#620 - Al Downing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Downing and Dick Allen ’71 Dodgers;

2. Allen and Mike Anderson ’75 Phillies.

#578 - Ralph Houk

For this post we have a sort of one-off card for this set. Ralph Houk gets the only solo manager card as every other manager was joined by at least some of his support staff. So what was Ralph’s deal? The explanation is told by his wardrobe. Ralph is photographed near the batting cages at Yankee Stadium, home field for his employers at the time of the photo. After the ’73 season Ralph resigned with two years left on his contract. NY had been picked by many to win the division but though the team had some early hot hitters – especially Ron Blomberg and his .400 average – the starting pitching sort of combusted outside of Doc Medich and mid-year acquisition Pat Dobson. But ’73 was also the year the Yankees got acquired by a group of which a certain George Steinbrenner was a member. And my bet is that a year under the helm of that guy was enough to propel Ralph elsewhere. And while at his resignation media meeting he declaimed any interest in a new managerial post, within a couple months he was named the new Detroit manager, ironically following, for the most part, a guy who would later be following him, for the most part, as the leader of his old team, Billy Martin. And Ralph hadn’t filled out his coaching staff yet so hence the solo shot with an air-brushed cap. The artist left alone the pinstripes – maybe he’d hoped Detroit would just head in that direction – so it’s a pretty odd look. And the Tigers would give him a couple seasons that probably made him wistful for those NY years (talk about a lack of pitching!) before he helped steer the franchise to its own glory year a bit down the road. For now, though, he was just a new guy on a new team, with a head full of vagaries that normally were encountered. Which is exactly the way he looks.

Ralph Houk came out of Stull, Kansas, where he was a high school football and baseball player at Lawrence High School and was signed by the Yankees in ‘39 after a year of semi-pro ball. He put in a full season of D ball that year where he hit .286 but with little power. He moved up the chain, hitting .313 in C ball in ’40 and then .271 in B ball before a couple games in A ball and then enlisting late that summer as an Army Ranger. He would climb there as well, reaching the level of Major – his nickname when he returned to baseball - before he was through and earning a Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Silver Star for combat that included the Battle of the Bulge. He returned stateside and to baseball in ’46, where he hit well in both Double A and Triple A, combining for a .298 average. In ’47 he made his debut for NY, hitting .272 in 92 at bats. It would be his busiest season as he would generally be the third-string catcher behind Yogi Berra and Charlie Silvera. But his timing was pretty excellent as he was around for six Series wins during his eight seasons in NY and he would hit a respectable .272 in just 158 at bats over that span and hit .500 in his couple Series at bats. He continued to do some Triple A time as well, hitting .302 in ’48 and .275 in ’49. After his final season up top in ’54 he became a manager in the NY system, going a combined 260-202 in three years at Triple A Denver. He then came up to be a Yankees coach under Casey Stengel from ’58 to ’60 before being named as Casey’s successor in ’61. Again, The Major’s timing was exquisite as he took NY to the Series each of his three seasons, winning it all in ’61 and ’62. In '63 he was named AL Manager of the Year. Prior to the ’64 season he moved up to the GM spot as the guy he was behind most of his playing career, Yogi Berra, took over as manager. Yogi got his aging guys back to the Series, but after a tough loss to the younger Cardinals was canned and replaced with the guy who beat him, Johnny Keane. But Keane had a miserable time overseeing a rapid demise and a few games into the ’66 season he was replaced by Ralph, who this time around would run things through ’73 and did a pretty good job with the staff he had. He would finish as high as second in ’70 - his second MOY season - and overall during that second run finished above .500 with an under .500 team.

In ’74 and ’75 Houk got to experience what Johnny Keane did in ’65 and ’66 with the Yankees as Detroit aged super fast, its success on the field suffered mightily, and by ’76 the team had only three starters left from the ’73 team. The infield went first, then the pitching, and then the outfield. After bottoming out at 102 losses in ’75 the team improved by 15 wins in ’76 due to a great trade (Rusty Staub for Mickey Lolich); the continued ascendancy of Ron LeFlore; and a rookie named Mark Fidrych. But the Bird really only lasted one season as his arm got hurt and Detroit pretty much preserved its record in ’77 before improving to 86-76 in ’78. Ralph retired following that season, leaving a pretty good nucleus for his successor, Sparky Anderson, to build into a Series winner. After a couple seasons off, Ralph returned to managing in ’81, this time for Boston. While the Sox weren’t as depleted as either the late-Sixties Yankees or the ’74 Tigers, the team had recently lost Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn and were in a rebuilding mode. Ralph would again integrate young stars-to-be into the line-up over the next four seasons like Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens. He also would again top a .500 record and again retire in ’84, leaving a rebuilt franchise for the next guy to take to the Series. His last MLB gig was as special assistant to the GM at Minnesota from ’87 to ’89 when he then retired for real to Florida where he lived out his life until he passed away in 2010 at 90. Ralph’s MLB record was 1,619-1,531.

Since there are no coaches for which to provide info, Ralph gets an expanded bit of his own managerial achievements on the back of his card. It really was a big change between those early-Sixties Yankees and the ones that came after. In two of the books I’ve often cited for this blog, Ralph gets some pretty good play. In “Ball Four” Jim Bouton mentions some contentious stuff with Ralph while he pitched for the Yankees but he sums it up by saying Ralph was a good manager. In “The Bronx Zoo” Sparky Lyle was a much more overt fan of Ralph’s and indicated that the reason Houk resigned in ’73 was in fact that he couldn’t manage under Steinbrenner any more. He seconded the notion about Ralph’s skill as manager and his sensitivities to his players’ needs.

This will be the first double exercise in a long time. First for Ralph as a manager:

1. Houk managed Bobby Murcer on the ’66 and ’69 to ’73 Yankees.

2. Murcer and Mike Sadek ’75 to ’76 Giants.

We just need to add a couple steps to do the link for Ralph as a player:

1. Houk and Mickey Mantle ’51 to ’54 Yankees;

2. Mantle and Roy White ’65 to ’68 Yankees;

3. White and Bobby Murcer ’66, ’69 to ’74, and ‘79 Yankees;

2. Murcer and Mike Sadek ’75 to ’76 Giants.

#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;

#473 - '73 World Series - Game #2

Wow, who’s this guy? Here we have the final card Topps issued of Willie Mays during his playing career. It’s a pretty dramatic shot and it looks like Willie has just taken a pitch from Rollie Fingers, the only pitcher he got up against in the game. Willie had come in the game in the ninth inning as a pinch runner for Rusty Staub, who had singled. He then got up a couple times as the game went to twelve innings. His second at bat in the top of the 12^th would be the final successful one of his career so this card is a milestone of sorts. Just because I can’t help myself I’m going to throw Willie’s bio out here in honor of his photo.

Willie Mays grew up in Alabama where he played football – as a quarterback and punter – basketball – where he set a state record with points per game as a guard – and baseball in high school. His school either didn’t have a team or Willie was unable to play on it – depending on the source – so he played some semi-pro and industrial league ball while at that age. In ’47 he went to Tennessee for the summer to play for the semi-pro Chattanooga Choo-Choos and in ’48 when he was 17 he played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. He hit .262 and knocked everyone out with his performance in the field and then played in that year’s Negro League World Series that his guys lost to Homestead and Satchel Paige. He continued to play for the Barons the next couple summers and during that time nearly signed with the Braves and the Dodgers but the Barons’ owner didn’t want to let him go. Finally in June of ’50 the Giants nabbed him. That summer he went to Trenton to play B ball and hit .353. The next year he moved up to Triple A where he hit .477 (!) with 30 RBI’s in 149 at bats. That was enough of an audition and that May he moved up to NY.

Mays famously had a slow start to his MLB career, going 0 for 12 until in his 13^th at bat he homered off Warren Spahn. He ended up hitting .268 with 20 homers and 68 RBI’s which got him the NL Rookie of the Year and helped get NY to the playoffs against LA. When Bobby Thomson hit his famous shot Willie was in the on deck circle. After a slow start in ’52 – he was hitting .236 – Willie got tabbed by Uncle Sam and spent the rest of that season and all of the next in the military which he said made him stronger. He came back in ’54 and in his first full season won the NL MVP by hitting .345 with 41 homers and 110 RBI’s in leading NY to the Series. That time they won and Willie made that amazing catch off a Vic Wertz fly to dead center. He would spend four full seasons in the Polo Grounds and during that time averaged .323 with 13 triples, 41 homers, 105 RBI’s, and 28 stolen bases. In ’57 he won his – and the NL’s – first Gold Glove in center which he would do twelve years running, Twice during that time he made the 30-30 club and three times he led the NL in slugging.

In ’58 the Giants moved to San Francisco where it was a tad more challenging to hit them out at the corners and everywhere else due to the wind. Mays did just fine though and the next nine years would average 40 homers, 109 RBI’s, and a .312 average. In ’62 he hit 49 out with 141 RBI’s as he again led the team to a post-season playoff championship, and again against the Dodgers. In ’65 he hit .317 with 52 homers and 112 RBI’s to win his second MVP. In ’67 he missed his first significant amount of time as his wheels were starting to get  beat up too much and his power stats came down pretty hard. They stayed there the next few seasons until in ’70 he had a bit of a resurgence with 28 homers and 83 RBI’s while hitting .291. He got to the playoffs again in ’71 when he led the NL in walks and OBA, with 112 and .425, respectively. Those were both the highest marks in his career. In ’72 the Mets lobbied hard to return him to NY for the end of his career and that May he came back for pitcher Charlie Williams and $50,000. He played sort of sparingly the next couple seasons between center and first base and after being injured announced his retirement in late summer of ’73. But he came back for the post-season and had some memorable moments. Willie finished with a .302 average, 660 homers, 1.903 RBI’s, 338 stolen bases, and a .384 OBA. In the post-season he hit .247 with a homer and ten RBI’s in 25 games. He was an All-Star for 20 seasons and was inducted into the Hall in ’79. After playing he coached with the Mets through ’79, was a greeter at Atlantic City casinos from ’80 through ’85, and since ’86 has worked in various admin roles for the Giants.

Now let’s get to the game. The starters were Jerry Koosman and Vida Blue and neither one would be around too long. Vida had a 1-2-3 inning to start the game but Koosman got in trouble right away with a Joe Rudi double, Sal Bando triple, and Jesus Alou double that knocked in a couple in the bottom of the first. He also walked a couple and struck out Dick Green with the bases loaded so it could have been a lot nastier. Cleon Jones led off the second with a homer and in the bottom of the inning a Bert Campaneris triple followed by a Joe Rudi single got the run back. In the third Wayne Garrett had a rare offensive surge with a solo shot and in the bottom of that inning Oakland threatened again on a one-out walk by Gene Tenace, a single by Alou, and an error on a come-backer by Ray Fosse loaded the bases. Ray Sadecki then came in for his first post-season appearance and Oakland tried a squeeze play that backfired when Green missed the bunt, nailing Tenace. After Green struck out the score was still 3-2, Oakland. Sadecki pitched another shutout inning before getting pulled for a pinch-hitting George Theodore in the fifth. Vida, meanwhile, was putting at least an NY runner on base an inning but was shutting them out through the fifth. But in the sixth things got nasty: After a Rusty Staub strikeout, Jones walked and John Milner singled, putting runners on the corners. Horacio Pina replaced Blue and promptly hit Jerry Grote, loading the bases. Consecutive singles by Don Hahn and Bud Harrelson knocked in two runs, chasing Pina. In came Darold Knowles who got pinch hitter Jim Beauchamp to ground back to him but who then slipped while firing the ball home, allowing Grote and Hahn to score. He got Garrett to strike out, walked Felix Millan, and got Rusty to pop up with three on. But four runs scored, giving NY a 6-3 lead.

Tug McGraw then came in to pitch for the Mets, replacing Harry Parker, who had pitched a shutout inning. Tug and Darold traded shutout ball of their own for an inning and then in the seventh McGraw hit Campaneris, walked Rudi, and struck out Sal Bando. But Campy stole second on the K and Reggie doubled him home, closing the gap a run and putting two guys in scoring position. Tug struck out Gene Tenace to end the threat. Blue Moon Odom then came in to pitch for Oakland and the eighth inning was all zeroes. In the ninth Staub singled and was replaced by Willie on the basepaths. Odom got Jones to fly out and gave up a single to Milner before getting two quick outs. Willie then took over center and Hahn took Rusty’s spot in right. This was important because the first Oakland batter, Deron Johnson, hit a liner to center that Willie couldn’t see – the sun was nasty for everyone that day – let get by him, and then fell while chasing. Double Johnson. He was replaced by Allan Lewis and after two quick outs and a Bando walk, Reggie and Tenace came through with singles, scoring Lewis and Bando. Alou tapped one back to the mound but it was a tie game.

The extra innings didn’t disappoint if you were one for drama. Rollie Fingers came in to pitch the tenth and gave up a lead-off single to Harrelson. McGraw sacrificed him to second and Garrett reached on a Tenace error at first. With one out and runners at the corners, Millan lofted one to short left that Rudi caught. Harrelson ran on the catch and Rudi winged it home. Umpire Augie Donatelli called Bud out to the consternation of many – including Willie (see below) in the on-deck circle – and on replays it looked like Ray Fosse missed the tag. But the inning was over with no damage. Tug breezed through the bottom half and Rollie again put two on in the eleventh but escaped. After Oakland went o-fer in the bottom came the big drama. Harrelson again led off the inning with a big hit, this time a double. McGraw then got another bunt off and this time was safe. Garrett went down swinging and Millan popped to first and up came Willie with two on and two outs. A clutch single to center scored Harrelson and a Jones single then got the bases loaded, chasing Fingers. Paul Lindblad – another pitcher making his post-season debut – came in and got Milner to hit a hot grounder to second. But the ball went right through the legs of Mike Andrews – who came in the game in the eighth - and both Tug and Willie scored. Jerry Grote then did an instant replay and this time Andrews fielded the ball cleanly but his throw pulled Tenace off the bag. Jones scored and Grote was safe, and after a Hahn groundout it was 10-6. Reggie led off the bottom of the 12^th with a big triple that many felt Willie misplayed and after Tug walked Tenace he was relieved by George Stone. Alou greeted Stone with a single, scoring Reggie, and a Fosse groundout pushed Tenace to third. Andrews then walked and Vic Davalillo, who was super hot in the playoffs, came in to pinch hit. But he popped up, Campy grounded out and the Mets got a 10-7 win that evened the Series. McGraw got the win, Stone the save, and Fingers took the loss. The game went 4:13 beating the former longest Series game by nearly 45 minutes. The eleven pitchers used also set a record. Poor Mike Andrews was essentially fired by Charlie O right after the game, though it was claimed he was injured. And that pushed manager Dick Williams – who’d already intimated he might not come back – right over the edge. Andrews had been a steady player for Williams in Boston and Dick went to bat for his boy, saying if Andrews wasn’t coming back neither would he. But the most enduring visual legacy of the game – at least for me – was this great photo of Willie rushing to protest the out call at the plate in Life magazine that had the equally compelling header: “The Say Hey Kid Says So Long.” I haven’t been able to find the magazine or the photo but here are two that come close. The first is of Mays running out from a different vantage point and the second an SI shot of Willie pleading with Donatelli to change the call.

Willie really put his soul into the game, didn't he?

Finally we get the card back which highlights two busy catchers and lots of pitchers. Another record set was by Don Hahn who became the first guy with seven at bats in a Series game. Here are the pitching stats:

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Koosman	3.1	6	3	3	3	4	8.10
Sadecki	1.2	0	0	0	-	3	-
Parker	1.0	1	0	0	-	0	-
McGraw	6.0	5	4	4	3	8	6.00
Stone	1.0	1	0	0	1	0	-
	12.0	13	7	7	7	15	5.25
Blue	5.1	4	4	4	2	4	6.75
Pina	-	2	2	0	-	0	-
Knowles	1.2	1	0	0	2	2	-
Odom	2.0	2	0	0	-	2	-
Fingers	2.2	6	4	1	-	2	3.37
Lindblad	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	-
	12.0	15	10	5	4	10	3.75

Five unearned runs. That’s pretty tough. On to NY and out of the sun!

#430 - Matty Alou

This was always one of my favorite cards in the set. First off, Matty is sweating up a storm – it’s just dripping from his chin – so he must have just scored and is returning to the dugout. Second, while this is a non-Traded traded card the Topps guys left it alone and I think the pinstripes actually look pretty good with the gold (brown?) and yellow colors Topps opted for on Padres cards. Third, this is Matty’s last card and in fact represents the last time all three Alou brothers would have cards in the same set. And you gotta give Matty some props: if you discount his last few at bats with San Diego in ’74 he went down swinging, putting up a nearly .300 average his final full season. The pinstripes look good on him; a whole lot better than the horribly-airbrushed ones did on his ’73 card. Matty spent the year with NY split between the outfield and first before he and his brother Felipe were sort of unceremoniously dumped the same week in September, with Matty returning to St. Louis. So the over-the-shoulder glance is sort of an appropriate pose as he looks back at his Yankee season and his career, at least in the States.

Matty Alou was signed by the Giants out of the Dominican Republic in ’57 and had sort of a tough summer in D ball, hitting only .247. In ’58 he moved up to C ball and his average moved up as well, to .321. The next two seasons he did the double jump, to A ball in ’59 and Triple A in ’60, where both years he had double-digit homers, pretty good RBI totals, and hit .288 with a .366 OBA the first year and .306 with a .353 the second. After a few at bats for the Giants in ’60 he came up to start the next season and hit awfully well his first couple seasons but with Willie Mays, Harvey Kuenn, Felipe Alou, and either Orlando Cepeda or Willie McCovey ahead of him couldn’t crack the lineup. But he got a bunch of post-season time, first starting the winning-series rally against the Dodgers and then hitting .333 against the Yankees. Then in ’63 he banged up his knee pretty badly in spring training and barely played either up top or in Triple A, where he was assigned for about a month. Ironically that was the year when the three Alou’s all started a game for San Francisco, making history. He would suffer a broken hand in ’64 and though in that season and in ’65 he got an increasing number of at bats, his average wasn’t making anyone too happy, and after the latter season he was traded to Pittsburgh for Ozzie Virgil and Joe Gibbon.

Alou’s move to the Pirates was super successful. The manager back then, Harry “The Hat” Walker had been a batting champion when he played and could be a very effective teacher. His magic worked extremely well on Matty, up until then a strict pull hitter who tried to muscle his hits to right field. Harry had Matty use a heavier bat with no knob which he choked up pretty high. He also had him wait for the pitch a bit longer and really shortened his stroke so that Matty became a punch guy with most of his hits thereafter being to the left side of the field. Finally Matty had a habit – I do not know if this one came from Walker or not – of hitting off his front foot, which was really odd since he began his stance with that foot in the air, like Mel Ott. But it all worked as he immediately took over center field and his first season won the NL batting title with his .342 average. He then lost only a few points off that mark in ’68 when pretty much everyone else’s average fell hard. He was an All-Star that season and the next one when he led the NL in hits and doubles. ’70 would then be his only Pirate season of hitting below .300 and after the season Pittsburgh decided Al Oliver was deserving of a full-time spot and sent Matty and George Brunet to the Cards for Nelson Briles and Vic Davalillo.

Pretty poor timing for Alou, as Pittsburgh went on to win the Series in ’71. But Matty turned in some nice numbers for the Cards including the best power numbers of his career as he put in some time in the third spot instead of his normal leadoff position. In ’72 for St. Louis he played as much first base as outfield since his arm was beginning to wear down and the Cards too had some young guys that needed time in the field. Late that August he lucked out by being sent to Oakland for Bill Voss and he hit pretty well down the stretch and then about 100 points higher in the playoffs. Plus he got back the ring he missed out on in ’71. After the season he came to NY for Rob Gardner and Rich McKinney, two hot prospects that never really made it, and re-united with his brother. After his short bit with the Padres in ’74 his MLB career was done. Matty hit .307 with a .345 OBA – he wasn’t much of a walker – and 236 doubles among his 1,777 hits. He hit .232 in 21 post-season games and also stole 156 bases and ranks in the top 100 for assists from center field.

Alou didn’t waste too much time in furthering his baseball career, signing a contract to play in Japan before he was formally cut loose by San Diego. The team he played for was Taiheiyo and he replaced Frank Howard on the roster, joining Don Buford, another recent exile. Matty played through ’76 when his manager was, believe it or not, Leo Durocher. He finished over there with a .283 average in his three seasons and then returned to the DR where he did local scouting for a bunch of years, mostly for the Giants, but also – at least – for Detroit (from ’87 to ’89). He also did some work for his old winter ball team, Escogigo, for whom most of the top three record spots are held by him and/or one of his brothers. He passed away at home last November, after suffering a stroke brought about by diabetes. He was 72.

Matty has room for one star bullet and it covers his ’72 playoff hitting, which was awfully good. Neither he nor his brothers have the parenthetical name, though the surname by which they were known back home was Rojas, not Alou. He has a SABR bio, though the folks at baseball-reference don't recognize that.

I love to get some dirt involved in this exercise:

1. Alou and Willie McCovey ’60 to ’65 Giants;

2. McCovey and Al “Dirt” Gallagher ‘’70 to ’72 Giants;

3. Gallagher and Dick Lange ’73 Angels.

Al Gallagher – affectionately called Dirt because his uniform was always a mess – was a colorful third baseman in the early Seventies who closed things up with the Angels and really should have had a card in this set.

#427 - Bobby Bolin

Bobby Bolin got released in spring training of ’74 on the same day as Luis Aparicio, so like Little Looie, this is his last card. The infield behind Bobby looks enormous and the shot appears to be taken about a year before his release, on a practice spring training field. Bobby certainly deserved a card in ’74 as his ’73 numbers – particularly his 15 saves – made him one of the AL’s better relievers. But new manager Darrell Johnson regarded the 34-year-old Bolin as too old, so he replaced him and his saves and his 2.72 ERA with Diego Segui, who in ’74 was 36, saved ten, and put up a 4.00 ERA. Oops. Bobby and another “aged” reliever – Bob Veale – actually put up 26 saves between them and formed a pretty good closer combo, finishing 53 games between them. Bobby seemed to roll pretty easily though, and it wasn’t long before he was back to his home base and onto his next thing.

Bobby Bolin threw some serious heat as a kid and high schooler but nobody outside the hamlet of Hickory, South Carolina, knew that until the school’s principal kept bugging one of the local rags to do a feature on him. He succeeded and the article got some bird dog scouts to take interest, one of them being from the Pirates, who signed Bobby with Branch Rickey in the room. That signing was later annulled by the commissioner because the Pirates broke all sorts of rules but later in ’56 Bobby signed with the Giants and this time it was left intact. He got things rolling the next spring and went 15-9 in D ball with a no-hitter and a 3.53 ERA but was a bit wild with more walks than strikeouts. He had an off year in C ball in ’58, going 10-8 with a 4.22 ERA but got the K to BB thing ironed out and then in ’59 tossed another no-no as he went 20-8 with a 2.84 ERA and 271 strikeouts in 225 innings in B ball. Those numbers got him into the A’s and in ’60 he went 12-8 with a 3.19 ERA and nearly a strikeout an inning split between Double and Triple A.

When Bolin came up to San Francisco in ’61 he was initially a reliever, a role at which he did a pretty nice job over the next couple seasons, averaging nearly a strikeout an inning, and adding 17 saves through ’63. His second year he got some post-season action, though he didn’t do terribly well. In ’63 he did spot duty and in ’64 his starts outnumbered his relief outings for the first time and though he threw pretty well, his record didn’t reflect it. In ’65 it was mostly pen work again but he got enough innings to get the seventh best ERA in the NL. ’66 was back to the rotation where again an excellent ERA was belied by his record. After a ’67 blow-up he came back strong in ’68 to post the NL’s second-best ERA at almost a run higher than winner Bob Gibson. After a sub-standard season in ’69 he was traded to the Pilots/Brewers for Steve Whitaker and Dick Simpson. While he won the first home game ever in Milwaukee for that franchise it was sort of a lost year there and in September he came to the Sox for outfielder Al Yates. For them he had a couple saves in his six outings and added six more and a winning record despite a high ERA in ’71. He spent a bunch of the ’72 season at Triple A Louisville – he went 6-1 with six saves and a 2.20 ERA at that level - and added five saves up top. After his fine ’73 he was released the following March. Along with the stats on the card he had 32 complete games, ten shutouts, and 50 saves. In the post-season he had a 6.75 ERA in nearly three innings.

Bolin returned to South Carolina, settling in a town called Six Mile where he worked his land for a bit and had his own business that may have been a purveyor of travel cards. He also sold a home in a nearby town that is now a wildlife refuge. In ’86 he returned to baseball as a pitching coach in the White Sox organization. I am not sure how long that tenure lasted but it was long enough for him to get props in developing Bobby Thigpen, the future record-setting reliever. He stayed local, adding a home supplies business to his portfolio, and in 2008 was inducted into his home state’s hall of fame.

Bobby gets room for one star bullet. That game was against the Dodgers. I find it pretty wiggy that on baseball-reference the pitcher with whom he has the greatest similarity is Kerry Wood.

This guy came up in a post a while back:

1. Bolin and Jose Pagan ’61 to ’65 Giants;

2. Pagan and Rennie Stennett ’71 to ’72 Pirates.