#485- Felipe Alou

Felipe Alou returns us to the two-card post (though I split up the last one) and may be the first guy in the set with both cards air-brushed. Both photos are from the same shoot and show him smiling in his Yankees pinstripes at the Stadium. He’s a few shades darker after the trade to Milwaukee so maybe the photographer was using in infrared bulb. At this point in his career Felipe was pretty much on the way out. After spending nearly all of ’73 splitting time at first and right field with his brother Matty and some other guys, he and Matty were pretty much dumped by new owner George Steinbrenner and Felipe was picked up by Montreal for its stretch drive. George was fond of ridding the team of older outfielders that summer and Felipe had been having a tough season anyway, with his average nearly 60 points under his lifetime one. He didn’t stay with Montreal too long as his Traded card attests and his stay with the Brewers wouldn’t be lengthy either. But in a couple years he’d be back with the Expos, just as optimistic as his photos show him, even air-brushed. Like his brother Matty, this is Felipe's last card (or cards).

Felipe Alou was one of the first Dominicans to get on the radar map of US teams. Before he was signed he was majoring in pre-med back home where he was actually a bigger track star than a baseball player. But in the summer of ’55 at that year’s Pan Am Games he was asked to switch over to the baseball team and performed well enough to garner notice and was signed later that year by the Giants. The next summer he hit the crap out of D league pitching, hitting .380 with 21 homers and 99 RBI’s. In ’57 he hit .306 with 12 homers and 71 RBI’s in A ball before he moved up a few games in Triple A. He then split ’58 between Triple A and San Francisco, hitting .319 with 13 homers and 42 RBI’s at the lower level. Back then Felipe’s principal position was center field but with Willie Mays there he was going to have to move. Plus between the older guys like Willie, Willie Kirkland, and Hank Sauer and new kids Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, and Leon Wagner, there wasn’t too much room. So Felipe played mostly in right, splitting time with the other young guys, and despite having a decent rookie year and better numbers the next couple, it wasn’t until ’61 that he established a hold anywhere. In ’62 he had right field to himself all season and he generated one of his best years offensively of his career. He was an All-Star for the first time and then hit over .300 in the three-game playoffs against LA and .269 in the Series, but blamed himself for not pushing runners along in the last inning of the last game when he missed a bunt. But his home run totals were a pleasant surprise since he was viewed as a singles guy and in ’63 he came pretty close to matching his totals. That was the season when he and his brothers Matty and Jesus all appeared in a game for San Francisco in the same outfield. But it was also the year Felipe made some noise about the treatment of Latin players by the commissioner’s office and not too coincidentally after that season he was sent to the Braves with Ed Bailey, Billy Hoeft, and Ernie Bowman for Del Crandall – who’d be his manager on the Brewers – Bob Hendley, and Bob Shaw.

Alou had a rough start in Milwaukee. A regular participant in winter ball, Felipe hurt his knee in the DR prior to ’64 spring training. It killed his power and for a while his average and then after he was getting over it, he tore his knee again playing first and it took him a little while to get back. But he had a nice bounce in ’65 and then when the team moved to Atlanta the next year he put up his biggest season, hitting 31 homers from the leadoff spot and leading the NL in runs, hits, and total bases. He also got his second All-Star nod and came in second to Matty for the batting title. In ’67 bone chips in his elbow contributed to seriously discounted numbers and would also make for a permanent power swoon, but like ’65 Felipe came back strong in ’68, leading the NL in hits and getting in his third All-Star game. In ’69 he lost time to a broken finger though his average was still quite good. But with kid outfielders Ralph Garr and Dusty Baker in the wings Felipe was sent to Oakland after the season for Jim Nash. With the A’s he took over left for a year and hit well enough but then got traded again to make way for another youngster, this time Joe Rudi. Early in the ’71 season Felipe went to the Yankees for Rob Gardner and Ron Klimkowski. He had a pretty good year in ’71 while playing predominantly right field for the Yankees but his numbers tailed off the next couple years as he put in more time at first base. After a few at bats for the Brewers in ’74 he was done. Felipe finished with a .286 average on 2,101 hits, 206 homers, and 852 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .259 with an RBI in eight games.

After playing Alou returned to the DR where in addition to playing and then managing winter ball he opened a sporting goods store with his brothers. But Felipe got too restless and by ’76 was back in the States coaching in the Montreal system. From ’78 to ’91 he was either managing or coaching in the Montreal system, or coaching up in Montreal (’79-’80, ’84, and ’92). During that time he was 417-426. In ’92 he got promoted to the top spot in Montreal and did a nice job generating wins and developing young talent. In ’94 he put up a .649 winning percentage and looked headed for serious post-season action before the strike hit. He won Manager of the year anyway that season. When the Montreal management started unloading the kids Felipe’s record suffered and he was dismissed during the 2001 season. In ’02 he worked as bench coach for Detroit before going back to San Francisco to manage the Giants in ’03. That year he returned to the post-season on the back of Barry Bonds and he remained as manager until he retired following the 2006 season. He was able to manage his son Moises on both teams. He has a record of 1,033-1,021 as a manager and continues to do some admin work for the team.

No room for the star bullets and Felipe eschews the parenthetical thing. His surname is actually that of his mom and his dad’s surname is his middle one. I got no idea about the pancake reference. In “the Bronx Zoo” the Alous get mentioned. According to Sparky Lyle the reason the brothers were released by King George was that they both popped up late in a game in early September which pissed George off. He ordered Ralph Houk, then the manager, to release them. But Houk, aware they’d both have to take significant pay cuts to sign with new teams, tried to trade them instead, thereby allowing them to maintain their salaries. He was able to swap Matty to St. Louis and the Expos took Felipe off waivers so his plan worked. But one or both of them got mad at Houk because they thought it was his idea to trade them. It was, but for a beneficial reason.

Topps goes nostalgic on the back of the Traded card with the whole Milwaukee connection. Felipe had all of three at bats for the Brewers in ’74 so that connection doesn’t seem to have contributed too much. That last line makes it look like he was traded in ’66 but that was just the year the Braves relocated to Atlanta. Felipe has a very detailed SABR page.

We just hooked up Carmen Fanzone to the Braves and it looks like we’re going to do it again:

1. Alou and Milt Pappas ’68 to ’69 Braves;

2. Pappas and Carmen Fanzone ’71 to ’73 Cubs;

#484 - Carmen Fanzone

This is the second of three cards Carmen Fanzone had in his career and the photo memorializes his best season, which was either ’72, when he played a bunch and had eight homers and 42 RBI’s in only 222 at bats, or ’73, when he hit .273. That’s because this shot almost definitely comes from the same photo shoot as his ’73 card, which was his first. But they are both quite mild compared to his ’75 card with that monster mustache. Carmen was an excellent fielder – he even got props from Sparky Lyle – whose soft hands were as nimble on grounders as they apparently were on trumpet keys. In ’73 he backed up the corner infield guys: Ron Santo at third and a whole host of guys at first. Then he had a year with the ‘stache, a year in the minors, and it was on to the music world.

Carmen Fanzone grew up in Detroit where he played both music and baseball. After high school he went to Ferris State where he hit .464 for the freshman team and then .418 with three homers and 23 RBI’s in 17 games as a sophomore. He then transferred to Central Michigan University – also attended by Dick Lange from this set a couple years later – where he appears to have played ball only his first year of ’63. Coincidentally he got his preview of Wrigley by playing in the team’s marching band in both ’63 and ’64 when it did the halftime show during Bears games. In the winter of ’64 he signed with the Red Sox and that summer between school sessions pounded the ball awfully well for two A teams while splitting time between second and third. In ’65 it was all outfield at the same level. From ’66 to ’68 he played in Double A, played mostly first and third, and that last season was his league’s mvp. ’69 was his military hitch year so he didn’t play too much. But he came back with a big year in Triple A in ’70, all at third base, and made his debut in Boston. The Sox that year were sort of rudder-less at that position since George Scott played there as much as anyone and he got hurt. So Carmen was pretty psyched when he was called up but the Sox instead went with John Kennedy, a light-hitting ex-Yankee and Pilot, and Carmen really didn’t get too much of a look. That he had four errors in five games at the hot corner may have contributed to that. After the season he went to the Cubs for Phil Gagliano.

For the Cubs Fanzone had a big first act in the minors, again winning an mvp title, this time for Triple A Tacoma. He then finished out the year with the Cubs with a few games in the outfield. He led the team in hitting in spring training of ’72 and then got a break when Ron Santo got hurt that year and had a hot start at the plate. Though he cooled off, his power numbers stayed at impressive levels and he also worked at first and second. In ’73 he pretty much stuck to the corners and got some pinch-hitting work. In ’74 he was back to working almost exclusively at third in relief of Bill Madlock, but his average slid to .190. After the year he was released and in ’75 he hooked up with San Diego’s Triple A franchise in Hawaii. There he played more first than third and though he hit only .217, got on base at an over .400 clip. That was his final year and he finished his minors career with a .292 average with 102 homers, 571 RBI’s, and a .398 OBA. Carmen hit .224 up top with 20 homers and 94 RBI’s in 588 at bats.

From there it was on to music. Fanzone had finished his degree at Central Michigan and taught and played with various performers, including Lou Rawls and an offshoot of Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba band. He then moved on to do union rep work in LA, which he was still doing in 2011. He married Sue Raney after playing also. She is a jazz singer who has been nominated for four Grammys. Carmen was inducted into the Ferris hall of fame in 2003.

Topps highlights Carmen’s season in ’68 but his ’71 was even bigger. In “The Bronx Zoo” Sparky Lyle’s story about Carmen is that he was super strong, especially in his hands. He was forever squeezing a rubber ball to keep them strong and once Sparky – who’d played with Carmen in the Sox minors – and a teammate cut up the ball and Carmen nearly tore them up.

Continuing the theme from he last post, the Cubs also submitted a milestone home run for its entry into the baseball centennial celebration of 1976. The game took place May 12, 1970 at Wrigley against the Braves and it was a big deal because both teams were in first place at the time. The game’s starters were Ken Holtzman for the Cubs and Pat Jarvis for Atlanta. The Braves went up 2-0 in the first on a wild pitch by Holtzman and on Ernie Banks’ first at bat in the bottom of the second he stroked a solo shot to left off Jarvis to become the ninth player to reach 500 career homers. The Cubs went on to win the game 4-3 in extra innings.

Let’s use a pitcher to do the hook-up:

1. Fanzone and Milt Pappas ’71 to ’73 Cubs;

2. Pappas and Hank Aaron ’68 to ’70 Braves;

3. Aaron was on the ’73 Braves.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A bunch of the above guys have SABR bios.

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

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

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

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

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

#483 - Atlanta Braves/Braves Team Records

There’s a lot to say about this photo. First of all, it’s pretty damn blurry, which is too bad since it’s one of the few team shots taken on a sunny day away from any stadium shadows. That invites the question of where the photo was taken; my guess is in spring training since Pat Dobson (fifth from left in back row) and just-completed post subject Bob Didier (second from right in bottom row) are here. Here too are some surprises: ’65 AL Rookie of the Year Curt Blefary (second from right in last row); ’68 AL Cy Young and MVP winner Denny McLain (fifth from right in third row); and Andre – then Andy – Thornton (left of Dobson), who I never knew was part of an Atlanta roster. There’s even a guy sitting on a lawn mower or some other type of wheeled conveyance but he may have a medical issue so I’m leaving that one alone. There are some Hall of Famers: Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro, and manager Eddie Mathews are here but one potent cog from the ’73 machine is missing in Darrell Evans.

There’s not too much good to say about this team. Yeah, the infield set a record for the home runs it produced with three guys generating 40 or more. But even that stat was tainted because Hank Aaron – ascribed first base to make the record work and also voted to that position in the All-Star game – never actually played there all year. The real story was the team’s sorry pitching. Between the ineffectiveness of Pat Dobson and Ron Reed and the injury to Gary Gentry the rotation was a mess and Dobson was sent away mid-year. The bullpen was terrible and not one swing guy had a good year. Atlanta back then was a bit of a launch pad and the team’s 4.25 ERA was the NL’s worst. The Braves kicked off the season 3-10 and was never at or above .500. The team pretty much resided in fifth place the whole year. But at least Hank’s chase of the Babe was bringing them to the park. 

There aren’t a crazy lot of record holders to review but there are enough to split this post into two, so here goes:

Tommy Holmes grew up in Brooklyn and played semi-pro ball there after graduating high school. He was discovered in ’37 – when he was 20 – by a Yankee scout who showed up to watch Tommy’s team take on a team from the Negro Leagues and Tommy was signed on the spot. He tore up his B league that summer with a .320 average, 25 homers, and 111 RBI’s. Tommy generally wasn’t a home run hitter, though, and his next few seasons were more indicative of his style. In ’38 in A ball he hit .368 and the next three years he averaged well over .300 in Double A. But in ’41 NY had an All-Star outfield led by Joe Dimaggio and after that season Tommy was traded to the Boston Braves for Buddy Hassett and Gene Moore. With Boston his first couple seasons he stepped into the starting center field spot and did pretty well, especially after being tutored on pulling the ball to right – Tommy was a lefty – by Paul Waner who was finishing up his career in Boston. Tommy made good contact, had good doubles power, and rarely struck out and his first two seasons hit a bit above .270. In ’44 he failed his draft physical – he had bad sinuses – and had his first .300-plus year while only striking out eleven times. Then in ’45 came his monster year: .352 on 224 hits with 47 doubles, 28 homers, 117 RBI’s, and a .420 OBA, all on only nine K’s. He led the MLB in doubles, hits, and homers. It was also in that season that he had a 37-game hitting streak, the longest in the NL until it was broken by Pete Rose in ’78. His homer and RBI power came back to earth from then on but he still banged out lots of doubles and the next three seasons hit well over .300, including ’48 when he hit .325 to help take Boston to the NL pennant. The next year his average went south a bunch and both that season and in ’50 he was platooned in the outfield, though the latter year his average revived to .298. In ’51 he managed and played – he hit .319 – at Boston’s A franchise in Hartford until mid-season he was asked to take over the Braves after Billy Southworth resigned as manager. He went a game over .500 the rest of the way while playing sparingly and after a 13-22 start in ’52 was released. He then hooked up with the Dodgers for whom he pinch hit and then returned to the Series. That was his final work as a player up top and Tommy finished with a .302 average with 292 doubles, 88 homers, and 581 RBI’s with 122 strikeouts in just under 5,000 at bats. He hit .185 in his nine post-season games. In ’53 he returned to the minors to manage, that year in the now-Milwaukee system, and from ’54 to ’57 in the Brooklyn one. He played a bit in ’54 ending his minor days with a .326 average. He finished with a managing record of 61-69 up top and posted a winning record in the minors. In ’58 he scouted for the Dodgers before taking on his next gig as commissioner of the New York State Sandlot Baseball Alliance which he did for over 30 years. He also hooked up with the Mets in ’73 as a community relations guy which he did also for over 30 years, retiring when he was 86. He relocated to Florida where he passed away in 2008 at age 91.

Getting any information on Ray “Rabbit” Powell has been pretty tough. A little guy from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, he was still living in his hometown in his thirties. By 1908, when he was 19, he was playing independent ball in Oklahoma. A speedy outfielder, he wasn’t a great fielder, but was always near the top of his league in triples and stolen bases. Beginning in 1910 he played three seasons for A league St. Joseph, Missouri and towards the end of the ’11 season it was announced he was getting purchased by the White Sox for $5,000, although it seems dubious as to whether that ever happened. After his best season in ’12 – he hit .309 with 17 triples – he moved up to the Double A Providence Grays where he spent almost all of the next five seasons. He did get purchased for a short run for Detroit in ’13 – no at bats – and in July of ’17 got bought by the Braves for whom he immediately took over center and hit .272 as a 28-year old rookie. His average slipped to .213 the next year before he and a couple teammates joined the navy for WW I. In ’19 Ray and his mates returned and he would be an outfield fixture in Boston the next five seasons, that first season in left, but the rest of his time in center. He took a while getting on track average-wise, hitting only about .230 his first two years back. But after the ’20 season he announced he was walking home to Arkansas and he came back in ’21 to have his biggest year: .306 with all those triples, 12 homers, and 74 RBI’s, all career highs. He tied a mark with three triples in a game that year and the next two seasons his average hovered around .300. But he was losing playing time in ’23 and the next season was a back-up, partly because he wrecked his knee, which was discovered when he was traded to – and returned from – the Phillies the prior December. ’24 was his last year up top and he finished at that level with a .268 average with 67 triples and 35 homers, pretty good for a little guy back then. He then returned to the minors, first for four seasons at Houston, a St. Louis A league team, where he coached and hit well over .300 as a regular every year. In ’29 he began managing back in independent ball where he hit around .340 for two years. His last year as a regular player was in ’31 when he was 42 – he hit .300 in the minors - and he continued to coach or manage through at least ’46, including five-plus years in the Yankees system and five in Cleveland’s. By the early Sixties he had relocated to Missouri where he passed away in ’62 at age 73.

Eddie Mathews I’ll do on his manager card and Rogers Hornsby’s been covered already. On to a pitcher or two:

Vic Willis grew up in Delaware and briefly attended the University of Delaware before he left to play B league independent ball in 1895 when he was 19. He only went 10-15 that year and in ’96 was sick pretty much the whole season. But in ’97 he got healthy and pitched for Syracuse, an A level team, and went 21-17 with a 1.16 ERA. At the end of the season he was traded for some cash and Fred Lake to the Boston Beaneaters. Back then Boston was a powerhouse and Vic stepped right into the rotation to go 25-13 his rookie year as his team won the pennant. In ’99 he went 27-8 with an NL-leading 2.50 ERA and five shutouts. After an off 1900 he won 20 in ’01 and then had his biggest year, at least in terms of league-leading stats: he was 27-20 in 46 starts of which he completed 45, with three saves and 225 strikeouts in 410 innings. All those stats but the record were NL-leading. By that year, though, Boston was heading south fast and his records the next three seasons were 12-18, 18-25, and 12-29 despite league-average ERA’s. That last loss total is a record since 1900. But following the ’05 season Pittsburgh took a flyer on Vic and traded three guys for him. Pittsburgh won that trade as the next four years Vic averaged  a record of 22-11 with excellent ERA’s, his best being a 1.73 ERA in ’06. In ’09 he helped the Pirates take the pennant and then won a Series ring though he didn’t pitch terribly well. By then it was rumored he and manager Fred Clarke didn’t get along too well and after a mediocre ’10 season Vic was done. He finished 249-205 with a 2.63 ERA, 388 complete games, 50 shutouts, and eleven saves. He hit .166 with 84 RBI’s and in the post-season went 0-1 with a 4.63 ERA in a couple games. He returned to Delaware after he retired where he bought and ran the Washington House Hotel until he passed away in 1947 at age 71. He was voted into the Hall by the Veterans Committee in 1995.

Charles “Togie” Pittinger was born in Greencastle, PA and played local ball for a while after school. When he first hooked up with a semi-pro league in 1895 he was 23. By then he’d been married and had a couple kids, one of whom passed away. He was apparently sick often and his first recorded stats are from ’96 when he went 5-7 for an independent team. He was then signed by Boston and played the next two seasons for their B team, going a combined 20-4 with an ERA below 1.00. Of the 72 runs he gave up those two years, only 25 were earned: I guess that was pitching back then. In ’99 and 1900 he moved up to A ball and went a combined 22-10 until his mid-season promotion to Boston. The rest of 1900 he went 2-9 up top with an ERA over 5.00. He settled down a bit to go 13-16 with a 3.01 ERA in ’01 and then had his big ’02 in which he went 27-16 with a 2.52 ERA and led the NL in walks, which he’d also do the next two seasons. In ’03 and ’04 his record mirrored that of Willis’ as he went a combined 33-43 though his ERA was just south of league average. After the ’04 season he was part of one of baseball’s first big trades ever when he went to the Phillies for pitcher Chick Fraser and third baseman Harry Wolverton. For Philly, Togie had a one-year renaissance as in ’05 he went 23-14. He then went 17-15 over the next two seasons before he finished with a record of 115-113 with a 3.10 ERA, 187 complete games, 23 shutouts, and three saves. He returned to Greencastle after he was done playing where he passed away only two years later from Bright’s Disease, a kidney ailment. He was only 37.

I’ll pick these up on the next post.

#482 - Bob Didier

In one of the ironies of baseball and card collecting we go from a player’s first card to a player’s last card and the latter guy – this post’s Bob Didier – is over two years younger than the former one. These guys are also connected in that they both made a Topps rookie team: Bob was the catcher on the ’69 one. Here he poses at Yankee Stadium but he was on his way out in ’73. Never a great hitter, he was adept behind the plate, and was so good at catching knuckleballs that he was Phil Niekro’s favorite catcher in Atlanta. By ’73, though, he’d been pushed back in the depth chart and he spent most of the season in Triple A where he had a nice year, hitting .290 and posting his normally excellent defensive numbers with just one error in over 100 games. In May he was traded to Detroit for Gene Lamont, another catcher. It would have seemed that the Tigers would be a better place to land since Bill Freehan was in decline mode and Duke Sims wasn’t the best defensive guy around and Bob sure did perform with his .455 in 22 at bats but it was just not to be. After the season he was sold to Boston which was never going to work with Carlton Fisk and Bob Montgomery already established. It would be his final season up top before Bob moved seamlessly into his new career.

Bob Didier was born in Mississippi and by the time high school rolled around had relocated to Baton Rouge. There he was an all-league quarterback where he was state champ his senior year as well as an all-state catcher for his dad’s team, which won regional championships in ’66 and ’67. He was drafted by the Braves that latter summer and then made a couple stops in A ball, at neither of which he hit terribly well. In ’68 he remained at that level, turned his average up a bunch to .243, and led league catchers in fielding. The next year he startled everyone by hitting .357 in spring training which was a good thing because the two incumbent Braves catchers of ’68 were not available: Joe Torre had gone to St. Louis for Orlando Cepeda; and Bob Tillman was injured. So Bob filled the void, taking over the position until Tillman got healthy, and doing the lion’s share of the work thereafter. He was ordered by manager Lum Harris to “sleep with Niekro” and it must have worked since the pitcher had one of his best seasons with Didier being his main guy behind the plate. Bob also caught Hoyt Wilhelm a bunch and between the two of them put in over 300 innings of catching knucklers. It wasn’t too surprising, then, that he led the NL in passed balls but outside of that his defense was pretty great as he only had three errors and was a big reason the team won the division. Bob himself came in fourth in NL ROY voting and was the starting catcher in the playoffs where he didn’t hit too well as Atlanta lost to the Mets. In ’70 a terrible offensive start pushed him behind Tillman and new guy Hal King in the depth chart and eventually back to Triple A where he hit .309 and had a .384 OBA. In ’71 the Braves had a new rookie catcher in Earl Williams and though Bob’s average improved a bunch the year very much resembled ‘70’s, though this time he hit .283 at the lower level. Then ’72 was nearly all Triple A - .259 with a .997 fielding average – and he probably didn’t help things by demanding a trade. That he eventually got but outside his brief time up in ’73 and ’74 it was all minors. In ’74 his average fell to .225 and after the season he went to Houston where in ’75 he hit .251. In ’76 he returned to the Atlanta system as a player/coach and finished with a .237 in the former role. For his career he hit .229 up top and .254 in the minors. He got no hits in his three post-season games but fielded well over .990 at all levels.

From his coaching gig in ’76 Didier moved into managing in various systems: Atlanta’s (’77), Seattle’s (’78-’79), Milwaukee’s (’80), and Oakland’s (’81-’83). He then moved to Oakland as a coach from ’84 to ’86. Then it was back to managing in the Houston chain (’87-’88) before returning to Seattle’s to coach for the Mariners (’89-’90). From ’91 to ’92 he was the Toronto roving catching instructor before resuming managing for them (’93-’95). He then worked as a minor league coach (’96) and scout (’97-’99) for the Yankees before going back to Toronto as a coach (2000) and then the Cubs (’01 and ’03-‘05) as a scout. In ’02 he managed in the Twins chain, from ’06 to ’07 coached in the Arizona chain, and then managed at their Yakima franchise from ’08 –’10. In 2011 he was named hitting instructor for the Brockton Rox, managed by Bill Buckner. He has a couple catching videos on YouTube.

I’m not too sure I get that second star bullet since the only groups that named rookie teams back then – Topps themselves, Baseball Digest, and The Sporting News – didn’t differentiate by leagues.

In 1968 Detroit won its first World Series in 23 years and it was that championship that the team contributed to the ’76 baseball centennial. ’68 was the Year of the Pitcher and it was thus fitting that the Series opponents were led by their aces, both MVP winners. Bob Gibson of St. Louis had his 22 wins and that microscopic 1.12 ERA and a very foreboding Series history and Denny McLain cranked out 31 wins, the first time that number had been reached in over a generation. The Cards were the sitting Series winners and again they took their opponent to seven games. But this time Detroit prevailed, led not by McLain – who went 1-2 despite pitching pretty well – but by Mickey Lolich who went 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA including a Game Seven win over Gibson himself, who was mighty tough with his own 1.67 ERA and 35 K’s in his three complete games. Al Kaline, Jim Northrup, and Norm Cash were the hitting leaders for Detroit and Lou Brock and Orlando Cepeda for the Cards.

So these guys were pretty much just ships passing in the night:

1. Didier and Hank Aaron ’69 to ’72 Braves;

2. Aaron and Darrell Porter ’75 to ’76 Brewers;

3. Porter and Jerry Terrell ’78 to ’80 Royals.

#481 - Jerry Terrell

If you take away all the post-season cards this is our second rookie one in the past few and it represents a milestone in the set. Jerry Terrell is the final player who made the Topps 1973 Rookie All-Star Team so that sub-set is now complete. Jerry was a pretty old rookie, 26 when the season started, as he’d gone the college route and then took a few years in the minors. He was a versatile guy and would play pretty much every position by the time his career ended but up to this point in his career he was primarily a second baseman. But with a guy named Rod Carew inhabiting that spot, Jerry’s first year saw him on the left side of the infield, mostly at shortstop. Danny Thomson had that position in ’72 and retained it for a good deal of ’73 but he’d been recently diagnosed with leukemia – which would take his life in a few seasons – and had a season-long slump at the plate. So Jerry was a welcome addition with his hustle and drive and an average that topped Danny’s by 40 points. Here Jerry poses in Oakland and I’m not even going to hazard a guess as to whom that is behind him. He’d work his versatility into a pretty long career, both on the field and elsewhere. But he’d never get as much work as in his rookie year.

Jerry Terrell grew up in suburban Minnesota and after high school went to Minnesota State at Mankato – sometimes just called Mankato University – where he got a degree in accounting and played ball, finishing with a .301 average. He graduated in ’68 and was taken by the Twins in the draft and then hit .296 in A ball while playing second. In ’69 he hit .200 in a few games in the Instructional League but spent nearly the whole year doing time in the military. I have read on a couple sources that he did time in Viet Nam but have been unable to confirm that and that he played at all in ’69 would dispute that since generally call-ups had to do basic for about six weeks and then a full year in country. Regardless of where he spent his military time, Jerry was back to baseball in ’70 and that year in A ball hit .279. The next year he slumped to .231 in Double A – though he did steal 36 bases - but in ’72 he rebounded to a .290 in Triple A and made a believer out of Twins manager Frank Quilici, a recent Twin reserve infielder himself. In spring training of ’73 he got the boost.

In ’74 things got a bit crowded at Terrell’s favorite spots on the left side. Eric Soderholm was solidifying himself as the man at third and shortstop was sort of a committee position with Thomson and Jerry being joined by rookies Luis Gomez and Sergio Ferrer. Jerry put in as many games at DH as anywhere else and his average slumped 20 points. In ’75 he began the season in Triple A but two things returned him to The Show: his .320 average in the minors and experimenting with Carew at first. So Jerry did middle infield work, hit .286, and recorded lifetime highs in doubles (16) and RBI’s (36). The next year Carew was moved to first full-time and second was ripe for Jerry. But Minnesota had a new rookie – Bob Randall – who leapfrogged him and Jerry did his back-up thing, including games at each outfield position. In ’77 Soderholm went to the White Sox as a free agent and Jerry spent most of his time at third. After the year he went to Kansas City himself via free agency.

With the Royals Terrell reprised his back-up role but with much less time on the field and much discounted numbers. In ’78 he spent most of his time at third as he hit .203 in only 133 at bats but did make the post-season roster. His time retracted considerably in ’79 and ’80 as he was more a late-inning defensive replacement and the latter year spent time back in the minors. He also pitched in a game each year, leaving catcher as the only position he didn’t play during his MLB career. He was a great guy to have on the bench and a positive clubhouse influence and he would become the team’s player rep, ironically winning the Danny Thomson Award for good citizenship one year and then being the only player rep to vote against the ’81 strike, which he did for religious reasons. He was recalled too late in ’80 to be a roster player for the Series that year but was given a spot on the bench. It would be his last time there as a player as he was released right before the start of the ’81 season. Jerry finished with a .253 average up top and .277 in the minors. He got shut out of any post-season stats.

After a year off Terrell returned to baseball, primarily as an advance scout for different organizations. He hooked up with the Royals a couple times in that role: ’83 to ’86 and ’93 to ’95. He performed the same gig for the Twins (’88-’92), the Dodgers (’96), and the Expos (2001- at least ’04). He also coached in the minors (’97-’98) for the White Sox and managed there as well: ’87 for Kansas City; and ’99-2000 for Chicago. His record was 168-250. I haven’t been able to get a handle on his work since 2004 and there is no indication he went with Montreal to DC. In late 2011 he did a community kids baseball gig with the Royals so perhaps he is back in their fold.

Jerry gets star bullets for his two league-leading seasons in the minors.

I’ve used this guy before:

1. Terrell and Butch Wynegar ’76 to ’77 Twins;

2. Wynegar and Mike Marshall ’78 to ’80 Twins;

3. Marshall and Willie Crawford ’74 to ’75 Dodgers.

#480 - Willie Crawford

It’s 2013 and this set is officially 39 years old and to kick off the new year we return to the regular player cards and get thrown a bone with an action shot. It’s a pretty blurry one of Willie Crawford, but that may just be my card. It’s also tough to pinpoint the stadium and my guess is it’s either Philadelphia (strong) or Shea (not so strong) because that’s where other Dodger action cards were shot. It’s also tough to get a handle on this swing’s result since Willie looks pretty casual and may have missed the pitch entirely or may even be taking a cut in the on deck circle. Ah, for the absolutes of those Series shots. But one absolute here, for sure, is that Willie is smack dab in the midst of one of his best seasons, one in which he set personal bests in just about every major hitting category as he finally took over right field for real, put up a nearly-.400 OBA, and got rewarded with a “10” card. He’d been seeking that spot for almost ten years, even though he was probably only 26 when this shot was taken. He had a torrid May, hitting above .400 to finish the month at .321 when pretty much the whole line-up was hitting over .300. Willie would then hold onto his position for a couple seasons, more-or-less, although he could never completely escape the LA platoon system. Once he finally did, his career ended pretty quickly which would unfortunately be a barometer for things down the road. But right here he looks pretty good, every bit the bonus baby he was a decade ago.

Willie Crawford was born and raised in LA where he attended Fremont High School and roamed its diamond with future MLB guys Bobby Tolan and Bob Watson. Like just about every other black kid from the area with serious skills, he also played for Chet Brewer’s team in the summer. And he was a track star: a 9.7 burner in the 100-yard dash and a 25-foot long jumper. When he was a senior he was wooed by every MLB team, especially Kansas City, whose owner Charlie O Finley got Willie a tux and a limo for his prom and offered him a fat bonus, including about $300 cash he gave Willie on prom night. But the poor kid didn’t live in a neighborhood in which it was too wise to carry that kind of bankroll so he hid it in his shoe and then nearly pulled a hamstring trying to dance with it there. In the end Willie and his dad were put off by Finley’s aggressiveness and instead signed with the more reserved scout the Dodgers sent, a guy named Tommy Lasorda (I guess “reserved” is relative) for a pretty big stake. That was in ’64, the final non-draft year, and that meant Willie, who was all of 17, would have to spend at least some time up top. But first he played some A ball where he hit .326 and showed off his wheels. He then spent all of ’65 on the LA roster where he of course barely played but got some Series work with a hit in his two at bats. After the season he played in the Instructional League where he hit .317 in 35 games. In ’66 he went to Double A where his average sank to .265 as he struck out a pretty amazing 186 times in just over 500 at bats. Pretty scary, but his power numbers upticked pretty good. In ’67 he did IL work again and between that and his Double A time put up better numbers: 14 triples, 25 homers, 94 RBI’s, 21 steals, and a .293 average despite another pretty high – but better - K mark of 150. After hitting .295 with nine triples back in the top of the line-up in just over half a Triple A season in ’68 he returned to LA for good.

In 1968 the Dodgers, though just two seasons from a Series appearance, were not doing terribly well. There was no regular player at three-quarters of the infield and there was zero power in the outfield. So when Crawford put up his pretty pedestrian numbers – although those 64 strikeouts must have been a bit scary – people were generally excited. So in ’69 he became the fourth outfielder, putting in a bit more time at each corner than in center. His offense improved for most stats but his K’s stayed awfully high – 85 – even though most guys on the team enjoyed better numbers after the mound was lowered. In ’70 he lost a bit of time to young guys Bill Russell and Von Joshua, but not the K’s as he put up 88 in nearly 100 less at bats. Then in ’71 after a lousy start something good happened: Willie’s average climbed almost 50 points and his doubles doubled as his strikeouts came down by half. According to some accounts Willie was helped with his hitting by none other than Dick Allen, who stopped in LA for that season. In ’72 a hot start to the season power-wise was arrested by a cold spring and summer and by the end of July Willie was hitting near Mendoza levels. A hot late August and September pulled his average back 25 points and he was rewarded with the spot in right field vacated when Frank Robinson went to California.

In 1974 Willie had a season very comparable to ’73: same average, same power, and nearly the same OBA. He got to enjoy his first playoff run in nearly ten years and got some post-season work as LA juggled five guys in the outfield. In ’75 LA was beset by injuries and Willie wasn’t immune as he was hit with a twisted ankle early on that hindered his numbers a bit though it was the only season in which his walks topped his strikeouts. He was also back to being platooned, now with Joe Ferguson and John Hale, and that didn’t make him too happy so he asked to be traded. He got his wish in spring training of ’76 when he went to St. Louis for Ted Sizemore. With the Cards he took over right field most of the time and hit .304, his highest average for a season. After that year Willie was part of a deal that sent him, Vic Harris, and John Curtis to the Giants for John D’Acquisto, Mike Caldwell, and Dave Rader and it was a San Francisco uniform into which he was air-brushed on his ’77 card. But he never played for them since right before that season he was sent to Houston with Rob Sperring for Rob Andrews. For the Astros he played about half the team’s games in left and in June went to Oakland for Dennis Walling. With the A’s Willie played right and DH’d a bit but his average fell a bunch to .184. Unsigned for the season, Oakland let him go after it, and Willie spent most of spring training back in LA’s camp but didn’t make the cut. That was it for him and he finished with a .268 average with 86 homers, 419 RBI’s, and a .349 OBA. He hit .333 with a homer and two RBI’s in seven post-season games.

In ’78 and ’79 Crawford played ball in Mexico and when the Seventies ended so did his career. He returned to southern California, specifically Beverly Hills. There, his wife Dee became a high-end real estate agent and his son, Willie Jr., a local high school football star at running back and linebacker. Willie Jr. was a big deal recruit in ’88 and ended up going to UCLA but before he played a game ran into some troubles with assault and various other charges and never played for the school. Our Willie, whose profession since he played seems to have gone unrecorded, remained in the area – his wife is still at the real estate game – where in 2004 he passed away, apparently from kidney failure. He was only 57.

There’s Willie’s big bonus and the props for that ’66 Double A season. As for the cartoon, Willie was 17 when he signed but was 18 by the time of his debut in mid-September.

On September 9, 1965, right before the team’s last big push to the pennant – shortly later they’d win 15 of 16 – the Dodgers were given a perfect game by their ace, Sandy Koufax. And Sandy pretty much had to be perfect because Cubs pitcher Bob Hendley only gave up one hit and one walk himself. The only run of the game was scored without the benefit of a hit: Lou Johnson walked, was sacrificed to second by Ron Fairly, stole third, and then came home when catcher Chris Krug’s throw to Ron Santo sailed into left field. Johnson also had the only hit that day, a double in the seventh that ironically barely cleared the infield. He was the only guy to safely reach base the whole game. Koufax gave up one scary shot, a fly to deep center by Byron Browne in the second. There were only two half-innings that didn’t go 1-2-3. And Sandy got stronger as the game went along, striking out the side in the eighth and ninth innings. He ended with 14 K’s to get his 22^nd win and would finish the year 26-8 with a 2.04 ERA and 382 strikeouts to win the Cy. It was his second-to-last season and he was only 29. It was this game that LA offered as its choice for the ’76 baseball centennial.

The Dodgers of course beat the Twins in that ’65 Series and we have to hook up Willie to a Twin now:

1. Crawford and Don Kessinger ’76 Cards;

2. Kessinger and Joe Decker ’69 to ’72 Cubs.