#323 Hank Bauer

#323 Hank Bauer

See, I told you I'd be back! I received this beauty from reader Tim in NO, who was kind enough to send me a box full of Orioles cards that I needed. I've coveted this Hank Bauer card since the day I first saw it while clicking around on The Baseball Card Project. Bauer had a classic, weathered face to match his gruff bulldog persona, and yet most pictures I've seen of him showcase his wide, endearing smile. That's the case here, and it's even better because the loose strands of hair poking out from under his cap combine with the glistening forehead to make it look like he's just had a rough night out.

Hank Bauer was a regular in the Yankee outfield for eleven years, winning seven World Series in nine postseasons. His best performance came in his last Fall Classic, the 1958 showdown with the Milwaukee Braves. In that series, Bauer hit four home runs in seven games for a .710 slugging percentage. His longevity in the New York lineup is even more impressive when you consider the fact that he didn't play a full season in the majors until he was 26. Hank lost his early playing years to World War II, where he served as a U.S. Marine from 1942-1945, earning two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars. His second Purple Heart came in the Battle of Okinawa, when he commanded a platoon of 64 men. Bauer was one of only six who survived, being sent home after he was hit in the thigh with shrapnel.

Hank Bauer was also the manager that took the Orioles to the promised land, bridging the gap between the strong foundation that Paul Richards built and the prolonged greatness of the Earl Weaver era. In Bauer's first year at the helm (1964), the Baby Birds gave the Yankees a run for their money, spending 92 days in first place and holding the top spot as late as September 18. Ultimately they faded just a bit, finishing two games behind New York with a then-O's record 97 wins. 1965 brought another third-place finish and 94 more wins, but 1966 would be Baltimore's year. Bolstered by the addition of slugger Frank Robinson, Bauer's charges again won 97 games. This time it was good enough to take them to the World Series, where they swept the more-heralded Dodgers in four straight games, shutting them out over the last 33 innings. Hank was named Manager of the Year for his efforts, but the glory was short-lived. After an injury-plagued O's team stumbled to a fifth-place finish in 1967 and started slow the following year, he was replaced by Earl Weaver, who'd just been added to the coaching staff at the beginning of the season. The rest, as they say, is history.

Long-Overdue Update

I'm still around! Things have been slow on the 1965 Topps front, which has obviously affected the frequency of my updates here. But I've been busy in all other aspects of my baseball card mania, at the very least. I picked up a jumbo hobby box of 2008 Topps right after its release, and was able to complete Series One. I really do love the design, as well as a couple of the more well-conceived inserts. The best of the bunch is Trading Card History, which features current players on various vintage card designs throughout history. There's an equal mix of early (1880s-1930s) tobacco and gum card designs and previous Topps designs. I was fortunate enough to pull the Hideki Okajima card patterned after the 1965 Topps set, which I couldn't resist posting here; consider him the long-lost 599th 1965 Topps card.

Speaking of 2008 Topps, I've continued to update my trade and want lists. I've gotten a lot closer to completing some pesky old sets with the help of my readers/trading partners. 1987 Topps is now my first hand-completed set, in fact! 1989 Topps may be the second; all I need is one lousy checklist. I've also added want lists for 1989 Upper Deck, 1990 Topps, 2006 Topps, and the 2008 Topps inserts I'm trying to complete - Campaign '08, 50th Anniversary All Star Rookies, and Trading Card History. The big addition to my trade list is the other 2008 inserts I've pulled - Year in Review, Own the Game, and the Mickey Mantle stuff. Ideally I'd like to get 2008 inserts in return for 2008 inserts, even-up. I'm also working my way through a box of 2008 Topps Heritage. I'm going to need a lot of help completing that one, so I'll put up a want list (and a list of my Heritage doubles) by next week.

Hopefully I'll have some new posts in the near future. I know for a fact that at least one more 1965 Topps card is headed my way, and I've gotten an email from another reader indicating that a few more might soon follow. If things reach a standstill again the way they did over the past month, I was also considering buying up some singles on eBay. I know it runs counter to the original concept of this blog, but I want to keep the content coming on a more consistent basis. Besides, if nothing else, the trade/donation concept did give me a nice little headstart in compiling this great set. If you feel strongly one way or the other about this, let me know. Thanks!

1959

1959 Topps (128): 8, 9, 10, 14, 18, 20, 24, 26, 28, 30, 34, 36, 37, 38, 45, 46, 50, 51, 57, 61, 62, 68, 72, 76, 77, 79, 86, 90, 91, 93, 102, 106, 110, 111, 129, 149, 150, 151, 163, 166, 167, 168, 171, 180, 185, 188, 190, 202, 205, 212, 291, 297, 298, 301, 305, 308, 316, 320, 335, 338, 339, 343, 350, 352, 355, 358, 360, 380, 385, 387, 389, 397, 402, 419, 430, 435, 443, 450, 461, 463, 464, 467, 472, 478, 485, 489, 495, 497, 508, 509, 510, 512, 513, 514, 515, 522, 525, 526, 527, 528, 532, 533, 534, 536, 537, 538, 541, 542, 543, 545, 546, 547, 548, 549, 550, 554, 555, 556, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 569, 570, 572

Donation from Bob, Part Two: McNally and Powell

As promised, we resume with the second pair of 1965 Topps cards I received in a bundle of vintage Orioles from reader Bob. They're good ones too, bringing some real star power to my collection!

#249 Dave McNally

First up is a talented young lefty by the name of Dave McNally. He'd just finished his second full season in the major leagues, and was already showing signs of greatness. He'd dropped his ERA nearly a full run from 1963 to 1964 (4.58 to 3.67), and although he had yet to post a winning record, his three shutouts were third on the team in 1964 behind Milt Pappas and Robin Roberts; pretty good company, if you ask me. Better times were on the horizon for Dave, as he'd break out in 1965 with an 11-6 record and a 2.85 ERA for the Birds. In another year's time, he'd be on the mound for the team's first World Championship, slamming the door on the Dodgers with a 1-0 masterpiece in the clinching Game Four.

From 1968-1971, McNally won 87 games and lost only 31. He excelled in the postseason to the tune of a 2.49 ERA and 6 complete games in 14 starts. His grand slam in Game Three of the 1970 World Series remains the only granny hit by a pitcher in the history of the Fall Classic. Dave's place in Orioles lore is secure; his 181 wins rank him second in team history, as do his 33 shutouts. He places second in career strikeouts and complete games. He also made baseball history by winning a grievance against the Montreal Expos in 1975; he and Dodgers pitcher Andy Messersmith became baseball's first free agents.

#560 Boog Powell

This is a gem of a card featuring one of the most popular players in O's history. You might notice that it lists Boog's position as "Outfield". Indeed, he came to the Orioles as a slightly trimmer left fielder. In 1965, he would split his time between the infield and the outfield before settling at first base in 1966 and staying there. I also love this card because it showcases the classic road jersey with "Baltimore" emblazoned in orange script. The disappearance of this design in the 1970s, and the decision to stay away from it in recent years, is a major bone of contention for the majority of the Charm City faithful. The cartoonish bird head logo on the left sleeve is a precursor to the Woody Woodpeckerish emblem that would make its appearance the following year.

You might have also noticed the #8 on Boog's jersey, which another great player would make famous in the coming decades. Orioles uniform numbers are sort of my thing, but this one has escaped me so far. I've found records indicating that he wore #30 as a rookie in 1961, #16 for his sophomore season in 1962, and switched to his familiar #26 from 1963 onward. That would seem to indicate that this is a Spring Training photo, and may even be a few years old. Baseball-Alamanac.com suggests that he wore #8 and #26 in 1964, but why would he have switched back and forth, having already worn #26 the previous year? If anyone has more info, let me know.

I've also written about my Dad's recent encounter with Boog over at my Orioles Card O' the Day blog.

Donation from Bob, Part One: 1964 AL RBI Leaders and Charlie Lau

Today's entry was made possible by a very generous donation from reader Bob, who found my card blogs through my NumerOlogy website. (Psst, check it out if you haven't already.) He found my Topps Orioles Needs list in the sidebar and very generously sent me his duplicate Orioles cards from 1957 through 1983, a few hundred in total! Fortunately, there were four 1965 cards in the box he sent, so I'll be writing them up two at a time in the next two entries. Thanks again, Bob!


#5 AL RBI Leaders: Brooks Robinson, Dick Stuart, Mickey Mantle, and Harmon Killebrew

Wow, check out this murderers' row! Three Hall of Famers, plus "Dr. Strangeglove", one of the best nicknames in baseball history. 1964 was of course Brooks Robinson's MVP season, when he led the league in RBI (118) and placed second in batting average (.317) and tenth in home runs (28). It was the first of three straight top-three finishes for Brooks in MVP voting. You can read about my own personal encounter with him right here. As for the Mick, it's nice to finally have a vintage card featuring his likeness; I've really been getting burned out on Topps' flogging of #7 in their modern sets. Harmon Killebrew was in the prime of his career at this time; he had just hit 49 home runs, a high-water mark for him. "Killer" hit 40 home runs in five of his first six full seasons, in fact.

#94 Charlie Lau Check out that withering glare! I would not want to mess with Charlie. He was a reliable backup catcher for parts of eleven seasons, and did his best work with the bat in 1962 during his first stint in Baltimore. That year, Lau hit career peaks in the Triple Crown categories (.294, 6 HR, 37 RBI in 81 games). Most fans know Charlie best for his post-playing career as a hitting coach. His one-handed follow-through technique allowed maximum arm extension, enabling hitters to spray the ball all over the field. He became something of a guru, writing the book How to Hit .300 and working with the Orioles, Athletics, Royals, Yankees, and White Sox over parts of three decades. His most famous students include George Brett, Hal McRae, and Carlton Fisk. Other players (such as Frank Thomas) still use his methods today, nearly twenty-five years after he died of cancer.

Two more 1965 Orioles to come soon!

My Prize from Cardboard Junkie: Rigney, Narum, Boyer World Series

Okay, my latest round of UPS stalking tells me that my package containing a jumbo box of 2008 Topps Series 1 and a jumbo box of 2006 Topps Series 2 (I threw that one in to reach the threshold for free shipping) is likely to arrive today, so I'd better knock this post out while I still have a chance. As the title suggests, these three cards arrived last week from Dave the Cardboard Junkie. I'd won my choice of several fabulous prizes for spotting one of the rogue 2006 Topps '52 Rookies in his 2007 pack rips on A Pack a Day. When offered, I will never turn down 10 Vintage Topps cards. In addition to some very cool Orioles, including a 1958 Gene Woodling, a 1970 ALCS recap card, and a fantastic 1973 Jim Palmer Boyhood Photo, there were the following:

#66 Bill Rigney

Bill is both my first manager and my first Angels card in the set. As you can see, the team was still known as the Los Angeles Angels, before they became the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the insipid Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Just pick a name and stick with it! That uniform looks pretty sharp, though. Bill suffers from Sparky Anderson disease, in which the rigors of managing ages the subject terribly. Though I'd have pegged him as sixty-five years old at a glance, "The Cricket" was all of forty-six at the time of this photo. Yikes.

Bill served in the Coast Guard during World War II, which may have contributed to his late arrival in the big leagues as a player; he was 28 when he got his start with the Giants as an infielder. He hung around for eight seasons, hitting .259 overall and gaining an All-Star berth in 1948. Three years after his retirement, he became manager of his old team; in fact, he was the last manager of the New York Giants. Rigney was named Manager of the Year in 1962, when he guided the second-year Angels squad to 86 wins and a third-place finish in the American League.

#86 Les Narum

Hey, check it out, a former Oriole! Les actually went by "Buster" for most of his career, and broke in with the Birds in 1963, tossing nine nondescript innings in relief. However, he also hit a home run in his first major league at-bat, a two-run shot off of the legendarily ugly Don Mossi in what would be an 8-5 triumph for the O's.

#135 World Series Game 4: Ken Boyer's Grand Slam

Hey, a World Series card! This is an amazing action shot of a great player; Ken was a five-time Gold Glover and a seven-time All Star while manning the Hot Corner for the Cards. This grand slam was one of Boyer's only big moments with the bat in a thrilling seven-game victory for St. Louis over the Yankees. However, it was a fitting cap to a season in which he won the NL MVP (.295, 24 HR, league-leading 119 RBI). I love Clete's striped stirrups; I think Anthony Reyes is the only current Cardinals player who shows off his stripes on a regular basis. Ken was the lucky one out of the baseball-playing Boyer brothers; you might remember his brother Clete as a solid third baseman for the Yankees, but older brother Cloyd pitched for the Cardinals as well. Clete is bad enough, but who in their right mind names a boy "Cloyd"? Did his father mean to say "Lloyd", but he coughed and the hospital secretary wrote it on the birth certificate like that?

I'll be back soon; another reader is generously sending me a few 1965 Orioles for my collection!

Donation from Fleerfan, Part Five: Simmons, Mahaffey, Geiger, O'Dell

This wraps up my breakdown of a great gift from reader and fellow blogger Fleerfan. If you've enjoyed my tidbits about these cards and the players featured on them, you can contribute to my next round of posts! You know the drill, send me a trade offer if you've got 1965 Topps to spare. Even if you don't, I'll trade my doubles for almost anything. I have specific want lists over to the left of this post, of course. I've already made a couple big trades that I'm very happy with...I'm getting closer to completing my late 1980's Topps sets!

#373 Curt Simmons

I've previously mentioned the excellent book October 1964, and the first two players in today's post are players in that story as well. Curt Simmons had started his career with the Phillies, his breakout season coming during the 1950 "Whiz Kids" campaign (17-8, 3.40 ERA). He had several more strong seasons for the Phils, winning 115 games total for them. But arm injuries cost him most of 1959 and contributed to a poor start in 1960, and Simmons was released on May 17. The Cardinals picked him up three days later, and he quickly returned to form, winning 59 games over the next five seasons. The Cardinals' 1964 World Series win over the Yankees would not have been possible without the three aces at the top of their starting rotation: Bob Gibson (19-12, 3.01), Ray Sadecki (20-11, 3.68), and the 35-year-old Simmons (18-9, 3.43). Of course, the Cardinals won the NL pennant in thrilling fashion, surging from behind to overcome Simmons' former team from Philadelphia. Speaking of which...

#446 Art Mahaffey

Much has been written about the historic collapse of the 1964 Phillies, who blew a six-and-a-half game lead in the season's final twelve games by losing ten straight. If manager Gene Mauch had a little more faith in Art Mahaffey, maybe things would have been different. Mahaffey was about league-average for a starting pitcher for most of his career; even in 1962, when he won a career-high 19 games, his 3.94 ERA was higher than the mean. Still, Art was fairly solid in that 1964 season, winning 12 and losing 9 with a 4.52 ERA. During the Phils' slide, he pitched some good games. He lost the first of the ten, a hard-luck 1-0 game against the Reds. He waited until game six for another turn, leaving in the eighth inning with a thin 4-3 lead over the Braves that was surrendered by the bullpen. Finally, he made one more appearance in relief, tossing a scoreless third inning in the ninth consecutive loss after Dennis Bennett was chased early by the Cardinal bats.

Rather than give Mahaffey his last regularly scheduled start or two, Mauch was running Jim Bunning and Chris Short (his two top starters) to the mound on extremely short rest, with predictably poor results. Art would last for just two seasons beyond 1964, his career finished at age twenty-eight. His manager's lack of confidence may have affected Art, but it was more likely the residual effects of an arm injury in 1963 that had sapped him of his velocity.

#452 Gary Geiger

Gary Geiger looks somewhat baby-faced for a 27-year-old outfielder. He also might be suppressing a laugh at the expense of that excellent vintage Red Sox logo. So much better than the ho-hum pair of non-anthropomorphic socks they have now. Gary had a rough year in 1964, as he dropped to 135 pounds (from a playing weight of about 170) following an operation for a bleeding ulcer. He played in just five games that year. Other fun (but unfortunate) facts: he wore false teeth from the age of 22 onward (his own teeth were too soft to have the cavities filled, so he had them pulled), and he had a fear of flying. As a player, he was a pretty good pitcher in the minors before switching to the outfield. He hit 70 of his 77 career home runs in his first five years in Boston, but the medical emergency in 1964 marked the end of his days as a regular.

#476 Billy O'Dell

We're going out in style! This is my favorite card yet in my budding 1965 Topps set. Why? Just look at Billy, with his no-nonsense flattop (Flattop #2 in my set, following Hal Woodeshick) that you could set a watch to. His wide, aw-shucks grin illuminates every crag and crease in his weathered face; if Gary Geiger is the youngest 27-year-old around, Billy O'Dell may be the oldest 32-year-old. He looks like he stepped right out of a John Wayne movie.

I also love this card because Billy is one of the earliest of the ex-Orioles. He was signed as a bonus baby in June 1954, joining the team just two months after they debuted in Baltimore. His earned run average was well below league average for each of his three full seasons in orange and black, and he made two All-Star teams in that span. His most memorable moment may have been the 1958 Midsummer Classic, when he shut the door on the NL boys with three perfect innings (including strikeouts of Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Bill Mazeroski). O'Dell earned the save in front of the hometown fans in Memorial Stadium.

Donation from Fleerfan, Part Four: Woodeshick, Hinton, Bearnarth, Stanek

#179 Hal Woodeshick

And Hal represents Part Two of the Great Houston Kerfluffle. Topps has finally figured out that the team will be called the Astros, and kept the "Houston" text so no one will be confused. No logo, of course. Hal, in addition to his sharp flattop and rugged gaze, was a pretty good reliever. He made the All-Star team in 1963 by winning 11 games and saving 10 others without the benefit of a single start. The following year he led the National League with 23 saves, which actually is impressive for the era. His 2.76 ERA that year was actually his highest between 1963 and 1966.

#235 Chuck Hinton

Hey, another All-Star! Chuck is fresh off of his 1964 season, in which he represented the Senators in the Midsummer Classic. Oddly enough, his performance that year (.274, 11 HR, 53 RBI) wasn't nearly as good as his 1962 campaign (.310, 17 HR, 75 RBI), for which he did not receive an All-Star nod. Here we see another example of the Hide-the-Hat phenomenon. Topps scrambled to cover up any indicators that Hinton had been a Senator; Washington traded him to the Indians on December 1, 1964. Chuck even had ties to the Orioles, having been signed by the team in 1956 as a free agent. Before he ever made his big league debut, the Senators grabbed him in the 1960 Expansion Draft.

#258 Larry Bearnarth

Larry is a college boy, having been signed by the Mets after graduating from St. John's University with an English degree. Yep, that's one thing that Larry and I have in common. New York sent him straight to AAA Syracuse, where he went 2-13 with a 6.67 ERA. Still, the Mets were so awful that they promoted him the very next year, and he saw action in 58 games (third-most in the N. L.). He was much improved, sporting a 3.46 ERA. But his major league performance peaked in that first season, and by 1967 he was back in the minors to stay...or was he? In 1971, he made his return to the bigs with the Brewers, tossing three terrible innings. He found new life in baseball as a pitching coach, spending the next quarter-century mentoring pitchers in the Expos and Rockies organizations. Larry passed away on December 31, 1999.

#302 Al Stanek

Believe it or not, Al didn't even pitch in the majors in 1964. He'd debuted with the Giants the previous year, struggling in 11 relief appearances. Topps seems to have given him a card in 1965 on the strength of his efforts in AAA Tacoma, where he won 13 games with a 2.83 ERA and led the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts with 220. Unfortunately, Stanek never made it back to the bigs. Maybe his control problems had something to do with it - along with those 220 K's, he also allowed 108 walks. If anyone has more information on the demise of Al's career, let me know. He's last mentioned in The Sporting News archives in 1967, at which time he was still twirling in the minors.

Next time: the last four cards from Fleerfan! (Spoiler: they're the best cards in the group.)

Donation from Fleerfan, Part Three: Lanier, Daniels, Duffalo, Mikkelsen

#118 Hal Lanier

Hal Lanier is a rather sad case of what could have been, as his golden (yellow, anyway) Rookie Cup can attest. He turned heads by batting .274 in 1964, but it would be his best offensive performance by far. The after-effects of a 1965 beaning left him with epilepsy, and he never hit above .233 for the rest of his career. He did have some success as a manager, winning the Manager of the Year award in 1986 for guiding the Astros to a 96-66 record and an NL West title in his first season at the helm.

#129 Bennie Daniels

Check out that nifty Senators logo, with the batter following through on a mighty wallop out in front of the Capitol. Bennie Daniels was a decent pitcher for the second incarnation of the Washington Senators, the team that eventually became the Rangers (the first DC team moved to Minnesota and became the Twins). Bennie was on both the winning and losing ends of history. He took the 'L' in the final games ever played at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and old Griffith Stadium in Washington. However, he was victorious in the first game ever played in District of Columbia Stadium, which would later be known as RFK Stadium. Daniels went the distance that day, allowing 5 hits and besting the Tigers 4-1 with President Kennedy in attendance. According to baseball historian Lee Allen, he also notched the win in the 100,000th game ever played in the MLB, a 7-2 decision over the Indians in 1963.

#159 Jim Duffalo

Not much information to be found about Jim Duffalo. He appears to have been a solid reliever for the Giants in the first half of the 1960s, with back-to-back ERAs of 2.87 and 2.92 in 1963 and 1964, but they used him sparingly. His career highs were 35 games and 75 and 1/3 innings pitched. He was traded to Cincinnati in May 1965, and that season would prove to be his last. He was just 29 when he pitched his final game. A perfunctory search of Sporting News archives on paperofrecord.com indicates that he pitched in the minor leagues until 1972 without getting the call back to the big time.

#177 Pete Mikkelsen

Pete is the second bespectacled hurler in my 1965 set so far. He was a former Marine who threw a mean sinker. His performance out of the Yankees' bullpen as a rookie (7-4, 12 saves, 3.56 ERA) helped them get to the 1964 World Series. However, he surrendered a game-winning three-run home run to Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver in the tenth inning of Game Five. St. Louis would go on to win an exciting series in seven games. I highly recommend the late David Halberstam's excellent book on the two teams and that World Series, October 1964.

More to come soon!

Donation from Fleerfan, Part Two: Oliver, Ribant, Checklist, Thomas

Okay, here's the second group of four from the Fleerfan pile. More to come!

#59 Nate Oliver

Nate "Pee Wee" Oliver's father, Jim Oliver, Sr., played in the Negro Leagues in the 1940's. Nate was a light-hitting backup infielder throughout the 1960's. In 1965, he was actually coming off of his best season as a major leaguer, for what it's worth: his 99 games played, 9 doubles, 21 RBI, and .243 average and .309 on-base percentage were all career highs. He appeared as a pinch runner in Game Four of the 1966 World Series, which my beloved Orioles won to sweep the favored Dodgers. Just had to squeeze that in, you know.

#73 Dennis Ribant

I don't know about you, but I really miss the days when the Mets wore only blue and orange, without all of the black nonsense. It's a pretty shallow excuse to move more merchandise. One of my favorite destinations on the Web is Paul Lukas' Uni Watch Blog. Paul is a diehard Mets fan and a scholar of uniform minutiae, and he also masterminded the Ditch the Black campaign, which aimed to...well, it's self-explanatory. The Mets' uniform as it was originally conceived was a great nod to the tradition of baseball in New York: blue to represent the old Brooklyn Dodgers, and orange for the departed New York Giants. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

#79 Checklist 1

I don't really have much to offer about this checklist, except to say that it arrived with three of the boxes on the back filled in with blue pen. I generally don't fill out my own checklists any more; I tend to keep inventory on spreadsheets and online tools. But there's something charming about those little dark blue ink blots and remembering back to a time when I would have used a checklist for its intended purpose.

#83 George Thomas

George almost seems to be sporting a sneer in his photo, perhaps an indication that his career hasn't been moving along as planned. The Tigers signed him as a "bonus baby" on August 5, 1957, and he got to make his debut that September at the age of 19. He wouldn't be in the bigs to stay until 1961, when the Angels acquired him for cash. His official rookie season was one of the best of his career. He hit .274 with 13 home runs and 59 RBI, and his offensive production was about league-average. The only year he even came close to that performance was 1964, the most recent campaign at the time of this card's production. Back with the Tigers following a June 1963 trade, Thomas batted .286 and went deep 12 times. Though he stuck around until 1971, George never topped 80 games played in another season. Post-retirement he did coach baseball at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota (1979-1981).