silver Slugger - before retiring during the ’87 season. He finished with a .254 average with 253 homers, 895 RBI’s, and a .360 OBA and was twice an All-Star. By that time he was in wide demand as a speaker and he also owned a string of Applebees restaurants for a time after playing. After he sold his chain to the parent company he founded GCI, a logistics company. That firm merged with ASW, a supply chain management company, in 2007 and since then Andre has been the firm’s CEO. He has a SABR bio and a whole chapter devoted to him in Terry Pluto’s “The Curse of...”

When Ewing Kauffman founded the Royals in the late Sixties, one of the first things he did was establish the Royals Baseball Academy, a team-run institution that took select local kids to Florida each year and would teach them a higher level baseball they would otherwise have not been able to access. In the first class of ’70 Frank White was a member, having played ball in high school and even a bit at a local JUCO before the family ran out of money. After a year in the Academy he went to Rookie ball as a shortstop in ’71 where he hit .247 and then moved fast. He split ’72 between A and Double A, hitting .267 with 12 homers and 24 stolen bases. In ’73 he moved up to Triple A, began putting in most of his time at second base, and hit .264 around two stints up in KC where he did support work at short and second and hit .223. Technically he wasn’t a rookie in ’74 because he got into too many games in ’73 and his second year he also put in some time at third, producing roughly the same numbers. He did one more year of reserve work in ’75 when his average took off to .290 and early the next season established himself as the regular second baseman, a position he would then hold for 14 years. He would be middling on offense for a bunch of years and his OBA was never very high, but he didn’t strike out too much, and he would occasionally do pretty well, hitting .275 in ’78, stealing 28 bases in ’79, and hitting .298 in ’82. Frank’s forte was his defense and beginning in ’77 he would win six consecutive Gold Gloves and during that time make four All-Star teams. In ’83 he was moved up in the line-up and that year he had 77 RBI’s. In ’84 he hit 17 out and he then became an outright slugger, the next three years averaging 20 homers and 77 RBI’s. In the ’85 Series he batted in the clean-up spot and in ’86 and ’87 won two more Gold Gloves while also returning to the All-Star game and winning a Silver Slugger the first season. He remained with KC through the ’90 season, finishing with a .255 average, 160 homers, 886 RBI’s, over 2,000 hits, and 178 stolen bases. Defensively he is 12^th all-time in assists and putouts at second base and ninth in double plays. In the post-season he hit .213 with 16 RBI’s in 42 games. After a year off in ’91 he became the first black manager in the Boston chain when he manged the Rookie franchise in ’92. He then coached a year in the minors before moving up to Boston from ’94 to ’96. From there he returned to KC as a coach (’97-2001); assistant to the GM (2002-’03); manager of the team’s Double A franchise (’04-’06); and director of player development and community relations (’07-’10). That last year the Royals got real miserly with his salary and he quit the community relations role and after the 2011 season he was fired from his part-time announcing role because the team claimed he was too critical. Since 2012 he has been a coach for the independent Kansas City T-Bones and a sales representative for a roofing company.

This group raises the bar pretty high with 34 MLB seasons between them, as well as seven All-Star games, eight Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and a Comeback Player award. Reading their last names in succession sounds like an amusing headline: “Hughes Knox (Knocks) Thornton White.” I guess it would have worked if Andre was a pitcher.

Pitchers come in handy getting from the last card to this one:

1. Sergio Robles and Jim Palmer ’72 to ’73 Orioles;

2. Palmer and Dick Drago ’77 Orioles;

3. Drago and Terry Hughes ’74 Red Sox;

Then we get a pretty efficient ‘round the card:

1. Terry Hughes and Dick McAuliffe ’74 Red Sox;

2. McAuliffe and Willie Horton (watch this guy) ’64 to ’73 Tigers;

3. Horton and John Knox ’72 to ’75 Tigers; Horton and Andre Thornton ’78 Indians;

4. Thornton and Pete LaCock ’73 to ’76 Cubs;

5. LaCock and Frank White ’77 to ’80 Royals.

#600 - '74 Rookie Infielders

So what’s special about this card? Well it’s a milestone number which is pretty odd in that it is being used for a Rookie card. Nothing against any of these guys and one of them would certainly have some years that came close to justifying his appearance of a card of this stature, but at the time of this set there were certainly many other viable and worthy candidates for card number 600. I find it hard to believe that Topps’ intention was to give this group that number and that it was an oversight. But who knows? Maybe everything was so crazy with Watergate – I gotta get back to that – and inflation that the boys making bubble gum just said the hell with it and let the chips fall. And here are the chips...

Ron Cash had an interesting run of things before he even got to the professional level. A star third baseman in high school in Atlanta, he was drafted in ’67 in a low round by the Dodgers but instead decided to go to Manatee Junior College in Florida. He played ball there the next two years even though he was drafted each semester by, successively, the Orioles, the Braves, the Padres, and the Twins. He hit .335 his freshman year and .346 his sophomore one and made all-state both years but his biggest moment was probably a horrible car crash in October ’68 in which he nearly lost his life and did lose his spleen. After rejecting the Twins in June of ’69 he continued school at Florida State and over the next two years hit .342 with 76 RBI’s and a .451 OBA. In ’70 he helped take the team to the CWS with teammates Mac Scarce and Johnny Grubb and in ’71 he was all-Southeast. That year he was finally nabbed by Detroit and he hit .333 the rest of the summer while playing primarily left field in A ball. He would continue to do outfield time the next couple seasons and also move back to third during that time as well. In ’72 he hit .286 in a season split between A and Double A ball. Then in ’73 he split time between Double A and Triple A, hitting .303 with 73 RBI’s before a September call-up to Detroit. He hit the game-winner his first start and .410 during his MLB time while playing third. During a good ’74 spring training it was decided to move Ron to first where he could give aging starter Norm Cash – no relation – a run since third was occupied by a much younger Aurelio Rodriguez. There he continued to hit, opening the ’74 season with a .353 average, before beginning April 15 he missed a month due to “mental exhaustion.” After he returned in mid-May his average dipped a bit and early in June he was sent back to Triple A where he hit .246 while splitting time at first and third. He returned to Detroit in September but by season-end his average was down to .226 and he then spent all of ’75 and ’76 in Triple A playing both infield corners, averaging .262 in diminishing seasons. He was released after the latter season, ending his playing time, and finished with a .297 average and eleven RBI’s in his 34 games up top and a .289 average with a .366 OBA in the minors. He then seems to have returned to the Southeast where he resided in his native Georgia and then Florida before passing away in 2009 at age 59. His nephew, Kevin Cash, followed Ron to Florida State and then had a few years in the majors as a back-up catcher. He is currently the Indians’ bullpen coach.

Jim Cox played hoops and baseball at the University of Iowa after excelling in the same sports in high school in Illinois. He also got his early degree in microbiology while there, and during that time turned down two draft choices: by the Senators in ’68 (to go to school); and by the Indians in the first round in ’71 (not enough money). Since his studies were done by January of his senior year he signed with Montreal when drafted in ’72 and then hit .255 with some power in Double A. While there he worked on his D a bunch – particularly his double play pivot – and had a great spring training in ’73 before hitting .267 in Triple A. He made his Montreal debut that July but his hitting was light in his few games and by early August he was back in the minors. In ’74 he had another great camp and was named the Opening Day starter, pushing incumbent Ron Hunt to third base. Jim did pretty well defensively and was the everyday guy through early June, though he was hitting only .224. He then suffered a broken hand after being hit and after a month on the DL returned to Triple A, where he hit .252, before returning up top to finish his season. He spent nearly all of ’75 at Triple A because fellow young guy Pete Mackanin – from a few posts back – arrived to take over second and Jim hit .267 with 67 RBI’s at that level, and .259 during spare usage up top. In ’76 it was pretty much the same deal as he played behind Mackanin and Wayne Garrett in Montreal but upped his average to .274 on the right side of the infield in Triple A. ’76 would be his final MLB season and he spent the next three years solely at Triple A Denver where his stats got successively better as he put more and more time in at third: .287/4/39 in ’77; .299/10/64 in ’78; and .305/12/77 in ’79 his final year as a player. He finished with an average of .215 up top and hit .277 with 66 homers and 403 RBI’s in the minors. Then, like a lot of guys, he becomes impossible to chase, though in the early 2000’s he resurfaced a bit news-wise as an inductee into the Hawkeyes hall of fame.

Bill Madlock was born in Memphis and after being dumped by his parents was raised by a grandmother in Decatur, Illinois, a bit outside Chicago. He played the big three sports at Eisenhower High School there and as a football halfback – he once rushed for 300 yards and scored five touchdowns in a game – and shortstop he was all-county. He was drafted by the Cards when he graduated in June ’69 but he passed because he didn’t want to get stuck behind Dal Maxvill and so went to Southwestern Iowa Community College from where he was drafted in January ’70 by the Senators. He didn’t hit too well right away, putting up a .269 average in A ball that summer and a .234 the next year in Double A, the season he moved to third. But he did steal some bases and had some good camps and after a bad start in ’72 in Triple A he went back down a level and did two things that would be emblematic of his career: he hit .328 but did so in only 131 at bats because he was suspended a bunch of the season after getting into trouble on the field. He would split that year and the next between second and third and in ’73 he broke out to post a .338/22/90 season in Triple A before being called up to Texas in September, finishing with a .351 MLB average. After the season he and Vic Harris went to the Cubs for Fergie Jenkins. Bill became the regular third baseman for Chicago, hit .313 his rookie year to make the Topps team, made an All-Star team, and won batting titles the next two seasons. After he asked for more pay he was traded following the ’76 season with Rob Sperring to San Francisco for Bobby Murcer and recent post subject Steve Ontiveros. Bill played third his first Giants season and then primarily second the next year-plus, hitting over .300 each of his first two years. In ’79, after his average dipped to .261, he was sent to Pittsburgh in a June trade and promptly hit .328 the rest of the way to help his new team reach the playoffs and then win the Series. He would remain in Pittsburgh through ’85 and during that time won two batting titles, got into two All-Star games, had a big ’82 as a power guy after Willie Stargell went down – 19 homers and 95 RBI’s – and was famously ejected, fined, and suspended for pushing his mitt in the face of an umpire. In ’84 he missed two months for an operation to remove bone chips from his elbow. He again started slowly the following year and after another mid-season trade – this time to LA – again rallied down the stretch, this time hitting .360 to help another team get post-season action. He remained with the Dodgers through part of the ’87 season when shoulder surgery and then a release got him to Detroit and his last playoff push. He would finish as a player after that season and had a .305 average with 163 homers, 860 RBI’s, 174 stolen bases, and a .365 OBA. Defensively he is in the top 75 third basemen all-time in assists and double plays and in the post-season he hit .308 with twelve RBI’s and a .375 OBA in 17 games. In ’88 he went to play in Japan where he put up a .263/19/61 season and then retired. After he finished playing Bill did the Senior League thing, ran some investments he’d made while playing, and did some coaching and rep work for some Far East teams. That got him through the Nineties and from 2000 to 2001 he was Detroit’s hitting coach. In ’02 he worked in the commissioner’s office and from ’03 to ’04 he managed the Newark Bears, an independent team. He then coached a bit in Latin America and has since the mid-2000’s has run his own hitting school in Las Vegas.

This Reggie Sanders has been tough to pinpoint because of the other Reggie Sanders who played in the Nineties and 2000’s and is no relation. This Reggie was born in Birmingham, Alabama and during high school relocated to LA where he was a big baseball and football star and the A’s were so high on him when they drafted him during his senior year that there were some improprieties and the pick was voided. So Oakland snapped him up the following January of '68 and that summer Reggie, an infielder/outfielder, hit .264 with 22 homers in A ball. The next year at that level he bumped his homers to 25 with 75 RBI’s but only hit .235 with 154 K’s. In ’70 he moved up to Double A, cut his strikeouts in half, and had an otherwise comparable season. By then he was concentrating on first base and ’71 was a nearly identical season at the same place. In ’72 he bumped his average up a ton – he would hit .338 in Double A that year – but Oakland sent him mid-season to Detroit for pitcher Mike Kilkenny. He spent the final month of the year in Triple A where he would also spend all of ’73, hitting .246. In ’74 Reggie had his biggest year, hitting .292 with 14 homers and 88 RBI’s before being called up to Detroit early that September and starting at first the rest of the way, batting .273. He homered in his first at bat and generally had a decent short run but after the season was sent to Atlanta for other first baseman Jack Pierce. For the Braves Reggie resided for two seasons in Triple A where he averaged .269 with 15 homers and 73 RBI’s per season. In ’77 he went to Mexico to play, which he would also do in ’79 around a season in Double A for the Orioles in ’78. When the Seventies ended so did Reggie’s career and he finished with minor league numbers of .265 with 156 homers and 677 RBI’s. His ’74 work with Detroit was his only time up top. After that Reggie goes missing media-wise until 2002 when he passed away in Los Angeles. He was 52.

We get two guys from Decatur but in different states. Both Cox and Sanders would also have Rookie cards in ’75. Madlock would befriend teammate Steve Greenburg, Hank’s son, in his first year in pro ball and Steve would go on to be Bill’s agent after he finished playing. He then worked for the commissioner – it was he who actually enforced George Steinbrenner’s brief ban from baseball – and then moved into investment banking where, among other things, he helped engineer the Astros sale a couple years ago. We both worked at the same shop. MLB service-wise we get 15 seasons, three All-Star games, four batting titles, and a Topps Rookie Team member, nearly all from Mr. Madlock. All pretty good, but not enough to warrant the waste of a “100” card.

Now for hook-ups. A pretty good catcher helps big with the first one:

1. Ron Cash and Willie Horton ’73 to ’74 Tigers;

2. Horton and Tom Haller ’72 Tigers;

3. Haller and Steve Garvey ’70 to ’71 Dodgers;

4. Garvey and Greg Shanahan ’73 to ’74 Dodgers.

Here we go around the card. Couldn’t they put Cash and Sanders together?:

1. Ron Cash and Willie Horton ’73 to ’74 Tigers;

2. Horton and Tom Walker ’75 Tigers;

3. Walker and Jim Cox ’73 to ’74 Expos;

4. Cox and Steve Renko ’73 to ’76 Expos;

5. Renko and Bill Madlock ’76 Cubs;

6. Madlock and Willie Stargell ’79 to ’82 Pirates;

7. Stargell and Luke Walker ’65 to ’66 and ’68 to ’73 Pirates;

8. Walker and Reggie Sanders ’74 Tigers.

That’s our longest one yet.

#593 - Steve Yeager

This photo finds Steve Yeager in the midst of his second season of catching in LA. After being called up in ’72 to be part of the milieu behind the plate in the wake of Tom Haller’s departure he stayed up all of ’73 to play behind Joe Ferguson and his 25 homers. It had taken Steve a while for his bat to catch up to his catching prowess and he would never be a super hitter. But he hit pretty solidly in his two seasons in LA and that would help get him into the line-up on a regular basis going forward. But ’73 had some rough spots. On June 20^th Ferguson broke his thumb in a game against Atlanta, providing an opening for Steve, who was hitting .280 at the time in limited at bats. But in the 15 games he started during Joe’s absence he hit only .108. He would then sit for about a month before he returned to add over 50 points to his average down the stretch. For now he looks pretty content on a sunny day at Candlestick.

Steve Yeager grew up in Dayton, Ohio, where in high school he was a star in the big three sports and was a fourth round pick by the Dodgers in ’67. He had to finish a state tournament that summer so started his A season late but barely played because he wasn’t hitting too well. That was the theme in each of the next two seasons as lousy averages kept him on the bench a lot but his ability to call games and his toughness behind the plate kept him on the roster. That was illustrated when he played on a broken leg during ’69 and then also missed a bunch of time on the DL. In ’70 he moved up to Double A, hit much better, and got some starting time. Then in ’71 he maintained his hold on that starting spot at the same level, upping his numbers considerably. After a slightly better start in Triple A in ’72 he got called up to LA that August in the wake of Dick Dietz breaking his hand.

In ’72 the Dodgers catching situation was a bit of a hodgepodge as Chris Cannizzaro, Duke Sims, and Dick Dietz all spent time at the position. But by the end of the year Dietz got his injury, Sims followed Tom Haller to Detroit, and Cannizzaro just didn’t have enough stick so Yeager came up, got himself in a slump, and later pulled his average up to respectable. In ’74 he began the season with a hot bat as Ferguson got hit with a sophomore jinx and by the end of July Steve still had a .300 average and now the starting gig behind the plate since Ferguson could also man the outfield. Steve’s average would fade but not his defensive work as LA went 64-28 during his starts that year. And he bounced at an appropriate time in the post-season as he hit .364 in the loss to Oakland. In ’75 he fractured his knee to start the season but then had his busiest year as Ferguson too was one of many Dodgers to see DL time and though Steve’s average shrunk to .228 he upped his RBI total to 54. In ’76 he went down again after he was speared in the throat by shards off Bill Russell’s broken bat while in the on deck circle. That year Ferguson was traded to St. Louis and the following one Steve had his best offensive year with a .256/16/55 season in 359 at bats as he played ahead of veterans Johnny Oates and Jerry Grote. That was also the year LA returned to the Series and Steve was again a main offensive threat, hitting .316 with five RBI’s in six games. In ’78 a year-long slump and missed time to some cracked ribs had LA bring back Ferguson mid-season as Steve bottomed out with a .193 average in just 228 at bats. In ’79 he put up better power numbers with 13 homers and 41 RBI’s but his average only got to .216 in a big slump year for the Dodgers.

By 1980 Yeager had a nagging elbow injury that would limit his time in the field and with his average pretty much entrenched in Mendoza territory his playing time withered a bit more. That year he split time with Joe Ferguson and rookie Mike Scioscia. In ’81 Scioscia took over as the main guy and Steve barely played, racking up only 86 at bats in the strike year. But in the extended post-season he hit well and in the Series against the Yankees’ lefty-dominated rotation, he played in every game. It turned out to be an excellent fit as he hit .286 with two homers and four RBI’s to share the MVP award. In ’82 he continued in his back-up role and though he missed a month to a broken wrist, he upped his average to .245, his highest in five years. In ’83 he moved to the number one spot as Scioscia missed nearly the whole season to injury and though his average slid to .203 Steve hit 15 homers with 41 RBI’s. The next two seasons he returned to reserve work, in ’84 suffering knee damage in a plate collision. By ’85 he and Bill Russell were the only two left of the young guys who revived the franchise in the mid-Seventies. After that season he was sent to Seattle for Ed Vande Berg. He then finished his playing career in an ’86 with the Mariners in the same role. Steve wrapped things up with a .228 average with 102 homers and 410 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .252 with five homers and 14 RBI’s in 38 games. In the field he twice led the NL in picking off runners and also led once each in putouts and assists.

Yeager did some community work with the Dodgers after his playing career ended, but his main professional work was elsewhere in the LA area: as an adviser, trainer, and actor in the Major Leagues movies. He did consulting work on other sports movies as well. He also hooked up with a company called Collectibles International, for which he was a spokesperson. The company purported to be a seller of franchises by which to make money in sports collectibles, but it turned out to be a sham shop. By ’99 Steve was back with the Dodgers full-time as a coach in their system. He coached there as well from 2004-’07. From 2000-’01 he managed the independent Long Beach Breakers and then in ’08 managed the city’s new independent franchise. Beginning in 2010 he became a spring training and roving minor league catching coach for the Dodgers and this year he has had that role in LA.

These two star bullets are worth investigating. The game was only Steve’s sixth MLB one and it occurred at Riverfront. That is a ton of chances for a game, seemingly, but this one ran 19 innings and Steve was behind the plate for all of them. That’s pretty amazing. All the putouts were strikeouts: Tommy John K’d 13 guys in his nine innings; Jim Brewer six in his three; Pete Richert one in two; and Ron Perranoski two in three innings. LA gave up only eight hits and two runs and still lost the game. He also got two assists for gunning down Tony Perez (fifth inning) and Joe Morgan (ninth) when they attempted to steal second. He missed nailing Bobby Tolan on another steal later and dropped a pop fly foul by Darrell Chaney, who flied out in that at bat. I guess that makes 24 chances though I’d count the assists also. Steve was related to fighter pilot and “The Right Stuff” profilee Chuck Yeager, who famously broke the sound barrier for the first time. He was on Family Feud, danced on Solid Gold, and posed for Playgirl. Sounds like he belonged in LA.

The link here was a big free agent signee for LA but nobody likes to remember that:

1. Yeager and Dave Goltz ’80 to ’82 Dodgers;

2. Goltz and Ed Bane ’73 and ’75 to ’76 Twins.  

#563 - Hal McRae

In another batting cage shot at Oakland Hal McRae shows off some of the meanest muttonchops in the set. Hal’s pretty serious here, an expression that would define his cards for a while after his big smile on his rookie one. Then for his ’76 card he got super happy which he more-or-less maintained the duration of his career. Hal is in the midst of his first of many seasons in Kansas City and while the Reds made some awfully good trades the first half of the Seventies, sending this guy to KC sure wasn’t one of them. That wasn’t apparent right off the bat though. Initially brought in to take over third base if Paul Schaal’s bat didn’t come around – another guy would take over that role - Hal had some problems in the new league and after spending most of the early part of the season platooning in right field, he was hitting only .151 with four doubles and eleven RBI’s by June 17^th. He then began splitting time between right and DH and – shades of things to come – hit .283 with 14 doubles, 39 RBI’s and a .360 OBA in his final 212 at bats. The turnaround was enabled by work with hitting coach Charlie Lau who was also just starting to work his magic with KC. Between the two of them and some other guys – including that new third baseman – the Royals would go on to many years of success.

Hal McRae grew up in Avon Park, Florida, and in high school there played the big three sports as well as baseball for a semi-pro team on the weekends. The Giants apparently attempted to sign him when he graduated but Hal opted to go to Florida A&M, also apparently at the urging of his parents since the family was not well off and Hal received a scholarship. There he continued to play both infield and outfield and had some considerable power as well as excellent speed. After hitting .441 and .385 at A&M his first two years, he was drafted by Cincinnati in ’65, when Hal was 19 and had just finished his sophomore season (though there are some attestations that he was graduated by then). That summer he didn’t do too much in a few games in A ball in Tampa. The next year at that level he did considerably better with a .287/11/56 season in 394 at bats that saw him spend pretty much all his time at second base. He then put up similar numbers - .267/16/59 – in a ’67 split between Double A and Triple A, moving up to the higher level with his manager that year, Don Zimmer. Then a big ’68 in Triple A in which he hit .295 with 16 homers, eleven triples, 15 stolen bases, and 65 RBI’s got him up to Cincinnati for a July debut that lasted about a month. There he had a bit of a rough time at second but the real pain was felt after the season ended when during winter ball he got in a car crash that nearly wrecked his ankle. That injury and its aftermath went a long way in defining the rest of his career: Hal’s speed was pretty much gone as would be – for the most part – his time in the infield and he would have to become an extra-base hitter to stick; his ’69 season was wrecked as his rehab took forever; and Reds manager Dave Bristol tore him a new one by chewing him out over his rehab time, which would be a pivotal instance in turning Hal into an aggressive player and an in-your-face motivator. He had a real good run in the late Fall Instructional League that year and that would end his time in the minors.

In 1970 Cincinnati was awash with a bunch of good young players and two of them, both rookies, would share time in left field that season. Of the two Bernie Carbo, the lefty, would get about double the at bats that Hal McRae, the righty, got, and together they formed a pretty good combo, with 91 RBI’s between them. Hal didn’t do too hot in the playoffs, but he got three starts in the Series against Baltimore and hit .455 with three RBI’s. Then prior to the ’71 season regular center fielder Bobby Tolan got hurt and the plan was to move Pete Rose from right to center and have Hal take over Pete’s spot. But after doing some training camp work in center, Hal began the season there, but he had a tough time replicating Tolan’s numbers and a month into the season the Reds picked up George Foster to take over. Meantime Hal got moved back to the platoon gig with Carbo but with Bernie having a nasty bad sophomore season, Hal got a bunch more at bats than in ’70. His doubles total shot up and he added a few points to his average. In ’72 Tolan returned, Rose moved to left, and new acquisition Cesar Geronimo pretty much split time in right with Foster. That left Hal in a utility role and he got as many starts at third as anywhere. He put up nearly as many RBI’s in less than a third as many at bats in part due to his four pinch homers, one a grand slam. After the season he and former rookie pitching phenom Wayne Simpson were sent to KC for Richie Schienblum and Roger Nelson.

In ’74 Jim Wohlford pretty much took over Lou Piniella’s position in left (Lou had gone to NY) and new guy Vada Pinson took over right so McRae spent most of his time at DH. Good thing, too, because he upped his average to .310, his doubles to 36, and his RBI’s to 88. That season cemented his status as a regular somewhere and in ’75 between the acquisition of Harmon Killebrew and the breaking down of Pinson, Hal became the regular guy in left while Wohlford split time in right with the emerging Al Cowens. Hal continued with the excellent offense, posting a .306/5/71 season with 38 doubles while earning his first All-Star nod. In ’76 he repeated that honor by upping things to .332/8/73 with 34 doubles and an AL-leading .407 OBA in a season somewhat marred by a contentious batting title chase with teammate George Brett. He continued to do some work in left while mainly concentrating on DH that year which he would continue the next couple seasons. In ’77 the average came in but the power got amped up with a .298/21/92 season with an MLB-leading 54 doubles. Prior to the ’78 season Hal injured his right shoulder twice in another career-defining injury. No more playing in the field as his arm was shot. After a discounted .273/16/72 season in ’78, Hal got the shoulder operated on after the season and after a pretty good start to the '79 season was hitting a now-uncustomary .241 in early June. He pulled himself from the line-up, went on the DL, and did some rehab. It must have worked because after he returned in August he hit .335 with six homers, 16 doubles, and 44 RBI’s in the season’s remaining 194 at bats. After a continued bounce in the Series year of ’80 with a .297/14/83 season Hal had an off year in the strike season of ’81. He came back big in ’82 when he moved to the clean-up spot with a .308 average, 27 homers, and MLB-leading 46 doubles and 133 RBI’s. Those numbers got him back to the All-Star game and won him a Silver Slugger. In ’83 he put up more representational numbers with a .311/12/82 season in his last full year. Injuries would cut back his numbers the next three seasons though he hit .303 in ’84 and knocked in 70 runs – in just 320 at bats – in ’85. That year he finally won a Series title. In ’86 he started to do the big fade and in ’87 he got in a few games – hitting .313 – as a player/coach. He was released as a player that June and finished with a .290 average on 2,091 hits with 484 doubles, 191 homers, and 1,097 RBI’s. He hit over 30 doubles for ten straight seasons outside the strike one. In the post-season he hit .294 with a homer and 15 RBI’s in 48 games.

McRae didn’t wander too far after his playing career ended and from ’88 to ’89 he was a hitting coach in the Pirates chain. He then coached for Montreal in ’90 before returning to KC as its manager from ’91 to ’94, three of those years with a winning record. He then coached for Cincinnati (’95-’96) and Philadelphia (’97-2000) before coaching and then managing Tampa Bay for two pretty miserable seasons (2001-’02). He was then moved up as assistant GM of the franchise (’03-’04) before taking on the hitting coach role in St. Louis from ’05 to ’09. He then retired back to Bradenton, Florida.

I am almost positive Hal has the first cartoon in this set referencing ballet. That’s some average from that third bullet. The Reds should have known there’d be lots more good stuff coming out of that bat. Hal’s son Brian was a first round pick by KC in ’85 and went on to have a pretty decent career himself (.261 with over 100 homers and nearly 200 stolen bases in ten seasons up top). The first two-thirds of Hal’s given name are nearly identical to one of the leads in “Chariots of Fire.”

One of these guys is actualy coming up pretty soon:

1. McRae and Milt Wilcox ’70 to ’71 Reds;

2. Wilcox and John Ellis ’73 to ’74 Indians;

3. Ellis and Jack Aker ’69 to ’72 Yankees.

#549 - Mike Jorgensen

In 1973 Mike Jorgensen broke the LA stranglehold for NL Gold Glove winners at first base. So it’s pretty appropriate that he get an action shot at his favorite position. This may actually be his second action shot of the set in this position since I opined way back that I believed he is the guy in the background of Mike Marshall’s card. Mike would have been in the middle of his second season in Montreal about the time this photo was taken and during his time with the Expos, his best run by far in the majors, he was known for his defense and his ability to get on base. Along with his NL-leading fielding percentage of .995, his walk total topped his strikeout one for the first time of what would be four consecutive years and his OBA added over 100 points to his average. He’d better both numbers the duration of his stay with Montreal and be one of the team’s most consistent performers the next few seasons.

Mike Jorgensen was born in Jersey and moved to Bayside, Queens, NYC, as an elementary school kid. From that age through high school he seems – according to posts on the “ultimatemets” site – to have been  a star at everything from baseball (first base), basketball (he could dunk from a standing position), track (sprinter and relay guy), and football. A star of some local travel and all-city teams he was drafted and signed by the Mets after his senior year of ’66. That summer in Rookie ball his .313/8/37 stats in 150 at bats got him on his league all-star team, as did his .295/5/41 year in A ball in ’67. Both seasons he played nearly exclusively at first. In ’68 he began losing playing time to military time and a disappointing month in Double A - .160/0/10 in 100 at bats – was followed by a revival in A ball that produced a .315/3/27 season in 213 at bats and then got him some late September looks in NY. In ’69 he missed a couple months to his military hitch but posted by far his biggest offensive season to date with .290/21/69 numbers in 359 at bats in Triple A. Again, nearly all his defensive time was spent at first. In ’70 Mike had a good spring and made the Mets roster for the season, playing first behind Donn Clendenon and Art Shamsky. He also put in some outfield time in center and did pretty well defensively but was underwhelming at the plate in his few at bats. In ’71 he began the season in Triple A, returned to NY in June and hit close to .300 his first month, went back to Triple A in mid-summer after his average tailed off, and finished the year back in NY. Ed Kranepool had returned to the line-up so nearly all Mike’s games that year up top were in center. His numbers in Triple A - .342/15/41 with a .445 OBA in 228 at bats – pretty much sealed the deal on whether or not he needed more time in the minors. After another good spring training the Mets decided they needed some more outfield offense and during the short players strike to open the season they sent Mike, Ken Singleton, and Tim Foli to Montreal for Rusty Staub.

The Montreal first base position had resembled a revolving door during the first three years of the franchise. That would be modified a bunch after the acquisition of Jorgensen and his fellow ex-Mets. Mike would pretty much split time with Ron Fairly and/or Hal Breeden the next few seasons, turning the position into one of the team’s most productive, both offensively and defensively. He got his show rolling by homering in his first at bat as an Expo and along with his excellent defense at first started 28 games in center. In ’73 he played first nearly all the time to win that Gold Glove. He maxed out offensively the next two seasons. ‘74 started oddly. Montreal had a nasty bad spring training after the promise showed in ’73 and apparently Mike was one of the goats because he didn’t even get a start until June and that was in left field since Singleton had taken over right and new acquisition Willie Davis center. He’d finished July hitting only .167 in his reserve role but his average took off pretty immediately once he got some regular time and he finished with a .310 average and .444 OBA with eleven homers and 59 RBI’s in his 287 at bats. In ’75 Fairly went to St. Louis and Mike again got the lion’s share of starts at first, putting up a .261/18/67 season with a .378 OBA in 445 at bats, a career high. But ’76 was a mess, as the slide begat by the horrible trade of Singleton and Mike Torrez to Baltimore for a couple guys who wouldn’t last the season ended in the cellar and first base was again reduced to a hodgepodge. Mike’s numbers slid as well to a .254/6/23 season in 343 at bats, though his OBA was still a relatively healthy .349. A couple games into the ’77 season he was sent to Oakland for pitcher Stan Bahnsen.

Going to the post-diaspora A’s wasn’t exactly a cure for the losing in Montreal and Jorgensen again found himself on a last place team. He’d put up a slight premium to his ’76 numbers the rest of the way and then leave via free agency for the Texas Rangers. His ’78 was a big bust and ’79 wasn’t much better, especially after a mid-season beaning by Andy Hassler put him in intensive care for a week and made him miss over a month of the season. After it ended he was sent back to the NL and the Mets for Willie Montanez, leaving behind an AL mark for his nearly three seasons of .228/15/57 in only 457 at bats. His OBA slid to .315 as well. In ’80 Mike swapped starts at first with Lee Mazilli and revived a bit offensively, with a .255/7/43 season in his 321 at bats. In ’81 NY brought back Dave Kingman and he was a safe guy in the field only at first so Mike was relegated to late inning defensive and pinch-hitting work which he’d do the rest of his career. He remained with the Mets midway through ’83, went to Atlanta for about a year, and then went to St. Louis in mid-’84 as part of a deal for Ken Oberkfell. He finished up with the Cards in ’85, his final at bats being in that year’s World Series. Mike ended with a .243 average, 95 homers, 426 RBI’s, and a .347 OBA during the regular season. In the post-season he went hitless in five at bats.

  

Jorgensen only played with the Cards for a bit but it was the beginning of a long relationship. After the ’85 season he was named the team's director of minor league hitting and then before the ’86 season was out was named manager of the team’s Florida State League franchise and he won a championship. He then managed in Triple A the following three seasons and during that time went a combined 248-239. Following the ’89 season he became assistant director of minor league operations and in ’92 dropped the assistant tab. He continued in that role through 2001 except for a short time in ’95 when he became the manager of St. Louis in a transition role between Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa. Mike went 42-54 in his only managerial role up top. From ’02 through ’07 he assumed various admin roles with the club and since 2008 he has been a special assistant to the general manager.

Mike gets one of the few references in this set to his winter stats in his star bullets. He also is, I believe, the first guy who gets connected to Bridge in this set. My mom used to play the newspaper version of that game all the time. Regarding the LA monopoly on Gold Gloves mentioned above, Wes Parker won it at first base every year from ’67 to ’72 and Steve Garvey turned that trick every season from ’74 to ’77. So Mike’s award really was an aberration.

Let’s use a fellow Montreal first baseman for this exercise:

1. Jorgensen and Ron Fairly ’72 to ’74 Expos;

2. Fairly and Lou Brock ’75 to ’76 Cardinals;

3. Brock and Sonny Siebert ’74 Cards.

#376 - Jorge Orta

The action shots are over for a couple cards as we return to Yankee Stadium for a shot of Jorge Orta who seems to be borrowing Bob Watson’s glum look from a few posts ago. Jorge became a regular for the White Sox in ’73, in the process boosting his average over 60 points. Jorge was never much of a fielder but with Mike Andrews having run out of gas a bit earlier than expected he did fill a big potential hole at second, questionable defense or not. So like Mr. Watson he should also be pretty happy but he obviously isn’t. Maybe Topps wouldn’t let him put on both his batting gloves.

Jorge Orta’s dad played pro ball in Cuba. By the time Jorge was around his dad had relocated to Mexico – nice timing – and was on the road a bunch as a coach. Jorge was frequently with him so there was a bunch of transition in his teen years and his main outlets were pick-up games of hoops, which he also played in high school.  When he graduated he opted to give baseball a shot. He made the Fresnillo team but after a few games there decided to return to his dad who was now running his own restaurant. He spent the next year-plus under his father’s tutelage and returned at the tail end of the ’70 season to post a pretty good average. The next year he exploded with his .423 in the summer league and then finished with a .362 in the fall league. He was then recommended to new White Sox player personnel director Roland Hemond who flew down to watch Jorge deliver his Mexicali team the league championship and signed him on the spot. Jorge – after his wrist was healed following his falling through a window celebrating the championship – was brought up to Florida late that fall for some instructional league play. He then hit a ton in ’72 spring training and made the Sox. Early that season he split time between second and shortstop but after hitting an anemic .202 was sent to Double A Knoxville. There he revived his stroke and after again smashing the ball at a good clip in ’73 spring training he was up for good.

In ’74 Orta continued his upward climb in hitting, posting a .316 average with 67 RBI’s and a .365 OBA. In ‘75 he hit .304 and was named an All-Star, but was replaced due to a pulled hamstring. In ’76 the Sox acquired Jack Brohamer and Jorge got itinerant, spending most of his time at third and in the outfield. He had a tough time error-wise at both spots but did finish high among AL outfielders in assists. His average contracted 30 points but he also had by far his best stolen base season with 24 thefts. In ’77 the Sox got free agent Eric Soderholm to play third and Jorge returned to second where he upped his average to .282 and his RBI total to his career best of 84. Then in ’78 Jorge’s offense sputtered a bit and he missed some time as his nagging hamstring issues became more chronic. That peaked in ’79 as he missed some time and played more DH than second. After the season he opted for free agency and signed with the Indians.

The Indians of ’80 had a bit of an offensive revival, led by first-year wonder Joe Charboneau, and Orta moved into right field to be a part of it. His average upticked to .291 and he got his second All-Star nod even though he spent a couple weeks on the DL. Then in ’81 he led AL outfielders with eleven assists but the offensive numbers went south as he missed more time. After that season he was traded to LA in the deal that brought Cleveland Rick Sutcliffe. Good trade for the Indians as Jorge’s season for the Dodgers was a mess even though he had another excellent spring. He hit only .217 with eight RBI’s in 115 at bats as a right fielder/pinch hitter. After the season he was shipped to the Mets for Pat Zachry. But the Mets were pretty loaded with lefty-hitting outfielders so a month later they sent Jorge to Toronto. Back in the AL he did much better, raising his average 20 points in twice as many at bats, while also raising his homer and RBI totals almost five-fold. Then he went to the Royals for Willie Mays Aikens, problem-child. Jorge was by now chiefly a DH and in KC he hit nearly .300 in his new home splitting time with Hal McRae. That year he got his first taste of playoff action. In ’85 and ’86 he continued platooning with McRae, the former year becoming part of a Series champ. Jorge earned a kind of immortality when in a game against St. Louis he was called safe in a play in which it was later revealed he was clearly out. KC was down 1-0 in the game – the play happened in the ninth – and 3-2 in the Series. They ended up winning the game 2-1 and the Series the next night so the play was a big deal. Jorge would play a partial season with the club in ’87 before he was released mid-year, finishing his career. He ended with a .278 average with a .334 OBA, 130 homers, and 745 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .111 in eight games with an RBI.

There are indications out there that Orta got into coaching in the Houston system immediately after playing, however specific documentation of anything is pretty sparse until the mid-90’s or so. He did continue to play off-season ball in Mexico for a bit and in ’94 played for a season in Italy. Then for sure he coached in the Houston chain from ’97 to 2005, including three seasons as a manager at the Class A level (2001-’03) during which he went 116-84. In ’06 he moved to the Cincinnati chain where he has been a hitting coach at a few levels, including a roving one for two years.

That really was a monster season in the first half of ’71 although back then the Mexican Leagues were considered about a half step below Single A ball. Those two stolen base totals were in the minors as well. The cartoon is a bit tricky: in a newspaper interview his rookie year Jorge noted that a hoops scout from UCLA saw him play in Mexico and told him to come check out the school, but I have found nothing substantive indicating he was ever actually offered a scholarship. At 5’10” he must have been a hell of a point guard.

On May 26, 1974 David Cassidy of the Partridge Family is performing at White City in London. Back then Cassidy was that time’s version of Justin Bieber and the concert was attended by thousands of adolescent girl fans. Over 1,000 will get medical care at the stadium, six will be hospitalized, and one will pass away from heart failure. The grim event pretty much marks the peak of Cassidy’s singing career.

We use a couple of stylish AL guys for the hookup:

1. Orta and Pat Kelly ’72 to ’76 White Sox;

2. Kelly and Jim Palmer ’77 to ’80 Orioles;

3. Palmer and Earl Williams ’73 to ’74 Orioles.

#321 - Steve Braun

I had for a long while thought this guy was Ryan's dad, even though they look pretty much nothing alike. He's not but he did put up a few pretty good hitting seasons of his own when he played, most of them in the uniform pictured here. This card represents a transitional period for Steve here. '73 would be his last year of regular work at third base as his ability to hit for average and to play pretty much anywhere allowed his move to the outfield while Eric Soderholm, who'd been splitting time with Steve at third and couldn't really play anywhere else, took over his old position.

Steve Braun grew up in Jersey and was tabbed by the Twins in the '66 draft. A week after graduating high school he was in Rookie ball where he played second base and hit a tad light. The next year he returned to that level and boosted his average 15 points. That got him moved to A ball but almost right after there was a bigger move into the armed forces. He lost the rest of the '67 season and all of '68 and '69 to the military before returning in '70 to A ball. There he hit .279 and because by then the Twins had an institution at second base named Rod Carew, he took up third base. The results were impressive enough and the situation up top at third was unsettled enough that after a pretty good spring training in '71 Steve moved all the way up.

Braun had a pretty good rookie year in '71, especially considering all the steps he vaulted to get to Minnesota. Though he had a middling average and not too much power he played a pretty good defense and made the Topps and Baseball Digest rookie teams at his position, also spending a little time at second. In '72 he boosted his average considerably to .289 and would keep it in the .280's the duration of his career with the Twins, except for '75 when he topped .300. In '74 and '75 he took over left field from Jim Holt. In '76 he became a true utility guy as the arrival of Lyman Bostock moved Larry Hisle to left. That year Steve played primarily DH, a little outfield, and a little third. After the season, tired of owner Calving Griffith's penny-pinching, Steve asked to be left off the protected list for the expansion draft. As a result he was selected by the new Seattle Mariners.

Braun's time in Seattle was not terribly productive. While he was able to recapture a regular spot in left field, his average tanked to the .235 area without the support of the big Minnesota lumber. In June of '78 he was traded to the Royals for Jim Colborn and for Kansas City for the next couple seasons he would do back-up outfield work and revive his average to the .260's. He got his first post-season work in '78 also. In '80 after a slow start he was released and shortly thereafter picked up by Toronto. He played a bit in Triple A for the Blue Jays, hitting .328, and resumed things up top in the role that would define the rest of his career, pinch-hitting. After departing Toronto as a free agent he signed with the Cards and was able to extend his career for five seasons in his new role. While his average in '81 was below .200 he had a nearly .400 OBA. The next three seasons he averaged .275 with an OBA in the high .380's. In '82 and '85 he saw some Series action, winning in the former season. After the '85 season he moved down to Triple A basically as a reserve guy since that year the rosters were reduced by one. After that season he retired with a .271 average, 52 homers, and .388 RBI's. He generated a .371 OBA and although he hit .091 in eight post-season games, he batted .333 in three Series games.

Braun got into coaching immediately after playing, becoming a hitting coach in the St. Louis system from '87 to '89 before assuming the same role up top in '90. He then spent the Nineties as a roving hitting instructor in the Boston and Yankees systems. In 2000 he became hitting coach for the Trenton Thunder which he did through '06. Since '02 he has been running his own baseball school in the Trenton area.


Steve gets star bullet props for his defense which was quite good despite his moving around a bunch. His military time was spent mostly on an Army base in Germany. There is a recent in-depth interview with him linked to here.

Since Braun was primarily AL and Dusty primarily NL, this will require a league-changer:

1. Braun and Bill Stein '77 to '78 Mariners;
2. Stein and Ralph Garr '76 White Sox;
3. Garr and Dusty Baker '70 to '75 Braves.