#634 - Eddie Mathews/Braves Field Leaders

When I was a kid I couldn’t always tell whether or not Eddie Mathews was a white guy and it was photos like this one that confused me. Eddie sure had a nice tan going which I guess came with the territory of working in sunny Atlanta. He’d returned there as a coach a couple years earlier and was elevated to manager about two-thirds of the way through the ’72 season. He improved things a bit and ’73 was his first – and only – full season in the role. There would be some exciting times what with all the homers but the launch pad that County Stadium resembled back then, coupled with some injuries, and just some dreadful pitching, made it difficult for the team to get any real traction. He would improve to a winning record in ’74 but, combined with other issues, that improvement wasn't enough and he gave way to Clyde King 100 games into that season. Here he looks moderately concerned home in Atlanta. Things down the road would warrant that expression.

Eddie Mathews was born in Texarkana, Texas, and as a young boy he relocated to Santa Barbara, California, where he was a big deal high school football and baseball star. He was highly sought by many schools for the former sport but opted to sign with the Braves in ’49 for a $6,000 bonus. In D ball that summer he had a .363/17/56 line in just 240 at bats and the next year put up a .286/32/106 line in Double A. He split the next season between Double A and Triple A but missed most of it to Navy service for the Korean War before he was recalled because his dad was sick and Eddie was his family’s only income producer. In ’52 he was called up to Boston where, though his average was a bit light and his K totals a tad high, he wowed people with his defense at third and hit 25 homers. He cranked things up big the next year with his .302/47/135 line. His homer total led the NL and his OBA was .402 as he made his first All-Star game. Over the next two seasons he would average lines of .289/41/102/.418 as Milwaukee’s main slugger as a young teammate Hank Aaron was establishing himself. Eddie’s RBI totals fell a bit the next few years as Aaron became a premier slugger himself and Eddie’s line averaged .274/33/89/.370 as he took two trips to the Series, winning one. In ’59 he again led the NL in homers during a .306/46/114/.390 season followed up by another big power year in ’60 with his .277/39/124/.397 year. Beginning in ’61 he led the NL in walks three consecutive years as his lines averaged .279/28/92/.394. By then he’d been having some back and shoulder issues that were beginning to compress his swing a bunch and in ’64 his numbers fell to .233/23/74/.344 before a big bounce in ’65 with a .251/32/95 line. By ’66 the back pain was serious and his days as a big slugger were over. After a final season in ’66 with Atlanta he was sent to Houston where he played primarily first base in ’67 before an August trade to Detroit to help in the stretch run. He remained with the Tigers in ’68 as primarily a pinch hitter for the eventual Series champs. Eddie then retired with a .271 average with 512 homers, 1,453 RBI’s, 2,315 hits, and a .376 OBA. In the post-season he hit .200 with a homer and seven RBI’s in 16 games with a .385 OBA. He was an All-Star nine times and defensively ranks in the top ten for third basemen in putouts, assists, and double plays.

For a couple years after playing Mathews was a salesman for a couple firms but he wasn’t a big fan of that work. So in ’71 he returned to baseball as a Braves coach and then assumed the manager position in ’72. By then he had a pretty serious drinking problem and that problem was part of what led to his dismissal in ’74. He was 149-161 as a manager which would turn out to be significantly better than his immediate successors. He then worked briefly with the Brewers – where he turned down the manager job – before moving to San Diego and having a run as a scout. He would return to formal coaching with the Rangers, Oakland (’81-’83) and Atlanta (’88-’89) around his scouting work. He was admitted to the Hall in ’78 and in ’92, a couple years after retiring, he had a second serious attack of pneumonia, his first being while with the A’s. He was nearly better by ’94 when he wrote his autobiography and was attending card shows on a regular basis. He did that through ’97 when he was in a bad boating accident that shattered his pelvis. Thereafter things were very tough for him physically and in early 2001 he passed away from complications of pneumonia and heart problems. He was 69. He has a detailed SABR bio.

Jim Busby grew up in rural Texas and in ’45 went to TCU on a football scholarship. I have read that he was in the Army during WWII but since he had just turned 18 when the war ended that doesn’t seem right. By his junior year he was TCU’s starting QB and in ’47 he took his team to the Cotton Bowl. He also hit over .500 as a fleet outfielder and ran track as well, setting the school record in the 100-yard dash. In ’48 he was signed by the White Sox and that summer hit .305 in a season split between B and A ball. In ’49 he hit .306 at those same levels and missed about half the season so it was most likely that then was his Army time. In ’50 he moved up to Triple A where he hit .310 with 17 stolen bases around his few games in Chicago. In ’51 he made the team in spring training as its starting center fielder and as a rookie hit .283 with 68 RBI’s and 26 stolen bases. He was also an excellent fielder who over his career would only post 16 errors. Early in ’52 he went to Washington for Sam Mele and there his average slid a bit before rebounding the next two years when he averaged .306 with 81 RBI’s and 15 stolen bases per season. After a slow start in ’55 he returned to the Sox where he finished out the year. He then went to Cleveland as part of a deal for Larry Doby where his .235/12/50 line was a bit of an improvement. In early ’57 he was on the move again to Baltimore for Dick Williams – I guess he liked being traded for future managers – where he hit .250 but his power stats depleted a bunch. By ’58 he was a reserve guy and he filled that role for the Red Sox, back in Baltimore, and in Houston before he finished as a player during the ’62 season. Jim put up a .262 average with over 1,100 hits and 97 stolen bases during his career. He is in the top 50 all-time for putouts in center and the top 100 in assists and double plays. He remained with Houston as a coach the duration of the ’62 season and stayed there through ’67. He then moved on to Atlanta (’68-’75), the White Sox (’76), and Seattle (’77-’78) before going 37-27 as a manager in ’79 in the Inter-American League. After that league folded he moved to Florida full-time where he ran some orange groves he’d acquired earlier. He then retired in Georgia where he passed away in ’96 at age 69.

Connie Ryan was born in New Orleans where he would be a star athlete at the same high school later attended by Rusty Staub. Ryan then earned a baseball scholarship to LSU, where he remained through his sophomore year of ’40 when he left to sign a minor league contract with Savannah, a B-level affiliate of the Atlanta Crackers, an independent team. After hitting .302 that year as s econd baseman, he moved up to the A-level Crackers in ’41 and hit .300 there. In ’42 he was sold to the Giants where he had a tough time in NY before returning to Double A, hitting .243 that season. Immediately prior to the ’43 season he was sent to the Braves as part of a deal for Ernie Lombardi and as the regular guy at second Connie hit .212. He improved that substantially in ’44 when he was hitting .295 with 13 stolen bases before he enlisted for WW II after D-Day. Named to the All-Star team that year, he remained in the service through ’45 and returned to Boston as the starting second baseman in ’46 and ’47, hitting .241 and .265 with 69 RBI’s respectively. In ’48 Boston acquired Eddie Stanky and Connie became a reserve, getting only 122 at bats that year and limited time in the Series. In ’49 he was a utility guy, playing all infield positions, which he continued through early in ’50 when he went to Cincinnati for Walker Cooper. With the Reds he returned to a starting role that season and for all of ’51, hitting .246 during that time. He then moved to the Phillies in a big trade for the ’52 season, where he retained the regular role, hitting .257, until he was placed on waivers in ’54 (despite hitting .296 at the time). The ChiSox took him and Connie finished out his career that year and the next with Chicago and then back in Cincinnati with a .248 average with just under 1,000 hits. He went 0 for 1 in his only Series at bat and is in the top 100 all-time in putouts at second. He remained in baseball in a bunch of roles. As a minor league manager he went a combined 403-383 for the Braves (’55-’56, ’68-’69), Cincinnati (’58), Houston (’62), and Kansas City (’67). He was also an MLB coach for Milwaukee/Atlanta (’57, ’71, ’73-’75) and Texas (’77-’79) and manager for both going a combined 11-22 in interim roles for the Braves (’75) and the Rangers (’77). In between and thereafter he scouted for Houston (’61, ’63-’66), Kansas City/Oakland (’67, 70, 71, and in the Eighties), the Braves (’69-’70), and Texas (’76). He would then retire to the New Orleans area where he passed away in ’96 at age 75.

Ken Silvestri grew up in Chicago where he was an all-state football player for two years and then went to Purdue on a football scholarship (this has been a very educated coaching group thus far). He spent two years at Purdue, playing both baseball and football, before being signed by the White Sox in ’36. He spent his first two years in D ball, hitting .270 and .307, with 23 homers that second year. He moved up to Double A in ’38 and spent more time there in ’39 – both years hitting .272 - around his debut in Chicago. He hit lightly his rookie year, batting just .173 in minimal plate appearances. He raised that to .250 in ’40 with ten RBI’s but in just 24 at bats. After that season he went to the Yankees where he took on the Ralph Houk role – almost zero plate time – before Houk got there. Ken again hit .250, this time in 40 at bats, and won a Series ring, before enlisting for WW II, which would take him away from baseball the next four years. He returned in ’46 to hit .286 again in limited time before Houk assumed his role and Ken spent the bulk of the next two years in the minors, hitting a combined .226 but with a .377 OBA. He then moved to the Phillies via the Rule 5 draft for the ’49 season, returned to the Series in ’50, and finished his MLB time in ’51 with a .217 average in just 203 at bats over eight seasons. He returned to the service in ’52 and ’53 in Korea and then came back to baseball in ’54 as a player and then player/manager in the Yankees system, which he did through ’58. He went 255-242 his four seasons as a manager and won two league titles and finished his minor league playing career with a .268 average. He would then get a bunch of MLB time as a coach with the Phillies (’59-’60), the Braves (’63-’75), and the White Sox (’76, ’82). In between he coached in the St. Louis system (’61-’62) and Chicago’s (’77-’81) before going into semi-retirement as a scout for the ChiSox beginning in ’83. He was still scouting for the team when he passed away in ’92 at age 75.

Herm Starrette grew up in Statesville, North Carolina, where he was a big deal pitcher and basketball player. His brother George would be a pro hoops player and Herm was offered a basketball scholarship to Wake Forest but opted to go to local Lenoir-Rhyne College where he pitched his freshman and sophomore seasons of ’57 and ’58 before signing that June with the new Orioles. That summer he went 7-9 in C ball before improving at that level in ’59 to go 17-7 and 9-7 in ’60 around some military time. Up until then a rotation guy, in ’61 in B ball he went 11-7 as a spot starter and in ’62 became a reliever, going 14-10 with a 2.65 ERA in 61 games in A ball. The next three years he would pitch well out of the pen in Triple A, going a combined 14-7 with a 2.14 ERA. He also got three looks in Baltimore over that time-frame and although he threw well – 1-1 with a 2.54 ERA in 46 innings – he never stuck. Back in Triple A in ’66 he hurt his arm and was done as a pitcher, finishing with a minor league record of 72-50 with a 3.32 ERA. He then became a pitching coach in the Orioles chain, succeeding George Bamberger in ’68 as director of pitching and continuing the Baltimore streak of developing premier starters. He did that through ’73 when he became the Atlanta pitching coach. He remained with the Braves through ’76 and then moved on to San Francisco (’77-’78 and ’83-’84), Philadelphia (’79-’81), Milwaukee (’85-’86), the Cubs (’87), and Baltimore (’88). He then became minor league pitching coordinator for the Expos (’89-’92) and Boston (’93-2002) both while working closely with Dan Duquette. After Duquette was replaced as Boston GM following the 2002 season, Herm retired to Florida where he still resides.

I’ll skip over Watergate stuff this post and go straight to the double hook-up. For Eddie Mathews as a manager:

1. Mathews managed Ralph Garr on the ’72 to ’74 Braves;

2. Garr and Dave Hamilton ’76 to ’77 White Sox.

That was pretty good. Now for Eddie as a player. I am just going to add a step to the above:

1. Mathews and Sonny Jackson ’67 Astros;

2. Jackson and Ralph Garr ’72 to ’74 Braves;

3. Garr and Dave Hamilton ’76 to ’77 White Sox.

#614 - Adrian Devine

And the balance reasserts itself as another final card is followed by a rookie one. Adrian Devine didn’t have a crazy great time at any level in ’73 but the Braves were really desperate for bullpen help that year so he got the call in late June and never went back down. Adrian was used sparingly the rest of the year and despite his high ERA managed to get four saves. It was otherwise an important year for him because while warming up for his first MLB game his shoulder popped and it would turn out to be rotator cuff damage he would have to pitch through the rest of his career. He shows his stuff in Candlestick with an expression that would grace all his cards though his second one wouldn’t occur until the ’77 set as he’d spend the bulk of the next two years in the minors. But he’s full of smiles these days.

Like Luke Walker from two posts back, Adrian Devine grew up in Texas, he in Galveston. There he played high school and American Legion ball well enough that he was a second round pick by Atlanta in the ’70 draft. That first summer as a starter in Rookie ball was a bit tough but he moved up to A ball the next year and looked to be putting together a pretty good season. But he missed the bulk of it to either injury or military time. He kept moving up though, and after a pretty good camp in ’72 he continued to throw well that year in Double A. After his ’73 season he returned to Triple A where he only got into four games the next year while rehabbing his arm. He came back strong at that level in ’75 when he went 10-6 with a 2.98 ERA as a starter before getting into a few games back in Atlanta at the end of the year. In ’76 he remained up top as a reliever and – still a rookie – went 5-6 with a 3.21 ERA and nine saves. Following the season Adrian was included in the big trade to Texas for Jeff Burroughs. He had a pretty good year for the Rangers, going 11-6 with a 3.58 ERA and 15 saves. He was then involved in an even bigger deal as he returned to Atlanta in the big four-team trade that also moved Bert Blyleven, John Milner, and Willie Montanez to various spots. Back with the Braves Adrian did his first year of spot work but only got in 65 innings as he went 5-4 with an elevated ERA. In ’79 it was all pen work again as he went 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA in about the same number of innings as his prior year. After the season he ponged back to Texas with Pepe Frias for Larvell Blanks and Doyle Alexander. He pitched very sparingly for the Rangers this time and after a few innings in ‘81 in Triple A he was released, ending his pitching career. Adrian finished 26-22 with a 4.21 ERA and 31 saves in his MLB time and was 31-30 with a 3.83 ERA in the minors.

Devine was very concerned about his next professional step in early ’82 when it was pretty apparent he was done with baseball. He appears to have remained in the Atlanta area and at some point became involved with Devine Baseball, an instructional camp and facility in suburban Atlanta that appears to be run by his son. Adrian has a Facebook page on which he appears to be quite the foodie, so perhaps that was a career choice for him at some point as well. In any case, he looks and reads as if his life post-baseball has been pretty good.

Adrian goes with his given first name for his signature on this card but on future ones he would sign with his middle one. His star bullets give us a glimpse at some of the stats that made Atlanta draft him.

Yesterday’s Watergate recap got us up through the end of February 1973. Earlier that month a couple important things happened. On February 2, Judge John Sirica, who oversaw the trial of the conspirators, indicated that he would present the Grand Jury called to further investigate charges with several other names he believed were connected to the case. On February 7 the Senate voted unanimously to set up a seven-member Select Committee to investigate Watergate and other potential political espionage in connection with the ’72 campaign. On to March:

3/19/73 – James McCord, who was found guilty of all counts in January, wrote a letter to Judge Sirica in which he indicated that he had been pressured to plead guilty and then go radio silent – as E Howard Hunt had done; that he and others had knowingly perjured themselves during the trial; that the break-in was not a CIA operation as he’d indicated during the trial; and that other unnamed government officials were involved in the conspiracy.

3/23/13 – Judge John Sirica made public the letter from James McCord. He indicated that McCord’s sentence would be delayed until June 15, 1973 as McCord was now a cooperating witness for the government and the Grand Jury. He gave the four other burglars suspended sentences until that date as well in order to compel them to become witnesses also. G Gordon Liddy was sentenced to between six years and eight months to 2 years and fined $40,000.

More next post. For the hook-up we go through the AL and a good guy who passed away way too young:

1. Adrian Devine and Toby Harrah ’77 Rangers;

2. Harrah and Danny Thompson ’76 Rangers;

3. Thompson and Dan Monzon ’72 to ’73 Twins.

I’ll be away next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

#607 - '74 Rookie Shortstops

This card gives us another bunch of young unhappy faces. Given that two of them are standing under a doom-filled sky and that one – Dave Rosello – appears to be standing in front of an oil pump, I sort of get why. But why Leo Foster? Perhaps he is rehashing his MLB debut from a couple years earlier. It was no fun at all.

According to a Mets site, Leo Foster was a high school star in Kentucky in the  big three sports as well as track and that certainly seemed to be seconded by the Braves, who made Leo a second-round pick in the ’69 draft. That summer he hit .229 in A ball before having a bang-up fall in the Instructional League, hitting .321 with a .397 OBA and ten stolen bases. He would then begin his military service, missing some time each of the next few years. When he showed up to training camp in West Palm in ’70, he and Dusty Baker were kicked out of a pool hall because of their color. Nice start and Leo would get a few of those. But he hit .263 with 16 stolen bases that year in Double A and the next year upped his average at that level to .296 before a July call-up to Atlanta where regular shortstop Sonny Jackson had to play the outfield due to Rico Carty’s injury. Leo’s debut was memorable, but not in a good way. On his first play at short he made an error on a Dave Cash hit, and Cash would later score. He then flew out his first at bat, hit into a double play his second, and a triple play his third for the wrong kind of cycle. He went hitless in his ten at bats and then returned to the minors, hitting .180 the rest of the way in Triple A. In ’72 he hit .233 at that level and in ’73 .210 before another few MLB at bats late in the season. In ’74 he spent the full year on the Atlanta roster, backing up Craig Robinson at short while hitting .196. After that season he was traded to the Mets for catcher Joe Nolan and for NY he would hit substantially better at the Triple A level while also branching out to play second and third. In ’75 he hit .247 with a .354 OBA, his best by far since his first year. In ’76 he hit .287 with 39 RBI’s in a bit under half a season and in ’77 .274 in his couple months at that level. He also did better up top, in ’76 hitting .203 with 15 RBI’s in just 59 at bats deep on the depth chart and in ’77 hitting .227 while again playing behind Bud Harrelson and Mike Phillips. That was his final MLB time and Leo finished at that level with a .198 average. After the ’77 season he was traded to Boston for pitcher Jim Burton. After hitting .239 for the Sox Triple A club in a reserve role he finished things up the following year in the short-lived Inter-American League, leaving behind a .248 average for his minor league time. What Leo has done since is a big mystery.

When Tom Heintzelman was born his dad had just returned stateside from his WW II duty to return to his pre-war profession as an MLB pitcher. Ken Heintzelman won 77 games, mostly as a reliever for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia from the late Thirties to the early Fifties. Tom was born in Missouri where he played third base and pitched a bit in high school before moving on to Parsons College in Iowa where he continued to play both roles. Parsons was sort of a high-profile school back then, not all for good reasons, and it would shut down in ’73. When Tom finished his four years there he was drafted by the Cards in ’68 and was then able to get a year in of Rookie and A ball, during which he hit .270, before he was drafted again, this time into the military. Unfortunately for Tom he went high and was unable to do reserve duty even though he was married with a daughter, so he did two full years of stateside service, missing all of the ’69 and ’70 seasons. When he returned in ’71 to Double A ball he had an understandably off year, hitting .219 while playing mostly second. In ’72 he improved to hit .263 with 13 stolen bases at that level and then in ’73 in Triple A he hit .284 before debuting in St. Louis in August, hitting .310 the rest of the way and helping fix the middle infield morass that was plagued by a couple burnouts by the shortstops. Tom then got some spring and summer work in St. Louis the following year backing up Ted Sizemore but only got 74 at bats in which he hit .230. Around that time he hit .258 back in Triple A before being traded to San Francisco after the season for pitcher Jim Willoughby. That first year he split time between second and third in Triple A while hitting .245. The next season he became a power guy, hitting .277 with 15 homers and 103 RBI’s and 92 runs. He maintained that pace the next year with a .266/8/85/80 season before he was moved up to San Francisco where he rarely played. He then began the ’78 season with the Giants but with Bill Madlock ahead of him at both his spots he barely played, hitting .229 in a few at bats. He spent most of the rest of that season in Triple A and all of the next, his final year as a player. Overall Tom hit .243 in his 140 MLB at bats and .259 with 57 homers and 67 stolen bases in the minors. He’d ended up putting in most of his time at Phoenix while with the Giants and it appears that is where he remained on a full-time basis after playing, with Mesa listed as his home when his dad passed away in 2000, but I have no idea what he did after playing.

Dave Rosello got signed by the Cubs after playing summer ball in his native Puerto Rico late in ’68. He didn’t hit too well his first summer in the States, hitting .189 in A ball in ’69, but he was never supposed to have a great stick. He did better in ’70 with a .243 split between A and Double A but then sank to .228 at the higher level in ’71. But then came a long residency at Triple A Wichita during which he found some offensive magic. In ’72 he hit .271 while making his league’s all-star team which he would also do two of his next three seasons. He hit .250 during his short look in Chicago during which he played shortstop, his regular position to date. In ’73 it was back to Triple A where he hit .313 with 51 RBI’s in his 367 at bats, by far his best run production. When Dave was up for his late summer time that year he played second, mostly because Glenn Beckert was declining faster than expected. Then in ’74 Dave stayed there after new guy Vic Harris sort of exploded in a not good way where the two split starting time with three other guys. By late summer it was clear that Dave wasn’t much of an improvement over Harris and while Billy Grabarkewitz was getting the most starts there Dave got back to Wichita where the last two months he hit .389. He remained there for pretty much all of ’75 where he also got back to short and put up a .259 average with 29 doubles in his busiest year. The next two years were all Chicago as he hit .242 backing up Mick Kelleher at short in ’76 and .220 while doing the same – but on a much less regular basis – for fellow ’74 rookie Steve Ontiversos at third. That December Dave went to Cleveland for a couple minor leaguers and in ’78 he had one of his best years in Triple A with a .282/9/71 season while putting in most of his time at third. The next three years were spent in Cleveland where Dave did back-up work at second, averaging .244 in just over 300 at bats. In ’82 it was back to third base and to Triple A in his final season as a player. Dave finished with a .236 MLB average and hit .258 in the minors. From what I can tell he returned to PR after he played.

Like Dave Rosello, Frank Taveras was signed as a free agent from his island home in ’68, except that Frank was Dominican, was signed by Pittsburgh, and was signed early enough to get in some games that summer. He had a bipolar first year, hitting .340 in Rookie ball, but only about .200 in A ball. In ’69 he hit .222 in A ball and then in ’70 got up to .260 with 35 stolen bases, his first season in which he concentrated on shortstop after playing mostly second until then. He split '71 between Double A and Triple A, hitting .226 with 30 steals and then spent nearly all the next two years at the higher level, averaging .244 with 29 stolen bases a season. After some short MLB looks those years he got pulled up in ’74 after Gene Alley was officially done and he and fellow rookie Mario Mendoza took over shortstop. For the next two seasons Frank got the most work of the two. His offense was a bit light but the Pirates had plenty of that and he hit better than Mendoza. In ’76 he won the position outright and both his average and his stolen base totals moved up significantly: in ’76 he hit .258 with 58 steals; in ’77 .252 with 70; and in ’78 .278 with 46. He led the NL that middle year. In ’79 he would prove that timing is everything – in a bad way for him – when early in the season he was traded to the Mets for Tim Foli. Foli went on to win a Series ring and poor Frank got to hang out with one of the NL’s sorriest teams. He hit .263 and .279 for NY the next two years as its regular shortstop and then fell to .230 in ’81 as he split time with Bob Bailor. After that year he went to Montreal where he occupied a reserve role in his final season, finishing with a .255 average and 300 stolen bases for his career. In the post-season he hit .111 in five games. Like the rest of these guys he pretty much disappeared profile-wise after he played.

Outside of Tom Heintzelman, these guys were all pretty small, no surprise given their positions. They totaled 17 MLB seasons with a stolen base title.

Some NY guys help getting from the last card:

1. Otto Velez and Mickey Rivers ’76 Yankees;

2. Rivers and Bud Harrelson ’80 Rangers;

3. Harrelson and Leo Foster ’76 to ’77 Mets.

More of the same for around the card:

1. Leo Foster and Joe Torre ’76 to ’77 Mets;

2. Torre and Ken Heintzelman ’73 to ’74 Cardinals;

3. Heintzelman and Reggie Smith ’74 Cardinals;

4. Smith and Rick Monday ’77 to ’81 Dodgers;

5. Monday and Dave Rosello ’72 to ’76 Cubs;

6. Rosello and Bill Madlock ’74 to ’76 Cubs;

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

8. Stargell and Frank Taveras ’74 to ’79 Pirates.

Madlock had the good timing for that ’79 Pirates team; Taveras didn’t.  

#591 - Sonny Jackson

There is only one fan in the Atlanta stands behind Sonny Jackson on this card but there are a few things going on here. One is that Sonny is one of a very few non-pitchers who sports glasses. Two is that he may be the first and only player in the set designated as a shortstop-outfielder. And three is that this is Sonny’s final card which has been a bit of a trend lately. Sonny had a significant mark-up in his plate time in ’71 when, in the wake of Rico Carty’s knee injury he was moved to center field as the Braves had to juggle their line-up. But the next year in the wake of Rico’s return, new young regulars – Marty Perez at shortstop and Dusty Baker in the outfield, and his own injuries, Sonny’s field time waned considerably. In ’73 he was relatively healthy but was primarily a reserve, splitting time between shortstop and left field. Sonny’s pose here looks like it is about halfway between a bunting stance and an “I’m gonna knock your head off” stance. Good thing he wasn’t looking at the photographer.

Sonny Jackson grew up outside DC and went to Montgomery Blair High School in Blair, MD, where he captained each of his big three teams his senior year, leading his baseball and football ones to a county championship and his basketball one to a state title. He was a high–scoring guard in that last sport and most of his senior year he was courted by the University of Maryland with a scholarship to play hoops and baseball. That year was 1962 and if Sonny chose to attend the school he’d have been the first black ACC athlete. Instead he signed later that summer with the Houston Colt .45’s, a choice he made because he thought an expansion team would get him up top quicker. He was right and after a big first season in ’63 in A ball hitting .297 and stealing 61 bases, he made his Houston debut in a late September game in which every starter was a rookie (Houston got destroyed by the Mets 10-3). He would also get some late-season looks each of the next two years but spent most of that time in the minors. In ’64 he hit .285 while swiping 45 bases in Double A and in ’65 in Triple A he hit .330 while stealing 52. All that time he was a shortstop and while his error totals were a tad high he made up for that with excellent range. In ’66 he made the big club out of spring training.

Jackson had a big rookie year, putting up the best average of his career – shades of recent subject Hal Lanier – while finishing second in NL ROY voting to Tommy Helms. His DP partner was Joe Morgan with whom he shared his first rookie card in ’65 (he had another one in ’66 he shared with Chuck Harrison). He made the Topps team that year but had a tough follow-up year when he missed a month from a leg injury and his average and stolen bases tumbled hard. After the season he and card-mate Harrison were sent to the Braves for Denny LeMaster and Denis Menke. Sonny’s first few seasons in Atlanta were marred by injuries as his average during that time more closely resembled his ’67 one than his ’66 one. In ’68 he missed all of August to a bad knee. In ’69 he had done a nice job resuscitating his average when he missed nearly two months in the summer, again to kee damage. Then in ’70 he got spiked hard in his leg, missing another 45 games. After his move to center in ’71 he returned to Triple A to begin the ’72 season for rehab after hurting his ankle in spring training. When he came back he put in time at center and third base before returning to shortstop in late summer to swap time with Perez. After his reserve work in ’73 he spent most of ’74 in Triple A where he hit .285 while splitting time between those three positions. He only got into a couple games that year with Atlanta and following the season was released. He signed with the Padres for ’75 and hit .255 while playing second and outfield for their Triple A club and moved to the White Sox in ’76 where he hit .273 while switching between shortstop and third base at the same level. That was Sonny’s final season and he finished with a .251 average with 126 stolen bases up top and a .291 average with 181 steals in the minors. In his sole post-season appearance he only did defensive work.

Jackson stayed close to baseball – and former teammate Dusty Baker – after his playing career ended. He spent a long time back in the Atlanta system as a coach (’77-’79 and ’84-’95) and manager (’80-’81 during which he went 121-162). He also coached for Joe Torre in Atlanta. He then moved to the Giants where he coached in the minors (’96) and in San Francisco (’97-2002). He then went with Baker to Chicago where he coached and acted as special assistant to the manager from 2003 to ’06. I run out of gas with him at that point.

It appears that Sonny used a marker for his signature. He really did have a big rookie year, didn’t he? He also led the NL in sacrifice hits with 27 that year. He is a cousin of Derrell Thomas, who was a Padre then. He is married to Corliss Jackson who may or may not be the woman that runs the business helping people get federal jobs that is pretty high-profile. They live in Florida.

Two Braves here are a few years apart:

1. Jackson and Phil Niekro ’68 to ’74 Braves;

2. Niekro and Rogelio Moret ’76 Braves.

#570 - Ralph Garr

Now this is a great action shot. Topps seems to have thought so as well since they used it again for Ralph Garr’s ’75 card. On its own it’s pretty cool but it also does a nice job demonstrating Ralph’s batting style. Known as Roadrunner, he was about the best bad ball hitter in baseball, nearly standing on the plate in his stance and getting a significant number of hits off non-strikes. After contact he sort of fell down the first base line almost before his swing was done so it wasn’t rare to see his helmet dislodged. Here it looks like he lined one to the left-center gap in Atlanta in what was a bit of an off year as he hit below .300 for the first time as a regular. But it was a very good .299 given that he put up 200 hits, 94 runs, and eleven triples. He also topped out career-wise with his doubles total and his 35 stolen bases. And it wasn’t a bad preview year for his ’74 which would be pretty excellent with serious potential to be one of the best ever.

Ralph Garr grew up in Ruston, Louisiana, where in school he was a speedy infielder and a halfback/wide receiver in football. He came from a family of eight kids and growing up pretty much supported himself shining shoes on weekends. He played local ball as well and one of his coaches had a relationship with nearby Grambling University. Ralph had the skills to play there but not the size – he was about 145 pounds when he finished high school – or so thought the Grambling coach. So in the summer of ’63 he graduated and in fall ball he played for a couple local teams against the school until he showed enough props to make the team. He didn’t play too much his freshman year but thereafter he took over second base and hit .418 for his career there, leading the school to a record of 103-11 during his time at the school. His senior year was impressive enough to get him listed in SI's Faces in the Crowd section: he hit .586 with eleven triples as Grambling rang up a record of 35-1. It also got him drafted that summer in the third round by the Braves. His pro career began that summer in Double A, where he hit .274 while playing second. But his defense was pretty suspect – it always had been – and in ’68 the Braves moved him to the outfield. That year at the same level he hit .293 with 32 stolen bases before making his debut in September. In ’69 he spent all of April in Atlanta, but hit below .200 in a couple starts and in May moved to Triple A, upped his average to .329, and his stolen base total to 63, and got back with Atlanta in September. ’70 was pretty much a repeat performance – that outfield of Rico Carty, Tony Gonzales, and Hank Aaron, .300 hitters all, was tough to crack – and after getting a hit in ten pinch at bats through early May he returned to Triple A where he hit a record .386 while swiping 39 bases. This time when he went back up he hit over .300 his last month. When he followed that up with a .417 in the Dominican winter league Atlanta recognized a spot needed to be made.

The plan following the ’70 season was that Garr and Sonny Jackson, who’d been converted from shortstop, would swap time in center field after the trade of Tony Gonzales late that year. But while Ralph was doing his damage in the Dominican, Rico Carty was on the receiving end in the same league and he would miss the entire season to an injury sustained there. So Ralph got left field all to himself and nearly matched Rico’s NL-leading average the prior season by having a bang up first year as a regular. His 101 runs and 30 stolen bases were personal highs for a while. Carty came back in ’72 so Ralph put in most of his time at the corners as well as some starts in center. In ’73 Carty went to Texas and Hank Aaron returned to the outfield so Ralph moved to right. He would put up some pretty high error totals wherever he was put but his response to criticism was that he was so fast that he was reaching – or barely reaching – balls other outfielders would never get. He did lead the league in putouts a couple times and was always near the top in that stat so maybe he had something there. In ’74 he went on a rampage and got his 100^th hit by June and his 200^th by August and was on target to knock off Ralph Terry’s record of 254 hits in a season. But he got hurt in early September, missing three weeks, though he still won the batting title with a .353 average on 214 hits (had he done his season average for the games he missed, he would have put up 241 hits). He was an All-Star that year for the only time and his first four seasons as a regular had accumulated 800 hits, pretty impressive stuff for a guy deemed too small for college ball. In ’75 Ralph went to arbitration over his contract and also experienced not hitting in front of Aaron for the first time in Atlanta. Both contributed to a discounted season as his hit count declined by 40 and his average fell to .278, though he again led the NL in triples. After the season he went to the White Sox with Larvell Blanks for Ken Henderson, Dick Ruthven, and Ozzie Osborn (there’s that name again).

The ’76 White Sox were in a bit of disarray and that year pretty much bottomed out the team’s post-Dick Allen decline. So Ralph put in pretty much equal time at the three outfield positions while reviving his average to hit an even .300. He then got to enjoy his first serious pennant run as a regular in ’77 as a member of the Southside Hitmen, again hitting .300 with better support numbers. He also returned to a permanent home in left field as manager Bob Lemon helped things out by realigning the line-up. In ’78 his at bats fell as he missed some time to minor injuries, an outfield youth movement, and a few games after a late-season fight with pitcher Francisco Barrios. That year he hit .275 with a slight decline in power. The next year he split time in left with Junior Moore and was hitting .280 before a late September sale to California for that team’s pennant drive. For the Angels in his few games he didn’t do too much and then got shut out of post-season action. He remained with California in ’80 but after starting that season with a sub-.200 average as an infrequently-used DH, he was released in June, ending his MLB time. Ralph finished with a .306 average, 64 triples, 75 homers, 408 RBI’s, and 172 stolen bases.

In ’81 Garr played a season for the Mexico City Tigres and then settled in Houston, where he owned and managed a donut shop with a relative for a bunch of years. In ’85 he ran into his old buddy Hank Aaron at the baseball winter meetings and Hank gave him a position as an area scout for the Braves. He did that for over 20 years while continuing to be involved in his shop. He has also done some minor league coaching work for the Braves as well as community work and this year he represented the team at the first year draft. He was also inducted earlier this year into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Roadrunner gets some pretty excellent star bullets. His cartoon is pretty cool also. Let’s investigate that feat: the September 8^th game of that year was Ralph's fourth up top and it was home against Houston. In the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied at 1-1, Joe Torre stroked a single off Dave Giusti with one out, scoring Felix Millan from third, and moving Hank Aaron from first to third. In came Danny Coombs to relieve Giusti and with Hank’s brother Tommie at the plate, Atlanta tried a squeeze play. Though Tommie missed the pitch, Hank successfully stole home and Ralph stole second on the play. The Braves would win 4-1, getting their final run when Tommie knocked in Ralph. So Topps got some bad info, though stealing home sounds a lot better than being on the back end of a double steal.

A flashy teammate gets these two together:

1. Garr and Pat Kelly ’76 White Sox;

2. Kelly and Rick Dempsey ’77 to ’80 Orioles.

#544 - Ron Schueler

Almost every one of Ron Schueler’s cards was a variation of this shot: close up head shot with a serious, clenched mouth, and a far-away look. There is a pretty good chance this photo was taken at Shea and if so it may be before a pivotal game in the season for Ron – a two-hit shutout in which no Met got a hit until the bottom of the ninth. The whole season should have been pivotal for Ron: after doing a so-so job as a reliever – he was 2-3 with 2 saves and a fat 5.01 ERA through late June – he was put in the rotation to help ease the performance void left by the frustrating seasons of Roric Harrison and Gary Gentry. Ron did some nice work in his new role, winning his first start and adding another shutout to that Mets win down the stretch. He completed four of his games and went 6-4 the rest of the way with a 3.55 ERA as one of the Braves’ most effective starters during that run. His reward was a trade to the Phillies, memorialized by Topps with yet another serious far-off pose. On that card Ron looks like he’s in a wind tunnel in what I think is LA; maybe that woman behind him is hanging on for dear life. Ron would generally have a pretty frustrating career up top, hence the facial expression. But things would get a lot rosier success-wise after he finished playing so maybe those looks saw something ahead that was pretty good.

Ron Schueler grew up in Kansas where in high school he played hoops and pitched for both his school and in American Legion ball. Drafted in the 12^th round by the Pirates after his senior year of ’66 he instead opted for school and went to nearby Fort Hays State University where he got in a year of basketball before being taken in the third round by Atlanta in the January ’67 draft. He finished his spring semester before starting his career off in A ball that summer where he’d have a mediocre season as a starter. It went that way most of the rest of his time in the minors. In ’68 he pitched at all levels between A and Triple A and his best numbers were in his two starts in the top spot. He had a pretty good year in Double A in ’69 when he pitched mostly in the pen and then had a tougher time at the same level in ’70. Both those years he did some military time as well as in ’71 when he posted good numbers in both Double A and Triple A. After a promising spring training in ’72 he was up for good.

Schueler’s rookie year started nicely as he threw scoreless ball his first five relief outings. After that he became a spot guy, getting 18 starts and some long relief work and overall having a pretty impressive season. After his ’73 turn-around and his trade to the Phillies, he had his busiest year in ’74 when he had 27 starts among his 44 games and put up over 200 innings his only season. The problem for him was the non-starts and he wasn’t too happy that when the Phillies had bullpen issues they used him to fill the gap. He went 11-16 that year with a 3.72 ERA and in ’75 began the season working from the pen but his numbers weren’t too hot. Then he didn’t do too well when he did get a start, at least until July when the Mets helped out again by giving him a complete game win. He got a couple more starts and then some bullpen time but his innings cratered from ’74 and his ERA bumped up big as he finished with a record of 4-4 with a 5.24 ERA. ’76 began pretty miserably also but a nice stretch in the summer – including no earned runs for a month – improved his numbers a ton as one of the bullpen-by-committee role players and he didn’t even get a decision until his final game in September, finishing 1-0 with a 2.90 ERA in only 49 innings. In spring training of ’77 he was sold to Minnesota.

In his first AL season Schueler’s numbers came in somewhere between his ’73 and ’75 ones. He got seven starts among his 52 games and a bunch of finishes, but the lion’s share of his work was as a set-up guy for Tom Johnson, who took over as staff bullpen ace – and did pretty much as good a job – from free agent departee Bill Campbell. Ron went 8-7 with three saves and a 4.41 ERA. He then became a free agent and signed with the White Sox and had roughly the same kind of season as the prior one, though in a lot less innings. Part of that decline in work was due to a hand injury he suffered in July during one of his rare starts. After going 3-5 with a 4.30 ERA that year a poor start and lots of new young ChiSox pitchers contributed to his being used very sparingly in ’79, and not at all after early July. It was his final season and Ron finished his career with a 40-48 record, 13 complete games, eleven saves, and a 4.08 ERA.

Schueler immediately transitioned into his next professional role, that of coach, before the ’79 season was out, becoming the White Sox pitching coach. He stayed in that role through ’82 and then assumed the same task for Oakland from ’83 to ’84. After a season as a special scout for the A’s in ’85 he returned to coaching as the Pirates’ pitching coach in ’86. He then reversed things, returning to Oakland as a special advisor to GM Sandy Alderson (’87-’90), and then Chicago as the White Sox GM (’91 to 2000). He then reverted to the special assistant role with Chicago (2001-’02); the Cubs (’03-’04); St. Louis (’05-’07); San Francisco (’08-’09); and Washington (‘09-present). Baseball evidently turned out to be a good career choice after all.

We get to see Ron’s American Legion record and his no-no in Double A in the star bullets. The cartoon indicates early access to behind-the-scenes stuff that would highlight his later career.

Topps gives us details about Ron’s trade. A big one they leave out is one from the Atlanta side in which the Braves actually thought they were acquiring Randy Lerch, a well-regarded heat-throwing 18-year old. That was the key reason they were willing to give up Ron, a pitcher with whom they were quite happy.

I wouldn’t have expected this hook-up but we get back to my favorite guy:

1. Schueler and Dick Allen ’75 to ’76 Phillies;

2. Allen and Danny Cater ’64 Phillies.

#526 - Frank Tepedino

Now here’s a happy guy. Frank Tepedino was having a fine season backing up Mike Lum at first and pinch hitting. Lots of times he’d play when Hank Aaron sat and he’d take Hank’s place in the line-up which was pretty prime. That and his clutch hitting helped produce 29 RBI’s in only 148 at bats. And he didn’t even get there until June, when he was traded from the Yankees. Frank led the NL in pinch hits so maybe he knew that while he was posing at Candlestick. His smile sure does beat Clyde Wright’s air-brushed scowl. 

Frank Tepedino grew up in Brooklyn where he attended Wingate High School and was a football and baseball star. He also played semi-pro ball in the summers with the Cadets, a Broolyn-based AAU team that is still around. His senior year he was drafted by the Orioles in the third round and that summer started with a bang in Rookie ball, hitting .337. In ’66 he moved up to A ball where he hit .288 still at first but with not too much power. After that season both Frank and Charlie Sands were taken by the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft, which meant they both had to be on the big league roster the whole following season. So Frank made his debut up top in May of ’67 but in June the Bombers bought pitcher Steve Barber from the Orioles and as a condition of the trade, Frank was allowed to return to the minors. That he did, finishing up the year in A ball where his average fell to .222. In ’68 came some military time around which he hit .248 in Double A and in ’69 he moved up to Triple A where he worked primarily in the outfield and turned into a bit of a slugger, hitting .300 with 16 homers and 61 RBI’s. Those numbers got him some more looks in NY that fall. In ’70 spring training he had a hot bat and after hitting .355 in a bit over a month in Triple A he returned to NY but rarely played around more military work and with Danny Cater and John Ellis ahead of him at first when he was there. Things pretty much repeated themselves in ’71 – though that year he hit only .208 in Triple A – and in June Frank was traded to Milwaukee with Bobby Mitchell for outfielder Danny Walton.

First base at Milwaukee in ’71 was a pretty crowded position, with five guys getting serious starting time there. Tepedino was able to wrangle himself a bit over 20 of those starts the rest of the season which got him by far his most plate appearances until that point in his career. The results weren’t super great so after the season when the Yankees came calling for their homeboy, Frank returned to NY in a sale. He spent just about all of ’72 in Triple A where he hit .282 with 13 homers and 58 RBI’s. He then kicked off ’73 in the same place on pretty much the same tack: .287/3/24 in his first 164 at bats. In June he went to Atlanta with Wayne Nordhagen, Al Closter, and Dave Cheadle for Pat Dobson. In ’74 Frank pretty much reprised his ’73 role but the results weren’t nearly as dramatic as he hit .231 with 16 RBI’s in 78 games. After beginning the season on the Atlanta roster he spent most of it back in Triple A where he hit .270 in 90 games. That would be his last season at any level and he finished with a .241 average with 58 RBI’s in 507 at bats up top and a .280 average in the minors.

Tepedino returned to New York after his career ended, did some work in retail and investment stuff, and then moved on to his next job and passion. He became a fire fighter in NYC and rose to captain. Along the way he had some alcohol issues but then went cold turkey and for many years has done anti-drinking lectures throughout his home area. A lot of them were done for Rusty Torres’ non-profit group until that guy got arrested. Frank raised his profile a bunch when he made an appearance at Ground Zero shortly after the World Trade Center horrors of 9/11. There and elsewhere he made some moving speeches about his lost comrades. He continues to do work for the fire department and resides on Long Island.

Frank’s two uncles are Frank – still around at 94 – who hit .293 during his career from the mid-Forties to the mid-Fifties which got as high as B ball; and John who hit .290 during a shorter run from ’48 to ’51 and reached the same level.

Again the Brewer connection seems the best route:

1. Tepedino and Dave May ’71 Brewers;

2. May and Clyde Wright ’74 Brewers.

#504 - Joe Niekro

Here we have an air-brushed card of Joe Niekro in a probably air-brushed place. Joe is in his Tigers uniform which indicates the photo is at least from as far back as ’72. The top of his cap looks like it’s dissipating into the ether which may be how Joe felt his career was going in ’73. He was 28 and had been in pro ball since ’66 but after a promising start to things mediocrity set in and after some not great seasons in Detroit he was shipped off to Triple A to begin the ’73 season where he went 7-10 with a 3.71 ERA in the rotation but by late July was placed on waivers. He was then taken by Atlanta who gave him a few innings for its miserable stretch run during which he got three saves but not terribly much else. He did, however, re-unite with brother Phil who pushed Joe to get back on the bus of a pitch their dad had taught them when they were kids. He honed his knuckleball while in Atlanta though the Braves would not be the beneficiaries of one of the more dramatic turnarounds career-wise in history. Those would go to another team and Joe, seemingly washed up at 28, would go on to pitch meaningful ball well into his Forties. So from this seemingly innocuous undated and edited photo very good, if not great, things were about to issue.

Joe and Phil Niekro grew up in Ohio where their dad went to work in the mines and where they played lots of baseball while kids. Their dad, who was a pretty good semi-pro player, taught them to throw the knuckleball when they were relatively young. Phil would ride it to pretty consistent success during his career but Joe eschewed it for a pretty good heater and a nice slider. He also played hoops and was all-district in both sports. Upon graduating in ’62 Joe went on to West Liberty State College where he continued to play both sports and was captain of each his senior year. In ’64 he led his school to the NAIA CWS championship and he was all-conference in both his junior and senior year. In January of his senior year he was taken by Cleveland in the draft but opted to return for his senior season. The Cubs then selected him in the third round of the June ’66 draft and he signed and spent the rest of the summer posting a 6-6 record and 2.08 ERA split between Rookie, Single A, and Double A ball. For a long time that was it for Joe in the minor leagues.

Niekro’s fine summer in ’66 took him to Chicago to start the ’67 season where he eventually worked his way into the rotation and had a quite good rookie year. At the plate he knocked in eleven runs in only 46 at bats. His follow-up season wasn’t crazy bad as he added four wins to his ’67 mark, but his ERA popped big in a year that just about everyone else’s went down hard and his control got a little dicey. It was widely viewed as a disappointing season even though he had the second-best mark of staff starters and early in ’69 he was traded to San Diego with pitcher Gary Ross for Dick Selma. Joe pulled his ERA back down to league average but it didn’t help him too much as his record tumbled and after that year he was sent to Detroit for infielder Dave Campbell and other hard luck pitcher Pat Dobson. Joe spent all of ’70 in the rotation where his record improved substantially but his other numbers didn’t. In ’71 he became a swing guy, more by necessity than design as his walks topped his strikeouts and his ERA topped out in a bad way. In ’72 he was used much less in the same role and also pitched a couple games at Triple A where he performed pretty brilliantly. Nevertheless, by ’73 Detroit was done and by the end of the next year he was back in the NL.

For Atlanta Niekro again did the back and forth between the big club and the minors, but now it was to refine his rediscovered pitch. The results in Triple A were impressive as he went 8-1 with a 2.08 ERA and seven saves as strictly a reliever. While they weren’t as impressive up top, they were still an improvement over his past couple seasons as he went 3-2 with a 3.56 ERA and much better control. Late in ’75 spring training Joe was purchased by the Astros for $35,000 and put back in the pen where he went 6-4 with a 3.07 ERA and four saves. In ’76 he moved back to a swing role where his ERA at 3.36 was pretty good, but his 4-8 record wasn’t so hot. Things changed markedly in ’77 when in mid-season Joe moved from his swing role to the rotation and finished 13-8 with a 3.04 ERA. After a .500 season in ’78 he took off in ’79 when he went 21-11 with a 3.00 ERA and an NL-leading five shutouts to help lead Houston to its first meaningful pennant run. He got his only All-Star nod that year and finished second to Bruce Sutter in Cy Young voting. In ’80 Joe went 20-12, won the division clincher against LA, and then pitched ten innings of shutout ball against the Phillies, though Houston lost that series. In the ’81 strike year he recorded his lowest ERA of 2.82 and then did it again in the playoffs with eight shutout innings against LA. He came back to win 17, 15, and 16 games the next three seasons, twice leading the league in starts – and twice in wild pitches – and during that time posted ERA’s significantly better than league average. In ’85 he slid to his first losing record in a bunch of years and that September was traded to the Yankees for Jim Deshaies and a couple minor leaguers. By the time he left Houston Joe had won 144 games, pretty good for $35K.

Niekro’s ERA popped a bunch back in the AL, in part due to a bad shoulder. After going a combined 14-15 with a 4.58 ERA in a spot role for NY through mid-’87 he was traded to Minnesota for Mark Salas. It was an opportune move for Joe and while he didn’t pitch particularly well down the stretch – he went 4-9 with a 6.26 ERA – he did get into his first Series where he – guess what – pitched shutout ball. He got a ring but when he returned in ’88 his shoulder was toast and after a couple games into that season he was done. Joe finished with a record of 221-204 with a 3.59 ERA, 107 complete games, 29 shutouts, and 16 saves. He recorded 72 RBI’s during his career and in the post-season was about as perfect as you can get with 20 shutout innings, but with no decisions.

Before ’88 was over Niekro took on a pitching coach role in the Minnesota system. He remained there through ’91 when he moved to the Colorado one, where he stayed through ’93. In ’94 he joined up with brother Phil to coach the Silver Bullets, a women’s professional baseball team sponsored by Coors. That lasted through ’97 after which the team folded. He also continued to coach, mostly one-off deals in which he was brought in to help work on other knuckleball pitchers. He also took time to help develop son Lance who played ball the last decade including a few years up top with the Giants. In 2007 Joe was out shopping for a tuxedo for his daughter’s wedding when he felt a searing pain in his head. It turned out to be a brain aneurysm and two days later it would be a fatal occurrence. Joe was 61 when he passed away. Since then his daughter Natalie has run a site that enlists help to combat what killed her dad. It is linked to here and for those with a longer attention span there is an interview with her here.

I like that first star bullet but I do think the Perfect designation makes the No-Hit (all oddly capitalized) designation unnecessary. Joe hit only one homer during his career and it was off Phil. Plus when he got his 21 wins in ’79 he co-led the league; Phil was the other leader.

These guys both played a bit with NY, but let’s go elsewhere:

1. Niekro and Bill Hands ’67 to ’69 Cubs;

2. Hands and Eric Soderholm ’73 to ’74 Twins.

#483 (cont) - Atlanta Braves/Braves Team Records

For part 2 of the Braves team card we get the checklist. The front of this one has all the 40-plus homer guys plus the whole outfield outside of Sonny Jackson. There are two Hall of Fame signatures in Aaron’s and Niekro’s. And Davey Johnson should be there also, just on his managing props. Time to pick up the bios.

Dick Rudolph was born in NYC and pitched in high school and also at Fordham University. In 1904 – when he was 16 – he even threw in a game for Providence, the same team for which Rabbit Powell played. After his freshman year at college he played summer ball for a local B team, going 3-3 with a 2.50 ERA in ’06. He then spent the next six seasons in Toronto, first an A league team and then a Double A one, where he averaged 20 wins with a 2.45 ERA each year. During that time he was drafted by the Giants and put in a few innings in NY in ’10 and ’11 but then got returned. In May of ’13 he was traded to Boston for cash and outfielder Buster Brown, who must have had nice shoes. He won 14 as a rookie and then in the Miracle Braves season of ’14 went 26 – not 27 – and 10 with a 2.35 ERA including 12 straight wins down the stretch to help Boston reach the Series. There Dick pitched super ball, going 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA in two complete game starts and got a ring. He won 22 in ’15 and 19 in ’16, both with excellent ERA’s, but the team was slipping south again and the next four years his record slipped to 39-50 with about a league-average ERA. By ’20 he was helping out coaching which became a full-time gig the next year and lasted through ’27, a year in which he also threw a few innings. He finished with a record of 121-109, with a 2.66 ERA, 172 complete games, 27 shutouts, and eight saves, plus that excellent Series work. He also hit .188 with a couple homers, and batted .333 in the post-season. In ’28 he both owned and managed an A league team in Waterbury, CT, and then after the team folded coached and managed the next couple years in Maine for a B team. He then became an undertaker in upstate NY which he continued to do – it was a family business – after he hooked up with Harry Stevens to run some concession stands at NY stadiums. He passed away in 1949 in NYC at age 62.

Salida Tom Hughes was from Salida, Colorado and was given his nickname to distinguish him from Long Tom Hughes, with whom he nearly played. This Tom pitched some C ball in 1904 and ’05 and, though he went only 24-44 during that time, was picked up late the latter year by the New York Highlanders in the Rule 5 draft. He went a combined 3-0 in a few games in NY the next two seasons but pitched mostly in the minors during that time and went 25-5 in A ball in ’06. After averaging 15 wins in ’07 and ’08 he spent all the next two seasons on the NY staff, where as a swing guy he went a combined 14-17 with a 3.20 ERA. The latter year he pitched a perfect game over nine innings before losing in extra innings. After that season he was sold to Rochester, then an A team that would move up to Double A. For them Tom pitched four seasons, averaging 16-11 years, before being sold to Boston in September 1914. For the Miracle Braves he won both his starts but was shut out of any Series work. In ’15 he went 16-14 in 25 starts with a 2.12 ERA while leading the NL in games finished and with nine saves. In ’16 he went 16-3 with a 2.35 ERA and five saves in pretty much the same role. He had a nice season in ’17 though his work load dropped considerably, and he only got into a couple games in ’18, his final season. He finished 56-39 with a 2.56 ERA, 55 complete games in 85 starts, nine shutouts, and 17 saves. He did a nice job keeping runners off base and when he was done he’d only put on 938 in his 863 innings. And that’s it. Tracking this guy down has been near-impossible except that he passed away in ’61 in LA when he was 77.

Chick Fraser came out of Chicago and was pitching in organized ball by 1894, when some reports claim he was a batboy, though since he was 20 then that seems unlikely. He went 12-18 that year with a high ERA and had control issues that would dog him for his career. In ’95 he won 23 in A ball and then was sold to Louisville, then an NL team. He went 12-27 his rookie year with a 4.87 ERA while leading the NL in walks and wild pitches. He improved to 15-19 in ’97 but fell back to a poor record in ’98 before he was sold late in the year to the Spiders. Prior to the ’99 season he was sold to the Phillies where he had his best seasons. He went 21-12 in ’99 and won 15 in 1900 before jumping for a season to the A’s where he went 22-16 and led the new AL in walks. The next three seasons with the Phillies he went a combined 38-54 with not great ERA’s but put together three straight seasons where his strikeout totals beat his walk ones. In ’03 he threw a no-hitter. In ’05 he went to the Beaneaters as part of the deal for Togie Pittinger and for them went 14-21 with his walk totals leading the NL. He then went to Cincinnati for a year before going to the Cubs in ’07 and putting together two nice years as a spot guy – 19-14 with a 2.28 ERA - though he got no Series action. Shortly into the ’09 season he was apparently assigned to the minors but refused to report, taking him out of baseball. He played semi-pro ball in Chicago in 1910 and then in ’11 did report to the team to which he was assigned in ’09 and went 4-6 in A ball. In ’12 he moved to B ball where he pitched – 6-6 - and managed for a year. That was it for his playing time and he finished with a record of 175-212 with a 3.67 ERA, 342 complete games, 22 shutouts, and six saves. In ’13 he hooked up with former teammate and brother-in-law Fred Clarke in Pittsburgh and both coached and scouted for the Pirates though 1930. He then managed a season in B ball and then joined the Dodgers the next year for whom he also scouted. His last gig was with the Yankees as a scout. He joined the team in ’39 and then got sick, possibly from diabetes. He passed away in ’40 shortly after having his leg amputated. He was 69.

Irv Young was nicknamed Cy the Second or Young Cy when he played for obvious reasons. He was born in Maine and by the time he was 17 was working on the railroad in New England. He pitched local ball and in ’03 tried out for and made an independent team on the west coast at age 25. There he went 4-6 with a 3.47 ERA before returning east the next year to win anywhere between 15 and 18 games at the same level. In ’05 he got purchased by the Beaneaters and had a big rookie year, going 20-21 with a 2.90 ERA for a team that only won 51 games. He led the NL in starts, complete games (41), and innings (378). His shutouts were an NL record for a rookie until broken by Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. And it wasn’t until ’79 that another NL pitcher got both 20 wins and losses the same season. In ’06 Irv led the NL again in the same categories but his record slipped to 16-25 though his ERA stayed the same. In ’07 it slipped again to 10-23 but this time his ERA popped a run. In ’08 he began the season 4-9 with a 2.86 ERA before a mid-year trade sent him to Pittsburgh for Tom McCarthy and Hawley Young, ironically nicknamed Cy the Third. For the Pirates this Cy had a nice short season as a swing guy, going 4-3 with a save and a 2.01 ERA, but was sold to the minors after the season. After going 23-18 for the A league Minneapolis Millers in ’09 he was purchased by the White Sox and spent ’10 and ’11 in Chicago where he went a combined 9-14 with a couple saves and a high ERA. ’11 was his last year up top and Irv finished 63-95 with a 3.11 ERA, 120 complete games, 21 shutouts, and four saves. In ’12 he returned to Minneapolis to win 16 and he remained in Double A through the ‘16 season, twice more winning 20 games. He went 98-85 at that level. He then returned to Maine where, among other things, he coached local ball. He passed away in ’35 at age 57 in Brewster.

Warren Spahn grew up in Buffalo, NY where as a kid he played a lot more at first base than he did as a pitcher. His dad taught him most of his mechanics, including his big leg kick and his curveball. When Warren got to high school he had an all-state guy at first so he moved to pitcher full-time. He was signed by the Boston Bees out of high school in 1940 and then got hurt his first season in D ball, though he went 5-4 with a 2.73 ERA. But he got healthy for a ’41 in B ball in which he went 19-6 with a 1.83 ERA and a ’42 in A ball that was 17-12 with a 1.96 ERA. He made his debut early that second year in Boston, but it didn’t go crazy well. Then after that season he enlisted for WW II and by the time he returned during the ’46 season he was one of the most decorated baseball-playing servicemen with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. As a 25-year old rookie that year he went 8-5 as a swing guy. His sophomore year was huge as he went 21-10 and led the NL in shutouts, innings, and with his 2.33 ERA. In ’48 he won 15 as his ERA popped a bit, but he did get his first post-season action, throwing well in the Series loss to Cleveland. Over the next 13 seasons – that was also his lucky number – he won at least 20 eleven times. During that time he led the NL in ERA twice, strikeouts four times, complete games seven times, and shutouts three times. He won his Cy in ’57 when he led the Braves back to the Series and beat the Yankees, though he didn’t pitch terribly well. They went back in ’58 and Warren pitched super, going 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA, though that time NY got them back. In ’60 and ’61 he threw no-hitters. In ’62 he slipped to 18 wins though he again led the NL in complete games. Then in ’63 when he was 42 he had one of his best seasons, going 23-7 with a 2.60 ERA and only 49 walks in 260 innings. It was his last great season. In ’64 he slipped to a losing record on an inflated ERA and in ’65 he split the year between the Mets and the Giants and then was done. Warren finished with a record of 363-245 with a 3.09 ERA, 382 complete games, 63 shutouts, and 29 saves. He went to 14 All-Star games and in the post-season was 4-3 with a 3.05 ERA in eight games. He also hit .194 with 35 homers and 189 RBI’s in the regular season and .200 with four RBI’s in the post-season. In ’66 he pitched in Mexico and in ’67 in the minors – both as demonstrations for teams he was managing – which delayed his induction to the Hall to ’73. He managed Tulsa, St. Louis’ Triple A franchise, from ’67 to ’71, and went 373-339. In ’72 and ’73 he was the Cleveland pitching coach. He then coached in Japan from ’73 to ’78 before returning to the States to coach a few seasons in the California system. He left baseball in the early Eighties to run his farm in Oklahoma and passed away in 2003 at 82.

A bunch of the above guys have SABR bios.

Now we get to see how Topps did getting full representation of the ’73 Atlanta team. Two guys with over 50 at bats didn’t make the cut: Dick Dietz, the former Giant catcher, played first and caught for the ’73 Braves and had a pretty good year, hitting .295 with a .474 OBA and 24 RBI’s in just 139 at bats, but was released in March ’74 despite those numbers; and Oscar Brown, who hit .207 as an outfielder in his last season with the Braves. Dietz isn’t in the photo but Oscar is the last guy in the first row. On the pitching side Pat Dobson (3-7), Cecil Upshaw (0-1), and Joe Hoerner (2-2, 2 saves) had been traded during the season and have cards with the Yankees, Houston, and Kansas City, respectively. Other guys without cards, but with decisions include: Jim Panther (2-3 with a 7.63 ERA), a middle reliever in his final season up top; Jimmy Freeman (0-2, 7.71, 1 save), a one-time hot prospect also in his last season at 22; Max Leon (2-2, 5.33), in his first season and who would go on to be a staple in the Atlanta bullpen a few years; Gary Neibauer (2-1, 7.17), another older guy at the end of his run; Wenty – not Whitey – Ford (1-2, 5.51), a Bahamian who pitched up top only in ’73 and has a SABR bio; Tom Kelly (0-1, 2.84), also in his last year but who got some Atlanta innings the prior couple seasons; and Dave Cheadle (0-1, 18.00) with his two cup-of-coffee innings. On the photo Panther is the third guy from the right in the second row, Freeman the first guy in the third row, and Kelley the fourth guy in that row. That deprives us of 21 decisions which is somewhere near the low end. So Atlanta doesn’t fare too well. But it did have all those Aaron special cards.

Not too surprisingly, Atlanta’s entry for the baseball centennial in ’76 was the game in ’74 in which Aaron broke the Babe’s record. It happened in Atlanta’s fourth game and poor Al Downing was the victim. Darrell Evans was on board when Hank hit his shot in front of 53,000-plus and amid all those death threats. Tom House caught the ball in the Atlanta bullpen and there are at least three versions of the homer on YouTube.

Finally, we get an easy hook-up since Didier was a recent Brave:

1. Hank Aaron – of course – was on the ’73 Braves;

2. Aaron and Bob Didier ’69 to ‘72 Braves.