#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.  

#467 - Winston Llenas

In yet another AL card – this one represents the seventh in the last eight – Winston Llenas makes a comeback after having no card since ’71 when he had his rookie one. Winston shows off his batting stance which he would reprise in front of the big termite mound in the ’75 set. I don’t know how many times he actually bunted in ’73 but he did have two successful sacrifice hits that season so it doesn’t seem the pose is that representative of his style. ’73 was Winston’s biggest season and his .269 average was pretty good for a backup infielder. He led the Al in both pinch hits and pinch hit at bats with 16 and 56 – for a .286 average – respectively. Winston had one of the longest hauls to get to the majors so let’s get this thing started.

Like just about every other player out of the Dominican Republic from his era Winston Llenas played ball for the team of the reigning despot, Rafael Trujillo, and was signed from it by Kansas City in ’61. After hitting .244 that summer while playing second in D ball his average fell a bunch the next year at the same level while playing both middle infield positions and he was released. In ’63 he was picked up by the Angels and in A ball improved on both his average and his fielding before spending a few games at Triple A, playing second in both spots. His whole time while playing baseball in the States he also played winter ball back home where he was a star and in ’64 he finally brought his DR game with him by nailing A pitching for a .346 average, this time moving to third. He did a better job that year in his few games in Triple A and in ’65 while his average fell 60 points the rest of his stats were in line with his prior year and his .286 was pretty good for a second baseman anyway. In ’66 at that level it was all hot corner as he doubled his homer total. In ’67 and ’68 Winston got loaned to the Mexican League – roughly a Triple A equivalent – where he really turned on the power the first season, recording over 100 RBI’s, and the second year made his debut for the Angels, getting into a couple games at third. In ’69 it was back to the States where he hit super well in half a season for Triple A Hawaii and reprised his performance in a few games up top. ’70 and ’71 were strictly Triple A where on defense he added some outfield time and averaged .316 with over 100 RBI’s. ’72 was all up top where he backed up Ken McMullen – who pretty much never sat – at third base and got very little playing time, but did up his offensive numbers considerably from his prior two times up.

In ’73 Llenas began the season back in Triple A but he really had nothing left to prove at that level and after hitting nearly .400 he was back in Anaheim where he again backed up third and put in some time at the revolving door that was second base that season. He stayed up in ’74 where he put up very similar numbers in about as many plate appearances while putting in time in the outfield and second. In ’75 his average fell to .186 and since the Angels had a lot of young guys who could hit that – Winston was 31 then – he was returned to the minors and then released. He played a year of ball in Japan for Taiheiyo in ’76 and then returned to this hemisphere where he played (’77-’82) and managed (’78-82) in Mexico. In the latter role he did pretty well, posting a record of 367-260. ‘82 was also his last year of playing ball in the DR and when he was done there he was second all-time in homers and RBI’s. Up top in the States he hit .230 with three homers and 61 RBI’s in what amounted to about a full season. In the minors he averaged a bit over .300 with over 100 homers and 500 RBI's.

Llenas had maintained his Angel ties while he was away and in ’83 and ’84 managed in their system where he went a combined 136-144. He then returned full-time to the DR where he’d already taken over managing his old club, Aguilas, and eventually moved to upper management and, finally, ownership. He was still involved with the team in early 2012.

Winston’s got no room for any star bullets since his whole history is on the back of his card. I love that he was named after Winston Churchill. Apparently he was a chubby baby – his nickname was exactly that, Chilote – and he bore a resemblance to the British Lion.

The Angels gave up Nolan Ryan’s fourth career no-hitter as the team’s contribution to the baseball centennial in ’76. That one happened June 1, 1975 against Baltimore at home and our boy Winston here played left field in the game. It was typical Ryan – four walks and nine strikeouts and he was flying that year before he got hurt, the game taking his record to 9-3 with a 2.45 ERA. The game took only two hours and seven balls made it to the outfield with only one error by California. Ryan would go on to post a total of seven no-no’s.

Winston was all Angels and Billings pretty much all Rangers so we’ll need another guy:

1. Llenas and Tommy McCraw ’73 to ’74 Angels;

2. McCraw and Dick Billings ’71 Senators.

#466 - Dick Billings

This is Dick Billings’ final card and he goes out in style with a pretty cool action shot. Dick – more often referred to as Rich – looks pretty pissed here and my guess is an opposing runner just crossed the plate, maybe in Oakland. Dick had a tough year in ’73. After finally achieving a starting catching role most of the past couple seasons new Rangers manager Whitey Herzog platooned him with Ken Suarez and Dick’s average suffered, falling into Mendoza territory. Then, to add injury to insult – yeah, I know what I said – Dick got steamrolled at the plate in a game in April of ’74 by Bobby Murcer and missed the next six weeks, allowing rookie Jim Sundberg to get the catching role unchallenged. Once everyone saw Sundberg’s work behind the plate, that was it for Dick and he would soon be gone. So maybe the expression on his face is an appropriate one for lots of reasons.

Dick Billings starred in the big three sports and track in high school in Troy, Michigan and then attended Michigan State on a baseball scholarship. Back then Dick was an outfielder and sometime third baseman and his junior year at MSU he hit .375 to lead the Big Ten in ’64. After he got a BS in Education he was taken by the Senators in the ’65 draft – in the 25^th round so maybe something went wrong his senior year – and that summer hit .264 in A ball while playing the outfield. In ’66 he upped his numbers at the same level pretty good, hitting .312 with 14 homers and 70 RBI’s. He moved up to Double A in ’67 but didn’t hit too well. He did, though, put in some serious time at third, and that versatility helped move him up in ’68 to Triple A where he upped his average to .276. After a few games in the outfield in DC in the fall, it was generally regarded that he wasn’t going anywhere fast at third base so in ’69 he was moved back to Double A to learn a new position: catcher. He’d work back to Triple A and the Show that year but it was a tough one as he barely hit .200 at any level. But in ’70 he nailed a pretty good season in Triple A where he caught nearly exclusively: .305 with 15 homers, 67 RBI’s, and a .380 OBA.

In’71 Billings was up in DC where he played a bit in the outfield and split time behind the plate with Paul Casanova before taking over the position with his superior hitting after the halfway mark. Dick did have issues, though, as he led the AL in passed balls in about half the games of his fellow catchers. In ’72 he turned pretty much the same trick, this time wresting the job full-time from Hal King, who’d come over from Atlanta for Casanova. Then came his woeful ’73 though he did have a high moment when he caught Jim Bibby’s no-hitter that year. After giving way to Sundberg he hit .226 in a limited back-up role before going to St. Louis in an August sale. For the Cards Dick did some time at Triple A Tulsa before getting into just a couple games up top. In ’75 he hit .294 in Triple A with the same deal upstairs and after the season he was done. He hit .271 with 55 homers in the minors and .227 with 16 homers up top.

After playing Dick returned to the Arlington area where he opened his own investment and commercial real estate shop. He has been there ever since and makes frequent appearances at Rangers and other MLB events.

I’ve tried to get some color on how long Dick managed in Venezuela but haven’t been too successful. He also taught school during some off-seasons. He only got plunked half as many times when he had his bigger ’70 season so I guess he learned to move back off the plate. While researching this post I came across a book which I gotta get: "Seasons in Hell" by Mike Shropshire. It's about the Rangers from about '73 to '75 and one of the best quotes from the book regards Rich, manager Whitey Herzog, and the '73 season. In spring training of that year Whitey opined that "If Rich Billings is our starting catcher, we're in trouble." Billings' response upon hearing the above? "Whitey, obviously, has seen me play."

Texas contributed David Clyde’s debut to the baseball centennial celebration in ’76. I believe it’s one of only two contributions from 1973. It is detailed on the Clyde post.

This one’s easy:

1. Billings and Dick Bosman ’68 to ’73 Senators/Rangers.

#465 - Dick Bosman

Back in the AL we get Dick Bosman and his huge black mitt at Yankee Stadium. Dick manages something approaching a smile even though he’s in the midst of his worst season. Given that he went to Cleveland in May it may help narrow down the date of this photo, as well as those of about half the other Cleveland players. The Tribe played two series in NY Following Dick’s acquisition: June 29 to July 1; and September 10-11. There are no action shots to help pinpoint things but since Dick and just about every other Indian photographed at the Stadium has a long-sleeve shirt on under his uniform I am opting for the later games. Cleveland won both, each a complete game (one by Dick Tidrow and one by Gaylord Perry), so Dick didn’t see any action that series. ’73 was sort of a hot mess for him as he started off pretty poorly for the Rangers, leading to the May trade that took him away from the only team he’d pitched for up top. And things only got worse in Cleveland as his ERA skyrocketed. Dick gets an honor card with one that ends in a 5 in this set. Nothing personal, but he may be the least-deserving player for that status so far. But things would settle down the next year which included a big game and he would end his career finally on a winner.

Dick Bosman grew up in Wisconsin on Lake Michigan and pitched in his state championship game in high school in ’62. He then went to the University of Wisconsin for a year – he didn’t play ball there – before being signed by the Pirates who’d scouted him in a semi-pro league the prior summer. After a 3-3 season with a 3.52 ERA as a reliever in Rookie ball he was selected by San Francisco in the first year draft. In A ball for them in ’64 he became a swing guy, posting an 8-5 record with a 3.21 ERA while putting up over a strikeout an inning. He then got plucked by the Senators in the Rule 5 draft and spent the next couple seasons in Double A where he went a combined 14-13 with a 3.55 ERA as he morphed into a starter and refined his two out pitches: a sinker and a slurve. He debuted in DC the summer of ’66 where he had a pretty good first game but then things got sloppy. In ’67 he moved up to Triple A where he went 12-11 with a 2.76 ERA for an awful team and got promoted for good – pretty much – to turn in some nice late-season starts.

Bosman stayed in DC in ’68 but his first full season, spent mostly in middle relief, pretty much reflected that of his whole team. In ’69 Ted Williams came on board as manager of the Nats and though he usually considered pitchers sort of negligible, prompted Dick to have his biggest season. Starting the year as a swing guy he put up good enough numbers that Ted moved him to the rotation and Dick got enough innings to win the AL ERA crown. In ’70, though the Nats turned into a one-year wonder, Dick won 16 with another excellent ERA as the only double-figure winner on the team. In ’71 his record reversed itself and his ERA popped a bit but he remained the best pitcher in the rotation. When the team moved to Texas in ’72 Dick lost some time to injury and saw his decisions drop by about a third but his stats generally picked up a bit. After his weak opening in ’73 he went to the Tribe with outfielder Ted Ford for pitcher Steve Dunning.

In ’74 Bosman took on a swing role again as he quietly improved his record to 7-5 and his ERA to 4.10. At least it was quiet until July 19^th, when he no-hit Oakland, allowing just one guy to reach base, and he on Dick’s own error. The A’s took notice and early in ‘75 Dick and Jim Perry went to Oakland for Blue Moon Odom who we saw just a couple posts ago. Dick, who’d started the year 0-2, immediately benefited in his new surroundings, going 11-4 the rest of the way as he helped his new team to its fifth consecutive post-season appearance. He pitched briefly in the playoff loss to Boston and then in ’76 went 4-2 as he returned to his swing role. After his release late in ’77 spring training he retired with a record of 82-85 with a 3.67 ERA, 29 complete games, and ten shutouts. In the post-season he threw shutout ball for a third of an inning.

After playing Bosman relocated to Virginia where he worked as a car dealer for a few years, coached Little League, and then did the same at Georgetown as a volunteer. That last experience got him itching to return to the pros and in ’86 he hooked up with the White Sox, beginning the season as a minor league coach. When Dave Duncan was released later that year Dick was promoted to Chicago where he coached from ’86 to ’87. In ’88 he moved to the Baltimore chain where he coached in the minors through ’91 and then moved up top from ’92 to ’94. He then moved with manager Johnny Oates to Texas from ’95 to 2000. He has since then been affiliated with Tampa Bay where he has coached at various minor league levels.

Topps makes that first star-bullet a little over-dramatic as Dick was only in Triple A for a game to check his mechanics after getting dinged late in spring training. They also certainly love the capitals in that second bullet, don’t they? Dick famously told his Nats teammates he’d “kick their ass” if any of them made an error behind him. I bet he and Gaylord Perry got along well.

Cleveland’s submission to the ’76 baseball centennial was Frank Robinson’s first game as baseball’s first black manager. That happened on opening day in ’75, a game at which our boy here was in attendance. A home game against the Yankees on April 8, it was 36 degrees when the game started. There was tons of press and the stadium was packed to capacity: over 56,000 fans. Cleveland started the scoring with a solo homer by – who else – Frank Robinson and went on to win the game 5-3 with Frank’s buddy – not! – Gaylord Perry throwing a complete game. I am enclosing a photo from “Whatever Happened to...” of a bundled John Lowenstein congratulating Robinson after he crossed the plate. It was cold!

So Bosman and Jose Cruz never played against each other, let alone together.

1. Bosman and Ken McMullen ’66 to ’70 Senators;

2. McMullen and Nolan Ryan ’72 Angels;

3. Ryan and Jose Cruz ’80 to  ’87 Astros.

#464 - Jose Cruz

This card represents the last one of Jose Cruz in an unadulterated Cardinals uniform. On his ’75 card he would be air-brushed into an Astros cap with maybe the biggest star in Topps history. Up until now, Jose had shown some skills – good defense, good hustle, some nice stats in the minors – but nothing that really foreshadowed his years of success in Houston. His biggest moment in ’73 may have been when he and his two siblings – Hector and Tommy – were reunited on the team in September although all three never played in the same game. ’73 represented both a high and low for Jose’s time in St. Louis: high because he asserted himself as the regular center fielder and set most of his offensive personal highs with the team; low because he hit only .227 and the late-season emergence of Bake McBride would push him to a reserve role the following year. But a little-regarded transaction late in ’74 would fix everything pretty quickly.

Jose “Cheo” Cruz and his brothers – Jose was the oldest – grew up in Arroyo, Puerto Rico from where Jose was signed shortly after graduating high school by the Cards in ’67. He showed some speed that summer in A ball with nine triples in just over 200 at bats and the next year upped his numbers across the board at the same level. After a solid ’69 in Double A he took off at that level in ’70 and recorded an OBA of .386 with a lifetime seasonal high of 21 homers. He made his debut for the Cards in September and hit well in his few games. After an even stronger start to his ’71 in Triple A he came up for good halfway through that season.

When Cruz came up in mid-’71 he got the starting job in center field, forcing the trade of incumbent Jose Cardenal to the Brewers.  This Jose did a pretty good job his rookie year, posting a .377 OBA while homering nine times, a rate he wouldn’t approach again until he moved to Houston. But in ’72 his average fell 40 points as he and Luis Melendez, who was a couple years younger, traded starts in center. Then in ’73 most of his offensive stats picked up considerably but his average didn’t and when Bake McBride had a hot debut after his call-up both Jose and Melendez were pushed to reserve roles in ’74, though Jose had a nice rebound in his average. Shortly after the season he was sold to Houston in a deal that ended up being a steal for the Astros.

1975 was a totally crappy year for the Astros as their pitching sort of blew up and they fell to the bottom of their division. But the team was rife with young speedy outfielders and his first season in Houston Cruz split time in right field with Wilbur Howard. While Howard hit .283 to Jose’s .257 and stole 32 bases to Jose’s six, Cruz was more efficient at the plate, recording a much higher OBA on way less strikeouts. So in ’76 when the outfield was moved around a bit Jose became the regular guy in left and rewarded everyone with the move by hitting .303 with 61 RBI’s and 28 stolen bases. In ’77 the average fell a couple points to .299 as Jose moved across to right but just about every other stat moved up big with ten triples, 17 homers, 87 RBI’s and 44 steals. From then on he was an institution in Houston. In ’78 he hit .315 followed by a .289 in ’79 with comparable other stats to his ’77. In ’80 he hit .302 with his first year of over 90 RBI’s and got his first All-Star appearance as the rest of the baseball world finally caught on. He finished third in NL MVP voting  and got his first playoff action, lighting up the Phillies with a .400 average and .609 OBA. In ’81 slumps at the beginning and end of the strike year bookended a strong middle and his average fell to .267 as his stolen base totals tumbled. In ’82 he recovered to .275 and then in ’83 he had his best offensive year: an NL-leading 189 hits to hit .318 with a .385 OBA, 14 homers, and 92 RBI’s and his first Silver Slugger. ’84 was pretty much a repeat: .312, .381, twelve homers, and 95 RBI’s for another Silver Slugger and another All-Star nod. In ‘85 he had his first significant injury with a dislocated toe in his left foot but recovered to hit .300. The next year Houston returned to the playoffs but Jose spent some time on the DL with a sprained ligament in his knee, curtailing his numbers, though he had a strong finish, hitting .278. After he slumped to .241 in ’87 he left Houston as the career Astros leader in most offensive categories to sign as a free agent with the Yankees at age 40. With NY he DH’d a few games before hanging them up. For his career Jose hit .284 with 2,251 hits, 165 homers, 1,077 RBI’s, 317 stolen bases (against only 136 times being caught), and a .354 OBA. He is currently 22^nd in all-time putouts in left field and 32^nd in assists. In the post-season he hit .279 with a .380 OBA and six RBI’s in 16 games.

After playing baseball Cruz pretty much retired, occasionally coaching in Puerto Rico, but mostly teaching his son Jose Jr. – who went on to have a twelve year career of his own – to play ball. In ’95 he formally returned to baseball in the States as manager of Laredo in the new unaffiliated Texas-Louisiana league. After going 17-32 he took a year off and when Larry Dierker was named manager of Houston in ’97 he asked Jose to be a coach. Cheo lasted in that role for 13 seasons, as both a first base and hitting coach. In 2009 in a staff shake-up in the wake of Cecil Cooper’s release as manager, Jose moved upstairs as an assistant to the GM and a community-relations person. He is still in that position with the Astros.

Jose could be a streaky guy as the first star bullet implies. Pretty much every season he had hitting streaks of ten games or more. He may have the shortest name in the set that includes the parenthetical name.

The St. Louis contribution to the ’76 baseball centennial was not Bob Gibson’s overpowering Series performances but another impressive personal achievement: Lou Brock’s 105^th stolen base in 1974. In the year that Brock went on to establish his record of 118 steals, that one broke the record set in ’62 by Maury Wills. He set the mark September 10^th, in a game against the Phillies. He stole his 104th in the first inning after a single off Dick Ruthven of the Phillies and the record breaker in the seventh in pretty much the same situation. The next night the Cards played the Mets in that 25-inning marathon so Lou was a busy boy back then.

I can be a bit streaky myself in this exercise and I’m going to use a guy from the last hook-up:

1. Cruz and Cliff Johnson ’75 to ’77 Astros;

2. Johnson and Chris Chambliss ’77 to ’79 Yankees;

3. Chambliss and Pat Dobson ’74 to ’75 Yankees.

#463 - Pat Dobson

Our next action shot has Pat Dobson pitching from the stretch in a rare Yankee away shot. My guess is that the photo is from an old stomping ground of his – Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium – and should be from the same series as the Jim Palmer and Fritz Peterson shots many moons ago. That would make this photo one from a game September 16^th, the second game of a double header, in which Pat won 7-5. That must have felt good since before the season Baltimore sent Pat to Atlanta where in the early first half of the year he had a miserable time going from a team with one of the best MLB defenses to a team with one of the worst. And Pat wasn’t shy about making his feelings felt so when he mouthed off that a ground ball pitcher – like him – needed a hard-working defense behind him and the Atlanta sluggers weren’t doing the trick, it wasn’t long before he was sent packing, moving to NY for four – mostly – minor leaguers. His ensuing performance certainly seemed to back up his assertions since with the Yankees he shaved three-quarter’s of a run from his ERA and bettered his record by five wins. In ’74 he would do even better.

Pat Dobson was born in Buffalo and raised in a small town in upstate NY named Depew. There in high school he went a combined 19-1 his two varsity baseball years and, according to his coach, never gave up more than two hits and struck out 17 batters a game. In ’60 when he graduated he was signed by a local scout for the Tigers and he went to B ball the rest of the summer. There he was a bit wild and his numbers weren’t too hot and it took Pat a while to get any real traction in the minors. In ’62 he went 8-7 in D ball with a 2.56 ERA and over a strikeout an inning and in ’63 he had a nice stint in Double A: 5-1 with a 1.33 ERA. In ’64 and ’65 he lost some time to the military but the latter year went a combined 4-1 with a 1.38 ERA split between Double and Triple A. In ’66 he went 12-9 with a 3.45 ERA at the higher level and finally got his curveball in line, significantly reducing his walk totals. Then in ’67 a 4-1 start with a 1.47 ERA in Triple A got him finally promoted to Detroit.

Dobson had a Topps rookie card in 1967 which is mentioned here because it had an odd narrative on the back: Topps spent the whole space given to the other guy on the card letting us know they screwed his card up the first time. Called up in May Pat put up some pretty good numbers from the pen as mostly a middle-innings guy. In ’68 he nearly tripled his innings as a swing guy and added seven saves. Tigers pitching coach Johnny Sain was doing some nice work with Pat, especially in helping him refine his curve. He got his first post-season action, relieving in three games against St. Louis. In ’69 he reprised his ’68 role, grabbing nine saves and finishing more games but the lower mound helped add almost a run to his ERA and when Sain was released as pitching coach, Pat let it be known that he wasn’t a fan of the move, so he was sent off as well, going to San Diego with Dave Campbell for Joe Niekro. Pat’s first shot in the NL was pretty impressive as he finally got a shot in the rotation full-time and had an awfully good record for a terrible team. But he wasn’t there too long as after the season he came back to the AL in a big trade: he and Tom Dukes went to Baltimore for Enzo Hernandez, Tom Phoebus, and Al Severinson.

For the Orioles, Dobson again got regular rotation work and with the stellar Baltimore defense behind him put up some excellent numbers, becoming one of four 20-game winners on the ’71 O’s pitching staff. He returned to the Series where he did a so-so job in the loss to the Pirates. In ’72 he led the AL with 18 losses as the Birds missed the post-season for the first time in four years even though his ERA was considerably better and his other stats were roughly parallel with 71’s. After the season when the power-hitting Earl Williams became available to solve the Baltimore catching issue, Pat, Roric Harrison, Johnny Oates, and Davey Johnson were sent to Atlanta for Williams and Taylor Duncan.

In ’74 Dobson had one of his best seasons, tying Doc Medich for Yankee team leader with 19 wins while posting a 3.07 ERA. The next year was a bit of a letdown. After starting the year 2-5 but with a very good ERA he went on a 6-0 run to pull his ERA below 3.00. But then NY went to a five-man rotation – Pat worked much better under a four-man one – and he went 3-9 the rest of the way and spent some time in the pen. After the season he asked out and was sent to Cleveland for Oscar Gamble. There he was reunited with Frank Robinson and recent post subject Boog Powell and like Boog Pat had a nice comeback, going 16-12 in a – yes – four-man rotation while lowering his ERA over half a run. Early the next season he hurt his back and the ensuing season was pretty disastrous: 3-12 with a 6.14 ERA. Early in ’78 he would be optioned to the minors and then released, ending his pitching career. Pat finished 122-129 with a 3.54 ERA, 74 complete games, 14 shutouts, and 19 saves. He went 0-0 in the post-season with a 3.97 ERA in six games.

After sitting out most of the ’78 season Dobson hooked up with the short-lived Inter-American League as a coach and later manager of the Maracaibo, Venezuela team. After that league folded mid-season he got hired as a Class A pitching coach for the Indians. He then spent ’80 and ’81 as a pitching coach in the Yankees system before moving to the Brewers one, where later in ’82 he moved up to Milwaukee. He stayed with the Brewers through ’84 and then coached in Seattle’s system through ’87. From ’88 to ’90 he was San Diego’s pitching coach and in ’91 for most of the year he was Kansas City’s before resigning. In ’92 he became a scout for the Rockies until ’96 when he was the Orioles pitching coach. He then became a scout for the Giants in ’97 and had moved up in the organization to become assistant to the GM when in 2006 he was discovered to have lymphoma. The day after his disease was diagnosed Pat passed away at age 64.

Topps brings out the obscure stuff for Pat’s star bullets but the cartoon is pretty significant. It’s hard to believe that it took over 30 years – from when the first night game was played – to get a nighttime Series game.

The Yankees offered up Don Larsen’s perfect game from the ’56 Series as the team’s contribution to the ’76 baseball centennial. Hard to top that one. Ironically, as this post is being written, Larsen’s uniform from that game is about to be auctioned off to help pay for his grandkids’ college educations. Don threw a pretty good game at Brooklyn, only once getting to three balls on anyone. The fifth was a nail-biter with Jackie Robinson and Gil Hodges both flying out deep in the outfield. Pee Wee Reese and Sandy Amoros also had some deep fly balls later in the game. The last out was made when pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell looked at a called third strike setting the stage for the famous shot of Yogi Berra jumping into Larsen’s arms.

So the last card marked the 70% mark of this set. Time to do the tally:

Post-season: Thanks to Dave Winfield teams that have appeared in post-season play has been expanded somewhat. From ’57 to ’95 there is at least one player from a team that went to the playoffs or beyond except for these years: ’60 (still!); ’91, and ’93 to ’94. Maybe some upcoming rookies can help fill the gaps. ‘73 leads the way with 71 players.

Awards: These ones have sort of flat-lined a bit. There are now 22 players who were MVP’s of their respective leagues; 14 Cy Young winners; ten Firemen of the Year; 18 Manager of the Year winners; 21 Rookie of the Year winners; and 22 Comeback Player of the Year winners.

Milestones: We are up to 34 Hall of Fame inductees. There are 36 players for whom this year’s Topps card is their first and 41 for whom it is their final card, which I believe is the first time the balance has tipped to the latter group. We are also up to 47 players – roughly 12% of the set – who are now deceased.

Topps Rookie All-Star Teams: Every year except the current one (’74, but that will change) is now represented by at least one player who was named to the Topps team. Here is the breakdown:

1959 – 3            1963 – 3             1967 – 5          1971 – 6

1960 – 1            1964 – 3             1968 – 6          1972 - 8

1961 – 4            1965 – 3             1969 – 6          1973 - 9

1962 – 1            1966 – 5             1970 – 5

Miscellaneous: There are 101 action shots in the set. There are cards of 150 players in their home uniforms and 257 of players in their road ones. We have had 45 players represented by official or unofficial Traded cards and 33 by a parenthetical name, a good indication of players from Latin America. We are still stuck at 14 Washington Nat’l cards. There are still only five cards which I have designated as ugly, but I may be being generous. We are up to five guys who served in Viet Nam which I still regard as the most surprising stat of this set.

These two very nearly played with each other in Cleveland:

1. Dobson and Chris Chambliss ’74 to ’75 Yankees;

2. Chambliss and Eddie Leon ’71 to ’72 Indians;

3. Leon and Luis Alvarado ’73 to ’74 White Sox.

#462 - Luis Alvarado

This is the final card of Luis Alvarado. That’s sort of a shame because by ’73 he was toting around one of the fattest afros in the league and his later cards may have rivaled even Oscar Gamble’s coiff-wise. Luis looks like he’s posing pre-game at Yankee Stadium as perhaps Bill Melton takes some fielding practice behind him. Luis had a kicking action shot in ’73 where he looked like he was turning a double play in a parking lot. That year was his last of three consecutive ones with over 200 at bats – all for the ChiSox – as he backed up Jorge Orta at second and served as a bridge to the new guy at short, Bucky Dent. His .232 average in ’73 was the highest he’d put up in the majors but by then everybody knew offense wasn’t his game. Most likely by the time this card came out Luis was on the move: first to St. Louis and then to Cleveland. That itinerancy would characterize the rest of his career until he settled down back in his home base.

Luis Alvarado was born in Lajas, Puerto Rico, where he and his siblings all played ball. Signed by the Red Sox in ’67, he began his career in A ball in Waterloo, Iowa, which must have been a bit of a culture shock. There he exhibited some decent power with eight homers and 43 RBI’s while he led the league in double plays for a shortstop. In ’68 he moved up to Double A where he raised his average 35 points and led his league in hits. He also made his debut that fall in Boston. His big year was ’69 when he moved to Triple A and hit .292 with 30 doubles and 62 RBI’s while leading his league in fielding, winning both the IL’s rookie of the year and mvp awards. That season got everyone excited up in Boston, where they’d recently lost incumbent third baseman Joe Foy to expansion and the revolving door for position filler – George Scott put in the most time at third that year – didn’t go so well. So Luis was to be the answer at that position. At least until he wasn’t, which was pretty much dictated by his .224 average in ‘70 that moved him back to Triple A. There he hit only .201 and after the season the Sox jettisoned him to the other Sox with Mike Andrews for Luis Aparicio.

For the White Sox Alvarado immediately began his new task of middle infield work. He was above average defensively but never really got going with the bat as in the next three seasons he backed up Mike Andrews and then Jorge Orta at second, and then swapped time at shortstop with Rich Morales, Eddie Leon, Lee Richard, and Bucky Dent. His best game may have been one in ’71 when he turned four double plays and had ten chances at second without an error. In early ’74 he was sent to the Cards for pitcher Ken Tatum. There after a month of back-up work at shortstop he went to Cleveland with Ed Crosby for Jack Heidemann in a swap of middle infielders. With the Indians Luis got a bit more work and hit .219 the rest of the way with 12 RBI’s. In ’75 it was back to the minors where Luis played mostly second, had excellent defensive numbers, and did OK offensively as well, hitting .240 with 64 RBI’s in a season split between the Cleveland system and the St. Louis one, after a mid-season trade for – mostly – minor league first baseman Doug Howard. In ’76 he improved his average to .280 with eleven homers and 72 RBI’s, again in Triple A, and also spent time in St. Louis where he hit .286 while doing some time at second. But his relative success was short-lived as after the ’76 season he was sold to Detroit, flipped to the Mets, flipped back to Detroit, and released, all by June ’77. Luis only got three hitless at bats for all that traveling. Late in the season he hooked up with San Diego, where he made the best out of 26 token at bats in Triple A, hitting .486. That ended his baseball time in the States where he hit .256 in the minors and .214 up top.

Alvarado played a lot of winter ball in his native Puerto Rico during and after his career, regularly having about three non-baseball weeks a year. In ’79 he returned to summer ball, this time in Mexico, where over the next three seasons he played for Yucatan, Leon, and Mexico City. He then returned to Puerto Rico full-time where he ran a grocery store and coached youth leagues until he passed away from a heart attack in 2001 when he was 52.

Topps makes an error in the second star bullet as Luis’ IL mvp season was in ’69, not ’68. But those other numbers look pretty good. I used to like comic books back then also, The Black Panther and Captain Marvel – the Marvel Comics one – being my favorites. Very deep stuff.

The White Sox contributed their ’59 pennant-winning season to the 1976 baseball centennial celebration. That was the year of the Go-Go Sox who were led offensively by MVP Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio and his 56 steals. The team had amazing defense and their pitching leader was 39-year-old Early Wynn, who went 22-10 in one of his best seasons. The ChiSox staff led the AL with a team 3.29 ERA. Manager Al Lopez was the only non-Yankee AL skipper to win a pennant since ’49 (he also turned the trick with the Indians in ’54). The Sox didn’t clinch the title until September 22, when Wynn won his 21^st before 54,000 in Chicago. It was a pretty typical win for Chicago: four double plays and a strike by left fielder Al Smith to the plate to nab Minnie Minoso and kill Cleveland’s initial run prospect. The Sox broke it open on two successive solo shots by Smith and Jim Rivera in the sixth. Little Looie also had an RBI off his two hits. And a pinch-hitter for Cleveland during the game was Chuck Tanner, the manager of the Sox at the time of this set.

These guys both played for the White Sox but we won’t go that route:

1. Alvardo and Reggie Smith ’68 to ’70 Red Sox and ’74 Cards;

2. Smith and Rick Monday ’77 to ’81 Dodgers;

3. Monday and John Odom ’65 to ’71 A’s.

This card represents the 70% mark of the set. I’ll do a recap within the next couple posts.