The Current Bosox Skipper

At the beginning of this year's baseball season, this guy took the manager's position of the Boston Red Sox:

Card #502 -- Bobby Valentine, California Angels

This picture is airbrushed, as Valentine spent his entire career through 1972 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. You can pay an artist to paint red and blue stripes on the uniform and white out the Dodgers' distinctive jersey features, but it was apparently to much to ask somebody to crop out the rest of the Phillies player sitting in the lower right corner.

Starting with California in 1973, Valentine got off to a .302 average, but was injured by the outfield chain-link fence while trying to rob Dick Green of a home run. During the attempt, his spikes were caught and he suffered multiple fractures in his leg. Not only did that injury end his season, it robbed him of his speed, As a result, he never stayed long with his teams as a player. He moved to the Padres in 1975, the Mets in 1977 and the Mariners in '79. He retired that year and moved on to coaching.

In 1985, Valentine was tapped to be the Rangers' manger. A few days before his 35th birthday, he was the youngest non-playing manager in years. He remained with the team through 1992. After a short stint as a manager in Japan, Valentine was named the New York Mets' manager in 1996 and guided them to the 2000 World Series. He was fired by the team after 2002, and he returned to Japan to manage the Chiba Lotte Marines again. He moved to the ESPN broadcast booth in 2009, where he remained until the Red Sox called.

Bobby Valentine is regarded a smart baseball man. Hopefully he's smart enough to keep ESPN executives on his speed dial. Especially if you hear what Red Sox fans have been saying about him.

First-Time Skipper

In 1973, this guy was the brand new manager for the Angels:

Card #421 -- Bobby Winkles and Coaches, California Angels

However, he had just finished a very successful run and the head coach at Arizona State University, where he led the school to three College World Series titles and coached some successful future major leaguers (Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Rick Monday, Larry Gura). He was never a big league player, spending 1951-'58 in the minors before moving to ASU the next year. He also wasn't successful as a manager in the majors. He was fired midway through the '74 season. He moved over to the A's for the rest of the year as a coach and eventually manged them from 1977-'78. He also coached for the Giants, White Sox and Expos through 1988.

Tom Morgan was a former major leaguer, however. He pitched with six different teams from 1951-'63, including several years as a New York Yankee. He worked as a pitching coach for the Angels, the Padres and the Yankees. He passed away after suffering a stroke in 1987.

Salty Parker's major league experience involved a weeklong stretch in 1936 with the Tigers. He was a longtime coach in the minors, as well as with the Angels, Giants, Indians, Mets and the Astros. In 1973, he was beginning his second stint as an Angels coach. He also served as an interim managerfor the Mets and Astros. He moved on to become a scout and passed away in 1992.

Jimmie Reese was a member of the Yankees in 1930-'31, where he was the roommate of Babe Ruth, as well as the Cardinals in 1932. After a long stretch as a player, scout, coach and minor league manager, he joined the Angels in 1972 as a conditioning coach. His specialty was running a fungo drill, using a bat he designed himself. He remained with the Angels until his death in 1994. The team retired his jersey number in his honor.

John Roseboro played between 1957 and 1970 in the majors, with most of those years spent with the Dodgers. A catcher, he succeeded Roy Campanella and caught Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Don Sutton. While catchers are often the best-suited players to become coaches, Roseboro's career on the bench was relatively short. After one season with the Senators and three with the Angels, he and his wife mostly focused on running a public relations firm in Beverly Hills. Roseboro passed away in 2002.

Veteran of Two Tours of Duty in the Bronx

As a young collector, I knew this player because he wore Yankee pinstripes:

Card #102 -- Rudy May, California Angels

It was actually Rudy May's second tour of duty with the club. He was with the team from 1974-76 and then again from 1980-'83 to finish his career. And yes, I say "tour of duty" because that's a good description of the Yankee clubhouse during those years. The first tour was the early Steinbrenner era, when a new owner was weeding out what he thought were contributing elements of a losing team, and the second was an era of a managerial "revolving door."

May's first season was 1965, when he went 4-9 with the Angels. Between the military and more seasoning in the minors, he wouldn't return to the parent club until 1969. Despite an excellent curveball, he ran a 51-76 record in California before being traded to the Yankees early in the 1974 season. He rarely fell below the .500 mark after that, however, and posted a respectable 14 wins in 1975. In '76, he pitched the first game played in the "new" Yankee Stadium but was later involved in the massive 10-player trade between the Yanks and Orioles that impacted both teams for the next several seasons.

May pitched in Baltimore for two seasons and was traded to Montreal, where he spent two additional seasons. Before the 1980 campaign, he went back to the Yankees as a free agent. His 1980 season was a good one; he led the American League in ERA and posted a respectable 15 wins. He also made the postseason for the first time. He returned to the postseason in '81, and transitioned to the bullpen for the final two years of his career.

Not the Guy From "F Troop"

While another person with the same name was gracing the "boob tube" as the captain of a misfit cavalry unit, this guy was playing in the White Sox' outfield:

Card #445 -- Ken Berry, California Angels

This Ken Berry did go on to an acting role as well, playing a fan in the 1988 film Eight Men Out, after he served as a consultant for the producers of that movie.

As a member of the White Sox from 1962-'70, Berry was a well-regarded defensive outfielder, earning a place on the American League's All-Star team in 1967. He was mainly a centerfielder, but moved over when Tommie Agee played for the team. He won a Gold Glove award for them in 1970, his last season there. Traded to the Angels after that season, he continued as a regular player in the outfield and earned a second Gold Glove in 1972. 1973 would be his last year as an everyday player, as well as his last in California. He would be traded to Milwaukee for the '74 season and spent the first half of '75 in Cleveland.

Berry worked as a coach and a minor league manager in several organizations since his retirement.

A Man Called Skeeter

While his nickname "Skeeter" was probably derived from his Tennessee birthplace, this pitcher had a crazy nickname during the three years he played in Japan:

Card #373 -- Clyde Wright, California Angels

During his first season in Japan, Clyde Wright was about to get yanked during the first inning with two on and nobody out. As the manager walked to the mound, Wright stubbornly refused to give up the ball and then threw it hard into his team's dugout. The tactic was seen as disrespectful by the Japanese fans and critics, who called him "Crazy Righto" after the incident. Which is really funny, considering the photo above clearly shows he's a left-handed pitcher.

Before his career in Japan, however, Wright spent a decade in the majors. He came up with the Angels in 1966 and pitched a complete-game four-hitter against the Twins during his first game. By 1970, he taught himself the screwball and enjoyed his best season, going 22-6 and throwing a no-hitter. 1973 would be his final season with the Halos; he spent 1974 with the Brewers and '75 in Texas. His three-year career in the Far East began in 1976, as he was only the second white American-born player (Davey Johnson was the first) to play for the Yomiuri Giants in over a decade.

In 1977, Wright -- along with fellow expatriate players Roger Repoz and Charlie Manuel -- decided to take on several East German hockey players in a fight while visiting a club. That didn't end well for them. After retiring, Wright opened up about his battle with alcohol and has participated in community outreach on that topic. His son, Jaret Wright, was a pitcher from 1997-2007.

Torborg

This guy was one of the many catchers who went on to become major league managers after taking off the "tools of ignorance":

Card #154 -- Jeff Torborg, California Angels

Jeff Torborg was able to catch three no-hitters during his ten year career, including two that were quite significant. In 1965, he was behind the plate for Sandy Koufax's perfect game and in 1973 he called the pitches for the first no-hitter of Nolan Ryan's career. The other one was in 1970, when he was the catcher of Bill Singer's no-no.

Torborg came up with the Dodgers in 1964 after a standout career at Rutgers University. While there, he ran up a .537 batting average and a phenomenal 1.032 slugging percentage the year before. Despite those numbers, he was never a feared hitter during his days in the majors. Torborg was a lifetime .214 hitter, but his defensive abilities and intellectual control of the game's flow were strong enough to keep him around. He stayed with the Dodgers through 1970, and was sold to the Angels after the season. 1973 would be his final year in the majors, and this was his last Topps card as a player.

His managing career began in 1977 with a three-year tour of duty in Cleveland (you might call it a "stint," but I'll opt for a different military metaphor in this case) but that team was -- to put it mildly -- underachieving. He returned in 1989 with the Chicago White Sox and turned them around to second-place showings in both 1990 and '91. In '92 he took over the Mets...who clearly weren't the same team they were just a few years prior to that. He resurfaced in 2001 with the Expos and then guided the Marlins beginning in 2002. While that team won the World Series the next year, Torborg wasn't leading them. He had been fired early in the season.

Chico...Don't Be Discouraged...

For those who didn't recognize the words in the title...they were the opening words to the TV show Chico and the Man, even though that didn't actually debut until 1974. "Chico" was the nickname of this guy:

Card #522 -- Leo Cardenas, California Angels

Leo "Chico" Cardenas was an infielder who spent sixteen seasons in the major leagues. He came up in 1960 with the Cincinnati Reds and remained with the team through 1968. He appeared in the '61 World Series against the Yankees and moved into the team's regular shortstop role by 1962. When Pete Rose came up in 1963, Cardenas was his double play partner. He would be traded to Minnesota and played for the Twins during the first two ALCS series. After the '71 season, he was traded to the Angels.

1972 was Cardenas's final year as an everyday player. His skills were beginning to wane due to his age, so he lasted that one season in California. By the time this card was included in wax packs, he was playing for the Cleveland Indians. 1973 was the first season where Cardenas played any position besides shortstop (we went to third in 10 games), and he would split time between the left side of the infield -- with a couple of DH appearances for the rest of his career. His final two seasons were spent in Texas, where he played for his ex-Twins skipper Billy Martin.

Cardenas is a native of Cuba, which provides the backdrop for an interesting story about him. While he was playing in Havana during the 1950s, Cardenas was on the field when several supporters of Fidel Castro became so excited they began firing their rifles in the air. Some of the bullets arced back onto the field and several players (including Cardenas) were injured by the gunfire. As the political climate in the country worsened, Havana's team was forced to play the rest of their schedule in the U.S.

"Alphabet"

Back when I was in the Army, recruits with long or hard-to-pronounce last names (like mine) were often referred to as "Private Alphabet" by our drill sergeants and other NCOs. That has absolutely nothing to do with this player except he'd have been called that as well:

Card #301 -- Billy Grabarkewitz, California Angels

If it appears the partial Angels log is airbrushed, that's because Billy Grabarkewitz had spent his entire major league career through 1972 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Topps didn't have a lot of time to get a picture of him in an Angels uniform, as he was traded to Philadelphia that August. He never spent another full season with another team, splitting '74 with the Phillies and Cubs and getting into six games with the A's in 1975 before being sent down to the minors. He was released after the season and never played again.

Grabarkewitz was a skilled infielder, but there was nowhere to put him when he was a Dodger, not when they were putting together their fabled Garvey/Lopes/Russell/Cey lineup. He made the All-Star team in 1970. However, injuries nagged him and affected his performance after that. As it turned out, 1970 would be Grabarkewitz's one shining year in the majors.

He went into the insurance business after putting away his glove.

Star Player...But Not Quite Immortal

Before this player passed away from a stroke in 1995, there was a push by several fans to get him enshrined in the Hall of Fame:

Card #75 -- Vada Pinson, California Angels

However, 2,757 hits and 485 doubles aren't numbers that will cement induction. That said, Pinson remains eligible through the Veterans' Committee and can conceivably get a plaque in Cooperstown someday.

Before I get into a recap of Pinson's career, I will point out the way the field is tilted in the picture on his '73 Topps card. That and the small turnout for the game (though the photo could have been snapped before the game, even if it doesn't look like there are any fans walking toward their seats).

A graduate of McClymonds High School in Oakland, he was a teammate of Frank Robinson. Pinson joined Robinson when he came up with Cincinnati in 1958. He remained with the Reds until 1968 and had his best years with that club. In 1961, he was the runner-up for the National League batting title as he helped the Reds to the World Series. Batting ahead of Robinson early in his career and behind Pete Rose later on, he got a lot of good pitches and took the opportunity to rack up the runs and RBIs.

In 1969, the Reds traded Pinson to the Cardinals, but his season was disappointing. After that, he would spend two seasons with three different clubs: Cleveland, California and Kansas City. Even toward the end of his career, he was still able to play over 100 games a year and wasn't relegated to the DH position to get a bat into the lineup. He was still able to capably play in the field, and filled in wherever he was needed.

After retiring, Pinson became a major league coach with the Mariners, White Sox, Tigers and Marlins. Though efforts to get him into Cooperstown failed (and then cooled off after his death), Vada Pinson was still one of the most exciting and productive batters of the 1960s.

Waiting For the Forceout

Waiting for the throw as Bert Campaneris makes his way to first, Bob Oliver has his glove ready and hopes the throw isn't off:

Card #289 -- Bob Oliver, California Angels

Actually, this picture may have worked better on a horizontally-oriented card. There were certainly worse images in the set that were given that treatment.

At the time this picture was taken, Bob Oliver was a teammate of Nolan Ryan. His son Darren was also a teammate of Ryan's, during the Hall of Famer's final season in 1993. He was a new member of the Angels in 1972, having been traded from the Royals in May. He would stay in California until late in the '74 season, when he was traded to Baltimore. He played with the Yankees in 1975 and then three more years in the minors before retiring.

An original member of the Royals in 1969, Oliver was the first player on that team to hit a grand slam. he also was the first to collect six hits in a nine-inning contest.

Hall of Fame Week, Part 2

Last weekend, Roberto Alomar was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Since he was still a kid in 1973, he wouldn't have a baseball card yet. However, his father was an active player:

Card #123 -- Sandy Alomar, California Angels

Sandy Alomar was adept all over the field. He was capable of playing any infield or outfield position. He was also a fleet-footed baserunner who was an aggressive base stealer. Ironically, his main weakness was the one he shows here, his bat. His career average was .245.

Alomar is better known as the father of two future major leaguers. Sandy Alomar, Jr. was a catcher, and Roberto is now in the Hall of Fame. Both came up to the majors in 1988 for the San Diego Padres, where Sandy Sr. was a coach. He's still coaching with the Mets today.

A Small Cloud of Dust

While the cloud of dust at his feet looks a little neat, it could indicate he has just thrown his pitch into the dirt:

Card #636 -- Rick Clark, California Angels

For Rick Clark, it was a metaphor for his major league baseball career. Though this card appeared in Topps' final series in 1973, he was done with the big leagues and never played at all that year. He was purchased by the Phillies before Spring Training began and spent the entire season at the AAA level.

Clark's Wikipedia entry is exactly one sentence long. The back of this card features more information about his career than that. Although he won 12 games as a rookie in 1967, his record after five partial seasons was 19-32. That may have marginalized him a bit.

My "Heavens," That's a Good One!

This is actually a fairly decent airbrush job that looks almost like he's wearing a brand-new cap:

Card #402 -- Jack Hiatt, California Angels

Jack Hiatt split the 1972 season between Houston and California, the franchise he debuted with in 1964. Over the course of nine seasons and five teams, he wasn't able to get regular time behind the plate unless somebody got injured. However, those last several games he played with the Angels were exactly that: his last. The bottom stat line on the back of this card end up showing his final career numbers.

He had one brief chance to rise above the obscurity, though. In 1969, starting catcher Dick Dietz hurt his hand early in the season and Hiatt took his place. Taking advantage of the change in fortune, he got off to a hot start and even clubbed a game-ending (nobody called them "walk-off" back then) grand slam. However, his streak cooled considerably and he was soon below a .200 batting average. When Dietz came off the DL, he resumed his place in the lineup.

After Hiatt walked off the field...or out of the dugout, in his case, he became a minor league manager for several years and then served as the Giants' director of player development for 16 years through 2007.

A Nice New Cap

Airbrushed or not? I think it's real, but the cap looks really nice either way:

Card #543 -- Alan Foster, California Angels

Foster appears to be wearing an Angels jersey -- you can see the top of the "G" on his jersey --so it's definitely not an old picture from his time with the Tribe in '71 or his '67-'70 stint in Dodger blue. The stats on the back do mention that he spent most of '72 at Salt Lake City, so this photo likely came from Spring Training as there's little chance Topps got his picture during the time he pitched his eight games in relief for the team in 1972.

As it turned out, 1972 would be Alan Foster's only year with the Halos. He was sold to the Cardinals just as the season was getting ready to begin. So despite being part of the final series that year, Topps didn't seem to be worried about getting an airbrush artist busy getting Foster into a St. Louis uniform. 1973 was his best year in the majors, seeing Foster moving to the starting rotation and getting his first winning record. He pitched for two years with them and finished up with the Padres between 1975-'76.

A "Quick" Post Today

As a young fan of the New York Yankees during the late 1970s, I definitely remember this guy:

Card #597 -- Mickey Rivers, California Angels

The photo here seems to be a little overexposed. It also looks like it was taken at the same session that produced his 1972 Topps card. The poles that rise to the left of his head support the halo at Anaheim Stadium that made for some really great '72 Topps cards like this one.

"Mick the Quick" had begun playing with the Angels in 1970 and was still a part-timer when this photo was taken. He finally became the team's starting center fielder in '74 and showed his speed by winning the league's stolen base crown the following year. After that, he was traded to the Yankees for the '76 season and responded with a career year. He would spend three full seasons in the Bronx, and each year ended with a World Series appearance. In 1979, he was traded to the Texas Rangers and remained with them until 1984. When he retired, Rivers had a respectable .295 career average.

California Dreamin'

Some parents place their kids' artwork on their refrigerators. Employees at Topps put them on baseball cards:

Card #570 -- Bill Singer, California Angels

Or at least that's what it seems like with some of the airbrush jobs they've featured over the years.

With the palm trees looming behind him, Bill Singer is obviously hanging around at a Spring Training facility (probably Vero Beach, the long-time preseason home of the Dodgers, Singer's team through the end of 1972). It's quite obvious that he wasn't wearing a California Angels outfit when the photo was snapped.

While with the Dodgers, Singer was a member of the team's rotation during the late 1960s. In 1969, he won 20 games; in 1970, he threw a no-hitter. Unfortunately,  he developed some injuries that limited his time on the mound.

After the 1972 season, the Dodgers sent him to their Anaheim neighbors along with Frank Robinson and Bobby Valentine to get Andy Messersmith. Singer earned 20 wins for the Halos in '73 and appeared in the All-Star game that season. However, injuries continued to affect him afterwards and he would travel to the Rangers, Twins and Blue Jays before hanging up the glove in 1978. In Toronto, he was part of history as the team's first-ever Opening Day pitcher. 

After retiring, Singer went on to coach and scout for various teams. He would show up in the news again in 2003, after making some insensitive remarks to Dodgers' assistant GM Kim Ng about his her Asian heritage. Singer was quick to use the "I was drunk" defense, but the Mets quickly tossed him to the curb when the story surfaced. Singer would soon work for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but in an interesting bit of irony given the reason he was canned by the Mets, the Washington Nationals would later give him a job coordinating their scouting efforts in Asia.

" A Little More to the Right..."

Despite using more action photos for its 1973 baseball card set, occasionally Topps would revert to its old form and show a posed shot. Here's one of them:

Card #18 -- Leroy Stanton, California Angels

While it's good to look like you're waiting for your pitcher to make his delivery, perhaps standing next to the dugout isn't exactly wise. After all, if the batter hits the ball to him, it's foul anyway, and if he runs to the right he may fall.

While that seems like a rookie mistake, Stanton had been in the majors since 1970. After a couple of years with the Mets, he was one of four players traded to California in exchange for Jim Fregosi. Since one of the other players given up was Nolan Ryan, it's remembered as one of the worst blunders the Mets have made (admittedly, a long list...but I digress). During his five seasons in the Angels outfield he made a name as a steady and dependable if not necessarily outstanding player. On July 10, 1973 he would launch three home runs against the Orioles. The third blast was a 10th inning score that would be the game-winning hit. Amazingly, those three homers in one day were more than what Stanton had accumulated up to that point (he ended the season with 8 round-trippers).

After being selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 1976 Expansion Draft, Stanton would finish his career there in 1978. His last regular Topps card was among the ones I pulled from some of my first wax packs in 1979.