OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post

Merkle923 · 12-11-2015, 02:19 PM

This might be my favorite obscure player of the 1960's, for the simple reason that when the Yankees announced they were bringing him up to start their game at Minnesota on July 5, 1967, the entire concept of "bringing him up" was new to me.

I was an eight-year old Yankee fan so new to the sport that when the family had gone on vacation to see the Hall of Fame the year before, I was bored beyond belief and remember nothing of the visit (not that the Hall is that exciting today, but still). So the idea that you could add players from some other league was almost impossible for me to conceive, and my assumption was that to make the majors, Perkins must've been a pitcher at least as good as the stories I heard of Whitey Ford or Red Ruffing.

Not quite.

On July 5, New York gave him a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the second inning, but then Rich Reese hit a three-run homer and when the Yankees pinch-hit for Perkins in the top of the 4th inning, his major league starting career was over. He would make one more relief appearance, would never pitch at Yankee Stadium, and within a year his pro career (697 strikeouts, 405 walks, in 695 innings) would be over.

Meanwhile, fueled by his inclusion in a revised edition of the Yankees' yearbook I awaited a Cecil Perkins baseball card and was genuinely surprised not to find him on the "Yankees Rookies" in the 7th Series of the Topps set.

Perkins finally got his card in TCMA's 1981 second series of players from the 1960's - and he was misidentified as another ill-fated Yankee pitching prospect of the era, Rich Beck (just as the Beck card actually shows Perkins). There is a later Yankees/WIZ card of Perkins, but it uses the same team publicity photo that they stuck in the yearbook in '67. And just to make it a little worse, a fan photo of Perkins in the Yankee Stadium bullpen turned up in 2012...and his back was to the camera.

So imagine my delight when the aforementioned collection produced not one but two photo shoots with Perkins. There's a 1968 set in home pinstripes, clearly the session from which the TCMA card was produced. But there's also one in road grays from 1967, the best of which I publish here:

12-11-2015, 02:19 PM	#26725
Merkle923 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 2,140	Cecil Perkins 1967 This might be my favorite obscure player of the 1960's, for the simple reason that when the Yankees announced they were bringing him up to start their game at Minnesota on July 5, 1967, the entire concept of "bringing him up" was new to me. I was an eight-year old Yankee fan so new to the sport that when the family had gone on vacation to see the Hall of Fame the year before, I was bored beyond belief and remember nothing of the visit (not that the Hall is that exciting today, but still). So the idea that you could add players from some other league was almost impossible for me to conceive, and my assumption was that to make the majors, Perkins must've been a pitcher at least as good as the stories I heard of Whitey Ford or Red Ruffing. Not quite. On July 5, New York gave him a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the second inning, but then Rich Reese hit a three-run homer and when the Yankees pinch-hit for Perkins in the top of the 4th inning, his major league starting career was over. He would make one more relief appearance, would never pitch at Yankee Stadium, and within a year his pro career (697 strikeouts, 405 walks, in 695 innings) would be over. Meanwhile, fueled by his inclusion in a revised edition of the Yankees' yearbook I awaited a Cecil Perkins baseball card and was genuinely surprised not to find him on the "Yankees Rookies" in the 7th Series of the Topps set. Perkins finally got his card in TCMA's 1981 second series of players from the 1960's - and he was misidentified as another ill-fated Yankee pitching prospect of the era, Rich Beck (just as the Beck card actually shows Perkins). There is a later Yankees/WIZ card of Perkins, but it uses the same team publicity photo that they stuck in the yearbook in '67. And just to make it a little worse, a fan photo of Perkins in the Yankee Stadium bullpen turned up in 2012...and his back was to the camera. So imagine my delight when the aforementioned collection produced not one but two photo shoots with Perkins. There's a 1968 set in home pinstripes, clearly the session from which the TCMA card was produced. But there's also one in road grays from 1967, the best of which I publish here: Last edited by Merkle923; 08-02-2017 at 09:22 PM.