#622 - Phil Gagliano

By this point in his career Phil Gagliano’s position – despite what the card says – was pinch hitter. During the Seventies Phil had made himself a bit of a franchise in that role and in his 41 pinch at bats during the '73 season he hit .300 with six RBI’s and a .480 OBA. But Phil was no liability in the field. In fact he put in time at every infield and outfield position during his career. Phil had come to Cincinnati before the season with outfielder Andy Kosco for pitcher Mel Behney, a one-time big deal draft pick out of Michigan State who never really made it. Both Phil and Andy would serve as excellent role players for the division winners in ’73 in their penultimate seasons. Phil had a fat grin on just about every one of his Topps cards so it’s too bad that this would be his final one.

Phil Gagliano was born and raised in Memphis and at Christian Brothers high school, where he was all-state as a senior in hoops, he was teammates with Tim McCarver. Phil was signed by St. Louis just before his 18^th birthday in ’59 and got things rolling the right way the next year with a .290 average in D ball and a .315 in Double A ball during which he was primarily a shortstop. In ’61 he moved up to Triple A and over to second base where for the next three years he averaged a .263/7/43 stat line while regularly finishing among league fielding leaders. After a short debut early in ’63 he returned to St. Louis for the first half of the ’64 season where he backed up Julian Javier at second before moving back to shortstop and hitting .262 in Triple A the rest of the way. In ’65 Phil returned to The Show and demonstrated his versatility while starting a bunch of games at second, third, and right field, and putting up a decent RBI total in the process. He would fill a reserve role in those positions the balance of the Sixties, getting his primary starts at third in ’66 and at second the rest of the way. He won another Series ring in ’67 and returned to the championship in ’68, getting some reserve work in both Series. Early in the ’70 season he was traded to the Cubs for pitcher Ted Abernathy.

With the Cubs Gagliano presaged his pinch hitting ability by lofting a two-RBI double in his first Chicago at bat. He spent the balance of the season doing back-up work at second before a trade to Boston after the year for infielder Carmen Fanzone. With the Sox Phil got some occasional outfield starts but his specialty was his pinch work: in ’71 he put up a .333/0/8 stat line with a .481 OBA in his 22 at bats and in ’72 his line improved to .346/0/10/.438 in his 26 pinch at bats. He then moved to Cincinnati and one last post-season before playing things out in ’74 in more reserve work. Phil finished with a .238/14/159 line for his MLB work and was a career .269 hitter in the minors. He went hitless in his seven post-season at bats.

Gagliano had made St. Louis his permanent home while playing with the Cards and after his playing time was over began his post-baseball life there. For two years he worked as a salesman for Paramount Liquors, a local wholesaler. He then moved to a firm called Durbin Durco, an industrial hardware company, and during a 17-year stay there moved from sales to become its head of operations. He then did other work until he retired in 2002 and relocated to the small town of Hollister, MO. A couple of his grandkids, Kyle and Conner Mach, have done some recent time in the Giants and Yankees systems, respectively.

Topps uses the same theme I have for this blog in the star bullets. That hobby was usually associated with a New York guy but maybe I'm being too provincial. SABR has a bio on Phil but you have to buy a book to read it.

To keep things rolling I am going to forgo the Watergate stuff for a bit. For this hook-up Phil and Bernie just missed each other and had a bunch of teams in common:

1. Gagliano and Bob Gibson ’63 to ’70 Cardinals;

2. Gibson and Bernie Carbo ’72 to ’73 Cardinals.

#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.

#560 - Mike Cuellar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only 100 cards to go!

#520 - Tim McCarver

Lots of people know this guy, even ones who weren’t around when this card came out. There are very few regular watchers of baseball over the past 30 years or so who don’t have a strong opinion of Tim McCarver, and that opinion is probably pretty balanced between like and dislike. I’m probably in the former camp, but I’ve always been happy to hear someone talk baseball who knows more about it than I do. And Tim is and has certainly been a talker. Even back in ’73 he was always good for a sound byte. He spent that year back in St. Louis for the first time in a few years after being spirited away by the Phillies in ’70. This time around Ted Simmons was the regular guy behind the plate so Tim put in most of his time at first with Joe Torre. He put up his best numbers since his old Cards days but his stay this time wouldn’t be crazy long as he’d be moving on again before ’74 was out. Tim shows his lefty batting stance at Candlestick. It’s an appropriate pose because a big Lefty would help extend Tim’s career for a while.

Tim McCarver grew up in Memphis where he was a big deal football and baseball star at Christian Brothers High School. He got lots of D-1 offers for full rides in the former sport but when the bonus numbers got big – he signed for either $65,000 or $75,000 depending on the source – he opted to sign with the Cards in ’59. He then hit .360 in D ball and .357 in a few games in Triple A before making his debut that September in St. Louis when he was only 17. He’d put in a few more games up top the next couple seasons but put in most of his time in the minors. In Double A in ’60 he hit .347 and then in ’61 and ’62 came down to earth a bit in Triple A with a .229 and .275 respectively, though the second season he added a bit of power with eleven homers and 57 RBI’s. After that year he was ready to go topside for good.

McCarver pretty much stepped into the starting role in ’63, replacing Gene Oliver as catcher. He put up some pretty good offensive numbers starting that season but what really ingratiated him to his teammates was his work behind the plate. Soon after getting his regular spot – and according to the book “October 1964” with some tutoring regarding his Good Ole Boy ways – he became tight with Bob Gibson which could be a tough thing to do back then. After hitting nearly .290 his first couple years he went to the Series in ’64 where he hit .478 with a game-winning homer against the Yankees. In ’66 he had his first All-Star year and led the NL in triples, a first for a catcher. In ’67 he had his highest average as he returned to the All-Star game and came in second in MVP voting to teammate Orland Cepeda. St. Louis also returned to the Series that year and the next and while Tim didn’t hit too well the first year, he did win another ring. He hit .333 in the ’68 loss to Detroit. In ’69 he put up better regular season numbers and then was part of the big trade between St. Louis and the Phillies in which Dick Allen became a Card and Curt Flood a Phillie, but not for long.

McCarver’s time in Philadelphia didn’t start off too well as a broken hand early in the season pretty much wrecked his year and had the Phillies scrambling to find replacements. He came back to start in ’71 and got into a mid-season fight with ex-teammate Lou Brock. In ’72 after starting off as the regular guy, he was traded to Montreal in June for John Bateman and the rest of the way caught and played a bit in the outfield for the Expos. After the season he returned to the Cards for Jorge Roque, a young outfielder. In ’74 Tim’s playing time contracted significantly after Torre moved to first full-time and Simmons rarely sat. After hitting .217 in just over 100 at bats, he was sold to Boston in September to help fill in for the injured Carlton Fisk. While hitting .250 for the Sox down the stretch it was rumored he was also next in line for the Boston manager gig when Darrell Johnson was having a tough time. But after hitting .381 as a pinch hitter in ’75 and with the Sox making their big pennant run, Tim was released in June. He was picked up by the Phillies shortly thereafter and in pretty much the same role hit .254 the rest of the way.

Beginning in ’76 McCarver took on the role that he would have the duration of his playing career as Steve Carlton’s personal catcher. Tim and Carlton had been in the same battery in both St. Louis and earlier in Philadelphia and for the next four years most of Tim’s starts would be when Lefty was on the mound. The first couple years Tim would make the most of the opportunity offensively as well, posting a .300 average with an over .400 OBA while putting up 59 RBI’s in 324 at bats in ’76 and ’77. Both seasons Philly made the playoffs as well as in ’78, when Tim’s average slipped to .247. After hitting .241 in ’79 he retired – during their time together Carlton went 77-41 – until he was brought back for a couple games in ’80 so he could be a four decade guy. Tim finished with a .271 average on 1,500 hits, 97 homers, and 645 RBI’s. He stole 61 bases and had a .337 OBA. Defensively he led the NL in assists once and fielding percentage twice. In the post-season he hit .273 with two homers and 12 RBI’s in 28 games.

McCarver began his broadcasting career while playing – it was in his contract – doing some spot work for the Phillies in ’78 and ’79.  He then stayed with the Phillies full-time through ’82 before moving on to the Mets (’83-’98) and Yankees (’99-2001). During that time he also did post-season work for all the networks and since 2002 has been working games for Fox. He has won three Emmy’s as a sportscaster and was inducted into the Hall as one in 2012.

Tim gets a good star bullet and an irrelevant cartoon. He stayed in Memphis a lot longer than I’d have expected. In that “October 1964” book Tim is described as an eager guy with a temper. In a few instances teammates had to talk to him about keeping a cool head during his first couple seasons.

How about using a guy for whom McCarver was traded:

1. McCarver and Dick Allen ’75 to ’76 Phillies;

2. Allen and Bill Sharp ’73 to ’74 White Sox.eHHeHYeHJh

#517 - Mike Hegan

Mike Hegan looks rather blasé at Yankee Stadium. That look mirrored the ones a lot of Yankees fans had back then. Mike just got back to NY during the season in a sale. An odd aspect of Mike’s travels was that he twice played for former teams. Another one is that his transactions were always for cash, never for another player. Things were a bit crowded at first for Oakland and a little messy there in NY so Mike returned mid-August with his excellent defense and streaky bat. Earlier in the year his error-less game streak ended at 178 in a call many thought was incorrect. He got the lion’s share of at bats the rest of the way since as a lefty he played against the right handers. He upped his average about 100 points and closed out Yankee Stadium as the last batter for a couple years while renovations were being done. His short run was a tad more successful than his last time in pinstripes before expansion whisked him away in the late Sixties. And this stay in NY wouldn’t be terribly long either as he’d be moving on and back to plenty of baseball elsewhere.

Mike Hegan grew up in baseball. Real baseball since as a kid he shagged flies for the Indians while his dad was a long-time catcher with the team. Mike went to St. Ignatius High School in the city where he starred in the big three sports and hit better than .500 his senior year. He got lots of looks from various colleges and opted for Holy Cross where he played football and baseball on scholarship in ’60-’61. After hitting .520 that year he was signed by the Yankees later that summer, too late to play pro ball that year. He returned to school for a semester and then got things going with a nice year in D ball hitting .306 with 18 stolen bases and a .438 OBA. In ’63 he cranked up the power in A ball with a .328 average, 28 homers, and 98 RBI’s. In ’64 he moved up to Double A but had a really tough time with the pitching, his average falling to .233 and his K totals outnumbering his hits. But he also made his NY debut that September, getting some pinch hit looks smack dab in the middle of a pennant race. He also made the post-season roster and got a couple plate appearances against St. Louis. In ’65 he went down to Triple A but after hitting only .179 returned to Double A where his .220 average wasn’t much better. Still, his defensive props were pretty compelling and in ’66 he recorded a much better season in Triple A, hitting .265 with a .393 OBA with a bit more power. He then got a second bunch of late season looks in NY.

’67 was a bit tough for Hegan. Ready to get promoted to The Show for real he instead had to do his military hitch and missed all of spring training and a bunch of the early season. When he did get to NY he did a back-up bit to Mickey Mantle at first. He didn’t hit terribly well and in ’68 he was bounced back to Triple A where he spent the year when he wasn’t doing his reserve work and there hit .304 with 17 stolen bases and a .418 OBA. Early that season he became one of the first official Seattle Pilots in a sale that allowed him to remain in the NY chain until the season ended. With the Pilots in '69 Mike stayed up and he began the season on an explosive tear, hitting the first Pilots home run and keeping his average north of .300 the bulk of the first half. Don Mincher was the regular guy at first so Mike played right field and that summer was the first Pilot/Brewer to be named an All-Star. Just before the game, though, Mike injured a hamstring and his presence in the line-up would be sporadic the rest of the season, though he finished with a huge .427 OBA. In ’70 the team moved to Milwaukee and Mincher was traded to Oakland so Mike was able to resume his regular role at first base where he got by far the most at bats of his career. In ’71 he platooned there with Johnny Briggs and a bunch of other guys to start the season before in June he followed Mincher to Oakland and spent the rest of the year as a late-inning guy and pinch hitter. He also made it back to the post-season and got an appearance against Baltimore. In ’72 he performed the same role again in pretty nice fashion as he hit .329 with a .375 OBA in limited at bats. He also got some decent Series time and even saved a win at first base by spearing a Cesar Geronimo shot down the line. And that came just after Joe Rudi made an awesome catch in left field to stop a home run by Denis Menke.

After his bi-team experience of ’73 Hegan began the ’74 season at Shea as part of a platoon at first base with Bill Sudakis. That arranement lasted until about a month into the season when the Yankees acquired Chris Chambliss from Cleveland. Shortly thereafter Mike was sold to Milwaukee in his second career round-tripper. There the Brewers had a mainstay at first base in George “Boomer” Scott and while Mike got a bit of time in the outfield, his most at bats were as a designated hitter. He did pretty well in the RBI department with 41 in 243 at bats for the year. In ’75 new acquisition Hank Aaron took most of the DH at bats and Mike split time between left field and first. In ’76 he got more time at DH as Aaron was winding down. Both years Mike hit around .250 in a bit over 200 at bats each season. That second year he hit for the cycle against Mark Fidrych. After getting very little time in the field to kick off the ’77 season he asked for his release and was done. Mike finished with a .242 average with a .341 OBA and hit .125 in 13 post-season games.

Hegan was a productive guy, finishing his degree in his first few off-seasons and then putting in some time as an announcer. He moved into that role full-time shortly after his release and continued calling games for the Brewers through the ’88 season. He then moved back to Cleveland where he has been calling games since ’89.

Mike gets some good color on the back. His dad played 15 years, almost all of them with Cleveland, and became a Yankee coach shortly after he retired. A few years ago I saw one of the ’72 Series games on ESPN Classics and Mike hit a grounder to third base. He nearly beat the throw; the guy had some serious wheels. And in “Ball Four” he comes across as a thoroughly likeable guy who is one of the few who is consistently nice to Jim Bouton, the book’s author. He also has about the best line in the book. When the Seattle players were asked the question about the toughest thing to do in baseball, Mike’s response was: “Explaining to your wife why she has to take a shot of penicillin for your kidney infection.”

Mike and Horacio actually played together in ’73 but Mike never got a lot of Oakland at bats so let’s make it stickier:

1. Hegan and Catfish Hunter ’71 to ’73 A’s;

2. Hunter and Horacio Pina ’73 A’s.  eHHeHYeHJh

#358 - Dal Maxvill

I liked Dal Maxvill. I really did. But in this photo with that big 'stache on his skinny body he looks like an adult film star. I guess that was part of the look back then but most guys in this set with facial hair look pretty good. Dal just looks creepy. I guess he was allowed. Carrying a .215 average throughout your career couldn't have been easy so if growing a bush on your face helped, why not. In '73 after being in and around St. Louis his whole baseball career he continued his recent itinerant ways, going to Pittsburgh early in the season after it was apparent Dick Green WOULDN'T retire (this time) and the Pirates were in need of a stopgap after Gene Alley ran out of juice a bit earlier than expected. Dal had some pretty good cards in his career - especially his '71 action shot - but this wasn't one of them. That's a shame because it's his last one.

Dal Maxvill grew up in Granite City, Illinois, across the river from St. Louis. A defensive whiz at shortstop in high school, he continued playing ball at Washington University where he graduated in four years with a .301 career average and a degree in electrical engineering. Signed by the Cards in '60 he hit .257 that summer in C ball. He split the next season between C and Triple A - quite a jump - where the average came in but not hugely so. In '62 he was hitting .348 (!) in Double A and showing good power - 35 RBI's in 178 at bats - when he was called up to St. Louis. There he got a serious look as Julio Gotay's back-up and did pretty well in the field. Then in '63 St. Louis acquired All-Star shortstop Dick Groat and Dal barely played. Same deal in '64 and for a big part of the season he was back in Triple A where he hit .235 for a couple teams. But late in the year second baseman Julian Javier got hurt and Dal came up to take his place including in all seven Series games. In '65 it was back to the bench.

In '66 Groat was traded to the Phillies and Maxvill got his shot at a regular gig. Luckily for him he would go on a relative offensive tear the next three seasons - hitting about .241 - while his defense was awfully good. In '68 he won a Gold Glove. Twice he returned to the Series, winning in '67 and posting an 0 for 22 in '68 as the worst offensive display in Series ball ever. But for Dal it was just a portent of things to come as he had two of the worst offensive seasons ever the next two years. He pulled the average up the following two seasons as the regular guy and late in August '72 he was sent to Oakland for two minor leaguers. One thing Dal did have was a knack for getting in the post-season and in '72 he filled in at short in the AL playoffs after Bert Campaneris got tossed for throwing a bat at the mound. After going to the Pirates in '73 he did a turnaround as he was picked up off waivers by Oakland in '74 and saw action in both the playoffs and the Series. After sticking with Oakland as a coach during the '75 season he was reactivated for a few games to plug some infield holes. That was his last bit as a player. Though he finished with a .217 average, he is 48th all-time in fielding percentage at short. Plus he has four rings as a player. I'd probably take that trade.

After his career ended Dal did a few things. While playing he worked off-season both for a firm called Bussman Fuse in St. Louis where he plied his engineering degree and then at Cardinal Travel, a travel agency he founded with reliever Joe Hoerner. He kept his hand in the latter business forever. In baseball he coached a season in the Oakland system and then in '78 worked up top for the Mets. He then moved to St. Louis from '79 to '80 before moving to the Braves system the following year. From '82 to '84 he coached in Atlanta. In '85 he took over as Cards GM. He had some pretty good initial success, going to the Series that year and in '87 but after a pretty dry spell he was replaced in '94. He then scouted for a couple seasons for the Yankees. Since the late Nineties his principal vocation has been the agency.


There's the Gold Glove year in the star bullet. He has a pretty cool middle name and home city.

Lots of music news to catch up on because I've been running behind. Let's start with '73. March 23 was the day the INS told John Lennon he had to vacate NYC in 60 days. Nobody knew yet that Lennon was on Nixon's hit list which was behind the demand. On the 24th, Lou Reed got bit on the butt by a guy while performing in Buffalo on a tour stop to promote his "Transformer" album (the one with "Walk on the Wild Side"). On the same date in the States the O'Jays' Love Train took over the top spot. On the 29th Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show made the cover of Rolling Stone. That was a big deal because their most recent hit was "The Cover of Rolling Stone."

In '74 on March 23rd, Cher's "Dark Lady" hit Number One in the US. On the 26th the song "Then Came You" was cut in Philly by Dionne Warwicke and The Spinners. She wasn't a big fan of the song and had to apologize to the producer when it became a big hit. On the 28th Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup passed away at age 68. Big Boy wrote "That's All Right" and "My Baby Left Me" which were later big hits for Elvis. Like a lot of blues singers from his day he lived and died in poverty.

The St. Louis link for these two guys should work pretty good:

1. Maxvill and Jerry McNertney '71 to '72 Cards;
2. McNertney and Buddy Bradford '66 to '68 White Sox.

#350 - Bob Gibson

This is NOT Bob Gibson's last card. They would come in '75. But it is his last card memorializing a good year although it wasn't all smooth running. When the Cards were having a tough time early in '73, so was Gibby, starting off at 2-5 but with a healthy 3.34 ERA. He then went 4-1, pulled his ERA below 3.00 and was looking to get a win total to match '72's when he went down in late July with a knee injury. He missed about ten starts, effectively killing St. Louis' chance for a division title, but returned in late September to win his final game. Here he looks warm before a sparse crowd at Candlestick. Bob had absolutely zero problem throwing at hitters and I am pretty sure that being on the receiving end of that stare could be an intimidating place to be. Even in '73.

Bob Gibson was raised in housing projects in Omaha, Nebraska. His dad passed away before he was born and he had an older bother Josh - not the Negro League catcher - help look after him. He was a small kid most of his time in high school but ended up being a superior baseball and basketball player. The Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues attempted to sign him but his brother pushed him into college and Bob won a hoops scholarship to nearby Creighton University and was the school's first black player in both sports. When he graduated in '57 he signed with both the Cardinals and the Harlem Globetrotters. When the Cards scouted him in Omaha every other MLB scout was there for the CWS to see a kid from USC named Ron Fairly. The two would be teammates in Bob's last season. That summer he threw so much heat in A ball that he was bumped all the way up to Triple A - Omaha of course - where his manager was Johnny Keane. He was having a tough time finding the plate though and in '58 he pitched for two teams at the higher level, going a combined 8-9 with a 2.84 ERA. In '59 he started the season in St. Louis but between too many walks, an inability to get a regular spot in the rotation, and a less than great relationship with manager Solly Hemus, he was sent back down to Triple A. There he went 9-9 with a 3.07 ERA. After a few games there in '60 he was back up top for good.

Gibson and his manager his first few years, as noted above, didn't get along too well. Most of the black guys on the Cards thought Hemus was a racist, and none of them had a super relationship with him. For Bob's first couple seasons he caught as much pen as starting time and his inconsistent appearances didn't give him much time to work on his control. But with Gibson at 2-6 through the early part of the '61 season, Hemus was fired and replaced by Johnny Keane, a manager with whom Bob had an excellent relationship. Keane stuck Gibby in the rotation and he went 11-6 the rest of the way. He then improved his strikeout to walks ratio markedly in '62 as he won 15 and made his first All-Star team. A mostly better '63 followed in part because the strike zone was expanded. Then in '64 he capped an awesome season with an even better Series, winning the clincher in Game Seven. Then came the big years: in the next six seasons came six All-Star games, six Gold Gloves (he would get nine of those in a row), two Cy Young awards, and an MVP. The only season in that time he didn't win 20 he was injured in '67 and that year he had one of the most dominant Series ever, seemingly purely on spite, when he went 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA. In '68 he had his amazing MVP year that inluded what I still think is one of the wiggiest stats I've ever seen: nine losses in a year in which his ERA was only 1.12. No wonder they lowered the mound the next season. In '70 he nabbed his second Cy and the next season most of his streaks ended as nagging elbow pain pulled his wins south by a few games. After a nice bounce in '72 came his last Gold Glove season. In '74 the elbow issues were compounded by serious knee issues - they would be drained 22 times the next two seasons - and an 11-13 '74 was followed by a 3-10 '75. That last season his knees were so out of whack that he pulled some pen time which didn't work for Bob and he opted to retire before the season was over. Gibby finished with a record of 251-174 with a 2.91 ERA, 255 complete games, 56 shutouts, and six saves. In the post-season he went 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA in nine starts in which he totalled 92 strikeouts in 81 innings. When he was done Bob had several team and other records including most wins as a Cardinal (251), most NL strikeouts (3,117), most strikeouts in a Series game (17), most seasons with 200 or more strikeouts (nine), most consecutive starts (303), and most complete games in the Series (seven). No surprise he was elected to the Hall in '81, his first year of eligibility.

After Gibson retired he traveled the country a bit and then returned to Omaha where he served on a bank board and opened his own restaurant. He returned to baseball in '81, coaching for old friend Joe Torre on the Mets and then the Braves ('82-'84). He then did radio announcing for the Cards ('85-'89) and color for games on ESPN ('90). He would do a bit of instructional work for St. Louis for a few years before a one-year gig as a coach proper in '95. He would start an annual golf tournament in '97, put out two autobiographies, and from about '95 on has been actively involved with The Baseball Assistance Team.


Bob never passed Walter Johnson on that list but he was the first NL guy to top 3,000 strikeouts. He also threw a no-hitter in '71. I remember his commercials as a kid. The one that stands out the most is his one for an asthma product, an ailment he picked up in the housing projects.

Bob and John rarely crossed paths but a pitcher will help:

1. Gibson and Rick Wise '72 to '73 Cards;
2. Wise and John Vukovich ''70 to '71 Phillies.

#216 - Ray Sadecki

Like Al Kaline on the prior post, Ray Sadecki was signed to a big bonus, although technically he wasn't a bonus baby. But that was a long time ago and by '73 Ray was a grizzled clubhouse presence and all-around pitcher for the pennant-winning Mets. Ray and Harry Parker were go-to guys. They would start, throw long relief, and close games. Ray would also put in some quality post-season time in '73 but we can get to that later.

Ray Sadecki is of Polish descent and he grew up in a Polish neighborhood in Kansas City. His baseball idol was Stan Musial, the day's most formidable Polish athlete. In high school Ray was widely scouted beginning in his sophomore season and after his team went undefeated its senior year there was a mad scramble to get him. He was ultimately signed by the Cards for $68,000 in '58 and got off to a nice start that season in C ball. He was only 17 but was already showing tendencies that would continue throughout his career: decent ERA and win totals coupled with high walk totals and a relatively low amount of completed games. He shot up to Triple A in '59 where he won 13 and got off to an excellent start there in '60 before he was called up. He went right into the rotation and won nine. In '61 he stepped things up, winning 14, and although he was still plagued by high walks and only finished about a third of his starts, he was progressing nicely. Then in '62 Ray held out for more money, pissing off management. Then when he threw a bad game early in the season it caused manager Johnny Keane fits and got Ray fined and basically benched. He was viewed as a kid with an attitude and was only given an occasional start, pretty much wrecking his season, which ended back in Triple A where he went 7-1 in the last couple months. He then pulled an army stint and was allowed to return to St. Louis in '63 and was eased into the rotation but still had a high ERA. Then in '64 he became a pitching leader during the pennant run, winning 20 at age 23. By then Ray, whose primary pitch was a fastball, had developed a curve and a type of changeup he called a slip pitch. He also brought his walk totals way down. Billy Williams would later say he was the hardest pitcher to hit against. In the Series that fall Ray would go 1-0 in two starts despite a monstrous ERA.

In '65 Sadecki had a disastrous year as the Cards tumbled hard. Then in '66 after an excellent start to the season he was sent to the Giants for Orlando Cepeda. It turned out to be a great trade for the Cards. Ray finished poorly in '66, had a pretty good '67, but then led the league in losses in '68. He finished things up in San Francisco with a losing record in '69. After the season he was sent to the Mets with Dave Marshall for Jim Gosger and Bobby Heise. In NY Ray's career revived as he put up a lot less decisions but nicely filled a role as spot starter and reliever, putting up his best ERA's. In the '73 Series he was quite good, posting a 1.93 ERA with six strikeouts in four innings. He would stay with the Mets through '74 and then do some travelling, back to St. Louis, to Atlanta, KC, and Milwaukee. In '77 he returned to the Mets for a couple games and was done. He finished with a 135-131 record with a 3.78 ERA, 85 complete games, 20 shutouts, and seven saves. A pretty good hitter, he hit .191 with five homers for his career. In the post-season he went 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA in six games. He also hit .500.

After playing Ray returned to the KC area where he became a sales rep for an industrial lighting company. He did that through '90 and then took a coaching gig with the Cubs. That lasted through '93 and he then worked with the Giants in '94. He walked away from coaching, though, after he realized riding a bus was no fun in his mid-50s. He would be inducted into the Polish Sports Hall of Fame and has a video on YouTube connected to it which I have linked to here.

Ray gets a nice star bullet. He beat Whitey Ford in that game. Regarding the cartoon, it is correct. The $68,000 I mentioned above included three years of guaranteed salary of $6,000 per. Ray gets some good coverage in the Halberstam book "October 1964" in which he is described as very down to earth and mature when he was younger and gives some interesting color about Ray's relationship with Johnny Keane. It also gives a hilarious account of Ray's tryout with the Indians.

Another tough one. A mostly all-NL guy with a strictly all-AL one:

1. Sadecki and Rusty Staub '72 to '74 Mets;
2. Staub and Mickey Stanley '76 to '78 Tigers;
3. Stanley and Al Kaline '64 to '74 Tigers.

#60 - Lou Brock

There has been very good representation so far in this set of some bad trades - Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi, Mickey Lolich for Rusty Staub - and here is a representative from another one. Midway through the 1964 season Lou Brock was traded from the Cubs to the Cards for a pitcher named Ernie Broglio. Lou would then be a pivotal player on Cards teams that went to the World Series three of the following five years. He would go on to get 3,000 hits, tons of stolen bases, and into the Hall of Fame on his first shot. Here he looks like a happy camper in what appears to be the Cards' spring training site. Like a bunch of his fellow Cards, Lou would have a tough start to the '73 season and at the beginning of May his average was sub-.240 and he only had three steals. But he would crank things up pretty quickly from then on and finish with an average just shy of .300 and yet again lead the NL with 70 stolen bases. 1974 would be the year he would go on to collect a then-record 118 steals.

Lou Brock grew up in Louisiana where he eventually became an HS baseball star and then won an academic scholarship to Southern University. At that school, things started tough as he lost the scholarship and hit only .150 his freshman year. But his sophomore year he led the school to an NAIA championship with his .535 average and after a junior year in which he hit .370 he was signed by the Cubs that summer of 1960 for a pretty good bonus. Picked up too late to play that year, in '61 Lou had a C ball season in which he hit .361 with 117 runs, 38 steals, and 82 RBI's from the top of the order. That was enough of an audition for Chicago and in '62 he was promoted way up to the majors.

The Cubs of the early Sixties had some good sticks in the lineup but not too much pitching. The team also employed a sort of manager-by-committee system that didn't produce very good records and almost no real guidance for young, raw players like Brock. For a guy whose primary game was speed, Lou could bang homers and during his career would sport the high strikeout numbers that came with that skill. So while his rookie numbers were pretty good, Lou had a tough time trying to figure out what kind of hitter he was supposed to be. And on defense he put up a few too many errors in center. So offensively his sophomore year was not an improvement to the prior one and with the trade of George Altman Lou was moved to right, a bad sun field at Wrigley, which made fielding even more frustrating (though with his speed Lou came in second in the NL in both putouts and assists). After a discounted beginning to the '64 season, the Cubs - still hurting for pitching - made the June swap for Broglio, a big winner in years past for the Cards (to be fair the Cubs also got other players including former MVP Bobby Shantz). Poor Ernie never got things going for the Cubs while for Lou it was a whole other story.

Brock went on a tear in his new home to finish with a .348 average for St. Louis, ably filling the functional void left by Stan Musial's retirement the prior year. His speed would be the catalyst to take the Cards to the Series where they won memorably over the Yankees. Defensively, he would take over left field. In '65 he really began ratcheting up the stolen bases with 63 and in '66 he won the first of his titles in that department with 74. '67, another Series season, would be one of his best offensive ones as Lou led the NL with 113 runs and 52 steals while setting personal bests in homers and RBI's. In '68 his doubles, triples, and 62 steals led the NL as he saw his final Series action. '69 was a disappointing year for St. Louis but not because of Lou as he kept his numbers up and led the NL with 53 steals. He gave up the title by a couple bases in '70 to Bobby Tolan but that year began a run of six of seven .300 seasons. '71 saw Lou top out with 126 runs in his final 200 hit season and a return to the All-Star game while in '72 the runs came in a bunch but nothing else did.

'74 was another big season for Brock. The Hank Aaron home run record chase ended early in the season when Hank topped the Babe. So when Lou decided to chase another record in Maury Wills' stolen base one, he had a lot of eyes on him and sort of smashed through the record. That would be his final year of leading the league. In '75 and '76 he kept the average above .300 and the stolen bases above 50 while in the next two seasons Lou showed his age. But he had a big year in '79, moving his average up over 80 points to .304 while returning to the All-Star game and recording his 3,000th hit. He won the NL Comeback Player of the Year in what would be his final season. He finished with 3,023 hits, 938 stolen bases, and a .293 average. He also hit 149 homers. In the post-season Lou's numbers were pretty amazing: .391 with four homers, 13 RBI's, 16 runs, and 14 stolen bases in 21 games.Defensively the once-challenged outfielder is eighth all-time in left field putouts, 23rd in assists, and 27th in double plays.

In David Halberstam's book, "October 1964", he devotes the preface to a description of Brock's time with the Cubs. It is a significant narrative on how Brock viewed baseball and played the game: he took copious notes on his game and opposing pitchers; he was so driven to succeed that he worried his roommate, Ernie Banks; he desperately tried to make himself a better fielder since right field in Wrigley was a notorious sun field and he had never learned how to play in the sun. When he moved to the Cards it was pure freedom for Brock; he was allowed to run whenever he wanted, he was allowed to swing freely and not be restricted by typical lead-off man demands. It all paid off pretty well.

Nice numbers on the back. Those consecutive years of 50+ stolen bases would reach a total of twelve. Brock led the NL in steals every year from '66 to '74 except 1970 and was an All-Star six times. His signature is another one with a reverse lean. The cartoon is actually significant. Brock turned that flower business into a great success and source of wealth. A driven guy, indeed.

I am going to re-use another guy also mentioned above:

1. Brock and Bobby Tolan '65 to '68 Cards;
2. Tolan and Ross Grimsley '71 to '73 Reds.

#44 - Mel Stottlemyre

1973 was Mel Stottlemyre's last productive year as a Yankee starter. During '74 he would develop rotator cuff problems that would end his pitching career. But his '73 was pretty good. Mel posted a way better than league average ERA and his ninth straight season of over 250 MLB innings, both which deserved a better than .500 record. But such was life with the Yankees back then. I find this card interesting for a couple reasons. First is that it appears to be a spring training shot as I believe Mel is right outside the left field foul line and there are no stands in the background. Two is the guy in the background has a red helmet on, so where is this shot? Maybe it's the spring home of the White Sox? Philly? The Reds? Lastly, the knee stain is interesting. I would say it is from sliding drills but since '73 was the first DH year, there would be no reason for Mel to be doing that. Maybe it's a photo from a prior season. See all the thought tangents? Who says baseball cards are superficial.

Mel Stottlemyre was a career Yankee. He was signed in '61 after he finished his degree at Yakima Community College in Washington. That year he went 9-4 as a starter in D ball with well over a strikeout an inning. That last stat was a bit of a surprise because Mel was a sinker specialist and didn't normally put up a lot of K's. In '62 he advanced to B ball, where he went 17-9 with a 2.50 ERA. The following year in Triple A Mel was made a swing guy which really wasn't his best role, evidenced by his going 7-7 with a high ERA. He remained at that level in the same role to start off the '64 season. GM Ralph Houk got wind of that, ordered Mel's return to the rotation, and by mid-summer he was 13-3 with a 1.42 ERA. By early August he was a Yankee.

Stottlemyre reported to a Yankee team that was typically smack in the middle of a pennant race but was toting some hurting mound arms, hence at least part of the reason for his summons. All Mel did was post his 9-3, 2.06 stretch run without which NY probably would not have made the Series. Then to make things even more stressful for the new guy, in each of his three Series appearances that fall, Bob Gibson was on the other side. But the new guy threw pretty well which was good since it was the last playoff action he'd see as a player. Unfortunately Mel's NY time coincided almost perfectly with a big post-season drought for the Yankees. But that occurrence sure wasn't his fault. In '65 Mel won 20 for the first time while leading the AL in innings and with 18 complete games. That year he was an All-Star as he was in '66 though with the moving on of middle infielder's Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson, that part of the diamond - and elsewhere - got a bit porous and Mel's ERA popped as he led the AL in losses. A much-improved '67 was enabled by some infield solidity and like a bunch of pitchers, Mel posted probably his best line in '68 while returning to the All-Star game, as he would the following two seasons. In '69 he again led the AL in complete games, this time with 24. He continued to roll until '72 when a very challenged offense contributed to another season of AL-leading losses. After his tortured '74 Mel was released during spring training of '75 (though George Steinbrebnner had just told him he'd be a Yankee for life) which ended Mel's playing career. He finished 164-139 with a 2.97 ERA, 152 complete games, 40 shutouts, and a save. In that '64 post-season he went 1-1 with a 3.15 ERA in his three games. At times a pretty good hitter, for his career Mel was a .160 batter with seven homers and 57 RBI's.

Shortly after his playing career ended he took up a new one as a pitching coach, first for Seattle as a roving guy ('77-'82), then up top for the Mets ('84-'93), Astros ('94-'95), and Yankees ('96-2005) for whom he had great success. He left that last gig after getting in an argument with - who else? - George Steinbrenner. In 2008 Mel took a one-year gig as the pitching coach for Seattle. He has had myeloma for some time now and since then has had to devote almost all his time to its treatment. He also had two sons pitch in the majors.

The first star on the back mentions his '64 season in the minors. Given his sons' eventual careers, there must have been an awful lot of pitching on those home movies. Mel's other son tragically passed away when he was only eleven from leukemia. Mel would spend a bunch of time working with the subject of the next post in NY.

Let's drag out another dynastic Yankee for the separation exercise:

1. Stottlemyre and Joe Pepitone ' 64-'69 Yankees;
2. Pepitone and Jimmy Wynn '70 Astros.