#648 - Terry Crowley

Here we have the subject of the penultimate Traded card in the set in Terry Crowley, who actually looks relieved in the hatless photo of the Traded card, which is usually why those photos were taken in the first place. Terry was actually itching for a trade as his usage in ’73 was way less than he thought was warranted. After being Baltimore’s Opening Day DH – and going 2 for 4 – he was pretty quickly supplanted by Tommie Davis after Terry’s average moved down to Mendoza levels by mid-April and never really recovered. The rest of the season he got a little outfield and first base work and also some as DH and pinch hitter. That last role would become sort of a double-edged sword for Terry since he would gain some notoriety for his performance in that position, but his degree of skill at it would limit his usage elsewhere. But all that wouldn’t happen until his second go-around in Baltimore. Regarding the trade – actually a sale – like some recent subjects, Terry wouldn’t actually play a regular season game for his new team and by the time these cards came out he’d be with a whole other team in a whole other league.

Terry Crowley grew up on Staten Island in NYC where he was a Yankees fan and a pitcher. He had acquired lots of MLB interest in that role in high school until he was injured his senior year and he had to leave pitching behind. When interest abated he decided to go to Long Island University where he relocated to the outfield and his sophomore year was an All-American. That performance got the scouts interested again and Baltimore drafted him that spring of ’66, but he took so long to sign that he only got some IL ball that year. In ’67 he played mostly first base in A ball where he hit .262 with some good power – ten triples - and stole 21 bases. He then split ’68 between Double A and Triple A, hitting a combined .265 while playing mostly outfield at the lower level and first base the latter part of the season. In ’69 he had a big year at the higher level with a .282/28/83 line before a September call-up got him in the middle of some division-run action. In ’70 he stayed with Baltimore as a reserve outfielder/first baseman and hit pretty well in his limited work, posting a .394 OBA. In ’71 he hurt his leg during spring training, missed some time, and was sent to Triple A for rehab. He had a big year, posting a .282/19/63 line with a .399 OBA in just 259 at bats while playing first, though his short time back up wasn’t too productive. But in ’72 a hot start got him a bunch of starts in right field in the wake of Frank Robinson’s trade to LA. By the end of May his average was at .378, but a sub-.200 the rest of the way would contribute to his return to the minors in ’73. In the meantime, though, he had a pretty good action card in that ’73 set.

Crowley did not make it out of spring training with Texas in ’74 and went to Cincinnati in a sale. In a prelude of things to come, he would get some outfield work, but the majority of his time was spent in the pinch. In ’74 he put up a .204/0/7 line in 59 plate appearances in that role and in the Series year of ’75 he upped it to .280/0/4 with a .357 OBA in 56 appearances. Following that year he went to Atlanta in a trade for pitcher Mike Thompson, but after just a couple games he was released. Shortly thereafter he was picked up by the Orioles and he initially put in some games at Triple A, where he hit .261, before returning to Baltimore for some games at DH but lots more in the pinch, hitting .246 overall in 61 at bats. In ’77 he was back in Triple A where he had another big year with a .308/30/80 line in just over 400 at bats before he made some late appearances with the O’s and hit .467 with nine RBI’s in just 15 at bats. That success pretty much sealed his fate the next few years as he rejoined the Earl Weaver platoon system as a sometime left-handed DH and mostly pinch hitter. He especially delivered the next two seasons with a line of .368/0/9 with a .372 OBA in 38 ’78 at bats and in ’79 of .302/1/7/.426 in 43 at bats. He became a fan favorite and was the subject of a pretty hilarious foul-mouthed Earl Weaver diatribe that can be heard on YouTube. That second year he helped Baltimore to its final pennant of the Seventies. In ’80 he got his most time at DH, putting up a line of .288/12/50 in just 233 at bats. His average came down a bit in the ’81 strike season, though his line of .246/4/25 with a .376 OBA was still impressive for just 134 at bats. He closed things out with another year as a pinch guy in ’82 before doing some time with Montreal in the same role in ’83. Terry finished with a .250 average, 42 homers, and 229 RBI’s and a pretty good .345 OBA. In the post-season he hit .273 with three RBI’s in 13 games.

After playing Crowley turned immediately to coaching for what would turn into a long run in that role. In ’84 he became Baltimore’s minor league hitting coach before joining the Orioles from ’85 to ’88. He then spent ’89 to ’90 in the Boston system as its hitting coordinator before joining Minnesota for a long successful run from ’91 to ’98. He then returned to the Orioles as the team’s hitting coach from ’99 to 2010 before giving up that role to become the system hitting evaluator, a position he still holds.

There are lots of one-liners in the star bullets. In ’70 Terry hit .310 as a pinch hitter with a .429 OBA. Regarding the homer, it won the game in the 10^th inning to put the O’s only a game back. Unfortunately some under-.500 ball the rest of the way kept them in third place.

Well, that’s a nice headline. It makes Terry seem like a box of fruit. He was sold to Texas for $100,000, not a bad price back then. This post goes up on St. Patrick's Day; I gotta believe this guy has at least a little Irish in him.

The connection here could have been Texas, had things gone a bit differently:

1. Crowley and Bobby Grich ’70 to ’73 and ’76 Orioles;

2. Grich and Juan Beniquez ’81 to ’85 Angels.

#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.

#596 - 1974 Rookie Pitchers

This card kicks off the final special subset of the ’74 Topps baseball set. For the rookie cards of this set Topps ups the number of participants per card from three to four and adds some consistency by having each card occupied by players of the same position. This one is a pretty good kick-off since three of the four guys here went on to have significant – and by “significant” I mean at least a couple years as a regular – MLB baseball careers. Not one player here is crazy happy about appearing on his first card except Mark Littell. Let’s get to the bios.

After being all-city as a pitcher at Cohn High in Nashville for three years running Wayne Garland went to Gulf Coast Community College where he was all-state in ’69 his only year there. He was a first round pick by the Orioles that June and pitched much better that summer in A ball than in Rookie ball, going a combined 4-5 with a 3.65 ERA. In ’70 he went 7-10 with a 3.54 ERA in Double A and then in ’71 exploded at that level with a 19-5 season with a 1.71 ERA and six shutouts. In ’72 he went 7-9 with a 3.79 ERA in Triple A before going 10-11 with a 3.57 ERA at the same level in ’73, missing some time both years for his military obligation. Wayne’s big pitches by then were his slider and curve, refined under his manager Joe Altobelli. In ’73 he made his debut in Baltimore in September, going 0-1 with a 3.94 ERA in a few games. He then began ’74 back at Triple A where he threw a no-hitter in his first start. He returned to Baltimore in May and went 5-5 with a 2.97 ERA the rest of the way as a spot guy, in one game taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Oakland. In ’75 Wayne didn’t sign right away and he was rewarded with all pen work that year as he went 2-5 with a 3.71 ERA and four saves as mostly a long guy. He wasn’t crazy happy about that and in ’76 he played without a contract. But the O’s needed starters that year and Wayne joined the rotation with a big year, going 20-7 with a 2.67 ERA. Still unsigned, he went to Cleveland as a free agent after signing a 10-year contract. His first spring he felt a crack in his shoulder but he pitched through pain that year to go 13-19 with a 3.60 ERA. After starting the next year 2-3 with a fat ERA it was discovered he had a rotator cuff tear and his season ended with an operation on his shoulder. But it was a career-killer and after attempted runs the next three years – he went a combined 13-26 with a 5.02 ERA -  he was released and done up top. Wayne finished 55-66 with a 3.89 ERA with 43 complete games, seven shutouts, and six saves. He threw shutout ball in an inning of post-season work. In ’82 he attempted his final comeback back in Nashville, then a Double A franchise of the Yankees. It didn’t go too well but he stuck around as a pitching coach. In ’83 he coached in the Milwaukee system before becoming the head coach at Aquinas Junior College from ’84 to ’86. He then coached in the Cincinnati system from ’87 to ’92 and the Pittsburgh one from ’93 to ’96 after which he apparently left baseball. At some point he relocated to Las Vegas where according to his Facebook page he still resides. He looks a far cry happier than the guy described as “sullen” in the book “The Curse of...” about his time in Cleveland.

Fred Holdsworth grew up in Northville, Michigan, just outside Detroit. In high school he was a big deal in the big three sports and his senior year he had signed a letter of intent to go to the University of Michigan to play quarterback and pitch on a full ride. He was a smart guy and was his high school’s valedictorian where his dad was the principal. But he was a huge Tigers fan and so when the team drafted him that June of ’70 and promised to cover his tuition when he went to school he signed fast. He got off to a great start that summer, going 5-2 with a 1.43 ERA and a K an inning in eleven starts split between Rookie and A ball. In ’71 he continued the good work, going 13-10 with a 2.51 ERA in A and Double A. He would then spend most of the next three seasons in Triple A where he went a combined 30-21 with a 3.46 ERA in the rotation around a few games each year up top. But after going 0-5 with a 5.97 ERA in just under 60 innings in Detroit, Fred spent all of ’75 in Triple A and in May was sent to Baltimore for Bob Reynolds. Between the two teams he went only 6-13 but his ERA was quite good at 3.55. After beginning the year going 5-4 with a 3.49 ERA at that level he was pulled up to Baltimore where he finally had a good experience going 4-1 with a 2.04 ERA and a couple saves out of the pen. But after a sloppy start in that role in ’77 he was sent to Montreal in July for Dennis Blair and finished the year pretty well by going 3-3 with a 3.19 ERA as a spot guy. But again his MLB success was short-lived and after a couple bad outings to start ’78 he was back in Triple A where he didn’t throw much better as a starter and was released at the end of the season. He hooked up with Detroit again and in ’79 went 13-10 with a 3.79 ERA in a year split between Double A and Triple A. He was sold to Milwaukee for the ’80 season and for them he pitched his last few innings up top inside of a 5-5, 2.67 year at its Triple A club. He threw one more year at that level for Oakland in ’81 and was done. Fred went 7-10 with a 4.40 ERA and two saves for his MLB run and 87-75 in the minors with a 3.35 ERA. He did end up going to Michigan where he got a degree in accounting. He would became a partner at Arthur Anderson and then move to the industry side with Comcast, first as a finance director, and since 2005 as the VP of Finance for the company’s Midwest operations.

Mark Littell was drafted by the Royals in ’71 from a tiny town at the bottom of Missouri where he played hoops and was an all-state pitcher. He moved fast and after going 5-1 with a 2.90 ERA that summer in Rookie ball and 10-9 with a 3.47 ERA and 199 K’s in 153 innings in A ball in ’72, had a big year in ’73. That year was spent mostly at Triple A where he went 16-6 with a 2.51 ERA as a starter. He debuted that June for KC in a start against Baltimore, giving up one run in six-plus innings, but then got bombed, returning to the minors at the end of the month. That was it up top for a while and he spent all of ’74 back in Triple A where an injury helped wreck his numbers a bunch as he went 3-9 with a 4.75 ERA in just 16 games. But he was healthy again in ’75 and went 13-6 with a 3.48 ERA at that level before doing substantially better in his late-season call-up. He got his second rookie card in ’76 when he stuck in KC and became the team closer with an 8-4 record, a 2.08 ERA, and 16 saves in his 60 games. He was named KC Pitcher of the Year even though he gave up that devastating homer to Chris Chambliss in the playoffs. In ’77 he added some spot starts while cutting back on the relief and had another good season with the same record, a 3.61 ERA, over a K an inning, and 12 saves. He then went to St. Louis with catcher Buck Martinez for Al Hrabosky, replacing Al in the Cards pen. In ’78 he went 4-8 with eleven saves and a 2.79 ERA while striking out 130 in his 106 innings. He then went 9-4 with a 2.19 ERA and 13 saves in ’79 before, like his card-mates, his pitching career came crashing down. He suffered bone chips in his pitching elbow in ’80 spring training and appeared rarely the next three seasons for St. Louis, going only 1-6 with four saves and a 5.28 ERA. After some time back in Triple A in ’82 he was released though he still received a Series ring that year. Mark finished with a record of 32-31 with a 3.32 ERA, two complete games, and 56 saves. In the post-season he was 0-1 with a 2.35 ERA in five games and in the minors 49-34 with a 3.32 ERA, 40 complete games, and four shutouts. By the end of ’82 he became a marketing exec with St. Louis with whom he remained a couple years before doing some marketing work outside baseball. In ’88 he returned to the game as a coach for the Australian national team and then for various MLB chains: San Diego (’89); Milwaukee (’92-’96 and 2000-’07); Los Angeles (’97-’98); and Kansas City (’99). In between he worked some more with the Aussies and helped bring a few guys to the Brewers from Down Under. In late 2006 he developed a product called the Nuttybuddy, a sort of larger, more encompassing, more comfortable athletic supporter (check out his YouTube promo video here – it’s hilarious) and took some time off to apply his marketing skills to getting it out there. In 2011 he did some coaching for the Diamondbacks locally and in Panama and in 2012 he signed on to coach at Dickinson College. He resides in Arizona and has a site for his product linked to here.

Ah, well, at least it’s not Dick Hurtz. This Dick also came out of a tiny town from Michigan’s upper peninsula. Up there baseball seasons were quite short and he was primarily a basketball star who got discovered while throwing a no-hitter the summer after his senior year. After a partial year at Northern Michigan University he was signed by the Sox early in ’69 and in A ball that year went 13-12 with a 3.09 ERA. He would miss some time the ensuing few years to the military which slowed him down a bit. In ’70 he went 7-9 with a 3.33 ERA in A ball and in ’71 improved to 8-7, 2.76 in Double A. Up until then a starter in ’72 he was a swing guy in Triple A, going 4-5 with a 3.82 ERA and a couple saves. In ’73 he had a big season at that level, winning the IL’s Pitcher of the Year award for his 12-9, 2.03, four shutout season. He then made a habit of getting called up to Boston when other pitchers got injured. That year after Ray Culp got put on the DL he debuted in August, going 3-2 with a 5.60 ERA. In ’74 he was recalled in June after Rick Wise went down and in two stints up top went 1-1 with a 4.20 ERA and a save, done around a not terrific year in Triple A. In ’75 he made the cut, pitched a few April games and then was not used for nearly all of May until someone got hurt. This time Reggie Cleveland missed a start and Dick threw a shutout in his place. He went on to have a decent June before in his last start that month he was nailed in the face by a comebacker from Tony Muser of Baltimore. His cheek required reconstructive surgery and his right eye was permanently damaged. But he returned in September and then saw some Series action. In ’76 he had his best year up top as he went 6-5 as a spot guy with a 4.33 ERA. After that season he was taken by the new Seattle Mariners in the expansion draft and for them he went a combined 11-23 with a 5.74 ERA in the rotation the next two years. That would finish his MLB time as a player with a 25-37 record, 5.05 ERA, eight complete games and a save. He gave up a run on two walks and no outs in Series play. In ’79 he returned to Triple A with the Pirates franchise and went 9-4 with a 4.33 ERA in the rotation. In ’80 he moved to the Detroit system and there went 7-4 with a 3.04 ERA and ten saves in the pen. He began the next year strongly in that role, going 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA and three saves in seven games before he moved to Mexico where he played and coached the next two seasons. He finished 63-64 with a 3.25 ERA with 15 shutouts and 16 saves in minor league ball. He returned to The States in ’83 where he was a coach in the Cubs system before moving up to Chicago in ’88, beginning a long run as an MLB pitching coach. At that level he worked in Chicago (’88-’91); San Francisco (’93-’97); Boston (’98); California (’99); Cleveland (2000-’01); and Montreal (2002). In ’92 he coached in the Red Sox system and in 2003 he returned to the Cubbies where he stayed through 2006. From ’07 through ’09 he was Cincinnati’s pitching coach until he was released. He seems to have not joined any team since but he has had a nice run in that capacity as both Greg Maddux and CC Sabathia have credited him with making them better pitchers.

Like in ’73 there is no room for stats or any real color regarding each player on the card back. These guys are all within a couple years of each other age-wise and they are all pretty huge, averaging 6’2” and 207 pounds. Maybe we can rank the cards in terms of the MLB career performances by the players pictured. I think the best way to do that is seasons up top and I will do that by anything either 100-plus at bats or 50-plus games on the hitting side and 50 innings or 25 games on the pitching end. As a kicker I will add awards. I bet this card does pretty well. Between these four there were 23 MLB seasons but no awards.

I am going to be optimistic now and attempt to do hook-ups both inter- and intra-card. First a regular one to the first guy:

1. Wayne Garland and Bert Blyleven ’81 Indians;

2. Blyleven and Willie Stargell ’78 to ’80 Pirates;

3. Stargell and Steve Blass ’64 and ’66 to ’74 Pirates.

Now among all these card-mates:

1. Garland and Fred Holdsworth were teammates on the ’76 Orioles;

2. Holdsworth and Will McEnany ’77 Expos;

3. McEnany and Mark Littell ’79 Cardinals;

4. Littell and Bob Stinson ’75 to ’76 Royals;

5. Stinson and Dick Pole ’77 to ’78 Mariners.

I am reducing requirements a bit here because some of these guys didn’t get enough time with one team ever but this run is pretty solid. I also bet that five iterances to circle the block will be pretty good.

#585 - Merv Rettenmund

In a nearly identical pose to the one on his ’73 card, Merv Rettenmund gives us that staring down the bat handle thing. Merv’s not smiling in this photo like he was in ’72 though, and he had reason not to in ’73. After a hot start for a couple weeks his offense faded pretty quickly and by mid-season he was losing starting time in right field to new guys Rich Coggins and Al Bumbry. It was a continuation of the flameout that was initiated partly with a shoulder injury he suffered in ’72 and led to the trade pictured here. Judging from the palm trees in the background I’d say the regular card photo is a spring training shot. The Traded card photo appears to be from Yankee Stadium. It would take a little while for things to get right again for Merv but before too long baseball would be a happy place for him again in very different part of the country.

Merv Reteenmund grew up in Flint, Michigan, where he is still legendary as a football and baseball star and where his dad played semi-pro ball. Merv preferred the latter sport and his dad pushed him to sign after high school but when Ball State of Indiana offered him a full ride to play both sports Merv opted to go in that direction. Merv had great wheels and while at Ball State he broke a single season rushing record and for his career averaged 7.6 yards a carry, still the school record. He got hurt in the third game of his senior year, though, and missed the rest of the season. In baseball there he hit .321 for his career and after his senior year he played in the Basin League, the Upper Midwest and Canadian summer college showcase. He was runner-up for the league mvp in ’64 and played with and against Del Unser, Jim McAndrew, Don Sutton, Ken Suarez, Dick Billings, and Clyde Wright, to name a few. It was in that league that he first began playing in the outfield; he was normally a catcher up to that point. In November of ’64 Merv signed with Baltimore, a day before the Cowboys drafted him in a late round. He kicked things off in ’65 with a .244 season with a bit of power and lots of speed in A ball; once the O’s saw his wheels he was strictly an outfielder. In ’66 he upped his average to .307 and nearly doubled his homer and RBI totals to 21 and 69 respectively at the same level. He had a big season in Double A in ’67, hitting .286 with a .411 OBA and 29 stolen bases. That helped get him on the Baltimore roster to open the ’68 season and though Merv hit well in his couple plate appearances the outfield was crowded and he went down to Triple A where his .331 average, .459 OBA, and 22 homers in under 400 at bats got him that year’s TSN Minor League Player of the Year. It also got him a one-way ticket to Baltimore.

1969 was a good year to be a part of the Orioles, at least if you weren’t a rookie outfielder trying to get a regular spot already manned by three All-Stars. While Rettenmund performed well enough as the fourth outfield guy it was a frustrating season for him and he nearly quit to teach full time – he got his BS in Education from Ball State in ’66 – before his Series check made him decide to hang out. In ’70 his plate appearances moved up after Paul Blair went out following a beaning in late May. Merv made the most of the opportunity by leading the Orioles in hitting, stealing 13 bases, and providing pretty good power in what amounted to just over half a season. He then hit .375 with three RBI’s in his three post-season games. He continued on the same track in ’71 when he again led the team in hitting, upped his OBA to .422, and stole 15 bases. Against Pittsburgh in the Series he hit a big homer to help win the first game though he cooled off after that. Partly as a result of Merv’s performance the O’s shipped Frank Robinson to the Dodgers after the season and Merv was given the starting job in right field. But things went south for Merv pretty quickly. Pressing himself to replace Robinson’s power he messed up his already unorthodox swing and had to work his way up to a .260 average by early July when he dinged his shoulder hard making a diving catch in a game against Detroit. He didn’t miss too much time but the injury arrested his average getting better and he later went down for real that year when he tore an ab muscle. The O’s missed the post-season for the first time since ’68 and a year later Merv moved to Cincinnati.

Things didn’t improve with Rettenmund’s move to new surroundings. He returned to an outfield reserve and was basically a stopgap as the Reds transitioned to developing guys George Foster and Ken Griffey. In his two seasons in Cincinnati Merv hit only .227 in under 400 at bats, though his OBA wasn’t bad and he stole ten bases against only one pick. He also won his second Series ring but he was pretty happy when right after the ’76 season began he was sent to San Diego for infielder Rudy Meoli. That year wasn’t exactly a salve for his general hitting woes as he basically matched his Reds average overall. But his OBA was .361 and he did very well as a pinch-hitter, putting up an even .300 average in that role. That was a telling stat and would be Merv’s prime position the duration of his playing career. In ’77 he upped his overall numbers to a .286 average and a .432 OBA and in the pinch was pretty fantastic with a .328 average and a .451 OBA with a record 16 walks in that role. In May he had two consecutive rare games in the field in which he had four RBI’s. He became a free agent after that season and moved up the coast to Anaheim. There in ’78 his pinch average wasn’t so hot at .153 but of his two hits in that role one was a grand slam and his OBA was still quite good at .352. Overall he hit .269 with a .433 OBA and mot of that time was spent as a DH. In ’79 he hit .263 overall and in the pinch hit .417 with a .533 OBA. After a couple games in 1980 he was released in June. Merv was done then with a .271 average, 66 homers, 329 RBI’s and a .381 OBA. He hit .183 with eight RBI’s in 29 post-season games.

Rettenmund made a lot of fans late in his career with his pinch hit work and before he was released as a player he was already coaching for California. He did that through ’81 and was then the team’s director of minor league hitting. From ’83 to ’85 he coached at Texas for buddy Doug Rader but was let go when Rader was canned. From there it was minor league (’86-’88) and then MLB (’89-’90) hitting coach for Oakland. Then it was back down the coast to San Diego (’91-’99 and 2006-’07) in between which he coached for Atlanta (2000-’01) and Detroit (’02-’05). Since ’07 he has been retired from the MLB level but has continued to coach some travel teams in the San Diego area.

Merv sure has a full formal name, doesn’t he? It nearly crowds out his signature. He has star bullets and a cartoon that has been alluded to above. He was not a participant in the ’71 All-Star game and I do not have access to see the other members of that TSN team. Merv did one of those Orioles trips to Japan early in his career and became a travel nut in off-seasons. His wife liked it so much she became a travel agent in the southern California area.They later had a granddaughter who was the place kicker for her high school football team.

Topps gives Merv a nice little write-up on the back of his Traded card. The Orioles also got Junior Kennedy in the deal and, no disrespect to Merv, got the better half of the trade. It did get him on the way to the left coast though, where it seems he had his most long-lasting success.

The hook-up takes us through St. Louis:

1. Rettenmund and Luis Melendez ’76 to ’77 Padres;

2. Melendez and Ken Rudolph ’75 to ’76 Cardinals.

#560 - Mike Cuellar

Here Mike Cuellar kicks off what would be the dominant theme in his baseball cards for the remainder of his career. From ’74 through ’77, Mike’s photo would be an action profile shot with the exception of ’76 when he would have an action shot on the mound. I like him with an afro since that hair style seemed to more embrace his character than the close-cropped look he’d had on his cards prior to this set. He had another excellent season in’73, as he did every year in Baltimore from ’69 to ’74, a period during which he averaged better than 20 wins. Pretty good for a pitcher a lot of people speculated was on the downswing when he came over from Houston after the ’68 season. But Baltimore specialized in those trades (Frank Robinson) and with all those wins Mike brought a bunch of color, some of it through his superstitions. He would always sit in the same spot in the dugout. He always had to have the same hat when he pitched. He never stepped on a baseline. He was a generally happy guy who was a locker room favorite. Mike’s whole life was baseball which worked for him while he was playing but unfortunately didn’t after he was done.

Miguel Cuellar was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, and by the time he finished high school was pitching for that country’s Army team. Those were pre-revolution days and that team was the showcase for Batista, and was one of the only ways for anyone from a poor family, like Cuellar’s, to get any recognition. In ’57 a Cincinnati scout spotted Miguel in a game and signed him. He remained in Cuba, pitching for the Havana Sugar Kings, a Triple A team, through ’60 and put up a combined record of 37-39 with a 2.86 ERA during that time. His short stint in Cincinnati during ’59 wasn’t too impressive though. In ’60 the embargo resulting from the ’58 revolution took hold and the Sugar Kings relocated to Jersey City where Miguel finished out the year. In ’61 he had a poor season – 4-11 with a 4.58 ERA – and at 24 he was either released or sold by the Reds. He spent ’62 pitching in Mexico for Monterrey where he got some of his mojo back, going 11-6 with a 3.60 ERA. In ’63 he then briefly hooked up with Detroit’s Double A team – 1-1 with a 2.54 ERA in 39 innings – before he was signed by Bobby Maduro, a Cuban exile who ran baseball teams and was a fan of Miguel’s from his Havana days. He owned the Jacksonville Suns, then a Cleveland Triple A affiliate. After going 6-7 with a 3.79 ERA to finish the season, Miguel had a super start at that level in ’64, going 6-1 with a 1.78 ERA in ten starts. By then Jacksonville had moved to the St. Louis system, and mid-season Miguel was called up to the Cards, just in time for a pennant race. His ERA was a tad fat, but he got seven starts and four saves among his 32 games though he got shut out of post-season work. He kicked off ’65 back in Jacksonville where he again had excellent numbers, going 9-1 with a 2.51 ERA. But Mike threw junk, his out pitches being a tough screwball and a palmball, and St. Louis thrived on heat. So that June he went to Houston with Ron Taylor for Chuck Taylor and Hal Woodeshick in a trade of four pitchers.

For the Astros Cuellar got immediately moved to Houston and the rest of the way he was a spot guy, getting four starts and a couple saves. His record was nothing special but he pulled his ERA down by a run. That was a good prelude to his ’66 season when he moved into the rotation, got real stingy with his home runs given up, and finished second to Sandy Koufax for the NL ERA title. Then in ’67 he made his first All-Star team with enough wins to set a Houston record and another excellent ERA. But ’68 was a bit of a bummer after a shoulder injury had him miss about a month total and his record moved back to the losing side. He still put up another great ERA but Houston was worried about an ailing shoulder on a 31-year old arm. That December they sent Miguel/ now Mike to Baltimore for former Rookie of the Year Curt Blefary. Oops.

With the Orioles Cuellar pretty much hit the ground running. His screwball especially was much more at home in the AL and particularly with the help of George Bamberger, Mike began a long run of excellent pitching. His first year he got five shutouts and split the Cy with Denny McLain. In ’70 he led the AL with his 24 wins, 40 starts, and 21 complete games. He also won the final game of the Series that year. In ’71 he was one of four O’s pitchers to win at least 20 games. Both those last two years he was again an All-Star. In ’72 he missed a couple starts due to the early-season player strike but still won 18 and put up his second-best ERA in Baltimore. In ’73 he got a little more generous in giving up hits and his ERA rose a bit but he still put up an excellent record. Then in ’74 he cut the homers in half and went 22-10 to lead the AL in percentage and get to his last All-Star game. In ’75 he actually got stingier with the hits but his ERA popped by half a run anyway and he went 14-12. Then in ’76 came serious shoulder pain, a 4-13 record, and a 4.96 ERA, all which got him released at the end of the season (no loyalty in that town!). In ’77 he signed with California but his arm was toast, later confirmed by an abbreviated comeback attempt in Mexico. Mike finished with a record of 185-130 with a 3.14 ERA, 172 complete games, 33 shutouts, and eleven saves. In the post-season he went 4-4 with a 2.85 ERA in twelve games and he went 74-66 with an ERA under 3.00 in the minors.

Inexplicably Cuellar was unable to find work in baseball after he finished playing. He never made a ton of money and he ended up taking his five handicap down to Florida where for years he basically made minimum wage doing various work on local golf courses and driving ranges. He did some voluntary spring training coaching for Baltimore but was never able to get a regular gig out of that. By the mid-2000’s he was pretty much retired and living off a monthly pension of about $3,100 with zero health insurance. Early in 2010 he suffered a brain anuerysm and later that year had his gall bladder removed. He then contracted stomach cancer from which he passed away later that year. He was 72.

Miguel has some awfully good star bullets and revives the parenthetical name. He is one of the few guys to have a lifetime ERA under 3.00 on his card in this set.

Here we hook up two former Reds who never played together and only met in the post-season:

1. Cuellar and Merv Rettenmund ’69 to ’73 Orioles;

2. Rettenmund and Darrel Chaney ’74 to ’75 Reds.

Only 100 cards to go!

#534 - Eddie Watt

Lots of pensive shots lately. This one shows Eddie Watt at Yankee Stadium, a place he wouldn’t be visiting too much any more since as shown by the second card he was traded to the NL. Eddie was a short-inning closer before there really were short-inning closers. During the Oriole pennant seasons of the late Sixties and early Seventies he pretty much averaged an inning an appearance. That changed a bit in ’73 as his first off-season knee injury – he would have about ten of those, including most well after he played – gave him a lot more innings in less games as he began to mix in more middle relief when the O’s moved other guys into the closer role. Eddie had probably been expecting a trade since early ’71 since nearly every time he was announced at home he got booed because he gave up a homer to Lee May in the ’70 Series. That’s tough: three seasons of that after they won the damn thing anyway. Eddie actually pitched pretty well in post-season play and was awfully solid for a bunch of years. He was originally part of the package that was going to be sent to Atlanta after the ’72 season to get Earl Williams but that deal fell through. So leaving Baltimore for Philly was probably a happy event for Eddie. On his Traded card he looks to be in Baltimore.

Eddie Watt grew up in Iowa where in high school he was an All-American hoops player. He then got a basketball scholarship to Iowa Teacher College (later the University of Northern Iowa) and since freshmen weren’t allowed to play varsity he played local semi-pro ball that spring of ’60. He returned to play both sports his sophomore year and nearly pitched his team into the CWS before losing to Oklahoma State. It was during that time he was discovered by the Orioles for whom he shortly thereafter signed. He returned to school and then started things rolling the following spring, going 11-11 in the rotation in D ball. His ERA was 2.19 and he recorded 170 K’s in 160 innings so it was a nice start. In ’63 he moved to A ball where he hurt his arm but still had a decent year, going 10-12 with a 3.14 ERA, still recording strikeouts at a pretty good clip. In ’64 he went 17-2 in a season split between A and Double A ball, with a 2.04 ERA. In ’65 he pitched two no-hitters the first weeks of his Double A season and after going 7-2 with a 1.85 ERA at that level he moved up to Triple A where he went 6-4 with a 3.52 All that time he displayed pretty excellent control.

1966 was a pretty good year for Watt. He finished his degree in education and made the cut for a pretty good team. He began the year as a spot guy, getting 13 starts in his 43 games. But he tended to do much better in relief than in the rotation so by the end of the season he was strictly a pen guy. Though the Orioles won the Series Eddie got no work because the starters finished pretty much all their own games. In ’67 he did a bunch of set-up work and got eight saves despite missing a month with a broken hand. Then during the ’68 season he moved into the closer role and over the next four years he recorded a total of 50 saves and pitched in three Series. In ’72 his load lightened a little because of the knee and his saves fell to seven and then five in ’73. After the trade he did an OK job in the Phillies pen – 1-1 with six saves in 42 games of mostly set-up work – but was released just before the ’75 season began. He then signed with the Cubs and for them had a couple tough up top innings and went 4-5 with a 3.89 ERA and seven saves in Triple A. Then it was on to San Diego for whom he would pitch only in Triple A through ’77, that last year as a player/coach. That essentially ended Eddie’s mound time and he finished with a record of 38-36 up top with a 2.91 ERA and 80 saves. He also went 65-43 in the minors with a 2.89 ERA. He was a pretty good hitter, batting .190 with three homers in the majors and .240 in the minors. In the post-season he went 0-3 with a save in eight games while putting up a 2.53 ERA and striking out eleven guys in that many innings.

Watt dug the coaching gig and from ’78 to ’81 he managed in the San Diego chain, putting together a record of 290-263. He then did minor league pitching coach work for the Phillies (’82-’85); Houston (’86-’89); and Atlanta (’90-2002) after which he retired. He returned to Iowa where he golfs and goes to occasional card shows.

There are Eddie’s no-hitters in ’65. He traveled a bunch as an Oriole. He also did a tour of Japan with the team after the Series win that culminated in the O’s taking down the Japanese series champs.

Topps gets clever with the Traded headline. Eddie was bought by the Phillies for about $70,000, which was a pretty good sum back then. And they were right in that last line. He had morphed from a strikeout guy to a ground-out guy during his first couple O’s seasons.

These guys got the same colors on their cards but they never played together:

1. Watt and Del Unser ’74 Phillies;

2. Unser and Mike Phillips ’75 to ’76 Mets.eHHeHYeHJh

#509 - Jesse Jefferson

This happy guy looks like he’s photographed in spring training just before his rookie year is to begin. I am unsure as to the specific setting but it looks very nice with the trees all over. Jesse looks like he’s trying an interesting pitching move here since it appears he just delivered one into the dugout. He was a bit wild but this would seem a bit extreme. He would have a pretty good rookie season, especially in his first start in which he went ten innings in a 2-1 win over the Red Sox. His debut came in June after he put up a pretty decent season in Triple A where the only real demerit to his stats was his nearly walk an inning. Walks would be a problem throughout his career and despite a pretty good arsenal of pitches his rookie season would generally be his best. Down the road he would give Oscar Gamble a run for the money afro-wise.

 Jesse Jefferson grew up in Midlothian Virginia, about twenty miles outside Richmond. There he played hoops and ball and was taken out of high school by the Orioles in the ’68 draft. That first summer in Rookie ball he blew people away – 99 strikeouts in 69 innings – but also walked a bunch and gave up lots of runs. ‘69 was more of the same at that level though he pitched a couple good games of long relief in A ball. ’70 was all A and while the walks stayed high he managed to pull two runs off his ERA. In ’71 Jesse moved to Double A and there seemed to wrangle his control, producing a good ERA to support his first winning record. After another good beginning at that level to the ’72 season he got promoted mid-year to Triple A where he once again shaved a run off his ERA. After his start in Triple A in ’73 he was done with the minors for a long time.

Jefferson’s rookie year had Baltimore brass cautiously optimistic about his future. But ’74 was a tough follow-up year. He didn’t get his first start until July and was relegated mostly to middle relief work, going 1-0 with a 4.40 ERA in only 57 innings. In ’75 his time declined even more and by mid-season Jesse had only thrown eight innings. He was then traded to the White Sox for Tony Muser. The Sox were hurting for effective pitching and they put Jesse into the rotation immediately with not great results: a 5-9 record with a 5.10 ERA and 94 walks in 108 innings. He then began ’76 in that spot but a terrible start took him out of the rotation as his innings dropped. After finishing the year 2-5 with an ERA approaching 9.00, Jesse was taken by the Blue Jays in that winter’s expansion draft. Jefferson would spend the next two seasons in Toronto’s rotation, getting over 30 starts each year. Given the infield behind him, his ERA of about 4.35 during that time wasn’t too bad. He also pulled his walk totals down a bunch and went a combined 16-33 those two years. In ’79, though, his ERA took off again and he became a swing guy, finishing with a 2-10 record and a 5.51 ERA. He maintained that role – and unfortunately about that record – in ’80 and that September was placed on waivers. Picked up by Pittsburgh he had a nice start to end the season. He then signed with California as a free agent, again did some swing work, and put up one of his better seasons, going 2-4 with a 3.62 ERA and a big discount to his walk totals. But his contract was only for a year and he signed back with Baltimore but was released during spring training of ’82. In ’83 he attempted a comeback with the Angels in Triple A and then retired. Up top he went 39-81 with a 4.81 ERA, 25 complete games, and four shutouts. In the minors Jesse was 40-53 with a 3.74 ERA.

Jefferson liked his hometown and he resided there during his career and at least immediately thereafter. He was a driver for the sanitation department in Midlothian for lots of years and seems to have been regarded as a nice guy. He passed away in 2011 from prostate cancer at only 62. There is a pretty touching tribute to him by Sam Ewing, a DH/outfielder/catcher on the early Toronto teams, on one of the online memorial websites.

Jesse has a great flowing signature and boy, is he loaded up on those presidential names. Topps rips him off a bit with that ERA his rookie year though. His real one was 4.11 and it was corrected on later cards.

This is another hook-up that is surprisingly short:

1. Jefferson and Ron Fairly ’77 Blue Jays;

2. Fairly was on the ’73 Expos.

#488 - Andy Etchebarren

Speaking of unibrows – it came up on the former post – here is Andy Etchebarren, owner of perhaps the best eyebrow(s) ever in baseball. Andy is crouching in what I believe is the spring training facility and I have been struggling with who that might be behind him. My initial read is that the guy’s a lefty but no Oriole on the roster fills that bill except perhaps Dave McNally but he wasn’t that lean or slope-shouldered. I suppose the guy could be hitting some infield and is just waiting for the ball which opens it up to a righty. If that’s the case then my bet is it’s Jim Fuller, a rookie outfielder who was lean and carried the big muttonchops this guy’s sporting. Also this card sports what I believe is only the second photographer’s shadow of the set, which means Andy’s staring directly into the sun. Good thing he had those eyebrows.

Andy Etchebarren was of Basque decent which goes a long way explaining his look and grew up in La Puente California. A fine multi-sport athlete he was hotly pursued by a bunch of teams in high school when the Orioles nabbed him with a six-figure bonus in ’61. He finished out the summer with a few games in C ball where he hit .224 and showed good work behind the plate. In ’62 he hit .249 in A ball which was awfully good back then for an O’s catcher and he made his Baltimore debut in a couple games late that September. He then spent the next three years moving up the ladder from Single to Triple A, putting up good defensive numbers along the way but frustrating offensive ones since in an interview back then he indicated he hit above .300 the final couple months each year but only managed a .255 best during that time. In ’64 he peaked OBA-wise at Double A with a .355 and at the end of ’65 he got into a couple more games for Baltimore.

The Orioles had an excellent season in ’65, winning 94 games and that year they had a “catcher by committee” situation at that position. Pretty much equal time was put in by Dick Brown, Charlie Lau, and John Orsino. Orsino was traded right after the season to DC and the O’s went to spring training with the other two expected to switch duty. But Lau, who’d hit .295 the year before, was hurt during the spring and poor Dick Brown, not much of a hitter but pretty adept behind the plate, showed up to camp with what was shortly after diagnosed as a brain tumor that would kill him five years later when he was only 35. So Etchebarren, who was expected to return to Triple A when camp broke, was suddenly the starting O’s catcher. His rookie year was something else as he came out of the box hitting a – relative – ton and was still above .300 in early May. He was beaned, knocked out, and had his hand run over by Tommie Agee and still didn’t miss a game until it was discovered in July that his metacarpal had been separated probably since April. He did an excellent job managing the young pitching staff and saved Frank Robinson’s life when the to-be triple crown winner nearly drowned in a swimming pool. So while his .213 average didn’t look so great, the 106 strikeouts were a tad high, and the 15 passed balls led the league, more than a few teammates thought he was the key to their championship season. He was named an All-Star which he would also incur his second season. But ’67 was a bummer, both for Andy and the team, as his average fell enough that he was benched in May for Larry Haney, a .215 hitter, and the O’s put up a losing record while trying to defend their title. In ’68 Elrod Hendricks was added to the catching mix and he and Andy would form a lefty-righty duo the next few seasons.

In 1969 the Orioles added former Phillie starter Clay Dalrymple as a back-up catcher. Dalrymple wouldn’t be much of a threat to Etchebarren’s playing time but his acquisition was propitious for Andy since Clay advised him how to better hold his mitt to reduce nagging hand injuries he’d received throughout his career. That year the O’s began a nice run of three straight Series appearances with Andy and Hendricks splitting catching duties. In ’71 Andy topped out with a .270 average in 222 at bats. In ’72 Hendricks went to the Cubs for a year and Andy played behind rookie Johnnie Oates. From ’69 to ’72 he also picked off half the runners that tried to steal on him. In ’73 Hendricks returned but the next two seasons they both played behind new acquisition Earl Williams, though Andy’s at bats increased in ’74 as Williams put a bunch more time in at first base.  In ’75 the Orioles acquired Dave Duncan from Cleveland and after not playing too much Andy was sold to California that June. With the Angels he played behind Ellie Rodriguez the rest of the year, posting a .280 average in 100 at bats. In ’76 Rodriguez went to the Dodgers and Andy took over the top spot, hitting .227. In ’77 he returned to a reserve role behind Terry Humphrey and in ’78 he finished things up with a couple games for the Brewers. Andy had a .235 average with 49 homers and 309 RBI’s and hit .154 in 21 post-season games. He caught a bunch of 20-game winners and his lifetime caught stealing ratio was better than average in that run-happy time.

Etchebarren remained on the Brewers roster through ’78 though he spent most of the season on the DL because of bone chips in his elbow. He officially retired the next year and returned to California where he ran some local businesses, including a liquor store, for a couple years. He returned to Milwaukee and baseball in ’82 when he signed on as the team’s minor league catching instructor which he did through ’84 when in mid-season he took over managing their Stockton A team. From ’85 to ’91 he coached for the Brewers and then in ’92 moved to the Baltimore system where he coached in the minors (’92, 2003-‘04) and in Baltimore (’96-’97), but mostly managed in the minors (’93-’95, ’98-2002, and ’05-’07). He was a pretty colorful manager and seems to have learned a bunch from Earl Weaver given some of his YouTube moments. In 2008 he became hitting coach for the independent Southern Maryland Blue Crabs before leaving in mid-’09 to manage the rival York River Dogs. With York Andy won three league titles before retiring at the end of the 2012 season. His managerial record is 755-755.

Wow, a 19-inning game. That one bears investigating. Andy did not start the game – that’s a bit much to expect from any catcher – but he pinch hit for starter Vic Roznovsky in the fifth and stayed in the game thereafter and 14-plus innings behind the plate is pretty impressive. His two-run shot won the game 7-5. The interesting thing about the game is that both starters were bombed and were both out of the game by the third inning. The relievers then did some amazing work: on the DC side Dave Baldwin and Bob Humphreys combined for nearly six innings of perfect ball and Joe Coleman gave up a hit in five innings; on the Baltimore side Wally Bunker, Eddie Watt, and Eddie Fisher combined for nearly 12 innings of shutout ball before Stu Miller won it after giving up one hit with six K’s in his five innings. Andy went two for five and two guys had nine at bats in the game. It ran for five hours and 18 minutes. The cartoon is interesting because it’s based more on perception than reality. When Andy got off to his hot start in ’66 a bunch of his big hits were against Detroit who was a contender most of the year so Andy’s feats against them were magnified. But if you do the baseball-reference thing against individual pitchers nothing against the Detroit guys stands out long-term.

A lot of those Baltimore guys stayed put so let’s go the California route:

1. Etchebarren and Nolan Ryan ’75 to ’77 Angels;

2. Ryan and Ted Martinez ’70 to ’71 Mets.

#470 - AL Playoffs/'73 Playoff Statistics

We are now up to the next batch of special cards, in this case the ones commemorating the ’73 post-season. It was a very good one with each of the three series going the maximum amount of games. It included one upset and another near-one, both provided by the New York Mets, a team that barely broke the ‘500 barrier during the regular season. Here Reggie Jackson uncorks one of his monstrous swings in Oakland and, guided by the angle on catcher Andy Etchebarren’s head, the ball appears headed for the outfield. Reggie is an interesting subject matter for the AL Playoffs card because while he’d go on to earn his Mr. October nickname, it wasn’t for anything he did in this series. Catfish Hunter would have been a more apt choice but it was Reggie’s MVP year so Topps was probably doing a little marketing. Maybe in doing the narrative for the series we can nail down the time of this photo.

To make these cards a bit less pedestrian than I’d always thought them back in the day I think it would be nice to recap the games that made up the series. This AL one certainly highlighted the two best teams in that league from those days. Oakland was smack in the middle of five consecutive AL playoff runs and Baltimore had only missed that series in ’72, making every other one from ’69 to ’74. The teams were nearly mirror images of each other: great pitching, timely power, and superior defense. That they went the maximum five games is no real surprise. Here’s the recap:

Game 1: Jim Palmer shuts down the A’s in Baltimore in a 6-0 game in which he gave up five hits – and an uncharacteristic five walks – while striking out 12. It was the first post-season series in which the DH was employed and fittingly, Tommy Davis, the Baltimore guy, hit the game-winner in the top of the first when he doubled home Merv Rettenmund. Tommy had three hits and first baseman Earl Williams had two, including a first-inning single that knocked starter Vida Blue out of the game. Vida continued his below-standard post-season performances in the series by giving up four runs on three hits, two walks, and a wild pitch in two-third’s of an inning. He was relieved by Horacio Pina and then Blue Moon Odom who both pitched well. But the damage was done and Baltimore opened the series pretty convincingly. Etchebarren had an interesting day: he was in the shower when his apartment building caught on fire so he had to scram in just a towel; and Pina hit him with his first pitch in the first. He also had two hits. Reggie did knock one to center field in the game, so I’ll keep an eye on that for the card shot.

Game 2: Like the first game this one was a weekend one in Baltimore. There the similarities ended as the top of the Oakland order rediscovered their strokes and Bert Campaneris, Joe Rudi, and Sal Bando went a combined seven for 13 with five runs and six RBI’s to lead the A’s to a 6-3 win. Campaneris hit a homer to lead off the game and Baltimore tied it in the bottom of the inning when Tommy Davis, who continued his hot hitting with two hits, grounded out to score Al Bumbry. It was a pitcher’s duel between Dave McNally and Catfish Hunter through the fifth, though Bando had one over the fence when Al Bumbry – pretty amazing since he was only 5’8” – snagged it. In the sixth Rudi and Bando hit successive solo shots to lead off the inning and then Earl Williams knocked in Rich Coggins – both those guys had two hits as well – for a run. In the top of the eighth Bando broke it open with another homer – this one a two-run shot – off McNally who was replaced by Bob Reynolds after giving up a walk. Catfish left in the eighth as well after giving up singles to Davis and Williams and Rollie Fingers came in, giving up a single to Brooks Robinson that scored Williams (they got Davis earlier on a fielder’s choice). Bert knocked in Angel Mangual in the ninth to complete the scoring. So Catfish won his first in a typical Catfish game: seven-plus innings, seven hits, three walks, and five K’s, along with the three runs – he loved drama – and Fingers got a save. McNally got hurt by all the homers but outside of that had a line similar to Catfish – 7 2/3-7-5-5-2-7. Reynolds had a tough inning-plus, giving up that Mangual run, and Grant Jackson finished things. Reggie went o-fer, flying out to the outfield a couple times. But with Earl Williams behind the plate, this shot for sure isn’t from this game. On to Oakland!

Game 3 – After a rain-out the first game on the left coast was a Tuesday day game – remember those? – that was classic Oakland-Baltimore. Things started sloppy for the A’s: Bobby Grich, the game’s second hitter, lined a shot to the outfield and got to second on an error by Dick Green on a Tommy Davis grounder. But Don Baylor struck out to leave those two guys on base. Then Earl Williams hit a solo shot off Ken Holtzman in the second. It looked like shades of the second game until – well – the next batter. Holtzman and O’s starter Mike Cuellar traded shutout innings until the bottom of the eighth when the A’s manufactured a run and made Dick Williams again look like a genius: Jesus Alou pinch hit for Ray Fosse and singled to left field. Allan Lewis – the Panamanian Express and one of Charlie O’s designated runners – pinch ran for Jesus. Mike Andrews then pinch hit for Dick Green and bunted, sending Lewis to second. After Campy struck out, Joe Rudi lined one into the left-center gap, scoring Lewis. You never see scoring like that any more; nor do you see two starters going strong into the ninth. In the top of that inning Vic Davalillo at first nailed Paul Blair in the back on a throw to second allowing Blair, who’d singled, to reach third on two outs. But then Holtzman again struck out Baylor to kill that threat. After 1-2-3 innings both halves of the tenth and another Holtzman gem in the eleventh, Bert Campaneris decided to end things in the bottom of the inning with his second solo shot of the series. A 2-1 11-inning complete game win for Holtzman and a complete game loss for Cuellar, the game took under two-and-a-half hours even though it went into extra innings. Holtzman gave up only three hits, a walk, and struck out seven. Cuellar nearly matched him with four hits, three walks, and eleven K’s. Now that’s a well-played game. Reggie struck out twice and had two infield ground outs so unless the photo is of a foul ball – and Etchebarren seems to be looking to left-center so I don’t think so – this shot isn’t from this game either.

Game 4 – Another day game in Oakland, Game 4 was a rematch of Game 1, with Jim Palmer going up against Vida Blue. This time Vida got through the first as did Palmer. But Jim had a tough time the next inning: After a lead-off double by Gene Tenace and a single by Vic Davalillo – that little guy was hot – two successive doubles by Ray Fosse and Dick Green brought three runs across and after a walk to Bert Campaneris, Palmer was pulled. Again, he was followed by Bob Reynolds who this time had much better success as he shut down the A’s through the sixth. He gave up a liner to left by Reggie – so that may be this photo – but Jackson was nailed by Andy Etchebarren trying to steal and was the only Oakland runner until in the sixth Gene Tenace walked and Davalillo singled, sending Tenace to third. Fosse then sacrificed Tenace home and Oakland was looking like a lock, up 4-0. In the meantime Vida was doing a nice job imitating Catfish Hunter from a couple days before, giving up just two hits and two walks though six. The top of the seventh got messy, though: a walk by Earl Williams was followed by singles by Don Baylor and Brooks Robinson, scoring Williams. Etchebarren then had the big hit, a three-run homer that drove Vida from the game. In came Fingers, who got out of the inning unscathed. In a tied-up game Oakland threatened again in the eighth when a Campy single chased Reynolds and Eddie Watt came in, giving up a sacrifice bunt and plunking Sal Bando. He was out and Grant Jackson then killed the rally with two ground-outs. Bobby Grich pulled a Campy in the top of the eighth, lofting a solo shot off Fingers, who then got out of the inning on an unusual double play: he struck out Earl Williams and on the same pitch Fosse gunned down Tommy Davis trying to steal second. The A’s got a runner via a walk in the bottom of that inning and Brooks Robinson doubled in the top of the ninth but both guys got stranded and the game ended 5-4 Baltimore. Fingers took the loss and the O’s relievers did a super job, combining for a run on three hits and three walks through nearly eight innings, with Grant Jackson getting the win. Right now the Reggie single in the third has the edge for the photo.

Game 5 – With the series tied, Baltimore sent Doyle Alexander up against Catfish Hunter. Alexander had a good regular season against Oakland and lefty Dave McNally wasn’t really a consideration because he needed more rest. Ditto Mike Cuellar. So Catfish and Doyle traded shutout innings until the third when things got wiggy. Ray Fosse got on via an error by – gasp! – Brooks Robinson and then got sacrificed to second by a Dick Green bunt. Joe Rudi then knocked in Fosse on a single to left but then got nailed at second to end the inning. In the fourth a Gene Tenace single, Vic Davalillo – wow! – triple, and Jesus Alou single brought in two more runs and chased Alexander. He was relieved by a surprise choice – Jim Palmer. The two Cy winners then traded shutout ball the rest of the game. Catfish of course supplied the drama – every inning he gave up a shot to the outfield - but he was his normal post-season clutch self and in the end he won his second game of the series with a five hit, two walk shutout. Palmer gave up only two hits in his four-plus but that first unearned run held up - Baltimore deserved better than that – as Oakland won its second straight AL playoffs. And Reggie lined another shot to left with Etchebarren behind the plate so who knows. The photo could be from Game 4 or Game 5. Here’s what I’m going to do, though. Given that orange-painted dugout behind Reggie, I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’ve been all wet: the game was in Baltimore and the photo is from Reggie’s single to center in Game 1.

The card back has all the Oakland stats from the series and when you look at them you see four guys in my opinion more deserving of face time on the card than Reggie: Bert Campaneris and Vic Davalillo on the hitting side and Catfish and Ken Holtzman as pitchers. The O’s were tough though and deserve their own stats so here they are:

Batting	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG
Baker	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-
Baylor	4	11	3	3	0	0	0	1	0.273
Belanger	5	16	0	2	0	0	0	1	0.125
Blair	5	18	2	3	0	0	0	0	0.167
Brown	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-
Bumbry	2	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	-
Coggins	2	9	1	4	1	0	0	0	0.444
Crowley	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-
Davis	5	21	1	6	1	0	0	2	0.286
Etchebarren	4	14	1	5	1	0	1	4	0.357
Grich	5	20	1	2	0	0	1	1	0.100
Hood	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-
Powell	1	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	-
Rettenmund	3	11	1	1	0	0	0	0	0.091
Robinson	5	20	1	5	2	0	0	2	0.250
Williams	5	18	2	5	2	0	1	4	0.278
	5	171	15	36	7	0	3	15	0.211
Pitching	G	ST	CG	W	L	IP	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Alexander	1	1	0	0	1	3.2	3	2	-	1	4.91
Cuellar	1	1	1	0	1	10.0	2	2	3	11	1.80
Jackson	2	0	0	1	0	3.0	0	0	1	0	-
McNally	1	1	0	0	1	7.2	5	5	2	7	5.87
Palmer	3	2	1	1	0	14.2	3	3	8	15	1.84
Reynolds	2	0	0	0	0	5.2	2	2	3	5	3.18
Watt	1	0	0	0	0	0.1	0	0	-	0	-
	5	5	2	2	3	43.0	15	14	17	39	2.93

Pretty tight series.