#644 - Wayne Granger

I’d always thought this was a legit shot of Wayne in his new uniform. Those pinstripes are sure real but on closer inspection that “NY” on the cap is not and the setting sure isn’t Yankee Stadium. This, I think, is a spring training shot in one of the old Minnesota pinstriped shirts. That means that might be Joe Decker in the background if that’s a 23 on that uniform. All conjecture of course but if correct this puts him back in ’72, which would represent pretty much the last year of the first good part of his MLB career. ’73 began with his trade back to St. Louis for an outfielder who seemed mired in the minors but would strike gold in Minnesota, Larry Hisle. Oops. Then he and the Cards got off to a horrid start, the team opening the season 3-22 and Wayne going a month-plus before pitching in a game the team won. While he would finish May strongly he threw uneven ball the rest of the way, recording only five saves through early August. By then it was apparent he was no longer the stopper he had been and he was sent to the Yankees for minor league pitcher Ken Crosby. He would pitch better the rest of the way for NY but suffered some porous defense behind him – twice as many runs as earned ones – and by the time this card came out he was released. Just before the ’74 season tipped off he was signed by the White Sox so he would remain in a version of pinstripes but by then arm pain would dictate his career path and he wouldn’t get another card until ’76 when he popped back in the NL with a perm and a new team. But with his serious mien Wayne seemed ready for anything.

Wayne Granger grew up in Huntington, Massachusetts, where he was apparently always skinny but played hoops and baseball before going to nearby Springfield College after graduating in ’63. After a year of ball there he signed with St. Louis as a free agent early in ’65 and after a rough start in Double A got things going in A ball, going a combined 11-12 with a 3.10 ERA in the rotation. Wayne could throw heat but he also had a pretty wicked sinker that he could throw anywhere from full overhand to sidearm. Those pitches would become his out pitches from then on. In ’66 he moved back to Double A and the pen and had a big season, going 11-2 with a 1.80 ERA while helping his club to the league title. In ’67 he moved to a spot role in Triple A with an 8-7/3.03 line and then the next year returned exclusively to the pen where a 4-3/2.16 start to the season had him in St. Louis by early summer.

Granger got called up in June of ’68 right into a pennant race in the wake of injuries to reliever Ron Willis and some ineffective pitching by starter Dick Hughes, two guys who were big contributors to the ’67 title. Wayne responded well with a nice record and four saves as he gradually moved into a closer role before throwing a couple of Series innings. But after the season the Cards needed to fill a hole with Roger Maris’ retirement so Wayne and outfielder Bobby Tolan were sent to Cincinnati for Vada Pinson. It was a very good trade for the Reds as Wayne pretty much immediately took over the closer role, setting a record with his 90 games and recording 27 saves to win TSN’s Fireman of the Year award. He kept things going in ’70 when he set another record with his 35 saves to win his second straight FOY and help take Cincy to the post-season for the first time in a decade. Things got a bit sloppy there, though, when he gave up a grand slam to Baltimore pitcher Dave McNally. Still, Wayne returned in ’71 to a team that would be greatly diminished by injuries, though he was able to again lead the NL in games pitched with 70. But the saves were harder to come by and late in the season his ERA got elevated a bit as he lost closing time to Pedro Borbon. Wayne finished with eleven saves and after the season he was sent to Minnesota for another slight reliever – though leftie – Tom Hall.

With the Twins in ’72 Granger put together a pretty good season, lowering his ERA a bit and nearly doubling his saves total to 19. But a lot of that good work was front-loaded – by late June he had a 0.70 ERA and 13 saves - and some tough summer outings led to losing lots of late closing time to Dave LaRoche. After the series of moves he landed in Chicago early in ’74 and spent nearly all of that season in Triple A where he went 10-3 as a spot guy with a 3.24 ERA and five saves. He then signed as a free agent with Houston for whom he returned to the MLB level, doing mostly set-up work while going 2-5/3.65 with five saves. After being released following the season he signed with Montreal and split ’76 between Jarry Park – 1-0/3.66 with two saves in 27 games – and Triple A where he went 3-1/2.45 with six saves in 26 games. After then signing with and being released by the Braves Wayne relocated to Mexico where he pitched the next two seasons, primarily for Durango. In ’79 he threw for three leagues – Inter-American; Mexican; and in Triple A – in what would be his final season. He finished with an MLB mark of 35-35 with nary a start, a 3.14 ERA and 108 saves. In the post-season that grand slam killed him as he had an 11.25 ERA in his four games. In the minors he was 49-32 with a 3.01 ERA.

After his playing career ended Granger made his home in Florida, where he worked in sporting goods, at a boat dealership, and then for 15 years ran his own billiards business. In ’82 he was inducted into the Cincinnati hall of fame. After selling the billiards shop he returned to Massachusetts where he is retired.

There is no shortage of star bullets for Wayne here with his two big seasons in Cincinnati. On the back of his ’69 card Topps made a big typo, indicating that he helped his Reds team to the Series when it was actually St. Louis.

I sure didn’t see this hook-up coming but here goes:

1. Granger and Dave LaRoche ’72 Twins;

2. LaRoche and Ken Landreaux ’77 to ’78 Angels;

3. Landreaux and Steve Garvey – or a few other guys – ’81 to ’82 Dodgers;

4. Garvey was on the ’73 Dodgers.

When Ken Landreaux went to the Twins as part of the deal for Rod Carew he said it should have been even up and that he’d make the Minnesota fans forget Carew. That guy had balls.

#623 - Celerino Sanchez

Back at Yankee Stadium we get a clear shot of the 50^th anniversary patch worn by its home team in ’73 on the arm of Celerino Sanchez, back-up third baseman. Ironically the Stadium would be out of operation the next couple seasons while a refurbishing was being undertaken, just as would be Celerino’s MLB career as this card was his final one. That’s too bad because he was a pretty exciting third baseman who was often mentioned in the same breath as his countryman Aurelio Rodriguez. But Celerino’s timing wasn’t too great and his sophomore season with NY happened to be the same one during which an eventual icon in the form of Graig Nettles was beginning his long reign at the hot corner. By the time this card came out Celerino was back in Mexico playing ball and his significant contributions to a late ’72 division run were a distant memory. Nettles was an iron man at third and that coupled with Celerino’s fat DL time in ’73 probably both contributed equally to his departure. But he looks good here, showing his stance while some infield practice takes place behind him.

Celerino Sanchez had played school and semi-pro ball in Veracruz, Mexico, and was 20 when he began his professional career there in ’64. He spent the next three years ripping the cover off the ball in Mexico’s minor leagues – he topped out at .448 in ’66 – and seemed to do the same for the Mexico City Tigers during his short looks but could never crack the line-up. In ’67 after a not great start for the Tigers he came to The States in a sale and spent the summer playing for Asheville, then a Single A franchise for the Astros. He moved over to Greensboro, another Houston A franchise, and seemed to be hitting at a nice clip when he moved back to Mexico City, where his average increased each of the next four years and his power started picking up. It later turned out that the reason he returned to Mexico was that his grandmother had passed away to whom Celerino was very close. When the Houston organization wouldn’t give him any time to return home for the service, he returned on his own, permanently. After the ’71 season Celerino was traded to the Yankees for Ossie Chavarria, a one-time reserve infielder for Kansas City/Oakland in the late Sixties.

For the Yankees Sanchez had a super spring training in ’72 and the plan was to keep him on the Opening Day roster. After Clete Boyer left for Atlanta in ’67 third base in NY was a bit ugly. Bobby Cox – yeah, that Bobby Cox – and Jerry Kenney had about a good season and a half between them and Celerino was looking like a pretty good upgrade. But then NY traded for Bernie Allen and Rich McKinney so Celerino was sent to Triple A where he was putting up some pretty good numbers. But Allen and McKinney were really converted second baseman and neither made a very graceful transition so Celerino came up in June and pretty much took over the position the rest of the way. He made a lot of fans when he won a couple games in August in a series against Detroit that pulled NY into second place and he provided exciting fielding at third while his offense was an uptick to Kenney’s in ’71. But then came the annual robbing of the Cleveland roster before the ’73 season and Celerino was on the bench. Back in Mexico Celerino put in three good seasons, averaging .288 with about a .365 OBA and some decent power.  He hit .273 in ’77 as his walk totals declined, didn’t play in ’78, and finished things off with a .264 in ’79. His MLB stats were the ones on the card back and he hit just over .300 in the Mexican Leagues with a .375 OBA.

Sanchez did some coaching and apparently some scouting back in Mexico after he played. He died in a car crash there in ’92. He was 48.

Celerino’s silver bat was the result of his having the highest average in organized baseball in ’66. He was apparently hitting over .500 in the fourth spot when he was moved to the top spot to get enough at bats to try for his league’s batting title. He was pitched around a ton in that spot and rarely saw any good pitches so chased the bad ones, dropping his average. But he got enough plate appearances to qualify and had a sick OBA, estimated to be nearly .600. Luis Tiant was the best man at Celerino’s wedding. They must have met in winter ball.

This hook-up will really bring up some ghosts:

1. Sanchez and Mel Stottlemyre ‘72 to ’73 Yankees;

2. Stottlemyre and Roger Maris ’64 to ’66 Yankees;

3. Maris and Phil Gagliano ’67 to ’68 Cardinals.

#606 - '74 Rookie Outfielders

The next rookie card gives us four young AL outfielders, though by the time this card came out one would be over in the NL. Two of these guys appear to be at Yankee Stadium and one at Comiskey. God knows where Jim Fuller is but he sure does look tall, which is fitting because he was/is. And those mutton chops are something else.

Jim Fuller could hit the crap out of the ball. Unfortunately he could also miss the crap out of the ball and his senior year of high school in ’68 in San Diego he hit .260, not exactly a number that points to pro ball. After graduation he attended San Diego City College from where he was drafted the following year by the Dodgers but passed. He’d hit .360 that year, in part because he started taking lots of protein supplements his mom used to sell. After another good year of fall ball he was drafted in January ’70 by the Orioles in the second round and this time signed. That summer he played first base in A ball and began his hitting assault with a .247/9/64 season in 373 at bats. He also had 83 strikeouts and his big issue was that his K’s could outnumber his hits on a regular basis. In ’71 the O’s realized his arm was too good to keep at first and he was moved to the outfield where he would regularly be among league leaders in assists. In A ball that year he put up a .326/33/110 stat line with 105 runs and 129 strikeouts. He then split ’72 between Double A and Triple A, going a combined .255/34/107 with 165 K’s. He would settle into a fairly long run at the higher level beginning in ’73 when his stat line was .247/39/108/197. In his few appearances for Baltimore that year he hit .115 with 17 K’s in his 26 at bats. But he then spent most of ’74 with the O’s where he hit .222 with seven homers and 28 RBI’s in 189 at bats but also struck out 68 times. He spent most of the summer back in Triple A where he hit .278 in a slow power year. The next couple years were spent exclusively at that level where his power fell off but his strikeouts didn’t: in ’75 his line was .213/17/50/133 in 362 at bats and in ’76 .227/19/55/92 in 269 at bats. That winter he signed with Houston as a free agent and in ’77 he would see his final MLB action in a couple stints, hitting .160 with 45 K’s in his 100 at bats. His career line at that level was .194/11/41 with 130 K’s. In Triple A that year he hit .233 with eleven homers and 31 RBI’s, most of the season as a loaner to the ChiSox. He then split ’78 between the KC and Pittsburgh organizations at the same level with not too many at bats. It was his last year as a player and his final numbers in the minors were a .254 average with 170 homers, 554 RBI’s, and 919 K’s in his 2,811 at bats. Tracking Jim down since then has been tough – he has a pretty common name and is not related to the pitcher from a generation later – but he appears to now reside in Apple Valley, California. If that is the correct Jim he sadly just lost a son who was a director for “Glee”, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, and other shows.

Wilbur Howard was drafted as a pitcher by the Seattle Pilots out of his Lowell, North Carolina high school, just after leading his team to a state title in ’68. The Pilots fielded an A team that year before their MLB franchise played and Wilbur led the team in victories, going 8-5 with a 3.87 ERA. But he was a fast guy and the Pilots moved him to the outfield the following year where he hit .287 at that level with 20 stolen bases and then upped his numbers to .321 with 15 steals – on less at bats – in the fall Instructional League. In ’70 he hit .304 with 41 stolen bases and 73 runs scored in a season spent in A ball with a few late games in Triple A. Willie could obviously hit and run but he didn’t walk much and he put up a lot of K’s for a contact guy. He would then spend nearly all his time the next three years in Triple A where he averaged 72 runs, 28 stolen bases, and 111 K’s per season while hitting .240, .286, and .270. In September of ’73 he made his debut, hitting .205 in 16 games. After the season he was traded to Houston for a package that included Larry Yount, Robin’s older brother. He returned to Triple A to start off the ’74 season and after hitting .296 with 13 stolen bases at that level, came up to the Astros in June to hit .216 the rest of the way as a back-up outfielder. In ’75 the Astros went with four regular outfielders and Wilbur had his biggest season, hitting .283 in 392 at bats with 62 runs scored and 32 stolen bases. But in ’76 an early slump had him back in a back-up role which lasted the next three seasons, his best year being ’77 when he hit .257 in 187 at bats and stole eleven bases in twelve attempts. During that time he also played a little second base and even a few games at catcher. He also spent a bit of ’77 in the minors and in ’79 he spent the whole season in Triple A, hitting .241 his final season stateside. He then spent the next four years playing for Yucatan in the Mexican League, with ’83 being his final year of pro ball. Wilbur finished with a .250 average with 60 stolen bases in a bit more than 1,000 MLB at bats and a .275 average with 174 stolen bases in the minors. And then he disappears media-wise although he may be still residing in the Houston area (I guess that Astro blood runs deep).

Tommy Smith graduated from high school in ’66, having played the big three sports, and then went to NC State on a hoops and baseball scholarship. He played both sports his first two years and then concentrated on baseball when he stopped growing his junior year. Initially a pitcher in college he threw the team’s final game in its first CWS appearance in ’68, a 2-0 loss to USC. He hadn’t been used terribly much as a pitcher – the staff ace was Mike Caldwell – and his senior year of ’70 he was converted to an outfielder and responded with a .379, five home run, 33 RBI season that got him named all-ACC. It also helped get him selected by the Indians in that year’s draft. Tommy was a huge guy – check him out in the Cleveland team photo – but wasn’t particularly a big power hitter. But he could hit for average and his first year put up one of .360 with 48 RBI’s in only 200 at bats between A and Double A. He then had a couple relatively low average seasons the next two years in Double A, with a .263 average in ’71 and .277 in ’72. But in ’73 he moved up to Triple A where he rallied with a .342 with 82 runs scored before making his September debut in Cleveland and hitting .244 the rest of the way. That off-season he broke both bones in his left forearm playing a pick-up hoops game and had to have metal rods inserted to help repair them. And though he hit horribly in his short time up in ’74 with an average below .100, he did pretty well back in Triple A, putting up a .312/10/67 season in 381 at bats, the only year he’d reach double figures in homers. ’75 was nearly all the lower level, with a .302/4/63 stat line with a personal best 25 stolen bases. Then in ’76 he upped his numbers to a .335/9/54 first half before getting recalled to Cleveland. That summer would produce his biggest year up top as he hit .256 with two homers and twelve RBI’s as the team’s fouirth outfielder down the stretch. After the season he was selected by the Mariners in the expansion draft where he hit well enough in a pinch and reserve role - .259 in 27 at bats – before being sent down to Triple A, where he hit .284 the rest of the way.  Outside of a brief comeback try in the Inter-American League in ’79, Tommy was done. He put up a .232 average in his 271 MLB at bats and hit .312 in the minors. After playing he returned to the Raleigh area of North Carolina where he established his own baseball school, Diamond Stars, which he continues to run.

Otto Velez was a corner infielder when signed by the Yankees as a free agent in ’70. An admittedly horrible fielder he could bash the ball pretty well and that first summer hit .369 with seven homers, 44 RBI’s, and a .472 OBA in rookie ball. Though he didn’t hit too well in his few at bats in A ball, the next year at that level he put up a .310/16/73/.420 stat line. In ’72 he had his best fielding year in Double A but his offensive line fell a bit to .249/13/68/.371. Then in ’73 he got moved to both Triple A and the outfield and Otto responded with a .269/29/98/.450 line with 130 walks and 92 runs scored in just over 400 at bats. He came up to NY in August after the Yankees pared away the Alou brothers and hit .195 the rest of the way while playing right field. He returned to Triple A the first half of ’74 where he was moved to first base and in under half a season had a line of .310/13/35/.483 now from the top of the order, where he scored 44 runs in just 200 at bats. When new Yankee first baseman Chris Chambliss went on a cold snap in mid-June, Otto was recalled, had a hot start while getting some starts that month, and then settled to .209 in a back-up role the rest of the way. In ’75 he played both corners in Triple A where his offense came in a bunch after he missed time with a broken wrist, though his OBA remained super strong at .445 while when up in NY he barely played as those two positions were handled by guys who never sat. In ’76 he had a pretty good spring, made the cut as the Yankees cleared house in the outfield, and hit .266 with a .410 OBA as the team’s fifth outfielder before seeing some post-season action. After that season he was taken by Toronto in the expansion draft and Otto began his Blue Jays career in a monster fashion, winning the April ’77 AL Player of the Month by hitting .452 with five homers and 18 RBI’s in his first 17 games. He would then miss a few weeks later in the summer and would finish his first year as a regular with a .256/16/62/.366 line and earn the nickname “Otto Swatto” in Canada. That year he had DH’d a bunch but in ’78 the Jays acquired Rico Carty to handle that spot full-time and though Otto had one of the best bats on the team, his defensive inabilities caused his playing time to come in as his line came to .266/9/38/.380 on a third less at bats. Same deal in a ’79 that produced a .288/15/48/.396 line with 21 doubles in just 274 at bats and a request to be traded. But in ’80 Otto got the DH spot outright and got off to a huge start, hitting .362 with nine homers and 29 RBI’s in his first 27 games. Then his shoulder got dinged in a near-brawl against Oakland and while he didn’t miss too much time, his offensive production came in pretty big the rest of the way as he did miss a couple weeks due to an auto accident. Still, he put up one of his best lines in his busiest season with a .269/20/62/.365 year. But in ’81 more shoulder pain helped induce a much lower average and he split ’82 between Toronto and Triple A, not getting too much plate time at either level. Following the season he went to Cleveland as a free agent and in ’83 only got into a few games for the Tribe, though in Triple A he hit .310/9/42/.435 in just 142 at bats. It was his final season in the continental US as he spent ’84 in Mexico and that year also wrapped up his winter time playing in PR. Otto finished with a .251 average, 78 homers, 272 RBI’s, and a .369 OBA for his MLB line and hit .282 with 97 homers and a .428 OBA in the minors. He went hitless in his four post-season at bats.He would return to PR to coach, his most high-profile stints being in ’92 for the Olympic team, ’94 for the Baseball World Cup team, and ’95 for the Intercontinental Cup team. He then coached a bunch at the island’s Roberto Clemente Sports Complex, which he may or may not still be doing.

These guys give us a combined 16 MLB seasons and no awards. They are another pretty big bunch, particularly Fuller, and Smith. Maybe there was something in the water in ACC territory.

The inter-card hook-up takes us through Boston:

1. Frank Tanana and Jerry Remy ’75 to ’77 Angels and ’81 Red Sox;

2. Remy and Bob Watson ’79 Red Sox;

3. Watson and Jim Fuller ’77 Astros;

This one will involve another one of those splits where one guy is used as an independent link to two other ones:

1. Jim Fuller and Wilbur Howard ’77 Astros;

2. Howard and Cesar Cedeno ’74 to ’78 Astros;

3. Cedeno and Alan Ashby ’79 to ’81 Astros;

4. Ashby and Tommy Smith ’75 to ’76 Indians; Ashby and Otto Velez ’77 to ’78 Blue Jays.

And there’s our record.

#601 - '74 Rookie Outfielders (part 2)

These guys are generally older than the ones on past cards and McBride was 25 when he won his Rookie of the Year award. Armbrister has a great full name. These four provide us with a total of 31 MLB seasons, two All-Star games, and that ROY award. This will be a tough card to beat.

From the last card an old pitcher helps:

1. Ed Armbrister and Woody Fryman ’77 Reds;

2. Fryman and Reggie Sanders ’74 Tigers.

Around the card may go pretty quickly:

1. Ed Armbrister and Don Gullett ’73 to ’76 Reds;

2. Gullett and Thurman Munson ’77 to ’79 Yankees;

3. Munson and Rick Bladt ’75 Yankees;

4. Bladt and Ed Hermann ’75 Yankees;

5. Hermann and Brian Downing ’73 to ’74 White Sox;

6. Downing and Jim Kaat ’73 to ’75 White Sox;

7. Kaat and Bake McBride ’77 to ’79 Phillies.

Or not.

#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.

#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.

#550 - Sam McDowell

This is a photo of a 30-year old baseball player. Thirty year old guys could really emphasize that “old” part back then; I think Sam McDowell easily looks ten years older here. But Sam wasn’t helping himself with his widely publicized alcohol problem which was ramping up pretty significantly around the time this card came out. And ex the drinking ’73 wasn’t so hot a year for Sudden Sam anyway. ’72 was pretty much a bust as Sam was on the bad side of the big trade of him for Gaylord Perry and Frank Duffy as he only won ten while Perry won 24 to win the Cy. Then after a not great spring he only got three starts and 24 relief innings – with a couple saves – before he was sold in early June to the Yankees, who were pretty desperate for pitching help. Initially they got it from Sam as he went 5-1 with a 1.55 ERA in his first six starts for NY. But then things got ugly fast and from the end of July on he went 0-7 with a 5.89 ERA. At one point during Sam’s troubles he was diagnosed as bipolar, a condition he never believed he actually had. But sometimes his seasons sure looked like they were. Though he would pitch two more seasons up top after ’73 this is his final card.

Sam McDowell grew up a stone’s throw from old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. A big kid he could always throw a mean fastball and his senior year of high school was pretty phenomenal: 8-1 with 152 strikeouts in 63 innings with three no-hitters and an ERA of 0.00. He won the state championship 1-0 by hitting a solo homer in a game he K’d 18 kids. By then he had a lot of scouts on his tail and he opted to go to Cleveland because the Tribe allowed him to start in the low minors and work his way up, which was a condition of Sam's and his parents prior to signing in 1960. So that summer he began his career way down in D ball where he went 5-6 with a 3.34 ERA, 80 walks, and 100 strikeouts in 105 innings. In ’61 he moved all the way up to Triple A where he went 13-10 but his ERA fattened to 4.42 as he walked 152 guys in 175 innings. But that didn’t stop him from getting a September start for the Tribe in which he memorably broke two ribs while throwing a strike, ending his season. In ’62 he broke camp up top but a fat ERA had him back in Triple A by June where he went 3-2 with a 2.02 ERA before returning to Cleveland in late summer. ’63 went pretty much the same: up top through June and then back to Triple A the rest of the season. That year he went 3-6 at the lower level but his ERA was still good at 3.41 and his K to BB ration of 84 to 50 – in 87 innings – was his best to date at any level. In ’64 a great start to his season in Triple A – 8-0 with a 1.18 ERA with five shutouts and 24 walks and 102 K’s in 76 innings and nine starts – got him a one-way ticket to Cleveland.

McDowell finally put together a nice string in Cleveland once he got there for the balance of the ’64 season, throwing a couple shutouts in his 24 starts and leading the AL in strikeouts per nine innings, a harbinger of what would come. In ’65 he had his first All-Star season as he led the league in strikeouts and ERA and K’d nearly eleven guys per nine innings with that Nolan Ryan-like total. In ’66 both Sam and the Tribe started off great guns – the Indians came out 10-0 – and on May 1 he was 4-0 and just off two consecutive one-hit shutouts. But back then manager Birdie Tebbets called all of Sam’s pitches and nearly every one was a heater and Sam’s shoulder began hurting. It took him over a month to get his next win and he would miss long stretches of the season and get not much run support. Though his innings dropped by nearly 100 he still led the AL in strikeouts and with five shutouts. Then ’67 got a bit messy. Tebbets had to retire following a mid-season heart attack in ’66 and new manager Joe Adcock wasn’t so hot at calling pitches. While Sam’s innings picked up a bit, his control suffered and his homer totals climbed for him to an unusually high amount, pushing his ERA up by about a run. But things would change in a good way the next year.

In ’68 the Indians named Alvin Dark manager and one of Dark’s first tasks was to let McDowell know that Sam and his catchers would decide which pitches he threw. That may or may not have happened, depending on the source. But Sam did for sure start mixing up his pitches more and the results the next few years were quite good. In ’68 he returned to a winning record while posting his lowest ERA and beginning a three-year run as the AL strikeout leader. In ’69 his ERA shot up but was still tons better than league average and in ’70 he won 20 while again eclipsing 300 K’s in what may have been his best season. It certainly had its moments, like when Sam played second base for part of an inning so a reliever could throw to his nemesis Frank Howard, and Sam could return to the mound after that one at bat. Unfortunately during that time his drinking was also ramping up and that level of success would be short-lived. Dark was generally in charge of trades and salary negotiations by then and Sam had claimed he was entitled to some bonuses for his ’70 performance that he was never paid. So he held out during the spring and wasn’t too happy with Dark, though he did sign another bonus-driven contract. But he began the season 0-4 and then things got wiggy. Oakland wanted Sam and offered six players for him but Dark never responded. Then commissioner Bowie Kuhn outlawed all the incentives in the Cleveland contracts, including Sam’s. Then Dark got booted right after he wouldn’t allow Sam to pitch in the All-Star game because of more shoulder pain he’d been experiencing. Sam got fined for being “rowdy” – read drunk – on a team charter and in August declared his contract null because of the cancelled incentives and went back to Pittsburgh for a couple weeks. He returned but after improving his record to 11-10 with a 2.98 ERA when he walked, he only went 2-7 the rest of the way. That November he was traded to San Francisco for Perry and Duffy.

Prior to the ’72 season McDowell had acupuncture for his shoulder and the immediate results were pretty good as he started the season 5-0 with a 2.57 ERA. But then the shoulder pain returned and in June he was smashed on his pitching hand by a come-backer. He was still 8-4 at that point though his ERA had climbed a couple runs. But in early July he went on the DL for over a month for his shoulder and the end numbers weren’t too hot. After his up and down ’73 the following season resembled the downside a lot more than the up as Sam, now bedeviled by a bad back, went 1-6 with a 4.69 ERA in only 13 games. He was busted for a DUI during the season and basically quit in early September to protest his lack of use. Released in January he went to spring training with Pittsburgh in ’75, had a decent camp, and pitched well in his few games, going 2-1 with a 2.86 ERA out of the pen. But the Pirates had too many lefty relievers and mid-year he was released to make room for Kent Tekulve, ending his time as a player. Sam finished 141-134 with a 3.17 ERA, 103 complete games, 23 shutouts, 14 saves, and 2,453 strikeouts – 35^th all-time – in 2,492 innings. He made six All-Star teams and ranks tenth all-time in strikeouts per nine innings.

McDowell had a rough time of things after playing. He’d gone to school part-time during off-seasons and initially did insurance work. But his drinking got nasty bad the latter half of the Seventies and he did rehab. He also changed his degree program to counseling and psychiatry in order to help him evaluate and deal with his alcohol issues. By the early Eighties he was lecturing and counseling kids and shortly thereafter founded Triumphs Unlimited, an entity through which he began counseling MLB players. He did that a bunch of years, both through the leagues and through individual teams, and eventually moved onto other sports as well. In the mid-2000’s he relocated to Florida where he established a retirement community for ex-professional athletes.

Sam gets a special card number for his final one. His painting pursuits made other cards as well. He was supposed to be a super nice guy away from the booze and in “The Curse of Rocky Colavito” – from where much of this information came – there are some amusing stories about playing in the field behind him. Apparently he had a fondness for challenging hitters he knew he could get with his fastball – like opposing pitchers – with other pitches, sometimes to disastrous results.

This exercise would have been a piece of cake with Sonny Siebert:

1. McDowell and Dave Kingman ’72 to ’73 Giants;

2. Kingman and Mike Jorgensen ’81 to ’83 Mets.

#529 - Horace Clarke

Topps begins the final twenty per cent of the set right, with an action shot of Horace Clarke in the on deck circle at Yankee Stadium. I am guessing the view is from around home plate which means that would probably be Elston Howard behind him coaching first base. Horace usually batted lead-off so he could be watching the results of any of a number of guys – Gene Michael, Hal Lanier, Fred Stanley – at the plate. This is his final card so it’s a nice sendoff. And most likely Horace wasn’t even a Yankee by the time the card arrived as he’d been sold early in the ’74 season to San Diego. His timing couldn’t have been worse in terms of becoming a regular for NY. His career pretty much began right when the air came out of the Yankees post-season balloon and he left just two years before the mojo returned. So as a player he pretty much symbolized that dearth of titles. In ’73 he had pretty much a typical season with a middling average based on lots of line drives, very good defensive work, and rarely sitting. His stolen base totals had declined – in ’73 he had eleven – and his string of leading the AL in assists had ended. He missed meeting his successor at the position by a couple years as he was replaced by Sandy Alomar who bridged the gap between Horace and Willie Randolph. He enjoyed a pretty good run at the Stadium, providing solid play and lots of time on the field.

Horace Clarke was discovered by the Yankees while playing ball on St. Croix, his birth island in the Virgin Islands. Initially a player of cricket, he learned baseball while watching and then playing against American servicemen stationed on his island. The field they used had a short porch in left that ended in the ocean so to keep from losing balls he and his friends all became switch hitters. Horace was signed in ’58 and initially was a shortstop, that summer hitting only .225 in D ball but stealing 27 bases. But he got acclimated to US ball by the next year, as evidenced by a .292 average with 58 RBI’s and 34 stolen bases at the same level. In ’60 he moved up to C ball and hit .307 and in ’61 in A ball he hit .278 while swiping 40 bases. He stepped that up to .300 in Double A in ’62 and then moved to Triple A the next year where his average slipped to .249 as he began putting in time at second. Tommy Tresh was slated to take over at shortstop so Horace began to be groomed to replace Bobby Richardson, who was a pretty old 28. In ’64 Horace improved to .299 and got his stolen bases back up to 20 from only six the prior year. After a .301 start in 90 games in ’65 he was moved up to NY.

Clarke’s first season in NY in ’65 was a back-and-forth affair and while up top he pinch hit, pinch ran, and played at third base more than anywhere else. He then spent most of ’66 splitting starts at shortstop. That season he connected for his second home run and those first two were grand slams. In ’67 Richardson retired to coach college ball and Horace took over second base where he would remain as the regular guy through ’73. He didn’t have a crazy high OBA for a leadoff hitter but he regularly led the team in stolen bases and didn’t strike out very much. His best offensive year was '69 when he had a .367 OBA and stole 33 bases. Defensively he put up some nice numbers, leading AL second basemen in putouts four straight years (’68 to ’71) and in assists for six (’67 to ’72). During that time he also led in fielding percentage once and double plays twice. A knock on him was that he was unwilling to get hit while turning the DP and he sometimes held onto the ball too long, but he ranks pretty high in lifetime range factor so he seems to have made up for that elsewhere. In the winter after ’73 the Yankees were looking to grab Dick Williams from Oakland after Williams announced he’d had it with Charlie O Finley during the Series. NY offered Oakland Horace in exchange but Charlie O wouldn’t negotiate. That did set the tone for Horace’s future in NY as in spring training he lost the starting gig to Gene Michael and then after an early-season trade to Sandy Alomar. In May he was sold to the Padres as back-up for Glenn Beckert who had been hurt in spring training. But Horace had a couple injuries, wasn’t feeling the love, and after the season retired to go back home. He finished with a .256 average with 151 stolen bases and only about a K every 13 at bats.

Clarke stayed close to baseball upon his return to St. Croix and for many years worked as sort of a goodwill ambassador for the country to help develop local ball players. He also did some scouting work for a couple teams and has been retired since about 2007.

All this stuff was covered above except for the cartoon. He is one of only a handful of guys from the Virgin Islands to play MLB ball.

Here we use a great guy who passed away a couple years ago:

1. Clarke and Bobby Murcer ’65 to ’66 and ’69 to’74 Yankees;

2. Murcer and Bill Bonham ’77 Cubs.

#517 - Mike Hegan

Mike Hegan looks rather blasé at Yankee Stadium. That look mirrored the ones a lot of Yankees fans had back then. Mike just got back to NY during the season in a sale. An odd aspect of Mike’s travels was that he twice played for former teams. Another one is that his transactions were always for cash, never for another player. Things were a bit crowded at first for Oakland and a little messy there in NY so Mike returned mid-August with his excellent defense and streaky bat. Earlier in the year his error-less game streak ended at 178 in a call many thought was incorrect. He got the lion’s share of at bats the rest of the way since as a lefty he played against the right handers. He upped his average about 100 points and closed out Yankee Stadium as the last batter for a couple years while renovations were being done. His short run was a tad more successful than his last time in pinstripes before expansion whisked him away in the late Sixties. And this stay in NY wouldn’t be terribly long either as he’d be moving on and back to plenty of baseball elsewhere.

Mike Hegan grew up in baseball. Real baseball since as a kid he shagged flies for the Indians while his dad was a long-time catcher with the team. Mike went to St. Ignatius High School in the city where he starred in the big three sports and hit better than .500 his senior year. He got lots of looks from various colleges and opted for Holy Cross where he played football and baseball on scholarship in ’60-’61. After hitting .520 that year he was signed by the Yankees later that summer, too late to play pro ball that year. He returned to school for a semester and then got things going with a nice year in D ball hitting .306 with 18 stolen bases and a .438 OBA. In ’63 he cranked up the power in A ball with a .328 average, 28 homers, and 98 RBI’s. In ’64 he moved up to Double A but had a really tough time with the pitching, his average falling to .233 and his K totals outnumbering his hits. But he also made his NY debut that September, getting some pinch hit looks smack dab in the middle of a pennant race. He also made the post-season roster and got a couple plate appearances against St. Louis. In ’65 he went down to Triple A but after hitting only .179 returned to Double A where his .220 average wasn’t much better. Still, his defensive props were pretty compelling and in ’66 he recorded a much better season in Triple A, hitting .265 with a .393 OBA with a bit more power. He then got a second bunch of late season looks in NY.

’67 was a bit tough for Hegan. Ready to get promoted to The Show for real he instead had to do his military hitch and missed all of spring training and a bunch of the early season. When he did get to NY he did a back-up bit to Mickey Mantle at first. He didn’t hit terribly well and in ’68 he was bounced back to Triple A where he spent the year when he wasn’t doing his reserve work and there hit .304 with 17 stolen bases and a .418 OBA. Early that season he became one of the first official Seattle Pilots in a sale that allowed him to remain in the NY chain until the season ended. With the Pilots in '69 Mike stayed up and he began the season on an explosive tear, hitting the first Pilots home run and keeping his average north of .300 the bulk of the first half. Don Mincher was the regular guy at first so Mike played right field and that summer was the first Pilot/Brewer to be named an All-Star. Just before the game, though, Mike injured a hamstring and his presence in the line-up would be sporadic the rest of the season, though he finished with a huge .427 OBA. In ’70 the team moved to Milwaukee and Mincher was traded to Oakland so Mike was able to resume his regular role at first base where he got by far the most at bats of his career. In ’71 he platooned there with Johnny Briggs and a bunch of other guys to start the season before in June he followed Mincher to Oakland and spent the rest of the year as a late-inning guy and pinch hitter. He also made it back to the post-season and got an appearance against Baltimore. In ’72 he performed the same role again in pretty nice fashion as he hit .329 with a .375 OBA in limited at bats. He also got some decent Series time and even saved a win at first base by spearing a Cesar Geronimo shot down the line. And that came just after Joe Rudi made an awesome catch in left field to stop a home run by Denis Menke.

After his bi-team experience of ’73 Hegan began the ’74 season at Shea as part of a platoon at first base with Bill Sudakis. That arranement lasted until about a month into the season when the Yankees acquired Chris Chambliss from Cleveland. Shortly thereafter Mike was sold to Milwaukee in his second career round-tripper. There the Brewers had a mainstay at first base in George “Boomer” Scott and while Mike got a bit of time in the outfield, his most at bats were as a designated hitter. He did pretty well in the RBI department with 41 in 243 at bats for the year. In ’75 new acquisition Hank Aaron took most of the DH at bats and Mike split time between left field and first. In ’76 he got more time at DH as Aaron was winding down. Both years Mike hit around .250 in a bit over 200 at bats each season. That second year he hit for the cycle against Mark Fidrych. After getting very little time in the field to kick off the ’77 season he asked for his release and was done. Mike finished with a .242 average with a .341 OBA and hit .125 in 13 post-season games.

Hegan was a productive guy, finishing his degree in his first few off-seasons and then putting in some time as an announcer. He moved into that role full-time shortly after his release and continued calling games for the Brewers through the ’88 season. He then moved back to Cleveland where he has been calling games since ’89.

Mike gets some good color on the back. His dad played 15 years, almost all of them with Cleveland, and became a Yankee coach shortly after he retired. A few years ago I saw one of the ’72 Series games on ESPN Classics and Mike hit a grounder to third base. He nearly beat the throw; the guy had some serious wheels. And in “Ball Four” he comes across as a thoroughly likeable guy who is one of the few who is consistently nice to Jim Bouton, the book’s author. He also has about the best line in the book. When the Seattle players were asked the question about the toughest thing to do in baseball, Mike’s response was: “Explaining to your wife why she has to take a shot of penicillin for your kidney infection.”

Mike and Horacio actually played together in ’73 but Mike never got a lot of Oakland at bats so let’s make it stickier:

1. Hegan and Catfish Hunter ’71 to ’73 A’s;

2. Hunter and Horacio Pina ’73 A’s.  eHHeHYeHJh

#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.