I Will Just Make Up My Own Set

There was no Minor League Baseball season this year, which means there was no post on this year's Durham Bulls team set.  It's an annual rite of fall.  Lining the cards up as straight as possible on scanner, hoping that they don't all shift when I close the lid.  I need to start running those posts with a five year delay.  They are actually more fun to look at now then at the time the cards were produced.  

Look at this group from 2014.  

You've got the reigning National League leader in saves, a guy with three gold gloves, and the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.  I think Enny Romero might have been the highest rated prospect in this group in 2014 and he's not even playing anymore.  

Crazy stuff.  

With no Durham Bulls team set coming out in 2020, I decided I would just work on putting together another team set from a different year.  After checking out what was available on Ebay, I decided that was actually not much of a challenge.  So, I am making up my own Durham Bulls set to collect.  

Something I don't already own.  

Something with interesting players.  

Something with a decent quantity of cards.  

Something that will require me to work harder than placing one Ebay or COMC order.  

After a lot of thought, I am putting together a 1975 Topps Mini Set of the Durham Bulls.  There were a ton of Durham Bulls players who were in the Majors at the time.  The cards are fun to collect.  While they are easy to find, it's such an odd combination of players that I cannot just click a few Ebay listings and have all the cards. 

In fact, I am still making the checklist.  I think the answer is between 15 and 20 cards.  I will let you know for sure with the next post.  So, for tonight, I have my first group of cards fresh out of the mailbox.  

Scans are jumbo, cards are minis.  

#476 - Ed Figueroa - 1968 Raleigh-Durham Mets 

It makes me cringe when I see the "Raleigh-Durham" one the back of a baseball card sometimes.  What person thought it was a good idea to change the name of the Durham Bulls?  Obviously someone in the Mets front office, but the Phillies kept it later on.  Figueroa was on the Raleigh-Durham Mets.  He's a player I learned about after moving to North Carolina.  Ed had two Top 10 Cy Young finishes and pitched for two World Series winners with the Yankees.  

He actually hurt his arm while pitching here, hence the 7 games, and quit baseball to join the Marines.  After a stint in Vietnam, he ended up in the Minors with the Giants, but was traded to the Angels.  Ed Figueroa made his Major League debut pitching in long relief for Nolan Ryan who had given up 3 runs in the first inning and had walked the bases loaded in the second.

 

#245 - Mickey Lolich - 1959-1961 Durham Bulls 

Lolich is best know for winning Game 7 of the 1968 World Series.  He also retired as the all-time left-handed strikeout leader before being passed by Steve Carlton.  Randy Johnson and C.C. Sabathia have also passed him, making him fourth.  Lolich ranks 20th overall, roughly 150 strikeouts away from 3,000.  I don't think Mickey is a Hall of Famer, but he's better than Jack Morris.  Maybe he is? 

#351 - Bob Boone - 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies 

Another Raleigh-Durham card.  Bob Boone played 19 years for the Phillies, Angels, and Royals.  He also managed the Royals and Reds for awhile in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Boone was on the 1980 Phillies World Series winner.  He didn't win the MVP in that series, but he did hit .412.  While Boone did not win the World Series MVP, he did win 7 Gold Gloves.  

Is the jacket he is wearing under his uniform from an Army surplus store?  

#630 - Greg Luzinski - 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies 

I am a little disappointed that Luzinski's Minor League stats were not included on the back of his card considering that he and Boone were in Durham the same season.  Luzinski was shuffled between the Minors and Majors several times during his first few seasons, so maybe with the multiple teams over multiple seasons it would not have fit on the card.  He hit 31 home runs that season with the Raleigh-Durham Phillies, which would look nice on a baseball card.  

Luzinski was an old guy on the White Sox by the time I started watching baseball.  "The Bull" is not a Hall of Famer, more a great of his era.  He and Schmidt were a pretty scary tandem in the middle of the Phillies lineup.  

Last night.  

#44 Pat Dobson - 1960 Durham Bulls 

This card was made near the end of Dobson's career.  He played with the Durham Bulls while he was coming through the Minors with the Tigers.  The 1960 Bulls were 20 games under .500 and had a starting rotation with both Pat Dobson and Mickey Lolich, who were both on the 1968 Tigers World Series team.  Dobson also pitched for the 1971 Orioles, who made it to the World Series, but lost to the Pirates.  

More 1975 Topps Minis and a checklist next week.  

Project Durham Bulls #45 - Pat Dobson

1960-1961 Durham Bulls 

Background-

Dobson was signed as an amateur free agent by the Tigers in 1959.  His first stop on his way to the Majors was with the Durham Bulls.  In 1960, Dobson went 7-9 for the Bulls with an ERA just over 4.  The following year, he went 4-9 with an ERA of almost 6.  Yet, somehow Dobson kept moving through the Tigers Minor League system.  It would take him until 1968 to finally crack the Majors.  The Tigers used him as a long reliever that season, which culminated in the team winning the World Series.  Dobson pitched in three different games during the 1968 Series.  

The Tigers did not have a rotation spot available for Dobson, so they traded him to the Padres at the end of the 1969 season.  He only spent one season with the Padres before moving on to the Orioles.  In 1971, Dobson won 20 games for Baltimore and helped get them into the World Series where they would lose to the Pirates.  The second half of his career was spent with the Braves, Yankees, and Indians.  He was always a solid starter and managed to put together a 19 win and 16 win seasons at the end of his career.  Dobson retired from baseball after being released by the Indians in April of 1978.  

He worked as a coach and scout after his retirement.  Dobson's two most significant accomplishments in this role were helping to get the 1982 Brewers into the World Series while working as the pitching coach and convincing Padres manager Bruce Bochy to take the Giants managerial job in 2006.  

Card-

Dobson is not an expensive autograph, but he did not sign many certified autographs while he was alive.  He died from leukemia in November of 2006.  In fact, as far as I can tell the 2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classics set is the only set that has Dobson on the autograph checklist.  He has the solo autograph pictured above, but also has a dual signature card with Dock Ellis.  Overall, its a very nice card and am happy to add it to my collection of Durham Bulls autographs.  

While we are here talking about baseball cards and Pat Dobson, I would not being doing this post justice if I did not take a moment and mention his connection to one of the most iconic baseball cards of the 1970s.  

The 1976 Oscar Topps Traded Oscar Gamble card.  If you have ever dabbled in collecting cards from the 70s, you know the card well, if you have not this is a must own.  If you are younger and do not know much about the 1970s, I cannot help you there and keep this post to a decent length.  Beyond the photoshopped picture of Gamble, there is also a phony headline at the bottom about Gamble being traded to the Yankees.  

I know this is a part of the card many do not look at, but flip it over and....

you can see that the player who was traded for Gamble, which made this card happen, was Pat Dobson.  Which of course means that there must be a Pat Dobson card in this same set and....

we have a very 1970s looking Pat Dobson.  That headline is a mess.  If only they were referencing the Bob Dylan song.