#631 - Steve Barber

This final card thing just keeps going and we’re not done yet. Here Steve Barber shows his game face on a field of which I am shamefully unaware (those blue girders look right for The Met but I don’t believe that stadium had an overhang. County Stadium?). Steve is air-brushed into his Brewers cap. He was one of the many guys on the other side of the Ollie Brown trade from a few posts back, and like Ollie, Steve never played an inning for his new team. After a decent year out of the pen for California in which he added four saves to his stats, Steve went – sort of – back to Milwaukee in that huge trade from which just about every other participant also has a non-Traded traded card in this set. But he got released during spring training and would later in the year hook-up with San Francisco in his last MLB run. Steve was an original Pilot – hence the sort of above – which means he got some print in “Ball Four” which I will get to below. Here he looks awfully non-commital or maybe sedated. All that moving around late in his career probably made him feel that way.

Steve Barber grew up in Maryland, not terribly far from the freshly-relocated St. Louis Browns, who would sign him as one of the first new Orioles in ’57. Steve had just finished high school during which he twice led his team to a bi-county championship and didn’t lose at all his senior year. He had a big fastball but was pretty wild and that whole one-pitch thing didn’t work too well in the minors. While he averaged a strikeout an inning he also averaged nearly a walk an inning and his first two seasons he went a combined 15-21 with an ERA over 5.00 as he couldn’t get above C ball. But he also gradually picked up a curve and in ’59 calmed down – a bit – in D ball when he went 7-11 with a 3.85 ERA and 172 K’s with 143 walks in his 159 innings. His curveball improved considerably that year and in ’60 it would help him make the improbable jump all the way to Baltimore.

Barber had a bang-up spring in ’60 and made the Orioles staff out of training camp. He started in the pen where he got a couple saves and then moved into the rotation where he had a real nice rookie year where he came in sixth in the AL with his ERA. Control was still an issue as he led the AL in walks (113) and wild pitches (10). He also officially joined the Orioles’ “Kiddie Corps”, a group of four young pitchers that also included Chuck Estrada, Jack Fisher, and Milt Pappas. Those guys would go on to various degrees of success but their first year together they went a combined 55-40 at an average age of 21 and seemed primed to lead the O’s out of the horrid history the team inherited from its Browns days. In ‘61 Steve did his part in cementing the Corps’ legacy by winning 18 and leading the AL with eight shutouts (the Corps overall went 56-43) as Baltimore made a big run for the pennant with its 95 wins. Things got pretty frustrating for everyone in ’62 when Steve had to do his Army hitch and could only pitch on weekend leaves the first half of the season and then missed a month-plus with a trip to the DL. His record literally halved though he pitched quite well, the Corps dropped big to 37-42, and Baltimore had a losing record. But he followed that up with a big ’63 in which he became Baltimore’s first 20-game winner, again finshed in the top ten in AL ERA, and made his first All-Star team. By then the Kiddie Corps was blown up as Fisher had been traded and Estrada had only a partial season in Baltimore, though the remnant had its best record of 39-24. In ’64 his first significant tendinitis struck and Steve missed a month through early June and never really got into a good groove in his first sub-par season. ’65 began as only a partial improvement and by the end of June Steve was 5-6 with a 3.72 ERA. But the rest of the way he went 10-4 with a 2.24 ERA in the best run of his career to salvage another nice year. Then in ’66 he was on another good run when the tendinitis nailed him again and he missed all but five games in the second half. He couldn’t even pitch in the All-Star game to which he was selected and he got shut out of any Series action. By ’67 the elbow pain was pretty devastating and after a not great start that year Steve went to the Yankees in July for infielder Ray Barker, a couple minor leaguers (one with the great name of Chet Trail), and cash. Steve pretty much matched his early season numbers with his new team as combined he recorded his worst MLB season. In ’68 he posted pretty good numbers in a spot role after some Triple A time before going to the new Seattle Pilots that winter in the expansion draft.

With Seattle Barber was sort of a legacy guy because of his big seasons with the Birds so he was going to get a real shot at the rotation. But his arm was a mess and he had a couple stints on the DL and some more in the pen in what was a pretty nasty season. He was released the following spring and hooked up with the Cubs. He threw real well in four Triple A starts – 1-1 with a 1.55 ERA – but poorly up top and by May was on the road again, this time to Atlanta. For the Braves, Steve turned the same trick, going 7-1 with a 3.36 ERA in ten Triple A starts while being below average in his MLB work. In ’71 his ERA remained high though he stayed in Atlanta the whole year and recorded a couple saves in his pen work. After an abortive beginning to ’72 he was cut and signed with California as a free agent. Back in the AL Steve recorded a good little season with an excellent ERA and another couple saves. After the trade here he was cut again by the Brewers in camp and then signed with the Giants. After some iffy Triple A work he came up to throw a few innings that summer in his final MLB work. He then pitched in Triple A for the Cardinals that August and was done. He finished 121-106 with a 3.36 ERA with 59 complete games, 21 shutouts, and 13 saves.

After playing Steve remained in Arizona where he established a business installing stereos in cars and trucks. In ’78 he relocated to Nevada where he became a fleet manager for a company that rehabilitated cars which he did through ’91. He then became a bus driver for a local school that worked with handicapped kids. He was still doing that when he passed away in 2007. He was 68.

Steve’s signature differs a bit from his given name. I guess his hobby led pretty naturally to what he did after playing. In ’67 Steve threw all but one out of a no-hitter that he lost 2-1. In the game he gave up ten walks and hit two guys. In “Ball Four” Steve comes across as nearly a tragic figure. Jim Bouton said that all those years of throwing a curve permanently disfigured Steve’s left arm and that it was noticeably shorter than his right one. In nearly every scene in which Steve participates he is in a whirlpool bath or the diathermy machine. His price in the draft was pretty steep at $175,000 and at some point he earns Bouton’s resentment because he was asked to go to the minors while doing rehab and refused, which theoretically disallowed another pitcher coming up and may have contributed to Bouton’s stay in the minors that season.

By this point Watergate was all about the tapes, the tapes, the tapes...

10/10/73 – Spiro T. Agnew resigns as Vice President as part of a plea deal with the Justice Department. As it was becoming evident that Agnew would be found guilty of accepting bribes – unrelated to Watergate – he was offered a deal that he could plead guilty only to under-reporting his income by $29,500 in ’67 if he also stepped down as Vice President, which he accepted. In the wake of that departure President Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford to replace Agnew.

10/19/73 – After months of haggling over the tapes made by the system installed by President Nixon in the White House, Nixon and the Senate Committee reached an apparent agreement. Senator John Stennis, a democrat from Mississippi would be allowed to review requested tapes and then prepare summaries of those tapes to the Committee and the Special Prosecutor. It was unclear whether Nixon would or would not have final say over the selected tapes. While the Committee agreed to the deal, Special Prosecutor Cox did not and issued a statement that afternoon that he still demanded the tapes.

This hook-up gets done through the AL:

1. Barber and Jerry Adair ’60 to ’65 Orioles;

2. Adair and Tommie Agee ’66 to ’67 White Sox.

#606 - '74 Rookie Outfielders

The next rookie card gives us four young AL outfielders, though by the time this card came out one would be over in the NL. Two of these guys appear to be at Yankee Stadium and one at Comiskey. God knows where Jim Fuller is but he sure does look tall, which is fitting because he was/is. And those mutton chops are something else.

Jim Fuller could hit the crap out of the ball. Unfortunately he could also miss the crap out of the ball and his senior year of high school in ’68 in San Diego he hit .260, not exactly a number that points to pro ball. After graduation he attended San Diego City College from where he was drafted the following year by the Dodgers but passed. He’d hit .360 that year, in part because he started taking lots of protein supplements his mom used to sell. After another good year of fall ball he was drafted in January ’70 by the Orioles in the second round and this time signed. That summer he played first base in A ball and began his hitting assault with a .247/9/64 season in 373 at bats. He also had 83 strikeouts and his big issue was that his K’s could outnumber his hits on a regular basis. In ’71 the O’s realized his arm was too good to keep at first and he was moved to the outfield where he would regularly be among league leaders in assists. In A ball that year he put up a .326/33/110 stat line with 105 runs and 129 strikeouts. He then split ’72 between Double A and Triple A, going a combined .255/34/107 with 165 K’s. He would settle into a fairly long run at the higher level beginning in ’73 when his stat line was .247/39/108/197. In his few appearances for Baltimore that year he hit .115 with 17 K’s in his 26 at bats. But he then spent most of ’74 with the O’s where he hit .222 with seven homers and 28 RBI’s in 189 at bats but also struck out 68 times. He spent most of the summer back in Triple A where he hit .278 in a slow power year. The next couple years were spent exclusively at that level where his power fell off but his strikeouts didn’t: in ’75 his line was .213/17/50/133 in 362 at bats and in ’76 .227/19/55/92 in 269 at bats. That winter he signed with Houston as a free agent and in ’77 he would see his final MLB action in a couple stints, hitting .160 with 45 K’s in his 100 at bats. His career line at that level was .194/11/41 with 130 K’s. In Triple A that year he hit .233 with eleven homers and 31 RBI’s, most of the season as a loaner to the ChiSox. He then split ’78 between the KC and Pittsburgh organizations at the same level with not too many at bats. It was his last year as a player and his final numbers in the minors were a .254 average with 170 homers, 554 RBI’s, and 919 K’s in his 2,811 at bats. Tracking Jim down since then has been tough – he has a pretty common name and is not related to the pitcher from a generation later – but he appears to now reside in Apple Valley, California. If that is the correct Jim he sadly just lost a son who was a director for “Glee”, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, and other shows.

Wilbur Howard was drafted as a pitcher by the Seattle Pilots out of his Lowell, North Carolina high school, just after leading his team to a state title in ’68. The Pilots fielded an A team that year before their MLB franchise played and Wilbur led the team in victories, going 8-5 with a 3.87 ERA. But he was a fast guy and the Pilots moved him to the outfield the following year where he hit .287 at that level with 20 stolen bases and then upped his numbers to .321 with 15 steals – on less at bats – in the fall Instructional League. In ’70 he hit .304 with 41 stolen bases and 73 runs scored in a season spent in A ball with a few late games in Triple A. Willie could obviously hit and run but he didn’t walk much and he put up a lot of K’s for a contact guy. He would then spend nearly all his time the next three years in Triple A where he averaged 72 runs, 28 stolen bases, and 111 K’s per season while hitting .240, .286, and .270. In September of ’73 he made his debut, hitting .205 in 16 games. After the season he was traded to Houston for a package that included Larry Yount, Robin’s older brother. He returned to Triple A to start off the ’74 season and after hitting .296 with 13 stolen bases at that level, came up to the Astros in June to hit .216 the rest of the way as a back-up outfielder. In ’75 the Astros went with four regular outfielders and Wilbur had his biggest season, hitting .283 in 392 at bats with 62 runs scored and 32 stolen bases. But in ’76 an early slump had him back in a back-up role which lasted the next three seasons, his best year being ’77 when he hit .257 in 187 at bats and stole eleven bases in twelve attempts. During that time he also played a little second base and even a few games at catcher. He also spent a bit of ’77 in the minors and in ’79 he spent the whole season in Triple A, hitting .241 his final season stateside. He then spent the next four years playing for Yucatan in the Mexican League, with ’83 being his final year of pro ball. Wilbur finished with a .250 average with 60 stolen bases in a bit more than 1,000 MLB at bats and a .275 average with 174 stolen bases in the minors. And then he disappears media-wise although he may be still residing in the Houston area (I guess that Astro blood runs deep).

Tommy Smith graduated from high school in ’66, having played the big three sports, and then went to NC State on a hoops and baseball scholarship. He played both sports his first two years and then concentrated on baseball when he stopped growing his junior year. Initially a pitcher in college he threw the team’s final game in its first CWS appearance in ’68, a 2-0 loss to USC. He hadn’t been used terribly much as a pitcher – the staff ace was Mike Caldwell – and his senior year of ’70 he was converted to an outfielder and responded with a .379, five home run, 33 RBI season that got him named all-ACC. It also helped get him selected by the Indians in that year’s draft. Tommy was a huge guy – check him out in the Cleveland team photo – but wasn’t particularly a big power hitter. But he could hit for average and his first year put up one of .360 with 48 RBI’s in only 200 at bats between A and Double A. He then had a couple relatively low average seasons the next two years in Double A, with a .263 average in ’71 and .277 in ’72. But in ’73 he moved up to Triple A where he rallied with a .342 with 82 runs scored before making his September debut in Cleveland and hitting .244 the rest of the way. That off-season he broke both bones in his left forearm playing a pick-up hoops game and had to have metal rods inserted to help repair them. And though he hit horribly in his short time up in ’74 with an average below .100, he did pretty well back in Triple A, putting up a .312/10/67 season in 381 at bats, the only year he’d reach double figures in homers. ’75 was nearly all the lower level, with a .302/4/63 stat line with a personal best 25 stolen bases. Then in ’76 he upped his numbers to a .335/9/54 first half before getting recalled to Cleveland. That summer would produce his biggest year up top as he hit .256 with two homers and twelve RBI’s as the team’s fouirth outfielder down the stretch. After the season he was selected by the Mariners in the expansion draft where he hit well enough in a pinch and reserve role - .259 in 27 at bats – before being sent down to Triple A, where he hit .284 the rest of the way.  Outside of a brief comeback try in the Inter-American League in ’79, Tommy was done. He put up a .232 average in his 271 MLB at bats and hit .312 in the minors. After playing he returned to the Raleigh area of North Carolina where he established his own baseball school, Diamond Stars, which he continues to run.

Otto Velez was a corner infielder when signed by the Yankees as a free agent in ’70. An admittedly horrible fielder he could bash the ball pretty well and that first summer hit .369 with seven homers, 44 RBI’s, and a .472 OBA in rookie ball. Though he didn’t hit too well in his few at bats in A ball, the next year at that level he put up a .310/16/73/.420 stat line. In ’72 he had his best fielding year in Double A but his offensive line fell a bit to .249/13/68/.371. Then in ’73 he got moved to both Triple A and the outfield and Otto responded with a .269/29/98/.450 line with 130 walks and 92 runs scored in just over 400 at bats. He came up to NY in August after the Yankees pared away the Alou brothers and hit .195 the rest of the way while playing right field. He returned to Triple A the first half of ’74 where he was moved to first base and in under half a season had a line of .310/13/35/.483 now from the top of the order, where he scored 44 runs in just 200 at bats. When new Yankee first baseman Chris Chambliss went on a cold snap in mid-June, Otto was recalled, had a hot start while getting some starts that month, and then settled to .209 in a back-up role the rest of the way. In ’75 he played both corners in Triple A where his offense came in a bunch after he missed time with a broken wrist, though his OBA remained super strong at .445 while when up in NY he barely played as those two positions were handled by guys who never sat. In ’76 he had a pretty good spring, made the cut as the Yankees cleared house in the outfield, and hit .266 with a .410 OBA as the team’s fifth outfielder before seeing some post-season action. After that season he was taken by Toronto in the expansion draft and Otto began his Blue Jays career in a monster fashion, winning the April ’77 AL Player of the Month by hitting .452 with five homers and 18 RBI’s in his first 17 games. He would then miss a few weeks later in the summer and would finish his first year as a regular with a .256/16/62/.366 line and earn the nickname “Otto Swatto” in Canada. That year he had DH’d a bunch but in ’78 the Jays acquired Rico Carty to handle that spot full-time and though Otto had one of the best bats on the team, his defensive inabilities caused his playing time to come in as his line came to .266/9/38/.380 on a third less at bats. Same deal in a ’79 that produced a .288/15/48/.396 line with 21 doubles in just 274 at bats and a request to be traded. But in ’80 Otto got the DH spot outright and got off to a huge start, hitting .362 with nine homers and 29 RBI’s in his first 27 games. Then his shoulder got dinged in a near-brawl against Oakland and while he didn’t miss too much time, his offensive production came in pretty big the rest of the way as he did miss a couple weeks due to an auto accident. Still, he put up one of his best lines in his busiest season with a .269/20/62/.365 year. But in ’81 more shoulder pain helped induce a much lower average and he split ’82 between Toronto and Triple A, not getting too much plate time at either level. Following the season he went to Cleveland as a free agent and in ’83 only got into a few games for the Tribe, though in Triple A he hit .310/9/42/.435 in just 142 at bats. It was his final season in the continental US as he spent ’84 in Mexico and that year also wrapped up his winter time playing in PR. Otto finished with a .251 average, 78 homers, 272 RBI’s, and a .369 OBA for his MLB line and hit .282 with 97 homers and a .428 OBA in the minors. He went hitless in his four post-season at bats.He would return to PR to coach, his most high-profile stints being in ’92 for the Olympic team, ’94 for the Baseball World Cup team, and ’95 for the Intercontinental Cup team. He then coached a bunch at the island’s Roberto Clemente Sports Complex, which he may or may not still be doing.

These guys give us a combined 16 MLB seasons and no awards. They are another pretty big bunch, particularly Fuller, and Smith. Maybe there was something in the water in ACC territory.

The inter-card hook-up takes us through Boston:

1. Frank Tanana and Jerry Remy ’75 to ’77 Angels and ’81 Red Sox;

2. Remy and Bob Watson ’79 Red Sox;

3. Watson and Jim Fuller ’77 Astros;

This one will involve another one of those splits where one guy is used as an independent link to two other ones:

1. Jim Fuller and Wilbur Howard ’77 Astros;

2. Howard and Cesar Cedeno ’74 to ’78 Astros;

3. Cedeno and Alan Ashby ’79 to ’81 Astros;

4. Ashby and Tommy Smith ’75 to ’76 Indians; Ashby and Otto Velez ’77 to ’78 Blue Jays.

And there’s our record.

#605 - 1974 Rookie Pitchers

This next rookie card is the second one that gets an honor number designation, which is unavoidable due to the choice by Topps to issue the rookie cards sequentially. One pitcher on the card was worthy of the designation pretty much right of the bat, but we get to him last. One pitcher for sure gets photographed in a city that would be his stomping grounds years down the road. As usual, there are very few smiles; rookie jitters perhaps.

Vic Albury was a first baseman and pitcher when he was drafted by the Indians in ’65. He had helped lead his high school team from Key West, FLA, to its state championship in ’63 and two summers later began his pro career by hitting .233 in A ball while playing first. Then it was off for three full years (?!!) of military duty; that sounds a bit long to me and I have a hunch that he left baseball for a bit before reappearing with his hometown team in ’69, an A franchise of San Diego’s. Vic had a nice year, going 12-10 with a 2.32 ERA before a bit of a rough ’70 split between Triple A and A ball, going a combined 7-10 with a 5.83 ERA. He was then drafted by the Twins for whom he turned things around big in Double A, going 12-7 with a 1.73 ERA and 13 saves as a reliever and hitting .354 with 17 RBI’s in only 65 at bats that included some during a few games back at first. Unfortunately that was followed by a ’72 – during which Vic had his first rookie card – in which he hurt his elbow in spring training enough that surgery was mandated and he didn’t get on the mound until August and would only see 18 innings of Triple A ball. In ’73 he went 8-11 in the rotation with a 3.99 ERA before he was called up in August. He did surprisingly well in his 23 MLB innings, going 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA, given his walks outnumbered his strikeouts, which would become a running theme. His true rookie year of ’74 he would be mostly in the rotation with 22 starts of his 32 games, and go 8-9 with a 4.12 ERA. In ’75 his ERA elevated a bit as he took on more of a swing role, going 6-7 with his only save. In ’76 it was all relief as he went 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA in his final season up top. He went a combined 18-17 at that level with a 4.11 ERA, six complete games, a shutout, and that save. He put up 220 walks against 193 K’s. In ’77 he pitched for Syracuse, then the Yankees’ Triple A team, going 9-9 with a 5.13 ERA and a couple saves in a swing role. He was apparently on loan because after the season he declared free agency as a Twin. He pitched in Mexico in ’78 before in ’79 throwing for Puerto Rico of the short-lived Inter-American League and then signing with Cleveland the rest of the way. He went a combined 6-4 with a 3.80 ERA that year which would be his last as rotator cuff problems helped to end his career. In the minors he went a combined 54-53 with a 3.72 ERA, 29 complete games, and 19 saves. By ’82 Vic was coaching in the Cleveland system, which he would do through early ’85. At some point he appears to have returned full-time to Key West where a street and baseball field were named in his honor. According to one local chat site a Vic Albury did get back and fall on bad times and then pass away but I do not know if it is our boy here as according to baseball-reference he is still around.

Ken Frailing grew up in Marion, Wisconsin, where the baseball seasons were short and he also played football and basketball in high school. He finished his hoops career with 1,000 points and his senior year went 13-0 with a 0.17 ERA for a team that went 16-0 overall. That spring of ’66 he was drafted in the fifth round by the White Sox. That first summer was a bit tough as he went 1-6 with a 5.07 ERA split between Rookie and A ball. He then spent the next three seasons in A ball, going a combined 14-14 with a 2.97 ERA around his military time while throwing for some pretty bad teams. In ’67 only 28 of his 51 runs were earned. In ’70 he moved up to Double A where his 4-9 record was a lot more indicative of his team than him as his ERA was only 2.71. He then spent the next two years at Triple A Tucson where the dry air elevated his ERA to a combined 5.27 as he went 14-19 before his September debut in Chicago. He then had his best year in ’73, going 11-3 with a 2.86 ERA in Triple A before some more late-season MLB action. When he left the Sox for the Cubs in the Ron Santo trade the following winter he was 1-0 with a 2.11 ERA in his 14 games. With the Cubs, Ken used his lefty status as a way to lever himself into the mix as a swing guy and his rookie year of ’74 he went 6-9 with a save and a 3.88 ERA. He remained in Chicago in ’75 but early in the season suffered shoulder issues and his work was reduced to all middle relief as his line fell to 2-5 with a 5.43 in less than half as many innings. He split ’76 between Chicago – 1-2 with a 2.41 ERA in 19 innings – and Triple A where he was 2-3 with a 4.50 ERA around lots of down time. In ’77 he got his shoulder operated on and he put in a few innings but was released while in rehab. He signed with the Sox for ’78 which he spent in Triple A as a player-coach in his final season, during which he went 8-5 with a 3.11 ERA and eleven saves. Ken went 10-16 with a 3.96 ERA, a complete game, and a couple saves during his MLB time and 55-61 with a 3.73 ERA in the minors. A pretty good hitter, he hit for over a .220 average at both levels. In ’79 and ’80 he coached in the KC system before later that latter year relocating to Sarasota, FLA, where he began a new career selling insurance. He has a very nice SABR bio.

Kevin Kobel attended a Catholic high school outside Buffalo, NY, and while there made a couple all-Catholic state teams in baseball. Nabbed by the Brewers in the ’71 draft at 17 he started fast by going 5-1 with a 2.55 ERA in A ball. The reality of being in the Brewers system set in the next year when he went 3-15 with a 4.31 ERA in Double A San Antonio – more dry air – before things got back on track in ’73 with a 12-8/3.40 year at the same level. In his few games in Milwaukee that year his run wasn’t too impressive but he remained on the Milwaukee roster all of ’74, going 6-14 with a 3.99 ERA in the rotation. Though his record wasn’t too hot, he owned the Yankees, going 3-1 against them giving up just one run per in the three wins. In ’75 a tough spring training followed up by a bad shoulder sent him to Triple A where he only got in seven games but went 3-2 with a 2.40 ERA in them. He remained at that level nearly all the next two years, going 7-12 in ’76 with a 5.50 ERA and then in ’77 though the ERA didn’t drop much, his record reversed itself as he went 12-6. He got some topside work the former year but it wasn’t very good and after the ’77 season he was sold to the Mets. In ’78 a nice start in the pen in Triple A brought him up to NY in May where some initial tentative usage produced good results in the same role. With an ERA still under 1.00 in July he became a spot guy the rest of the way and finished the year 5-6 with a 2.91 ERA. In ’79 he joined the rotation full-time, going 6-8 with a 3.51 ERA for another horrible NY team. But in ’80 the shoulder pain and bad numbers returned en force and at the trade deadline he was sent to Kansas City for Randy McGilberry. That finished Kevin’s MLB time with a record of 18-34 with a 3.88 ERA, five complete games, and three shutouts. He didn’t pitch terribly well either for KC’s Triple A club and he was released by the end of the season. He then spent ’81 and ’82 pitching in Mexico before a late season tryout with the Pirates went nowhere and he was done with a 46-47 record in the minors with a 4.27 ERA. According to his Facebook page he is back in the Buffalo area where he looks pretty happy.

When Frank Tanana graduated Catholic Central High School in Detroit in ’71 he had scored over 2,500 points in hoops and had a 32-1 record as a pitcher with a 0.30 ERA. He was widely recruited by D1 schools in both sports but signed with the Angels after being the team’s first round pick that June. After briefly attending Cal State Fullerton he began his career in A ball in ’72, going 7-2 with a 2.79 ERA. In ’73 he went 16-6 with a 2.71 ERA in Double A, 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA in two starts in Triple A, and 2-2 with a 3.08 ERA after being called up to Anaheim in September. In his rookie season of ’74 he went 14-19 but with a 3.12 ERA and four shutouts to get a spot on the Topps rookie team. He followed that up with an excellent three-year run that cemented him as the best young pitcher in the game. His stat lines - 16-9 with a 2.62 ERA and 269 strikeouts in ’75; 19-10/2.42/261 in ’76; and 15-9/2.54/205 in ’77 – were all for losing teams and got him two All-Star appearances, the AL strikeout lead in ’75, and the AL ERA and shutouts – with seven – lead in ’77. In ’78 he went 18-12 but experienced some shoulder pain that led to an elevated – for him – 3.65 ERA and a dramatic drop in strikeouts. That September his teammate, outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed and Frank, before then a pretty hard partyer, became a devout religious guy as a result. In ’79 he would miss over ten weeks to a shoulder operation which would limit the range in his left arm and force him to become a control pitcher. He went 7-5 but the tiny ERA’s and big strikeout totals were behind him. In ’80 he went 11-12/4.15 before being traded to Boston with Joe Rudi for Steve Renko and Fred Lynn. After a horrible season for the Sox – 4-10/4.01 – he went to Texas as a free agent and had an even worse ’82 as he went 7-18 with a 4.21 ERA to lead the AL in losses. During the next two seasons he improved to go a combined 22-24 with a 3.21 ERA before a weak start to the ’85 season got him sent to Detroit for a minor leaguer. Frank went 10-7 the rest of the way and settled in for a long Tigers run during which he went a combined 96-82 with a league-average 4.08 ERA. He won the division-clincher in ’87 and remained with the team through ’92 before spending his final season with both NY Teams. He went 240-236 for his career with a 3.66 ERA, 143 complete games, 34 shutouts, a save, and 2,773 strikeouts. He made three All-Star teams and in the post-season was 0-1 with a 4.35 ERA in two starts. Since his playing time he has been very active in fantasy leagues and on the lecture circuit as well as with various baseball and Christian charities.

The pitchers on this card put in a collective 28 seasons with four All-Star appearances and a Rookie team membership, mostly thanks to Mr. Tanana. All these guys were still residing in their home towns at this point in their careers.

The inter-card hook-up is a quick one:

1. Frank White and Jerry Terrell ’78 to ’80 Royals;

2. Terrell and Vic Albury ’73 to ’76 Twins.

Around the card takes a little longer:

1. Vic Albury and Rod Carew ’73 to ’76 Twins;

2. Carew and George Mittyerwald ’68 to ’73 Twins;

3. Mitterwald and Ken Frailing ’74 to ’75 Cubs;

4. Frailing and Jerry Morales ’74 to ’75 Cubs;

5. Morales and Doug Flynn ’80 Mets;

6. Flynn and Kevin Kobel ’78 to ’80 Mets;

7. Kobel and Andy Hassler ’79 Mets;

8. Hassler and Frank Tanana ’73 to ’76 and ’80 Angels.

#603 - 1974 Rookie Catchers

At the other side of the battery we get four catchers, one of whom had a solid career, one of whom had a couple good seasons, and two who get represented just on rookie cards, and that right here.

Barry Foote played all over the infield and outfield in high school in Smithfield, NC. A first round pick by the Expos in the ’70 draft, the team immediately turned him into a catcher and in Rookie ball that summer he hit .266 with some power and a .379 OBA. While mastering his position he would put up some high error totals but he was very aggressive and normally led his league in assists and double plays. In A ball in ’71 his average fell to .230 as his strikeouts ratcheted up but he continued to impress behind the plate and in ’72 in Double A he turned on the power with a .253/16/75 line. ’73 was all Triple A where he put up a .262/19/65 season prior to his September debut during which he hit .667 in his few at bats. In ’74 he would take over as starting catcher and his .262/11/60 season would get him on the Topps Rookie team. Unfortunately it would also be his best year. While his freshman season was good enough to keep Gary Carter in the outfield most of the next couple seasons, Barry's sophomore jinx year was pretty terrible as his stat line fell to .194/7/30 on just a few less at bats. He rebounded a bit to hit .234 in ’76 but by the end of the year Carter had claimed the starting role and he would retain it to start the ’77 season. After getting only a few at bats, Barry would get traded to the Phillies at the '77 deadline with pitcher Dan Warthen for catcher Tim Blackwell and pitcher Wayne Twitchell. Through ’78 he would be the third-string guy behind Bob Boone and Tim McCarver and get very little plate time. Prior to the ’79 season he would join Ted Sizemore, Jerry Martin, and a couple minor leaguers in a trade to the Cubs for Greg Gross, Dave Rader, and Manny Trillo. That trade got him back into a starting role and he responded with his best numbers since his rookie year with a .254/16/56 season. But Barry then began experiencing some extreme lower back pain and the next year he lost his starting role, ironically to Blackwell, and hit .238 in just over 200 at bats. In ’81 young Jody Davis supplanted Blackwell, Barry slid to third on the depth chart, and another mid-season trade had him on the move, this time to the Yankees, where he had more activity the second half but hit only .208. In ’82 his injury and the depth chart kept his time minimal and he did a few games in Triple A in his final season. He hit .230 for his career, with 57 homers and 230 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .333 in five games. Defensively he led the NL in assists once and double plays twice and picked off 38% of runners that ran on hm, a pretty good premium to the league average. He remained in the NY system as a coach in the minors before managing in the team’s chain from ’84 to ’86, winning his league championship one year. From ’87 to ’89 he managed in the Toronto chain, again winning a championship. He then coached up top for the White Sox (’90-’91) and the Mets (’92-’93). During that time he also started up Tri-State Homes, a construction company that built homes in North Carolina. He then stayed busy locally, helping to establish the Carolina Mudcats, build an oil and gas exploration company that was a player in Alaska, and do cell spectrum work for the National Wireless Network. Since the mid-2000’s he has been running his two companies: Streamer Video, which teaches lay people how to watch baseball games; and F2 Technologies, a wirelss communications company.

Tom Lundstedt played the big three sports in high school outside Chicago in Illinois. In all three sports one of his teammates was Dave Kingman. Tom was selected in a late round by the Dodgers in ’67 but instead went to the University of Michigan on a basketball scholarship. He averaged over 20 points a game for his freshman team and then played his sophomore year with Dan Fife and Rudy Tomjonavich. After that year he switched his scholarship to baseball which he’d also been playing all along. He was then taken by the Cubs in the first round of the ’70 draft and though he fielded well that summer in A and Double A, he hit terribly and spent the ’71 season in A ball where he hit considerably better, with a .266 average and a .410 OBA. In ’72 he returned to Double A where he hit .255 and the next year moved up to Triple A where he maxed out with a .295/11/57 stat line in 322 at bats with a .402 OBA. He made his MLB debut that September and then remained in Chicago in ’74 where he was behind George Mitterwald and Steve Swisher and only got into a few games before knee surgery ended his season in June. Prior to the ’75 season he was traded to the Twins for Mike Adams. That year he moved back and forth between Minnesota and Triple A where he hit .264 but considerably lower up top. It was his final season and he finished with a .092 average in 65 MLB at bats and .256 with 30 homers in the minors. After playing he finished his business degree at the University of Minnesota and then fell into commercial real estate in the Twin Cities area. He then started doing seminars on real estate investing which he continues to do from his own shop.

Charlie Moore was drafted by the Brewers upon graduating high school in Birmingham, Alabama in ’71. He hit .297 that summer in A ball and .259 the next at the same level. In ’73 he combined for a .269 season with 15 homers and 70 RBI’s between Double A and Triple A – he hit better at the higher level – before making his September debut. He then spent the next three seasons backing up Darrell Porter behind the plate and initially doing some DH work. In ’75 Charlie hit well to open the season – he would hit .290 on the year – so the team also had him play in the outfield to keep his bat in the line-up. But Charlie had a tough time out there and in ’76 his average fell 100 points, partly in response. In ’77 Porter was traded to Kansas City and Charlie got the starting catcher role, upped his average nearly 60 points, but had a bad defensive season – he led the AL in errors and passed balls – as his skills seemed to have left him while he was in the outfield. In ’78 Buck Rodgers began to work with Charlie on restoring his defense and while that year he would lose his starting status to Buck Martinez, his catching improved markedly as did his offense, as he hit .269, .300, and .291 the next three years. He also recaptured the starting role in ’79 and ’80. Prior to the ’81 season the Brewers picked up Ted Simmons in a huge trade and though Charlie hit .301 he played behind Simmons and also did some outfield work. He was far more successful in that role than earlier and for the next three seasons he would play primarily in right where he shone defensively, once leading the AL in double plays, and once in putouts. He hit .254 in ’82 and .284 the following year and in between had an excellent post-season in the Series run. He missed time in ’84 to a knee injury and in ’85 returned to the starting role behind the plate. He split time in that role in ’86 and then finished out his career with Toronto in ’87 doing his dual thing. Charlie hit .261 for his career with 43 triples, 36 homers, and 408 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .354 in 16 games. Following his playing career he returned to the Birmingham area where he has since been a salesman in various industries.

This is technically not the rookie card of Sergio Robles as he had another one in the ’73 set. Sergio was a pretty little guy and a big deal catcher in his native Mexico. Signed by the Dodgers after being scouted playing for state teams below the border in ’68 he spent the next three seasons in A ball where he hit a combined .264 and was an excellent fielder. In ’71 he moved up to Triple A where he hit .265 before being traded to Baltimore as part of the package that moved Frank Robinson to LA. He hit .266 in ’72 before making his MLB debut that August but fell to .207 in ’73, the year he saw his most action in Baltimore. He then spent ’74 playing in Mexico City before being sold to St. Louis prior to the ’75 season. After hitting .217 in Triple A that year he spent ’76 in both the St. Louis and LA organization, and put in his final MLB time that year for the Dodgers. He then returned to Mexico where he would continue to play ball year-round for the next ten years. He finished in The States with a .095 MLB average and hit .251 in the minors. He has managed and coached in Mexico for much of the time since. He has s SABR bio.

We get 21 MLB seasons out of this group and that parenthetical name of Sergio’s looks familiar but I do not believe he and Fernando are related. Lundstedt was certainly tall for a catcher.

Let’s see how we do for the hook-up. From the last card we start with the ’74 Twins:

1. Rod Carew was on the ’74 Twins;

2. Carew and Jose Morales or Bombo Rivera ’78 Twins;

3. Rivera and Morales and Barry Foote ’74 to ’76 Expos.

Each of Lundstedt and Robles only got tiny MLB at bats but we make them count:

1. Barry Foote and Andre Thornton (coming up) ’76 Expos;

2. Thornton and Tom Lundstedt ’74 Cubs;

3. Lundstedt and Larry Hisle ’75 Twins;

4. Hisle and Charlie Moore ’78 to ’82 Brewers;

5. Moore and Bill Travers ’73 to ’80 Brewers;

6. Travers and Bobby Grich ’81 and ’83 Angels;

7. Grich and Sergio Robles ’72 to ’73 Orioles.

#574 - Bill Parsons

This lanky guy is Bill Parsons, one-time future ace of the Milwaukee Brewers. Bill’s 26 wins in ’71 and ’72 were the most on the staff over that time but going into the ’73 season there was some worry about a shoulder injury he suffered early in spring training. It was also thought that a little tinkering with his pitch rotation was all that was deemed necessary to help him up his results. Bill had been all fastball and change-up his first few seasons, throwing almost exclusively from the set position, and new pitching coach Bob Shaw wanted him to pitch from a wind-up position and add a curveball. All good in theory but the results were pretty devastating. In Bill’s first start of the season, Opening Day, he threw shutout ball for over seven innings but walked six guys. He gave up five runs – four unearned – in just two innings in his second start and then walked seven in under four innings his next one. And it kept getting worse: he gave up 14 walks in two successive starts in May, won two in a row to get to 3-4 by mid-June, but then lost his spot in the rotation for over a month and returned to do spot work that just saw his ERA ratchet up. By then Shaw had resigned – or been fired – partly because of Bill’s decline, even though he’d done good work with just about every other pitcher. And Bill himself would be gone less than a year later. And he really would be gone. Like the last couple post subjects, there is virtually nothing in the media universe regarding Bill’s activities since he played. How do you make a guy who’s 6’6” disappear? Apparently by writing a baseball card blog.

Bill Parsons was born in Riverside, California. After that it’s pretty much conjecture since about the only thing matching the lack of info on the guy after he played is the dearth of news before he did. It appears that after graduating high school in ’66 that he may have gone to Riverside Community College for a short bit but for sure he was on the University of Utah baseball team as a freshman pitcher in the spring of ’67. He also played hoops at Utah – George Theodore from this set was a teammate in both sports – but not for long as he was drafted and signed by the new Seattle Pilots in the seventh round of the ’68 draft. Topps isn’t much help either, indicating on one card that Bill was an All-American in hoops (doubt that) and that he graduated Arizona State, which for sure didn’t happen. What he did do, apparently in the spring of ’68, was go 4-1 with a 3.10 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 61 innings of a local Cali league so maybe that was when he went to Riverside. He definitely followed that bit up with a tough start that summer as a starter in A ball, but kept people happy with the high strikeout totals. In ’69 Bill began his military hitch but around it threw pretty well, posting 11 K’s in his only Rookie ball start and then putting up an excellent ERA after finding his control in A ball. Most of ’70 was military time as well but Bill again impressed when he was pitching, posting great numbers in his four Triple A starts.

By ’71 Parsons’ military requirement was done and he made the Brewers after a great winter ball season that followed a pretty good IL one. He immediately joined the rotation and though he lost his first two, it wasn’t his fault as he only gave up two runs in each of two complete games. He threw shutout ball in three of his first five wins and suffered losing streaks of five and three games, all the while keeping his ERA well below 3.00. It was still there when he was 13-15 by mid-September and was actually receiving some decent hitting support. After being on the losing side of three blowouts his ERA crossed that 3.00 horizon and he suffered another couple losses but he got lots of regards for a season well done, made the Topps Rookie team, and was selected by the TSN player poll as its Rookie of the Year. He also set a team record with his 12 complete games. His follow-up year was all over the place. He began April going 1-2 with an ERA of nearly 7.00 and then won five straight to pull down his ERA to 3.50. Then five straight losses pushed the ERA back above 5.00 and into the pen, where he stayed for a couple weeks. But after he rejoined the rotation in mid-July he went 7-6 with eight complete games and a 2.62 ERA to finish the year on an up note. After the misery of ’73 Bill had an even nastier spring training in ’74 and he was sent down to Triple A Sacramento. Not much good was going on at that level and he requested a trade elsewhere when in late June he was sent to Oakland for Deron Johnson. After going a combined 9-16 with a fat 5.05 ERA – everyone who pitched in Sacramento had a fat ERA – but getting his walks and strikeouts realigned – 57 vs. 99 – Bill made his final MLB appearance in some shutout relief outings for the A’s. After the season he was sold to St. Louis. In ’75 he pitched in the minors for the Triple A franchises of the Cards and the White Sox, going a combined 3-5 as a spot guy with a 4.42 ERA. That was it for Bill as he finished 29-36 with a 3.89 ERA, 22 complete games, and six shutouts for his MLB time and with a 27-33 record with a 3.87 ERA in the minors.

As I mentioned above, Parsons slips into the ether after his playing career ended. There is a gentleman with his same name residing in Phoenix but outside of calling the poor guy up I do not foresee a shot at anything substantial on our guy here. Another mystery.

Topps gives us a little dirt on the card back, and given it is mostly qualifiable, there is no reason to doubt it. One good thing did come up from Bill’s crash and burn of ’73 and that was the 20-win season of the guy who took his place, Jim Colborn.

This time we stick to the AL:

1. Parsons and Jim Slaton ’71 to ’73 Brewers;

2. Slaton and Larry Hisle ’79 to ’82 Brewers;

3. Hisle and Mike Adams ’73 Twins.

#554 - Tim Johnson

OK, so when I first looked at this card I thought Tim Johnson was photographed at Comiskey and I am pretty sure that guy in the background is wearing a red helmet or hat. But between about ’72 and ’75 Comiskey had a turf field – see the next card – so it ain’t there. Then I thought it might be Oakland, but I do not believe Oakland had the breaks in the wall above the first level of seats, plus the red hat/helmet thing wouldn’t work. Cleveland? That stadium had big vertical poles that I don’t see and I believe only two levels of seats and there appear to be three here. So I’m a bit lost placing this shot. But it is for sure the first rookie card we have had in a while. The Brewers of ’73 had a whole new keystone combo in Pedro Garcia at second and this guy at shortstop. The ’72 regulars were Ron Theobald and Rick Auerbach. Neither of them hit crazy great – though Theobald had a pretty good OBA – and Milwaukee wanted to get more out of its middle infielders. Theobald got released during ’73 spring training to make way for Garcia but shortstop was a bit messy. Auerbach didn’t have enough defensive props to keep the gig and so newly acquired Don Money was supposed to take over. But events conspired to have Money go full-time to third base and manager Alex Grammas engineered a trade: Auerbach to the Dodgers for Johnson, who’d been managed by Grammas in the minors. After the trade Jim pretty much took over the shortstop spot, hitting close to .260 his first month. He would tail off offensively but he had better range than Auerbach and he did well enough to claim the shortstop spot on the Baseball Digest rookie team. Still, he wasn’t the permanent answer to the team’s shortstop issue; the next guy was.

Tim Johnson was born in North Dakota and at some point relocated to California, where his dad owned and ran his own bar/restaurant. There he grew up in South San Gabriel and played ball at Montebello High School. He did not declare for the draft upon graduating because he wanted to play summer ball for his Connie Mack team, the Superior Pontiac Firebirds. That team won its regionals in both ’66 and ’67 and after it lost in the states Tim was signed by the Dodgers to a pretty decent bonus. His career began in A ball the following year where he didn’t hit too well – except for one game – but was already earning a reputation as a slick fielder. The next two years he moved up to Double A Albuquerque, the team managed by Grammas. That was also the year he began his military hitch as a Marine reservist, eventually reaching sergeant status as a mortar instructor. He would spend parts of the next six years in the Marines. After topping out offensively in ’70 he moved up to Triple A Spokane in ’71 where his average was a bit of a disappointment. LA had lots of promising young shortstops – Bill Russell, Bobby Valentine, Lee Lacy, and Ivan DeJesus – and so in ’72 Tim was pushed back to Double A. His hitting didn’t exactly recover so after beginning the season well back in Triple A in ’73, when Grammas and the Brewers came calling, LA sent Tim to Milwaukee in what was initially a sale. Rick Auerbach got assigned to Albuquerque – now a Triple A franchise -  on a loan and when that became permanent the cash was forgiven and it became an even-up trade.

In ’74 spring training the Brewers unveiled their own young hot shot shortstop in the form of Robin Yount, who was only 18 when camp broke. Given the starting shortstop gig over Johnson, his initial hitting was pretty anemic so Tim would get some early season starts while Yount’s hitting came around. That year Tim would also get time at second but it was basically an introductory season to the rest of his playing career as an infield back-up. Too bad, too, because his offense jumped a bunch: his average rose over 30 points and he put up nearly as many RBI’s in a bit over half as many at bats. He also had seven triples in what amounted to less than half a season. By the end of the year Yount was established as a Brewer institution and between Robin’s omnipresence and an elbow injury that had him on the DL for over two months, Tim’s ’75 was a mess of just 85 at bats during which he hit only .141. Most of his starts that year were at third base. In ’76 second base in Milwaukee was pretty messy and Tim was one of four guys to get significant starting time there and had a pretty good year offensively, hitting .275 in 273 at bats, his second-most up top. But he had zero power and Milwaukee finished last in the division for the second straight year. In ’77 when the team picked up Sal Bando via free agency Don Money was successfully transitioned to second. In July he had a chance at some playing time after Money sprained his back but the next game Tim hurt his hip, went on the DL himself, and finished the year with only 33 at bats. A couple games into the ’78 season he was traded to Toronto for Tim Nordbrook, another infielder. He would spend the next two seasons filling in second and short for the Blue Jays before retiring. He finished with a .223 average in 1,269 at bats.

Johnson had made lots of friends while playing and immediately after he stopped he returned to the LA organization as a scout and spring training instructor. He eventually began coaching in the system and in ’87 began managing Rookie ball. His next year at that level he won the championship as he did in ’89 when he moved to A ball. In ’90 he moved to the Montreal system and after a year managing Triple A became an advance scout the next two years. From ’93 to ’94 he was a Montreal coach and from ’95 to ’96 he was a coach for Boston. He then managed Triple A in the Cubs chain for a season before being named the Toronto manager for ’98. Tim led the Blue Jays to a record of 88-74, their best season since the team won the Series. Early the next year it was revealed that he’d told a story or two about his experience in Viet Nam, though his service was always stateside. The media came down hard on him for that – times have changed; now if one does that he gets his own reality show – and he was forced to resign. He could not get a gig here so he went down to Mexico where he’d managed winter ball. He won the league championship his first year and then in early 2000 left to scout for the Brewers but barely made it past opening day when he resigned due to media pressure fallout. He returned to Mexico where he managed the next three seasons. In 2003 he was able to return to the States as manager of the Lincoln Saltdogs, an independent team. He then moved to the Tucson Toros from ’09-’10 and the Lake County Fielders in ’11, a team that disbanded because its owners – including actor Kevin Costner – wouldn’t pay expenses or salaries. Since 2012 he has been the manager of the El Paso Diablos, another independent team. His record through last year in the minors is 1,143-943. There is a ten-minute video on his travails on YouTube.

There’s Tim’s big offensive day in his star bullet. Away from that game he hit .215 that year. He led the AL in putouts in ’73, his only season as a regular.

This is another pretty easy one:

1. Johnson and Bernie Carbo ’76 Brewers;

2. Carbo and Jim Willoughby ’75 to ’77 Red Sox.

#525 - Clyde Wright

Clyde Wright had quite a few cards in which he looks pissed off, like this one here. Outside of the fact that his air-brushed uniform looks like it was generated by something nuclear, his expression on this particular card may have had to do with the season during which the photo was taken. A nasty back ailment took its toll on him all year, reversing a pretty good record in ’72 to the one he had with an ERA that popped by three-quarters of a run. A disk problem left him with nearly no mobility and he couldn’t put anything on his out pitch, which was a screwball. Shortly after the season ended he, Steve Barber, Kan Berry, and Art Kusnyer went to Milwaukee for Ollie Brown, Joe Lahoud, Skip Lockwood, Ellie Rodriguez, and Gay Ryerson. Every one of those guys except Kusnyer and Ryerson is airbrushed in this set. Clyde shows us his scorn at Yankee Stadium. By the end of the year he’d be just plain pissed.

Clyde Wright grew up playing baseball in Jefferson City, Tennessee and after high school he went to the local college, Carson-Newman, a four-year NAIA school. There he went 32-5 as a pitcher during his career and recorded 422 strikeouts. His senior year he hit .455 with 13 homers – he also was an outfielder – and went 10-0 while leading his school to the NAIA title. Drafted and signed that spring by the Angels, he pretty much picked up where he left off, going 7-2 with a 1.99 ERA that summer as a starter in A ball and hitting .255 while also playing a few games in the outfield. His field time was permanently put to rest the next season as he moved to Double A and went 9-0 with a 3.41 ERA as a spot guy before making his debut up top in June. He beat the defending AL champ Twins in his first start. He pitched OK ball even though his record wasn’t so hot and in ’67 he improved his ERA at the top while moving into more of a swing role and spent time in Triple A where he was 8-4 with a 3.07 ERA back in the rotation. In ’68 it was all California in a reprise of the swing role and though his ERA bloated a bit he put up his best record and added three saves to his numbers. But then ’69 got messy. Clyde missed time for some military work and couldn’t get in synch and though his ERA only slid up a notch his record got ugly as his starts declined to just five and his innings halved.

After the ’69 season Angels shortstop Jim Fregosi talked Wright into joining him in Puerto Rico for the winter where Fregosi managed the Ponce team. Clyde went and while down there he helped pitch Ponce to the championship while learning the screwball. Until then he had a pretty good fastball but his out pitch was his curve, which he threw at different speeds. Part of the trouble in ’69 was that his time away wreaked havok on his curve and he needed a new off speed pitch so hence the screwball. And it worked pretty well. In ’70 Clyde set the Angel mark for wins in a season, tossed a no-hitter at Oakland, and won AL Comeback Player of the Year (though that was a bit silly). He was also an All-Star for the only time in his career. From ’70 to ’72 he went 56-40 for a team that was under .500 with an ERA of about 2.95. With ’73 came back pain, the losing record, and the trade.

In ’74 Wright won his first two starts for the Brewers and indicated he had no pain in his back. Shortly thereafter he got in a fight with Bobby Valentine which resulted in a dislocated shoulder for Bobby. But that success was short-lived as he went 7-20 the rest of the way with an ERA that moved to 4.42. There seems to have been no indication that his numbers were due to injury from the fight or elsewhere so I guess things just rolled that way. He then got sent to Texas for Pete Broberg in a trade of two blowup guys. With the Rangers Clyde became a project for manager Billy Martin who thought he could win 20 again. Billy was wrong that time as Clyde went only 4-6 with pretty much the same ERA he had in ’74. He was released late in spring training of ’76 and opted to play ball in Japan which he did for three seasons. He spent all his time with the Yomiuri Giants, the same team for whom Davey Johnson played. Clyde went a combined 22-18 with an ERA a bit above 4.00 while there. ’78 was his last year playing and he finished in the States 100-111 with a 3.50 ERA, 67 complete games, nine shutouts, and the three saves. In the minors he was 24-6 with a 2.86 ERA and hit .256.

Things got a bit ugly for Wright while he was in Japan. Always a recreational drinker his habit apparently reached a much higher level and he brought it back to the US with him when he came home. Shortly after he was done his son Jaret was born and Clyde later indicated that when Jaret was three and locked the door on him so he couldn’t get into the car that he realized it was time to sober up. That he did and by ’82 he was doing the tour as a recovered alcoholic to school and civic groups. By then he’d also started up his pitching academy in Anaheim which is still running. He also plays lots of golf and does other community work for the Angels and is reportedly a much mellower and more content guy than his cards indicate. Jaret went on to be an MLB pitcher whose career ended a couple years ago.

This stuff was all touched on above. Check out that birthdate though. That would mean that Clyde graduated college when he was 24, but articles from back then indicated he was 21 when he was in the NAIA tourney. In the few articles regarding his no-hitter he was listed as being 27. So he was born in either ’41, ’43, or ’44. I guess we get to take our pick.

We can do this a couple ways but let’s go through the Brewers:

1. Wright and Jim Colborn ’74 Brewers;

2. Colborn and Bill Plummer ’79 Mariners.

#497 - Bobby Mitchell

Like Tom Murphy of the last post, Bobby Mitchell revives something. With Bobby it’s his own card. After getting a rookie card in ’71 he got nothing from Topps the next two years and he returned with this shot in Oakland. He’d get cards the next two seasons as well and then he wouldn’t get another one – that I know of – until ’79 and that one was from Japan. But that’s how things worked out for this guy. It took him a long time to get up top and he has some pretty big bio holes which will get illustrated below. But in ’73 he was around a bit. After hitting pretty well in Triple A he returned to Milwaukee in early July and then split time between outfield and DH. Bobby wasn’t the best fielder and he tended to have trouble with inside fastballs which helped contribute to pretty high strikeout totals. But he was fast and the Brewers weren’t exactly rife with outfield All-Stars. He’d get increasing at bats the next couple years and then a lot more after he did his big move overseas.

Bobby Mitchell grew up in Norristown, PA, and in high school he was a big deal basketball, baseball, and track star. His senior year of ’61 he was all-state as a guard in hoops with his 13.8 ppg. In baseball as a shortstop and relief pitcher he was all-district with a .313 average. And in track he broke the school and district record for high jump his first time out with a 6’4.5” leap. After his graduation he...frankly, I have no idea. In ’65 he pops up again when he qualifies for the AAU high jump championship with a 6’9”. And he gets signed by Boston just prior to that summer. He could have been in school I suppose, though there’s no record of that, or maybe the military, but that would be an awfully long hitch. The rest of that summer he played outfield in Rookie ball and did pretty well. In ’66 and ’67 he showed pretty good speed in Double A, particularly the latter year when he swiped 36 bases. But he was also averaging over 100 K’s a season and in ’68 when he moved up to Triple A his average fell a bunch and even though he put up some fat triple and stolen base (42) totals, the Sox left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft and the Yankees snapped him up. For the next three seasons he stayed in Triple A for NY. ’69 was a mixed bag because he hit real well but made a slow recovery from some knee damage the prior year and missed some time. In ’70 he showed some decent power but his average fell a bunch. He made his MLB debut that summer. In ’71 it was all Triple A with a revived average until a June trade sent him to the Brewers with Frank Tepedino for Danny Walton.

Once Mitchell went to the Brewers he moved to Milwaukee the rest of the season. He started a few games all over the outfield but outside of a big day in which he had two homers and five RBI’s his offense was a tad light and he didn’t get too many looks. After the season he was sent back down where in ’72 he reported huge numbers in Triple A but missed over five weeks from a car accident and then more time due to cartilage damage to his knee. His OBA was a huge .459 but again his high K totals – 76 in 273 at bats – scared the brass. But he made it back up the next year and stayed in ’74 and ’75. That first year he got a few starts in right and center but was used mostly as a DH and pinch hitter, raising his average to .243. In ’75 he put in a bunch of time in left to kick off the season because regular guy Johnny Briggs was injured. In mid-May he was hitting .333. His power numbers had a pretty big move up also, but over the course of a bad season for the team, his average and his playing time fell, the former to .249. He spent ’76 in Milwaukee’s spring training and then shortly after the season began he moved to Japan to play for the Nippon Ham Fighters. There he joined Walt Williams for a couple seasons and Gene Locklear and Sam Ewing for a season apiece. His first two seasons there he accumulated 57 homers and 141 RBI’s while hitting about .244. He had his biggest year in ’78 when he led the league with 36 homers and put up 93 RBI’s while hitting .274 in an all-star season. In ’79 he hit 22 out in his last year as a player. Up top he finished with a .235 average in 609 at bats with 86 runs, 21 homers, and 91 RBI’s. In the minors ex-Japan he hit .286 with 82 homers and over 150 stolen bases.

When Mitchell returned from Asia he moved to California where for many years he was a corrections officer. He also led baseball clinics for local kids and made his high school’s hall of fame. He still resides in central California.

Bobby could have gone 0 for 47 and still won that batting title. He’s another guy who sort of half scripts and half prints his signature. I’m sorta dying to know what he did those four years after high school.

By the time submissions needed to be made for the baseball centennial of 1976 the Brewers hadn’t really done very much milestone-wise. Tommy Harper in ’70 had put up the first ever AL 30-30 season which was nice, but Milwaukee opted for a different event from that year: the return of baseball to the city for the first time since the Braves split following the ’65 season. They got their big crowd of over 37,000 at County Stadium and the fans were certainly zealous enough, but the highlights really end there as the team continued its Seattle ways and lost its April 7 home opener 12-0 to Andy Messersmith and the Angels. Steve Hovley had three hits but there was understandably few other big Brewer moments from that day.

This one’s easy because these two obviously played together:

1. Mitchell and Tom Murphy ’74 to ’75 Brewers.

#413 - Don Money

Here is another one of my favorite players (sorry if that’s a venal start). Don Money wasn’t exactly unsung since he did get All-Star appearances including a start even, but in the days of Brooks, Nettles, and Bando in the AL he was sort of overwhelmed publicity-wise. I’ll always remember him from those team and All-Star photos in which his ears stuck straight out. You can’t tell that here, in an action shot in Oakland where Don appears as if he’s about to pounce on a grounder. He had a nice year in his first AL season after a big trade, upping his average a bunch and finally giving the Brewers an established full-time third baseman for a few years. It didn’t start out that way, though. In late June he was hitting below .200 but a second-half tear pulled his average up 80 points. He also hit leadoff a bunch for the Brewers which helps explain his 22 stolen bases which got him in the top ten. And he moved his home base to Jersey while he was playing for the Phillies and then stayed there after the trade, which is saying a lot, and further endeared him to me as a kid.

Don Money was born in DC and played ball in Maryland where he was both a pitcher and a shortstop. His coach knew a Pittsburgh scout by the name of Syd Thrift who came down and gave Don a couple tryouts during his senior year in ’65. He liked what he saw and though Don took and passed a civil service exam and was offered a government job he signed with the Pirates for zero money. In rookie ball that summer he hit .241 while playing the field – he didn’t pitch in the minors – with a bit of power and then .236 the next year in A ball. Then in ’67 at that level he hit .310 with 16 homers and 86 RBI’s to win his league’s MVP award. He was still playing shortstop and was a nasty good fielder but the Pirates had Gene Alley up top with a young Freddie Patek in the wings so after the ’67 season Don was traded with Woodie Fryman and Bill Laxton to the Phillies for Jim Bunning.

Money and fellow rookie Larry Hisle made the cut in spring training of ’68 and in their first series in LA that year Don drove in Larry twice in his first game to help win it. But after his big start he only played in a few more games and he was optioned back to Triple A where he hit .303 the rest of the season. After that year incumbent Philly shortstop Bobby Wine went to Montreal and Don returned, this time for good. While he didn’t hit a ton he did pretty well for a first-year shortstop and made the Topps rookie team. Just because the Phillies wanted a lock on that spot they brought up Larry Bowa the next year and moved Don to third. He responded with some excellent defense, added some power, and boosted his average 66 points. Don was pretty much a dead pull hitter back then and the team wanted him to change his stroke to hit to all fields. But the results for him were pretty frustrating. His average returned to the .200’s and his power got halved in ’71. That year he also played a bunch in the outfield and at second while John Vukovich got a shot at third. Then he was reviving his big hits if not his average in ’72 when a new third baseman on the horizon – Mike Schmidt – helped impel the big trade with the Brewers: Don, Billy Champion, and Vukovich for Jim Lonborg, Ken Brett, Ken Saunders, and Earl Stephenson.

After his big second-half rally, Money went on a nice consistent streak the next five years in Milwaukee, putting up averages that ranged between .267 and .293 and making four All-Star teams. In ’74 he led the AL in at bats but then missed some games the next couple seasons with injuries. In ’77 the Brewers acquired Sal Bando as a free agent so Don moved primarily to second and had his best power year with 25 homers and 83 RBI’s. In ’78 he was voted the All-Star starter at second base even though by game time he was playing mostly first due to an injury to Cecil Cooper. In ’79 Cecil got healthy and kids Jim Gantner and Paul Molitor got a lot more time at the other two bases so Don mostly DH’d and did utility work. That was pretty much the same deal in ’80 and his average fell to the .248 area those two seasons. In ’81 he platooned at third with Roy Howell and the two did a pretty good job in the strike year as the Brewers made the playoffs for the first time. Then in ’82 he and Roy turned the platoon trick again but this time as DH as Molitor took over third base. Don got a bunch of work in the post-season that year and then returned for one more season of reserve work before being released in ’84 spring training. Don ended things with a .261 average with 176 homers and 729 RBI’s. He hit .185 in eleven post-season games.

In ’84 Money signed to play ball in Japan, apparently receiving a fat contract to do so. While he was only hitting .260 a couple months into the season he was leading the league in homers when he got tired of his living and travel arrangements and quit. He returned to the US and New Jersey where he stuck around for a bit before returning to baseball through coaching in the Tigers system before taking over as manager in Oneonta from ’87 to ’88. He then returned to Jersey for ten years where he coached high school ball. In ’98 he returned to pro ball, this time in the Brewers system, where he managed at various levels through 2011. In that role Don has gone 1,244-1,252. He is currently Milwaukee’s director of player development and also continues to do some coaching back in Jersey.

Don's star bullets give a good indication why his nickname was Brooks. From late ’73 through mid-’74 he went 88 games without an error and I believe his ’74 fielding percentage of .989 is still an AL record. During the streak he took 261 chances without an error so he just killed the one he set in the star bullet. He had a working farm in NJ which was pretty rare for a part-timer. It was there he returned to after his bad experience in Japan.

So Taylor and Money just missed playing together though Chuck only got in five games for the Brewers so it wouldn’t have counted anyway:

1. Money and Dick Allen ’68 to ’69 Phillies;

2. Allen and Chuck Taylor ’70 Cards.