#638 - Ken Sanders

This is one of the rare cards photographed at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium and boy, does it make that place look huge. And dreary. Ken Sanders seems to be channeling the weather with an expression that lives up to his “Bulldog” nickname. 1973 was about as bi-polar a season as Ken had experienced. It began in Minnesota and his first four games he got three saves and a win, though his ERA was around 6.00. By the end of May he had eight saves though his ERA didn’t move too much. By the end of July his record sort of stalled and he wasn’t getting used too much and after a couple painful outings – ironically against Cleveland - the Twins placed him on waivers. Then the Tribe grabbed him and in his 15 games the rest of the way Ken pitched awfully well, adding five more saves to his record. So though he looks pretty lonely here in stormy weather he probably didn’t feel that way on the mound.

Ken Sanders graduated St. Louis University High School in that city in ’59 after a pretty robust athletic career in soccer, football, and baseball. He then gave the university itself a shot but was signed by Kansas City the next spring before he got to play an inning. He went 19-10 with a 3.21 ERA in D ball and the next year 13-8 in A ball with a similar ERA. But ’62 was tough as he went a combined 3-18/5.26 between three levels, at none of which he pitched terribly well. In ’63 he moved to more of a spot role and improved a bunch in A and Double A, going a combined 6-7/3.65. In ’64 he moved to the bullpen pretty much exclusively and there he posted some nice numbers at the higher level, going 9-1 with a 2.28 ERA and nearly a K an inning before getting called up to KC in August where he threw pretty well from the pen, adding a save to his stats. But ’65 was all Triple A where Ken put together another good season, going 8-6 with a 2.74 ERA in 57 games of relief. After that season he was selected by Boston in the Rule 5 draft.

In ’66 Sanders made the cut out of training camp and got his first Topps card. With the Sox all that year he again threw pretty well in middle relief and put up a couple saves before a mid-June trade back to KC in which the Sox picked up Jose Tartabull – Danny’s dad – and John Wyatt, two guys who would be instrumental in the ’67 pennant run. With the A’s Ken continued to throw pretty well in the same role, adding another save. But he would get scarce work up top the next few seasons and wouldn’t see another Topps card until ’71. He spent nearly that whole time in Triple A. In ’67 he was 9-6/2.04 in 50 games and in ’68 2-4/3.41 in 35 games as he spent some time in Oakland but was rarely used. In ’69 he moved back to a swing role, going 6-7 with a 3.39 ERA in ten starts among his 29 games. Following that season he was involved in another big trade, going to the Seattle Pilots with Mike Hershberger, Lew Krausse, and Phil Roof for Ron Clark and Don Mincher.

The Pilots were in the midst of some financial difficulties when Sanders got there early in ’70 and would relocate to Milwaukee before the season started. Ken relocated as well, back to Triple A, and put on a nice show, going 4-1 with a 1.06 ERA and a couple saves in the pen before being recalled in late May. Finally allowed to get some regular work he continued his excellent Triple A run, adding twelve saves as he moved to a closer role from a setup guy as the season progressed. Ken didn’t really have a curve and his two out pitches were a cut fastball and a slider. In ’71 he occupied the stopper role all season and delivered, putting up seven wins and 31 saves as he won the AL Fireman of the Year award. After the strike ’72 started off pretty well for Ken and he didn’t give up an earned run until May. But he went into a bit of a cold streak just when the Milwaukee batters stopped hitting and the poor run support and higher ERA pulled down his record, though he did record 17 saves and so still had a hand in nearly a third of the team’s wins. But his relationship with new manager Del Crandall wasn’t great and after the season Ken went to Philadelphia with Ken Brett, Jim Lonborg, and Earl Stephenson for Don Money, Billy Champion, and John Vukovich. His ’73 Topps card would have him in an air-brushed Phillies cap even though a month after that trade he was off again to the Twins with Joe Lis and Ken Reynolds for Cesar Tovar.

Sanders remained with Cleveland to start the ’74 season but once again got off to a poor start in very little use and after going 0-1 with a couple saves in just 14 games he was released that June. He was picked up nearly immediately by California and the Angels sent him to Triple A where Ken went 3-1/3.44 with a couple saves in 19 games, including a couple starts. By mid-August he was up in Anaheim where he again pitched sparingly but well, putting up a 2.79 ERA with a save in his nine games. The next March he was on the move again, going to the Mets for catcher Ike Hampton. Ken again returned to Triple A and dazzled there, going 6-1 with a 1.34 ERA and nine saves before coming up to NY in late June. With the Mets he continued his good work as part of a trio of stoppers with Bob Apodaca and Skip Lockwood, a former teammate with the Brewers. Ken went 1-1 with a 2.30 ERA and five saves in his 29 games and then in ’76 was 1-2 with a 2.87 ERA and a save before a late sale to Kansas City for the Royals stretch run during which he threw three shutout innings. In ’77 he signed back with Milwaukee as a free agent and spent his final season in Triple A. Ken finished with an MLB record of 29-45 with a 2.97 ERA and 86 saves. In the minors he was 90-76 with a 3.39 ERA.

By the time Sanders was done with baseball he’d established himself as a real estate agent in the Midwest with his home base in the Milwaukee area. He was an executive VP for a long time for Coldwell Banker and GMAC and was the selling representative for the “Field of Dreams” property a few years back. In the Nineties he ran his own fantasy camp on that farm for a few years and he has been actively involved in fund raising for the Baseball Assistance team and other charities.

Ken’s big ’71 season absorbs all the star bullets and that year he led the AL in games as well. One winter while pitching in Venezuela he handled 13 chances in one game. There is a pretty good “Where are they now” type interview with Ken that I have linked to here.

Sanders seems to be a guy interested in a good fight so lets get to that with the Watergate standoff:

4/30/74 – A day after his televised speech President Nixon formally releases 1,200 pages of transcripts to the Special Prosecutor and the House Judiciary Committee. He also released transcripts he’d made available to those recipients earlier to the public. Ironically most people were more concerned with the amounts of “expletive deleted”’s in those transcripts than with anything concerning Watergate. Still, neither release did much to assuage anyone’s desire to see unfiltered documentation of the White House tapes and both the Prosecutor and the Committee demanded the actual – by now – 64 tapes originally requested instead of the redacted transcripts. The President continued to refuse.

5/9/74 – the House Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings in the wake of President Nixon’s continued refusal to submit tapes for which he’d been subpoenaed. It is only the second time in history – the first being for Andrew Johnson – in which impeachment proceedings against a sitting President had been initiated.

Skipping the checklist card, Ken needs to get hooked up with fellow pitched Dave Goltz. This one’s easy:

1. Sanders and Dave Goltz ’73 Twins.

#617 - Ted Ford

Just because this seems to be the theme lately we get another final baseball card in a rarity in this set of a Cleveland player at home. Ted Ford had completed round three of what was a back and forth career between the Tribe and the Rangers when this photo was taken. Unless this shot is from an earlier season – and I don’t think it is – Topps got lucky because Ted played precious few games up top in ’73. He’d begun the season hitting at a stellar clip for the Texas Triple A team in Spokane when he was sent to Cleveland with pitcher Dick Bosman for pitcher Steve Dunning in May. He continued his fine hitting at that level before a September call-up got him to Cleveland where he got a few starts in center and right field. Those would be Ted’s final at bats up top.

Ted Ford came out of Vineland, NJ, in the southern part of the state where he played football and baseball and was drafted by Cleveland as a first rounder in ’66. He was a speedy outfielder with a big arm who could hit and he spent his first summer in A ball before slowing down a bunch the following year in Double A. Then Ted got drafted again – this time by the Army – and did a military hitch that lasted the better part of two years. According to some sources he served time in Viet Nam though I have been unable to confirm that. He got back in ’69 in time to play some Instructional League ball and had such a good spring the following year that he made Cleveland’s opening day roster. After not hitting too great he went down to Triple A where he stung the ball at a pretty good clip that year and half of the next before a return to the Indians that summer. He had a couple nice moments but couldn’t get his average up to its minor league levels and after that season he went to Texas for former outfield mate Roy Foster and Tommy McCraw. After a short stay in Triple A Ted moved up to Arlington and led the team in homers as its starting right fielder. He also led the AL in assists from his position even though he only played about three-quarters of a season. By early ’73 he was back in Cleveland.

In ’74 Ford spent a few games in Triple A pounding the ball for the Tribe when he was traded to – guess where? – Texas for pitcher Charlie Hudson. He finished out the season at that level as a loaner to San Diego’s PCL franchise with another nice stat line of .311/17/72 with a .415 OBA. Then it was off to Mexico where he played ball the next eight seasons, most of that time for Mexico City. Ted was done following the ’82 season as a player and finished with the MLB line on the back of this card and hit .289 with 57 homers and a .355 OBA in the minors.

Ford would permanently relocate to Texas during his Mexican League time according to some articles about his grandson Darren who has put in some recent time with the Giants. Ted and Darren have not had much contact so that is a limited source of information but there has been a Ted Ford baseball school operating in McAllen for a number of years so it’s not a stretch to think it’s the same guy.

Ted gets some fielding props and nearly his whole career in The States on the back of his card. Apart from bowling he also had a band back in Vineland during the ’73 off-season. I wonder if he ever opened for Bruce?

At this point in the recap almost all Watergate news was coming via Grand Jury leaks:

4/19/73 – It was reported on this date that Jeb Stuart Magruder, a finance guy on the CREEP team, was ready to give evidence that he had helped John Dean and John Mitchell plan the Watergate bugging and that Dean and Mitchell were the ones who paid off the defendants to keep quiet. Also on this date Attorney General Richard Kleindienst removed himself from the “operative” investigation into the Watergate affair due to his “close personal and professional relationship” with some of the investigation’s targets.

4/20/73 – John Mitchell begins testifying before the Grand Jury. He indicated during his testimony that he had attended three meetings in early ’72 – the first during which he was still Attorney General – in which bugging was discussed but that he had refused to approve the activation of those plans. It was also around this time that White House attorney John Dean began to crack. Dean was worried about becoming a scapegoat for the Watergate affair and there were indications he would be giving up H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s Chief of Staff, and John Erlichman, Nixon’s Chief Domestic Affairs Adviser.

4/21/73 – it is reported that the Grand Jury is now concentrating on H. R. Haldeman’s involvement in Watergate. He and John Erlichman hire a lawyer.

Meanwhile we need to hook up an Indian and a Cub:

1. Ford and Jim Mason – coming right up – ’72 Rangers;

2. Mason and Larry Gura ’74 to ’75 Yankees.

#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.

#586 - Jack Brohamer

And they called Walt Williams No-Neck! It’s obviously just the pose but Walt’s ’73 teammate Jack Brohamer here looks like a much more appropriate subject for that handle. I want to say Jack is in Cleveland since the color of the seats looks about right and that looks like the first uniform letter is an "I" so I am sticking with that choice. Wherever he is he, like Merv Rettenmund, was in not a great spot in his career. ’73 had to be frustrating for him. After putting up a good enough rookie season in ’72 to get named to both the Topps and Baseball Digest rookie teams, Jack came out of the box the next year with an average that would aspire to Mendoza proportions. He missed extensive time to some injuries and his bat and split his second base duties with Tom Ragland and John Lowenstein. Jack had a spanking card in ’73 when it looks like he’s just failed to avoid a tag by Bobby Grich. So this one of him imitating a turtle is a poor follow-up. But Jack was hardly a shrinking violet as a couple of his career choices will attest.

Jack Brohamer grew up in Huntington Beach, California, where he was all-area in hoops and presumably pretty good in baseball since he was drafted by Cleveland upon graduating in ’67. He played local ball that summer so his pro career didn’t begin until the next spring when he hit pretty well for two A teams while playing mostly shortstop. In ’69 he remained at that level and added some second base to his field work. In ’70 he was more of a utility guy adding third base to his repertoire and both his average and his confidence suffered even though he was now performing at both Double A Savannah and Triple A Wichita. That also happened during his ’71 all in Triple A and Jack was ready to return home – this from his SABR bio – when that July he was made the regular second baseman. By spring training of the following year both Jack and his manager Ken Aspromonte were moved up to Cleveland.

For the past couple seasons the Indians’ regular second baseman had been Eddie Leon and Brohamer was brought up to do reserve work. But Leon’s offense went south in a hurry and before too long Jack was given the starting role at second. He did a nice job defensively, hit his first two homers the same day, and got those spots on the two rookie teams. After his setback in ’73 he came out of spring training behind Angel Hermoso, the former Expo who’d come up from the minors to win the second base job. But Angel got steamrolled at second in May, went on the DL, and Jack got the gig back, though he missed nearly all of August with a pulled muscle. He had a much better year offensively, hitting over .300 his first month as a regular, and settling at .270 for the season. In ’75 Jack had the regular job Opening Day but in May he went down after sliding into second, bruising a hip which later became infected and missing nearly three months. The problem this time was that the Tribe had a young guy, Duane Kuiper, on the roster who was scratching for playing time and was quite good, so that while Jack had plenty of starting time when he was healthy his injury opened the way for Kuiper to succeed him. After the season Jack went to the White Sox for Larvell Blanks, another infielder.

In ’76 Chicago traded third baseman Bill Melton to California and they moved regular second baseman Jorge Orta to third to fill in the gap. So Brohamer became the regular guy again, splitting work there with Bill Stein. Jack bumped his average up to .251 and had his lifetime high in RBI”s with 40 though the season was pretty tough with the Sox finishing in the cellar. In ’77 the team signed Eric Soderholm to play third so Orta returned to second with his bigger bat and Jack settled into a reserve role, playing more at third that year than at second. Prior to the ’78 season he signed with Boston as a free agent, where for the next two-plus seasons he would split time pretty evenly between second and third. In ’78 with starter Butch Hobson being hurt a bunch, Jack got into about half the games including the playoff one against the Yankees. In ’79 he hit .266 and in ’80 was hitting .316 when he was sold back to the Tribe in June. He finished up that year and his career splitting time at second the rest of the way. After that he retired to move on to his new career and finished his old one with a .245 average, 30 homers, and 227 RBI’s. He was pretty good at not striking out – once in about eleven at bats – and only his rookie year did his K totals top his walk ones.

Brohamer’s dad had been a machinist while Jack was growing up and for Jack’s first few off-seasons he returned to the west coast to work with his dad where his specialty was building pumps for oil wells. He also began taking classes at Golden West College which he would put to use in a career he actually started before he finished playing ball: as a police detective in Ocean City. He specialized in sexual predation, particularly of kids, and became sort of renowned locally for his work. He did that through the late Nineties when he suffered a back injury on the job that forced him into quasi-retirement on disability. When he got healthier after a long rehab he returned to his golf game – he is about a scratch golfer – and in 2004 began writing reviews of area golf clubs for a local magazine. He also consulted to his old police department, mostly on background checks. He still resides in California, playing golf, and is pretty much retired.

That’s a fun way to kick off a career in that first star bullet. Jack got a couple wisps of mention in the “The Curse of...” book by Terry Pluto. Jack, like just about everyone else who enjoyed the experience, had stories about playing behind Gaylord Perry. He told a local writer that if he made an error behind Perry, the pitcher would step to the top of the mound and just stare at him which must have been pretty imposing since Gaylord went 6’4” without the mound. He also said that Perry could be generous and when the strike happened in late spring training of Jack’s rookie year and nobody was getting paid Gaylord told Jack and fellow rookie Buddy Bell that he’d cover their expenses until the strike was over.

A career got resuscitated in Cleveland in ’75 and that helps us here:

1. Brohamer and Boog Powell ’75 Indians;

2. Powell and Merv Rettenmund ’69 to ’73 Orioles.

#565 - Milt Wilcox

OK, so I did this rather lengthy write-up and then it got erased. Ooh, that blows. And July is going to be a pretty dry month anyway between holidays and vacation and tons of work so I was sort of doubly pissed. Venting over. Here is Milt Wilcox, posing at home in Cleveland in a shot that looks suspiciously like a wider angle one of his ’73 card so it was probably taken in ’72. I always thought Milt was a bit of a cat with his multiple lives and when he was delivering those steady seasons for Detroit in the early Eighties I was pretty surprised it was the same guy who pitched for the Reds. Animal references are pretty appropriate for Milt since one of his first off-season pastimes was raising chinchillas and then he got into things in a big way with a whole other animal after he was done. ’73 was pretty tough for Milt. Though he began the season 3-0 and finished with a pretty good record given the team for which he pitched, his ERA was always fat and he was constantly fighting ailments. First he had strep and then a bad elbow, which forced him to miss about three weeks. Then in July he screwed up his ankle and missed nearly a month. He eventually got so eager for an edge to override his problems that he took some spitter lessons from master Gaylord Perry but that didn’t help either. It would be his final season as a starter for a long time and it must have felt like his Series appearance with Cincinnati was crazy far back. But Milt would return to the post-season years later in a big way.

Milt Wilcox was born in Hawaii – I am pretty sure he’s the only AL guy from that state in the set – and relocated as a young kid to Oklahoma where his dad got work in the oil fields. The word was that Milt was a fourth-generation Hawaiian since his great-grandfather was a Danish sailor who jumped ship on the islands, married a native, and settled down. In Oklahoma Milt would play ball and in high school he was a pitcher/outfielder whose .399 average and 10-1 record got him drafted and signed in the second round of ’68 by the Reds. That summer he put up excellent numbers in both Rookie and A ball (that he lost five games with that ERA doesn’t speak much for those teams’ offense). In ’69 his ERA shot up in a season at the higher level truncated because of injury and the beginning of his military hitch. But after some nice work in the Instructional League and winter ball he got pulled up to Triple A where his effective bounce included five shutouts, one a no-hitter. That September he made his debut in Cincinnati when he was called up to replace fellow rookie Wayne Simpson, who’d been injured. In his second game and first start he threw a shutout and in his short time he made enough of an impression to be included on the post-season roster. Good thing too, because he won the pennant clincher against Pittsburgh with three innings of one-hit ball during which he struck out four consecutive batters in the heart of the Pirates order. His follow-up year wasn’t so good, though. Making the roster despite a tough spring training, Milt experienced shoulder issues early on and pitched sparingly through early June when he was returned to Triple A. There he improved things quickly – three more shutouts – before returning to Cincy in late August, working enough to pull his ERA down about a run. After the season he was sent to Cleveland for outfielder Ted Uhlaender.

In shades of his rookie season, Wilcox threw a shutout in his first start for the Tribe. And he would throw very good ball despite missing time for his reserve hitch and sporadic shoulder pain. By early June he had an ERA under 2.00 but poor run support had his record at 6-4. Then things got worse as he went on a losing streak of seven straight though he maintained a pretty good ERA. He missed more time to his shoulder and elbow being hurt and finished with a nasty record even though his ERA was at league average. After his challenging ’73 he spent ’74 pitching out of the bullpen where his ERA improved, but not by much. After finishing that year 2-2 with a 4.67 ERA and four saves in 41 games, he was sent to the Cubs for Brock Davis and Dave LaRoche. By then Milt’s main problem was tendinitis in his pitching elbow and ’75 would be pretty much a lost year, split between Triple A – 4-3 with a 4.31 ERA in eight starts – and Chicago, where he was 0-1 with a 5.63 ERA in 25 relief games. The best development that year was that he picked up a new pitch, a split-finger, from roving minor league pitching coach Fred Martin. Until then Milt had been a power guy with a fastball, hard slider, and an occasional curve. The forkball and a palmball he picked up later put a bunch less stress on his arm and would do wonders for him down the line. The beginning of that was in ’76 when after a few games back in Triple A Milt was loaned to the Detroit organization for whom he had a pretty good year back in the rotation, going 6-7 with a 3.81 ERA. The Tigers decided to keep him in a sale and in ’77 Milt went 9-4 with a 2.44 ERA in his 14 starts. As luck would have it the Detroit pitching staff was hobbled by injuries, mainly to Mark Fidrych and Vern Ruhle, and Milt was called up that June.

Wilcox was pulled up to replace Vern Ruhle and so was a spot starter and swing guy the rest of the way. His first game up he threw nearly seven innings in relief, giving up two runs and striking out nine. By the end of August he was a surprising 6-0 and he finished the year 6-2 with a 3.64 ERA and almost no pain in his 20 games. He then joined the rotation and the next six seasons he went a combined 73-62 with a 3.89 ERA, finishing 62 of his starts. His best season during that time was probably the strike year of ’81 when he was 12-9 with a 3.03 ERA. Milt was able to revive his fastball by ’78 and actually rehabilitated his elbow through bowling. But continued wear both on the shoulder and elbow required a pretty steady diet of cortisone shots, no season moreso that ’84, which would turn out to be his best year. Milt took a grin-and-bear-it attitude in going 17-8 to be the division-winner’s third big gun behind Jack Morris and Dan Petry. Milt was especially hot down the stretch, going 9-2 after the All-Star break. On his return to the post-season after 14 years he again got the pennant win against KC, hurling a shutout eight innings. He also had an excellent start and win against San Diego in the Series and ironically finished his biggest year with no complete games. He also pretty much finished his arm as the wear and cortisone took their toll. After going 1-3 in only eight starts in ’85, Milt finished a nasty 0-8 with Seattle in ’86 and was done. He went 119-113 with a 4.07 ERA, 73 complete games, ten shutouts and six saves. In the minors he was 53-39 with a 2.88 ERA and in the post-season he went 3-1 with a 1.42 ERA in five games and a strikeout an inning.

In ’81 while in the midst of his Detroit years Wilcox opened a baseball school, which he continued doing for a bunch of years. He took some time out to play in the Senior League both of its seasons – he went 12-3 in the initial one. By the late Nineties he began attending competitive dog skill shows and by 2005 he founded his own company, Airdogs, which basically is a traveling show of competitive dog jumping that he has franchised out to a bunch of locations. It has its own website – linked to here – and Milt seems like a big happy personality in his involvement, judging by this interview.

The star bullets and cartoon were covered above. I believe his military commitment was finished in ’75. In “The Curse of...” Milt gets a mention as an aside. In a game against Texas Milt was racing to cover first on a grounder to John Ellis by Lenny Randle. Randle basically steamrolled Milt and Ellis objected by popping Randle in the face three times, knocking Lenny out. Ouch! A great star bullet for Milt down the road was the perfect game he carried until the 27^th batter in a game against Chicago in ’83. That batter, Jerry Hairston, lined a clean single off Milt with two out in the top of the ninth.

Greg Luzinski hit – or didn’t – against Milt in the near-perfect game but that doesn’t help here:

1. Wilcox and Oscar Gamble ’73 to ’74 Indians;

2. Gamble and Mike Ryan ’70 to ’72 Phillies.

#541 - Cleveland Indians/Indians Team Records/Checklist (cont.)

For the second half of the Cleveland team card we get the checklist with its abundance of signatures. We have one Hall of Famer in Gaylord Perry. All the position starters are here but only a couple pitchers, one being Dick Tidrow who I am pretty sure is not in the team photo. But another Hall of Famer is: Warren Spahn is in the first row, fourth in from the right. One other observation about that photo, which I’ll return to below concerns the guy next to Chris Chambliss, fourth from the right in the back row. He’s huge! It looks like he’s got thirty pounds on Chambliss who was pushing two bills himself back then. I think it’s Tommy Smith though I could be wrong on that. On to the pitchers.

Don McMahon was covered on the Giants manager card.

Bob Feller, like Hal Trotsy from the last post, was an Iowa farmboy who threw a mean fastball. Signed by the Indians in ’36 he went 5-3 his rookie year with 76 K’s in 62 innings and then went back to Iowa for his senior year. He never played in the minors and the next summer returned to the Tribe to go 9-7, again with over a K an inning. In his first full season of ’38 he won 17 and led the AL for the first of four consecutive seasons – seven if you just count his full ones – in strikeouts with 240. He was also an All-Star for the first of what would be eight seasons. He then went on a three-year run in which he averaged a record of 25-11 with a 2.83 ERA, five shutouts, and 255 K’s, leading the league each seasons in wins as well. In ’40 he won pitching’s Triple Crown. After Pearl Harbor he immediately signed up for the military as a Navy man and spent WW II on a battleship in the Pacific. He got back in time to go 5-3 at the end of the ’45 season and then picked up where he left off before the service, winning a combined 46 games in ’46 and ’47 with a total of 15 shutouts while again also leading the league in strikeouts. In ’48 his ERA popped a bit and his streak of 20-win seasons ended, though he won 19 and led the AL in K’s his final time. He didn’t have a great Series that year, going 0-2 with a 5.02 ERA in his two starts. Over the next four seasons he continued to average over 30 starts a year and went a combined 62-36 as his K totals declined significantly. In ’51 he led the AL with 22 wins. In ’53 and ’54 he was more of a spot starter, going a combined 23-10 those two seasons and he threw just a few starts and pitched more in relief his final two seasons of ’55 and ’56 before he retired. Bob finished with a record of 266-162 with a 3.25 ERA, 279 complete games, 44 shutouts, 21 saves, and 2,581 strikeouts. After retiring as a player Feller, who was a master negotiator, became the first president of the Major League Players Association which he did for a bunch of years. He was elected to the Hall his first shot in ’61. HaHallHe also made lots of appearances on behalf of the Indians and MLB and remained in the Cleveland area the rest of his life. He passed away in 2010 from complications of leukemia. He was 92.

Jim Bagby Sr. came out of Georgia into D ball in 1910 when he was 20. He went 5-11 that first year but the next went 22-16 at the same level and then 3-1 in A ball, both with excellent ERA’s. He then was purchased by Cleveland and though he went 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA his first five games was returned to the minors where he finished 4-6 in A ball. He then improved to eight wins in ’13, 20 in ’14, and 19 in ’15, all at the same level. He returned to the Tribe in ’16 and went 16-17 with a 2.61 ERA. The next year he went 23-13 with a 1.99 ERA. Jim threw a fadeaway and while he normally pitched well over 250 innings back then his best number in strikeouts for a season was 88, as he specialized in ground outs. After winning 17 each of the next two seasons, both with ERA’s under 3.00, he had his big year in the Series season of ’20 when he went 31-12 with 30 complete games and a 2.89 ERA. His wins led the AL and in the Series he went 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA. His win came in the game that Bill Wamsganss made an unassisted triple play. Jim also became the first pitcher to homer in a Series game in that win. He pitched in bunches, once pitching in eleven of his team’s 18 games. His ’20 season may have been a bit much as he then faded pretty quickly, going a combined 18-17 with a 5.24 ERA the next two seasons. He was traded to Pittsburgh for the ’23 season where he finished up top, going 127-89 for his career with a 3.11 ERA, 133 complete games, 16 shutouts, 29 saves, and only 450 K’s in over 1,800 innings. He was a good hitter, batting .218 with 60 RBI’s in the regular season and .333 with that homer and three RBI’s in the post-season. He finished ’23 out in the PCL and continued to pitch in the minors through 1930, when he also managed a bit in the D league. He won 70 games during that time – he went 151-131 in the minors overall – and finished pitching after his year of managing. After baseball he moved back to the Atlanta area where he ran a dry cleaning business for 14 years and then a gas station for a year. During that time his son Jim Jr. had his pitching career, going 97-96 for several AL teams. In ’41 this Jim returned to baseball as an umpire in the minors. In ’42 he suffered a stroke, which ended his umpiring days. He recovered and spent the rest of his professional time managing local department stores until his death from another stroke in ’54. He was 64. He has a SABR biography.

Johnny Allen grew up in a North Carolina orphanage after his dad died and after playing ball at Thomaston High he went to work in a local hotel. He was doing that when in ’28 when he was 23 he cadged a tryout with a Yankee scout who was staying in the hotel. Signed on the spot, he went 12-13 that summer in D and C ball. In ’29 he won 20 in B ball and after a 12-16 record in Double A the next year, he went 21-9 in ’31 at the same level. He had a nasty temper and during his time in the minors was already bitching about not playing up top. In ’32 he got his wish and went 17-4 his rookie year for NY, leading the AL in win percentage. In ’33 he went 15-7 and then in ’34 only 5-2 with a 2.89 ERA as he got on manager Joe McCarthy’s bad side with his outbursts. After going 13-6 in ’35 he was traded to Cleveland where his first year he won 15 straight before losing his final start during a season in which he missed time for an appendectomy. In ’38 a 12-1 start with an ERA below 3.00 had him on the All-Star team but an injury during the game pulled his numbers down to 2-6 with a 6.29 ERA the rest of the way. He went 9-7 the next year in the rotation and then became a swing guy the duration of his career. After going 9-8 with five saves for the Tribe in ’40 he was sold to the Browns for whom he had a crappy first half of the ’41 season and was then put on waivers. The Dodgers picked him up and over the next two seasons Johnny went a combined 18-7 for Brooklyn before going to the Giants mid-’43. He finished his career with NY in ’44 with a record of 142-75 with a 3.75 ERA – considerably better than his peers back then – with 109 complete games, 17 shutouts, and 18 saves. In the post-season he had no decisions and a 6.23 ERA in four games. He spent ’45 pitching in the Carolina League – he went 69-50 in the minors where he also hit .276 for his career there – and had relocated to St. Petersburg, FLA, during his playing career. There he had purchased a commercial building with his ’32 Series share and got into real estate. He also became an umpire in local minor leagues, rising to chief ump in the Carolina League. He retired from umpiring in ’53 to return full-time to real estate until he passed away in ’59 from a heart attack when he was 54. He too has a SABR bio.

Bob Lemon was a baseball star from Long Beach where he was primarily an infielder. He was signed by Cleveland after he graduated in ’38 and hit .307 that summer as an outfielder/third baseman in C ball. In ’39 he split time between shortstop – where he had a tougher time in the field – and the outfield and maintained his .300 average in both C and A ball. He spent most of ’40 and ’41 in A ball where he hit .255 and .301, respectively, while moving back to third. That second year he debuted in Cleveland, getting into a couple late games. In ’48 he had his big power season in Double A, again while playing third, with a .268/21/80 season that got him a couple more late looks with the Tribe. Then it was off to the Navy for WW II where, while posted in Hawaii, he fooled around with pitching a bit. He returned to the States from the Pacific in ’46 and went up to Cleveland for good, getting a few starts in center – he helped save a Bob Feller no-hitter that year – and beginning his mound career by going 4-5 with a 2.49 ERA as a spot guy. Lem would be a big ground ball pitcher, give up a bit too many dingers, but still win a ton of games. He was a lot like Catfish Hunter as a pitcher. After going 11-5 in a swing role in ’47 he broke loose in ’48 with his first 20-win All-Star season. From that year through ’56 Lem would average 21 wins a year, be an All-Star seven consecutive seasons, lead the AL in wins three times, starts three times, innings four times, complete games five times, and shutouts and even strikeouts once each. He got to the Series twice and did a bang-up job in ’48 with a couple wins and a 1.65 ERA against the Dodgers. After winning 20 in ’56 he aged fast, going a combined 6-12 the next two seasons before finishing off ’58 in the PCL. Lem went 207-128 for his career, with a 3.23 ERA, 188 complete games, 31 shutouts, 22 saves and a post-season mark of 2-2 with a 3.94 ERA in four starts. He was an understandably good hitter, batting .232 with 37 homers and 147 RBI’s for his career. He was elected to the Hall in ’76. In the meantime he stayed busy in baseball initially as a scout (’59) and coach (’60) for the Tribe. He then moved to coach for the Phillies (’61) before moving to the Angels system, first as a coach in the minors (’62-’63), then as manager at that level (’64-’66), and then as a coach up top (’67-’70). In ’69 he took a break to manage in the new Seattle chain. In ’70 the Royals hired him away to manage which he did through ’72. After a year scouting for KC he managed in the Milwaukee (’74) and Atlanta (’75) chains before hooking up with the Yankees as a coach up top (’76). He then managed the White Sox for a season-plus before being dismissed and returning to NY to manage twice (’78-’79, ’81-’82), leading the Yankees to a Series victory that first season. Between those stints and thereafter he scouted for the Yankees back in his Long Beach base. His managing records were 392-428 in the minors and 430-403 in the majors. A big drinker, Lem was in failing health much of the Nineties and he passed away in 2000 at 79.

George Uhle grew up in Cleveland and when he signed his first pro contract with the Indians in 1919 after he was discovered playing local ball he insisted on a clause that he’d go straight to Cleveland. That he did and that summer he was 10-5 with a 2.91 ERA as a spot guy his rookie year. He had a big sidearm sinker that was his out pitch. The next year his numbers tanked a bit though he did throw three shutout innings in the Series. He then went 133-109 the next eight seasons for Cleveland with a decent ERA, his best years being ’22 when he went 22-16 with an AL-leading five shutouts; ’23 when he went 26-16 and led the league in wins and complete games, with 29; and ’26 when he went 27-11 with a 2.83 ERA and again led the AL in wins and complete games. He slowed down a ton in ’27 and the next year was traded to Detroit, where over the next four-plus seasons he went 44-41 in the rotation with a 3.91 ERA. In ’33 he moved to the Giants, and after a few games there went 6-1 as a reliever for the Yankees despite a high ERA to finish out the season. He blew up a bit in ’34 in NY, finished out the season in the minors and then began coaching at that level until he was briefly called to pitch for the Tribe again in ’36, his final MLB season. George went 200-166 with a 3.99 ERA, 232 complete games, 21 shutouts, and 25 saves. Another good-hitting pitcher, he batted .289 for his career with nine homers and 187 RBI’s and was frequently called on to pinch hit. He coached in the Cleveland system in ’35 and again in ’38 and ’39 when he also pitched a bit. In ’36 and ’37 he coached in Cleveland. He then coached for the Cubs in ’40 and part of ’41 before going to the Dodgers as a coach (’41-’42) and scout (’42-’43). His last bit was as a coach for the Senators (’44) before he retired from baseball that summer with a bad back. He then became a manufacturing representative for Arrow Aluminum near Cleveland. He passed away in Ohio in ’85 when he was 86.

So in terms of actual numbers, the ’73 Indians are represented pretty well in this set. Two position guys are missing who had over 100 at bats in Leo Cardenas, who’d come over from California for a season to back up Frank Duffy at shortstop; and Ron Lolich, Mickey’s cousin, who was in his final season as an outfielder. Leo hit .215 in 195 at bats and Ron .229 in 140 at bats. The missing pitchers are Ray Lamb, a reliever who went 3-3 with a 4.60 ERA and two saves in his final season; Jerry Johnson, 5-6 with a 6.18 ERA and five saves in his sole season with the Tribe; and Steve Dunning, 0-2 with a 6.50 ERA in four games his last year in Cleveland. So not too many guys, but enough accrued stats – 335 at bats and 19 decisions – to push Cleveland towards the bottom of the list. Some of these guys are in the photo: Cardenas is in the second row, second in from the right; Lolich – I believe – is the third guy from the left in the back row next to Gaylord Perry; and Lamb is the guy with the monster handlebar mustache in the second row between Dave Duncan and Walt Williams.

For the hook-up we go through a Chicago Hit Man:

1. Oscar Gamble was on the ’73 Indians;

2. Gamble and Richie Zisk – managed by Bob Lemon – on the ’77 White Sox;

3. Zisk and Bob Robertson ’73 to ’76 Pirates.

#541- Cleveland Indians/Indians Team Records

OK, so here’s the poop for anyone who cares. I had to split for a bit and sometimes when I do that I pre-write the posts and post-date them so they go up on Blogger about once a day. Somehow I screwed that up and then completely lost this one which stinks since it is so damn long. So this one will probably come up around mid-May which will be a pretty big gap. Oh well. It couldn’t have happened to a more fitting post. The 1973 Cleveland Indians were not too crazily different from their other recent teams, except of course in the line-up. In fact, outside of Chris Chambliss not one position in ’73 was filled by the same regular guy as it was in ’71. That’s a lot of turnover and though the Tribe had some interesting young guys – Chambliss, Buddy Bell, Charlie Spikes, Dick Tidrow – come along during that span, the team also had to put up with the near constant raids by the Yankees that already claimed the team’s best slugger in Graig Nettles and would also soon claim Tidrow and Chambliss. It was also Ken Aspromonte’s second year managing and depending on who you asked Ken was either just a low-key guy or a manager who turned control of the team over to his ace Gaylord Perry and Perry’s goon, John Ellis. Either way, between the turnover, the lack of real authority, and the uneven performances the team never got any real traction and finished with yet another losing record. Things needed to change and in about a year they would with an historical appointment that worked, at least for a while. Here the team looks a bit bleached out posing at home and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a guy in a windbreaker with the coaches before. Oscar Gamble and his afro are easy to spot as is pretty much everyone else. And this will be a split post so nothing on the checklist until the next one.

That was some team in ’54 and it’s pretty crazy how after all those wins it went down so fast to the Giants. Blame Willy Mays I guess. Here we go on the bio’s:

Leon “Daddy Wags” Wagner was covered on the Angels team post.

Carl Lind, first real name Henry, was a New Orleans guy through and through. He went to Tulane after high school where he played ball through ’25 – he was team captain in ’23 – and from the school photos of him appeared to have either also played hoops or run track. He was admitted to the school’s hall of fame in 1980 but there is no associated bio out there. Carl signed with Peoria in ’26 and in the B league that year hit .292 while playing shortstop. He then spent most of ’27 in A ball at Denver where he upped his average to .331 before playing a couple games in Double A and then being sold to the Indians for a September call-up. He only hit .135 in his few games but did nice work at second base and so was given the starting gig there in ’28. He did a nice job, leading the AL in at bats while hitting .294 and scoring 102 runs with 42 doubles. He returned to that role in ’29 and started off the season swimmingly defensively and after an April set against Detroit in which he recorded eight double plays was on a record pace for that statistic. But offensively he was in trouble and took until the end of May to get his average above .200. He’d contracted malaria in winter ball and it was surmised that his health was pretty bad for a bit. He spent the summer of ’29 on the DL and finished the year at .240 in 225 at bats. In ’30 it was more of the same except the Tribe sent him down much earlier, ending his career up top with a .272 average in 256 games. He finished out the year in A ball where he hit .307 and in ’31 hit only .226 in a season split between A and Double A. He hit .264 in A ball in ’32, his last regular season. For a short while he seems to have worked locally in the New Orleans area as a college hoops referee and may or may not have later coached at that level. Info on him pretty much dries up then and even baseball-reference has a tough time, indicating he died in both 1946 and 2001.

Earl Averill grew up in Snohomish, Washington where he played local rec ball until he had to leave school and work at age 15 in about 1917. He got re-involved with local ball around 1920 and was good enough that people in his hometown paid for him to go to Seattle for a tryout with a team loosely affiliated with the Indians in ‘24. He didn’t make the cut, joined a local team in Bellingham, WA, where he hit about .269 before upping that big to over .400 in ’25. That got him signed by the San Francisco Seals, the PCL powerhouse, where over the next three seasons Earl averaged about .342 on way over 200 hits – the PCL played about 190 games a year back then – and 27 homers as a center fielder. In ’29 he was sold to Cleveland and he was a huge hitter right off the bat, hitting .332 his rookie year, with 110 runs and 96 RBI’s. Earl would have a great ten-year run for the Tribe, during which he averaged .325 on about 190 hits, 115 runs, 37 doubles, 12 triples, 23 homers, and 108 RBI’s per year, including a ’35 season when he had to play with a blistered hand because a firecracker had gone of in it on July Fourth. He bounced big to have his biggest season in ’36 with a .378 average on an AL-leading 232 hits and 15 triples. In ’37 he developed a spinal condition that killed his stroke, though he continued to be the regular center fielder through ’38, hitting .330 that season. During the ’39 season he was traded to Detroit where he finished the year as the reular guy in left and in ’40 finally saw some post-season action as a reserve. He finished up with the Boston Braves in ’41 with a .318 average on 2,019 hits, 238 homers, 128 triples, and 1,164 RBI’s in about eleven full seasons. He went hitless in his Series at bats and made each of the first eight All-Star teams. He finished the ’41 season back in Seattle of the PCL – he hit .325 – and then retired from playing back to his hometown where he helped run the family greenhouse business. That he did until 1950 when he bought a motel that he ran the next twenty years. He retired in ’70, made the Hall in ’75, and passed away in ’83 from pneumonia at 81. He has a great bio linked to here.

Joe Jackson is covered on the White Sox team page.

Charlie Jamieson was a Jersey kid who grew up in Paterson (he went to the same high school as Larry Doby). Signed by Buffalo, a Double A team, in 1912 when he was 19, he kicked off his career as a pitcher and his first two years went a combined 27-17 with a 2.97 ERA. In ’14 he started putting in some outfield time and while his pitching stats fell a bunch to 3-8 and a 4.60 ERA, he hit .308 that year. In ’15 it was all outfield as he hit .307 in 138 games. He was sold to the Senators that September and hit .279 that final month. After another season-plus of little use he was selected off waivers by the A’s in July ’17. Though he got more regular time the rest of that season and the next his numbers weren’t so hot and prior to the ’19 season he went to Cleveland in a trade. That year he had to do after-war service work and he missed pretty much the whole season. But in ’20 he gradually worked his way into the regular spot in left, hit .319 and began his eleven seasons as the regular guy there. While with the Tribe he averaged .316 with a .390 OBA and about 89 runs a season. He had his biggest year in ’23 when he led the AL with 222 hits and hit .345. The next year he hit .359. He batted over .300 eight of his eleven full seasons and twice had over 200 hits. He wound things down in ’31 and ’32 and then played a final season in Jersey City in ’33 when he was 40. Charlie finished up top with a .303 average on 1,990 hits and hit .333 in six games in the ’20 Series. He also pitched a bit and went a combined 2-1 with a 6.19 ERA in 48 innings. While playing he frequently played in local fall leagues back in Jersey under an assumed name, though everybody knew it was him. He returned to the Paterson area full time where I have been unable to find what he did professionally. He passed away there in ’69 at age 76.

George Burns was called Tioga George after a town in PA near where he grew up in Philly to distinguish him from another George Burns who was playing when this George came up to The Show. After leaving school at 16 to play local ball, George eventually worked his way to the pros by the time he was 20 in ’13 in D and A ball out west, hitting .338 at the lower level and .301 at the higher one. He was sold to Detroit prior to the ’14 season and hit .291 his rookie year as the team’s regular first baseman. He remained with Detroit through ’17 putting up decent but unspectacular numbers, peaking in ’16 with a .286 average and 73 RBI’s. He was then sold to the Yankees and flipped to the A’s and hit .352 his first year in Philly on an AL-leading 178 hits. His average fell to .296 the next year and shortly into the ’20 season he was sold to Cleveland for his first round with the Tribe. While he barely played as a back-up first baseman he did hit .300 with three RBI’s in the Series that year. After another season of back-up work in ’21 – though he hit .361 with 49 RBI’s in 224 at bats – he was traded to Boston, took over first for the Sox, and averaged .317 with totals of 19 homers and 155 RBI’s his two seasons there. He then returned to the Tribe where he settled into a regular gig at first the next few years. After putting up comparable numbers to his Boston ones the next two seasons he broke out in an MVP ’26 season, hitting .358 with 115 RBI’s, an AL-leading 216 hits and a record-setting 64 doubles. After settling back to his pre-’26 level in ’27 – but with 51 doubles – he spent the next two seasons playing sparingly for Cleveland, the Yankees, and back with the A’s. He finished with MLB marks of .307 with 444 doubles, 72 homers, 952 RBI’s, and 2,018 hits. In the post-season he hit .250 in six games. Somehow while playing up top George also managed to manage – oops – teams in the minors his last three seasons. He did that again briefly in ’30 before that season moving out to play and then both manage and play in the PCL. He hit well out there for those super long seasons, averaging about .337 in his five years as a regular. He then relocated to Seattle full time and became a deputy in the sheriff’s department which he did through his retirement in ’68. He passed away early in ’78 from cancer at age 84. He has a SABR bio.

Al Rosen was a Jewish kid who was born in South Carolina and grew up in Florida where he played ball through bouts of asthma and boxed to defend his heritage. He became awfully good at both and after high school continued to do so at the University of Florida for a year. He left school in ’42 to play pro ball and signed with a D affiliate of the Indians where he hit .307 that summer. He then went into the Navy for WW II where he was in the Pacific Theater until early ’46. He returned that summer to C ball and hit .323 with 16 homers and 86 RBI’s and then moved to Double A the next year where he exploded with a .349/25/141 season and then got some token at bats that Fall with the Tribe as he would the next couple seasons. In both ’48 and ’49 he put up big numbers in Triple A before a mid-year call-up that second season. Initially in Cleveland Al had to play third behind Ken Keltner but in ’50 he finally gained the starting spot and, still a rookie, led the AL with a then rookie record 37 homers, hitting .287 with 116 RBI’s and a .405 OBA. In ’51 he disappointed himself with a .265/24/102 year but bounced in ’52 with a .302.28/105 season in which he led the AL in RBI’s. That was also the first of his four successive All-Star seasons. His MVP season came in ’53 when he narrowly missed the Triple Crown with a .335/43/145 season in which he lost the hitting title by .001 to Mickey Vernon. He also led the AL with 115 runs and had an OBA of .422. But Al had a bad back and after a ’54 season of .300/24/102 he faded pretty fast the next two seasons and voluntarily retired after the ’56 one. Al put up a .285 average with 192 homers and 717 RBI’s and .384 OBA in basically six full seasons. He only struck out about once every ten at bats, pretty good for a power guy. In the post-season he hit .231 in four games. After playing he became a broker in Cleveland with Bache and Company, a forerunner of what is now Prudential. He did that for 17 years while also coaching in the spring. He then left to work in casino management which he did until ’78 when he was hired to be GM of the Yankees, a frustrating task under the Boss. Al lasted through that year’s title and then quit in ’79 after being frustrated with his role (Sparky Lyle was not a fan in “The Bronx Zoo”) and then returned to casino management for a couple years. In ’80 he became GM of the Astros and though his time there was frustrating as well the team went 386-372 through ’85 when he left. He then took the same role in San Francisco where he helped revive the Giants to two playoff appearances and helped the team go 589-475 through ’92 when he retired to California, where he continues to reside. Al has a SABR page as well.

I always want to put an extra T in Hal Trosky’s name and turn him into a revolutionary but Hal actually had a pretty mellow youth while growing up on his dad’s farm in Iowa. A big three sports guy in high school, he was signed by a local scout of the Indians when he graduated in ‘31, hit .302 his first summer in D ball, and .322 in ’32 in a season split mostly between D and B ball. Hal batted cross-handed, a habit he continued in the majors. In ’33 he hit .323 with 33 homers in Double A and then .295 in his September call-up for the Tribe. His first play at first base he fielded a liner by Babe Ruth that was hit so hard it knocked his glove into right field. He then had a huge rookie year in ’34 during which he hit .330 with 35 homers and 142 RBI’s. In ’35 his numbers faded a bit to a .271/26/113 season. In ’36 he had his biggest year with a .343/42/162 season as his RBI total led the AL along with his total bases. The next three years he averaged .321/25/114 seasons but his playing time decreased each season as he began experiencing incapacitating migraine headaches. In ’40 his numbers dropped to .295/25/93 and his RBI totals coming in at under 100 bummed him a bunch. In ’41 as team captain he relegated himself to platoon work at first and after a .294/11/51 half-season he took himself out of the line-up full time to return to Iowa, farm for the war effort, and try to solve his headache issues. After sitting out all of ’42 and ’43 he returned in ’44 to play for the White Sox and as their first baseman hit .271 with ten homers and 70 RBI’s to lead the team. The headaches again took him out of action in ’45 and he returned to Chicago in ’46 to hit .254 in his final season. He finished with a .302 average, 228 homers, and 1,012 RBI’s. In ’47 he managed a local semi-pro team and for the next few seasons worked as a scout for the ChiSox. He continued farming through ’62 when he took a gig selling agricultural real estate, which he did a bit over ten years. He passed away of a heart attack at home in ’79 at age 66.eHHeHYeHJh

#521 - Ken Aspromonte/Indians Field Leaders

Ken Aspromonte is looking off to his right in Cleveland. He probably should have been looking over his shoulder because by the end of the ’74 season GM Phil Seghi and new player Frank Robinson were about to run him over to make history. ’73 was the second of three years Ken would run the Indians, only “running” was sort of a relative thing with Ken since in the clubhouse he ceded control to Gaylord Perry and his goon, John Ellis. The Indians had been on a downward spiral before Ken got there and in ’73 it was pretty much more of the same. They had some good young players in Chris Chambliss, Buddy Bell, and Charlie Spikes. And Perry was having a nice run as staff ace. But after him and young Dick Tidrow the rotation didn’t have much going for it. Defense was spotty and Perry wouldn’t let certain guys play behind him, including Spikes. That was too bad because Charlie was the RBI leader on the team and he didn’t get to play for Perry’s 40 starts. Plus the Yankees were sneaking in every couple years or so to raid the team of its talent, like when they got Graig Nettles right before the ’73 season and came back in a year to get Chambliss. That made things tough, even if Ken kept control of the clubhouse. His middle year the Indians went 71-91, a step back from ’72. Things would improve a bit in ’74 but history was coming.

Ken Aspromonte grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where he and his brother Bob played baseball at Lafayette High, the school that also produced Sandy Koufax. Ken got signed out of school by the Red Sox in ’50 and hit .295 that summer in D ball as a middle infielder. In ’51 and ’52 he put up comparable numbers in C ball and B and Double A ball respectively before hitting .243 in Triple A as a second and third baseman in ’53. He then spent the next two years in the service where during the Korean War he was a radio operator. When he returned in ’56 he went out west to join the San Francisco Seals its last two years, hitting .281 and .334 with 35 doubles each year. In September of ’57 he made his debut in Boston as a second baseman and hit .269 the rest of the way. In ’58 Pete Runnels took over second so Ken wasn’t going to play much and early that year he went to DC. For the next two seasons he split time at second, hitting .233 in 482 at bats. Early in ’60 he went to Cleveland for Pete Wisenant and had his best season, hitting .290 with ten homers, 48 RBI’s, and a .364 OBA in 459 at bats. He then got plucked by the new Senators in the expansion draft before getting traded to the other expansion team, the Angels, on the same day. He was traded for a guy named Coot Veal. His average faded to .223 as the early regular guy at second for LA and by July he was on the road back to Cleveland where he did back-up and pinch hit work the rest of the way. He occupied that role in ’62 with the Tribe and the Braves and then in ’63 with the Cubs. That finished his time up top where he had a .249 average and .330 OBA in just under 1,500 at bats. After finishing ’63 in Triple A for Chicago (.236 in 64 games), he moved to Japan where over the next three years he played for Chunichi and Taiyo and hit .273. He hit .281 in the minors stateside. He returned to the US in ’67 to coach and then manage in the Cleveland chain. From ’69 to ’71 he went 205-215 in the minors and prior to the ’72 season was elevated to the Indians.

Bolstered by Perry’s big ’72 Cy Young season, Aspromonte had a decent first year, going 72-84 and improving about 15 games on the prior year. But things kind of middled out in ’73 and then got a little exciting in ’74 when Perry went on a 15-game winning streak that helped put the Tribe at better than .500 into September. But a 6-15 finish ironically happened right after the team acquired a new DH in Robinson. By the time the season ended Ken had resigned in the wake of rumors that Robinson would take over the team as MLB’s first black manager. By ’76 Ken had relocated to the Houston area where he and his brother began what would become a very successful Coors distributorship and Burger King franchise business. According to a news report that business was sold off in 2000 but current business listings still have the brothers associated with Coors so maybe they bought it back or started a new one. Either way, it seems things in Houston worked out a lot better than things in Cleveland.

Clay Bryant grew up in Alabama where he was a pitcher in high school. In 1930 after he graduated he threw pretty well in a few innings in both D and A ball for local teams. He returned to throw semi-pro near home and then signed in ’32 with Cleveland, going 6-6 for its D level franchise. In ’33 he won 15 in C ball and in ’34 went 16-10 with a 3.48 ERA in B ball. Towards the end of that season he was sold to the Cubs and in’35 he debuted in Chicago, going 1-2 with a couple saves and a high ERA, also putting in some innings in the minors. In ’36 he went 1-2 again with a 3.30 ERA and then in ’37 went 9-3 in a swing role with a shutout and three saves. In ’38 he had his big year, going 19-11 with a 3.10 ERA and leading the NL in both walks and strikeouts. He got a Series start against the Yankees but lost the game. Early the next year he hurt his arm and his back and by ’40 he was out of the majors. Up top he went a combined 32-20 with a 3.73 ERA, 23 complete games, four shutouts, and seven saves. He was a good hitter, hitting .266 with 28 RBI’s and 48 runs in 192 at bats. His post-season record was 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA. He returned to the minors to pitch, but despite going 4-4 with a 1.70 ERA in a few starts in ’42 his arm was toast. He finished at that level 51-45 with a 2.99 ERA and a .283 batting average. He moved into managing in ’44 in the Browns chain and then began a long run in the Dodgers one from ’45 to ’64, except for ’61 when he was a coach for LA, and ’63 when he was a scout. In ’65 he moved to the Cleveland system where he was a roving coach, manager (’66, ’68-’69, and ’72), scout (’70 –’72), and Indians coach (’67 and ’74). He won over 1,800 games as a manager. He was dismissed when Robinson took over as manager and then scouted for a few different teams before settling in Florida. His son Chuck was a big deal football player in Ohio who still holds some Ohio State receiving records and played a year in the NFL. Clay passed away in Fort Lauderdale in ’99 at age 87.

Antonio Pacheco was born outside Havana, Cuba, and began his playing career in the US in ’49, when he was 21. Antonio was a second baseman and his first two seasons in D ball he hit .246 and .293. He got picked up by the Senators in ’51 and spent the next three seasons with their Havana franchise, a B level team. The best he hit at that level was .233 and in ’53 he got into a couple Triple A games, but that was as far up as he got. He hit .250 at that level in ’54 in a few games but spent the rest of his playing career in the lower minors and was done by ’56. He finished with a .236 average. His last year he began coaching and by ’58 was managing in the Cincinnati system, which he did through ’59. He then scouted for the Reds (’60-’61) and the Astros (’62-’65). He then managed in the Houston chain from ’66 to ’72 and in the Cleveland one in ’73 and ‘75. Like Clay above, Antonio had a one-year run in ’74 with the Indians before Robinson dropped him. He then returned to Houston where he coached for the Astros (’76-’79 and ’82) and scouted for the team (’80-’81 and 83-’86). Late in the ’86 season he became ill – I cannot tell with what since the newspaper accounts are all in Spanish – but it was quite serious as he passed away the next year at age 59.

In the book “The Curse of...” there are a couple chapters devoted to the time immediately before and after Frank Robinson’s time as manager. In it Robinson indicated that one of the reasons he got rid of the coaching staff – which included Larry Doby, who nearly beat him in being named manager – was that he noticed in the locker room that the team seemed to segregate itself along racial lines. Doby would sit at one end with the black players and Aspromonte and the other guys would sit at the other end of the clubhouse. Robinson thought the coaches should all sit with the manager regardless of ethnic background. I guess that was New Age thinking back then. Ken also had the luck of being the Cleveland manager during the ten-cent beer night fiasco and he and his players had to arm themselves with baseball bats to help try to rescue the Texas Rangers from the Cleveland fans’ beer-inspired ire. That must have been fun.

So we return to the double hook-up. First for Ken Aspro as manager:

1. Aspromonte managed Oscar Gamble on the ’73 to ‘74 Indians;

2. Gamble and Tim McCarver ’70 to ’72 Phillies.

Now for Ken as a player. The above connection just gets extended:

1. Aspromonte and Jim Perry ’60 Indians;

2. Perry and Oscar Gamble ’74 Indians;

3. Gamble and Tim McCarver ’70 to ‘72 Phillies.