#624 - Bob Miller

There is a lot to say about this card. First of all it is the third card in a row that represents the subject's final Topps card as a player. Bob Miller had at this point had a pretty long run that began in the Fifties and, especially recently, had covered a whole bunch of teams. Secondly, this is a damn ugly card, which we have happily been without for a long time. Nothing against Mr. Miller, who in younger years was a good looking guy, but he is all of 33 years old at the oldest (see below) in this photo and he looks 20 years older. Plus this must be about the nastiest air-brush job in the set, with Bob’s Pirates uniform being compromised into a Mets one. The neck line is horrific and the hat looks like a pile of atomic waste. Third, the newest this card is is from ’72 and it may even be much earlier because the background is very Forbes Field-ish and that park closed in ’70. So it’s probably a spring training shot. Lastly, and best-ly (I know that’s not even a hyphenated word but you get the drift) it has Roberto Clemente in the background, which is awfully nice and pulls the card back to respectability. Don Leppert appears to be there also over Bob’s right shoulder, but I’m no good with the rest of those guys. ’73 was an all too-typical year for Bob in the Seventies: lots of traveling conjoined with some pretty good pitching. He actually went through nearly all of spring training with Pittsburgh, only to get released right at the end of it. Immediately picked up by the Padres he got off to a pretty good start in relief until some messy outings in May pushed up his ERA. Unfortunately, too, in not one of the San Diego games in which he pitched did the team record a win. So after 18 games he was placed on waivers from which he was again snatched pretty quickly, this time by Detroit. Bob won two of his first three games with the Tigers, threw generally good ball, and added a save through late September. He was then sold to NY for a very short stretch drive, especially for him since he only threw one inning. So Topps really didn’t get much of an opportunity to not airbrush Bob. But it would be nice if they did a better job.

Bob Miller grew up in St. Louis where at Beaumont High School he went 22-1 during his career and 12-0 as a senior. He also led his team to the American Legion national championship and in ’57 was signed as a bonus baby by St. Louis out of high school. Like most players signed under that umbrella Bob rarely played his first year and after the rule associated with those kinds of signings was changed in ’58 he went to the minors. After beginning the year in Triple A with a bit of a fat ERA he moved to Double A where he went 8-11 with a 3.54 ERA in the rotation. The next year he pretty much matched those numbers in Triple A – 8-12 with a 3.50 ERA – before he returned to St. Louis that August, winning his first game in his first start. He threw well the rest of the way but then had an injury-filled ’60 during which he missed most of the middle part of the season and did some Double A rehab time. In ’61 he moved to a reserve role and saw a spike in his ERA – but everybody did that year – and recorded his first three saves. After that season he was one of the early round picks by the new Mets in the expansion draft.

Miller spent most of the ’62 season in the NY rotation but probably wished he didn’t. He lost his first 12 games and didn’t put up his first win of the season until late September. Mercifully he was traded after the season to LA for Larry Burright and Tim Harkness, two infielders. Bob’s timing was pretty good and his first year he worked as a swing guy for the Series winners, getting a save in his relief work. After being shut out of any post-season work he was pretty much strictly a reliever the next few seasons. In ’64 he led the NL with his 74 appearances and recorded nine saves. He hit that save total again in ’65 and then put up five in ’66. Both those years he threw shutout ball in the Series. In ’67 the Dodgers did a fast fade and Bob went right with them as both his record and his ERA deteriorated and he was shut out in the saves department. In ’68 he went to Minnesota in a big trade with Johnny Roseboro and Ron Perranoski for Mudcat Grant and Zoilo Versalles. With the Twins Bob basically did set-up work for Perranoski and over the next two years garnered five saves for himself. In ’69 he added some spot starts which bumped up his innings and returned to the post-season. Then with the beginning of the Seventies came the real onset of his travels. Three years during that decade he played for three teams, beginning in ’70 when prior to the start of the season he was involved in another big trade, going to Cleveland with Dean Chance, Graig Nettles, and Ted Uhlaender for Luis Tiant and Stan Williams. It wasn’t a great year for Bob: as a swing guy for The Tribe, a starter for the White Sox (he went there in June for Buddy Bradford), and a reliever for the Cubs (a sale in September), his work was below par and his ERA escalated quite a bit. But in ’71 after a lousy start for the Cubbies he went to San Diego after being released in May and did some excellent work in the pen, recording seven saves with his miniscule ERA. He continued that after an August trade to Pittsburgh for Ed Acosta and Johnny Jeter. After posting three saves for the Pirates he again got some post-season work, winning another ring. In ’72 he stayed put for a change, adding another three saves, before he did the three team thing again in ’73. In ’74 he finished his MLB time with pen work for the Mets, going 2-2 with a 3.58 ERA and a couple saves in 58 games. Bob finished with a record of 69-81 with a 3.37 ERA, seven complete games, and 51 saves. In his post-season work he was 0-2 with a 3.07 ERA in nine games.

In ’75 Miller returned to the Padres as a player/coach for the team’s Triple A Hawaii franchise. He went 0-1 with three saves in his 15 games and the following year got a straight-up manager gig, going 81-54 for the team’s Double A franchise. In ’77 he was named pitching coach of the new Toronto Blue Jays – so he got a card that year – and retained that role through the ’79 season. After a year off in ’80 he joined the Giants as a minor league pitching instructor from ’81 to ’84 and then returned to The Show with an ’85 stint in San Francisco. After the whole staff was canned following a disappointing season Bob became a scout for the club. He was still doing that when he was killed in a car accident outside San Diego in August of ’93. He was 54.

Bob has zero room for star bullets, mostly because of his travels in the Seventies. Sixteen different managers, huh? Dare I name them? Why not:

Fred Hutchinson (’57 Cards);                                Don Gutteridge (’70 White Sox);

Solly Hemus (’59 -’61 Cards);                               Leo Durocher (’70 –’71 Cubs);

Johnny Keane (’61 Cards);                                    Preston Gomez (’71 Padres);

Casey Stengel (’62 Mets);                                     Danny Murtaugh (’71 Pirates);

Walt Alston (’63 -’67 Dodgers);                            Bill Virdon (’72 Pirates);

Cal Ermer (’68 Twins);                                          Don Zimmer (’73 Padres);

Billy Martin (’69 Twins and ’73 Tigers);               Joe Schultz (’73 Tigers);

Al Dark (’70 Indians);                                           Yogi Berra (’73 –’74 Mets).

Bob also famously roomed with another Bob Miller on the ’62 Mets which was memorialized by a Topps card.

Bob played with everybody apparently except this guy:

1. Miller and Lindy McDaniel ’57 and ’59 to ’61 Cardinals;

2. McDaniel and Celerino Sanchez ’72 to ’73 Yankees.

#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.

#434 - Ken McMullen

Here we have the solution to a long-standing problem in LA: the third base position. Ken McMullen, here posing at Shea, came to the Dodgers in a big trade prior to the ’73 season to fill a hole that had been plaguing the team for many a season. And he did, too, hitting .350 out of the box for LA in ’73. Then he pulled a muscle in his back before the eighth game of the season and all of a sudden 1973 became to Ken what 1925 was to Wally Pipp and what Job’s whole life must have been like for him. The guy that took Ken’s place the week he was recuperating – Ron Cey – ended up taking his place the next eleven years. On top of that Ken’s wife was pregnant which should have been a joyful time but for Ken was not so exclusively because his wife was also sick with breast cancer. And she was an exceptionally selfless woman because she wouldn’t let anyone treat her until after she was sure the baby was out of danger, which meant out of her. So ’73, a year that started with so much promise for him, ended up being a big trying experience. But Ken, regularly regarded as one of the nicest guys ever associated with the game, rose to the challenge, supporting his wife, and becoming a pinch-hitter deluxe beginning this year when he had five homers and 18 RBI’s in only 85 at bats. But by the time this card came out Ken would be on leave from LA and back home in Oxnard tending to his wife just before she passed away. Pretty sad stuff especially since they both seemed like special people.

Ken McMullen was a big three athlete when he was signed to a pretty fat bonus – around $60,000 – by Dodger scout Lefty Phillips in 1960. He starred in hoops and played outfield and the corner infield spots in high school and once broke open a state playoff game with an 11^th-inning triple that was nullified when the field’s sprinkler system came on. After a nice ’61 in C ball - .288 with 21 homers, 96 RBI’s, and a .415 OBA – he moved up to Triple A in ’62, played mostly outfield, and hit .281 with 21 homers and 81 RBI’s. He then got some games in LA during the stretch run and the playoffs against the Giants. In ’63 it was back to Triple A and third for a couple months before he was recalled to LA and would eventually take over their third base gig before – in another example of bad timing – he went down with an injury and missed the Series. In ’64 it was back to Triple A, sandwiching some games up top, where he split time between first and the outfield. After the season he was involved in his first big trade, joining Frank Howard, Pete Richert, Phil Ortega, and Dick Nen in going to the Senators for Claude Osteen and John Kennedy.

In DC McMullen took over at third base where over the next few seasons he would quietly become one of the AL’s best fielders. He also demonstrated some decent power, regularly finishing among the club’s top three in RBI’s and homers. He peaked offensively in ’69 with his highest double and RBI totals and best full-year average in a year he greatly benefitted from the tutelage of new manager Ted Williams. After a few games in DC to start the ’70 season he was sent to California for Rick Reichardt and Aurelio Rodriguez where he replaced the latter guy at third and revived his numbers considerably as the Angels made a strong division drive. He then got to play for Lefty Phillips, the guy who signed him, in ’71 but suffered through the turmoil of  that season and posted a 17-game hitting streak in a ’72 in which he put up one of his best averages but saw a significant reduction in his power due to a back issue. After that season he returned to LA with Andy Messersmith for Frank Robinson, Bill Singer, Bobby Valentine, Billy Grabarkewitz, and Mike Strahler. Back with the Dodgers he reprised his pinch hitter role in ’74 and ’75, both years putting up awfully good RBI totals in his few at bats. Those two seasons he also investigated playing in Japan but when he was released in ’76 spring training instead went to Oakland. There he would split time between third, first, and DH in a season in which he recorded his most at bats since ’72. But he only hit .220 with little power and after a very similar year with Milwaukee in ’77 he was done. Ken finished with a .248 average with 156 homers and 606 RBI’s. His lone post-season appearance was a strikeout against Pittsburgh in the ’74 NL playoffs. Defensively he is currently 62^nd in putouts and 51^st in assists all-time for third basemen.

McMullen stayed busy in his off-seasons, most of which were spent back in Oxnard. He ran a baseball camp and some golf tournaments with Jim Colborn who also grew up in that area. He also became actively involved in his family’s auto business. By the early Eighties he began working with the Dodgers in community relations and in the middle of the decade he and Colborn tried to bring a minor league team to his hometown. He still remains an associate of the Dodgers and resides in Camarillo.

On his card back Ken gets recognition for his defense and his team MVP. In the late Sixties Mickey Mantle said Ken was the most under-rated player in the game.

These guys get hooked up by Ken’s old roommate:

1. McMullen and Ed Brinkman ’65 to ’69 Senators;

 2. Brinkman and Lerrin LaGrow ’72 to ’74 Tigers.   

#396 - Tommy Davis

Tommy Davis brings us back to the AL with a beautiful follow-through in Baltimore. Tommy deserved an action shot in this set after all he put up with the last couple seasons. After refusing to lambast Jim Bouton for his “Ball Four” book, Tommy was basically blacklisted by the owners and was released by the Cubs following the ’70 season, when the book came out. He then signed as a free agent back with the A’s but because nobody claimed him off waivers had to start fresh and saw his ’70 salary of around $70,000 cut in half. Then, after putting up excellent numbers in half a season split between first and the outfield, he introduced wunderkind Vida Blue to an effective agent. Blue did not sign for the following season, Tommy was blamed, and the same thing happened again: he got cut, nobody would take a flier, and he again saw his salary reduced, this time by a third, when he finally did sign with someone, ironically the Cubs. But Chicago barely used him in ’72 and neither did Baltimore after they picked him up in a trade for Elrod Hendricks. Tommy finished the season on the bench in Triple A and nobody would take him still off the waiver wire. The O’s were ready to release him when – voila! – the DH rule passed and Mr. Davis had a job up top again. All he did was hit .307 in the new position with his highest RBI total since his big ’62 season. Lots of regrets by the colluding baseball powers after that one. Karma’s a bitch.

Tommy Davis grew up in the tough Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn where he played baseball – primarily catcher – and hoops with future NBA Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens. Tommy could jack the ball back then and his hometown Dodgers eventually won a hard-fought battle with the Yankees to sign him out of high school in ’56. He had very little trouble on the field his first two seasons in D ball, hitting .325 and .356 respectively with a bunch of RBI’s. In ’58 he won over a hostile Texas crowd in Double A by hitting .305 before getting some time in Triple A Montreal, his hero Jackie Robinson’s last stop before joining Brooklyn. By then he was exclusively an outfielder and after a .345 at the higher level in ’59 he was ready for The Show.

The 1960 LA team Davis joined was a mix of older holdovers from Brooklyn and a bunch of new kids who were primarily outfielders – Frank Howard, Willie Davis, and Ron Fairly to name a few. Tommy would settle into that group, eventually become the team’s primary center fielder, and put together good enough numbers to finish fifth in NL ROY voting – Howard won – and earn a spot on the Topps Rookie team. In ’61 his offensive numbers got a bit better but Tommy was distracted a bunch because Walt Alston wanted to take advantage of his athleticism and turn him into a third baseman. That experiment didn’t work too well: Tommy could cover ground but he never mastered the throw to first and had lots of throwing errors when even poor Gil Hodges couldn’t reach the missiles that went over his head. What did work, though, was Tommy’s hitting as in ’62 he put up a monster season, winning the NL batting title with a .346 and knocking in 153 runs, more than anyone else would or did from 1949 to 1998. All that without ‘roids and not even too many homers as the Dodgers that year were an aggressive running club. Tommy came in third in MVP voting behind his teammate Maury Wills and his 100 steals and Willie Mays, who was on a pennant winner after beating LA in a three-game playoff. In ’63 Tommy won another hitting title as his RBI totals came down to earth and that year he got his first taste of “legit” post-season action as his Dodgers beat old nemesis NY in the Series. In ’64 the top of the Dodger order stopped hitting and Tommy got less selective pitches to hit and his average dove 50 points as LA fell from title contention. They roared all the way back in ’65 though, but without Tommy as he broke his ankle taking an awkward step at first and missed pretty much the entire season. It would be a slow comeback in ’66 as he led LA in hitting but couldn’t really turn on that heel any more so his power was pretty much gone. He would return to the post-season but the loss to Baltimore would be his last time as a Dodger player. After the season he was traded to the Mets for Jim Hickman and Ron Hunt.

In NY Davis put up a pretty good season, leading the team offensively and putting up his last double-digit homer season. His RBI totals would certainly have been among his best if anyone could get on base ahead of him. But NY wanted a speedster out there with its other young outfielders and after the season Tommy and a couple other guys went to the White Sox for former ROY Tommie Agee and infielder Al Weis. Chicago was a tough place to hit and ’68 was a tough year to hit anywhere but Tommy put up pretty good numbers and when he was left unprotected that winter was snagged by the new Seattle Pilots in the expansion draft.

Davis would room with Jim Bouton during some of the ’69 season and so would get a lot of mention in “Ball Four.” He comes across as a classy fair-minded guy who didn’t leverage his star status into bad behavior. He also wasn’t afraid to quietly call guys out. So even though he was the leading hitter on the team he was traded to the Astros that August for Sandy Valdespino and Danny Walton, a few weeks after Bouton was. Then in ’70, before the mess occurred, he would spend time with three teams: Houston, Oakland, and the Cubs. He hit pretty well at all three stops. Then the O’s eventually got smart and after his fine ’73 Tommy put up a nearly equal ’74 - .289 with ’84 RBI’s – and then hit .283 in ’75. But by then he was running out of gas and with Lee May putting in more time at DH, he was released. He tried to hook up with the Yankees and then did so with California before finishing out the year and his career with Kansas City. Tommy had a .294 average with 153 homers, 2,121 hits, and 1,052 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .313 in 20 games.

Davis stayed in baseball after playing, returning to LA and doing some minor league and spring training coaching for the Dodgers and for the ’81 season as the hitting coach for the Mariners. He then returned to LA where he had a less formal relationship with the Dodgers, doing lots of community work and some sales stuff. He also sold insurance and ran hitting clinics. He is now mostly retired though he does do some promotional work for LA and himself, through a small company.

No room for star bullets so we just get the cartoon. Tommy’s dad’s name was Herman also so Tommy adopted his middle name at an early age.

Two action shots of two guys who played together:

1. Davis and Doug Rader ’69 to ’70 Astros.

Tommy's card gets us through 60% of the set. I'll do a re-cap on the next post.

#165 - Willie Davis

This is Willie Davis' third year in a row with an action card. And this one is much better than the '73 one when it looks like he was nearly beaned. Here Willie looks like he's stroking one to left field in what appears to be the same park as on Joe Ferguson's card which would make it Philadelphia. If it fell in there's a good shot that Willie would be at second base by the time the photographer was ready for another shot. Willie's final season in LA maintained his path through the early Seventies with another All-Star nod and his third Gold Glove season in a row. His trade here would be a very big deal and is represented by a Traded card that falls under the not-too-bad designation as there is only a bit of the cap that needed to be air-brushed. He seems bemusedly happy at his future home at Jack Murphy Stadium.

Willie Davis was born in Arkansas and grew up in LA where he was a star in football, basketball, track, and baseball at Theodore Roosevelt High and probably pre-ordained to join the Dodgers with whom he signed upon graduating in '58. He went to C ball in '59 and tore it up so much that in '60 he jumped all the way to Triple A which he demolished also (in his two seasons he got over 400 hits, 83 doubles, 42 triples, scored 266 runs and hit .349). In '60 he was named The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year. The downside of this is that when Willie came up he thought he was a power hitter and recognized that that was where the - relatively - big money lay. As a result, despite an occasional decent homer tally it took a very long time for Willie to establish himself as a hitter and his averages tended to be all over the place.
 
Davis got a call-up in late '60 and hit pretty well. In '61 the phase-out of Duke Snider and the phase-in of Willie as the LA center fielder began and in '62, his first season as a full-time starter, he led the league in triples and showed good further power with 21 homers and 85 RBI's. He also stole 32 bases, topped out in runs scored with 103, and was solidifying himself as a premier defensive guy. The following four seasons he would waffle back and forth between bad and good averages and three of those four years he would get to the Series, winning two of them. His even years tended to be better stats-wise - in the Sixties he averaged 86 runs in even years against 59 runs in odd years - and in '64 he stole a personal best 42 bases. In '67 and '68 Willie's average got stuck around .250 and his power declined to the point where he was down to single digits in homers. He also was creeping up in strikeouts to near the century mark. This caused the big re-evaluation.

1969 would be a significant season for Davis. He broke his arm in spring training and then missed more time after he got hit in the face and broke his cheekbone. While he was sitting out he decided that his game wasn't hitting homers, but getting on base. That process was cemented after a June game at Forbes field in which he hit three towering blasts that all ended up as putouts. He switched to a heavier bat used by Ken Boyer, choked up and cut down on his swing, and hit .353 the rest of the season, which included a club-record 31-game hitting streak. He also knocked 50 strikeouts off his total. In '70 he led the league in triples and in '71 he made his first All-Star game and won his first Gold Glove. That year he put together the second-longest Dodger hitting streak of 25 games. During that three-year stretch he was the only NL guy outside of Pete Rose to hit .300 each season. '72 and '73 were both Gold Glove seasons and in the latter one he was an All-Star again.

In '74 the Big Trade (Part I) sent Davis to Montreal where he had an excellent season, with a line of .295/12/89 with 86 runs scored. But the Expos had a lot of young outfield talent coming up and early in '75 they sent Willie to the Rangers for Pete Mackanin and Don Stanhouse. For Texas he started most games in center as his average fell to .249. His stay in the AL was short, though, and in June he went to the Cards for Ed Brinkman. He experienced a pretty good revival in St. Louis, adding 42 points to his average and upping his RBI totals pretty well.  After that season he was on the road again, going to San Diego for Dick Sharon. After a year with the Padres he went to play ball in Japan for two seasons. There he hit well enough - .306 with 25 homers; .293 with 18 homers - but he managed to piss off his teammates with his Buddhist chantings. In '79 Willie returned to the States for a year of pinch-hitting with the Angels. That was his last season in the majors and he finished with a .279 average, over 2,500 hits, 138 triples, 182 homers, and almost 400 stolen bases. He also scored over 1,200 runs and knocked in over 1,000 and in the post-season hit .179 in his 17 games. He still holds lots of career LA Dodgers records.

Willie had some interesting post-season experiences. In '65 against the Twins he stole three bases in one game. In '66 he famously had three errors in one inning. In '79 he went one for two as a pinch hitter. After he finished playing Willie was a player-manager for a couple seasons in Mexico. He was an avid golfer and after his baseball career ended he spent a bunch of time doing that. By the mid-Nineties he was living back with his parents and in '96 he was arrested for threatening them with a sword when they wouldn't lend him $5,000. There is very little information on him between that time and his death in 2010 at age 69.

Willie gets the star treatment in his cartoon. He was one of a few Dodgers in the '60s who would see TV and movie time. Willie was in "Mr. Ed" and "The Flying Nun", two '60s sitcoms, as well as the movie "Which Way to the Front?"

I like the "...has been known..." comment here. Topps also should have let us know a couple more times how fast Willie was. This was a huge trade as LA desperately wanted a premier reliever and gave up their only established non-pitching star to get him. The next day the Dodgers would pick up Jimmy Wynn to replace Willie.

This is a longer road than I thought it would be:

1. Davis and Willie Crawford '69 to '73 Dodgers;
2. Crawford and Marty Perez '77 A's;
3. Perez and Tom House '71 to '75 Braves.

#146 - Ron Fairly

Now Ron Fairly gets to pose in that weird compound that Ken Singleton was in many posts ago. Ron is smack in the middle of a genuine part of the field however. And he looks calm enough despite what appear to be a bunch of paratroopers milling around in the background. I guess he'd seen it all by then. Ron was about to embark on a pretty good season in '73, posting one of his best averages while putting up a .422 OBA and grabbing his first All-Star nod.

Ron Fairly was a Georgia kid who played at USC where in '58 he was one of the Trojan leaders of the CWS champs. He was signed that year by the Dodgers and put in some brief stops at Single and Triple A levels before getting some outfield time in LA at the end of the season. He stayed up for all of '59 getting enough at bats as a mostly defensive replacement to make the Topps Rookie All-Star team that year. In '60 the outfield was pretty crowded and Ron spent the season at Triple A Spokane where he hit .303 with 27 homers and 100 RBIs, as well as a .418 OBA. In '61 Duke Snider got hurt, allowing Ron to get back in the outfield. Also, due to Gil Hodges aging out, first base was made ready for big Frank Howard. But Ron stole the position by hitting .322 with 48 RBIs in about half a season. He would serve at first the next couple seasons as the transition guy between Hodges and Wes Parker. He was a very good fielder, particularly at covering bunts, and was adept at getting on base. He also knew the rules and during the pennant drive of '63 he saved a win by getting a Joe Adcock homer called back. In '65 Parker came up and Ron moved to the outfield, replacing Tommy Davis. His best position was right field since although he had a good arm, he was notoriously slow. He would be a consistent hitter and in '65 would have a great Series, tagging Twins pitchers for a .379 average with a couple homers and six RBIs. In '67 and '68 Ron's numbers came in as LA sunk fast and after a month-plus in '69 he and Paul Popovich were traded to Montreal for Maury Wills and Manny Mota.

For the Expos, Fairly would have a bit of a resurgence, playing primarily first base again through '71, and his full-season numbers would match his best during his Dodgers days. After Mike Jorgensen arrived in '72 Ron would also play a bunch in the outfield. In '73 Ron moved to the top of the order so his RBI numbers came in a bit. In '74 his numbers and playing time decreased and in '75 he went to the Cards for a couple minor leaguers. For St. Louis he again did the transitional thing as he was helpful in easing Keith Hernandez into the first baseman spot and Ron put up really nice numbers: a .301 average with 13 doubles, seven homers, and 37 RBIs in only 229 at bats. He also had an OBA of .421. In '76 He got less time as Keith established himself and late in the season he was sold to Oakland where he got some time at first and as a pinch hitter. For '77 he was basically sold to the new Toronto Blue Jays and there he set his high with 19 homers while playing first and the outfield along with DH-ing. He also made it into his second All-Star team. He is the only player to be an All-Star from both Canadian teams. For '78 he went to the Angels for Pat Kelly (NOT the one from this blog) where he did his first and DH thing, getting ten homers and 40 RBIs in under half a season. That was it for Ron as his dream to play in four decades didn't pan out. For his career he was a .264 hitter with 215 homers - he is the only player with over 200 homers lifetime without hitting 20 in a single season - and 1,044 RBIs. His OBA was .360 and he was a .300 hitter in the post-season.

Following his playing career Fairly jumped into broadcasting for the Angels ('79 to '86), San Francisco ('87 to '92), and the Mariners ('93 to 2006). He is also doing some color work this season for Seattle as part of a rotating group.


Ron's middle name is Ray but that looks like an L to me in his signature. Those two homers were actually hit in '65 (Ron went o-fer in '59). And his shovel throw was part of his bunt coverage at which he excelled. He also teamed well at Montreal with Rusty Staub defensively which is interesting because they were probably the two slowest guys in the league. When Ron played for the Blue Jays his manager was Roy Hartsfield, who was also his first manager in the minors.

Ron just misses connecting to Alston, for whom he played a bunch of years. Here, though, we hook him up to Dock Ellis. They missed each other by a year.

1. Fairly and Mike Jorgensen '72 to '74 Expos;
2. Jorgensen and Dock Ellis '77 A's and '78 to '79 Rangers.