The (N.L. East) Champs

As the scoreboard above them says, here are the 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates:

Card #26 -- Pittsburgh Pirates Team Card

They were the N.L. East division leaders that year, after winning the '71 World Series. While such a picture would make their fans quite happy -- as opposed to now where the Pirate faithful would be happy with a season without 100 losses -- this card has a grim reminder of a very large loss. Sitting in the front row, the third player from the right is Roberto Clemente. It's one of two cards in the first series that remind fans about the fragile nature of our very existence.

Other notable players in the photo are Willie Stargell (center of the back row), wild man Dock Ellis ( also in the back row) and Bill Mazeroski (seated in the front row), who was playing his final season and appears in the '73 set on a card with manager Bill Virdon.

The loss of a leader like Clemente was sure to affect the Pirates, but they did their best to make him proud. The final team record in '73 showed a 80-82 finish, but the division race was a wild ride that season. While beginning the season in first place, they slipped to last place in June and were 11 games back before rallying to take the lead again in the second half. However, the New York Mets were able to catch them on September 20th and hold the lead. As amazing as the Pirates were in handling their adversity, the Mets did what was thought to be impossible.

Trippin' Out...

1972 was this player's first year with the Reds:

Card #52 -- Denis Menke, Cincinnati Reds

Denis Menke helped get the team to the World Series as the team's regular third baseman. He played every game in the postseason as well, hitting a homer in that Series. However, that dinger was one of only two hits he managed in 28 plate appearances. That's not to suggest he cost the Reds the Series; his glove was more valuable to the team and he didn't make any mistakes in the field.

Look at the crowd behind him in the photo. The spectators appear to be melting away, like a bad acid trip or a salute to Edvard Munch's The Scream. Several cards in the 1974 Topps set exhibit this type of effect (Jim Palmer, for instance), but not many in '73 did.

1973 would be Menke's final year with Cincy. He came up in 1962 when the Braves were still playing in Milwaukee. After moving with the team to Atlanta in '66, he was traded to Houston after the '67 season. Four years later, he was traded to Cincinnati in the deal that also brought Joe Morgan to the Big Red Machine. He would return to the Astros in 1974 and played his final game that July.

After retiring, he became a minor league skipper and a big league coach. Ironically, a guy who hit .250 over his career in the majors became a longtime hitting coach, taking another World Series trip with the Phillies in 1993 in that capacity. He eventually returned to the Reds as a bench coach from 1997-2000.

Alou Brother #2

Last September, I featured one of three Alou brothers who were playing baseball in 1973. Here's the second:

Card #650 -- Felipe Alou, New York Yankees

Felipe Alou was the father of future major leaguer Moises Alou. Baseball was in the family's bloodline; besides his brothers and son, cousin Jose Sosa and nephew Mel Rojas played in the major leagues.

Both Matty and Felipe Alou were member of the new York Yankees as 1973 began. They had been teammates before, playing as part of an all-brother outfield for the Giants in 1963. However, Felipe was waived late in the season and claimed by Montreal. In 1974, he began the season in Milwaukee but would be released again early in the season.

After his playing days were over, he returned to the Expos and became a minor league manager. He stayed with the organization for several years, even turning down an offer to manage in San Francisco in 1985 out of loyalty. In 1992, he would become the first Dominican-born player to manage in the majors when he was promoted to Montreal's field manager position. While there, he managed his son and became the most successful skipper in the club's history. In 1994, his team had the best record in baseball when the season was stopped by a strike. After being fired in 2001, he went on to manage a few more seasons with the Giants.

Swing, Batta Batta!

Sometimes a picture can tell quite a story. Sometimes, there's an altogether different story to tell. That may be quite cryptic to say, but here goes:

Card #642 -- Jose Laboy, Montreal Expos

The disappointed look on Laboy's face tells you that he missed the ball. However, it was a common expression for a guy who hit .233 for his career. I'd like to point out the way the Mets dugout shows up in the background. If this picture was taken in 1972, it would have been on July 30. It was the only game he played that year at Shea Stadium. In the game, he came up in the ninth as a pinch hitter and struck out to end the game. He then went back to the minors for a while.

That wasn't the story, though. "Coco" Laboy signed his first pro contract in 1959 but never managed to get past the minors until the leagues expanded in 1969. He became an original member of the Montreal Expos and had an excellent rookie campaign that season. After that, the opposing pitchers realized that not feeding him fastballs would neutralize him, and that dropped his average below .200. An injury in 1971 made matters worse. As it turned out, 1973 would be his final season in the majors. This card appeared in the high-numbered series late in the season, shortly before Laboy played his final game.

"Coco" Laboy was the cousin of Pepe Mangual (an Expos teammate) and Angel Mangual. After baseball, he returned home to Puerto Rico and took a job with the government. Before he retired, he was in charge of the athletic programs across the Commonwealth.

Hoofing Around Third and Heading Home

A great action shot shows the Braves' backup catcher taking the extra base and heading home in a big hurry:

Card #452 -- Paul Casanova, Atlanta Braves

(Read the comments for an explanation of when this picture was most likely taken. Thanks ecloy.) 

Paul Casanova was a Cuban native who came up with the Senators in 1965 and remained with them until the team moved away from the D.C. area. The team didn't keep him during the move, however, as he was traded to Atlanta before they ever played their first game in Texas. Since Atlanta already had a capable catcher in Earl Williams, Casanova was relegated to a backup role. In 1973, he managed to catch Phil Niekro's no-hitter on August 5.

After a diminishing role with the team after Johnny Oates arrived, Paul Casanova was released by the Braves after '74 and never played in the majors again.

One interesting thing about Casanova was that he played all his 811 games behind the plate. That's an unusual stat, considering the number of catchers who also play at other positions to ease the strain on their knees, as well as the fact that he spent several years as a second-stringer and might have been compelled to fill in elsewhere.

No, His Middle Initial Wasn't "F"

John Kennedy from Boston. Just a decade before, that name brought images of a young President (actually, it still brings up that image today, thanks to the memories of Baby Boomers and nostalgia). However, this guy's middle name was Edward and -- while he did share the same May 29th birthday with JFK -- he was actually born in Chicago:

Card # 437 -- John Kennedy, Boston Red Sox

This John Kennedy didn't exactly make the Fenway faithful forget their Favorite Son. He played for the Red Sox from 1970 to '74 but was never a regular player. In fact, the back of the card mentions that his nickname is "Super Sub."

Before his Red Sox days, Kennedy was a member of the '69 Seattle Pilots and came up with the Senators in 1962. Yes, he was in D.C. at the same time the other John Kennedy was residing on Pennsylvania Avenue. However, he never became a full-time player there until 1964, when the name had a more somber connotation. He would move over to the Dodgers the next year.

While with Boston, he's been credited with giving teammate Bill Lee the nickname "Spaceman." During one of the Apollo missions, he supposedly told a writer that news about men going to the moon didn't really matter much, since the team already had their own "spaceman" right there in the clubhouse.

Bowled Over

Today's blog entry features the very first player ever drafted by the Cleveland Indians:

Card #226 -- Ray Fosse, Cleveland Indians

The first year of the draft was 1965, and the Tribe took Fosse in the first round. In 1972, he was credited by Gaylord Perry as a big help to his Cy Young award-winning season. He actually played the 1973 season in Oakland, after being traded a few days before Opening Day. He would go on to win two Series rings with the A's before returning to the Indians in '76, finishing the Mariners' inaugural season a year later and finishing with the Brewers in 1979.

Few references to Ray Fosse go by without mentioning the 1970 All-Star Game, when Pete Rose scored the winning run in the 12th inning by barreling over Fosse like a linebacker to beat the throw. Sure enough, the game is mentioned on the back of this card. However, the incident usually gets given the "he was a great prospect until..." treatment but he managed to stay in the game for much of the rest of the decade despite the incident.

While the Rose hit separated his shoulder, he managed to get injured later on by other means: an on-field brawl in '71, breaking up a fight between Reggie Jackson and Bill North in the A's clubhouse in '74, another home plate collision (with Jim Rice) in '75 and tripping in a hole during spring training in '78 that required season-ending reconstructive surgery. That may seem like a lot of injuries, but it's also evidence that Ray Fosse was definitely one tough hombre.