Lee Pruitt
 

Pruitt , a lefthanded hitting outfielder played in the Red Sox organization from 1979- 1982 flashing some power but never rising above Double A Bristol. If anyone can dig up a likeness of this Arkansas ballplayer I would sincerely appreciate it.




https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=pruitt001rus

Lee Pruitt
 

The first photo shows Lee Pruitt with the Elmira Pioneers. It's from the Elmira Star Gazette of Aug. 10, 1979. The second photo also shows him with Elmira, but holding his team MVP Award. It's from the Star Gazette of Aug. 28, 1979.

Thank you Cusick

When I requested a facegen for Pruitt for the game I was playing, this is the custom card that AESP_Pres used as the basis for the facegen he shared (in the Facegen thread, obviously).

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...1&d=1711478555

I don't know who first made the custom card or why elements that should obviously be red were colored blue, but it is a lovely image of Pruitt in Elmira gear. (You can direct follow-up questions to the OP, if you choose.)

Nardi Contreras 1969
 

After four seasons in the Reds' chain, Contreras was drafted by the Mets in 1972. He progressed up the Mets' system, having a fine season at AAA Tidewater in 1975 (his first as a pure reliever)

This got him an invitation to Spring Training, Bicentennial Edition.

Attachment 1060943

(Image courtesy of Larry Fritsch Cards on eBay. Plus my standard tweaks.)

Unfortunately, Nardi not only didn't make the Mets, he was released! If you're not good enough to hang with Bob Myrick, I guess they had no use for him.

Luckily he kept going, eventually reaching the majors with the 1980 White Sox and then embarking on his coaching career.

(Why is Nardi wearing Ron Hodges's #42? Or is that an odd-looking 47? Huh.)

Very cool thank you!! I had not heard of Facegen. I will look it up.

Ike Pettaway
 

Here is 9 year minor league veteran Felix Earl "Ike" Pettaway as a 1980 Durham Bull with his team MVP trophy. Easily his best professional season. He pitched from 1976 to 1985 for the Braves, Twins and Yankees organizations.
This photo is from an excellent collection from the cowboy poet Red Shuttleworth. Red also has captured the players of the 1977 Texas City Stars an independent A ball team that lasted one season. Great images.





https://poetredshuttleworth.blogspot...ham-bulls.html

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=pettaw001fel

Brian Snitker 1977
 

Excellent collection from Red Shuttlesworth, there!

One that should definitely be shared is this shot of the young Snit, in his final season as a player, but with a looooong managerial career about to start (Anderson, SC, 1982).

Attachment 1061129

(many, many) better days ahead, Snit!

Stu Cann 1967
 

Speaking of longtime Braves employees, here's their midwest scout of over 30 years back in his playing days. The record book at Eastern Illinois University says that Stu was drafted by the Mets in 1967, but I can't find any record of that in The Baseball Cube's list of Mets draftees, so for all I know, he just showed up in Mets camp that year, but he put in three seasons in the chain (culminating in a nice 9-game cameo with Tidewater in 1969) before the Mets looked at how Stu had Stu-ruggled at the lower stops that year and canned Cann.

Atlanta picked Stu up for a few more futile seasons of minor-league ball, before he switched to scouting and he's been beating the bushes of central Illinois ever since. Notable signings include Marty Clary and Zane Smith.

I don't know it the fact that Al Weis had #6 on lock from 1968 on means that this is from 1967, or if Stu was snapped in minor-league camp and so the duplicate number doesn't mean anything. Courtesy of Larry Fritsch Cards on eBay, once more.

Attachment 1061130

Ronnie Rudd 1978
 

OTOH, there's not much reason to spotlight Rudd, the Braves #2 pick in the January secondary draft in 1978; he went to Sacramento City College, but he was no Larry Bowa, never getting above class A.

I just like the picture.

Attachment 1061131

Steve Stieb 1979
 

I guess we may as well take note of Steve, too…although if your only distinction is being Dave Stieb's big brother, that's really more about Dave (and your parents) than you.

Steve was a catcher, drafted in the 13th round of the 1979 draft from Southern Illinois. (He's a Saluki! Salud!) Here Steve is seen in the middle year of his three year pro career (he was a catcher, as you see.)

Nice texture on the uniform, though.

Attachment 1061132

Reggie Whittemore
 

There is a sharp image of Whittemore posted earlier in a Red Sox uniform by jwisenberg. A spring training photo I imagine. "Rock" had an excellent season at Pawtucket in '83 with 24 HR 84 RBI's ,278 but never got the call. Here is one of Whittemore in a very cool distinctly minor league Pawtucket jersey where he played in '83 and '84.
Included is his HOF page at David Lipscomb where he led the Bison to NAIA championships in 1977 and '79 and an article of Where Are They Now? from the universities website.




https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=whitte001reg

https://lipscombsports.com/honors/ha...hittemore/58\\

https://lipscombsports.com/news/2012...7171_7171.aspx

Mike Martin 1970
 

Jerry Martin's big brother, from right here in Columbia SC, was the 5th overall pick in the rancid 1970 draft. (Mike "10¢ Control Tower" Ivie, Grand Slam Steve Dunning, and Barry Foote were a less-than impressive top 3; #4 pick Darrell Porter was the only player in the 1st round to even be selected for an All-Star game; after Porter, only Lee Richard, John D'Acquisto and Disco Danny Ford even had decent-length careers.)

In this offering from Larry Fritsch Cards on eBay, we see Mike at Spring Training, in what I believe to be 1971:

Attachment 1062099

The uniform is interesting; it was never worn by the Phillies. It follows the design scheme of the uniform the Phils adopted in 1970, with the number on the left chest and a P on the right, instead of "Phillies" spelled out as before and since. But that's not the distinctive maroon P-with-a-Baseball that Mike Schmidt wore for his entire career…it's an old-school 1960s font instead. Perhaps this was a prototype, ordered and then discarded but kept for training camp?

In any event, Mike made four years' progress through the chain, reaching AAA Eugene in 1973. A winning record every season, but also escalating ERAs. (To be fair, a lot of Eugene Emeralds had ERAs far higher than Dwight Eugene Gooden ever posted; I'm guessing the park was a bandbox?). So in 1974, Mike dropped down a few notches, coming back home to Spartanburg SC and playing 1B instead. It was a modest success, but not much of one, and he was back to pitching in 1975 and for the rest of his career.

(Mike did eventually make it back to AAA, making 8 relief appearances for Wichita in 1978. Where he was promptly hammered into retirement, and ended up watching Jerry have the big-league career Mike never got.)

(Picture subject to my usual sharpening and such.)

Mike Martin was on the Phila. Phillies' spring roster three times -- 1973, 1974, and 1975.

Treetops
 

Jeff Ledbetter was a Florida State All American and a lefthanded hitting and throwing RF for the Red Sox and Cardinals organizations from 1982 to 1986. Drafted by the Yankees and Expos he chose to play and remain at FSU and rewarded the Seminoles with a glorious 1982 season when he was named Baseball America and Sporting News Player of the Year. "Treetops" became Ledbetter's nickname at FSU for the prestigious moon shots that jumped off his bat.

His minor league career was ordinary and ended when he was 26. Jeff Ledbetter was inducted in the Florida State Hall of Fame and has his own Wikipedia page. Both are listed below. The team photo features Head Coach Mike Martin shaking hands with future Expo Mike Fuentes. diminutive catcher Craig Ramsey and a smiling Ledbetter. His teammate with the moustache I have yet to identify. The Arkansas Travelers card is either from 1985 or 1986 when once again Ledbetter reached AA for the last time.



https://seminoles.com/honors/florida...f-ledbetter/32



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Ledbetter


https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=ledbet001jef

Intriguing. So, twice as a pitcher and once as a 1B? Holy Jack Bentley!

Do you when those odd uniforms were in use?

ETA: The Florida State coach (who passed in February 2024) was a different Mike Martin. That one was from North Carolina, not South.

Mike Martin was no Jack Bentley. In Street and Smith's Baseball Yearbooks all three years (1973-75), he was listed as a pitcher on the Phillies' rosters.

I don't know the answer about the odd uniforms.

Ken/Kenny/Kenneth Fuller 1970
 

Hmm, I guess it wasn't until after Spring Training in 1974 that Martin decided to try his hand at 1B, and when that wasn't an enormous success, he went back to pitching in time for the 1975 spring roster to have him at the proper position.

Another 1970 Phils draftee (taken in the 4th round of the January re-draft, out of Chabot College in Hayward CA) is Fuller, called Ken by Fritsch, Kenny by The Baseball Cube, and Kenneth by Baseball-Reference.

I was going to say that the 1968-style uni (old-style "Phillies" font, no Centennial patch) means that this is Fuller at Spring Training 1970, but I'm not the one with the spring rosters, so…

Attachment 1062308

All I know is that, whichever year this is, Fuller needs to button his shirt! You dirty hippie! They may let you get wayward in Hayward, but this is the pros! No wonder you never made it past AA Reading!

(Fuller would say it was because the R-Phils couldn't play defense, given that in 1973 his ERA was 3.77 whereas his RA/9 was 4.97, but still.)

Fuller and Martin were teammates at Spartanburg in 1971. Martin must have been so embarrassed…nobody likes a slob!

(Well, except for my cat, but I feed him, so he's biased. Picture subject to my usual fiddling, although no brightening was needed here.)

Ken Fuller was not on any of the Philadelphia Phillies' spring rosters, and I've not found any newspaper evidence that he was in their spring camps as a non-roster invitee. He definitely was not with them in the spring of 1970, because he didn't sign with the Phils' organization until late May in 1970, and they immediately farmed him to Walla Walla. My best guess is that the photo represents a uniform in a Phils' minor league spring camp. Note that the cap looks similar to the cap worn by Mike Martin, which is not a major league Phillies cap.

Greg Pastors
 

Oklahoma State Cowboy and 1st Rd pick of the San Diego Padres in the 1978 draft. In earlier drafts Pastors was selected by the Rangers and Cardinals. Included here is an interview/article from the Uniontown, Pennsylvania Herald Standard from Mat 2009 that breaks down his athletic career.

Pastors reached AAA in 1980 for 20 games and hit .290 but that was his highwater mark. Afterwards he stopped hitting and struggled with injuries. A familiar tale among first rounders with high expectations. Pictured here as a 1982 Buffalo Bison.





https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=pastor001gre

https://www.heraldstandard.com/sport...emory-lane-72/