#647 - Juan Beniquez

Yes, this guy used to be a shortstop. And on his rookie card he strikes a very shortstop-y pose in front of some spring training batting practice. Back then Juan Beniquez was being groomed as the heir apparent to Luis Aparicio, but by the time of this card’s arrival the switch had been made to the outfield. Seeds of that change had already been sown in a ’73 spent exclusively in Triple A where Juan had a nice season offensively, leading his league in hitting and recording 25 stolen bases. Defensively most of his time was spent in center field after some rough recent numbers at his listed position – see cartoon – as well as short runs at second and third. The shift worked and would help contribute to a nice long career for Juan, though position-wise his timing wasn’t too hot and most of that time would be spent elsewhere.

Juan Beniquez was signed by Boston out of a local Puerto Rican team in ’68, when he was 18. In A ball his first season he put up some good offensive and defensive numbers while playing exclusively at short, which would be his position the next few years as well. He then split ’70 between that level and Double A, topping out with a combined 43 stolen bases in the minors. In ’71 he kept his offense rocking with a big triples number and 30 steals in Triple A before his successful debut in Boston late that season. In ’72 he began the season in Triple A and after hitting nearly .300 with 20 steals in half a season he was pulled up to the Sox where he did some light duty while spelling Little Looie at short. After moving to the outfield in ’73 Juan returned to Boston full-time in ’74 where he hit .267 with 19 stolen bases while sharing time in center with Rick Miller. While he did well in that role and would seem to have had a future there, he was quickly trumped the next season when the arrival of all-everything rookie Fred Lynn pushed Juan into a reserve role that included time at the outfield corners, DH, and even third base. He hit .291 in that role and then worked regularly in the post-season after an injury laid other rookie phenom Jim Rice incapacitated. But the presence of those two plus other young outfielders Dwight Evans, Miller, and Bernie Carbo meant that playing time would be scarce for Juan, so following the season he went to Texas in the deal that made Fergie Jenkins a Red Sox.

With the Rangers the next three seasons Beniquez became the regular guy in center where he would supply very capable defense and won a Gold Glove in ’77. But his offense was sort of unspectacular with a .261 average, a high of 50 RBI’s, and middling stolen base numbers. After the ’78 season he was involved in another trade with a (future) big deal pitcher, this time joining Dave Righetti in going to the Yankees in a populated swap. With NY Juan suffered through a season of back-up work in which he hit .254 in only 142 at bats. Then it was on the road again, this time to Seattle in the deal that brought another soon-to-be disappointed Yankee outfielder to NY in Ruppert Jones. Juan’s numbers weren’t any better with the Mariners - .228 in 237 at bats – in another short stay. After the season he departed for California as a free agent.

Beniquez would enjoy his most successful MLB time with the Angels, though it sure didn’t start off that way. In the strike year of ’81 he bottomed out offensively with a .181 average in just 166 at bats. He was then moved to the outfield corners which seemed to contribute to an offensive revival as his average jumped to .265, his highest since ’77. Then in ’83 he surprised probably everyone by starting a three-year run of hitting over .300 while getting plenty of work as the California fourth outfielder. He topped out with a .336 in ’84 which got him some MVP votes, and in ’85 expanded his field work to first base. Then, in another example of bad timing, he left Anaheim for Baltimore as a free agent where in his one season he reprised his role as a fourth outfielder while hitting an even .300. He then went to Kansas City for a couple minor leaguers after that season and finished things up as a reserve outfielder and pinch hitter in ’88 with Toronto, hitting .293. So 17 years in, Juan finished with a .274 average with 79 homers, 476 RBI’s, and over 100 stolen bases. In the post-season he hit .200 with a couple RBI’s in his eight games.

Beniquez had played winter ball back in his native PR during his whole stateside career and for a bit thereafter, where he also did some coaching and managing. Outside of an ’89 spent in the Senior League, though, there is no specific information out there regarding what he did professionally after baseball. That’s almost always the case with the Latin guys.

Juan gets some star bullet props for his glove and hitting work, but that cartoon is a killer. Those couple games were instrumental in that shift to the outfield.

So these two faced each other in that immortal ’75 Series:

1. Beniquez and Ellis Valentine ’83 Angels;

2. Valentine and George Foster ’82 Mets.  

#636 - Dave Goltz

It’s February 3 and the subject of this post looks very unhappy so maybe Dave Goltz was a Denver fan. He is in Oakland, though, the home of the team against which he threw his first complete game – a win – but I guess that wasn’t doing anything for him then. ’73 was a tough season for Dave though it was his first one of all MLB work. He began it in the pen and after a particularly impressive game against Chicago – six no-hit innings of relief with six K’s – he had his ERA down to its ’72 levels and he seemed primed to re-join the rotation. But that didn’t happen and after a flip-side outing against Cleveland – 13 hits and eight earned runs in just three innings (ouch) – his ERA got a bit stratospheric and it never really came down. He did have some encouraging moments, though. He finally got a start in mid-June and went seven innings on three hits and finally did get a regular spot in mid-August that he more-or-less held onto the rest of the way. In the end he had a winning record and a save to add to his stats though that ERA stayed pretty fat. He’d fix that though and for the next few seasons would be one of Minnesota’s most consistent starters so maybe during that time he found cause to smile.

Dave Goltz played every sport he could while growing up in some tiny rural towns in Minnesota. In high school he played the big three sports plus track and he was a star in both hoops and baseball. Some interest had developed at some local colleges for him to play football but instead he signed a $10,000 contract to play baseball for the Twins as one of the franchise’s first home-grown guys. That was in ’67 when he was taken in the first round and then went off to Rookie ball where he threw excellent ball and then continued to do so the next season in A ball. In ’69 he joined the military, missing pretty much the whole season to do stateside work as a helicopter mechanic. When he got back to baseball in ’70 he injured his arm during spring training and again missed just about the whole season. He then split ’71 between two A teams, going a combined 14-3 with three shutouts in the rotation. Dave was by then mastering a knuckle curve, which would become his out pitch from then on. In ’72 he was throwing decent ball in Triple A when an injury to Jim Kaat got Dave called up to the Twins.

After a couple early relief outings Goltz joined the rotation and in a spot role he put together a pretty good rookie year, keeping his ERA low and looking like a solid rotation guy. After his uneven ’73 Dave did a bit more Triple A work in ’74 during which he was 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA in four starts. Those numbers helped get him back to Minnesota where he spent most of the season in the rotation and went 10-10 with a 3.25 ERA. It was a herald season for the next couple years as Dave became the first pitcher to throw exactly .500 ball for three years running in that many games. In both ’75 and ’76 he went 14-14 with slightly premium ERA’s each season. Then in ’77 he had a breakout season, going 20-11 to share as the AL victory leader while posting a 3.36 ERA. He followed that up with another nice year in ’78 when he recorded his best ERA of 2.49 while going 15-10, despite missing some time to a burned hand. In ’79 an initial bout of rotator cuff issues raised his ERA a bunch but he still posted a 14-13 record in his final season with the Twins.

With the end of the Seventies came the end of Goltz’s time with the Twins and he became a free agent, signing with the Dodgers. While Dave got his first post-season appearance with the team, nothing else about his stay in LA was terribly great. Speculation was that he was hurt much of that time and given his future issues he may have been, but after signing a relatively big contract – six years for $3 million – Dave was pretty much a flop. Over two-plus seasons in LA he went a combined 9-19 with an ERA of 4.25 and early in ’82 he was released. He was picked up shortly thereafter by California, now coached by Gene Mauch, who’d been Dave’s manager in Minnesota. With the Angels Dave went 8-5 for the division winners in a spot role the rest of the way while getting his ERA down to league levels. After some not great post-season work he returned to that role in ’83 but by then his rotator cuff was a serious impediment and Dave was 0-6 with a 6.22 ERA by his early July release. With his arm being pretty much toast he retired with a record of 113-109 with a 3.69 ERA, 83 complete games, 13 shutouts, and eight saves. In the post-season he put up a 6.43 ERA in his three games, all in relief.

After playing, Goltz returned full-time to his spot in rural Minnesota, becoming a real estate agent and then an insurance agent, specializing in farms. He has coached some local ball and done some work with the Twins as well but for the most part has stayed away from professional ball since then.  

Dave’s career got off to a slamming start. He was an 800 relay guy in track as well as a field guy (shot put and discus). When he was with LA so was Burt Hooton which had to be the first time two guys with knuckle curves as their out pitches were on the same team. He has a SABR bio which was very helpful for this post.

Most of the milestones in Watergate from this point on are legal ones:

3/1/74 – Shortly after the Watergate break-in became public knowledge, the main group of known conspirators – the five burglars, G Gordon Liddy, and E Howard Hunt – were nicknamed “The Watergate Seven.” Since then a new group had earned that distinction and on this date they were indicted by a grand jury for their roles in the scandal. The big news was that the grand jury also identified President Nixon as an unindicted conspirator which was the first time that ever happened to a president. Named in the indictment were the following:

John Mitchell, former Attorney General and then head of CREEP, faced 30 years and fines of $42,000. Found guilty in early ’75 of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury, he would be sentenced to 2 ½ to 8 years and end up serving 19 months.

John HR Haldeman, former Chief of Staff, faced 25 years in prison and $16,000 in fines. On the same date as Mitchell he was found guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice and received an 18-month sentence which he served.

John Erlichman, former Assistant fro Domestic Affairs, faced 25 years in prison and $40,000 in fines. Convicted of the same charges as Mitchell, as well as others, he served 18 months.

Chuck Colson, former White House Counsel for Political Affairs, pleaded guilty later in ’74 to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to one to three years in prison and $5,000 in fines. He served seven months.

Gordon C Strachan, Haldeman’s assistant, faced 15 years and $20,000 in fines but charges against him were dropped prior to the trial.

Robert Mardian, Mitchell’s assistant as Attorney General and later counsel to CREEP, faced five years and $5,000 in fines. Initially convicted, his sentence and conviction were overturned on appeal.

Kenneth Parkinson, another counsel to CREEP and a Nixon attorney, faced ten years in prison and $10,000 in fines. He was acquitted during the trial.

Back to baseball, these two guys probably never even saw each other:

1. Goltz and Jerry Reuss ’80 to ’82 Dodgers;

2. Reuss and Johnny Edwards ’72 to ’73 Astros.

#603 - 1974 Rookie Catchers

At the other side of the battery we get four catchers, one of whom had a solid career, one of whom had a couple good seasons, and two who get represented just on rookie cards, and that right here.

Barry Foote played all over the infield and outfield in high school in Smithfield, NC. A first round pick by the Expos in the ’70 draft, the team immediately turned him into a catcher and in Rookie ball that summer he hit .266 with some power and a .379 OBA. While mastering his position he would put up some high error totals but he was very aggressive and normally led his league in assists and double plays. In A ball in ’71 his average fell to .230 as his strikeouts ratcheted up but he continued to impress behind the plate and in ’72 in Double A he turned on the power with a .253/16/75 line. ’73 was all Triple A where he put up a .262/19/65 season prior to his September debut during which he hit .667 in his few at bats. In ’74 he would take over as starting catcher and his .262/11/60 season would get him on the Topps Rookie team. Unfortunately it would also be his best year. While his freshman season was good enough to keep Gary Carter in the outfield most of the next couple seasons, Barry's sophomore jinx year was pretty terrible as his stat line fell to .194/7/30 on just a few less at bats. He rebounded a bit to hit .234 in ’76 but by the end of the year Carter had claimed the starting role and he would retain it to start the ’77 season. After getting only a few at bats, Barry would get traded to the Phillies at the '77 deadline with pitcher Dan Warthen for catcher Tim Blackwell and pitcher Wayne Twitchell. Through ’78 he would be the third-string guy behind Bob Boone and Tim McCarver and get very little plate time. Prior to the ’79 season he would join Ted Sizemore, Jerry Martin, and a couple minor leaguers in a trade to the Cubs for Greg Gross, Dave Rader, and Manny Trillo. That trade got him back into a starting role and he responded with his best numbers since his rookie year with a .254/16/56 season. But Barry then began experiencing some extreme lower back pain and the next year he lost his starting role, ironically to Blackwell, and hit .238 in just over 200 at bats. In ’81 young Jody Davis supplanted Blackwell, Barry slid to third on the depth chart, and another mid-season trade had him on the move, this time to the Yankees, where he had more activity the second half but hit only .208. In ’82 his injury and the depth chart kept his time minimal and he did a few games in Triple A in his final season. He hit .230 for his career, with 57 homers and 230 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .333 in five games. Defensively he led the NL in assists once and double plays twice and picked off 38% of runners that ran on hm, a pretty good premium to the league average. He remained in the NY system as a coach in the minors before managing in the team’s chain from ’84 to ’86, winning his league championship one year. From ’87 to ’89 he managed in the Toronto chain, again winning a championship. He then coached up top for the White Sox (’90-’91) and the Mets (’92-’93). During that time he also started up Tri-State Homes, a construction company that built homes in North Carolina. He then stayed busy locally, helping to establish the Carolina Mudcats, build an oil and gas exploration company that was a player in Alaska, and do cell spectrum work for the National Wireless Network. Since the mid-2000’s he has been running his two companies: Streamer Video, which teaches lay people how to watch baseball games; and F2 Technologies, a wirelss communications company.

Tom Lundstedt played the big three sports in high school outside Chicago in Illinois. In all three sports one of his teammates was Dave Kingman. Tom was selected in a late round by the Dodgers in ’67 but instead went to the University of Michigan on a basketball scholarship. He averaged over 20 points a game for his freshman team and then played his sophomore year with Dan Fife and Rudy Tomjonavich. After that year he switched his scholarship to baseball which he’d also been playing all along. He was then taken by the Cubs in the first round of the ’70 draft and though he fielded well that summer in A and Double A, he hit terribly and spent the ’71 season in A ball where he hit considerably better, with a .266 average and a .410 OBA. In ’72 he returned to Double A where he hit .255 and the next year moved up to Triple A where he maxed out with a .295/11/57 stat line in 322 at bats with a .402 OBA. He made his MLB debut that September and then remained in Chicago in ’74 where he was behind George Mitterwald and Steve Swisher and only got into a few games before knee surgery ended his season in June. Prior to the ’75 season he was traded to the Twins for Mike Adams. That year he moved back and forth between Minnesota and Triple A where he hit .264 but considerably lower up top. It was his final season and he finished with a .092 average in 65 MLB at bats and .256 with 30 homers in the minors. After playing he finished his business degree at the University of Minnesota and then fell into commercial real estate in the Twin Cities area. He then started doing seminars on real estate investing which he continues to do from his own shop.

Charlie Moore was drafted by the Brewers upon graduating high school in Birmingham, Alabama in ’71. He hit .297 that summer in A ball and .259 the next at the same level. In ’73 he combined for a .269 season with 15 homers and 70 RBI’s between Double A and Triple A – he hit better at the higher level – before making his September debut. He then spent the next three seasons backing up Darrell Porter behind the plate and initially doing some DH work. In ’75 Charlie hit well to open the season – he would hit .290 on the year – so the team also had him play in the outfield to keep his bat in the line-up. But Charlie had a tough time out there and in ’76 his average fell 100 points, partly in response. In ’77 Porter was traded to Kansas City and Charlie got the starting catcher role, upped his average nearly 60 points, but had a bad defensive season – he led the AL in errors and passed balls – as his skills seemed to have left him while he was in the outfield. In ’78 Buck Rodgers began to work with Charlie on restoring his defense and while that year he would lose his starting status to Buck Martinez, his catching improved markedly as did his offense, as he hit .269, .300, and .291 the next three years. He also recaptured the starting role in ’79 and ’80. Prior to the ’81 season the Brewers picked up Ted Simmons in a huge trade and though Charlie hit .301 he played behind Simmons and also did some outfield work. He was far more successful in that role than earlier and for the next three seasons he would play primarily in right where he shone defensively, once leading the AL in double plays, and once in putouts. He hit .254 in ’82 and .284 the following year and in between had an excellent post-season in the Series run. He missed time in ’84 to a knee injury and in ’85 returned to the starting role behind the plate. He split time in that role in ’86 and then finished out his career with Toronto in ’87 doing his dual thing. Charlie hit .261 for his career with 43 triples, 36 homers, and 408 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .354 in 16 games. Following his playing career he returned to the Birmingham area where he has since been a salesman in various industries.

This is technically not the rookie card of Sergio Robles as he had another one in the ’73 set. Sergio was a pretty little guy and a big deal catcher in his native Mexico. Signed by the Dodgers after being scouted playing for state teams below the border in ’68 he spent the next three seasons in A ball where he hit a combined .264 and was an excellent fielder. In ’71 he moved up to Triple A where he hit .265 before being traded to Baltimore as part of the package that moved Frank Robinson to LA. He hit .266 in ’72 before making his MLB debut that August but fell to .207 in ’73, the year he saw his most action in Baltimore. He then spent ’74 playing in Mexico City before being sold to St. Louis prior to the ’75 season. After hitting .217 in Triple A that year he spent ’76 in both the St. Louis and LA organization, and put in his final MLB time that year for the Dodgers. He then returned to Mexico where he would continue to play ball year-round for the next ten years. He finished in The States with a .095 MLB average and hit .251 in the minors. He has managed and coached in Mexico for much of the time since. He has s SABR bio.

We get 21 MLB seasons out of this group and that parenthetical name of Sergio’s looks familiar but I do not believe he and Fernando are related. Lundstedt was certainly tall for a catcher.

Let’s see how we do for the hook-up. From the last card we start with the ’74 Twins:

1. Rod Carew was on the ’74 Twins;

2. Carew and Jose Morales or Bombo Rivera ’78 Twins;

3. Rivera and Morales and Barry Foote ’74 to ’76 Expos.

Each of Lundstedt and Robles only got tiny MLB at bats but we make them count:

1. Barry Foote and Andre Thornton (coming up) ’76 Expos;

2. Thornton and Tom Lundstedt ’74 Cubs;

3. Lundstedt and Larry Hisle ’75 Twins;

4. Hisle and Charlie Moore ’78 to ’82 Brewers;

5. Moore and Bill Travers ’73 to ’80 Brewers;

6. Travers and Bobby Grich ’81 and ’83 Angels;

7. Grich and Sergio Robles ’72 to ’73 Orioles.

#601 - '74 Rookie Outfielders

On this card we get two decently-long careers and a guy who probably still causes hand-wringing in Boston. One guy is a bit out of position on this card, at least for this part of his career, and not one of them looks terribly happy. This card kicks off the final eleventh of the set so let’s get to know these guys. The long delay on this one is partly because the text got lost. Now I have to publish this post in two parts because Blogger won't let me publish it in one. That always sucks.

Ed Armbrister was a happy guy pretty much all the time, despite his look here. Born and raised in the Bahamas as a kid he took advantage of the relative baseball craze that swept his nation when its first native came stateside to play MLB ball. Ed was spotted by a Houston scout in ’67 and signed in time to get in a full season in A ball, where he hit .211. He upped that by 50 points the next year and then in ’69 showed off his speed by stealing 26 bases while hitting .271. He then spent the next two years in Double A, hitting .238 in ’70 – while apparently not walking once in 442 plate appearances! – and upping it to .298 with 16 stolen bases in ’71. Following that season he was included in the big deal to the Reds and would then spend the bulk of the next three years in Triple A. He got his first rookie card that first year (and would have another one in ’75) and over that time would average .300 with nine triples, 16 stolen bases, and 63 RBI’s per year. He made his debut in late August of ’73 and worked the balance of the year in some occasional starts in center as well as pinch running and late inning work, hitting .216 before getting some playoff action. ’74 was nearly all in the minors and he would then spend the next three years strictly up top as the late-inning back-up guy. In ’75 he raised his profile huge when in the Series he put down the bunt that Carlton Fisk threw into center field after he got tangled up with Ed in front of the plate. He would hit .295 in ’76 and .256 in ’77 but the most at bats he got any of those three years up was 78. In ’78 he returned to Triple A for a year, hitting .276 with 32 steals his final stateside season. He then played in Mexico the next couple years, putting up a .291/13/62 line in ’79 but fading to .135 the next year, his final one as a player. For his career Ed hit .245 and .143 in his ten post-season games during which he garnered two rings and in the minors .273 with over 150 stolen bases. After playing he returned to the Bahamas where for years he was a croupier at local casinos and then worked in various local government roles. He has recently started an eponymous baseball league there and was donated a bunch of equipment by the Reds. He has a SABR bio.

Rick – or Rich, as Topps likes to designate him – Bladt was a Cali kid signed out of Foothill College (where he may or may not have played ball) by the Cubs in ’66. A speedy outfielder, he hit .294 in Rookie ball that year and .267 in A ball in ’67. In ’68 he improved to .293 at that level and then in ’69 he wrapped a .312 season in Triple A with 18 stolen bases around a few games in the summer in Chicago when Ron Santo was injured. After that year he and another minor leaguer went to the Yankees for outfielder Jimmie Hall and Rick would then spend the next five seasons as an outfield regular at Syracuse, the NY Triple A franchise, during which he averaged a stat line of .256/9/47 with 70 runs and 12 steals a year. His highs during that span were a .276 average with 12 homers in ’72, and 97 runs and ten triples and 19 stolen bases in ’73. In ’74 he bottomed out with a .226 average. But in ’75 he’d raised his average 40 points when Elliott Maddox tore up his knee at Shea and NY pulled up Rick that August to replace him. After a couple scattered starts he would become the everyday center fielder from early September on and hit .222 during that time. In ’76 NY picked up Mickey Rivers and Rick returned to Syracuse where he had his best year with a .285/9/60 line with 81 runs and a .385 OBA. That year he was also famously involved in a situation in which the ball from a hit he was chasing was lost in the outfield grass and had to be ruled a double. After that season he and Maddox were sent to Baltimore for Paul Blair and Rick spent his final year hitting .226 in Triple A. He finished with a .215 average in 62 MLB games and a .268 average with over 100 steals and a .350 OBA in the minors. After playing he moved to Oregon where he had a long career in construction as a carpenter and continues to reside.

By the time this card came out Brian Downing had just obtained his driver’s license which he needed to go on his first-ever date. A very shy guy who was obviously a late-bloomer, Brian’s baseball story is a great rags-to-riches one. He didn’t make his high school team in Anaheim until his senior year and then he never played. He then went to Cypress College, a local JUCO school, where he played a semester and happened to be seen by a White Sox scout in a game in which he lined a shot off future MLB reliever Al Hrabosky. When the scout heard Brian was hitting .333 he signed him up for a tryout not knowing that was his only hit of the season. Brian did well at the tryout and was signed that May. He kicked off that summer of ’70 in Rookie ball, where he hit .219 while catching. He then moved up a rung each year, hitting .246 in A ball as a catcher/third baseman in ’71 and .278 with 15 homers in Double A in ’72 when he added outfielder to his positions. He got on base at a pretty good clip - .370 in the minors – and in ’73 after hitting .246 in Triple A he was moved up to Chicago at the end of May. On his first play at third he caught a pop-up before falling down the dugout steps and dislocating his knee, missing the next two months. He returned to hit .178 while splitting time between his three positions. In ’74 he backed up Ed Hermann while hitting .225 and then Brian was the starting catcher the next two years, hitting .240 and .256. But he missed significant time both years – to an elbow injury in ’75 and a broken hand in ’76 – and in ’77 lost the starting catching gig to Jim Essian, though his numbers when he did play - .284 with 25 RBI’s and a .402 OBA in 169 at bats – were his best in Chicago. They would remain that as after the season ended he and pitchers Chris Knapp and Dave Frost went to California for Bobby Bonds, Thad Bosley, and Richard Dotson. His first season in ’78 he became the Angels’ starting catcher, hitting .255. Then in the off-season he worked on two things: weight training and opening his stance. They both worked huge and in ’79 he put up a .326/12/75 stat line with a .418 OBA and made the All-Star team. He was rolling in ’80 in the same role - .290 with 25 RBI’s his first 93 at bats – when he broke his ankle and missed the rest of the year. California then decided they liked his bat enough to put him in a safer place – he still had nagging shoulder and elbow pain – and opted for left field. Over the next ten years he would average a .267/20/70 stat line which included missed time in ’81 for the strike and in ’83, ’88, and ’90 for injuries. In his healthy seasons he averaged .275 with 25 homers and 85 RBI’s. He also put up a .370 OBA during that span and helped California reach the post-season two more times. After the ’90 season he was not re-signed and he went to Texas as a free agent where he DH’d – a role he performed primarily since ’87 – the next two years, averaging .278 with a .390 OBA. Brian finished playing at 41 with a .267 average, 275 homers, 1,073 RBI’s, and a .370 OBA. In the post-season he hit .197 with eight RBI’s in 16 games. He remained in Texas after his baseball career was over on a working farm in the small town of Celina. He was very bitter toward the Angels about his release from the team and would not show up for invitations to team events until 2000 when he was included on the franchise’s all-time team. He was inducted into the team’s hall of fame in 2009. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t make the cut in high school.

Bake McBride’s dad was a Negro League pitcher and Bake played baseball, basketball, and ran track in high school in Missouri before doing the same thing at Westminster College. Hoops was his first love, followed by track – he still holds his school’s record in the 200 – but after a shoulder injury pretty much killed his basketball ambitions he tried out for the Cardinals during his junior year and was then selected in the 37^th round (!!!) of the ’70 draft. After hitting .423 in Rookie ball that summer, he hit .294 with nine steals in only 85 at bats in A ball. In ’71 at the higher level he hit .303 with 40 steals while scoring 85 runs and in ’72 hit a combined .322 with 42 stolen bases and 92 runs scored in a season split between Double A and Triple A. After beginning the ’73 season hitting .289 with 23 stolen bases by July he was called up to St. Louis. He would spend the rest of the year getting a few outfield starts and pinch hitting and put up a .302 average. In ’74 he was named starting center fielder and he then put together an NL ROY year with his .309 average, 81 runs, and 30 stolen bases. Late that season he and Lou Brock – going for the teammate record for steals – were mailed death threats on a regular basis and required police protection. In ’75 Bake hit .300 and stole 26 bases, though he missed his first significant time to injury, this one a shoulder impairment. In ’76 he was gunning along with a .335 and an All-Star selection when his season was ended in July by knee surgery. That year he finished his degree at Westminster (he would be inducted into the school’s hall of fame). A somewhat slow comeback in ’77 and an issue with new manager Vern Rapp – Rapp wanted Bake to lose his afro - pulled down his average to .262 and restricted his playing time a bit and wound up partly forcing the deadline trade of Bake and Steve Waterbury to the Phillies for Tom Underwood, Rick Bosetti, and Dane Iorg. Bake turned it up the rest of the way, hitting .339 with 27 steals down the stretch. Bake would move to right in the Philly outfield and in ’78 he hurt his wrist which resulted in his average slipping a bunch to .269 and his being platooned with Jerry Martin. But he bounced when given the everyday gig in ’79, hitting .280 with twelve triples and in ’80 he turned on the power a bit with 33 doubles and 87 RBI’s as he spent a bunch of time in the fourth spot and hit .309 and got some significant MVP votes. In ’81 more knee injuries pulled his numbers down and after the season he was traded to Cleveland for reliever Sid Monge. In ’82 he was off to another excellent start - .365 in his first 27 games – when the injury bug really nailed him as a bad contact lens solution gave him conjunctivitis and he pretty much couldn’t see from that point on. He returned in ’83 for another injury-plagued season during which he hit .291 in 70 games. After he wasn’t signed he hooked up with Texas for whom in ’84 he hit .296 in Triple A. But at 35 his knees were toast and he retired after that seaon. He finished his MLB career with a .299 average with 548 runs and 183 stolen bases. In the post-season he hit .244 in 22 games. He returned to the St. Louis area where he has gone underground professionally but has had some relatives in the media: his son Bake is a personal trainer with a local hospital and has a YouTube video; a nephew Travis McBride was recently a local baseball star; and another nephew Joe McBride is a big deal jazz pianist.

#596 - 1974 Rookie Pitchers

This card kicks off the final special subset of the ’74 Topps baseball set. For the rookie cards of this set Topps ups the number of participants per card from three to four and adds some consistency by having each card occupied by players of the same position. This one is a pretty good kick-off since three of the four guys here went on to have significant – and by “significant” I mean at least a couple years as a regular – MLB baseball careers. Not one player here is crazy happy about appearing on his first card except Mark Littell. Let’s get to the bios.

After being all-city as a pitcher at Cohn High in Nashville for three years running Wayne Garland went to Gulf Coast Community College where he was all-state in ’69 his only year there. He was a first round pick by the Orioles that June and pitched much better that summer in A ball than in Rookie ball, going a combined 4-5 with a 3.65 ERA. In ’70 he went 7-10 with a 3.54 ERA in Double A and then in ’71 exploded at that level with a 19-5 season with a 1.71 ERA and six shutouts. In ’72 he went 7-9 with a 3.79 ERA in Triple A before going 10-11 with a 3.57 ERA at the same level in ’73, missing some time both years for his military obligation. Wayne’s big pitches by then were his slider and curve, refined under his manager Joe Altobelli. In ’73 he made his debut in Baltimore in September, going 0-1 with a 3.94 ERA in a few games. He then began ’74 back at Triple A where he threw a no-hitter in his first start. He returned to Baltimore in May and went 5-5 with a 2.97 ERA the rest of the way as a spot guy, in one game taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Oakland. In ’75 Wayne didn’t sign right away and he was rewarded with all pen work that year as he went 2-5 with a 3.71 ERA and four saves as mostly a long guy. He wasn’t crazy happy about that and in ’76 he played without a contract. But the O’s needed starters that year and Wayne joined the rotation with a big year, going 20-7 with a 2.67 ERA. Still unsigned, he went to Cleveland as a free agent after signing a 10-year contract. His first spring he felt a crack in his shoulder but he pitched through pain that year to go 13-19 with a 3.60 ERA. After starting the next year 2-3 with a fat ERA it was discovered he had a rotator cuff tear and his season ended with an operation on his shoulder. But it was a career-killer and after attempted runs the next three years – he went a combined 13-26 with a 5.02 ERA -  he was released and done up top. Wayne finished 55-66 with a 3.89 ERA with 43 complete games, seven shutouts, and six saves. He threw shutout ball in an inning of post-season work. In ’82 he attempted his final comeback back in Nashville, then a Double A franchise of the Yankees. It didn’t go too well but he stuck around as a pitching coach. In ’83 he coached in the Milwaukee system before becoming the head coach at Aquinas Junior College from ’84 to ’86. He then coached in the Cincinnati system from ’87 to ’92 and the Pittsburgh one from ’93 to ’96 after which he apparently left baseball. At some point he relocated to Las Vegas where according to his Facebook page he still resides. He looks a far cry happier than the guy described as “sullen” in the book “The Curse of...” about his time in Cleveland.

Fred Holdsworth grew up in Northville, Michigan, just outside Detroit. In high school he was a big deal in the big three sports and his senior year he had signed a letter of intent to go to the University of Michigan to play quarterback and pitch on a full ride. He was a smart guy and was his high school’s valedictorian where his dad was the principal. But he was a huge Tigers fan and so when the team drafted him that June of ’70 and promised to cover his tuition when he went to school he signed fast. He got off to a great start that summer, going 5-2 with a 1.43 ERA and a K an inning in eleven starts split between Rookie and A ball. In ’71 he continued the good work, going 13-10 with a 2.51 ERA in A and Double A. He would then spend most of the next three seasons in Triple A where he went a combined 30-21 with a 3.46 ERA in the rotation around a few games each year up top. But after going 0-5 with a 5.97 ERA in just under 60 innings in Detroit, Fred spent all of ’75 in Triple A and in May was sent to Baltimore for Bob Reynolds. Between the two teams he went only 6-13 but his ERA was quite good at 3.55. After beginning the year going 5-4 with a 3.49 ERA at that level he was pulled up to Baltimore where he finally had a good experience going 4-1 with a 2.04 ERA and a couple saves out of the pen. But after a sloppy start in that role in ’77 he was sent to Montreal in July for Dennis Blair and finished the year pretty well by going 3-3 with a 3.19 ERA as a spot guy. But again his MLB success was short-lived and after a couple bad outings to start ’78 he was back in Triple A where he didn’t throw much better as a starter and was released at the end of the season. He hooked up with Detroit again and in ’79 went 13-10 with a 3.79 ERA in a year split between Double A and Triple A. He was sold to Milwaukee for the ’80 season and for them he pitched his last few innings up top inside of a 5-5, 2.67 year at its Triple A club. He threw one more year at that level for Oakland in ’81 and was done. Fred went 7-10 with a 4.40 ERA and two saves for his MLB run and 87-75 in the minors with a 3.35 ERA. He did end up going to Michigan where he got a degree in accounting. He would became a partner at Arthur Anderson and then move to the industry side with Comcast, first as a finance director, and since 2005 as the VP of Finance for the company’s Midwest operations.

Mark Littell was drafted by the Royals in ’71 from a tiny town at the bottom of Missouri where he played hoops and was an all-state pitcher. He moved fast and after going 5-1 with a 2.90 ERA that summer in Rookie ball and 10-9 with a 3.47 ERA and 199 K’s in 153 innings in A ball in ’72, had a big year in ’73. That year was spent mostly at Triple A where he went 16-6 with a 2.51 ERA as a starter. He debuted that June for KC in a start against Baltimore, giving up one run in six-plus innings, but then got bombed, returning to the minors at the end of the month. That was it up top for a while and he spent all of ’74 back in Triple A where an injury helped wreck his numbers a bunch as he went 3-9 with a 4.75 ERA in just 16 games. But he was healthy again in ’75 and went 13-6 with a 3.48 ERA at that level before doing substantially better in his late-season call-up. He got his second rookie card in ’76 when he stuck in KC and became the team closer with an 8-4 record, a 2.08 ERA, and 16 saves in his 60 games. He was named KC Pitcher of the Year even though he gave up that devastating homer to Chris Chambliss in the playoffs. In ’77 he added some spot starts while cutting back on the relief and had another good season with the same record, a 3.61 ERA, over a K an inning, and 12 saves. He then went to St. Louis with catcher Buck Martinez for Al Hrabosky, replacing Al in the Cards pen. In ’78 he went 4-8 with eleven saves and a 2.79 ERA while striking out 130 in his 106 innings. He then went 9-4 with a 2.19 ERA and 13 saves in ’79 before, like his card-mates, his pitching career came crashing down. He suffered bone chips in his pitching elbow in ’80 spring training and appeared rarely the next three seasons for St. Louis, going only 1-6 with four saves and a 5.28 ERA. After some time back in Triple A in ’82 he was released though he still received a Series ring that year. Mark finished with a record of 32-31 with a 3.32 ERA, two complete games, and 56 saves. In the post-season he was 0-1 with a 2.35 ERA in five games and in the minors 49-34 with a 3.32 ERA, 40 complete games, and four shutouts. By the end of ’82 he became a marketing exec with St. Louis with whom he remained a couple years before doing some marketing work outside baseball. In ’88 he returned to the game as a coach for the Australian national team and then for various MLB chains: San Diego (’89); Milwaukee (’92-’96 and 2000-’07); Los Angeles (’97-’98); and Kansas City (’99). In between he worked some more with the Aussies and helped bring a few guys to the Brewers from Down Under. In late 2006 he developed a product called the Nuttybuddy, a sort of larger, more encompassing, more comfortable athletic supporter (check out his YouTube promo video here – it’s hilarious) and took some time off to apply his marketing skills to getting it out there. In 2011 he did some coaching for the Diamondbacks locally and in Panama and in 2012 he signed on to coach at Dickinson College. He resides in Arizona and has a site for his product linked to here.

Ah, well, at least it’s not Dick Hurtz. This Dick also came out of a tiny town from Michigan’s upper peninsula. Up there baseball seasons were quite short and he was primarily a basketball star who got discovered while throwing a no-hitter the summer after his senior year. After a partial year at Northern Michigan University he was signed by the Sox early in ’69 and in A ball that year went 13-12 with a 3.09 ERA. He would miss some time the ensuing few years to the military which slowed him down a bit. In ’70 he went 7-9 with a 3.33 ERA in A ball and in ’71 improved to 8-7, 2.76 in Double A. Up until then a starter in ’72 he was a swing guy in Triple A, going 4-5 with a 3.82 ERA and a couple saves. In ’73 he had a big season at that level, winning the IL’s Pitcher of the Year award for his 12-9, 2.03, four shutout season. He then made a habit of getting called up to Boston when other pitchers got injured. That year after Ray Culp got put on the DL he debuted in August, going 3-2 with a 5.60 ERA. In ’74 he was recalled in June after Rick Wise went down and in two stints up top went 1-1 with a 4.20 ERA and a save, done around a not terrific year in Triple A. In ’75 he made the cut, pitched a few April games and then was not used for nearly all of May until someone got hurt. This time Reggie Cleveland missed a start and Dick threw a shutout in his place. He went on to have a decent June before in his last start that month he was nailed in the face by a comebacker from Tony Muser of Baltimore. His cheek required reconstructive surgery and his right eye was permanently damaged. But he returned in September and then saw some Series action. In ’76 he had his best year up top as he went 6-5 as a spot guy with a 4.33 ERA. After that season he was taken by the new Seattle Mariners in the expansion draft and for them he went a combined 11-23 with a 5.74 ERA in the rotation the next two years. That would finish his MLB time as a player with a 25-37 record, 5.05 ERA, eight complete games and a save. He gave up a run on two walks and no outs in Series play. In ’79 he returned to Triple A with the Pirates franchise and went 9-4 with a 4.33 ERA in the rotation. In ’80 he moved to the Detroit system and there went 7-4 with a 3.04 ERA and ten saves in the pen. He began the next year strongly in that role, going 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA and three saves in seven games before he moved to Mexico where he played and coached the next two seasons. He finished 63-64 with a 3.25 ERA with 15 shutouts and 16 saves in minor league ball. He returned to The States in ’83 where he was a coach in the Cubs system before moving up to Chicago in ’88, beginning a long run as an MLB pitching coach. At that level he worked in Chicago (’88-’91); San Francisco (’93-’97); Boston (’98); California (’99); Cleveland (2000-’01); and Montreal (2002). In ’92 he coached in the Red Sox system and in 2003 he returned to the Cubbies where he stayed through 2006. From ’07 through ’09 he was Cincinnati’s pitching coach until he was released. He seems to have not joined any team since but he has had a nice run in that capacity as both Greg Maddux and CC Sabathia have credited him with making them better pitchers.

Like in ’73 there is no room for stats or any real color regarding each player on the card back. These guys are all within a couple years of each other age-wise and they are all pretty huge, averaging 6’2” and 207 pounds. Maybe we can rank the cards in terms of the MLB career performances by the players pictured. I think the best way to do that is seasons up top and I will do that by anything either 100-plus at bats or 50-plus games on the hitting side and 50 innings or 25 games on the pitching end. As a kicker I will add awards. I bet this card does pretty well. Between these four there were 23 MLB seasons but no awards.

I am going to be optimistic now and attempt to do hook-ups both inter- and intra-card. First a regular one to the first guy:

1. Wayne Garland and Bert Blyleven ’81 Indians;

2. Blyleven and Willie Stargell ’78 to ’80 Pirates;

3. Stargell and Steve Blass ’64 and ’66 to ’74 Pirates.

Now among all these card-mates:

1. Garland and Fred Holdsworth were teammates on the ’76 Orioles;

2. Holdsworth and Will McEnany ’77 Expos;

3. McEnany and Mark Littell ’79 Cardinals;

4. Littell and Bob Stinson ’75 to ’76 Royals;

5. Stinson and Dick Pole ’77 to ’78 Mariners.

I am reducing requirements a bit here because some of these guys didn’t get enough time with one team ever but this run is pretty solid. I also bet that five iterances to circle the block will be pretty good.

#531 - Gene Mauch/Expos Field Leaders

Gene Mauch has the Sparky Anderson old thing going on. In this photo he is about 48 years old. But he has a fat smile on his face and he should as he was about to lead the Expos to their best season for a few years, one in which they would contend until a late-September slump took them out of the running for a division title. He used the NL’s best OBA to run his “small-ball” theme pretty well and if he had one more dependable starter he could have won the whole thing. What he did win was the NL’s Manager of the Year award. The nice thing about the ’73 fade was that it wasn’t his fault. That probably made it a lot easier to bear than that one in ’64.

Gene Mauch was born in Kansas but relocated to California as a kid and played middle infield and pitched while attending Fremont High in LA.. He was signed by the Dodgers in ’43 just out of school and that summer after hitting .322 in B ball put in a few games in Double A. Shortly after starting at Brooklyn and then hitting .283 in Double A he enlisted, spending the balance of that year and all of ’45 in WW II. He returned in ’46 to put in a full season at shortstop in Triple A, hitting .248 with a .359 OBA, but with tons of errors. After the season he was traded to Pittsburgh where he moved to second and after hitting .300 the first half of the season was promoted. He spent the balance of the season hitting .300 in a few games of infield back-up. After a flip back to Brooklyn (with Billy Cox and Preacher Roe) a slow start as a reserve got him to the Cubs on waivers. The rest of that year and the next he got 300 at bats worth of back-up infield work. Prior to the ’50 season he was traded to the Braves where he did a season-plus up top and also hit over .300 in Triple A in ’51 and ’52. In ’53 he went down to Double A as a player/manager and went 84-70 and made the playoffs. He then returned to Chicago where he played for three seasons in the PCL, hitting well each year and topping out with a .348/20/84 season in ’56. Those numbers turned on the Red Sox who purchased Gene for the stretch run – he hit .325 – and then kept him up top for all of ’57 where he split time at second and had his biggest year at that level, hitting .270 with 28 RBI’s in 222 at bats. He was then released as a player and went to Triple A to manage for the Sox and in both ’58 and ’59 took his team to its championship series, winning the whole thing the second year. He turned in some time as a player there also and finished that role after the ’59 season. Gene hit .239 in the majors in just over 300 games and .291 in the minors with a .385 OBA.

Mauch was planning on returning to the Boston organization for the ’60 season but instead got hired into the Philadelphia one as a coach up top and took over the team two games into the season. The first two seasons were pretty tough but by ’62 Gene and management had built a pretty good nucleus around outfielders Johnny Callison and Tony Gonzales and that season he won his first Manager of the Year award. Then with the arrival of Chris Short and Jim Bunning on the mound and rookie slugger Dick Allen in a couple years he had the team in first place with a bit over a week to go in September ’64. But the Phillies famously lost ten straight as Gene opted to go with his two above mound starters almost exclusively; three straight losses were to the surging Cardinals who went on to win the Series. Still Gene again won Manager of the Year again and kept the Phillies on the plus side of the win column even though the talent got scarcer and there were all sorts of fallouts between him and Allen. He was canned midway through the ’68 season and was then hired to manage the new Expos. Again the going was rough initially and while he never got to a winning record with Montreal he did get them to a respectable place pretty quickly by building around a good core and playing smart fundamental ball. He lasted with Montreal through ’75 and then was hired to run Minnesota. There he kept the team competitive even after Rod Carew’s departure, until he was let go during the ‘80 season. A year later he was following Jim Fregosi in managing the Angels and in ’82 he won his first divsion title. He was released after losing to the Brewers in the playoffs and was then hired back for ’85 when owner Gene Autry realized he acted too hastily. Again within a year Gene had California on the playoff track, winning his second division title. But reprising an old theme, after his team had its his opponent on the ropes, the Angels allowed Boston to recover to win the playoffs. Gene managed the Angels one more season and then, facing health problems, retired from managing. He was a big smoker and would have lung problems the rest of his life. Gene went 1,902-2,037 and he has coached and won the most games without winning a title. He worked for the Angels front office for a bunch of years and passed away from lung cancer in 2005 when he was 79.

Dave Bristol was born in Macon, Georgia, and was also a middle infielder in high school, as well as an all-city basketball guard and halfback. He was signed by Cincinnati in 1951 after a year at Western Carolina University – he would complete a degree there and at UNC in education – and then hit .270 in D ball that summer. In ’52 and ’53 he moved up to C ball where he hit roughly .245 before later the second season he joined the military. He returned in ’55 to hit .247 in B ball and in ’56 moved back to D ball where he hit .274. In '57 he had moved to C ball where he was hitting .333 when he was asked to manage a D club. There he hit .332 while leading the club to a record of 38-59, significantly better than his predecessors. He continued to play through ’61, recording big seasons in C ball in ’59 (.289/13/97) and in D ball in ’60 (.295/15/85) and finished with a .283 average. He remained in the Cincinnati system as a manager through ’65, running up a record of 662-562 during that time and winning league championships in five of those nine seasons. In ’66 he was brought up top to coach and early that season was named manager. As a manager he was a taskmaster and bench jockey who got in trouble for riding the umps. He did a pretty good job putting together the team that would become The Big Red Machine but couldn’t get to the playoffs so was dismissed following the ’69 season. He was hired by Montreal but then jumped ship to manage the Brewers which he did from ’70 through mid-’72. In ’73 he became a coach with Montreal for real, which he did through ’75. He then moved to manage the Braves where in ’77 he was replaced by team owner Ted Turner for a game before the league put a stop to that and Dave returned to finish the season. In ’78 he coached the Giants and then took over managing in ’79 as the team failed to move ahead in its rebuilding. But there he clashed with Jack Clark and got into a fight with John Montefusco and was done after the ’80 season. After a year out of the game he returned to coach for the Phillies (’82-’85, ‘88) and the Reds (’89 and ’93). In between and thereafter he returned to his off-season business of raising horses back in North Carolina. Dave’s record was 657-764 overall up top and he continues to reside in his base state.

Larry Doby was born in South Carolina and relocated to New Jersey when he was a kid after his father died. He spent high school in Paterson where he was all-state in the big three sports and track and he played both semi-pro (with Monte Irvin) and Negro League ball before he finished school (he adopted the surname Walker when he played in the Negro Leagues). After graduating in ’41 he went to Long Island University on a hoops scholarship. He did not finish out the year but did play pro hoops for the Harlem Rens and baseball for the Newark Eagles the following spring, playing second and hitting around .390. He then transferred to Virginia Union University and then in ’43 again played for Newark before being inducted into the military. He played some service ball over the next three seasons while being stationed in the US and the Pacific. He returned to Newark in ’46 and hit .341, which got him noticed by Cleveland owner Bill Veeck. After a winter of pro hoops for the Paterson Crescents he returned to Newark where he was hitting .458 with Negro League-leading totals of 16 doubles and 13 homers when he was signed by Veeck and later that summer became the first black player in the AL. He only got some token time at the plate that first season but returned in ’48 to take over center field and hit .301 before leading Cleveland hitters in the Series with a .318 average. In ’49 he hit .280 while upping his RBI total to 85 and increased everything in ’50 with a .326/25/102 season with an AL-leading .442 OBA. After a knee injury hurt his power a bit in ’51 he returned to put up his three biggest power years, averaging 31 homers and 111 RBI’s through ’54 while hitting about .272. During that time he led the AL in homers twice and runs and RBI’s once. In ’55 he hit .291 with 26 homers but a leg injury helped pull his RBI number down to 75 and after the season he was traded to the White Sox. His first year in Chicago he had a .268/24/102 season but he again injured his leg in ’57 and his numbers slipped to .288/14/79. He was then traded back to Cleveland where he hit .283 with 13 homers and 45 RBI’s in half a season in ’58. He then went to Detroit and back to Chicago for a few games before re-joining Cleveland at their PCL franchise. There a couple games in he broke his ankle and missed the rest of the season. He signed with Toronto of the IL in ’60 but was cut when his ankle didn’t come around. After returning to Paterson to coach and run his club in Newark he went to Japan in ’62 with Don Newcombe to play for Chunichi as the first Americans to play there. That ended his playing career and he finished with a .283 average with 253 homers, 970 RBI’s, and a .386 OBA. He hit .237 in ten post-season games and made seven consecutive All-Star teams. In ’63 he resumed his work in Paterson which he did until he became a scout and minor league hitting coach with the new Expos in ’69. He moved up top to coach from ’71 to ’73 and then returned to Cleveland to coach in ’74. There were rumors that he would become MLB’s first black manager but when the Tribe traded for Frank Robinson that opportunity slipped away and Larry was released as a coach prior to the ’75 season. In ’77 he moved to the White Sox as hitting coach and then replaced Bob Lemon as manager mid-way through the ’78 season. He went 30-57 in that role before again becoming hitting coach in ’79. He then moved on to basketball and from ’80 through ’90 worked for the New Jersey Nets in various community-relationship roles. He then did some admin work for the MLB offices but mostly retired to Montclair, NJ. He was inducted into the Hall in ’98 and passed away in Montclair in 2003 from cancer. He was 79.

Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish had a dad who was nearly a full-blooded Native American and who obviously liked names. Cal grew up in Oklahoma and was signed by the Dodgers as a bonus baby pitcher in ’44 out of high school and therefore began his career right away in the majors. He went 3-10 that summer with a 7.82 ERA and then spent the next two years in the military, grabbing an inning on his return late in ’46. He then got traded – with Gene Mauch – to Pittsburgh where he did a couple seasons in Triple A and won 12 games in ’48. But his control wasn’t great and his ERA was toppy so he was traded to the Cubs and had another mediocre season in ’49 at the same level before going 20-11 with a 3.60 ERA in ’50. That got him back up top but a ’51 season of 4-10 with a 4.45 ERA moved him back down and he spent the next four seasons in the PCL going a combined 56-53 with a 3.55 ERA and much better control. He then got purchased by Cleveland for whom he returned to the top. After a not great ’56 he put together three pretty good seasons: 9-7 with a 2.74 ERA in ’57; 16-8, 2.99 in ’58; and 19-8, 3.63 in ’59. He then went with Billy Martin to the Reds in a trade but went only 4-14. He had another losing season in ’61 with the White Sox before going to Philadelphia where over the next two years he was 24-16 with a 3.66 ERA. After a couple games in ’64 he was done and finished with a record of 92-92 with a 4.01 ERA, 57 complete games, five shutouts, and seven saves. In Philly Cal’s old buddy Gene Mauch was the manager and in ’65 Gene named Cal pitching coach which he did through ’66 before working the next two seasons as a scout for the team. He then re-joined Mauch as a coach for the new Expos which he did through ’75. He then moved on to Milwaukee as its pitching coach (’76-’82) and scout (’83- late Nineties) and then retired. He passed away in Oklahoma in 2010 at age 84 from leukemia.

Jerry Zimmerman was born in Omaha, Nebraska and moved to Oregon as a kid where he excelled as an athlete at Milwaukie High. There he was chased down by every MLB club after hitting .423 for his career – and .621 his senior year of ’52 – as a catcher. The Red Sox won him with a bonus of between $65,000 and $80,000 and he hit .230 that summer in C ball. He upped that to .265 in ’53 but with very little power. In ’54 he hit .302 in D ball, followed by a .275 in B ball in ’55 and a .231 in A ball in ’56. He was very adept at handling difficult pitches and had very low error and passed ball totals. He had one of his better offensive years in ’57 with a .266 Double A year and then hit .250 in Triple A the following year. After starting off ’59 badly he was released and picked up by Baltimore. His average didn’t improve and after the season he was sent to Cincinnati for whom in ’60 he hit .279 in Triple A. He finally made The Show in ’61 when he stepped in as part of a three-man rotation at catcher and had the best average – at only .206 – of any of the guys in that position on the pennant winner. He got some Series time and then was traded to the Twins for whom he spent the next five seasons backing up Earl Battey. He returned to the Series in ’65 and had his best season up top in ’66 when he hit .252 with 15 RBI’s. He took over as a starter in ’67 when Battey got sick and also was the club’s bullpen coach, a role he continued partly in ’68, his last season. He finished with an average of .204 in the majors, .258 in the minors, and went hitless in one at bat in the post-season. While in the minors he had played for Gene Mauch and he rejoined him as an original Expos coach in ’69, staying there through ’75. He then returned to Minnesota with Mauch and coached there through ’80 and in ’78 umped a game during the umpire strike that year. He was then a scout for the Yankees for two years before taking on that role with Baltimore, which he did through ’97. He passed away from a heart attack in ’98 when he was 63.

The double hook-up returns since Gene did some good time in the majors. For him as manager:

1. Mauch managed Mike Marshall on the ’70 to ’73 Expos and the ’78 to ’80 Twins;

2. Marshall and Mickey Stanley ’67 Tigers.

And for him as a player:

1. Mauch and Jim Piersall ’57 Red Sox;

2. Piersall and Jim Perry ’59 to ’61 Twins;

3. Perry and Mickey Stanley ’73 Tigers.

#523 - Cecil Cooper

Like JR Richard, Cecil Cooper had a rookie card in ’72 and then nothing in ’73, pretty much for the same reasons as JR. And while Coop didn’t come out of the MLB gate as quickly as JR did, he sure made his mark down the road. He had a typically very good year at Triple A Pawtucket in ’73 when late that August he was summoned back to The Show to play first base. That move was mandated by an injury to Rico Petrocelli that required both Carl Yastrzemski and Danny Cater, the regular guys at first base, to move to third to cover Rico’s absence. Cecil’s resulting .238 (baseball-reference) or .242 (Topps) average didn’t drive anyone too crazy but the glove work was pretty good and he really didn’t have anything left to prove in the minors so it would be Cecil’s final time at that level. That looks like either Tommy Harper or Reggie Smith taking cuts in the spring training cage behind him.

Cecil Cooper grew up in Brenham, Texas, where he attended an all-black high school called Pickard where he twice won state titles. He then went to integrated Brenham High where he graduated in ’68 and was taken by the Red Sox in the sixth round. He wasted little time in establishing himself as a hitter, batting .452 that summer in A ball. He spent the next two-plus years at that level where he put up great averages but it took a while for the Sox to get used to a line-drive hitting first baseman. About a third of the way through ’71 Cecil moved up to Double A Pawtucket where he turned up the power a notch before he made his debut in Boston. He hit quite well in his few September games and then spent ’72 in Triple A Louisville where he continued to maintain his newfound power. In ’73 at that same level he moved to the middle part of the line-up, cut his strikeouts nearly in half, and maintained his RBI numbers in a bunch less at bats. When things got messy in the Boston infield that summer he got called up for good.

By the mid-Seventies Carl Yastrzemski was making first base his primary position so when Cooper took his spot in the line-up, it was in the DH role as much as it was at first. His first season in Boston he pretty much reprised what he did in the minors: pretty good averages with not too much power. In ’74 he hit .275 with 43 RBI’s in 414 at bats. In ’75 Cecil got a lung infection during spring training and missed enough time to allow rookie Jim Rice to take over the DH spot. But when Rice got hurt in September – he missed the post-season – Cecil took over first while Yaz moved to the outfield. In about half a season Cooper hit 14 homers with 44 RBI’s while batting .311. He then torched Oakland at a .400 clip in the playoffs but cooled down in the Series. In ’76 he hit .282 with 78 RBI’s in 451 at bats split between first and DH. After the season the Sox went looking for a power guy to try to keep up with the Yankees, who’d signed Reggie Jackson. So Boston got George Scott and Bernie Carbo back from the Brewers in a deal for Coop.

Cooper’s first season with the Brewers began pretty well as the team had a hot start in April and was still right around .500 – a big uptick to its last couple seasons – at the end of June. But the summer was a disaster and Cecil, looking to fill Boomer’s old role, pressed a bit at the plate, recording over 100 strikeouts the only time in his career. Still, he finished with his best season to that point: .300 with 20 homers and 78 RBI’s in 160 games. With Milwaukee it was all first base and in ’78 the Brew Crew got a new manager in George Bamberger who turned things around fast. The team was going gangbusters in mid-June when Coop, hitting .313 at the time, broke his leg after a collision with Bob Bailor. He finished the season at .312 but the power took a big hit as his RBI total dropped to 54 in just over 100 games. But the Crew was winning now and nobody from that point on would be more emblematic of the team’s fortunes than Cecil. In ’79 he hit .308 while leading the AL with 44 doubles. He hit 24 out and had 106 RBI’s and was an All-Star and Gold Glove winner for the first time. In ’80 he upped things to .352/25/122, his RBI totals leading the league. He also put up his best OBA of .387 and won his first of three successive Silver Sluggers. In the strike year of ’81 he hit .320 and again led the AL with 35 doubles. The Crew went to the playoffs the first time that year and Cecil got three RBI’s in the five games. In the Series year of ’82 he hit .313 with his season-best 32 homers and 121 RBI’s and then hit .286 with six RBI’s against the Cards. In ’83 he was pretty much the only guy on his team to maintain his offense as he hit .307 with 30 homers and an MLB-best 126 RBI’s. He slowed down a ton in ’84 as the Brewers continued to slide, hitting .275 and nearly halving his RBI total. After a nice bounce in ’85 - .293 with 99 RBI’s – he put in another year in ’86 as the regular guy at first and then finished things up in ’87 as a DH. Coop hit .298 for his career with over 2,000 hits, 415 doubles, 241 homers, and 1,125 RBI’s. He hit .302 as a Brewer and still has a couple team hitting records. In the post-season he hit .211 with 15 RBI’s in 25 games. He won two Gold Gloves, the three Silver Sluggers, and was an All-Star five times.

Cooper was a busy guy both in the off-season and after he played. He went to local schools early in his career to get a degree and did lots of community work in Boston and Milwaukee. In ’84 he won the Roberto Clemente Award for humanitarianism. After he retired in ’87 he became a sports agent with his former agency, Coordinated Sports Management, based in Chicago. He did that through ’96 and then returned to the Brewers fold where he scouted and was minor league hitting director. In 2002 he coached up top for the Brewers and from ’03 to ’04 managed in the Milwaukee system, going 130-156. In ’05 he went to Houston where he was a coach under Phil Garner and then succeeded Garner as manager in late ’07. He kept that gig through late ’09 when he was let go after going 171-170. In 2010 he interviewed for the Mariners manager job and since then may or may not have reunited with his old agency boss, who took him to the 2012 winter meetings. I do not believe he is currently affiliated with any team.

Coop’s career numbers are pretty huge once it hits home that he played at around 165-170 at 6’2”. That’s awfully thin for a power guy. In late ’70 the Cards nabbed him in the Rule 5 draft but then released him prior to the ’71 season back to Boston. That qualifies as an “oops.” He has another interesting middle name.

An Astro hurler and an Astro manager get hooked up here:

1. Cooper and Don Sutton ’82 to ’84 Brewers;

2. Sutton and Jose Cruz ’81 to ’82 Astros;

3. Cruz and J.R. Richard ’75 to ’80 Astros.

#451 - Tommy John

A guy I used to work with always said never to trust a person with two first names. But this guy always seemed pretty honest. Still over a year before his famous surgery, Tommy John looks like he’s in a bit of pain at Shea. That look sort of belies the season he was undergoing. After experiencing a season-ending injury in his first year in LA in ’72, Tommy put any fears regarding his comeback to rest early in the ’73 season and went on to record his best record – until then - in his new town mostly through immaculate control (only 50 walks in 220 innings). Then in ’74 things were going even better: the Dodgers were chugging to the NL West title behind Andy Messersmith (11-2 at the break) and Tommy (11-3) when in his final start before the All-Star game his arm “went dead.” It would be his final game of the season – fortunately for LA Don Sutton filled the gap by going an amazing 13-1 after the break – and when it was discovered by team doctor Frank Jobe that Tommy had an ulnar nerve problem, Tommy made the very unusual decision to go under the knife. History was born in the ensuing operation but it would take a while to reveal its legacy.

Tommy John grew up in Indiana which means that he played basketball. He was apparently good enough to get recruited by Kentucky and is listed on some sites as playing for Indiana State. I have been unable to verify that and according to Wikipedia Tommy attended ISU but never actually played there, which seems more plausible. What he did do, after an illustrious high school run as a pitcher during which he was 28-2, was sign with Cleveland in ’61.  His money pitch back then was a curveball and his first summer in D ball he went 10-4 with a 3.17 ERA. In ’62 he had control issues and put up a record of 8-10 with a 4.06 ERA in a season split between A and Triple A. Then in ’63 he rallied to go 15-10 with a 2.60 ERA split between Double A and Triple A and made his debut up top that September, posting a nice ERA in three starts and some bullpen work. In ’64 Tommy began the season in Cleveland, was told to add a slider to his pitch arsenal, and posted not great numbers while instituting his new pitch. By mid-year he was back in Triple A where his numbers only improved to 6-6 but with a 4.26 ERA. The following January Cleveland sent Tommy, Tommie Agee, and John Romano to the White Sox in a three-team deal in which the team picked up former star Rocky Colavito from Kansas City. According to the book “The Curse of Rocky Colavito,” it was the Tribe’s worst trade since they traded Colavito away.

With the White Sox, John moved to a team that had much better defense and with his slider a year older his numbers improved markedly since most of his outs were ground ball ones. He won 14 each of his first two years and his ERA improved each of his first four seasons. In both ’66 and ’67 he led the AL in shutouts. In ’68 he was having an excellent season though the team wasn’t doing too well when in August Dick McAuliffe charged the mound after he thought Tommy threw at him. John defended himself but during the tumble separated his shoulder and missed the rest of the season. When he returned the next year the club was in the midst of a bad run and over the next three seasons he posted losing records with escalated ERA’s – though they were well better than league averages – and even had control issues. In ’70 he led the AL in wild pitches. After the ’71 season he went to the NL and the Dodgers with Steve Huntz for Dick Allen. Tommy’s renaissance in LA was pretty complete as he posted a record of 40-15 with a 2.89 ERA in three years before he got hurt. In ’72 he missed a bunch of starts due to an elbow injury incurred while running the bases and in both ’73 and ’74 he led the NL in winning percentage. Given his future success in the post-season his loss during the ’74 Series was probably significant.

After the operation and a long rehab in ’75 John returned to the mound in ’76 and in 31 starts went 10-10 with a 3.09 ERA to win NL Comeback Player of the Year. He improved on those numbers by winning 20 in ’77 and 17 in ’78 and both years finally got post-season work, killing the Phillies in the NL Playoffs, and going 1-1 in the Series against the Yankees. After the ’78 season he became a free agent and signed almost immediately with his former Series opponents. In NY Tommy kicked off with probably his two finest seasons, going a combined 43-18 with a 3.20 ERA in ’79 and ’80. In the ’81 strike year he went 9-8 with his best NY ERA of 2.63 and that year faced his former mates in the Series. In ’82 he was 10-10 by August when he was traded to California for Dennis Rasmussen and then went 4-2 during the Angels’ stretch run. But from then through mid-’85 he went only a combined 20-30 with an escalated ERA and then was picked up off waivers by Oakland for whom he went 2-6 the second half of ’85. Tommy then returned to the Yankees as a free agent at age 43 where after a short stint in the minors he went 5-3 with a 2.93 ERA in ’86. He followed that up with a 13-6 season in ’87 and then went 11-15 as he finished up his career the next two years. When he was done in ’89 Tommy was 288-231 lifetime with a 3.34 ERA with 162 complete games and 46 shutouts. He appeared in four All-Star games and in the post-season was 6-3 with a 2.65 ERA in 14 games.

After playing John took off a year in ’90 to write and promote an autobiography. In ’91 he became the baseball coach at Westminster Academy, a school in Florida attended by his three sons. He stayed there through ’94 when he became a broadcaster for the Twins which he did through the ’96 season. From ’97 to 2006 he was mostly affiliated with the Charlotte Knights, a Triple A team for whom he did announcing and some coaching. When not with the Knights he broadcast Yankee games (’98) and was a pitching coach in the Montreal system (2002-’03) and manager of the Staten Island Yankees (’04).  After the Knights he moved to manager of the independent Bridgeport Bluefish for whom he went 159-176 from 2007 to ’09. He left that gig to take a sales and contact job with Sportable Scoreboards.

Tommy took his lifetime record above .500 in ’73 and shows a bunch of admirably low walk totals. Both years he was injured (’68 and ’72) look like they could have been his two best seasons.

A battery-mate helps in this hook-up:

1. John and Bob Boone ’82 to ’84 Angels;

2. Boone and Richie Hebner ’77 to ’78 Phillies.