#530 - Mickey Stanley

Mickey Stanley shows off his go-to pose at Comiskey. Pretty much every card up to this point of his had this stance at various stadiums. But that’s OK because Mickey was a pretty consistent guy who was able to use his defense and his versatility as well as some timely hitting to build a nice career for himself even though most of his outfield mates got more press and generally better offensive stats. He had a pretty good year in ’73, recording his personal best with 17 homers and winning his first Gold Glove in three years. It wasn’t nearly as exciting a season as the prior year when the backbone of the ’68 Series champs grabbed the division title. But it still had its moments, like when he recorded eleven putouts in a game in center, setting a record. His most endearing moment, though, may have come in a loss, a no-hitter by Nolan Ryan after which Mickey said, “Those were the fastest pitches I ever heard.”

After starring in the big three sports in high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mickey Stanley was signed shortly after he graduated and played a summer of local ball before getting things rolling professionally in ’61. He’d been a pitcher and second baseman in high school but immediately became an outfielder that summer in D ball (where he hit .279 with some power) and C ball (where he hit .223 with none). In ’62 he hit .285 with 18 stolen bases at the higher level and in ’63 he jumped to Double A where he hit .252. He bettered that big in ’64 when he hit .304 after a slow start in Triple A and then had a September debut in Detroit. He returned to Triple A for most of ’65 and had a nice year, hitting .281 with 73 RBI’s. He returned to Detroit late that summer after incumbent center fielder Don Demeter got hurt and got in about a month as the regular guy. He hit over .300 his first couple weeks and then had a cold streak at the plate to finish the year.

Stanley made the cut in ’66 as the fifth outfielder behind Demeter, Al Kaline, Jim Northrup, and Willie Horton. He got some early looks but then broke his hand in May, missing about a month. When he returned Demeter was traded to Boston and Mickey got the lion’s share of work the rest of the way, raising his average about 100 points from before his injury. In ’67 he split time in center with Northrup after he was originally scheduled to go solo but his average compromised his time in the field. In ’68 he had a big bounce – bigger because just about every other hitter’s stats fell – as his average rebounded and he added some decent power. He also won his first Gold Glove, which was pretty extraordinary given what happened during the season. Mickey was the uncontested guy in center except on two occasions: one was when injuries to Kaline and Norm Cash required him to put in some time at first; and two was when after the Tigers clinched manager Mayo Smith had him start some games at shortstop where regular Ray Oyler was not even close to Mendoza levels. This experiment would go on to be a high-profile success in the ’68 Series win when Smith kept Mickey there the whole Series, allowing Kaline to start in the outfield and keep his big bat in the line-up. After that big win Oyler went to the Seattle Pilots in the expansion draft and Mickey spent some time at shortstop in ’69 but after Detroit acquired Tommy Tresh from NY, Mickey returned to his spot in center where he would reside the next five seasons.

In ’69 and ’70 Stanley won two more Gold Gloves in center field. In that first year he hurt his arm at shortstop and his average fell a bit but he recorded his personal high with 70 RBI’s. In ’70 he led Detroit in a bunch of hitting categories as the team put up a losing record for the first time in a bunch of years. In ’71 he recorded his best average though his playing time slipped as new manager Billy Martin moved around the outfield pieces a bunch more. In the ’72 division title year his average fell a bit but he doubled his homers, added a bunch of RBI’s, and hit .333 against Oakland in the AL playoffs. In ’74 he was the starting guy in center until he broke his hand on a pitch and while he sat new guy Ron LeFlore took over his position. Mickey did return to win a game with an over the wall catch of a Rico Petrocelli homer attempt but with the younger LeFlore now entrenched in the line-up his days as a regular were pretty much over. In ’75 he was having a pretty good run as a reserve guy when a – guess what? – broken hand pulled him out of action for a month.  He did up his average by 30 points and kept it there in ’76 as he did back-up work at center and left as well as both infield corners. He continued in those roles the next two years and hit .265 in ’78, his final season. Mickey finished with a .248 average, 117 homers, 500 RBI’s, and lots of assists from center. In the post-season he hit .235 in eleven games.

After retiring Stanley played a year of professional softball in the Detroit area and then settled into a long career as a manufacturer’s representative. He then moved into real estate development in which he partnered with his son. He still resides in Michigan.

That outfield streak in the cartoon happened mostly during the ’68 season when he didn’t have an error all year in center. He also turned that trick in ’66 and ’70.

Since the Bill Bonham post represented the 80% mark of this set it is an appropriate time to review the statuses of the different categories;

Starting with post-season representation, each year from ’59 to ’90 is now represented by at least one member of a team that played in that year’s post-season. My rather subjective inclusion of that Game 2 Series card as a Willie Mays one also adds ’51 and ’54 to the mix. And Dave Winfield’s rookie card adds ’92 and ’95 on the front end. The ’73 post-season has the most representation with 79 participants.

Topps Rookie Teams – we now have the full complement of the ’73 team’s ten guys. The older teams stack up as follows (year and players):

’59 – 3    ’60 – 2    ’61 – 3    ’62 – 1    ’63 – 3    ’64 – 3    ’65 – 5    ’66 – 5

’67 – 6    ’68 – 6    ’69 – 7    ’70 – 5    ’71 – 8    ’72 – 8

Award Winners – the set is up to 23 former or future MVP’s. We are also at 15 Cy Young winners; ten Firemen of the Year; 19 Managers of the Year; 22 Rookie of the Year winners; 24 Comeback Players of the Year; and seven The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year winners.

Milestones - there are 26 Hall of Fame inductees. There are 51 official or non-official Traded cards. There are 39 rookie cards in the set, so far trumped by 49 cards representing the final ones issued for that subject as a player. And 53 players from this set are now deceased.

Odds and Ends – there have been 123 action shots, 301 shots of subjects in away uniforms and 162 in home uniforms. There have been 39 players with parenthetical names, a good indication of the number of Latin guys in the set. The Washington Nat’l card number has been stuck at 14 for a while. And both ugly cards and those of guys who were in Viet Nam are stuck at five each.

This hook-up was alluded to above:

1. Stanley and Tommy Tresh ’69 Tigers;

2. Tresh and Horace Clarke ’65 to ’68 Yankees.

#529 - Horace Clarke

Topps begins the final twenty per cent of the set right, with an action shot of Horace Clarke in the on deck circle at Yankee Stadium. I am guessing the view is from around home plate which means that would probably be Elston Howard behind him coaching first base. Horace usually batted lead-off so he could be watching the results of any of a number of guys – Gene Michael, Hal Lanier, Fred Stanley – at the plate. This is his final card so it’s a nice sendoff. And most likely Horace wasn’t even a Yankee by the time the card arrived as he’d been sold early in the ’74 season to San Diego. His timing couldn’t have been worse in terms of becoming a regular for NY. His career pretty much began right when the air came out of the Yankees post-season balloon and he left just two years before the mojo returned. So as a player he pretty much symbolized that dearth of titles. In ’73 he had pretty much a typical season with a middling average based on lots of line drives, very good defensive work, and rarely sitting. His stolen base totals had declined – in ’73 he had eleven – and his string of leading the AL in assists had ended. He missed meeting his successor at the position by a couple years as he was replaced by Sandy Alomar who bridged the gap between Horace and Willie Randolph. He enjoyed a pretty good run at the Stadium, providing solid play and lots of time on the field.

Horace Clarke was discovered by the Yankees while playing ball on St. Croix, his birth island in the Virgin Islands. Initially a player of cricket, he learned baseball while watching and then playing against American servicemen stationed on his island. The field they used had a short porch in left that ended in the ocean so to keep from losing balls he and his friends all became switch hitters. Horace was signed in ’58 and initially was a shortstop, that summer hitting only .225 in D ball but stealing 27 bases. But he got acclimated to US ball by the next year, as evidenced by a .292 average with 58 RBI’s and 34 stolen bases at the same level. In ’60 he moved up to C ball and hit .307 and in ’61 in A ball he hit .278 while swiping 40 bases. He stepped that up to .300 in Double A in ’62 and then moved to Triple A the next year where his average slipped to .249 as he began putting in time at second. Tommy Tresh was slated to take over at shortstop so Horace began to be groomed to replace Bobby Richardson, who was a pretty old 28. In ’64 Horace improved to .299 and got his stolen bases back up to 20 from only six the prior year. After a .301 start in 90 games in ’65 he was moved up to NY.

Clarke’s first season in NY in ’65 was a back-and-forth affair and while up top he pinch hit, pinch ran, and played at third base more than anywhere else. He then spent most of ’66 splitting starts at shortstop. That season he connected for his second home run and those first two were grand slams. In ’67 Richardson retired to coach college ball and Horace took over second base where he would remain as the regular guy through ’73. He didn’t have a crazy high OBA for a leadoff hitter but he regularly led the team in stolen bases and didn’t strike out very much. His best offensive year was '69 when he had a .367 OBA and stole 33 bases. Defensively he put up some nice numbers, leading AL second basemen in putouts four straight years (’68 to ’71) and in assists for six (’67 to ’72). During that time he also led in fielding percentage once and double plays twice. A knock on him was that he was unwilling to get hit while turning the DP and he sometimes held onto the ball too long, but he ranks pretty high in lifetime range factor so he seems to have made up for that elsewhere. In the winter after ’73 the Yankees were looking to grab Dick Williams from Oakland after Williams announced he’d had it with Charlie O Finley during the Series. NY offered Oakland Horace in exchange but Charlie O wouldn’t negotiate. That did set the tone for Horace’s future in NY as in spring training he lost the starting gig to Gene Michael and then after an early-season trade to Sandy Alomar. In May he was sold to the Padres as back-up for Glenn Beckert who had been hurt in spring training. But Horace had a couple injuries, wasn’t feeling the love, and after the season retired to go back home. He finished with a .256 average with 151 stolen bases and only about a K every 13 at bats.

Clarke stayed close to baseball upon his return to St. Croix and for many years worked as sort of a goodwill ambassador for the country to help develop local ball players. He also did some scouting work for a couple teams and has been retired since about 2007.

All this stuff was covered above except for the cartoon. He is one of only a handful of guys from the Virgin Islands to play MLB ball.

Here we use a great guy who passed away a couple years ago:

1. Clarke and Bobby Murcer ’65 to ’66 and ’69 to’74 Yankees;

2. Murcer and Bill Bonham ’77 Cubs.

#528 - Bill Bonham

This card gets us to the 80% mark of the ’74 set. That is a pretty big milestone but this card is a bit pedestrian to honor it. Bill Bonham looks pretty stoic on a sunny day at Candlestick. He is in the midst of what would be one of his best seasons and there is a decent shot this photo was taken as he was transitioning from a bullpen guy to a rotation guy, a role he would fill the balance of his career. Bill had a decent fastball but his real out pitches were a couple off-speed numbers over which he generally had sporadic control. The Cubs got pretty smart during the year when they opted to start Bill since they had a losing record when he relieved – though he recorded six saves - but a winning one in the rotation. He did some nice work down the stretch. In three of his final five starts he struck out nine batters and in two he went all the way, in one game for ten innings. He also went 3-1 during that stretch. So hopes were high for ’74 as at only 25 he was poised to take a regular spot in the rotation behind Ricky Reuschel. And then they weren’t.

Bill Bonham grew up in Pacoima, California, where in high school he played multiple sports. He was pretty high profile because the Angels made him a pick the summer of ’66, his senior year. But Bill didn’t go early enough so he opted for Los Angeles Valley College, where he played ball the next two years and set a record for wins. After his first year he was selected by the Angels again, this time in a much higher round. In ’68 the Orioles took a shot but Bill rejected them to move on to UCLA, where he again pitched for two years. His junior year of ’69 the team went to the CWS led by its offensive star, Chris Chambliss. Jim York was on that team also. Finally after the ’70 season the Cubs signed Bill right before the draft as a free agent and he threw some awesome heat that summer in A ball in relief, putting up six saves. In ’71 he had an excellent spring and stuck on the roster, making his debut early in the season. Outside of a short spell in Triple A he stuck up top, spending most of the season as a long guy out of the pen. In ’72 he returned to Triple A to get some more work and when he returned as a swing guy in the summer his numbers improved, including four saves. ’73 was all Chicago as he morphed into a starter.

In ’74 the Cubs were sort of reeling from the aging out of most of their stars and the departures of some other ones, notably Fergie Jenkins. While Bonham did generally good work in the rotation – a few too many hits and walks but high K marks and a league-average ERA – his record came in at 11-22 and those losses led the NL. In ’75 his record improved markedly to 13-15 but the rest of his stats went the other way, especially the ERA which moved up by nearly a run. In ’76 he went 9-13 with a 4.27 ERA with lots of walks and a dip in his strikeouts. But ’77 was better as he added a win, his walks came in, his strikeouts bulked up, and his ERA more than matched the league. After the season he went to the Reds for future conehead and top-notch reliever Bill Caudill and Woodie Fryman.

With the Reds things got both better and worse for Bonham. Better because he had a solid line-up and solid defense behind him and his pitching mechanics improved significantly. Worse because he got hit by the injury bug in spades. In his third start for Cincinnati his elbow popped and he missed the next 30 games. Still he returned to go great guns and after beginning the season 7-0 he finished at 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA and better K totals. But he missed another month in July and then his season ended in mid-September because the elbow never completely healed. He had the elbow worked on and returned to the rotation in ’79. But this time his shoulder got hurt and again Bill missed about a month early in the season. Still, he got more innings than his previous year and went 9-7 with a 3.79 ERA. But that shoulder injury would be a career killer. In ’80 he started well enough but then had to rest a couple weeks. He got bombed in a May start, went to Triple A for some excellent rehab work – 1-0 with a 0.56 ERA in three starts – but then only got in one more game up top the rest of the year. After another operation he made a few comeback attempts in ’81 and ’82 but he couldn’t pitch without pain That was it for Bill and he went 75-83 with a 4.01 ERA and 17-9 in the minors with a 3.25 ERA and 227 K’s in 216 innings.

Bonham never moved away from the area in which he was raised. By the early Eighties he settled in around Solvang, California, an apparently beautiful town in wine country. There for the past 30-plus years he has ran a clothing boutique with his wife named Berengaria.

Bill played hoops in high school also. When you Google Bill’s name and UCLA another Bonham – Ron – comes up. He was a big deal hoops player at the school but I do not believe he and Bill are related. Topps really picks on the Cards here. Those stats are over two years old.

Bobby Darwin was a Cub also, but not for long. For this one we get help from a trade from this set:

1. Bonham and George Mitterwald ’74 to ’77 Cubs;

2. Mitterwald and Bobby Darwin ’72 to ’73 Twins.

#527 - Bobby Darwin

It’s not much of an action shot, but I’ll take what I can get. Bobby Darwin looks mighty pensive somewhere in the AL away from home. By ’73 he was in his third year as the Rick Ankiel of his day, though Bobby didn’t have nearly the topside success on the mound that Rick did. Still, he was one of the rare guys to make the switch work and in ’73 he was in the midst of a pretty good run for the Twins as a power-hitting outfielder. That is if you discount the strikeouts. Bobby’s numbers in that last stat would make him right at home in today’s game. In ’73 he was also in the middle of a three-year run leading the AL in that category. And since three years was about all the time he was a regular he probably could have extended his reign. But Minnesota had plenty of contact guys so it wasn’t too bad a place to be if the whiffs were a little heavy but so was the power. Bobby’s big game in ’73 was one in which he had seven RBI’s. His homers could be huge – he was very strong – and around the time this card came out he launched one that was measured at 515 feet. That would sure be something to think about.

Bobby Darwin grew up in Watts and at Jordan High School there he was a multi-sport athlete. He was a big pitcher who threw heat and early in ’62 he was signed by the Angels, a few months after finishing school.  He then began a long road in the minors by going 11-6 that season in C ball with over 200 K’s in 153 innings. He also walked nearly a runner an inning which contributed to his 4.12 ERA but the Angels pulled him up for a September start anyway. He got whacked pretty good but also got six K’s in his three innings and began the next year in Triple A. He also began a military hitch that year and through May only got three starts – 0-1 with a 4.85 ERA and too many walks – before he was picked up by Baltimore and had a nice run in A ball, going 4-0 with a 1.61 ERA in five starts. That ended when he tore his rotator cuff, which was usually death to pitchers back then. Bobby rehabbed the rest of the season and returned to A ball in ’64 but the effects were still there as he went 2-11 with a 4.68 ERA. By ’65 he seemed fully healed and he moved up to Double A that year and improved a bunch, going 9-10 with a 3.89 ERA and 89 K’s in 111 innings, his best ratio for a couple seasons. But in ’66 he hurt his elbow and his numbers retracted to 2-6 with an ERA over 5.00 split between A and Double A ball. In ’67 he went 4-4 with a 3.45 ERA as he continued to recover at the higher level, with most of his work being in the pen. Then in ’68 he went 10-6 with a 2.21 ERA back in the rotation at the same level.

In off-seasons back then Darwin returned to LA where he worked tow trucks for Triple A. One day in late fall of ’68 he went out on a call to pick up a car that had been hit that happened to be driven by Al Campanis, the Dodgers GM. Bobby chatted up Al who remembered him from when they scouted him in high school. Al must have liked what he heard because a couple weeks later LA scooped Bobby in the Rule 5 draft. But Bobby hurt that same elbow again in the spring, was crazy wild in a few early games, and then he didn’t get any better when sent down to Spokane, the LA Triple A affiliate. Spokane was managed by Tommy Lasorda then and Tommy was a creative guy. He saw Bobby shagging flies and taking some cuts in the cage and he stuck Bobby in the outfield for a couple late-season games. Over that winter Bobby played semi-pro ball back home and returned to try things out in ’70 in A ball. He broke his hand on an inside pitch, missing five weeks. And his strikeout totals were immense: 127 in 303 at bats. But he also hit .297 with 23 homers and 70 RBI’s so in ’71 he returned to Spokane, cut down the K’s by over 40, and put up pretty good numbers of .293/17/55 in 321 at bats. He even got some looks that fall in the crowded LA outfield. And things were crowded so after the season LA sent their reclamation project to the Twins for Paul Powell.

Darwin’s initial work with the Twins made them pretty happy with the trade. The first few weeks of the '72 season he was hitting over .400 and he led the AL in homers and RBI’s through most of May. He slowed down a bunch and he wasn’t the most nimble guy in the field but he did an OK job in center and turned in pretty good numbers for a 29 year-old rookie (though he didn’t qualify since he spent too much time up top in earlier years). In ’73 he improved his numbers and the next year he bettered things with 25 homers and 94 RBI’s, both career highs. In ’73 and ’74 Bobby got pushed to right with the arrival of Larry Hisle and in ’75 a slow start coupled with rookie outfielder Lyman Bostock’s takeover of right field limited Bobby’s plate time and that June he went to the Brewers for Johnny Briggs. With Milwaukee he got starts in right and left and some DH work which got him more plate time and pulled his average up a bit. But in 355 at bats his homer and RBI totals slid to 13 and 41 on 98 K’s as his average dipped to .234. In ’76 he got a little time in right but had only 73 at bats when he was again the subject of a June trade. This time he went to Boston with Tom Murphy for Bernie Carbo. For the Sox Bobby got some at bats as a DH but his average came in some more and he finished the year at .207. After splitting time in ’77 between the Sox and the Cubs he was done up top. But he did some damage for the Cubbies in Triple A by hitting seven homers and 19 RBI’s in 79 at bats. After spending ’78 playing ball in Mexico for Tampico – Gonzalo Marquez was on his team – Bobby was done. For his career he hit .251 with 83 homers and 328 RBI’s. As a pitcher he went 0-1 with a 10.29 ERA in seven innings. In the minors he hit .270 with 62 homers and 170 RBI’s in about two regular seasons. As a pitcher he was 42-50 with a 3.83 ERA.

In ’79 Darwin returned to his old hood to work in some local businesses. In ’82 he became a scout for the Dodgers. He is still at it and in 2010 received an award for his services.

I think it’s great that a guy who converted from a pitcher to an outfielder is named Darwin. Bobby has a lot of names.

Another Brewers hook-up? Why not:

1. Darwin and Hank Aaron ’75 to ’76 Brewers;

2. Aaron and Frank Tepedino ’73 to ’74 Braves.

#526 - Frank Tepedino

Now here’s a happy guy. Frank Tepedino was having a fine season backing up Mike Lum at first and pinch hitting. Lots of times he’d play when Hank Aaron sat and he’d take Hank’s place in the line-up which was pretty prime. That and his clutch hitting helped produce 29 RBI’s in only 148 at bats. And he didn’t even get there until June, when he was traded from the Yankees. Frank led the NL in pinch hits so maybe he knew that while he was posing at Candlestick. His smile sure does beat Clyde Wright’s air-brushed scowl. 

Frank Tepedino grew up in Brooklyn where he attended Wingate High School and was a football and baseball star. He also played semi-pro ball in the summers with the Cadets, a Broolyn-based AAU team that is still around. His senior year he was drafted by the Orioles in the third round and that summer started with a bang in Rookie ball, hitting .337. In ’66 he moved up to A ball where he hit .288 still at first but with not too much power. After that season both Frank and Charlie Sands were taken by the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft, which meant they both had to be on the big league roster the whole following season. So Frank made his debut up top in May of ’67 but in June the Bombers bought pitcher Steve Barber from the Orioles and as a condition of the trade, Frank was allowed to return to the minors. That he did, finishing up the year in A ball where his average fell to .222. In ’68 came some military time around which he hit .248 in Double A and in ’69 he moved up to Triple A where he worked primarily in the outfield and turned into a bit of a slugger, hitting .300 with 16 homers and 61 RBI’s. Those numbers got him some more looks in NY that fall. In ’70 spring training he had a hot bat and after hitting .355 in a bit over a month in Triple A he returned to NY but rarely played around more military work and with Danny Cater and John Ellis ahead of him at first when he was there. Things pretty much repeated themselves in ’71 – though that year he hit only .208 in Triple A – and in June Frank was traded to Milwaukee with Bobby Mitchell for outfielder Danny Walton.

First base at Milwaukee in ’71 was a pretty crowded position, with five guys getting serious starting time there. Tepedino was able to wrangle himself a bit over 20 of those starts the rest of the season which got him by far his most plate appearances until that point in his career. The results weren’t super great so after the season when the Yankees came calling for their homeboy, Frank returned to NY in a sale. He spent just about all of ’72 in Triple A where he hit .282 with 13 homers and 58 RBI’s. He then kicked off ’73 in the same place on pretty much the same tack: .287/3/24 in his first 164 at bats. In June he went to Atlanta with Wayne Nordhagen, Al Closter, and Dave Cheadle for Pat Dobson. In ’74 Frank pretty much reprised his ’73 role but the results weren’t nearly as dramatic as he hit .231 with 16 RBI’s in 78 games. After beginning the season on the Atlanta roster he spent most of it back in Triple A where he hit .270 in 90 games. That would be his last season at any level and he finished with a .241 average with 58 RBI’s in 507 at bats up top and a .280 average in the minors.

Tepedino returned to New York after his career ended, did some work in retail and investment stuff, and then moved on to his next job and passion. He became a fire fighter in NYC and rose to captain. Along the way he had some alcohol issues but then went cold turkey and for many years has done anti-drinking lectures throughout his home area. A lot of them were done for Rusty Torres’ non-profit group until that guy got arrested. Frank raised his profile a bunch when he made an appearance at Ground Zero shortly after the World Trade Center horrors of 9/11. There and elsewhere he made some moving speeches about his lost comrades. He continues to do work for the fire department and resides on Long Island.

Frank’s two uncles are Frank – still around at 94 – who hit .293 during his career from the mid-Forties to the mid-Fifties which got as high as B ball; and John who hit .290 during a shorter run from ’48 to ’51 and reached the same level.

Again the Brewer connection seems the best route:

1. Tepedino and Dave May ’71 Brewers;

2. May and Clyde Wright ’74 Brewers.

#525 - Clyde Wright

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Wright and Jim Colborn ’74 Brewers;

2. Colborn and Bill Plummer ’79 Mariners.

#524 - Bill Plummer

On just about every card during his career, Bill Plummer had a huge wad of chaw in his mouth (check out his ’76 card). That wasn’t crazy unusual back then but I do believe this is the first card on which we’ve seen an actual pack of Red Man bulging out of a guy’s pocket. I used to chew that stuff too – it was actually kind of sweet – but not for eight years running. I sure hope Bill has no lasting impact from it. Back in ’73 he was smack in his second season as a regular and that term is relative since what he did was succeed Pat Corrales as Johnny Bench’s back-up. Bill was a big strong guy who worked pretty well with pitchers, which was a good couple of characteristics to bring to his role in Cincinnati. He’d spend nearly his whole playing career there, at least up top. But down the road his Reds time would be dwarfed by the years he spent with Seattle. Here he shows his stance at Shea. His ’75 card would be pretty much the exact same shot except that Bill had long sleeves. And no bulging pocket.

Bill Plummer grew up in Anderson, California, outside of Oakland where his dad was a cop. His dad and uncle both played a bunch of minor league ball and Bill caught and played hoops in high school. Signed by St. Louis in ’65 he hit .265 that summer in rookie ball. In ’66 he did his military hitch and when around hit only .144 in A ball. He picked up things a bunch at that level in ’67 when he hit .234 with eleven homers and 56 RBI’s. After that season he was taken by the Cubs in the Rule 5 draft and then spent the whole year on the Chicago roster behind Randy Hundley, getting only two at bats. After that season he went to Cincinnati in a trade for Ted Abernathy. He spent the next three years behind the plate for Indianapolis, the team’s Triple A franchise. There he did solid defensive work and improved offensively, peaking in ’71 with a .266/17/65 season. In both ’70 and ’71 he got some short looks up top with the Reds.

Since Johnny Bench came up in ’68 he pretty much never sat and for just about all that time Pat Corrales worked behind him. Corrales was traded to San Diego prior to the ’72 season and Plummer was pulled up to replace him. Through June Bill only had a couple hits in 18 at bats but then Bench hurt his finger and for a three-week stretch Bill took over catching. He hit .250 during that span and at one point had six RBI’s in eight games so he stepped up pretty well, solidifying himself in manager Sparky Anderson’s eyes. While the ensuing years wouldn’t provide a lot of playing time they worked pretty well financially for Bill since he got regular cuts of post-season pay. In ’74 he upped his average to .225 and had a big day against Steve Carlton with two homers, his only ones of the season. In ’75 he maxed out his at bats and runs, with 159 and 17 respectively as Bench put in some outfield time. ’76 was his biggest offensive season with a .248 average and 19 RBI’s and included a huge day in which he had seven RBI’s in a game against St. Louis. In ’77 his stats fell a bunch and during ’78 spring training he was released by Cincinnati.

Shortly after his release Plummer was picked up by the Mariners and that year he would do a little Triple A time while up top he caught behind Bob Stinson and hit .215. It would be his final work at that level. After becoming a free agent he re-signed with Seattle and spent all of ’79 as a player-coach for the team’s Triple A franchise in the PCL where his dad and uncle had played 50 years earlier. After hitting .255 as his team’s starting catcher and helping to develop pitchers his career path was pretty laid out for him. It was his final year as a player and he finished with a .186 average in The Show and .242 in the minors. Despite all the Cincinnati post-season success during his career he was shut out in any plate appearances.

Plummer continued what would be a long association with Seattle right after his playing time ended. He managed for its system from ’80 to ’81 and ’84 to ’89, going 582-568 during that time. From both ’82 to ’83 (bullpen) and ’90 to ’91 (third base) he coached for the Mariners. In ’92 he became manager, succeeding Jim Lefebrve at many players behest. But after going 68-94 he was replaced by Lou Piniella. In ’93 and ’94 he was Colorado’s bullpen coach. He then returned to managing, going 114-99 in a year-plus in the Detroit system and 13-24 on an interim role in Cincinnati’s. From ’97 to 2001 he managed independent teams, going 255-192 during that time and winning a league championship. In ’02 he hooked up with Arizona and went 412-403 in seven seasons. From ’09 to ’12 he was the Diamondbacks minor league catching instructor. Early in 2013 he became manager of Visalia.

Bill has a nice signature. This is the second card in a row that mentions his hunting so I guess it was a big deal to him. In off-seasons while playing he worked his dad’s cattle ranch. I didn’t know they had those so close to Oakland.

Bill and Cecil were on opposite sides of the ’75 Series:

1. Plummer and Johnny Bench – why not – ’70 to ’77 Reds;

2. Bench and Bernie Carbo ’70 to ’72 Reds;

3. Carbo and Cecil Cooper – they’d be traded for each other – ’74 to ’76 Red Sox.