#590 - Rogelio Moret

On just about every one of his Topps cards Rogelio Moret is bending over. It may have been because at 6’4” (minimally) it was hard for him to fit in the frame otherwise. This card is a busy one and Rogelio appears to be around third base so those are probably infielders behind him but I can't put a finger on who they are. Rogelio had what for him would be a typical multi-faceted season in ’73. Up for good to begin the season he threw shutout ball his first 15 innings, which encompassed a start and two long relief outings. He tore a ligament in that third game after getting hit covering first base and missed the next month. When he returned at the end of May the Sox brought him back slowly and he didn’t get another start until July 4, when he shut out the Yankees. Then Boston didn’t start him again until August 2 – what was wrong with those guys? – when he shut out the Yankees. Finally the Sox got smart, left him in the rotation, and by early September Rogelio was 11-0. He cooled off a tad that month but he had the best winning percentage in the AL, got a “10” card from Topps, and was set to go. Nobody was going to stop him except Rogelio. Which was – sort of – exactly what happened.

Rogelio Moret was born and raised in Guayama, Puerto Rico where he played ball in high school and then winter ball for the Santurce Crabbers where he was discovered and then signed during the ’67-’68 season by Boston. Sent to A ball that summer, Rogelio put up a nice season though his control was a bit out of whack, which would be an issue throughout his career. He remained in A ball in ’69, doubling his win total. In ’70 he pretty much matched those numbers up a rung and made his debut in Boston in three games in September, winning his only start. He then took his game to Triple A in ’71 where he again had similar numbers around a brief May call-up. He returned to Boston in mid-August, got some starts in September, and threw a shutout against the Senators in his last start. But he posted his biggest numbers that winter when he went 14-1 with a 1.82 ERA to win his league’s mvp award. The Sox were pretty excited about his ’72 season but after a poor spring contributed to by some nagging shoulder injuries he ended spring training doing rehab work in the minors and only made some token appearances in Boston. He spent most of the season back in Triple A and it wasn’t a very good one. But after a pretty good winter – back then Don Baylor, Dusty Baker, and Buck Martinez were on his team – Rogelio got the nod in ’73 and gave the Sox an excellent season.

Moret’s follow-up season to his big breakthrough was better in that he wasn’t injured but the numbers weren’t nearly as good as he again began the season as a spot and long relief guy and through June had only started four games, completing two of them. He’d had knee surgery the prior November on his right leg, the one injured the prior spring and that had been re-injured in winter ball. He then returned to the rotation full-time in July and did well enough but the overall results were middling as he went 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA. In ’75 he began the season again in the pen, lost three weeks to an abdominal injury, and by late May had only gotten into a few games and had a fat ERA. But by the end of June he was 5-0 and had pulled his ERA down a couple runs when – following the script – Boston put him back in the rotation. Things generally went well from that point on as Rogelio finished the season with a 14-3 record and a 3.60 ERA. The word “generally” is used because in late August he was involved in a car accident in Jersey in which he nearly got beheaded. He was fine but after initially telling the team he was rear-ended by a semi, it later turned out he was the one that caused the accident. That and some other aberrant behavior made Rogelio expendable so even though he again led the AL in winning percentage and did some OK work in the post-season, that December he was sent to Atlanta for Tom House.

Moret’s year with the Braves was pretty messy. Again sent to the bullpen to open the season he began the year with another big ERA but this time didn’t start the year undefeated and never really came out of his funk. He got a couple starts in mid-May and then a few in June, all of which were less than spectacular, though not horribly so. But after a June 29 start he sort of disappears for pretty much the rest of the summer. He didn’t go to the minors and there is no indication he was injured but in one article written later it was mentioned that he had an “episode” that required some rehab. He would throw in a couple games in mid-September but that was it as he finished 3-5 with a 5.00 ERA. In December he was involved in another trade, this time going to Texas with Adrian Devine, Dave May, Ken Henderson, Carl Morton and cash for Jeff Burroughs.  Similar to his Atlanta time, a big chunk of Rogelio’s season goes missing as he didn’t appear in a game until the end of June and then missed three weeks in July. But the work he did do was better as he went 3-3 with four saves and a 3.73 ERA in his spot role. In ’78 his first game effort resulted in a save from four innings of very good relief. Then all hell broke loose. Before a game later in April Rogelio was found standing and holding out his arm holding a shower slipper. No big deal except it was estimated he held the pose for over 45 minutes and he either had to be sedated or coaxed into an ambulance and taken away for a few weeks. It would later turn out that Rogelio suffered from a form of schizophrenia which was reinforced by constant stress put on him by his extended family. Rogelio would return to Arlington in late May and throw in a few games but by mid-June he was done, spending the rest of the season undergoing therapy. He had a decent spring when he returned in ’79 but the Rangers released him anyway towards the end of camp. After sitting out that season he signed a contract with both Cleveland and the White Sox before being awarded to the Tribe. But for them he didn’t make it out of ‘80’s spring training either. He then went south and pitching for Mexican League teams went 9-4 with a 2.42 ERA in ’81 before falling to 4-13 with a 4.40 ERA in ’82. He also threw for Santurce through that winter in his final season. Rogelio went 47-27 with a 3.66 ERA, 24 complete games, five shutouts, and twelve saves. In the post-season he was 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in his four games.

Not too surprisingly, things didn’t go terribly swimmingly for Moret after he played. He was unable to get steady work back home in PR and no baseball teams in the States would touch him. And once he stopped earning a regular paycheck his family away from his mom all dumped him. By ’85 he was living with her back in Guayama. There’d been lots of rumors that his psychological problems had been initiated by a steady diet of hallucinogens which he always denied and was never proven. But early in ’86 he was busted with some pot and sentenced initially to five years in jail that was later changed to probation. In ’92 SI caught up with him still in PR where he was making ends meet with a modest disability pension while awaiting his MLB one kicking in. He has a Facebook page which seems to indicate he now resides in San Juan – it is in Spanish – and which has a couple photos. He looks quite healthy in them.

As noted above Rogelio actually won eleven straight to kick off ’73. A little more background color could have been provided with another star bullet.

He wasn’t there very long but Rogelio’s Atlanta time helps here:

1. Moret and Carl Morton ’76 Braves;

2. Morton and Boots Day ’70 to ’72 Expos.

#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.

#588 - Hal Lanier

It has happened a couple times in this set where Topps goes from a guy just beginning his career to one just ending it. In the latest rendition of that segue the guy on the back end is Hal Lanier, shown in the on-deck circle at Yankee Stadium. Hal was really done in that the stats on the back of his card would be his final ones up top and by the time this card came out he wasn’t a Yankee any more but the property of the Cardinals. In ’73 Hal backed up Gene Michael at shortstop during one of Gene’s busier seasons so Hal didn’t get too much work. He’d backed up third base the prior year as one of several guys to man the position between Jerry Kenney and Graig Nettles. So his time in NY was all reserve stuff and he was basically in wind-down mode for a while. But it wouldn’t be too long before he raised his profile again

Hal Lanier was born in North Carolina in 1942, smack dab in the middle of his dad’s MLB career. Max Lanier was a pitcher for the Cardinals and by the time his career ended he had relocated first to California and then to Florida where Max attended high school. A pitcher and infielder at that level, he took his school to the state finals and then was signed by the Giants that June of 1961 for a $50,000 (or $75,000) bonus. He had also passed on a full ride to play hoops at the University of Florida. He would hit at a nice clip in the minors, beginning in D ball in ’61, when he batted .315 while playing shortstop. He moved to second base the next few years as he moved up the ladder: In C ball in ’62 he hit .312; in Double A in ’63 it was .282 as he led his league in hits; and in ’64 when he hit .327 before being called up to San Francisco. In one of the odder stat items I have seen Hal had only six walks that year in 270 plate appearances. He may have hit well in the minors but he was no Joe Morgan at getting on base.

In 1964 the Giants had Jim Davenport and Chuck Hiller splitting time at second base during the first half of the year. Neither of the two was hitting very well so San Francisco called up the hot-hitting Lanier to add some offense in the middle. To a degree Hal delivered and his .274 average was good enough to get him named to that year’s Topps Rookie Team. But other stats – especially the walk total of five in his 400 plate appearances – were more telling of his future offensive behavior. That would become evident in ’65 when Hal’s average dropped nearly 50 points though he continued to build his reputation as a very good defender. That year he also suffered a pretty nasty beaning. In ’66 Tito Fuentes came up and since he was a more natural second baseman, Hal put in some time at shortstop and by ’67 it was his full-time position. That year he topped out in RBI’s with 42 though his average continued to slide. He remained the starter through ’70 when he had his best offensive season since his rookie year. In ’71 new kid Chris Speier took over the position and Hal spent most of the year at third base. Just prior to the ’72 season he was sold to the Yankees for whom he proved to be a helpful stopgap that year since the anticipated starter at third base, Rich McKinney, sort of crashed and burned. Hal was released following the ’73 season and before ’74 opened hooked up with the Cardinals. For them that year he played every infield spot in Triple A while hitting .269 and the next year had a gig as a player coach for the same team. That pretty much wrapped up his playing career and along with the stats on the back he had one post-season at bat without a hit and hit .295 in the minors.  

Following the ’75 season Hal was given his release by the Cards and found a job selling cars back in San Jose, California, where he continued to live after he left the Giants. That December the Cards came back to him, though, and offered him a job managing in the team’s system on which Hal pounced. ’76 wasn’t too hot but the next four years Hal won his league’s title twice and in ’81 was pulled up to coach in St. Louis. He did that through ’85 when he was hired away to manage the Astros. Installing a Cards-type running game in Houston he won 96 games and the division his first year as well as NL Manager of the Year. But the next two years weren’t as successful and Hal, sort of an old school guy, had some tension brewing between him and some of his players. He was dismissed after the ’88 season after having gone 254-232 in his three years. After a year off he coached for the Phillies for ’90 and ’91. He interviewed for the Yankees manager job and a couple others in ’92 but didn’t get back in baseball until ’96. Since then Hal has been managing in the independent leagues, a bunch of that time in Canada. Through 2011 he took his team to the playoffs nine of his 16 seasons and during that time he went 1,020-857. After a year of in 2012 he was named manager of the independent Yuma Desert Rats but that team later pulled out of the new league – the American West Baseball League – of which it was to be a part so as far as I can tell Hal continues to be retired.

Hal is in the top 100 all-time in fielding percentage for shortstops. His dad, Max, had a pretty good run as a pitcher, mostly with the Cards during the WW II years. He was 108-82 with a 3.01 ERA and in ‘43 had probably his best season, going 15-7 with an NL-leading ERA of 1.90. He got in three straight Series with St. Louis, winning two, and went 2-1 with a 1.71 ERA in his seven games.

Hal and Larry get helped out big by an ex-Giant:

1. Lanier and Bobby Bonds ’68 to ’71 Giants;

2. Bonds and Garry Maddox ’72 to ’74 Giants;

3. Maddox and Larry Christenson ’75 to ’83 Phillies.

#587 - Larry Christenson

The latest big deal rookie of the ’74 set is Larry Christenson and this is his rookie card since at this time the prior year Larry was still playing high school ball. Larry had a pretty good debut in ’73, sticking with the MLB roster out of camp when he was just 19. He threw a five-hit complete-game win at the Mets in his first start ever, giving up only one run. Tellingly, he also walked six in that game and a little wildness and too many big hits given up would have him back in Triple A by early June. There he didn’t throw much better though his control got more balanced and his record moved back to the winning side. Larry would be a Phillie his whole career and would battle through lots of injuries to do pretty well. Here he casts a glaze in Candlestick probably not too soon before he was sent down. But he’d be back pretty soon.

Larry Christenson grew up in Washington State where he played nearly everything, including in high school tennis, cross country, baseball, and basketball. That last one was his biggest sport and during his senior year in which he averaged 21 PPG as a forward he was recruited by all the Pac-Ten schools. He was headed in that direction when he sort of exploded in baseball that spring, going 7-2 with a 0.28 ERA and 143 strikeouts in his 72 innings. He also hit .406 and stole eleven bases. That June of ’72 the Phillies made Larry the third pick of the draft and after a very good start in Rookie ball that summer he joined the Phillies out of the gate in ’73.

In ’74 Christenson went 11-9 with a 3.30 ERA and much better control in Triple A before returning to Philadelphia late that August to go 1-1 in some relief work with a 4.30 ERA and a couple saves. He again began the next year in Triple A but after 12 shutout innings in his two starts he was back in the pen by mid-May. By mid-June he was in the rotation and he finished the year 11-6 with a 3.67 ERA and only 45 walks in over 170 innings. In ’76 he upped his win total to 13 with the same ERA but missed some time due to injury. He had a chronic bad back since high school and as a result would suffer occasional groin pulls. A good hitter, that year he teed off a couple solo homers in a game against the Mets. In ’77 Larry had his big year, going 19-6 with a 4.06 ERA and doubling his strikeout totals from the prior year. He also had his first playoff action. Then in ’78 his record was a disappointing 13-14 but he lowered his ERA nearly a run and topped out his complete game (9) and shutout (3) totals. Then in ’79 the injury bug bit him hard and before the season even began. He’d signed up to do an 1,800 mile bike ride – that’s pretty impressive – for charity back on the left coast and was going at a pretty good clip on the tour in February when he fell off the bike and broke his collarbone. While the initial injury was bad enough, it got worse when after the season started the collarbone developed a spur that required surgery. He missed a ton of time and for the year went 5-10 as his ERA flew up to 4.50. It would be more of the same the next two seasons as he lost time to elbow injuries, more groin pulls, and a smash to the knee on a comebacker. In ’80 he went 5-1 in his 14 starts and in ’81 4-7 around the injuries and the strike. In ’82 he had a relatively healthy year, going 9-10 with a 3.47 ERA in his first season of over 200 innings since ’78. But the rebound was short-lived as in ’83 after a not bad start – 2-4 but with great control and a 3.91 ERA – he hurt his elbow again and required two more surgeries. The Phillies released him after the season – on his birthday! – and Larry was done with a record of 83-71, 27 complete games, six shutouts, four saves, and a 3.79 ERA. In the post-season he was 1-2 with a 7.40 ERA in six games. He hit .150 for his career but with eleven homers and 46 RBI’s in 427 at bats.

Christenson was only 29 when Philadelphia let him go after the ’83 season and he had a deal with the club that if he rehabbed successfully they would take him back. So the next couple years that was what he did, for a while returning to do some kinesiology work with a certain Dr. Mike Marshall, former LA reliever. But the rehab never really worked and by ’86 he had moved on to a new career as a financial advisor, which he began in earnest after moving back to the Philadelphia area – where most of his professional contacts resided – in ’87. He worked on the advisor side through ’94 and then moved to the investment management side that year for the next ten years, part of it with Phoenix Investment Partners, a huge money manager. In 2004 he founded his own business, Larry Christenson Investment Partners, which offers products and services to investment managers. It has been a pretty successful run for him and has allowed him to be very involved in charitable work and occasional appearances on behalf of his old team. He continues to reside in the Philadelphia neck of the woods.

There’s Larry’s high school record as a senior so I didn’t need to plow through those old news articles. Who were the two guys chosen ahead of Larry? We’ve seen one of them already and the other would have his Topps unveiling in the ’76 set: Dave Roberts, third baseman from the University of Oregon was selected first by the Padres; and Rick Manning, then a high school shortstop from the Niagara Falls area in NY, was selected second by Cleveland. I do not know what Larry did for the lumber company in the off-season but given the status of his back, I hope it wasn’t swinging an axe.

These one-team guys can be tough:

1. Christenson and Ed Farmer – what a save! – ’74 and ’82 to ’83 Phillies;

2. Farmer and Jack Brohamer ’72 to ’73 Indians.

#586 - Jack Brohamer

And they called Walt Williams No-Neck! It’s obviously just the pose but Walt’s ’73 teammate Jack Brohamer here looks like a much more appropriate subject for that handle. I want to say Jack is in Cleveland since the color of the seats looks about right and that looks like the first uniform letter is an "I" so I am sticking with that choice. Wherever he is he, like Merv Rettenmund, was in not a great spot in his career. ’73 had to be frustrating for him. After putting up a good enough rookie season in ’72 to get named to both the Topps and Baseball Digest rookie teams, Jack came out of the box the next year with an average that would aspire to Mendoza proportions. He missed extensive time to some injuries and his bat and split his second base duties with Tom Ragland and John Lowenstein. Jack had a spanking card in ’73 when it looks like he’s just failed to avoid a tag by Bobby Grich. So this one of him imitating a turtle is a poor follow-up. But Jack was hardly a shrinking violet as a couple of his career choices will attest.

Jack Brohamer grew up in Huntington Beach, California, where he was all-area in hoops and presumably pretty good in baseball since he was drafted by Cleveland upon graduating in ’67. He played local ball that summer so his pro career didn’t begin until the next spring when he hit pretty well for two A teams while playing mostly shortstop. In ’69 he remained at that level and added some second base to his field work. In ’70 he was more of a utility guy adding third base to his repertoire and both his average and his confidence suffered even though he was now performing at both Double A Savannah and Triple A Wichita. That also happened during his ’71 all in Triple A and Jack was ready to return home – this from his SABR bio – when that July he was made the regular second baseman. By spring training of the following year both Jack and his manager Ken Aspromonte were moved up to Cleveland.

For the past couple seasons the Indians’ regular second baseman had been Eddie Leon and Brohamer was brought up to do reserve work. But Leon’s offense went south in a hurry and before too long Jack was given the starting role at second. He did a nice job defensively, hit his first two homers the same day, and got those spots on the two rookie teams. After his setback in ’73 he came out of spring training behind Angel Hermoso, the former Expo who’d come up from the minors to win the second base job. But Angel got steamrolled at second in May, went on the DL, and Jack got the gig back, though he missed nearly all of August with a pulled muscle. He had a much better year offensively, hitting over .300 his first month as a regular, and settling at .270 for the season. In ’75 Jack had the regular job Opening Day but in May he went down after sliding into second, bruising a hip which later became infected and missing nearly three months. The problem this time was that the Tribe had a young guy, Duane Kuiper, on the roster who was scratching for playing time and was quite good, so that while Jack had plenty of starting time when he was healthy his injury opened the way for Kuiper to succeed him. After the season Jack went to the White Sox for Larvell Blanks, another infielder.

In ’76 Chicago traded third baseman Bill Melton to California and they moved regular second baseman Jorge Orta to third to fill in the gap. So Brohamer became the regular guy again, splitting work there with Bill Stein. Jack bumped his average up to .251 and had his lifetime high in RBI”s with 40 though the season was pretty tough with the Sox finishing in the cellar. In ’77 the team signed Eric Soderholm to play third so Orta returned to second with his bigger bat and Jack settled into a reserve role, playing more at third that year than at second. Prior to the ’78 season he signed with Boston as a free agent, where for the next two-plus seasons he would split time pretty evenly between second and third. In ’78 with starter Butch Hobson being hurt a bunch, Jack got into about half the games including the playoff one against the Yankees. In ’79 he hit .266 and in ’80 was hitting .316 when he was sold back to the Tribe in June. He finished up that year and his career splitting time at second the rest of the way. After that he retired to move on to his new career and finished his old one with a .245 average, 30 homers, and 227 RBI’s. He was pretty good at not striking out – once in about eleven at bats – and only his rookie year did his K totals top his walk ones.

Brohamer’s dad had been a machinist while Jack was growing up and for Jack’s first few off-seasons he returned to the west coast to work with his dad where his specialty was building pumps for oil wells. He also began taking classes at Golden West College which he would put to use in a career he actually started before he finished playing ball: as a police detective in Ocean City. He specialized in sexual predation, particularly of kids, and became sort of renowned locally for his work. He did that through the late Nineties when he suffered a back injury on the job that forced him into quasi-retirement on disability. When he got healthier after a long rehab he returned to his golf game – he is about a scratch golfer – and in 2004 began writing reviews of area golf clubs for a local magazine. He also consulted to his old police department, mostly on background checks. He still resides in California, playing golf, and is pretty much retired.

That’s a fun way to kick off a career in that first star bullet. Jack got a couple wisps of mention in the “The Curse of...” book by Terry Pluto. Jack, like just about everyone else who enjoyed the experience, had stories about playing behind Gaylord Perry. He told a local writer that if he made an error behind Perry, the pitcher would step to the top of the mound and just stare at him which must have been pretty imposing since Gaylord went 6’4” without the mound. He also said that Perry could be generous and when the strike happened in late spring training of Jack’s rookie year and nobody was getting paid Gaylord told Jack and fellow rookie Buddy Bell that he’d cover their expenses until the strike was over.

A career got resuscitated in Cleveland in ’75 and that helps us here:

1. Brohamer and Boog Powell ’75 Indians;

2. Powell and Merv Rettenmund ’69 to ’73 Orioles.

#585 - Merv Rettenmund

In a nearly identical pose to the one on his ’73 card, Merv Rettenmund gives us that staring down the bat handle thing. Merv’s not smiling in this photo like he was in ’72 though, and he had reason not to in ’73. After a hot start for a couple weeks his offense faded pretty quickly and by mid-season he was losing starting time in right field to new guys Rich Coggins and Al Bumbry. It was a continuation of the flameout that was initiated partly with a shoulder injury he suffered in ’72 and led to the trade pictured here. Judging from the palm trees in the background I’d say the regular card photo is a spring training shot. The Traded card photo appears to be from Yankee Stadium. It would take a little while for things to get right again for Merv but before too long baseball would be a happy place for him again in very different part of the country.

Merv Reteenmund grew up in Flint, Michigan, where he is still legendary as a football and baseball star and where his dad played semi-pro ball. Merv preferred the latter sport and his dad pushed him to sign after high school but when Ball State of Indiana offered him a full ride to play both sports Merv opted to go in that direction. Merv had great wheels and while at Ball State he broke a single season rushing record and for his career averaged 7.6 yards a carry, still the school record. He got hurt in the third game of his senior year, though, and missed the rest of the season. In baseball there he hit .321 for his career and after his senior year he played in the Basin League, the Upper Midwest and Canadian summer college showcase. He was runner-up for the league mvp in ’64 and played with and against Del Unser, Jim McAndrew, Don Sutton, Ken Suarez, Dick Billings, and Clyde Wright, to name a few. It was in that league that he first began playing in the outfield; he was normally a catcher up to that point. In November of ’64 Merv signed with Baltimore, a day before the Cowboys drafted him in a late round. He kicked things off in ’65 with a .244 season with a bit of power and lots of speed in A ball; once the O’s saw his wheels he was strictly an outfielder. In ’66 he upped his average to .307 and nearly doubled his homer and RBI totals to 21 and 69 respectively at the same level. He had a big season in Double A in ’67, hitting .286 with a .411 OBA and 29 stolen bases. That helped get him on the Baltimore roster to open the ’68 season and though Merv hit well in his couple plate appearances the outfield was crowded and he went down to Triple A where his .331 average, .459 OBA, and 22 homers in under 400 at bats got him that year’s TSN Minor League Player of the Year. It also got him a one-way ticket to Baltimore.

1969 was a good year to be a part of the Orioles, at least if you weren’t a rookie outfielder trying to get a regular spot already manned by three All-Stars. While Rettenmund performed well enough as the fourth outfield guy it was a frustrating season for him and he nearly quit to teach full time – he got his BS in Education from Ball State in ’66 – before his Series check made him decide to hang out. In ’70 his plate appearances moved up after Paul Blair went out following a beaning in late May. Merv made the most of the opportunity by leading the Orioles in hitting, stealing 13 bases, and providing pretty good power in what amounted to just over half a season. He then hit .375 with three RBI’s in his three post-season games. He continued on the same track in ’71 when he again led the team in hitting, upped his OBA to .422, and stole 15 bases. Against Pittsburgh in the Series he hit a big homer to help win the first game though he cooled off after that. Partly as a result of Merv’s performance the O’s shipped Frank Robinson to the Dodgers after the season and Merv was given the starting job in right field. But things went south for Merv pretty quickly. Pressing himself to replace Robinson’s power he messed up his already unorthodox swing and had to work his way up to a .260 average by early July when he dinged his shoulder hard making a diving catch in a game against Detroit. He didn’t miss too much time but the injury arrested his average getting better and he later went down for real that year when he tore an ab muscle. The O’s missed the post-season for the first time since ’68 and a year later Merv moved to Cincinnati.

Things didn’t improve with Rettenmund’s move to new surroundings. He returned to an outfield reserve and was basically a stopgap as the Reds transitioned to developing guys George Foster and Ken Griffey. In his two seasons in Cincinnati Merv hit only .227 in under 400 at bats, though his OBA wasn’t bad and he stole ten bases against only one pick. He also won his second Series ring but he was pretty happy when right after the ’76 season began he was sent to San Diego for infielder Rudy Meoli. That year wasn’t exactly a salve for his general hitting woes as he basically matched his Reds average overall. But his OBA was .361 and he did very well as a pinch-hitter, putting up an even .300 average in that role. That was a telling stat and would be Merv’s prime position the duration of his playing career. In ’77 he upped his overall numbers to a .286 average and a .432 OBA and in the pinch was pretty fantastic with a .328 average and a .451 OBA with a record 16 walks in that role. In May he had two consecutive rare games in the field in which he had four RBI’s. He became a free agent after that season and moved up the coast to Anaheim. There in ’78 his pinch average wasn’t so hot at .153 but of his two hits in that role one was a grand slam and his OBA was still quite good at .352. Overall he hit .269 with a .433 OBA and mot of that time was spent as a DH. In ’79 he hit .263 overall and in the pinch hit .417 with a .533 OBA. After a couple games in 1980 he was released in June. Merv was done then with a .271 average, 66 homers, 329 RBI’s and a .381 OBA. He hit .183 with eight RBI’s in 29 post-season games.

Rettenmund made a lot of fans late in his career with his pinch hit work and before he was released as a player he was already coaching for California. He did that through ’81 and was then the team’s director of minor league hitting. From ’83 to ’85 he coached at Texas for buddy Doug Rader but was let go when Rader was canned. From there it was minor league (’86-’88) and then MLB (’89-’90) hitting coach for Oakland. Then it was back down the coast to San Diego (’91-’99 and 2006-’07) in between which he coached for Atlanta (2000-’01) and Detroit (’02-’05). Since ’07 he has been retired from the MLB level but has continued to coach some travel teams in the San Diego area.

Merv sure has a full formal name, doesn’t he? It nearly crowds out his signature. He has star bullets and a cartoon that has been alluded to above. He was not a participant in the ’71 All-Star game and I do not have access to see the other members of that TSN team. Merv did one of those Orioles trips to Japan early in his career and became a travel nut in off-seasons. His wife liked it so much she became a travel agent in the southern California area.They later had a granddaughter who was the place kicker for her high school football team.

Topps gives Merv a nice little write-up on the back of his Traded card. The Orioles also got Junior Kennedy in the deal and, no disrespect to Merv, got the better half of the trade. It did get him on the way to the left coast though, where it seems he had his most long-lasting success.

The hook-up takes us through St. Louis:

1. Rettenmund and Luis Melendez ’76 to ’77 Padres;

2. Melendez and Ken Rudolph ’75 to ’76 Cardinals.

#584 - Ken Rudolph

In the last few posts we have had a couple of airbrushed cards. Technically this should have been another one since by the time this card appeared its subject had been traded to the Giants. In a bit of irony, then, Ken Rudolph is photographed at Candlestick, his future home. Ken was coming off his busiest year when the trade happened, having taken advantage of the continuing erosion of number one guy Randy Hundley to get some decent time behind and at the plate. Like most reserve catchers his offense wasn’t anything special and he made a few too many errors but he also threw out 42% of the guys that ran on him and that number was a discount to the ones he put up in past seasons. One of his biggest moments at bat that year was probably late in the season when he lined a single off Reggie Cleveland that would keep the Cubbies from being on the bad side of a no-hitter. That was the second time up top he pulled off that one.

Ken Rudolph was born in Illinois and at some point during his youth relocated to the Los Angeles area where he played football and baseball at Cathedral High and once threw a perfect game. From there he went to Los Angeles City College where he was team mvp before being drafted in the second round by the Cubs. After hitting .205 with good power in Rookie ball that summer he moved up to A ball where he hit .276. In ’66 he began his military hitch and around that hit .263 in A ball, again with decent power. That was followed by two more abbreviated seasons in ’67 and ’68. He hit .243 in A ball the first year but slid to .190 in a ’68 split between Double A and Triple A. After his second good IL season in a row that fall he made the Cubs roster to open the ’69 season and would spend the next three seasons shuttling between Chicago and the minors. His first hit up top was a pinch hit double against Cincinnati that began a winning rally. The first two years he spent time at Double A San Antonio, hitting .348 in a few at bats the first year and .250 the second. In ’71 his away time was in Triple A where he had his best offensive year with a .285 and 31-RBI year.

In Rudolph’s first few forays in Chicago he was either the second- or third-string guy behind the plate. The order didn’t really matter much because Randy Hundley generally played every day which would probably help wreck his knees in a couple seasons. In ’71 Ken lined a single in the ninth inning to break up a Juan Marichal no-hitter. It was his first hit of the year after going 0 for 17. That year Hundley missed nearly the whole season and in ’72 when he came back he needed to sit for extended periods so Ken got his first year of 100 at bats. At some point in ’73 the plan was to have him replace Hundley as the full-time guy – Randy was also traded prior to the ’74 season – but at some point that changed, my guess is due to Ken’s offensive output. So the Cubbies got a new number one guy from the Twins in George Mitterwald and Ken went to the Giants for pitcher Willie Prall. With the Giants he moved to the two spot behind Dave Rader, hit the game-winner in his first at bat, and upped his offense to .259 with a .350 OBA in his 158 at bats. After the season he and reliever Elias Sosa went to the Cardinals – they were both air-brushed on their ’75 cards – for Marc Hill, another catcher. St. Louis the next two seasons was similar to his early days in Chicago as Ken moved behind another catcher who rarely sat, Ted Simmons. In ’77 he was sold back to the Giants where he was almost never used behind Hill and Gary Alexander and was ironically replaced in St. Louis by Dave Rader. That July he was sold again, this time to Baltimore, who needed a quick fix for a few days while Rick Dempsey was injured. Ken did the job, hitting .286 in a few at bats, but was released after the season. Prior to ’78 spring training he signed on as a player-coach with St. Louis and pulled that role in Triple A where he hit .200 but had six dingers in only 110 at bats. That ended his playing time with an average up top of .213. In the minors he hit .250.

 In 1979 Rudolph returned to the Chicago fold where he managed the team’s Gulf Coast League franchise (he went 19-32). He seems to have then returned full-time to the Illinois area for a few years where he participated in at least one fantasy camp. By ’89 he had relocated to Arizona where he was operations manager at a UPS in Scottsdale. He also at some point obtained an education degree from the University of Nebraska – some commute from any of those places – and put it to use when in ’98 he began coaching baseball at Arcadia High School in Phoenix. He did that through 2012 when he retired. He is associated with a group in the area that does private baseball coaching. He has also had an affiliation with the Diamondbacks for a number of years as a coach and scout. He continues to reside in Arizona.

I dunno, I think Topps could have come up with a better star bullet than that second one. First off, they got the year wrong as Ken put up that average after being recalled in ’71, not ’72. Then it just invites one to ask what he hit the rest of the year which obviously wasn’t very good. That third star bullet is fun though. Through ’72 Ken threw out a pretty amazing 33 of 54 runners who attempted to steal on him. That’s a 61% clip. The cartoon is a trip also. I believe it is the most specialized and entrepreneurial off-season pastime seen thus far in the set. I wasn’t able to dig up any info regarding it though.

These two were almost always in different leagues and this one gets long:

1. Rudolph and Mike Caldwell ’74 Giants;

2. Caldwell and Ben Oglivie ’78 to ’84 Brewers;

3. Oglivie and Marty Pattin ’72 to ’73 Red Sox.

Off next week for vacation. See you in September. Happy Labor Day.