#574 - Bill Parsons

This lanky guy is Bill Parsons, one-time future ace of the Milwaukee Brewers. Bill’s 26 wins in ’71 and ’72 were the most on the staff over that time but going into the ’73 season there was some worry about a shoulder injury he suffered early in spring training. It was also thought that a little tinkering with his pitch rotation was all that was deemed necessary to help him up his results. Bill had been all fastball and change-up his first few seasons, throwing almost exclusively from the set position, and new pitching coach Bob Shaw wanted him to pitch from a wind-up position and add a curveball. All good in theory but the results were pretty devastating. In Bill’s first start of the season, Opening Day, he threw shutout ball for over seven innings but walked six guys. He gave up five runs – four unearned – in just two innings in his second start and then walked seven in under four innings his next one. And it kept getting worse: he gave up 14 walks in two successive starts in May, won two in a row to get to 3-4 by mid-June, but then lost his spot in the rotation for over a month and returned to do spot work that just saw his ERA ratchet up. By then Shaw had resigned – or been fired – partly because of Bill’s decline, even though he’d done good work with just about every other pitcher. And Bill himself would be gone less than a year later. And he really would be gone. Like the last couple post subjects, there is virtually nothing in the media universe regarding Bill’s activities since he played. How do you make a guy who’s 6’6” disappear? Apparently by writing a baseball card blog.

Bill Parsons was born in Riverside, California. After that it’s pretty much conjecture since about the only thing matching the lack of info on the guy after he played is the dearth of news before he did. It appears that after graduating high school in ’66 that he may have gone to Riverside Community College for a short bit but for sure he was on the University of Utah baseball team as a freshman pitcher in the spring of ’67. He also played hoops at Utah – George Theodore from this set was a teammate in both sports – but not for long as he was drafted and signed by the new Seattle Pilots in the seventh round of the ’68 draft. Topps isn’t much help either, indicating on one card that Bill was an All-American in hoops (doubt that) and that he graduated Arizona State, which for sure didn’t happen. What he did do, apparently in the spring of ’68, was go 4-1 with a 3.10 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 61 innings of a local Cali league so maybe that was when he went to Riverside. He definitely followed that bit up with a tough start that summer as a starter in A ball, but kept people happy with the high strikeout totals. In ’69 Bill began his military hitch but around it threw pretty well, posting 11 K’s in his only Rookie ball start and then putting up an excellent ERA after finding his control in A ball. Most of ’70 was military time as well but Bill again impressed when he was pitching, posting great numbers in his four Triple A starts.

By ’71 Parsons’ military requirement was done and he made the Brewers after a great winter ball season that followed a pretty good IL one. He immediately joined the rotation and though he lost his first two, it wasn’t his fault as he only gave up two runs in each of two complete games. He threw shutout ball in three of his first five wins and suffered losing streaks of five and three games, all the while keeping his ERA well below 3.00. It was still there when he was 13-15 by mid-September and was actually receiving some decent hitting support. After being on the losing side of three blowouts his ERA crossed that 3.00 horizon and he suffered another couple losses but he got lots of regards for a season well done, made the Topps Rookie team, and was selected by the TSN player poll as its Rookie of the Year. He also set a team record with his 12 complete games. His follow-up year was all over the place. He began April going 1-2 with an ERA of nearly 7.00 and then won five straight to pull down his ERA to 3.50. Then five straight losses pushed the ERA back above 5.00 and into the pen, where he stayed for a couple weeks. But after he rejoined the rotation in mid-July he went 7-6 with eight complete games and a 2.62 ERA to finish the year on an up note. After the misery of ’73 Bill had an even nastier spring training in ’74 and he was sent down to Triple A Sacramento. Not much good was going on at that level and he requested a trade elsewhere when in late June he was sent to Oakland for Deron Johnson. After going a combined 9-16 with a fat 5.05 ERA – everyone who pitched in Sacramento had a fat ERA – but getting his walks and strikeouts realigned – 57 vs. 99 – Bill made his final MLB appearance in some shutout relief outings for the A’s. After the season he was sold to St. Louis. In ’75 he pitched in the minors for the Triple A franchises of the Cards and the White Sox, going a combined 3-5 as a spot guy with a 4.42 ERA. That was it for Bill as he finished 29-36 with a 3.89 ERA, 22 complete games, and six shutouts for his MLB time and with a 27-33 record with a 3.87 ERA in the minors.

As I mentioned above, Parsons slips into the ether after his playing career ended. There is a gentleman with his same name residing in Phoenix but outside of calling the poor guy up I do not foresee a shot at anything substantial on our guy here. Another mystery.

Topps gives us a little dirt on the card back, and given it is mostly qualifiable, there is no reason to doubt it. One good thing did come up from Bill’s crash and burn of ’73 and that was the 20-win season of the guy who took his place, Jim Colborn.

This time we stick to the AL:

1. Parsons and Jim Slaton ’71 to ’73 Brewers;

2. Slaton and Larry Hisle ’79 to ’82 Brewers;

3. Hisle and Mike Adams ’73 Twins.

#573 - Mike Adams

With this card we get the third of the set so far of the only card issued by Topps of a player in this set. And like Don Newhauser, a previous member of this small club, there is a serious dearth of information out there on this post’s subject. Mike Adams appears to be in spring training with an out-of-focus catcher behind him. He had a pretty good spring and made the roster out of camp. Until then primarily a second baseman, Mike did some outfield reserve and DH work as he spent the whole season with Minnesota but didn’t see too much action. It would, however, be Mike’s busiest MLB season as he was never really able to bring his minor league hitting success up top. His highlight of the year was probably the home run he hit in Arlington that nearly wrecked phenom David Clyde’s big debut. From one rookie to another that probably felt pretty good.

Mike Adams was born in Cincinnati where his dad, Bobby, was in the midst of his run as a second baseman for the Reds. After Bobby’s playing career ended in the late Fifties he became a Cubs coach and at some point relocated to Anaheim, where Mike went to Loara High School. Like his dad, Mike was a second baseman and both his junior and senior year was his team’s mvp. He was plucked by the White Sox as a tenth round pick that second year of ’66 but instead opted for Fullerton College, a nearby two-year school. The following January he was selected by Detroit in the first round – I guess he had a big fall season – and that time he signed. He had a mixed first year in A ball while playing second: a little light on power and average, but with 13 stolen bases. He also put up big walk and strikeout totals, which would be representative of his career. The former led to big OBA totals and that year his was .381. In ’68 he continued his middle infield work at the same level while his power improved, his average fell,, and he missed the second half of the season to his military commitment. He would then miss all of the ’69 regular season to the military as well before returning in time to some late autumn Instructional ball where he put up a wildly diverse set of stats, hitting .098 with an OBA of .435. He then put up a solid season in A ball in ’70, posting 23 stolen bases and a .414 OBA in addition to his card stats. After the season he was traded to Minnesota for promising pitcher Bill Zepp.

The Twins made two moves with Adams: they sent him to Triple A; and they moved him to the outfield. Both moves worked pretty well as Mike raised his average and OBA (to .424) while missing some time to injury. '72 worked out better as he added a bunch of games at third to his resume and his big stats included 95 runs scored, eleven swipes, and a .419 OBA. He made his debut for the Twins that September and did pretty well in his limited time. In ’74 it was back to Triple A most of the season where he put up .307/12/32 numbers in his 283 at bats with 64 runs scored and a .449 OBA. But he saw zero action while up top and after the season he was traded to the Cubs for catcher Tom Lundstedt. Mike spent all of ’75 in Triple A for Chicago, getting starts at second, third, and the outfield, while having a big year offensively: .308/13/77 with 104 runs scored, 18 stolen bases, and a .423 OBA. His time there contracted a bunch in ’76, though he hit .304 with a .448 OBA in his less than 100 at bats. He spent most of the season on the Chicago roster but didn’t fare nearly as well as he got only limited work and only hit .138. In ’77 it was another nice year in Triple A, producing  a .321/23/91 season with 24 stolen bases and a .438 OBA. Prior to the ’78 season he was sold to Oakland where Mike did his usual Triple A magic with a .293/5/26 set in about a third of a season with 14 stolen bases and a .454 OBA before hitting .200 in Oakland as a seldom-used DH. That was his final season and he finished with a .195 MLB average, though with a .375 OBA and in the minors was a .290 hitter with a .420 OBA and 121 stolen bases against only 21 times caught.

I have absolutely zero idea what became of Mr. Adams after baseball. His dad passed away in ’97 back home in Washington and there is some indication that around then Mike was residing there as well. I guess he just gets to be one of the mystery guys in the set.

Mike favors his given name in his signature and gets some pretty good star bullets. That ’71 IL season seems to have gone much better than his ’69 one did. His dad hit .269 as an infielder with the Reds, White Sox, Orioles, and Cubs once his career got started after getting delayed by WW II. His uncle was a cup of coffee guy, hitting .202 for the Philadelphia A’s in ’47, his only season.

This guy played so rarely that I am going to relax my standards and do the hook-up through Chicago:

1. Adams and Jerry Morales ’76 Cubs;

2. Morales and Enzo Hernandez ’71 to ’73 Padres.

#572 - Enzo Hernandez

In what looks to be a dreamy landscape, Enzo Hernandez doesn’t appear to be too happy. That’s understandable since ’73 was the year the Padres, looking to boost what had been pitiable offense at the shortstop position, tried to give the gig to someone else, namely Derrell Thomas or Rich Morales. But Derrell was more of a second baseman and Rich didn’t provide too much offense of his own and so by the next year Enzo would be back in the hole, taking his chances. He was also seen as a better all-around defender than either guy and was generally acknowledged to be a defensive whiz, and one of his highlights for ’73 was his error-less run of 42 straight games. A quick check of his stats at shortstop, though, reveals pretty pedestrian numbers. But reputations die hard and if Enzo was going to suffer from his bad offensive one, it was only fair he got some mojo back with his defensive one.

Enzo Hernandez was playing ball in his home country of Venezuela for a state team when he was spotted by the Astros and signed in early ’67. Though he hit only .187 in A ball that summer, he did some good defensive work and showed enough hustle to keep everyone interested. In ’68 he upped his average and fielding percentage a bit at the same level before getting a couple games of action in Triple A. He was then part of the trade that sent Mike Cuellar to Baltimore and in ’69 again occupied mostly the A level during the season after a couple games in Double A. Again he perked up his offense, remained steady on D, and stole 26 bases in 30 attempts. Then in ’70 he amped his offense up to impressive numbers at both Double A (.282) and Triple A (.266) levels while scoring a combined 88 runs. Not too bad for a Seventies shortstop but back then Mark Belanger was still relatively young. So when another big deal came up Enzo was on the move again, this time with Tom Phoebus, Fred Beene, and Al Severinsen to San Diego for Pat Dobson and Tom Dukes. He was the only non-pitcher of the deal.

Prior to the ’71 season the Padres had never really had a regular shortstop and in ’70 four guys filled the position. After a pretty good camp Hernandez was given the job and provided some stability, if not excellent defense, leading the NL in errors. But the real knock on him was his offense and he got a degree of infamy by coming in last in the league in the three Triple Crown categories. To be fair, though, he walked nearly twice as much as he struck out, he stole 21 bases, and he laid down a mean bunt. In ’72 he put in the most time at shortstop but the Padres also gave some time to rookie Derrell Thomas and recent acquisition Fred Stanley. Enzo’s average went south but his power improved a bit and he upped his stolen base total to 24 and got caught only three times. In ’74 Thomas spent his extra time trying to mend things at third base and Enzo got his most starts, upped his at bats to over 500, recorded personal highs in doubles (19),  RBI’s (34), and stolen bases (37), while hitting .232. ’75 and ’76 then resembled ’72 since the Padres picked up Hector Torres to share time at short. They were both big upticks offensively, though: In ’75 Enzo hit .218 while stealing 20 bases and leading MLB with 24 sacrifice hits (in only 344 at bats); and in ’76 he skied his average at .256 and his OBA at .319 while knocking in 24 and putting up 16 sac bunts in just 340 at bats. But in ’77 the Padres went high profile with an all-rookie keystone combo of Mike Champion at second and Dartmouth graduate Billy Almon at shortstop and their constancy in the line-up as well as a herniated back disc limited Enzo’s season to only four at bats. He was released in spring training of ’78, picked up by LA, and after spending nearly the whole season in Triple A - .264 with a .364 OBA – he was released in late August, ending his stateside career. He hit .224 up top with 129 stolen bases (vs. 33 times being caught) and only 151 K’s in his over 2,300 at bats and hit .240 in the minors with 63 stolen bases.

Hernandez had also played winter ball in Venezuela during a career roughly commensurate with his one in the States, hitting .247 with 55 stolen bases from ’67 to ’79. At some point the major stadium in his hometown was named after him. Like most Latin players, his post-baseball activity has been hard to track, at least until earlier this year. This past January, apparently reeling from a continued struggle with depression, he committed suicide in his home. He was 63.

Enzo actually gets an offensive prop in his star bullets for some work in his initial season. I don’t think he ever needed that garb in winter ball down there. He seems to have favored living places with awfully long names.

Let’s use a pitcher who was a one-time golden boy:

1. Hernandez and Alan Foster ’75 to ’76 Padres;

2. Foster and Rich Hand ’71 Indians.

#571 - Rich Hand

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

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

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

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

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

An outfielder who habitually returned to Chicago helps here:

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

2. Bradford and Ralph Garr ’76 White Sox.

#570 - Ralph Garr

Now this is a great action shot. Topps seems to have thought so as well since they used it again for Ralph Garr’s ’75 card. On its own it’s pretty cool but it also does a nice job demonstrating Ralph’s batting style. Known as Roadrunner, he was about the best bad ball hitter in baseball, nearly standing on the plate in his stance and getting a significant number of hits off non-strikes. After contact he sort of fell down the first base line almost before his swing was done so it wasn’t rare to see his helmet dislodged. Here it looks like he lined one to the left-center gap in Atlanta in what was a bit of an off year as he hit below .300 for the first time as a regular. But it was a very good .299 given that he put up 200 hits, 94 runs, and eleven triples. He also topped out career-wise with his doubles total and his 35 stolen bases. And it wasn’t a bad preview year for his ’74 which would be pretty excellent with serious potential to be one of the best ever.

Ralph Garr grew up in Ruston, Louisiana, where in school he was a speedy infielder and a halfback/wide receiver in football. He came from a family of eight kids and growing up pretty much supported himself shining shoes on weekends. He played local ball as well and one of his coaches had a relationship with nearby Grambling University. Ralph had the skills to play there but not the size – he was about 145 pounds when he finished high school – or so thought the Grambling coach. So in the summer of ’63 he graduated and in fall ball he played for a couple local teams against the school until he showed enough props to make the team. He didn’t play too much his freshman year but thereafter he took over second base and hit .418 for his career there, leading the school to a record of 103-11 during his time at the school. His senior year was impressive enough to get him listed in SI's Faces in the Crowd section: he hit .586 with eleven triples as Grambling rang up a record of 35-1. It also got him drafted that summer in the third round by the Braves. His pro career began that summer in Double A, where he hit .274 while playing second. But his defense was pretty suspect – it always had been – and in ’68 the Braves moved him to the outfield. That year at the same level he hit .293 with 32 stolen bases before making his debut in September. In ’69 he spent all of April in Atlanta, but hit below .200 in a couple starts and in May moved to Triple A, upped his average to .329, and his stolen base total to 63, and got back with Atlanta in September. ’70 was pretty much a repeat performance – that outfield of Rico Carty, Tony Gonzales, and Hank Aaron, .300 hitters all, was tough to crack – and after getting a hit in ten pinch at bats through early May he returned to Triple A where he hit a record .386 while swiping 39 bases. This time when he went back up he hit over .300 his last month. When he followed that up with a .417 in the Dominican winter league Atlanta recognized a spot needed to be made.

The plan following the ’70 season was that Garr and Sonny Jackson, who’d been converted from shortstop, would swap time in center field after the trade of Tony Gonzales late that year. But while Ralph was doing his damage in the Dominican, Rico Carty was on the receiving end in the same league and he would miss the entire season to an injury sustained there. So Ralph got left field all to himself and nearly matched Rico’s NL-leading average the prior season by having a bang up first year as a regular. His 101 runs and 30 stolen bases were personal highs for a while. Carty came back in ’72 so Ralph put in most of his time at the corners as well as some starts in center. In ’73 Carty went to Texas and Hank Aaron returned to the outfield so Ralph moved to right. He would put up some pretty high error totals wherever he was put but his response to criticism was that he was so fast that he was reaching – or barely reaching – balls other outfielders would never get. He did lead the league in putouts a couple times and was always near the top in that stat so maybe he had something there. In ’74 he went on a rampage and got his 100^th hit by June and his 200^th by August and was on target to knock off Ralph Terry’s record of 254 hits in a season. But he got hurt in early September, missing three weeks, though he still won the batting title with a .353 average on 214 hits (had he done his season average for the games he missed, he would have put up 241 hits). He was an All-Star that year for the only time and his first four seasons as a regular had accumulated 800 hits, pretty impressive stuff for a guy deemed too small for college ball. In ’75 Ralph went to arbitration over his contract and also experienced not hitting in front of Aaron for the first time in Atlanta. Both contributed to a discounted season as his hit count declined by 40 and his average fell to .278, though he again led the NL in triples. After the season he went to the White Sox with Larvell Blanks for Ken Henderson, Dick Ruthven, and Ozzie Osborn (there’s that name again).

The ’76 White Sox were in a bit of disarray and that year pretty much bottomed out the team’s post-Dick Allen decline. So Ralph put in pretty much equal time at the three outfield positions while reviving his average to hit an even .300. He then got to enjoy his first serious pennant run as a regular in ’77 as a member of the Southside Hitmen, again hitting .300 with better support numbers. He also returned to a permanent home in left field as manager Bob Lemon helped things out by realigning the line-up. In ’78 his at bats fell as he missed some time to minor injuries, an outfield youth movement, and a few games after a late-season fight with pitcher Francisco Barrios. That year he hit .275 with a slight decline in power. The next year he split time in left with Junior Moore and was hitting .280 before a late September sale to California for that team’s pennant drive. For the Angels in his few games he didn’t do too much and then got shut out of post-season action. He remained with California in ’80 but after starting that season with a sub-.200 average as an infrequently-used DH, he was released in June, ending his MLB time. Ralph finished with a .306 average, 64 triples, 75 homers, 408 RBI’s, and 172 stolen bases.

In ’81 Garr played a season for the Mexico City Tigres and then settled in Houston, where he owned and managed a donut shop with a relative for a bunch of years. In ’85 he ran into his old buddy Hank Aaron at the baseball winter meetings and Hank gave him a position as an area scout for the Braves. He did that for over 20 years while continuing to be involved in his shop. He has also done some minor league coaching work for the Braves as well as community work and this year he represented the team at the first year draft. He was also inducted earlier this year into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Roadrunner gets some pretty excellent star bullets. His cartoon is pretty cool also. Let’s investigate that feat: the September 8^th game of that year was Ralph's fourth up top and it was home against Houston. In the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied at 1-1, Joe Torre stroked a single off Dave Giusti with one out, scoring Felix Millan from third, and moving Hank Aaron from first to third. In came Danny Coombs to relieve Giusti and with Hank’s brother Tommie at the plate, Atlanta tried a squeeze play. Though Tommie missed the pitch, Hank successfully stole home and Ralph stole second on the play. The Braves would win 4-1, getting their final run when Tommie knocked in Ralph. So Topps got some bad info, though stealing home sounds a lot better than being on the back end of a double steal.

A flashy teammate gets these two together:

1. Garr and Pat Kelly ’76 White Sox;

2. Kelly and Rick Dempsey ’77 to ’80 Orioles.

#569 - Rick Dempsey

In probably the best pose demonstrating the Yankee Stadium 50^th Anniversary patch, Rick Dempsey shows his batting stance with a stick that probably wouldn’t pass the pine tar threshold. Rick barely had any playing time in NY because Gerry Moses was the number two guy to Thurman Munson. So Rick spent most of his time at Triple A Syracuse where his numbers weren’t too bad for a guy who was a defensive specialist: .248 with six homers, 47 RBI’s and a .338 OBA in his 387 at bats. He would get up to back-up status the next two years in NY, though he had to literally fight Bill Sudakis for it – see the details on that guy’s post – but it would be a big trade in ’76 that would finally get him to the role for which he would earn his renown. This is also Rick's final card pre-mustache.

Rick Dempsey had two parents who were stage stars in NYC, his dad in vaudeville, and his mom on Broadway. Somehow he was born in Tennessee and then relocated to the LA area when he was a kid so his parents could find work in show business. Rick went to a small Catholic high school there where he played football but didn’t start catching until his senior year. He must have made a pretty quick impression because he was drafted by the Twins that June and as a 17-year old Rookie baller hit .206 but with excellent defense at both catcher and in the outfield, where he played about a third of his games. In A ball in ’68 he showed some decent pop, hitting a combined .285 for a couple teams, with eight homers and 61 RBI’s. In ’69 came some military time, a big show in A ball with a .364 average, six homers, and 31 RBI’s in 151 at bats, and his debut in Minnesota in September. '70 was pretty much a repeat, with some late season relief work up top after hitting .245 in Double A with a contraction in his power. He hit a tad better at that level in ’71 with a big reduction in his strikeouts and then batted .236 in Triple A in ’72 in his 161 at bats after spending the first half of the season on the Minnesota roster behind George Mitterwald and Phil Roof. Following that season he was sent to the Yankees for outfielder Danny Walton.

In more recent interviews, Dempsey has indicated he was a big fan of Thurman Munson’s and that Thurm was actually pretty sweet to him, though that would have been a surprise when they were playing together. I remember one time shortly after the trade away from NY Rick claimed he was the superior catcher which I thought absurd. But for two-plus seasons they worked well together. In ’74 Rick busted the 100 at bat barrier for the first time, hit .239, and threw out 16 of the 22 guys that tried to run on him. In ’75 he upped his average to .262 with an OBA above .350, and also got some work as DH. Then in ’76 he’d barely been used when at the June trading deadline he, Tippy Martinez, Dave Pagan, Rudy May, and Scott McGregor went to Baltimore for Doyle Alexander, Ken Holtzman, Elrod Hendricks, and Grant Jackson.

Once Dempsey made it to Baltimore he became the number one guy behind the plate, that season starting 53 games in the second half. Good thing too, because he threw out 53% of attempted base stealers, leading the majors. He would repeat that status in ’77 when he caught 58% and during his time in Baltimore he would put up a considerable premium in that stat to the rest of the league. His hitting wouldn’t be anything too special – at least not in the regular season – but it wasn’t crazy bad as he averaged .239/7/34 seasons during his ten-plus years there. But he would do an excellent job continuing the tradition of catching a premium pitching staff during most of his run there and he would be half of a battery of 16 Cy Young winners during his career. Twice during his Baltimore run he led the AL in fielding percentage, once in assists, and once in double plays. He sort of famously would often be at odds with manager Earl Weaver though he was certainly Earl’s type of player. And he would generally step things up in the post-season: he hit .400 in the ’79 playoffs and .286 in that year’s Series and then had his best run in the ’83 Series when every one of his five hits went for extra bases and he won the Series MVP. In ’85 and ’86 Rick’s strikeout totals ratcheted up a bunch in part due to bone chips floating around in his elbow. By that second season the O’s were in decline mode and at 36 Rick departed Baltimore as a free agent and got surgery to repair the elbow damage.

For the ’87 season Dempsey signed with Cleveland to provide some veteran support and locker room wisdom for a young club that was generally viewed as on the rise (SI picked them to win their division). But that team crashed and burned right away and in the midst of it Rick was having a tough time negotiating his return from surgery. After hitting .177 with zero power in his 141 at bats he was released by the Tribe the following winter. A few months later he was picked up by the Dodgers to pretty much perform the same role, mostly in support of Mike Sciosia. That first year Tommy Lasorda did his best Earl Weaver impersonation, riding a super pitching staff and a well-thought platooning system to the post-season. Rick played an integral part, posting a .255/7/30 season in his 167 at bats and then stroked the ball at a .300 clip as LA surprised first the Mets and then Oakland in winning the whole thing. He would then spend two more seasons in LA in back-up mode, his hitting discounted a bit, but still nailing runners at a significant premium to his peers. In ’91 he signed with Milwaukee as a free agent in the same role and then in ’92 he returned to Baltimore for a few games before he retired as an Oriole at 42. Rick hit .233 for his career with 96 homers and 471 RBI’s and a not too bad .319 OBA. In the post-season he hit .303 with eleven doubles, a homer, and seven RBI’s in 25 games.

 Dempsey was a productive guy both on and off the field. During his career he ran a gym on the left coast with his wife a few years and did some color commentary work for sports events. It was during one of those that he threw a bat at Weaver after the manager chewed him out on air. When he was done playing he became a manager in the minors, first for LA (’93-’95) and then for the Mets (’97-’98), going a combined 345-358 and winning a title. He then moved up top to coach for the Dodgers (’99-2000) and Baltimore (2002-’06). In 2001 he was a broadcaster for Baltimore, a role he has also taken since 2007 for the local cable affiliate, MASN. He also designs his own ties and has an eponymous food court entry at Camden Yards. He has some good YouTube videos, including his rain delay activities, and a three-part interview from 2008 when he was inducted into his high school’s hall of fame.

Rick gets the star bullets for his minors work though that second one seems redundant. His relationship to Jack Dempsey was also mentioned on his ’75 card though I have been unable to verify it away from these instances. I guess several Yankees trying to break up that Sudakis fight wouldn’t contest it. If you do check out the YouTube vid for his high school – Rick is good but the interviewer is super lame – the final installment ends with him signing a few baseballs, all with his left hand. I wonder why he became a righty for baseball.

These two were ships in the night, missing each other a couple years in both NY and Baltimore:

1. Dempsey and Lee May ’76 to ’80 Orioles;

2. May and Mike Torrez ’75 Orioles.

#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.