#600 - '74 Rookie Infielders

So what’s special about this card? Well it’s a milestone number which is pretty odd in that it is being used for a Rookie card. Nothing against any of these guys and one of them would certainly have some years that came close to justifying his appearance of a card of this stature, but at the time of this set there were certainly many other viable and worthy candidates for card number 600. I find it hard to believe that Topps’ intention was to give this group that number and that it was an oversight. But who knows? Maybe everything was so crazy with Watergate – I gotta get back to that – and inflation that the boys making bubble gum just said the hell with it and let the chips fall. And here are the chips...

Ron Cash had an interesting run of things before he even got to the professional level. A star third baseman in high school in Atlanta, he was drafted in ’67 in a low round by the Dodgers but instead decided to go to Manatee Junior College in Florida. He played ball there the next two years even though he was drafted each semester by, successively, the Orioles, the Braves, the Padres, and the Twins. He hit .335 his freshman year and .346 his sophomore one and made all-state both years but his biggest moment was probably a horrible car crash in October ’68 in which he nearly lost his life and did lose his spleen. After rejecting the Twins in June of ’69 he continued school at Florida State and over the next two years hit .342 with 76 RBI’s and a .451 OBA. In ’70 he helped take the team to the CWS with teammates Mac Scarce and Johnny Grubb and in ’71 he was all-Southeast. That year he was finally nabbed by Detroit and he hit .333 the rest of the summer while playing primarily left field in A ball. He would continue to do outfield time the next couple seasons and also move back to third during that time as well. In ’72 he hit .286 in a season split between A and Double A ball. Then in ’73 he split time between Double A and Triple A, hitting .303 with 73 RBI’s before a September call-up to Detroit. He hit the game-winner his first start and .410 during his MLB time while playing third. During a good ’74 spring training it was decided to move Ron to first where he could give aging starter Norm Cash – no relation – a run since third was occupied by a much younger Aurelio Rodriguez. There he continued to hit, opening the ’74 season with a .353 average, before beginning April 15 he missed a month due to “mental exhaustion.” After he returned in mid-May his average dipped a bit and early in June he was sent back to Triple A where he hit .246 while splitting time at first and third. He returned to Detroit in September but by season-end his average was down to .226 and he then spent all of ’75 and ’76 in Triple A playing both infield corners, averaging .262 in diminishing seasons. He was released after the latter season, ending his playing time, and finished with a .297 average and eleven RBI’s in his 34 games up top and a .289 average with a .366 OBA in the minors. He then seems to have returned to the Southeast where he resided in his native Georgia and then Florida before passing away in 2009 at age 59. His nephew, Kevin Cash, followed Ron to Florida State and then had a few years in the majors as a back-up catcher. He is currently the Indians’ bullpen coach.

Jim Cox played hoops and baseball at the University of Iowa after excelling in the same sports in high school in Illinois. He also got his early degree in microbiology while there, and during that time turned down two draft choices: by the Senators in ’68 (to go to school); and by the Indians in the first round in ’71 (not enough money). Since his studies were done by January of his senior year he signed with Montreal when drafted in ’72 and then hit .255 with some power in Double A. While there he worked on his D a bunch – particularly his double play pivot – and had a great spring training in ’73 before hitting .267 in Triple A. He made his Montreal debut that July but his hitting was light in his few games and by early August he was back in the minors. In ’74 he had another great camp and was named the Opening Day starter, pushing incumbent Ron Hunt to third base. Jim did pretty well defensively and was the everyday guy through early June, though he was hitting only .224. He then suffered a broken hand after being hit and after a month on the DL returned to Triple A, where he hit .252, before returning up top to finish his season. He spent nearly all of ’75 at Triple A because fellow young guy Pete Mackanin – from a few posts back – arrived to take over second and Jim hit .267 with 67 RBI’s at that level, and .259 during spare usage up top. In ’76 it was pretty much the same deal as he played behind Mackanin and Wayne Garrett in Montreal but upped his average to .274 on the right side of the infield in Triple A. ’76 would be his final MLB season and he spent the next three years solely at Triple A Denver where his stats got successively better as he put more and more time in at third: .287/4/39 in ’77; .299/10/64 in ’78; and .305/12/77 in ’79 his final year as a player. He finished with an average of .215 up top and hit .277 with 66 homers and 403 RBI’s in the minors. Then, like a lot of guys, he becomes impossible to chase, though in the early 2000’s he resurfaced a bit news-wise as an inductee into the Hawkeyes hall of fame.

Bill Madlock was born in Memphis and after being dumped by his parents was raised by a grandmother in Decatur, Illinois, a bit outside Chicago. He played the big three sports at Eisenhower High School there and as a football halfback – he once rushed for 300 yards and scored five touchdowns in a game – and shortstop he was all-county. He was drafted by the Cards when he graduated in June ’69 but he passed because he didn’t want to get stuck behind Dal Maxvill and so went to Southwestern Iowa Community College from where he was drafted in January ’70 by the Senators. He didn’t hit too well right away, putting up a .269 average in A ball that summer and a .234 the next year in Double A, the season he moved to third. But he did steal some bases and had some good camps and after a bad start in ’72 in Triple A he went back down a level and did two things that would be emblematic of his career: he hit .328 but did so in only 131 at bats because he was suspended a bunch of the season after getting into trouble on the field. He would split that year and the next between second and third and in ’73 he broke out to post a .338/22/90 season in Triple A before being called up to Texas in September, finishing with a .351 MLB average. After the season he and Vic Harris went to the Cubs for Fergie Jenkins. Bill became the regular third baseman for Chicago, hit .313 his rookie year to make the Topps team, made an All-Star team, and won batting titles the next two seasons. After he asked for more pay he was traded following the ’76 season with Rob Sperring to San Francisco for Bobby Murcer and recent post subject Steve Ontiveros. Bill played third his first Giants season and then primarily second the next year-plus, hitting over .300 each of his first two years. In ’79, after his average dipped to .261, he was sent to Pittsburgh in a June trade and promptly hit .328 the rest of the way to help his new team reach the playoffs and then win the Series. He would remain in Pittsburgh through ’85 and during that time won two batting titles, got into two All-Star games, had a big ’82 as a power guy after Willie Stargell went down – 19 homers and 95 RBI’s – and was famously ejected, fined, and suspended for pushing his mitt in the face of an umpire. In ’84 he missed two months for an operation to remove bone chips from his elbow. He again started slowly the following year and after another mid-season trade – this time to LA – again rallied down the stretch, this time hitting .360 to help another team get post-season action. He remained with the Dodgers through part of the ’87 season when shoulder surgery and then a release got him to Detroit and his last playoff push. He would finish as a player after that season and had a .305 average with 163 homers, 860 RBI’s, 174 stolen bases, and a .365 OBA. Defensively he is in the top 75 third basemen all-time in assists and double plays and in the post-season he hit .308 with twelve RBI’s and a .375 OBA in 17 games. In ’88 he went to play in Japan where he put up a .263/19/61 season and then retired. After he finished playing Bill did the Senior League thing, ran some investments he’d made while playing, and did some coaching and rep work for some Far East teams. That got him through the Nineties and from 2000 to 2001 he was Detroit’s hitting coach. In ’02 he worked in the commissioner’s office and from ’03 to ’04 he managed the Newark Bears, an independent team. He then coached a bit in Latin America and has since the mid-2000’s has run his own hitting school in Las Vegas.

This Reggie Sanders has been tough to pinpoint because of the other Reggie Sanders who played in the Nineties and 2000’s and is no relation. This Reggie was born in Birmingham, Alabama and during high school relocated to LA where he was a big baseball and football star and the A’s were so high on him when they drafted him during his senior year that there were some improprieties and the pick was voided. So Oakland snapped him up the following January of '68 and that summer Reggie, an infielder/outfielder, hit .264 with 22 homers in A ball. The next year at that level he bumped his homers to 25 with 75 RBI’s but only hit .235 with 154 K’s. In ’70 he moved up to Double A, cut his strikeouts in half, and had an otherwise comparable season. By then he was concentrating on first base and ’71 was a nearly identical season at the same place. In ’72 he bumped his average up a ton – he would hit .338 in Double A that year – but Oakland sent him mid-season to Detroit for pitcher Mike Kilkenny. He spent the final month of the year in Triple A where he would also spend all of ’73, hitting .246. In ’74 Reggie had his biggest year, hitting .292 with 14 homers and 88 RBI’s before being called up to Detroit early that September and starting at first the rest of the way, batting .273. He homered in his first at bat and generally had a decent short run but after the season was sent to Atlanta for other first baseman Jack Pierce. For the Braves Reggie resided for two seasons in Triple A where he averaged .269 with 15 homers and 73 RBI’s per season. In ’77 he went to Mexico to play, which he would also do in ’79 around a season in Double A for the Orioles in ’78. When the Seventies ended so did Reggie’s career and he finished with minor league numbers of .265 with 156 homers and 677 RBI’s. His ’74 work with Detroit was his only time up top. After that Reggie goes missing media-wise until 2002 when he passed away in Los Angeles. He was 52.

We get two guys from Decatur but in different states. Both Cox and Sanders would also have Rookie cards in ’75. Madlock would befriend teammate Steve Greenburg, Hank’s son, in his first year in pro ball and Steve would go on to be Bill’s agent after he finished playing. He then worked for the commissioner – it was he who actually enforced George Steinbrenner’s brief ban from baseball – and then moved into investment banking where, among other things, he helped engineer the Astros sale a couple years ago. We both worked at the same shop. MLB service-wise we get 15 seasons, three All-Star games, four batting titles, and a Topps Rookie Team member, nearly all from Mr. Madlock. All pretty good, but not enough to warrant the waste of a “100” card.

Now for hook-ups. A pretty good catcher helps big with the first one:

1. Ron Cash and Willie Horton ’73 to ’74 Tigers;

2. Horton and Tom Haller ’72 Tigers;

3. Haller and Steve Garvey ’70 to ’71 Dodgers;

4. Garvey and Greg Shanahan ’73 to ’74 Dodgers.

Here we go around the card. Couldn’t they put Cash and Sanders together?:

1. Ron Cash and Willie Horton ’73 to ’74 Tigers;

2. Horton and Tom Walker ’75 Tigers;

3. Walker and Jim Cox ’73 to ’74 Expos;

4. Cox and Steve Renko ’73 to ’76 Expos;

5. Renko and Bill Madlock ’76 Cubs;

6. Madlock and Willie Stargell ’79 to ’82 Pirates;

7. Stargell and Luke Walker ’65 to ’66 and ’68 to ’73 Pirates;

8. Walker and Reggie Sanders ’74 Tigers.

That’s our longest one yet.

#589 - Boots Day

Here’s another guy with his final Topps card. Boots Day – almost sounds like a sales event at a shoe store – is shown taking a cut at Shea in what was his third and final year as a platooning regular in Montreal. Boots shared the center field duties for three seasons with Ron Woods, Boots as the lefty and Ron as the righty. In '73 Boots had a pretty good bounce in his average from the prior season but his at bats were way down because he pinch hit about as many times as he played the field. While he wasn’t as successful in that new role as Merv Rettenmund from a few posts back, he did hit .260 in the pinch with a pretty good .351 OBA. He also won a couple games in a row in June to get the Expos to and over the .500 mark for the first time that late in a season. And though this is his last card he wasn’t anywhere near done playing, and doing that in some creative ways.

Charles Day was born and grew up in Ilion, NY, a town not far from Utica and pretty much midway between Syracuse and Albany. In high school he played hoops as a guard and in baseball was a pitcher/first baseman, going 17-1 for his career. In both sports he went up against Dave Cash, who played for Utica. Boots graduated undrafted in ’65 and then went to nearby Mohawk Valley Community College for a year during which he was signed by St. Louis that winter by his former high school principal, who also happened to be a Cardinals scout. He only pitched a couple innings that year in A ball but, converted to an outfielder to take advantage of his speed, he hit .242 while showing some good power with 15 homers and 71 RBI’s. In ’67 at the same level he threw one shutout inning and upped his average to .275 with 13 triples, 70 RBI’s, and 21 stolen bases. In ’68 he put up a .295/17/67 season in Double A with twelve steals and then after a hot spring training in ’69 he moved up to Triple A. There he hit .262 with 16 steals, seven triples, and 45 RBI’s in a bit over half a season that sandwiched his June debut in St. Louis. After the season he was traded to the Cubs for pitcher Rich Nye, a Topps Rookie team member in ’67. For Chicago Boots made the Opening Day line-up but only played a tiny bit prior to a May trade in which he went to Montreal for catcher Jack Hiatt.

For the Expos Day did some late game stuff the balance of the month and was then sent down to Triple A where he put up a .294/10/39 stat sheet in half a season. He returned to Montreal in mid-August and brought his hitting with him, quickly escalating his average to over .300 and keeping it there through late September before a late swoon pulled it down. When he started during that run it was in center field, which would be his position the majority of his time in Montreal. Ron Woods joined the Expos in ’71 and for the next three years the two swapped time there with Boots batting primarily against right handers. He would normally hit from the top of the order so his RBI totals were a lot lighter than in the minors. He had his best offensive year in ’71 when he also stole a career-best nine bases. After a bit of a slump year in ’72, ironically his busiest MLB season, he bounced in ’73. In ’74 the Expos acquired Willie Davis to play center every day so when Boots started, which was rarely, it was in left field. He also pinch hit a bunch, but with limited work hit well below .200 in that role. In early August he was sent down to Triple A where he hit .333 in limited work but also returned to the mound, throwing four shutout innings, and first base. In Montreal, he hit .185 in only 65 at bats in his last work up top. He was released during spring training of ’75 and then signed with Detroit and for the next four years would split time at the team’s Evansville Triple A franchise in the outfield, at first, and on the mound. During that time he hit .253 while averaging four homers and 35 RBI’s and as a pitcher went a combined 3-2 with a save and a 3.52 ERA in 115 innings. He retired after the ’78 season when his average was the same – after moving the decimal point – as his ERA and it was evident he wasn’t going to get called up as a pitcher. Boots finished with an MLB average of .256 and in the minors hit .270 while going 7-5 as a pitcher.

In 1979 Day went up to Detroit as a coach, batting practice pitcher, and advance scout. In ’80 he returned to the minors as a coach and then, when there were some early injuries to the Detroit mound staff, started pitching again. He threw well in A ball – 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA in three starts – but not so great in Triple A where he went 2-3 with a 6.27 ERA, ending his playing time at that level for real. He continued to coach in the Detroit system and then managed from ’82 to ’83. He was then a scout for the Tigers, the Cardinals, and the Royals through ’92 before coaching in independent ball the next two seasons. He managed for the last time in ’95, back in Evansville, now a Frontier League team. Overall as a manager he went 93-112. He then returned to scouting, for Cleveland and the Yankees, before becoming a coach in the St. Louis system (’99-2003); Kansas City system (’04-’06); and the Washington system (’07). Then it was back to independent ball: the Lancaster Barnstormers (’08-’09); Normal Cornbelters (’11) – where the manager was Hal Lanier; and back in Evansville with the Otters (’12-present).

Boots is a little guy and lots of articles back then indicated he wished he was 5’9”. It was the main reason he was not taken seriously as a pitcher in the pros. His nickname came from when he was a baby and was given him by his sister because his feet were so big. Topps looks like its reaching for star bullets for Boots so here’s a good one: he went 6-for-6 in a game in the minors in ’68.

So Boots and Hal were together in 2011 but that doesn’t help us here. But this guy does:

1. Day and Ron Hunt ’71 to ’74 Expos;

2. Hunt and Hal Lanier ’68 to ’70 Giants.

#568 - Mike Torrez

July was sort of a lost month posting-wise so it’s good to come back to an action shot, this one of Mike Torrez going through his pitching motion at Shea, which will be one of many homes for him down the road. Mike was expected to have a big year in ’73 after his huge improvement the prior year and if he even approached the success he had in ’72 it’s very likely the Expos would have made the playoffs. But things roll that way sometimes and he wasn’t the only guy on the staff to go south in ’73 as Bailor Moore and staff ace Bill Stoneman had tough years as well. The good news for Mike, though, was that his year would be an abberation in what was a pretty good run for him in the Seventies. Mike was a location guy who could throw some heat. I remember during the ’77 season how Phil Rizzuto would explain how his job was to keep nibbling at the corners, which explained his relatively high walk totals, at leaset compared to his strikeouts. I am pretty sure that’s how he pitched pretty much his whole career, and it wasn’t a bad one so let’s check it out.

Mike Torrez grew up in Topeka, Kansas, where in high school he was a basketball star and only played baseball in summer leagues because his school dropped the sport. By happenstance one of his coaches was a scout for St. Louis and on his recommendation the Cards signed Mike in ’64, after he finished his senior American Legion season. His career began a bit less than swimmingly the next summer when he was 4-8 with a 4.79 ERA in A ball. He fixed that in ’66 when he went 7-4 at the same level, cut his walks in half, and had a 2.50 ERA. The second half of that season was spent in Double A and while Mike went only 3-9, his ERA remained low at 2.62 so in ’67 he moved up to Triple A. There he went 10-10 with a 3.32 ERA before making his MLB debut that September. In ’68 he put up some nice early numbers as a spot guy in St. Louis but with all the innings hogs the team had, he wasn’t getting enough work and he returned to Triple A to go 8-2 with a 3.24 ERA. Both years he missed post-season work. In ’69 he stayed in St. Louis the whole season, again doing spot work, and posting a very good record while putting up an NL-average ERA. In ’70 he joined the rotation and his innings moved up considerably, but so did his ERA as his record went the other way. After a lackluster start to the ’71 season he went to Montreal for pitcher Bob Reynolds.

Going to the Expos was not exactly a cure for Torrez’s lost season. Montreal initially sent him to Triple A Winnipeg, where in a spot role he went 2-4 with an 8.16 ERA and the usual high number of walks. It would later be revealed that Mike was out of shape, both physically and emotionally, in part because of a rough divorce he was undertaking. But he pitched well in his only game up top, got in shape over the winter, and had a good spring training in ’72. Then he put up his biggest season to date after returning to the rotation, completing 13 of his starts and finally recording more strikeouts than walks. After his step back in ’73 he went 15-8 with a 3.57 ERA the next year and got his K/BB ratio on the right side again. But it would be his final season in Montreal as, in one of the worst trades ever, the Expos sent him and Ken Singleton to Baltimore for Dave McNally, Rich Coggins, and a minor leaguer. Coggins would have that weird thyroid thing that would minimize his playing time up north and McNally retired pretty much immediately. In the meantime Singleton began his career as an offensive force in the AL and Mike went 20-9 with a 3.06 ERA and 16 complete games. He did lead the AL in walks but with that better defense behind him and the season he was having, he could afford that luxury. But then he was gone again, this time to Oakland, who was looking to unload two of its disgruntled stars before they all left to free agency. So Mike, Don Baylor, and Paul Mitchell (not the hair guy) went to the A’s for Ken Holtzman and Reggie Jackson. Mike wouldn’t win 20 this time but he would still have an excellent year, going 16-12 for a team that nearly won the division again. He recorded four shutouts and cut his walk total by over a third, both of which contributed to a career-best 2.50 ERA. In ’77 he began the season 3-1, a real achievement for the decimated A’s, before hitting the road again, this time to the Yankees, where he went for Dock Ellis, Larry Murray, and Marty Perez. While Mike only went 14-12 the rest of the way for NY, he ate a lot of innings with his 15 complete games, and he helped provide a nice balance to lefthanders Ron Guidry and Don Gullett. While he would give an iffy performance in the playoffs against Kansas City, he became a real stopper in the Series, going 2-0 against LA with a 2.50 ERA. 15 K’s, and only five walks in his two starts. Mike liked NY and was looking to stay there but when contract negotiations came up the Bombers were looking for a five-year deal and Boston offered seven so Mike moved yet again, this time to the Red Sox as a free agent.

Torrez would post identical records of 16-13 his first two seasons in Boston and, while he continued to eat up innings and posted a better-than-average ERA, his most high profile moments for the Sox were negatives: in ’78 he gave up the Bucky Dent homer in the one-game playoff with the Yankees; and in ’79 he led the AL in both earned runs and walks. In ’80 his ERA popped to over 5.00 as he went 9-16 for his first losing season since ’73. In ’81 he was rolling pretty well but the strike sort of killed his momentum though he finished the year with very ’69-ish numbers of 10-3 with a 3.68 ERA. After a 9-9 season in ’82 with another fat ERA, he was sent back to NY following the season, this time to the Mets. For a pretty bad team, Mike almost did the negative Triple Crown thing, leading the NL in losses, earned runs, and walks, going 10-17 with a 4.38 ERA. After a 1-5 start to the ’84 season he was cut and then picked up by Oakland. Back with the A’s his numbers weren’t too hot either in Oakland or for his few Triple A games, and he was again released. In ’85 he hooked up with the independent Miami Marlins of the Class A Florida State League. He did well enough, going 7-8 with a 2.80 ERA in his 19 starts but got no takers. His pitching career over, Mike finished 185-160 with a 3.96 ERA, 117 complete games, and 15 shutouts. In the post-season he went 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA in four games.

Following his career Torrez returned to the NYC area where in ’86 he became a marketing guy for an office furniture and supply company which he did through ’94. Later that year he founded MAT Premiums, a business that attaches logos to pretty much anything. He is still running the business, though now he commutes to its east coast base from back in Kansas, where he returned in the mid-2000’s. He has an interview on the Jimmy Scott blog that is linked to here.

Mike isn’t a lover of capital letters in his signature. His star bullets are rightfully all about ’72. This is his third card in which the cartoon recognizes his affinity for cars, though that hobby didn’t come up in the above interview.

Mike’s longest stop was with the Sox, so let’s see how he gets with the ’73 version:

1. Torrez and Carlton Fisk ’78 to ’80 Red Sox (I could also have used Yaz, Tiant, Lee, and Dwight Evans);

2. Fisk was on the ’73 Red Sox.

#549 - Mike Jorgensen

In 1973 Mike Jorgensen broke the LA stranglehold for NL Gold Glove winners at first base. So it’s pretty appropriate that he get an action shot at his favorite position. This may actually be his second action shot of the set in this position since I opined way back that I believed he is the guy in the background of Mike Marshall’s card. Mike would have been in the middle of his second season in Montreal about the time this photo was taken and during his time with the Expos, his best run by far in the majors, he was known for his defense and his ability to get on base. Along with his NL-leading fielding percentage of .995, his walk total topped his strikeout one for the first time of what would be four consecutive years and his OBA added over 100 points to his average. He’d better both numbers the duration of his stay with Montreal and be one of the team’s most consistent performers the next few seasons.

Mike Jorgensen was born in Jersey and moved to Bayside, Queens, NYC, as an elementary school kid. From that age through high school he seems – according to posts on the “ultimatemets” site – to have been  a star at everything from baseball (first base), basketball (he could dunk from a standing position), track (sprinter and relay guy), and football. A star of some local travel and all-city teams he was drafted and signed by the Mets after his senior year of ’66. That summer in Rookie ball his .313/8/37 stats in 150 at bats got him on his league all-star team, as did his .295/5/41 year in A ball in ’67. Both seasons he played nearly exclusively at first. In ’68 he began losing playing time to military time and a disappointing month in Double A - .160/0/10 in 100 at bats – was followed by a revival in A ball that produced a .315/3/27 season in 213 at bats and then got him some late September looks in NY. In ’69 he missed a couple months to his military hitch but posted by far his biggest offensive season to date with .290/21/69 numbers in 359 at bats in Triple A. Again, nearly all his defensive time was spent at first. In ’70 Mike had a good spring and made the Mets roster for the season, playing first behind Donn Clendenon and Art Shamsky. He also put in some outfield time in center and did pretty well defensively but was underwhelming at the plate in his few at bats. In ’71 he began the season in Triple A, returned to NY in June and hit close to .300 his first month, went back to Triple A in mid-summer after his average tailed off, and finished the year back in NY. Ed Kranepool had returned to the line-up so nearly all Mike’s games that year up top were in center. His numbers in Triple A - .342/15/41 with a .445 OBA in 228 at bats – pretty much sealed the deal on whether or not he needed more time in the minors. After another good spring training the Mets decided they needed some more outfield offense and during the short players strike to open the season they sent Mike, Ken Singleton, and Tim Foli to Montreal for Rusty Staub.

The Montreal first base position had resembled a revolving door during the first three years of the franchise. That would be modified a bunch after the acquisition of Jorgensen and his fellow ex-Mets. Mike would pretty much split time with Ron Fairly and/or Hal Breeden the next few seasons, turning the position into one of the team’s most productive, both offensively and defensively. He got his show rolling by homering in his first at bat as an Expo and along with his excellent defense at first started 28 games in center. In ’73 he played first nearly all the time to win that Gold Glove. He maxed out offensively the next two seasons. ‘74 started oddly. Montreal had a nasty bad spring training after the promise showed in ’73 and apparently Mike was one of the goats because he didn’t even get a start until June and that was in left field since Singleton had taken over right and new acquisition Willie Davis center. He’d finished July hitting only .167 in his reserve role but his average took off pretty immediately once he got some regular time and he finished with a .310 average and .444 OBA with eleven homers and 59 RBI’s in his 287 at bats. In ’75 Fairly went to St. Louis and Mike again got the lion’s share of starts at first, putting up a .261/18/67 season with a .378 OBA in 445 at bats, a career high. But ’76 was a mess, as the slide begat by the horrible trade of Singleton and Mike Torrez to Baltimore for a couple guys who wouldn’t last the season ended in the cellar and first base was again reduced to a hodgepodge. Mike’s numbers slid as well to a .254/6/23 season in 343 at bats, though his OBA was still a relatively healthy .349. A couple games into the ’77 season he was sent to Oakland for pitcher Stan Bahnsen.

Going to the post-diaspora A’s wasn’t exactly a cure for the losing in Montreal and Jorgensen again found himself on a last place team. He’d put up a slight premium to his ’76 numbers the rest of the way and then leave via free agency for the Texas Rangers. His ’78 was a big bust and ’79 wasn’t much better, especially after a mid-season beaning by Andy Hassler put him in intensive care for a week and made him miss over a month of the season. After it ended he was sent back to the NL and the Mets for Willie Montanez, leaving behind an AL mark for his nearly three seasons of .228/15/57 in only 457 at bats. His OBA slid to .315 as well. In ’80 Mike swapped starts at first with Lee Mazilli and revived a bit offensively, with a .255/7/43 season in his 321 at bats. In ’81 NY brought back Dave Kingman and he was a safe guy in the field only at first so Mike was relegated to late inning defensive and pinch-hitting work which he’d do the rest of his career. He remained with the Mets midway through ’83, went to Atlanta for about a year, and then went to St. Louis in mid-’84 as part of a deal for Ken Oberkfell. He finished up with the Cards in ’85, his final at bats being in that year’s World Series. Mike ended with a .243 average, 95 homers, 426 RBI’s, and a .347 OBA during the regular season. In the post-season he went hitless in five at bats.

  

Jorgensen only played with the Cards for a bit but it was the beginning of a long relationship. After the ’85 season he was named the team's director of minor league hitting and then before the ’86 season was out was named manager of the team’s Florida State League franchise and he won a championship. He then managed in Triple A the following three seasons and during that time went a combined 248-239. Following the ’89 season he became assistant director of minor league operations and in ’92 dropped the assistant tab. He continued in that role through 2001 except for a short time in ’95 when he became the manager of St. Louis in a transition role between Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa. Mike went 42-54 in his only managerial role up top. From ’02 through ’07 he assumed various admin roles with the club and since 2008 he has been a special assistant to the general manager.

Mike gets one of the few references in this set to his winter stats in his star bullets. He also is, I believe, the first guy who gets connected to Bridge in this set. My mom used to play the newspaper version of that game all the time. Regarding the LA monopoly on Gold Gloves mentioned above, Wes Parker won it at first base every year from ’67 to ’72 and Steve Garvey turned that trick every season from ’74 to ’77. So Mike’s award really was an aberration.

Let’s use a fellow Montreal first baseman for this exercise:

1. Jorgensen and Ron Fairly ’72 to ’74 Expos;

2. Fairly and Lou Brock ’75 to ’76 Cardinals;

3. Brock and Sonny Siebert ’74 Cards.

#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.

#508 - Montreal Expos/Expos Team Records

It’s our next team card! Normally these things mean lengthy multi-day write-ups but not this time. I am guessing this photo is taken in the Jarry Park/ Parc Jarry outfield since there are no leaves yet on the trees. It’s a pretty blurry photo but I recognize lots of guys. This team was the best Montreal one to date. It used an NL-leading OBA – Ken Singleton, Ron Hunt, and Ron Fairly all had ones exceeding .400 – to stay in contention pretty much all season. There were some pitching disappointments (Bill Stoneman, Mike Torrez) but also happy surprises (Steve Renko and rookie Steve Rogers) along with ace reliever Mike Marshall that helped them get to within half a game of first in mid-September. But a seven-game skid took them out of the running and they finished 79-83, only three back. It would be their best finish until Gary Carter and the young outfield took them to the playoffs early the next decade.

The checklist card front is nothing special. Lots of pitchers and no HOF guys. Just because I need some filler, I thought on this post I could revisit an observation made on another team checklist post. Which team had the most HOF guys on its checklist card? The answer may be a bit of a surprise: Boston had four with Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Carlton Fisk, and Carl Yastrzemski. Oakland and Cincinnati each have three: Oakland's are Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, and Rollie Fingers; Cincy has Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez. A bunch of teams have two with probably San Diego (Willie McCovey and Dave Winfield) being the biggest surprise. Philadelphia should have two but Mike Schmidt doesn’t make the signature list. In another surprise – though maybe not if you were a fan back then – the Yankees get shut out. Looking at the next post subject - a future Blue Jay - I was wondering who was the first guy to play for both Canadian franchises. There were no former Expos taken by Toronto in the expansion draft, but two guys were traded to them before the season began: outfielder/first baseman Ron Fairly, and infielder Hector Torres, who was with Montreal in '72. Fairly came over in February '77 and Torres in March so I guess Fairly is the answer. Does this look like filler? It is and I'm done.

So the reason for the short post becomes apparent with a read of the card back. Every team record holder for the Expos has a card in this set. Even Rusty Staub, who ended his multi-year Topps hiatus with a Mets card this year.

It’s time to see how Topps does representing the ’73 Expos with the ’74 set. Pretty well as only role players are missing. On the player side outfielder Clyde Mashore (.204 with 14 RBI’s in 103 at bats) misses his last season; catcher Terry Humphrey (.167 with nine RBI’s in 90 at bats) lost his starting spot; outfielder Pepe Mangual (.177 with three homers and seven RBI’s in 62 at bats) would have a rookie card in ’75; outfielder Jorge Roque (.148 in 61 at bats) failed again in a call-up; and infielder Bernie Allen (.180 with two homers and nine RBI’s in 50 at bats) closed out his career. On the pitching side Pat Jarvis, a former big winner with Atlanta, went 2-1 with  3.20 ERA before he moved on to be a sheriff (must have been an Expos thing – see Hal Breeden); Joe Gilbert went 1-2 with a save and a 4.97 ERA in his second and last try up top; Mickey Scott went 1-2 with a 5.25 ERA before he hit the minors and then returned for a pretty good mid-decade run with the Angels; and John Strohmayer went 0-1 with a 5.19 ERA before he was taken off waivers by the Mets mid-year (he has a real interesting Wiki page). So Topps relieves us of about 350 sub-Mendoza at bats and about 40 RBI’s. On the pitching side we lose ten decisions and a save. I guess that’s about the middle. On the team card Strohmayer. Roque, Gilbert, and Mangual are the fifth through eighth guys in the second row, and Humphrey is the third guy from the right in the last row.

This is easier than I thought it would be:

1. Ron Hunt was on the ’73 Expos;

2. Hunt and Ed Kranepool ’63 to ’66 Mets;

3. Kranepool and Larry Stahl ’67 to ’68 Mets.

#485- Felipe Alou

Felipe Alou returns us to the two-card post (though I split up the last one) and may be the first guy in the set with both cards air-brushed. Both photos are from the same shoot and show him smiling in his Yankees pinstripes at the Stadium. He’s a few shades darker after the trade to Milwaukee so maybe the photographer was using in infrared bulb. At this point in his career Felipe was pretty much on the way out. After spending nearly all of ’73 splitting time at first and right field with his brother Matty and some other guys, he and Matty were pretty much dumped by new owner George Steinbrenner and Felipe was picked up by Montreal for its stretch drive. George was fond of ridding the team of older outfielders that summer and Felipe had been having a tough season anyway, with his average nearly 60 points under his lifetime one. He didn’t stay with Montreal too long as his Traded card attests and his stay with the Brewers wouldn’t be lengthy either. But in a couple years he’d be back with the Expos, just as optimistic as his photos show him, even air-brushed. Like his brother Matty, this is Felipe's last card (or cards).

Felipe Alou was one of the first Dominicans to get on the radar map of US teams. Before he was signed he was majoring in pre-med back home where he was actually a bigger track star than a baseball player. But in the summer of ’55 at that year’s Pan Am Games he was asked to switch over to the baseball team and performed well enough to garner notice and was signed later that year by the Giants. The next summer he hit the crap out of D league pitching, hitting .380 with 21 homers and 99 RBI’s. In ’57 he hit .306 with 12 homers and 71 RBI’s in A ball before he moved up a few games in Triple A. He then split ’58 between Triple A and San Francisco, hitting .319 with 13 homers and 42 RBI’s at the lower level. Back then Felipe’s principal position was center field but with Willie Mays there he was going to have to move. Plus between the older guys like Willie, Willie Kirkland, and Hank Sauer and new kids Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, and Leon Wagner, there wasn’t too much room. So Felipe played mostly in right, splitting time with the other young guys, and despite having a decent rookie year and better numbers the next couple, it wasn’t until ’61 that he established a hold anywhere. In ’62 he had right field to himself all season and he generated one of his best years offensively of his career. He was an All-Star for the first time and then hit over .300 in the three-game playoffs against LA and .269 in the Series, but blamed himself for not pushing runners along in the last inning of the last game when he missed a bunt. But his home run totals were a pleasant surprise since he was viewed as a singles guy and in ’63 he came pretty close to matching his totals. That was the season when he and his brothers Matty and Jesus all appeared in a game for San Francisco in the same outfield. But it was also the year Felipe made some noise about the treatment of Latin players by the commissioner’s office and not too coincidentally after that season he was sent to the Braves with Ed Bailey, Billy Hoeft, and Ernie Bowman for Del Crandall – who’d be his manager on the Brewers – Bob Hendley, and Bob Shaw.

Alou had a rough start in Milwaukee. A regular participant in winter ball, Felipe hurt his knee in the DR prior to ’64 spring training. It killed his power and for a while his average and then after he was getting over it, he tore his knee again playing first and it took him a little while to get back. But he had a nice bounce in ’65 and then when the team moved to Atlanta the next year he put up his biggest season, hitting 31 homers from the leadoff spot and leading the NL in runs, hits, and total bases. He also got his second All-Star nod and came in second to Matty for the batting title. In ’67 bone chips in his elbow contributed to seriously discounted numbers and would also make for a permanent power swoon, but like ’65 Felipe came back strong in ’68, leading the NL in hits and getting in his third All-Star game. In ’69 he lost time to a broken finger though his average was still quite good. But with kid outfielders Ralph Garr and Dusty Baker in the wings Felipe was sent to Oakland after the season for Jim Nash. With the A’s he took over left for a year and hit well enough but then got traded again to make way for another youngster, this time Joe Rudi. Early in the ’71 season Felipe went to the Yankees for Rob Gardner and Ron Klimkowski. He had a pretty good year in ’71 while playing predominantly right field for the Yankees but his numbers tailed off the next couple years as he put in more time at first base. After a few at bats for the Brewers in ’74 he was done. Felipe finished with a .286 average on 2,101 hits, 206 homers, and 852 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .259 with an RBI in eight games.

After playing Alou returned to the DR where in addition to playing and then managing winter ball he opened a sporting goods store with his brothers. But Felipe got too restless and by ’76 was back in the States coaching in the Montreal system. From ’78 to ’91 he was either managing or coaching in the Montreal system, or coaching up in Montreal (’79-’80, ’84, and ’92). During that time he was 417-426. In ’92 he got promoted to the top spot in Montreal and did a nice job generating wins and developing young talent. In ’94 he put up a .649 winning percentage and looked headed for serious post-season action before the strike hit. He won Manager of the year anyway that season. When the Montreal management started unloading the kids Felipe’s record suffered and he was dismissed during the 2001 season. In ’02 he worked as bench coach for Detroit before going back to San Francisco to manage the Giants in ’03. That year he returned to the post-season on the back of Barry Bonds and he remained as manager until he retired following the 2006 season. He was able to manage his son Moises on both teams. He has a record of 1,033-1,021 as a manager and continues to do some admin work for the team.

No room for the star bullets and Felipe eschews the parenthetical thing. His surname is actually that of his mom and his dad’s surname is his middle one. I got no idea about the pancake reference. In “the Bronx Zoo” the Alous get mentioned. According to Sparky Lyle the reason the brothers were released by King George was that they both popped up late in a game in early September which pissed George off. He ordered Ralph Houk, then the manager, to release them. But Houk, aware they’d both have to take significant pay cuts to sign with new teams, tried to trade them instead, thereby allowing them to maintain their salaries. He was able to swap Matty to St. Louis and the Expos took Felipe off waivers so his plan worked. But one or both of them got mad at Houk because they thought it was his idea to trade them. It was, but for a beneficial reason.

Topps goes nostalgic on the back of the Traded card with the whole Milwaukee connection. Felipe had all of three at bats for the Brewers in ’74 so that connection doesn’t seem to have contributed too much. That last line makes it look like he was traded in ’66 but that was just the year the Braves relocated to Atlanta. Felipe has a very detailed SABR page.

We just hooked up Carmen Fanzone to the Braves and it looks like we’re going to do it again:

1. Alou and Milt Pappas ’68 to ’69 Braves;

2. Pappas and Carmen Fanzone ’71 to ’73 Cubs;

#468 - Pepe Frias

In a pretty unusual run for this set we have the second player in a row born in the Dominican Republic. Pepe Frias, who also had a pretty long road to the majors, basks in the sun at Shea on his rookie card. That he made his debut and played most of his career with Montreal is appropriate, given he resuscitated his career in a Canadian league. His first season up top would be emblematic of his career: back-up work and occasional starts at middle infield and sometimes third with better than average defense and average offensive numbers. ’73 would be the most work he got as an Expo as regular Tim Foli missed some games at shortstop and second base was starting to get a bit transitional. Pepe would be one of only two major leaguers to date to play under that name. Ironically the other one so named would be a teammate, Pepe Mangual.

Pepe Frias was one of 15 kids born to a sugar cane worker in the DR who played baseball as much as he could while growing up. His defense on those less-than-perfect fields was impressive and after a summer of semi-pro ball in ’66 he was signed by the Giants. He came up north the following spring and after barely playing in both Rookie and A ball was released by July. After the season he was picked up by LA and, after playing winter ball back home, released during ’68 spring training. Things were pretty desperate economically back home and rather than go back and wait for the next winter season Pepe signed to play for not too much money in the Canadian Provincial League which was then unaffiliated with any MLB teams. After that season he again signed with San Francisco and for them in ’69 he hit .188 in A ball before again getting released in July. He returned up north and later in August got signed by Montreal and then finished out the late summer in the Instructional League, where he upped his average 10 points. In ’70 he moved up to Double A where he had his first significant offensive season while finally getting some regular time at shortstop. That was followed by a ’71 at the same level with similar stats offensively and improved work in the field. He also got some token work in Triple A and after another regular season at the higher level in ’72 he was called up to Montreal the following year.

After his rookie year in ’73 Frias’ at bats halved the following season as the addition of Jim Cox and a bit more work for Larry Lintz at second compressed Pepe’s time a bit. That year and the next he backed up at third as much as anywhere and ’75 saw a further contraction in time with the arrival of Pete Mackanin at second and Larry Parrish at third. In ’76 Lintz left for Oakland and Pepe’s time increased a bit as he again split time between second and short and raised his average to .248. But the ’77 signing of Dave Cash – who rarely sat – and the later emergence of Rodney Scott further cut into Pepe’s time the next two seasons as he only managed 85 at bats over that time, though he moved his average up to .260.

Prior to the ’79 season Montreal was looking for some pitching and the Braves for a regular shortstop so that March Frias went to Atlanta for Dave Campbell. Pepe finally got a chance to start and had 475 at bats that year, by far his most in the majors. He didn’t do too badly at the plate, hitting .259 and only striking out 36 times. He had a bit of a tough time in the field – everyone seemed to back then in Atlanta – finishing second in the NL with 32 errors. In December he went to Texas with Adrian Devine for Doyle Alexander, Larvell Blanks – another former Braves shortstop – and cash. There he split time at short with Bud Harrelson, hitting .242, before a stretch run trade to the Dodgers in September.  There he got half a month of late-inning work behind Bill Russell. He began the next year on LA’s roster and after not too much use was released in August, missing any playoff action. Early in ’82 he signed with Montreal, played a bit for their Triple A team and was done. He finished with a .240 average in his 1,346 at bats and hit a bit below that in the minors.

In ’83 and ’84 Frias played summer ball in Mexico while continuing to play in the DR in the winter. From that point on he pretty much went underground media-wise. He did play in the Senior League in ’89 and when caught up with in 2001 he was living off his MLB pension and coaching kids. He resides back home in the town of his birth.

Pepe gets the defense props in his star bullets. I guess he is another guy who would be appropriate in a bunting pose.

The Montreal Expos contribution to the ’76 baseball centennial was their ’69 home opener, which was significant because it was the first MLB game ever at a home park in Canada. The venue was Jarry Park – or Parc Jarry if you were from those parts – and was happily an 8-7 win over the Cards. It wasn’t a very pretty game: Montreal went up 6-0 in the first three innings before St. Louis scored all seven of their runs in the top of the fourth. The Expos tied it up in the bottom of that inning when Bob Bailey raced home on a wild pitch. It then became a pitching duel until Expos reliever Dan McGinn knocked in Coco Laboy in the bottom of the seventh for the winning run. The first hit in the game was by Curt Flood of the Cards. The first Expos hit was by Don Bosch in the first, shortly thereafter followed by the first homer in Canada by Mack Jones. Jones was the Expos hitting star with his two hits and five RBI’s. The Cards’ big boy was – gasp! – Dal Maxvill who went two for four with four RBI’s. McGinn was the winning pitcher and he deserved it with five-plus innings of shutout ball in relief.

These guys probably played each other all the time in the DR but here it gets a little trickier:

1. Frias and Buddy Bell ’80 Rangers;

2. Bell and Tommy McCraw ’72 and ’74 to ’75 Indians;

3. McCraw and Winston Llenas ’73 to ’74 Angels.