#650 - Mike Epstein

And the penultimate action shot belongs to .... Mike Epstein on his last Topps card swinging away at Yankee Stadium and apparently connecting since it looks like Thurman Munson’s glove is empty. Mike got back to California the hard way – through the Texas Rangers – and by the time this card came out was pretty much done emotionally with his first go in baseball. According to the book “Seasons in Hell” Mike was admittedly mailing it in and was more interested in getting his pilot’s license than in anything going on on the field. Looking at this photo, though, he still seemed to have the ability to uncork a huge swing every now and then. This shot was taken in either early June or September since those were the only two times since Epstein’s acquisition he played in NY for California and I believe this shot is from the same game as the one of Vada Pinson. Mike got with the Angels via a May trade that moved him, Rick Stelmaszek, and Rich Hand for Jim Spencer and Lloyd Allen. That was after the trade that got him out of Oakland initially, when he was sent to Texas rather cheaply for reliever Horacio Pina. That trade was initiated by one of two events, depending on the source: Mike’s o-fer performance in the ’72 Series (A’s owner Charlie O); or Mike’s laying out of Reggie Jackson in the locker room (Epstein). Either way it led to a pretty fast decline for Mike who would go from getting some MVP votes for his ’72 work to being out of the game less tan two years later. But he wouldn’t stay away for too long...

Mike Epstein was a big kid born in the Bronx, NYC. Sometime after he was bar mitzvahed his family relocated to the west coast and Mike went to high school in LA where he was all-area as both a fullback and a first baseman. He then went to Berkeley where he continued to play both sports and after hitting .375 his sophomore year was wooed by the Dodgers via Tommy Lasorda but remained in school at his dad’s insistence. In ’64 he upped his average to nearly .400, made All-American, and was selected to the first ever US Olympic baseball team. He then signed with the Orioles, put in some IL time, and returned to Berkeley to finish his studies. In ’65 he broke in with a bang, putting up a .338/30/109 line in A ball while playing first. In ’66 he jumped to Triple A where his line of .302/29/102 earned him TSN’s Minor League Player of the Year and a brief end of season look in Baltimore. Around then Boog Powell had settled in at first base so Baltimore wanted to turn Mike into an outfielder, which would require more time in the minors. Mike balked and early in June of the ’67 season after barely playing he was sent to DC for pitcher Pete Richert.  He immediately took over first but he was putting up too many K’s and not enough power so by the end of the season he was splitting starts with Dick Nen. After winter ball and a good spring training Mike was back in as the regular guy in ’68 but by mid-May his average was still below .100 so he returned to Triple A for some hitting work where he put up a .400/5/13 line in just eleven games. He was back up top in June and hit .276 with twelve homers and 31 RBI’s the rest of the way.

In ’69 Washington named a new manager in Ted Williams and Epstein would become one of Ted’s star pupils. Pretty much all of Mike’s offensive numbers would rise significantly and that season he sported a .414 OBA as the Nats put up their first winning season in this rendition. Expansion probably contributed to those numbers, though, and the next year Mike fell back to earth a bit. The next year Oakland was looking for a power guy at first and Mike went to the A’s with reliever Darold Knowles for catcher Frank Fernandez, first baseman Don Mincher, and reliever Paul Lindblad that May. He got the lion’s share of work at first the rest of the way, continued to have pretty good OBA numbers, and got his first post-season action. Then in ’72 he led Oakland in homers and got his Series win though he didn’t have such a great time offensively. That November he was sent to Texas and he then finished things early in the ’74 season with California. For his career Mike hit .244 with 130 homers, 380 RBI’s, and a .358 OBA. In the post-season he hit .108 with a homer in his 13 games and in just over two minor league seasons he hit .325 with 64 homers and 224 RBI’s.

As mentioned above, Epstein had sort of moved away emotionally from baseball by the time he retired. He would relocate to Colorado where he had his own ranch and also his own precious metals company for a few years. But the baseball bug never left him entirely. By the early Nineties he was in the San Diego area and coaching, first for a big deal amateur team and then in the Milwaukee system (’93, when he also went 4-7 as an interim manager), for some independent teams (’96-’99), and in the San Diego system (2000). He also coached at San Diego High School in ’95. Since about ’94 he has also run his own hitting school which by now has a sort of national network and has developed a system called rotational hitting. Both Mike and his son are busily involved in the school and if that photo on the site is recent Mike looks damn good.

This is a good swan song card and has some serious star bullets. Per the cartoon, Mike was no Ron Hunt, but every season from ’68 to ’72 he was in the top four in the AL for HBP. After coming across the “Seasons in Hell” book for the Joe Lovitto post I had to hunt it down. It’s a hilarious book with lots of behind the scenes dope of the Rangers from ’73 to ’75. Though Epstein was barely there at the time, he gets lots of mention, especially in a bit in which he pissed off some former teammates after being traded to California by indicating none of them was incentivized to win. Texas then won its next three games against California to kick off its only real winning streak that year.

Another hook-up that takes us through the AL:

1. Epstein and Bernie Allen ’67 to ’71 Senators;

2. Allen and Roy White ’72 to ’73 Yankees;

3. White and Fernando Gonzolez ’74 Yankees.

#625 - Ollie Brown

We get away from the final cards with this post but not the air-brush ones as Ollie Brown shows us what may be a smile at what may be Shea Stadium. Ollie’s new uniform, courtesy of the Topps artists, is one in which he never played as he had been sold to Houston before ’74 spring training ended. And if I am correct about the stadium designation then this is another photo at least two years old. Regardless, though Ollie looks reasonably happy, ’73 was a mixed year for him. In his second season with Milwaukee he was named the Opening Day DH and so was one of the first guys to ply that trade. He had a couple of good early games but by mid-May his average had tailed off to Mendoza levels. Then, though his average began to bounce, he was platooned the rest of the way with Joe Lahoud and Darrell Porter. From early June to season’s end he hit well over .300 but continued to be used in only about half the games. After the season he joined Lahoud, Skip Lockwood, and Ellie Rodriguez in a trade to the Angels for Steve Barber, Ken Berry, Art Kusnyer, and Clyde Wright. Ollie joins just about all those guys in being air-brushed into a non-Traded traded card for his new team.

Ollie Brown was born in Alabama but grew up in Long Beach, California, where he was the middle child of three who had professional careers: Willie, after playing at USC, was a running back and returns specialist in the NFL; and Oscar was an outfielder for the Braves. Ollie was a guard/forward in hoops in high school and in ’60 led his school to the California state championship in that sport. In baseball he was a pitcher and an outfielder and the summer after he graduated he was signed by San Francisco and assigned to a D team in Salem, Virginia. But Ollie wasn’t too happy that on that team’s first road trip he and his black teammates couldn’t stay in the same hotel as the white guys so he asked the team to move him. Pretty gutsy move for a kid not hitting terribly well, but the Giants complied and moved him to Decatur, another D team in the Midwest League. There Ollie hit better, raising his average to .230 from .167, and banged out ten homers in 235 at bats from the leadoff spot. In ’63 Decatur became an A-level team and there Ollie moved to the mound, going 9-8 in the rotation, but with high walk totals – over a BB an inning – and a high ERA. He hit better though too, posting a .304 average, and in ’64 he moved out to Fresno, the club’s California League A team, and back to the outfield. Good move by the Giants as Ollie put up a line of .329/40/133 and led his league in just about every offensive category. That was the year he earned the nickname “Downtown” since that’s where a lot of the balls he hit seemed to want to go. In ’65 he moved up to Triple A where he put up a line of .293/27/81 with 15 stolen bases. He led his league in outfield assists as well and then made his MLB debut. In ’66 the trade of Matty Alou helped Ollie stay in San Francisco and he got a bunch of starts in right but when his offense got a bit thin he returned to Triple A for about a month in the summer. After a line of .343/9/29 in just 103 at bats he returned to the bay. Ollie had a huge arm and he came in third that year in assists from right field. In ’68 the emergence of young outfielders Bobby Bonds and Dave Marshall helped push Ollie to a reserve role and some time back in Triple A but the run at the lower level was a big discount to his one in ’66. After the season he was the first pick by San Diego in the expansion draft.

Brown immediately stepped into the starting spot in right field for the Padres and was one of the team’s first most consistent hitters. In ’69 he set PR’s in just about every offensive category and in ’70 he topped nearly all of them as he teamed with Clarence Gaston and Nate Colbert to give San Diego a serious offensive trio. In ’71 Gaston crashed and Ollie, who batted ahead of Gaston, put up discounted power numbers, though he topped out in OBA with a .346. Then in ’72 a slow start at the plate contributed to a May trade to Oakland for Curt Blefary and others. With the A’s Ollie initially got some starts in center and then moved to right as his power depletion continued. In June he was sort of traded to Milwaukee for Billy Conigliaro – check out that card to see that transactional mess – and rediscovered his stroke while platooning in right with Joe Lahoud the rest of the way. The next year he became the first Brewers DH, went to California, and the following spring to Houston. With the Astros Ollie did some reserve work in right while hitting .217 in 23 games. Then he was on the move again, this time to Philadelphia off waivers in late June. With the Phillies Ollie initially got some work in left field, hitting .242 the rest of the way. He then settled in for a three-year run as the team’s fourth or fifth outfielder. In ’75 he had a line of .303/6/26 in 145 at bats and in ’76 .254/5/30 in 205 at bats. His plate time diminished a bunch in ’77, his final season. Ollie finished with a .265 average, 102 homers, and 454 RBI’s and got a walk in his five post-season plate appearances. Defensively he is in the top 100 for assists from right field and twice led his league in double plays from that position.

Brown did some real estate work after he played in southern California. He also formed a marketing company with his wife but was admittedly semi-retired once his playing time was over. He gets some face time in a 2009 interview I managed to find (yes Matt, the Google news feature is pretty much shut down) in which he looks pretty healthy while riding around the Padres field in a convertible with Dave Winfield.

Ollie’s cards’ narratives frequently included mention of his pitching gem and his big ’64 season. He and his brothers attended the same high school later attended by the Gwynns.

Since there are only 35 cards left in the set I think it’s time to pick up the Watergate stuff. By this point in the recap the televised hearings had been going on for a few weeks and much of the testimony was by role players asserting – or not – many allegations made by James McCord earlier in the hearings.

5/22/73 – President Nixon gives a televised statement specifically in regard to Watergate. In it he categorically denies his involvement in any activities related to the break-in and subsequent events related to it. But he then hedges his bets a bit by indicating his involvement in a few activities put in motion to safeguard “national security” including authorizing the group of plumbers established to undertake the suppression of information leaks. He also admitted his involvement in several wire-tapping activities, all of which he declared were legal. He named people involved in plumbers’ activities, none of whom was terribly surprising at this point: Liddy, Hunt, Erlichman, Haldeman, and Dean. He didn’t exactly throw them under the bus – except for Dean – but he didn’t exactly take responsibility for their exploits either. He also initially denied CIA involvement in the whole affair but then rambled on about how one – one meaning he – might have believed the CIA was at the heart of the matter. If the speech was meant to throw off the wolves, it really didn’t do a very good job.

6/3/73 – The Washington Post reports that John Dean was planning on testifying that President Nixon was deeply involved in the cover-up of Watergate and participated in around 35 meetings with Dean and others subsequent to the break-in. Dean did not indicate that Nixon had any knowledge of the break-in prior to the event itself and also indicated all his evidence was authored by himself and was therefore limited to his actual testimony. He also indicated he was never actually asked to run his own investigation of the Watergate affair and that he frequently also met with John Erlichman and H.R. Haldeman with and without the President. The reports came from a few independent sources of Bob Woodward’s and Carl Bernstein’s and also included Dean’s pronouncement to Nixon in April that to save the presidency, he (Dean), Erlichman, and Haldeman needed to come clean regarding their activities to the various investigative bodies. Initially Dean believed the others agreed with that notion; when Erlichman and Haldeman subsequently shot it down Dean believed he would become the scapegoat for the operation and began plans to work out a deal of immunity in exchange for his testimony. He would appear before the Watergate Committee later in June.

This is an easy hook-up because of all of Miller’s travels:

1. Brown and Bob Miller ’71 Padres.

A team card is next up which means a big delay in posts. Everyone who is celebrating have a great Xmas and a Happy New Year.

#611 - Rick Stelmaszek

If you go by the cards Topps made available for ’74 Rick Stelmaszek was the Angels starting catcher for 1973, all 26 at bats of him. That’s because Topps didn’t issue cards for Jeff Torborg – 255 at bats – John Stephenson – 122 at bats – or Art Kusnyer – 64 at bats. Rick actually did pretty well card-wise himself by Topps. He got four cards during his career, or one for every 22 MLB at bats. On each one he had a different hat: Washington in ‘70; Texas in ’73; this airbrushed one; and another airbrushed Cubs hat in ’75. This card photo may be a bit old since that appears to be a Senators cap on the guy behind Rick. Not surprisingly he moved around a bit in ’73, beginning the year as a back-up to Dick Billings in Texas before a May trade that sent Mike Epstein, Rich Hand, and him to California for Lloyd Allen and Jim Spencer. He spent the next two months in Triple A before getting back upstairs in mid-July to back-up the above trio. Rick was pretty itinerant back then but when he finally settled in one place he would stay there a loooong time.

Ray Stelmack was an outfielder signed by the Yankees in the late Thirties who didn’t hit terribly well and after doing his WW II time became a pitcher. By ‘48 he was pretty much done as a player, was living in the Chicago area, and had a son named Rick who would opt to embrace the full family name. Rick went to Mendel High, a Catholic school that rang its last bell in the Eighties. There he was all-Christian league his senior year of ’67 as a catcher before he was drafted by the Senators. He didn’t get things going until late the following spring which may have been due to military duty or some time at Depaul. That season he hit well at one A level spot and not so well at another one, though at both he had very good OBA’s which would be a hallmark in his career. In ’69 he had a nice line at that level bolstered by a .429 OBA and in ‘70 at Double A put up a .398 though his supporting stats weren’t quite as good. In ’71 his OBA remained the same, as did his average, when he moved up to Triple A in a season interrupted by a couple early summer weeks in DC. ’72 was all Triple A, part of it as a loaner to the Cincinnati chain. After his ’73 run he opened the ’74 season back in Triple A where he put up a line of .269/6/40 with a .399 OBA through July when he was sent home to the Cubs for pitcher Horacio Pina. He spent the balance of the season on the Chicago roster behind George Mitterwald and Steve Swisher, hitting .227 with a .364 OBA and seven RBI’s in his 44 at bats. ’75 was then all Triple A - .265/6/47/.376 – before an early ’76 trade sent him to the Yankees for a minor leaguer. He spent a year at Triple A Syracuse and then ’77 back in the Texas system at the same level before in ‘78 hooking up with the Twins as a player/manager back at the A level. That was Rick’s final season as a player. For his MLB time he hit .170 in those 88 at bats and in the minors .250 with an OBA above .400.

With his keen eye Stelmaszek seemed a natural for a coaching gig after he was done playing and that’s exactly what he did. He remained at the Minnesota A franchise as its manager through ’80, going 199-212 during that span and winning his league’s manager of the year award his final season. In ’81 he was promoted all the way up to Minnesota where he became the Twins bullpen coach, a job he held through 2012. In his first year away from baseball as an adult he has been semi-retired and learning to golf.

Rick had two rookie cards and two regular ones, both of which were airbrushed. He was quite good defensively and also led his league in assists and double plays in ’68. He had one of the longest single-team coaching runs ever.

Speaking of long runs, it has been a long time since I did anything about Watergate, which was ceratinly, one of the biggest news stories running the time covered by this set. As a recap, on the few posts I actually did on the subject, five men were busted attempting to plant bugging devices in the offices of the Democratic National Committee base on the sixth floor of the Watergate Hotel in June of ’72. They, along with E. Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy, would be indicted that September and their trial would begin the following January. Shortly into the trial Hunt pled guilty and four days later four of the five burglars pled the same. That was as far as I got and to restart this process I want to highlight some investigative stuff along the way unearthed by The Washington Post.

6/19/72 – The Post revealed that Frank Sturgis, one of the burglars, was a US “soldier of fortune” who temporarily lost his citizenship when in the late Fifties he fought alongside Fidel Castro in Cuba. Bernard Barker, another burglar, was a POW during WW II and was also a one-time ally of Castro’s and for a time worked in Cuba’s secret police. Those two and the two other native Cuban burglars had all become disenchanted with Castro and were involved in the Bay of Pigs mess. James McCord had been a security consultant for both the Republican National Committee chaired then by Bob Dole and the Committee to Re-elect the President chaired by former Attorney General John Mitchell. Both claimed a lack of knowledge regarding McCord’s involvement with the burglary.

8/1/72 – The Post reported that a bunch of money found its way to Bernard Barker’s Florida bank account. $25,000 was a cashier’s check made out to Kenneth Dahlberg, CREEP’s finance chairman for the Midwest. Dahlberg claimed he gave the check to either John Mitchell, CREEP’s chairman, or Maurice Stans, CREEP’s overall finance chairman. Stans had been Secreatery of Commerce under Nixon. Barker had also accumulated $89,000 in checks from Mexican lawyer Manual Daguerre. It would later turn out that Daguerre was a conduit for CREEP to raise money in The States that would then be filtered through Mexico so that donors could remain anonymous, thereby skirting campaign fund-raising laws. So both sources of funds were linked to CREEP. Other background revealed that Dahlberg owned a firm that made hearing aids and was Nixon’s finance chief in Minnesota during the ‘68 campaign, an important state since Nixon’s opponent in the ’68 election, Hubert Humphrey, was from Minnesota. The article also revealed that a few days earlier G Gordon Liddy was fired from a consulting post to CREEP after refusing to talk to the FBI about the break-in and that Democrats believed that Chuck Colson, an advisor to the President, was a player in the break-in since it was he who had hired E Howard Hunt. Things were getting pretty sticky.  

The Chicago connection seems the most obvious for the hook-up even though these guys were a few years apart. I wonder if they faced each other in high school?:

1. Stelmaszek and Rick Reuschel ’74 Cubs;

2. Reuschel and Dave Kingman ‘78 to ‘80 Cubs.

#605 - 1974 Rookie Pitchers

This next rookie card is the second one that gets an honor number designation, which is unavoidable due to the choice by Topps to issue the rookie cards sequentially. One pitcher on the card was worthy of the designation pretty much right of the bat, but we get to him last. One pitcher for sure gets photographed in a city that would be his stomping grounds years down the road. As usual, there are very few smiles; rookie jitters perhaps.

Vic Albury was a first baseman and pitcher when he was drafted by the Indians in ’65. He had helped lead his high school team from Key West, FLA, to its state championship in ’63 and two summers later began his pro career by hitting .233 in A ball while playing first. Then it was off for three full years (?!!) of military duty; that sounds a bit long to me and I have a hunch that he left baseball for a bit before reappearing with his hometown team in ’69, an A franchise of San Diego’s. Vic had a nice year, going 12-10 with a 2.32 ERA before a bit of a rough ’70 split between Triple A and A ball, going a combined 7-10 with a 5.83 ERA. He was then drafted by the Twins for whom he turned things around big in Double A, going 12-7 with a 1.73 ERA and 13 saves as a reliever and hitting .354 with 17 RBI’s in only 65 at bats that included some during a few games back at first. Unfortunately that was followed by a ’72 – during which Vic had his first rookie card – in which he hurt his elbow in spring training enough that surgery was mandated and he didn’t get on the mound until August and would only see 18 innings of Triple A ball. In ’73 he went 8-11 in the rotation with a 3.99 ERA before he was called up in August. He did surprisingly well in his 23 MLB innings, going 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA, given his walks outnumbered his strikeouts, which would become a running theme. His true rookie year of ’74 he would be mostly in the rotation with 22 starts of his 32 games, and go 8-9 with a 4.12 ERA. In ’75 his ERA elevated a bit as he took on more of a swing role, going 6-7 with his only save. In ’76 it was all relief as he went 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA in his final season up top. He went a combined 18-17 at that level with a 4.11 ERA, six complete games, a shutout, and that save. He put up 220 walks against 193 K’s. In ’77 he pitched for Syracuse, then the Yankees’ Triple A team, going 9-9 with a 5.13 ERA and a couple saves in a swing role. He was apparently on loan because after the season he declared free agency as a Twin. He pitched in Mexico in ’78 before in ’79 throwing for Puerto Rico of the short-lived Inter-American League and then signing with Cleveland the rest of the way. He went a combined 6-4 with a 3.80 ERA that year which would be his last as rotator cuff problems helped to end his career. In the minors he went a combined 54-53 with a 3.72 ERA, 29 complete games, and 19 saves. By ’82 Vic was coaching in the Cleveland system, which he would do through early ’85. At some point he appears to have returned full-time to Key West where a street and baseball field were named in his honor. According to one local chat site a Vic Albury did get back and fall on bad times and then pass away but I do not know if it is our boy here as according to baseball-reference he is still around.

Ken Frailing grew up in Marion, Wisconsin, where the baseball seasons were short and he also played football and basketball in high school. He finished his hoops career with 1,000 points and his senior year went 13-0 with a 0.17 ERA for a team that went 16-0 overall. That spring of ’66 he was drafted in the fifth round by the White Sox. That first summer was a bit tough as he went 1-6 with a 5.07 ERA split between Rookie and A ball. He then spent the next three seasons in A ball, going a combined 14-14 with a 2.97 ERA around his military time while throwing for some pretty bad teams. In ’67 only 28 of his 51 runs were earned. In ’70 he moved up to Double A where his 4-9 record was a lot more indicative of his team than him as his ERA was only 2.71. He then spent the next two years at Triple A Tucson where the dry air elevated his ERA to a combined 5.27 as he went 14-19 before his September debut in Chicago. He then had his best year in ’73, going 11-3 with a 2.86 ERA in Triple A before some more late-season MLB action. When he left the Sox for the Cubs in the Ron Santo trade the following winter he was 1-0 with a 2.11 ERA in his 14 games. With the Cubs, Ken used his lefty status as a way to lever himself into the mix as a swing guy and his rookie year of ’74 he went 6-9 with a save and a 3.88 ERA. He remained in Chicago in ’75 but early in the season suffered shoulder issues and his work was reduced to all middle relief as his line fell to 2-5 with a 5.43 in less than half as many innings. He split ’76 between Chicago – 1-2 with a 2.41 ERA in 19 innings – and Triple A where he was 2-3 with a 4.50 ERA around lots of down time. In ’77 he got his shoulder operated on and he put in a few innings but was released while in rehab. He signed with the Sox for ’78 which he spent in Triple A as a player-coach in his final season, during which he went 8-5 with a 3.11 ERA and eleven saves. Ken went 10-16 with a 3.96 ERA, a complete game, and a couple saves during his MLB time and 55-61 with a 3.73 ERA in the minors. A pretty good hitter, he hit for over a .220 average at both levels. In ’79 and ’80 he coached in the KC system before later that latter year relocating to Sarasota, FLA, where he began a new career selling insurance. He has a very nice SABR bio.

Kevin Kobel attended a Catholic high school outside Buffalo, NY, and while there made a couple all-Catholic state teams in baseball. Nabbed by the Brewers in the ’71 draft at 17 he started fast by going 5-1 with a 2.55 ERA in A ball. The reality of being in the Brewers system set in the next year when he went 3-15 with a 4.31 ERA in Double A San Antonio – more dry air – before things got back on track in ’73 with a 12-8/3.40 year at the same level. In his few games in Milwaukee that year his run wasn’t too impressive but he remained on the Milwaukee roster all of ’74, going 6-14 with a 3.99 ERA in the rotation. Though his record wasn’t too hot, he owned the Yankees, going 3-1 against them giving up just one run per in the three wins. In ’75 a tough spring training followed up by a bad shoulder sent him to Triple A where he only got in seven games but went 3-2 with a 2.40 ERA in them. He remained at that level nearly all the next two years, going 7-12 in ’76 with a 5.50 ERA and then in ’77 though the ERA didn’t drop much, his record reversed itself as he went 12-6. He got some topside work the former year but it wasn’t very good and after the ’77 season he was sold to the Mets. In ’78 a nice start in the pen in Triple A brought him up to NY in May where some initial tentative usage produced good results in the same role. With an ERA still under 1.00 in July he became a spot guy the rest of the way and finished the year 5-6 with a 2.91 ERA. In ’79 he joined the rotation full-time, going 6-8 with a 3.51 ERA for another horrible NY team. But in ’80 the shoulder pain and bad numbers returned en force and at the trade deadline he was sent to Kansas City for Randy McGilberry. That finished Kevin’s MLB time with a record of 18-34 with a 3.88 ERA, five complete games, and three shutouts. He didn’t pitch terribly well either for KC’s Triple A club and he was released by the end of the season. He then spent ’81 and ’82 pitching in Mexico before a late season tryout with the Pirates went nowhere and he was done with a 46-47 record in the minors with a 4.27 ERA. According to his Facebook page he is back in the Buffalo area where he looks pretty happy.

When Frank Tanana graduated Catholic Central High School in Detroit in ’71 he had scored over 2,500 points in hoops and had a 32-1 record as a pitcher with a 0.30 ERA. He was widely recruited by D1 schools in both sports but signed with the Angels after being the team’s first round pick that June. After briefly attending Cal State Fullerton he began his career in A ball in ’72, going 7-2 with a 2.79 ERA. In ’73 he went 16-6 with a 2.71 ERA in Double A, 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA in two starts in Triple A, and 2-2 with a 3.08 ERA after being called up to Anaheim in September. In his rookie season of ’74 he went 14-19 but with a 3.12 ERA and four shutouts to get a spot on the Topps rookie team. He followed that up with an excellent three-year run that cemented him as the best young pitcher in the game. His stat lines - 16-9 with a 2.62 ERA and 269 strikeouts in ’75; 19-10/2.42/261 in ’76; and 15-9/2.54/205 in ’77 – were all for losing teams and got him two All-Star appearances, the AL strikeout lead in ’75, and the AL ERA and shutouts – with seven – lead in ’77. In ’78 he went 18-12 but experienced some shoulder pain that led to an elevated – for him – 3.65 ERA and a dramatic drop in strikeouts. That September his teammate, outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed and Frank, before then a pretty hard partyer, became a devout religious guy as a result. In ’79 he would miss over ten weeks to a shoulder operation which would limit the range in his left arm and force him to become a control pitcher. He went 7-5 but the tiny ERA’s and big strikeout totals were behind him. In ’80 he went 11-12/4.15 before being traded to Boston with Joe Rudi for Steve Renko and Fred Lynn. After a horrible season for the Sox – 4-10/4.01 – he went to Texas as a free agent and had an even worse ’82 as he went 7-18 with a 4.21 ERA to lead the AL in losses. During the next two seasons he improved to go a combined 22-24 with a 3.21 ERA before a weak start to the ’85 season got him sent to Detroit for a minor leaguer. Frank went 10-7 the rest of the way and settled in for a long Tigers run during which he went a combined 96-82 with a league-average 4.08 ERA. He won the division-clincher in ’87 and remained with the team through ’92 before spending his final season with both NY Teams. He went 240-236 for his career with a 3.66 ERA, 143 complete games, 34 shutouts, a save, and 2,773 strikeouts. He made three All-Star teams and in the post-season was 0-1 with a 4.35 ERA in two starts. Since his playing time he has been very active in fantasy leagues and on the lecture circuit as well as with various baseball and Christian charities.

The pitchers on this card put in a collective 28 seasons with four All-Star appearances and a Rookie team membership, mostly thanks to Mr. Tanana. All these guys were still residing in their home towns at this point in their careers.

The inter-card hook-up is a quick one:

1. Frank White and Jerry Terrell ’78 to ’80 Royals;

2. Terrell and Vic Albury ’73 to ’76 Twins.

Around the card takes a little longer:

1. Vic Albury and Rod Carew ’73 to ’76 Twins;

2. Carew and George Mittyerwald ’68 to ’73 Twins;

3. Mitterwald and Ken Frailing ’74 to ’75 Cubs;

4. Frailing and Jerry Morales ’74 to ’75 Cubs;

5. Morales and Doug Flynn ’80 Mets;

6. Flynn and Kevin Kobel ’78 to ’80 Mets;

7. Kobel and Andy Hassler ’79 Mets;

8. Hassler and Frank Tanana ’73 to ’76 and ’80 Angels.

#597 - '74 Rookie Shortstops

The second rookie batch is designated as a group of shortstops but Manny Trillo almost never played that position up top. But that’s just nit-picking.

Dave Chalk came out of Texas and stayed there in college for the University of Texas where he was a three-time All-American with a .368 career average. A first-round pick out of school by the Angels, he hit .253 that summer of '72 in Double A and moved up the ladder fast. After hitting .293 at that level in the first couple months of ’73 he moved to Triple A where he hit .236 while putting in his first significant time at shortstop. He then made his debut with the Angels in September, hitting .232 the rest of the way in his new position. He stayed in Anaheim thereafter and besides being a very good fielder and moderately productive batter, he was quite diverse. In ’74 he was an All-Star at shortstop while also playing third. In ’75 he was again an All-Star, this time at third base, which he played exclusively as the Angels tried a bunch of rookies at his old position. That was his best offensive year as he put up a .273/3/56 season with a .353 OBA. By ’76 it was apparent that the prior year’s shortstop experiment was pretty much a wash – though the main guy, Mike Miley, showed flashes of brilliance only to die in a car crash – and Dave returned to that position. In ’77 Bobby Grich came along as a free agent and Dave moved back to third where he posted his best average of .277. In ’78 new kid Carney Lansford moved him back to short where a pretty good year – and career – got wrecked by a late-September knee injury. He was still in recovery mode in May of ’79 when he was traded back home to Texas for Bert Campaneris. He only got into a couple games for the Rangers when at the June deadline he and Mike Heath went to Oakland for pitcher John Henry Johnson. But Dave’s mobility was severely limited that year and his average shrank 30 points. He then signed with Kansas City as a free agent and for the next two years did utility work, tasting post-season action in ’80 when in his tone appearance he walked, stole second, and scored. For his career Dave hit .252 with nearly 300 runs batted in and scored. After playing he was a scout, primarily for Seattle, and also returned to the Longhorns, where he did some coaching work. His daughter later played softball for Texas where Dave continues to reside.

John Gamble grew up in Nevada so it is hard to imagine a more appropriate surname. His parents were both educators – his dad was a dead ringer – and by high school John was a good enough shortstop to be taken by the Dodgers in the second round of the ’66 draft. He finished that summer in Rookie ball, hitting .225. He remained at that level in ’67, upping his average to .298 and then in ’68 hit .254 in A ball, all while playing shortstop. In ’69 he made some noise in A ball by hitting .297 and stealing 33 bases for a couple teams and then in ’70 at that level stole 60 bases and scored 99 runs while hitting .254, mostly as a third baseman. Following that season he was taken by Detroit in the Rule 5 draft and in ’72 he was moved up to Double A where he hit .252 with 38 stolen bases. He made his Detroit debut that September as a pinch hitter and played a game at shortstop later that month. In ’73 all his appearances up top were as a pinch runner before he was returned to Triple A for the balance of the season where he hit .291 in his dual role. In ’74 he hit .240 in a season split between two Triple A teams but only stole ten bases which may indicate an injury around this point. He rebounded to hit .288 at that level in ’75 and finished his career with a .210 season at that level in ’76. John went 0 for 3 with a run scored for Detroit and hit .264 with over 200 stolen bases in the minors. He’d obtained a degree from the University of Nevada during the early Seventies and there are some indications that he followed his parents into education but I have been unable to confirm anything since his playing days.

Pete Mackanin hails from Chicago from where he was drafted by the Senators in ’69 upon completing Brother Rice High School on the south side. He hit .231 with decent power that summer in Rookie ball while playing third base. Like Dave Chalk he would move around the infield a bit during his career and in A ball in ’70 he also played shortstop as his average slipped to .202. He bounced offensively at that level in ’71, hitting .259 with seven triples in a season in which most of his time was spent at second. The next year he played all three positions while at Double A and a bit at Triple A where his offense again got whacked pretty hard. He revived big at the higher level in ’73, hitting .302 as he played strictly shortstop, a position he continued when he made his debut for Texas late that summer. But after hitting .100 in his 90 at bats with 26 K’s, he returned in ’74 to Triple A where he had a lights-out year, hitting .291 with 28 homers and 103 RBI’s. After the season he and reliever Don Stanhouse were sent to Montreal for outfielder Willie Davis. With the Expos Pete became the regular second baseman the next two years. He had some moments, like hitting 12 homers while stealing eleven bases in ’75, but overall he hit .224, struck out a bit much, and had a few too many errors. In ’77 Montreal signed Dave Cash and Pete spent the season as a reserve guy, getting minimal plate time. He then spent ’78 back in Triple A where he had another bang-up power year while playing third and shortstop, with a .276/17/112 season before he was placed on waivers that September. Philadelphia grabbed him and he spent the balance of that year and all the next on the Phillies roster, although he almost never appeared. After the ’79 season he was traded to Minnesota for pitcher Paul Thormodsgard and for the next two years he saw a lot more action while moving between second and shortstop. In ’80 he had his best MLB season, hitting .266 with 35 RBI’s in 319 at bats and in ’81 his average dipped to .231 in his final year up top. He signed with the White Sox as a free agent, was released during spring training of ’82, and then returned to Texas where for the next two years he picked up where he left off, as a Triple A, mostly corner infield power guy. In ’82 he hit .268 with 16 homers and 73 RBI’s in 377 at bats and in ’83 he had a .269/11/91 year. In ’84 he played third base for the Cubs Triple A franchise, slowing down a bit with a .248/8/44 season in his last year. Pete hit .226 with 30 homers and 27 stolen bases in the majors and .263 with 103 homers and 624 RBI’s in the minors. He immediately moved into managing after that in the minors for the Cubs (’85-’89); Cincinnati (’90-’92); Baltimore (’93-’94); Montreal (’95-’96); and Pittsburgh (2001-’02 and ’06). In between he was an MLB coach with Montreal (’97-2000) and Pittsburgh (2003-’05). He was appointed manager mid-season twice up top: for the Pirates in ’05 and for Cincinnati – for whom he’d been scouting – in ’07. He went a combined 53-53 in those roles, and those were not great teams. In 2008 he was a scout for the Yankees before returning to coaching as the bench guy for the Phillies from 2009 trough 2012. During that time he was on the short list as manager for a few spots, including Chicago and Boston. For 2013 he has been a Yankees scout. His minor league record is 985-944 with a few championships and a TSN Minor League Manager of the Year award.

When Manny Trillo was signed by the Phillies in ’68 he had been a catcher on his high school team in Venezuela. But the team liked his arm too much and turned him into a left side infielder. He hit .261 in a short summer season that year in A ball and then .280 at the same level in ’69 before going to Oakland in the Rule 5 draft. He duplicated those numbers the next two seasons in Double A for the A’s while continuing to concentrate on the left side. In ’72 he moved to Triple A where he hit .301 while playing a considerable amount of games at second for the first time. The next year it was all second base as he was being groomed to take over from Dick Green. He hit .312 that year while knocking in 78 runs around his Oakland debut in June where he hit .250 while doing late-inning work. He stayed up top to open the ’74 seasons and got some starts at second but after not hitting too well returned to Triple A where his average slid to .253 before he returned to Oakland in September to finish the season. After it he went to the Cubs with Bob Locker and Darold Knowles for Billy Williams. Once in Chicago Manny’s MLB career took off in earnest as he was named the team’s starter at second, hit .261, and fielded well enough to come in third place in ROY voting. He remained with the Cubbies through ’78, rarely missing a game and providing pretty good offensive punch while excelling defensively. In ’77 he made his first All-Star team. After the ’78 season he returned to the Phillies in a big trade and for whom he again took over as the regular guy. His average would pop a few points as he would have an award-filled run during his four seasons there: three Gold Gloves, two more All-Star games, and two Silver Slugger awards as the NL’s best offensive second baseman. He also got a Series ring in ’80 after being named mvp of the NL Championship Series after hitting .381. In ’83 he went to Cleveland as part of the group that brought Von Hayes to Philly. He was an All-Star again before going to Montreal to finish the season. He then moved to San Francisco as the regular guy for ’84 and ’85 before returning to Chicago where he spent the next three years doing mostly infield reserve work. He ended his playing career after an ’89 season with Cincinnati with a .263 average, 61 homers, and 571 RBI’s. He hit .267 in 17 post-season games, winning two rings. Defensively he led NL second basemen in putouts twice, assists four straight years, and double plays and fielding percentage once each. Lifetime he is in the top 100 in that last stat and in the top 50 on the other ones. After playing Manny was for a few years a coach in Venezuela before returning to The States in that capacity in ’96 with the Cubs, beginning a long career. He coached in the Chicago system (’96-’98); was director of minor league development for the Phillies (’99), coached in the Yankees system (2000); coached in the Milwaukee system (2001-’03); and coached and managed in the White Sox system (’04-present). For the past few years he has also assumed admin roles for the Sox.

Gamble is the oldest guy here and Mackanin the youngest. I bet this card does pretty well in terms of MLB service also. Between these four there were 25 MLB seasons, six All-Star selections, two Gold Gloves, and two Silver Sluggers.

Now first we move between two young AL guys:

1. Dave Chalk and Leroy Stanton ’73 to ’76 Angels;

2. Stanton and Dick Pole ’77 to ’78 Mariners.

And then around the card:

1. Dave Chalk and Denny Doyle ’74 Angels;

2. Doyle and Tony Taylor ’70 to ’71 Phillies;

3. Taylor and John Gamble ’72 to ’73 Tigers;

4. Gamble and Woodie Fryman ’72 to ’73 Tigers;

5. Fryman and Pete Mackanin ’75 to ’76 Expos;

6. Mackanin and Andre Thornton ’76 Expos;

7. Thornton and Manny Trillo ’75 to ’76 Cubs.

#594 - Leroy Stanton

For a guy involved in one of the biggest trades ever it can be frustratingly difficult to find information about Leroy Stanton during certain periods of time. Like his youth. But that was long ago by the time this card came along, depicting Leroy at Yankee Stadium, not terribly far from another field on which he briefly played. If that is a “6” on the back of that uniform behind Leroy, it’s Ellie Rodriguez; if it’s an “8” it’s Rick Stelmaszek. Primarily a right fielder in ’73, Leroy’s playing time took a bit of a hit that season as he split time there early on with Bob Oliver and later with Richie Scheinblum, who’d been picked up mid-year from Cincinnati. Leroy could be a pretty good power guy and though his eight HR’s that year were below expectations, he did tie a team record when he launched three in a game against Baltimore. He had a bit of trouble in the strikeout department but he could run and he had awfully good range in the outfield. He would spend the bulk of his career with the Angels, at least as a player, and he alone would have been an excellent pick-up for the guy California lost. But then there was that other guy...

Leroy Stanton was born and raised on a farm in rural South Carolina and at some point around his chores he made enough noise in baseball to get signed as a free agent by the Mets early in the summer of ’65. That first year he hit pretty well in A ball but dropped a few points when moved down to Rookie ball late in the season. He then missed all of the next two years to do his military hitch stateside which is one of the longest service requirements of the set. He returned in ’68 for a good year in A ball and then pared down his numbers a bit in a ’69 spent in Double A, a year he also stole 17 bases. In ’70 and ’71 he put up excellent numbers at Triple A Tidewater, making his debut in NY in September of the earlier year. His first three at bats were all pinch hit appearances before he got a start against Chicago on the 28^th. His first at bat he rocketed a triple to the corner and rounding second his helmet came off. As he slid safely into third, the Billy Williams throw pegged him in the back of the head, ending his season. That’s a tough way to get a first hit! He got some more late looks in ’71, none nearly as dramatic as the prior year, and after the season he, pitcher Don Rose, catcher Frank Estrada, and another pitcher named Nolan Ryan were sent to the Angels for Jim Fregosi.

In ’72 Stanton was still a rookie – he shared his first Topps card with Buzz Capra and Jon Matlack – and that spring he won the starting job in right field. He started slowly and struck out once every four at bats but revived his average a bunch over the season and led AL right fielders in fielding percentage. In ’74 he won the right field slot pretty much uncontested after a great spring. He was also off to a hot start that year at the plate and was hitting .390 in late April when his left hand was shattered by a pitch. He missed a month-plus but returned to post his best season to date with .267/11/62 numbers. He upped that in an un-injured ’75 when he corralled his K numbers a bit, pretty much matched his ’74 average and upped his power numbers to 14 homers and 82 RBI’s to lead the team. He also established a new team record in outfield assists with 16; that number also led the AL. But ’76 wasn’t much fun. The Angels put up another big trade prior to that season, obtaining Bobby Bonds for Mickey Rivers and Ed Figueroa and Bobby took over right field as Leroy got moved to the fourth guy. As his plate time came down hard so too did his offense and he finished with a .190 average and only 25 RBI’s. After the season he was selected by the new Seattle Mariners in the expansion draft.

In his first season in Seattle Stanton had a sort of I-told-you-so year in  his biggest MLB season, hitting .275 with 27 homers and 90 RBI’s as he and Danny Meyer teamed to give the Mariners a potent power duo. But that revival was short-lived and after Leroy’s stats shriveled to a .182/3/24 season the next year he was released. In ’79 he put in a season in Japan where his line of .225/23/58 was augmented by 136 K’s in his 457 at bats. In ’80 he returned to this hemisphere and the Angels, but this time the Mexican League franchise in Puebla. That was his final season as a player and Leroy ended up with a .244 average, 77 homers, and 358 RBI’s. In the minors he hit .290.

In ’81 Stanton tried out for the Blue Jays and made the franchise, but as a coach. He remained in the Toronto system through at least the ’95 season, nearly all that time as a hitting coach. He got a couple rings when the team won the Series. After that things get a bit sticky. He’d always lived off-season in South Carolina and the author of a book about the Angels found him there driving short-haul truck routes for his own company there. He appears to still be at that line of work, at least on the ownership side.

Leroy had ten triples two years running. He also liked pool; that’s a good double. When the big trade to the Angels happened, Whitey Herzog was the director of minor league operations for the Mets. He was asked to try to get Leroy back from California after the trade. When he was told the club gave him up for Fregosi Whitey was pretty infuriated. And that was before he knew that Ryan was also in the deal.

These two guys were Mariners, but a bunch of years apart. But the Angels had a big trade following the ’72 season also:

1. Stanton and Bobby Valentine ’73 to ’75 Angels;

2. Valentine and Steve Yeager ’72 Dodgers.

Andy Messersmith works also, going the other way.

#571 - Rich Hand

Here is one of the biggest smiles in a long time as Rich Hand’s expression matches the brightness of the day in Yankee Stadium. Rich had come to California in May in a trade hallmarked by a move of fist baseman, one of whom will be coming up in a little bit. Rich then settled in as a swing guy, getting six starts and six finished games among the 16 in which he pitched. His hits allowed was a bit high but that ERA is pretty good as he posted a winning record for a losing team, and all with a hurt arm. Rich is partly obscuring an ad for Marlboro cigarettes and its iconic Marlboro Country. They never said where Marlboro Country was but the ads always featured a guy in a cowboy hat so it’s not far-fetched to imagine it was Texas. That fits since Rich was headed back that way after his career – this is his final card – to much bigger and brighter things down the road.

Rich Hand was born in Bellevue, Washington, and grew up in Seattle where in high school he was primarily a basketball player, averaging over 18 points per game as a senior. His record as a pitcher that spring of ‘66 wasn’t anything special at 4-5, but it included three one-hitters and a couple sweet outings against county ace Bob Reynolds, who had an earlier post with the Orioles. He was impressive enough to be drafted in a late round by Pittsburgh but he wanted to keep playing hoops as well as baseball so he opted to go to the nearby University of Puget Sound, where he got a scholarship for both sports. He played hoops his first two years and then concentrated on baseball, when it was apparent it was becoming his dominant sport. In his three seasons at UPS he went 21-6 with better than a strikeout an inning and he was particularly good his junior year with a record of 8-0 with a 0.89 ERA and 94 K’s in his 70 innings. He also played ball for the Goldpanners in summers following his freshman and sophomore years, going a combined 9-0 with a 2.43 ERA in Alaska (where his teammates included Bob Boone, Brent Strom, Jim Barr, and Bill Lee). The Mets tried to grab him in the ’68 draft but again Rich declined. When Cleveland made him a first rounder following his junior year and offered him a bonus of $15,000 he left school to begin his career.

Once Hand got rolling he accelerated things pretty quickly. His first summer of ’69 he spent in Triple A, going 7-4 with a 3.60 ERA as a starter. Then after a good training camp in ’70 he made the cut, becoming both a starter and Sam McDowell’s personal reliever. His record wasn’t too great but his other numbers weren’t bad as he had to deal with an irregular role. Unfortunately that role led to an injury in his shoulder that would affect the balance of his career. In ’71 more immediate pain came his way in the form of a forearm injury that both limited his training camp appearances and delayed the start of his season until May. He then pitched infrequently through early July before returning to Triple A to go 8-2 with a 1.88 ERA in eleven starts, including a no-hitter. But that magic didn’t come back with him to Cleveland in September and in December he, along with Roy Foster, Mike Paul, and Ken Suarez went to Washington/Texas for Del Unser, Denny Riddleberger, and a couple minor leaguers. Rich started the ’72 season in the minors – 1-1 with a 3.46 ERA in a couple starts – and was called up to Texas after Don Stanhouse was injured. Rich took Don’s spot in the rotation and had the best year of anyone in it, leading the team in wins and posting the second-best ERA behind Paul. He even made a fan out of manager Ted Williams when, after Ted let him know how much he disliked pitchers (Ted said that to everybody), Rich told Ted he wasn’t a big fan of managers. In ’73 the shoulder got hurt again early and those bad numbers contributed to him being included in the trade to California in which he, Rick Stelmaszek, and Mike Epstein went west for Lloyd Allen and Jim Spencer. After the season Rich was diagnosed with a rotator cuff injury. He tried to pitch through it in Triple A in a ’74 in which he pitched both badly - 3-8 with a 5.62 ERA for the Angels – and quite well, going 2-3 with a 2.91 ERA while on loan to Boston. The Sox wanted him and St. Louis actually traded Orlando Pena for him after the season but Rich knew his arm was done and he retired. He added three saves to his MLB numbers on the back of his card and went 21-18 with a 3.55 ERA in the minors.

By ’75 Hand had relocated to Texas in the off-season and once there full-time he got active, initially with his own real estate shop that specialized in building and managing health clubs. In ’83 he founded a company that would grow into Fortune Asset Management and for many years continued investing in and selling real estate. The company has grown into a pretty huge asset manager and Rich’s division evaluated real estate investments for the firm.

All these star bullets were discussed above and Rich did return to UPS to get that degree. I do not believe he ever ran for office, however. A daughter of his, Whitney, would go on to be a basketball star at Oklahoma State, though she unfortunately had her dad’s penchant for injury, twice rupturing her ACL. The second time ended her career last December which she finished with over 1,200 points and 550 rebounds. While on the team she was teammates with Akeem Olajuwon’s daughter, two of Bubba Paris’ daughters, and Ben Rothelsberger’s sister. Pretty impressive gene pool on that team.

An outfielder who habitually returned to Chicago helps here:

1. Hand and Buddy Bradford ’70 to ’71 Indians;

2. Bradford and Ralph Garr ’76 White Sox.

#552 - Denny Doyle

The Angels had a lot of air-brushed cards in ’74 and Denny Doyle is the latest one. Denny was traded to California months after the actual trade as he was the player named later in the Philadelphia acquisition of Billy Grabarkewitz. As it turned out, it was much later as Denny wasn’t the other named participant until December of a trade that occurred in August and so for a while he actually played with the guy for whom he was traded. Denny was a lefty hitter and he generally batted only against right-handers during his career so while he was pretty much the regular second baseman nearly all his whole time up, his at bats would fluctuate based on opposing pitchers. ’73 was yet another year that rolled that way as Denny split his time at second with Billy G, Cesar Tovar, and Terry Harmon, before missing the last couple weeks of the season with an injury. But he put up his best average to date during the season  and was a good enough fielder that for a while after it ended it was a toss-up as to whether he or new guy Dave Cash would be the starter for ’74. But Cash won, Denny got sent to the AL – the Phillies also got Aurelio Monteagudo for him – and in this photo at Candlestick it looks like he’s trying to figure out how the left coast will work out for him.

Denny Doyle was raised in the small town of Horse Cave, Kentucky, where in high school he was a point guard and as a pitcher and infielder improbably led his team to the state championship his senior year of ’61. He’d received some interest from MLB scouts, who at that time were most interested in him for the mound. But he didn’t want to pitch and hoops was his first love so he opted for a scholarship in that sport to nearby Morehead State. There he played both sports all four years from ’62 to ’65 and eventually his baseball eclipsed his basketball and he was all-Ohio Valley Conference each season in the former sport. But he was not taken in the draft that spring and stuck around school to finish his degree in education and history, and also to help run a Little League clinic. While doing the clinic he got spotted by a local Phillies scout and after a tryout he was signed late that summer. It was too late to play ball that year so he began his career in ’66 in A ball where he put together an all-star season. He remained at that level in ’67, moved to Double A in ’68, and to Triple A in ’69. At two of those stops Frank Lucchesi was his manager and at all four Larry Bowa was his DP partner at shortstop. In ’70 after another good spring training he made the Phillies.

The Phillies in the early Seventies were having a pretty nasty time during a transition that took a few years. By ’70 Dick Allen was gone and outside of Deron Johnson at first the only regular infielder with any big league experience to open the season was Don Money, and he was a rookie in ’69 at shortstop. Both Doyle and Bowa arrived that spring, pushing Money to third, and while offensively the trio was a bit challenged – though Money did hit .295 – they proved themselves pretty slick in the field. From the start Denny, who threw righty but batted lefty, was platooned, initially with Tony Taylor, and then mostly with Terry Harmon, and while his offense was nothing special, he increased his average pretty significantly every season, peaking his final year in ’73. For California in ’74 he was the regular guy at second, mostly hitting against lefties as well, as he put up a .260 average in 147 games, more than he’d done any year in Philadelphia.

1975 didn’t start off to well for Doyle. The hottest rookie in camp was Jerry Remy, another good defender who brought significantly more offense with his game and was nine years younger than Denny. Through mid-June Denny only got into eight games as Remy’s back-up. In the meantime the Red Sox were looking for a second baseman to back-up their regular guy, Doug Griffin. Griffin had been doing a nice job but he tended to be injury-prone and the Sox, in the midst of a division race, wanted to be sure they were set for the run. So at the trading deadline they picked up Denny for a minor leaguer and Doyle couldn’t have been happier to return to the east coast. He hooked up with the Sox the day of the trade and was in the line-up that night. He got into the lion’s share of games the rest of the season and had his best offensive string at any level, hitting .310 for the Sox with 21 doubles and 50 runs in about half a season. In July he put together a 22-game hitting streak, the longest that year in the AL. He was a big reason Boston won the division and he had a nice post-season, getting two RBI’s against Oakland in the playoff sweep and hitting safely in all seven games in the Series. He returned to be the regular second baseman in both ’76 and ’77 though his offense didn’t approach his ’75 numbers, as he hit .250 the first year and .240 the second. In ’78 the Sox picked up a new guy to play second – Jerry Remy – and Denny was released in spring training, ending his playing career at 33. He finished with a .250 average in his eight seasons. In his ten post-season games he hit .268 with a couple walks and those two RBI’s.

Doyle wasn’t too sure what to do after he played. He contemplated teaching but right off the bat that first summer he ran the baseball school in Florida he and his two twin brothers – Blake and Brian – had founded a couple years back. His regular summer gig, he hadn’t been anticipating it would be a full-time one until during the Series that year his school got an unexpected plug. Brian had replaced the injured Willie Randolph for the Yankees at second and had a bang-up post-season and color guy Joe Garagiola mentioned the Doyles’ baseball school during a telecast. That sent all sorts of kids running to Florida and since then there has been no turning back as the school became a year-round academy and opened satellites in other locations. Denny continues as president and resides full-time in Florida.

Denny gets the minor league props in his star bullets. As for his brothers, Brian peaked by far during that ’78 post-season – he hit .391 with three RBI’s in nine games – and hit .161 in four short seasons up top. He’d played a bunch of years for Texas in the minors and also played for Oakland and Cleveland. Blake pretty much spent his whole career in the Baltimore chain, peaking in ’78 when he hit .280 in Triple A. Denny has a very informative SABR bio from which a bunch of color for this post came.

Joshua and Doyle sounds like a multi-ethnic funeral home. I think they preferred lighter stuff:

1. Doyle and Cecil Cooper ’75 to ’76 Red Sox;

2. Cooper and Von Joshua ’77 Brewers.

#532 - Skip Lockwood

Skip Lockwood looks concerned at what appears to be Comiskey. He is about the jillionth air-brushed Angel or Brewer in this set and those were all from the result of one trade. Maybe he was uncomfortable about going to a new home. But he was all smiles on his ’75 card so that wasn’t it. Maybe the photo was taken shortly after a tough day on the mound in Milwaukee when he got popped so hard in the chest by a Jim Holt come-backer that one of the “r’s” in Brewers came clear off his uniform. That would have been fun. But ’73 was a pivotal season for Skip. Up until then a starter nearly all the time he began to get some serious work in the pen. And though the results were pretty standard for his time in Milwaukee that move would lead to a revitalized career once he left. And that he did in that monstrous trade with California. None of those guys got an official Traded card. Topps blew that one since kids would have had to buy seven other cards to complete the set.

Skip Lockwood grew up in Norwood, Massachusetts where he played baseball, basketball, and ran track. He played American Legion ball also and in ’63 was named to a national team that played a game at Yankee Stadium. For his high school career he hit .416 and went 22-2 on the mound. He was quite sought after and after his senior year of ’64 was offered a $35,000 contract by Kansas City. A ballsy guy, Skip apparently asked if he could add a “1” to the front of the bonus and the A’s agreed (really?!). So with his record contract he went off to play some A ball and hit .208 with five homers and 29 RBI’s as a third baseman. Then in ’65 – I guess delays were allowed – he had to stay on the KC roster all season because he was a bonus baby. Like most guys in that role he rarely played, hitting .121 in 33 at bats while getting into 42 games as a late inning guy. He did have a perfect fielding record. He returned to A ball in ’66 where the next two seasons he hit .264 and .245 with modest power while at third. Both years he missed a ton of time due to military reserve work. For any number of reasons depending on the source, he took up pitching in ’68 after being taken by the Colt .45’s in a Rule 5 draft and then being returned. He went 6-3 that season with a 3.60 ERA as a swing guy in A ball and was then taken by the Pilots in the expansion draft. For Seattle he went 6-2 in still-limited innings in Double A and then made his pitching debut up top late that year. He returned to the minors to kick off the ’70 season, going 4-1 with a 2.65 ERA in five starts. Then it was up to Milwaukee.

With the Brewers Lockwood got rotation time for three-plus seasons before he switched to relief. His ERA was a bit over league average and he paid for that in spades as his record was 28-55 during his time there. The big trade took him to California where for a year he had mediocre stats out of the pen, going 2-5 with a save and a 4.32 ERA. After the season he was traded to the Yankees for Bill Sudakis but then got released at the end of spring training. He returned to Oakland and for the A’s threw Triple A ball, again with a fat ERA, but going 6-2 with ten saves. That July he was purchased by the Mets and after some short work with that team's Triple A club returned to the top where for the rest of the season he went 1-3 with a save, 61 strikeouts in 48 innings, and a 1.49 ERA. Those numbers proved a pretty good indication of the success he would have in the NY pen. In ’76 he went 10-7 with 19 saves, a 2.67 ERA, and 108 K’s in 94 innings. In ’77 he went 4-8 with 20 saves and in ’78 7-13 with 15 saves, both on teams that were truly awful. In ’79 he was going great guns with a 2-5 record, nine saves, and a 1.49 ERA when he hurt his shoulder, pretty much killing his season. His home state Red Sox took a flier on him anyway in the ’80 free agent draft and signed him to a three year deal. But between a poor relationship with manager Don Zimmer that led to minimal mound time, a rib injury, and continued shoulder pain his one season there wasn’t terribly successful: 3-1 with a couple saves but a 5.32 ERA. He was released during ’81 spring training and then attempted a comeback with Montreal’s Triple A club but didn’t fare too much better than with the Sox and retired. Skip finished with a record up top of 57-97 with 16 complete games, five shutouts, 68 saves, and a 3.55 ERA. He also went 29-14 with a 3.76 ERA in the minors where he hit .237 for his career. In the majors he hit .154.

Lockwood got a degree while playing and then a couple graduate degrees including one from MIT. For a while he had his own sports psychology business but he then moved into finance. He has a very detailed SABR biography. He also has his own website, linked to here, which promotes him as a motivational speaker.

Skip’s last star bullet is worded a bit redundantly. He would also coach baseball and golf at Emerson College. He had some funny lines in “Ball Four.” One time after the author Jim Bouton got hit pretty hard during a spring training game and the two were comparing grips Skip asked him “How do you hold your doubles?”

Double hook-up time. One trade makes this easier for Mauch as a manager:

1. Lockwood and Tim Foli ’78 Mets;

2. Foli was managed by Gene Mauch on the ’72 to ’75 Expos.

It gets stretched out for Mauch as a player:

1. Lockwood and Jerry McNertney ’69 to ’70 Pilots/Brewers;

2. McNertney and Gene Stephens ’64 White Sox;

3. Stephens and Gene Mauch ’57 Red Sox.

Jerry McNertney was a back-up catcher for Chicago during the late Sixties who became the first starting catcher of the Pilots/Brewers franchise. Stephens was a reserve outfielder for a bunch of AL teams from the mid-Fifties to the early Sixties.