#630 - Tommie Agee

Back to the final cards, and in this case the plural works two ways. For the record of the last eight non-team cards in this set, six have been the final ones issued during those players’ careers. And Tommie Agee gets to go out with a double, just like Felipe Alou did a bunch of posts back. These aren’t great cards – Tommie looks pretty unhappy as a Cardinal and that look up on his Traded card could be years old. But he did have some great ones. In ’71 he slides into second as Joe Morgan and (I think) Dennis Menke try to get a ball that appears trapped in Tommie’s underarm while the umpire – in a uniform out of 1920 – looks like he’s about to signal an out, which would make no sense. I think that one gets topped in ’73 when Tommie is making a catch in center with Rusty Staub – our last post subject – jogging over from right and (again, I believe) Ken Boswell doing a crossover in back of another ump in a photo in which all three guys – a record? – had to be air-brushed because Tommie went to Houston before that season. He’d been having a rough time since about mid-’71 when extensive knee pain took away lots of his power and a year later his speed. And though he spent less than half his career in a Mets uniform, it is odd to see him out of it. His last year really was his last year – no more stats after the ones on this card – and after the trade mentioned above sort of fell flat. Despite hitting well in a couple early starts in left field for Houston, the dereliction of his knees contributed to most of his time being spent in reserve work where it was difficult to maintain a consistent average and the strikeouts- Tommie always had a problem with those – were a bit high for the decreased power production. By mid-August he was the team’s fifth outfielder and was soon after traded to St. Louis for infielder Dave Campbell. With the Cards Tommie got some starts in center – he was acquired because regular guys Jose Cruz and Luis Melendez were hurt and stopped hitting, repectively – but the average continued to taper. After the season the Dodgers got super busy in early December with trades. Their long-time starter in center, Willie Davis, was sent to Montreal for big-inning reliever Mike Marshall and Tommie was acquired in this trade to fill the gap. But the next day his former teammate Jimmy Wynn was picked up by LA for pitcher Claude Osteen. Jimmy would have a monster season in helping LA to the Series while Tommie wouldn’t get out of spring training. So he returned to NY, just not as a baseball player.

Tommie Agee grew up in and around Mobile, Alabama, where in high school he was a star in the big three sports plus track. In football while he was a three-year starter his team lost only one game. He was an end while future Mets teammate Cleon Jones was a halfback. In baseball he was an outfielder/pitcher and his senior year of ’60 he hit .390. He then went to Grambling on a baseball scholarship where he added first base to the above positions and hit .533 his one season before being signed by Cleveland for a big bonus. In D ball the rest of the summer he hit .261 with 15 homers and 40 RBI’s in under half a season. Tommie almost always hit from the top of the line-up and was super fast. In ’62 he moved up to B ball where he put up a .258/7/55 line with ten triples and 25 stolen bases before a couple games in Triple A and then his first look in Cleveland. In ’63 he moved to Double A where he experienced his first lost time from his knee, had a line of .274/5/36 in just under 300 at bats, stole 19, and recorded his best OBA of .354. He also returned to Cleveland at the end of the season for look number two. Then in ’64 it was off to Triple A Portland where he became a slugger with his .272/20/62 line with 35 steals but 144 K’s. After his third late crack at the Cleveland outfield he, young pitcher Tommy John, and John Romano went to the White Sox as part of a three-team deal in which Cam Carreon went to Cleveland (from Chicago); Mike Hershberger, Jim Landis, and Fred Talbot went to KC (from Chicago); and Rocky Colavito returned to Cleveland (from KC).

Initially, Chicago smelled a lot like Cleveland for Agee. He began the season in Triple A, where his .226/8/33 line was a significant discount to his prior season and his September call-up worked about as well as his previous ones did. But in ’66 Tommie had a real good camp and in the wake of Danny Cater’s trade to KC, incumbent center fielder Ken Berry moved to Cater’s spot in left opening up center for Tommie, who made the most of his opportunity. Still a rookie, he led the Sox in runs (98), hits, doubles, triples, homers, RBI’s, average, and stolen bases (44). He made the All-Star team, won a Gold Glove, and finally was named AL Rookie of the Year. ’67 would be a mixed year though. While Tommie hit OK during the season’s first half and again was an All-Star, he had a nasty slump in the second half which was pretty lousy timing since the Sox went to the wire on the pennant. After the season he was on the move again, this time to the Mets with infielder Al Weiss for Tommy Davis, Jack Fisher, and a couple minor leaguers.

While Agee’s first year in a new town was better than the last time he tried that trick, it wasn’t by much. Acquired to finally fill a defensive hole in center that had been there since pretty much the Mets themselves had, and to add some pop to the top of the line-up, Tommie did pretty well in the former department but pretty badly in the latter. Off to a pretty good start at the plate he ran into an early wall in that monster 24-inning game against Houston in which he went 0 for 10 to begin a season-long slump that didn’t allow him to break .200 until the last couple weeks. He went from being the everyday center fielder to missing starts and his RBI total was pretty horrendous as he came in with north of 100 strikeouts. But ’69 was a whole new year and Tommie put up his best stats since his ROY season. While he was still toting a high K total – 137 that year – he delivered in the role for which he was acquired while scoring 97 runs. Then came his headline-worthy post-season in which he hit .357 with two homers against Atlanta and then had those two circus catches against Baltimore that saved a game in the Series. As another reward Tommie was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year. ’70 was better for Tommie personally as he improved in runs (107), hits, doubles, triples, stolen bases (31 vs. 12), and average and won his second Gold Glove. By the end of the year, though, his knees were causing him some serious pain and in ’71 Tommie missed a combined six weeks to injury. He kept his average up there and stole 28 bases but his power subsided quite a bit. In ’72 he missed time to both injury and the return of Willie Mays as that year the average and the stolen base total (8) fell prey to his knees. Following the season he was sent to Houston for Rich Chiles and Buddy Harris. After the ’73 season he was done, finishing with the stats on the back of this card and 167 stolen bases. In the post-season he hit .250 with three homers, five RBI’s, and three steals in his eight games.

Agee had while still a Met purchased an interest in The Outfield Lounge, a bar pretty close to Shea Stadium in Queens. After he was done playing he pretty much took it over as a full-time pursuit. He was also heavily involved in local PR events for the Mets and other NYC youth programs. He then became associated with a company called Stewart Title Insurance with whom he was working while attending a meeting in NYC in 2001. It was there he was stricken with a heart attack that would prove fatal. Tommie was only 58. A year later he was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. He has a SABR bio.

Tommie gets a big number and a big star bullet on his card back. Those catches robbed Andy Etchebarren and Paul Blair (who just recently passed away) of multi-base hits that would have likely driven in five runs. When he was traded to the Sox it was part of an arranged deal. The Tribe wanted Rocky Colavito back and he was in the hands of the A’s. Chicago wanted catcher John Romano because he hit with some power although his defense was very suspect. Cleveland told Chicago they could get Romano if they picked up Colavito which they were able to do principally because he’d had a big ’64 and wanted a raise and KC owner Charlie O Finley didn’t want to pay. So Cleveland got Rocky, Chicago got Romano, and the two throw-ins to the deal from the Cleveland side were Tommie – whose stats are all above – and a guy who won 286 more games.

Tommie had a one-day run as LA’s newest center fielder. Ah well.

By mid-August of ’73 most of the big names had already testified before the Senate Committee, which was still pursuing some of the tapes from the White House:

8/15/73 – President Nixon delivers a televised address for the first time in three months. In it he indicated it was time to stop using Watergate as a diversion and/or an obstacle to getting real work done, notably dealing with inflation and Viet Nam. He opined that “it (was) clear that both the hearings themselves and some of the commentaries on them have become increasingly absorbed in an effort to implicate the President personally in the illegal activities that took place” in another clear indication of his belief of myriad conspiracies against him. He reminded people that he already accepted responsibility for abuses that occurred during his administration but then also reminded everyone that he was innocent of all activities related to the scandal. He reiterated that he would not turn in any tapes on the basis of national security. The presentation didn’t go terribly well; the next day a poll revealed that 31% of the populace were in favor of the President’s job performance, a 20-year low in that poll.

As that ’73 card of Tommie’s illustrated, this is an easy hook-up:

1. Agee and Rusty Staub ’72 Mets.

#620 - Al Downing

This guy is the first black Yankees starting pitcher, which is crazy since he was still active at the time of this set. The Yankees were pretty slow to embrace the whole Jackie Robinson thing that was going on across town and was one of the last to integrate their team, pretty surprising given the stars the two other NY teams picked up once that went down. Al Downing was a big power pitcher when he came up with NY and at the time of this card he was pretty much moving from a starting role to a relief one that would take him to the end of his career in LA. It was very likely that by the time this card came out Al had given up Hank Aaron’s 715^th homer which would help to immortalize him – Al – for a while in not a great way. But he was a lot more than a one trick guy anyway. Here he shows his follow through at a very lush spring training site.

Al Downing grew up playing baseball in Trenton, NJ, where as a teenager he helped take his Babe Ruth team to a national championship. After high school he helped establish a local PAL team that won a state championship and did some national touring. He also attended Rider College at that time and after his first year there, late in 1960, he was signed by the Yankees. He pitched well in A ball the following summer, going 9-1 with a 1.84 ERA in twelve starts and earned a call-up to NY that July, just after his 20^th birthday. He didn’t pitch terribly much, though, and in ’62 he spent the season in Triple A were he worked out some control issues while going 9-13 with a 4.10 ERA and 180 strikeouts in 169 innings. He tossed a no-hitter that year. In ’63 a strong start at that level – 3-2 with a 2.68 ERA and 64 K’s (with 45 walks) in 57 innings – got him promoted to The Bronx for good. He had a pretty excellent rookie year, leading the AL both in least amounts of hits and most strikeouts per nine innings and made his Series debut in the loss to the Dodgers. In ’64 Al pulled a Nolan Ryan by leading the AL in both walks and strikeouts and recorded a couple saves in his only two relief appearances. In ’65 and ’66 he pitched well for a couple teams in fast decline mode, but his K totals were waning a bit as he was beginning to have shoulder and elbow soreness. He then posted his best NY season in ’67 as he made the All-Star team, put up four shutouts, and recorded his best wins and season-long ERA as a Yankee. But things got tough early in ’68 when he began having severe elbow issues, missed a bunch of games, and did some rehab work in the minors. A visit during the season to the Mayo Clinic resulted in an odd diagnosis: Al suffered from narcolepsy – he had always had trouble sleeping at night and keeping awake in the afternoon – and when he fell asleep in odd positions it was nearly always on his left elbow. It was from this point on that he stopped being a power pitcher and became a control guy, specializing in a curve and a change-up. In ’69 he was able to put in a full season as a spot guy, getting 15 starts in his 30 games. After the season he was sent to Oakland for first baseman Danny Cater.

Downing’s first year away from NY wasn’t exactly rosy. Still dealing with arm issues, his walks and ERA were a bit fat and in May he was on the move again, this time to Milwaukee with Tito Francona for Steve Hovley, an outfielder who received considerable coverage in “Ball Four.” With the Brewers, Al’s ERA was impressive but the walks stayed high and the resulting record was pretty ugly. He then hit the road again, moving to LA for outfielder Andy Kosco. Good trade for the Dodgers as Al put together his best season as he led the NL in shutouts and his off-speed stuff took him to 20 wins, third place in the NL Cy Young voting, and his league’s Comeback Player of the Year. He remained in the rotation the next two seasons, became a spot guy in ’74 and ’75, and closed things out with two more years of long relief work, finishing in ’77 with a 123-107 record, 3.22 ERA, 73 complete games, 24 shutouts, and three saves. In the post-season he was 0-3 with a 4.87 ERA in six games.

Downing remained in the LA area and the Dodger family for a considerable time after he played. He became a radio and television broadcaster, most of the time for the Dodgers. From ’78 to ’91 he broadcast either radio or cable games for the team. He then spent three years hosting DodgerTalk on KABC Radio before hooking up with CBS to do games nationally from ’94 to ‘97. He returned to do radio work for a couple years before announcing for the Braves in 2000. Than it was back to LA, initially to take over a post-game show while the regular announcer, Ross Porter, recovered from sinus surgery. Al then did some radio show work until he returned to color work in 2005 and then retired from announcing in 2006. Since then he has remained affiliated as part of the LA speakers bureau and he has done a bunch of community and baseball camp work. 

Al’s signature sort of falls apart at the end there, doesn’t it? The game referred to in the star bullet was against Cleveland and was a complete game win in which he struck out twelve batters. Al had a 1-2-3 inning in the first as well so the three batters he struck out – Tony Horton, Don Demeter, and Duke Sims – were the heart of the Indians’ order.

All that April Watergate stuff noted in the past few posts led up to this:

4/30/73 – H.R. Haldeman, John Erlichman, and Richard Kleindienst resigned from their positions on the White House staff and John Dean was fired. President Nixon made these announcements while declaring himself to be responsible for any Watergate activity that emanated from the White House and indicating that nobody was above the law, though later actions would pretty much repudiate his thoughts on both of those statements. Nixon gave both Erlichman and Haldeman sterling reviews for their actions while on his staff and, as Dean had predicted earlier, basically through Dean under the bus. Elliott Richardson, who was the Secretary of Defense, was named to fill Kleindienst’s spot as Attorney General and was immediately charged with finding “the whole truth” about Watergate. Leonard Garment was chosen to replace Dean as Special Counsel to the President. Gordon Strachan also resigned as Special Counsel to the United States Information Agency; Strachan had been Haldeman’s assistant during Nixon’s first term. These resignations came immediately after some other high-profile ones in recent days: Jeb Stuart Magruder as deputy campaign director of CREEP; Dwight Chapin as presidential appointments secretary; and Chuck Colson, another Special Counsel to the President. Colson was probably the most interesting character amongst the resignees. He was heavily involved in lobbying interests, both those initiated and received from various constituencies in the White House. Privately, he was known as Nixon’s “hit man”, and would both author and become heavily involved in campaigns to discredit or harm – sometimes physically – deemed White House opponents (John Kerry was an early target).

Back in baseball, a HOF cusp guy gets us the hook-up:

1. Downing and Dick Allen ’71 Dodgers;

2. Allen and Mike Anderson ’75 Phillies.

#610 - Dave Kingman

In the spring and early summer of ’76 this guy was a big deal in NY, my first summer working in the city. He was banging homer after homer and I am pretty sure went into the Al-Star break on a pace that was ahead of Roger Maris’s one in ’61. The tabloids loved his big homers and his big strikeouts and called him Kong. It was a big name and a big stage for a big guy who was actually pretty quiet. That was a few seasons away from this photo in which we get to see the mighty swing on what I would bet was a missed pitch. Dave had sort of arrived in ’72 with a pretty big homer and RBI total despite having less than a full season. But between playing positions at which the Giants were nominally well stocked – first base and the outfield – and his high strikeout totals, playing time was hard to come by early in ’73. His preferred position was actually third base and things should have gone Dave’s way when at the beginning of the season San Francisco had finally had enough of Al Gallagher and sent him to California. And Willie McCovey was starting to show his age at first so even though fellow young guys Ed Goodson and Gary Thomason were competent enough at those two positions, respectively, Dave should have had enough time to get in his starts. The trouble was that when he did start it didn’t go terribly well. He was uneven at best at third and by late August he was buried in a season-long offensive rut, hitting .183 with eleven homers and 27 RBI’s, including a hitless August by that point. But Dave was a streaky guy and from August 26th on he put up a line of .237/13/28 in just 114 at bats. Goodson helped him out a bunch by going down with a shattered thumb and fully half of Dave’s hits during that run were homers. When the Giants traded Willie to the Padres Dave was feeling pretty good about getting more playing time. That would happen but with a whole other club.

Dave Kingman moved around a bunch as a kid. Born in Oregon, he also lived in Colorado and California before he settled in a suburb of Chicago for high school. There Dave played hoops and baseball with Tom Lundstedt from a few posts earlier, and was a wide receiver and d-back in football. Dave was a big boy and his high school stats his senior year -  a .339/5/15 line in 19 games and a 7-4/1.60 mound line with 121 K’s (and 71 walks) in 67 innings – got him drafted the spring of ’67 in the second round by the Angels. But Dave wanted to go to school where he could ideally play hoops as well and he went to Harper College, a local two-year school. While there he got noticed by the Orioles, who drafted him in January ‘68, and by USC and its fabled coach, Rod Dedeaux. Dave turned down the O’s but not Dedeaux, who gave him the same deal he gave Tom Seaver a few years earlier: play summer ball in Alaska against some major college talent and if it works you’re good. So that summer Dave was a Goldpanner and while he didn’t do anything crazy great – he hit .154 and was 3-0 with three saves but a 5.46 ERA and many more walks than K’s – he was intriguing enough to get to Southern Cal. His sophomore year he pitched, pretty well too as he went 11-4 with a 1.38 ERA and 88 K’s in 85 innings. He also hit .250 with four homers and 16 RBI’s in his 22 games. When he returned to Alaska that summer his numbers were much better as well with a .323/6/16 hitting line and a 7-3/3.29 pitching one. His walks were still pretty high, though, and in ‘70 Dedeaux restricted Dave to offense. He was killing the ball at over .500 when he got involved in a nasty collision that broke his arm and tore ligaments in his leg. But those USC seasons were long and though Dave missed 30 games he still got into 32 in which his .353/8/26 line got him named second-team PAC-8 and first-team All-American. This time when he got drafted – again in the first round by the Giants – he signed. That summer in Double A he continued to hit at a nice clip, going .295/15/41 in 210 at bats, but with 64 K’s. That year he played both infield corners but was pretty challenged at third. Signs of things to come. In ’71 he moved up to Triple A where his line of .278/26/99 in only 392 at bats got him up to San Francisco by late July.

Though as noted above Kingman was a quiet guy, he made some noise with his bat and his second game up he hit a run-scoring double and then a grand slam in a barn-burner against the Pirates. He would spend the rest of the year primarily spelling Willie McCovey at first and got everyone excited with his big bangers. He didn’t hit too great in the playoffs but he came out of the box strong in ’72 while splitting time between his three positions. He put up six homers in April but started showing his streaky side with bouts of big hits and dry spells. His final power numbers were pretty good but not enough to get him a regular position since the Giants already had a player with fat strikeout totals in Bobby Bonds. After the ’73 experience Dave had a nearly similar ’74: lots of K’s and lots of errors – his fielding average at third was below .800  - leading to lots of bench time with bouts of big power. His line was .223/18/55. After that season he was sold to the Mets for $150,000.

When Kingman got to NY the original plan was to have him back up Rusty Staub, Cleon Jones, and Del Unser in the outfield as well as John Milner and Ed Kranepool at first. But Jones was coming back from a knee surgery that would help tank his career so Dave and Milner pretty much split left field while Milner’s time away from first gave Dave time there as well. He did his thing, setting a Mets record with 36 homers, knocked in 88, and hit .231 with 153 K’s. The next year he played the outfield much more and started on a pretty good tear with 27 homers by the end of June and 30 by the All-Star break, to which he was voted a starter. But shortly after the game Dave went down with a broken thumb and missed the next six weeks. By the end of the season his .238/37/87 line represented a new Mets homer record. Then things got weird in ’77 and started in training camp when he broke his nose and also got dinged in the foot by a pitching machine. That second one robbed him of his power and though Dave played regularly in his two spots and hit .300 the first month, he only had nine homers and 28 RBI’s when he was part of the big June purge NY enacted and went to San Diego for Bobby Valentine and Paul Siebert. With the Padres he returned to form with eleven homers and 39 RBI’s in his 168 at bats but he was placed on waivers anyway when he indicated he would need major bucks to sign as a free agent. The same thing happened with California, who quickly signed him and for which he had one good game. He spent the last couple weeks with the Yankees, ending the season as the first guy to play for a team in each division and with a homer for four teams in the same season. He signed too late with NY for post-season work though.

After the ’77 season the Yankees wanted Kingman but the Cubbies got him with a four-year million dollar deal. He fit into that Chicago line-up pretty well because the team had plenty of contact hitters and was able to absorb the big K totals. Dave absorbed some of that himself because his average picked up quite a bit while there. In ‘78 his line was .266/28/79 even though he missed nearly a month with a pulled hamstring. In ’79 he was healthy all year and responded with the best line of his career with a .288/48/115 as he returned to the All-Star game and led MLB in homers. In '80 he appeared headed for the same type of numbers when he slipped on a bat in late May and damaged his shoulder when he fell. He missed a bunch of time though he did return to the All-Star game and put up a line of .278/18/57 in just 255 at bats. Following that season he returned to the Mets for Round 2 in a trade for outfielder Steve Henderson. The Mets moved Dave to first and away from Chicago his average returned to its normal submerged level. In the strike season of ‘81 his line was .221/22/59 and in a full ’82, .204/37/99, a season in which he infamously – as NL home run leader – had a lower average than Cy Young winner Steve Carlton. In ’83 he was off to a crappy offensive start when a mid-year acquisition of Keith Hernandez moved Dave to some right field and pinch-hitting duties the rest of the season. After posting a .198/13/29 line he was released. Early in ’84 he was signed by Oakland and the team put Dave in his most natural defensive spot – DH. There he had a big year, winning the AL Comeback Player award with a .268/35/118 line while bolstering a young offense. His average slipped a bit the next two years but not his power as he hit over 30 homers each season, closing with 35 in ’86, his last year. He finished with a .236 average, 442 homers, and 1,210 RBI’s. He also had 1,816 K’s – about one every 3.7 at bats - and a .302 OBA, both which seem destined to keep him out of the Hall. In the post-season he hit .111 in his four games. He is currently 38th all-time in homers and 15^th in homers per at bat.

Kingman seems to have lived a pretty quiet life since he retired. He played a season in the Senior League and eventually relocated to the Lake Tahoe area where he was running his own tennis club in 2008 according to an article in The Daily News. He has since been spotted at card shows and other baseball-related events where he is widely regarded as charming and outgoing.

Dave’s only bit of MLB pitching was in ’73, in which he gave up four runs, six walks, and rang up four strikeouts in four innings of work. That homer in the cartoon broke Dave’s drought and was hit in an August game against Ray Sadecki, giving Ron Bryant his 20th win. Dave had four RBI’s in the game. He also had that monster shot at Wrigley and could hit massive pop flies and foul balls as well. A couple times at Shea he also hit balls that landed in the parking lot behind home plate. Dave has his own site at which you will find more info about his career than you could possibly want to know.

One of the bigger trades from this set helps here:

1. Kingman and Juan Marichal ’71 to ’73 Giants;

2. Marichal and Rico Petrocelli ’74 Red Sox.

#604 - '74 Rookie Infielders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Palmer and Dick Drago ’77 Orioles;

3. Drago and Terry Hughes ’74 Red Sox;

Then we get a pretty efficient ‘round the card:

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

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

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

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

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

#535 - Bobby Tolan

Given the palm trees in the background this must be a spring training shot. But from the look on Bobby Tolan’s face it could be taken from last September. Bobby had about the worst year of anyone in this set – given his past achievements – in ’73 this side of Steve Blass. After his pretty huge comeback in ’72 he began ’73 strongly enough and was still north of his ’72 average in early May. But then came a big swoon which may or may not have been instigated by more leg issues and by late June he was down to Mendoza levels. It was also around then that he was moved to right field in a switch with Cesar Geronimo. He then began to lose at bats as he got pinch hit for late in games and did a bit of that himself so new guys Ken Griffey and Ed Armbrister could get some looks. In August he got into a shouting match with the director of player personnel over Bobby’s facial hair and as a result he was banned from the team for a bunch of games. Then in mid-September he was suspended by the team for the rest of the year, thereby missing the post-season. Marvin Miller filed a grievance on his behalf but Bobby was sent packing to the Padres for Clay Kirby. So Bobby had lots of reasons to look the way he does in this photo. Having a glow-in-the-dark air-brushed hat to boot just seals the deal.

Bobby Tolan grew up in LA where he went to Fremont High and was teammates with Bob Watson and Willie Crawford. Signed by the Pirates his senior year he hit .271 as a first baseman that summer in A ball. He was then selected by the Cards that winter in the first year draft who moved Bobby to the outfield and Double A. He had a nice season in ’64, hitting .297 with a .369 OBA with 68 RBI’s and 34 stolen bases. In ’65 he moved to Triple A and the top spot of the order, hitting .290 with 45 stolen bases. He also made his St. Louis debut that September. In ’66 he hit .333 to start the year in Triple A, got some mid-season time in St. Louis, missed some time for military service – as he would the next couple years – and finished the season in Triple A. In ’67 and ’68 he worked around his military time to be the club’s fourth outfielder behind Lou Brock, Roger Maris, and Curt Flood. While he was a bit frustrated for a lack of playing time, he did get to go to two Series and won a ring in ’67. After that second year the Cards were looking for a veteran to replace the retired Maris and they traded Bobby and Wayne Granger to the Reds for Vada Pinson.

Tolan began the ’69 season as the everyday guy in right field and by about midway through he moved to center. The deal worked out quite well for Cincinnati as Bobby hit .305 with 26 stolen bases and got his power groove on with lifetime highs in homers and RBI’s. In ’70 he moved to the top of the order again and finished that year with lifetime highs in average, OBA (.384), and stolen bases, with an NL-leading 57. He returned to the post-season this time as a starter and got on base at about a .385 clip. After that season the Reds put together a barnstorming basketball team – Pete Rose, Lee May, and Wayne Simpson were also on it – of which Bobby was the star. At least he was until he ruptured his Achilles tendon. That injury kept him out of baseball for all of ’71 and was the biggest contributor to the Reds big bust that year. By spring training of ’72 he was mostly healed and he would have an excellent return, hitting .283 with 42 steals and 82 RBI’s to again help lead the Reds to the playoffs. That year he was a big RBI guy as he put up ten in 12 games and also stole five bases. After the misery of ’73 he was traded to San Diego in November with Dave Tomlin for Clay Kirby.

When Tolan got to San Diego he moved to right field since the Padres had young guy Johnny Grubb in center. That first year Bobby was a soothing presence for fellow new Padre Derrell Thomas and though his speed was clearly compromised – indicated by a severe decline in steals and lending more credence to his leg being hurt in ’73 – he had a bit of an offensive recovery, pulling his average up 60 points and hitting more doubles and scoring more runs even though his at bats were lighter by about 100. That happened because in July he had to have knee surgery after messing it up on a catch in foul territory. In ’75 he returned and was moved to left field in a switch with Dave Winfield. That year he made it through the season relatively unscathed and hit .255. He was released after the season and signed with the Phillies. He had returned to first base a bit during the ’75 season and in ’76 he got most of his field time there, splitting time with Dick Allen. He turned in a decent season, hitting .261 with 35 RBI’s in 272 at bats. In ’77 the Phillies picked up Richie Hebner to play first and Bobby, after a few at bats, got released and then signed by Pittsburgh, for whom he pinch hit the rest of the year. In ’78 he went to Japan to play for the Nankai Hawks for a season where he joined Carlos May. He then returned to the States and in ’79 hit .284 for the Puerto Rico team of the short-lived Inter-American League. He then re-signed with San Diego where he finished up the season and his career as a pinch hitter. Bobby finished with a .265 average with 86 homers, 497 RBI’s, and 193 stolen bases. In the post-season he hit .253 with 13 RBI’s and seven stolen bases in 27 games.

Tolan immediately began a coaching career following his playing one, beginning by coaching third base for the Padres in 1980. He moved to first base and hitting coach where he remained through ’83 and then managed two seasons in the minors. In ’86 he moved to the Seattle system as a hitting instructor: in the minors that year and in Seattle in ’87. In ’88 and ’89 he managed in the Baltimore system and then moved on to manage in the Senior Leagues, winning the only title that league ever had. He then shows up sporadically in managing and coaching gigs: in ’99 he managed the Nashua Pride; in 2005 he coached the Bristol Sox and in 2006 managed the Great Falls Sox. In 2008 he reappeared in headlines when his son Robbie, a draftee of the Washington Nationals, was shot in his driveway in Texas after being mistaken for a car thief. There was lots of controversy around the event with the Tolans claiming racial profiling led to an overly aggressive use of force. Robbie’s career ended shortly thereafter and the cop was acquitted but a civil suit is still on. Bobby still does card shows and has begun an eponymous local league that has its own site. As a manager he has gone 309-309.

That first star bullet is interesting because Bobby did not make the MLB All-Star team and was not part of the game roster in 1970. However he was named to The Sporting News NL All-Star team at the end of the season. In ’72 he also won the Hutch Award. Eddie Tolan has been variously listed as Bobby’s cousin or uncle. He won both the 100 and 200 sprints in the ’32 Olympics after setting both high school and college records while going to school in and around Detroit. Initially he wanted to be a doctor but funds were hard to come by for his schooling during the Depression. He won some professional meets in Australia in ’35 and worked for various municipalities until he passed away in ’67 at 59 from a heart ailment. Eddie was described as “bulky” when he was a runner: he topped out at about 135.

These guys missed each other on the Phillies by a few years:

1. Tolan and Mike Schmidt ’76 to ’77 Phillies;

2. Schmidt and Eddie Watt ’74 Phillies.  eHHeHYeHJh

#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.

#503 - Eric Soderholm

The next guy in line to give us one of the go-to poses is Eric Soderholm, who shows us his stance at what may be Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, though I think we are really back in spring training land. Eric’s pose could actually be a lead-in to the photo of his ’73 card though they’re in different settings. Eric came out of 1973 a lot better off than when he went in. Though he’d put up some pretty nice minor league numbers – especially in ’71 – he couldn’t get his MLB average above Mendoza levels. Plus defensively he’d been groomed to be the replacement shortstop for Leo Cardenas though a lot of scouts said he couldn’t handle that position up top. So even though he generated some pretty good fielding totals he was initially viewed as a disappointment when he came up to play third since the Twins already had plenty of guys who could play there. So he spent a bunch of the season back in Triple A Tacoma where his numbers were OK, but not crazy great. Still he got more time to learn third base and when he returned to Minnesota, though his power was a little light, he did keep his average right around .300 for pretty much the whole season. By the time this card came out he was the team’s regular guy at the hot corner.

Eric Soderholm grew up in Dade County in Florida where he had a big year as a junior shortstop for Coral Park High School in Miami. Scouts were after him big but after a weak senior year Eric moved way down priority-wise and wasn’t drafted his senior year of ’66. He was a little guy and he was able to go to South Georgia College on a fellowship deal wherein he got a ride but he had to put lots of work time in on campus to help pay for it. His first couple months there he bulked up to 175 and that got KC interested enough to draft him in June ‘67 in the eleventh round. But with no offered bonus Eric stayed in school. There is some media noise that he was an All-American while there but in a school publication it appears the best he reached was as a JUCO honorable mention his sophomore/senior year of ’68. Still both years his school won the state JUCO championship and he must have done something right because in the spring of ’68 the Twins made him a first rounder. He didn’t disappoint, hitting 12 homers in under 300 at bats the rest of that summer in A ball and then poking 43 RBI’s on less than 200 at bats at that level the next year. He then hit .294 in a short stop that year at another team at the same level before he ran into a bit of a wall in Double A. But his overall stats were quite good and included 18 stolen bases against only one time caught and a .380 OBA. By then he was pushing 190 and was thought to be too big for shortstop so he began ’70 playing strictly third in A ball before moving up to Triple A where he again put in most of his games at shortstop and picked up his offense significantly. In ’71 his third base experience worked out better at the higher level as he set a league mark with four grand slams and had his best power year. That September he got called up to Minnesota.

Soderholm had a great debut, hitting a homer in his second at bat but the rest of the month his numbers faded a bunch. They didn’t get any better in ’72 average-wise but his power was pretty good in a season split at third with Steve Braun. After moving around in ’73 he came back the next year to take pretty much sole possession of the position, putting up some nice defensive work while hitting .276 with 51 RBI’s. In ’75 he was rolling to a better season when he was out driving on an off day to look at some property he was considering buying and fell in a storm drain, breaking three ribs and tearing the crap out of his knee. It was too bad for the Twins because he was hitting .286 at the time with better power numbers across the board on less at bats than the prior year. The initial fix on the knee was to remove some cartilage and go from there. But Eric could not move laterally on the knee in ’76 spring training so he again went under the knife and had a bunch more cartilage removed, losing the entire season. That November he left town as a free agent.

In ’77 Bill Veeck was back running the show for the White Sox and he was a big fan of reclamation projects so he signed Soderholm to have him fill the hole at third base that got a little big in the wake of Bill Melton’s departure. While there was trepidation about the state of Eric’s knee, especially on defense, he came out strong and provided excellent defense. He also hung in there at the plate and was able to take his time run production-wise since he was surrounded by the Southside Hit Men that year. He then delivered big in the power department as he hit 16 homers after the All-Star break to set a personal high for the season with 25. He also knocked in 67 runs and hit .280, all of which won him the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award. In ’78 the team suffered a relative power drought and Eric’s average slid a bit to .258 but his power stats stayed pretty consistent with 20 homers and 67 RBI’s, and he put in another good year defensively. In ’79 he had a great start in the field and an OK start at the plate but the Sox weren’t doing too well so when Texas came looking for offensive help, Eric went to the Rangers right before the trade deadline for Ed Farmer – coming up – and Gary Holle. Texas was set at third with Buddy Bell but new shortstop Nelson Norman was having a tough time at the plate so Bell did a bunch of starts there while Eric took over third for a few games and also DH’d. He raised his average there by over 20 points. After the season he went to the Yankees to DH and do support work at third. By then he’d had two additional knee operations and while he was quite good at getting anything hit in a limited range, that range was contracting. But in ’80 he got off to a hot start at the plate and was hitting over .300 when starter Graig Nettles went down with hepatitis. Eric and Aurelio Rodriguez then split the work at third for the duration of the season and he ultimately had his best offensive season in a couple years, hitting .287 with eleven homers and 35 RBI’s in 275 at bats. He also got some post-season work for the first time that year against KC. But in the off-season another knee operation killed his ’81 season and with little chance of doing any meaningful work in the field he retired at the end of the season. Eric finished with a .264 average, 102 homers, and 383 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .167 in his two games. Ironically in the face of all his knee work he is currently third all-time for defensive range per nine innings at third base.

Before he retired Soderholm was able to cadge a tryout with the Cubs. When that didn’t go too well he hooked up with the team as a scout, which he did from ’82 to ’83. While in Chicago he got inspired to start a ticket agency that specialized in sporting events and concerts and which did really well, principally because his timing was perfect Michael Jordan-wise. He also started some hitting coach work on the side that developed into his own baseball academy. In ’97 he began his own alternative healing place in Chicago and it is that business to which he devotes most of his time these days. A whole bunch of the above information comes from an interview given by Eric on the Baseball Almanac site and is linked to here.   

Eric also had a four-for-five day in ’73. ’71 was also a big year for him because the Twins made his brother Dale another first rounder that year. Dale was a shortstop also but never reached the top. On the site inked to above Eric gives pretty amusing color on the defensive abilities of the ’77 Sox. He basically says that Chet Lemon was pretty much the only guy who could actually play with any range or throw the ball. It’s a good read.

This is one of those easy ones:

1. Soderholm and Dave LaRoche ’72 Twins.

#460 - Boog Powell

 Boog Powell gets an action card in this set and it appears to be a shot in Oakland with a pretty fat crowd which, as we have seen, was not the norm for that fan base. So this may be an action shot from the playoffs, which adds some appeal. Boog had a pretty good run of these cards as this year would be the second of four consecutive ones with him in motion. I think the best is the one from ’75 when it looks like he’s about to catch a whale at first base. ’73 was not his best year since between a shoulder injury and manager Earl Weaver’s platooning Boog got in just over half a season at first base. His numbers that year were just a nudge above his ones in ’67, his worst season and another one decimated by nagging injuries. Still, he was a crowd pleaser with his big body and super friendly personality. Boog grew pretty much every year and his listed 250 pounds is probably a bit generous on the low side. His ’74 season would be even more of a downtick but he’d have one more year of All-Star-type performance when his buddy Frank Robinson rescued him in ’75.

Boog Powell was born in Lakeland, Florida, where as a kid he was so big that he was initially banned from his Little League for a year. That was when he was 12 and they let him back in before the season was over, which was a good thing since as a pitcher he led his team to the Little League World Series. Boog pitched eleven straight games to get his guys there in ’54 and unfortunately those games took a toll as he went down 17-0 in the first round to the eventual champs, a team from Schenectady, NY. When Boog was a sophomore in high school his family moved down to Key West where he was all-state in football as a tackle for two years, both of which his team won the state championship. He also turned the double in baseball – in which he was now a slugging outfielder/first baseman – his senior year. He received lots of interest from colleges for his football and signed a letter of intent with one school when the Orioles came down and swooped him away to the tune of a $25,000 bonus. That was in ’59 and his first summer as a pro he claimed he was overwhelmed by the pitching in D ball, though it sure doesn’t come across in his stats: .351 with 14 homers and 59 RBI’s in only 191 at bats. In ’60 Boog moved to B ball and first base full-time and racked up a .312 average with 100 RBI’s. Then in ’61 was a big jump to Triple A by which he apparently wasn’t fazed since he hit .321 with 32 homers and 92 RBI’s. Late that year he made his debut in Baltimore.

Powell was always a big boy and pretty tough but he was awfully slow and was always getting nailed by nagging injuries. In ’62 he was kept upstairs where he played leftfield and put up good enough rookie numbers to make the Topps team despite playing through, in order: a sprained wrist; a blood clot in his leg; a beaning that took him to the hospital; and a shoulder injury. In ’63 he was relatively healthy and stepped up his power numbers significantly. Then he did that again in ’64 despite again spraining his wrist. He also put up a .399 OBA that year, by far his best in the majors up until then. In ’65 Boog split his time between the outfield and first base as it was decided his lack of speed would make him a better defender at the latter position. He actually turned out to be quite nimble there over the years and became a whiz at scooping balls out of the dirt. But he had a relative slump at the plate, ironically the one year he didn’t lose time to injury. He came back strong in ’66, so strong in fact that he won the AL Comeback Player of the Year award. He also got his first post-season action and hit .357 against the Dodgers during the surprising Orioles sweep. After his disappointing ’67 – again, no big injuries – came ’68 when Boog did an about-face from the rest of the AL and raised his numbers significantly. Big years and AL championships followed in ’69 and ’70 and the latter year he won the AL MVP.

In ’71 Powell had all his injuries in about the same place, breaking a wrist and getting hit in each of his hands. His offensive numbers came in pretty hard and continued to do so in ’72 when the nagging wirst injury made it difficult to hold the bat. Things didn’t improve in ’73 or ‘74 and after hitting .265 with 12 homers and 45 RBI’s in 344 at bats the second year he was sent after the season to Cleveland with Don Hood for Dave Duncan and a minor leaguer. Frank Robinson, who'd come to Cleveland himself late in '74, had also been named manager and he opted to give Boog first base solo which worked out pretty well as Powell hit .297 with 27 homers and 86 RBI’s to win his second AL Comeback Player award. But it was a one-season revival as ankle, shoulder, and wrist injuries would demolish his ’76 season in which his numbers fell to .215 with nine homers and 33 RBI’s in 293 at bats. After the year he was released and then picked up by the Dodgers for whom he primarily pinch hit before his August release ended his career. Boog hit .266 with a .361 OBA with 339 homers and 1,187 RBI’s. His post-season numbers were .262 with six homers and 18 RBI’s in 33 games.

After playing Powell returned to Key West where he opened a marina which he ran for a few years. In the early to mid-Eighties he made some high-profile beer commercials for Miller Light and also wrote a cookbook. In the early Nineties when Camden Yards opened Boog got together with Oriole brass and suggested opening a barbecue stand in the park under his name. The stand has been wildly successful, allowing Boog to open another one on the Baltimore waterfront and act as sort of a traveling Johnny Apleseed for barbecue foods, even getting to Tahiti in recent years. He signs lots of autographs and is still a huge – in more ways than one – fan favorite.

Boog gets a couple good star bullets and his signature barely fits in its spot. That’s some cartoon picture of him. That hat would have been actually more appropriate for China but nobody was going to that nation from MLB back then.

In 1976 the Baltimore contribution to the baseball centennial was its Series victory in 1970. No surprise there, though the ’66 one was a more dominant and surprising win. The O’s went up against the Big Red Machine and sort of beat them up, winning the Series four games to one. Baltimore hit nearly .300 as a team – only Don Gullett and Clay Carroll had any success for Cincinnati on the mound – and the O pitchers and especially Brooks Robinson helped the Machine to a .213 average. Brooks was the Series mvp with his amazing fielding.

Coincidentally we get to hook up Boog with the team he helped beat in 1970:

1. Powell and Merv Rettenmund ’68 to ’73 Orioles;

2. Rettenmund and Pete Rose (and many others) ’74 to ’75 Reds;

3. Rose was on the ’73 Reds.