Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[Merkle923]

The portrait has been loose in the wild for awhile - but clearly a copy of a copy of a rough copy. The pitching pose is new to me.

The closer of the '73 White Sox and then like most relievers in those days, completely ineffective and back in the minors in '74, Acosta was sold to the Phils during Spring Training '75 and actually got their first save of the season (and pitched three games at Wrigley) before going to the minors in early May. He pitched in the Mexican League until 1984.

[Patsy Tebeau]

A bit of an interesting oddity, he signed with the Jays in February of 2009, got released in March, then signed with the Mets the same month and made his debut in May then was done in September.

[lebby20]

On the subject of George Brace images. Do any of you have this image of Jim Fregosi in the 1971 lower case "A" cap? I thought I had it, but can't find it in my files. Thanks for help.

[UKBaseballfan]

Originally Posted by lebby20

On the subject of George Brace images. Do any of you have this image of Jim Fregosi in the 1971 lower case "A" cap? I thought I had it, but can't find it in my files. Thanks for help.

Here is a clearer option, from Topps O-Pee-Chee 1972.

[Merkle923]

Another career-ending cameo where one of the images has floated around for years - but a poor copy - but the other one is new to online collections.

Glen Hobbie was in the Cubs' rotation from 1958 until early in 1964, a workhorse who started 165 games and threw 11 shutouts in Chicago. Then on June 2 he went to the Cardinals for Lew Burdette in the second of three deals the Cubs made for veteran St. Louis pitchers in a season-and-a-half. In the first the Cubs had packaged slugger George Altman and pitcher Don Cardwell to St. Louis for Larry Jackson and Lindy McDaniel. Then came the Hobbie for Burdette swap. Finally, two weeks later, the Cubs made the deal they were certain had given them the veteran twirler who would put them over the top: Ernie Broglio. It only cost them Lou Brock.

Hobbie made only 13 appearances for the Cards and was sent to AAA when the Cards promoted veteran knuckleball reliever Barney Shultz who - as much as Brock - put them in position to win the pennant when the Phillies pholded. That winter the Cards dealt Hobbie to the Tigers and he was in Spring Training with them in '65 but never again pitched in the majors.

[Dto7]

Jack Fox on the left, from the 6-19-1908 Cleveland Plain Dealer.

[Merkle923]

A 27-year old rookie first baseman already with his third organization, Jim Campbell made the Cardinals' 1970 Opening Day roster. He pinch-hit thirteen times, got three singles, and was then sent back to the minors on May 13 when Mike Shannon was activated after his first bout with the near-fatal kidney ailment that would end Shannon's playing career that August (and send him to the Cardinal booth in 1972).

Campbell would be retired by then, too. He was a true minor league slugger in the Phillies, Orioles, Cards and Red Sox systems: three 20-homer campaigns, 127 total over 10 campaigns, and 101 RBI in just 128 games in the Pioneer League in 1963.

Topps managed to shoot him in Spring Training and at Shea Stadium and one of the negatives was sold via Topps Vault. They made the curious choice to leave him off the three-man Cardinals Rookies 7th Series card even though one of the players they did include - Reggie Cleveland - didn't make his 1970 debut until August.

I've never seen these Braces before, and they're pretty good.

[Terry D]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

For quite awhile I've wondered if anybody caught reliable lefty Larry Gura at the rump end of his career in 1985, back where it had begun in 1970 at Wrigley Field.

Silly question. Brace got him! The Royals had been gifted him by the Yankees in 1976 (because Billy Martin was mad at Gura) and he pitched well against New York five times in the ALCS of 1976-77-78-80 (including the opener of the KC sweep in 1980). Kansas City finally released him in May 1985, the Cubs signed him, pitched him twice, sent him to Iowa, brought him back in July for the final three appearances of his career.

So here he is, all from this same Brace lot, in the flannels he wore as a rookie in 1970, in the first Cubs double-knits from 1972, and finally in the pullovers of 1985.

I'd just like to say a heartfelt thanks for Larry Gura as an '85 Cub, and also for Ed Farmer (a fave player of mine) with the '83 A's and the color shots of Keough with the Cubs, Cards, and Astros. Your work with the Brace stuff is deeply appreciated, and keep those 80's guys coming!

[hobbs11]

Originally Posted by Terry D

I'd just like to say a heartfelt thanks for Larry Gura as an '85 Cub, and also for Ed Farmer (a fave player of mine) with the '83 A's and the color shots of Keough with the Cubs, Cards, and Astros. Your work with the Brace stuff is deeply appreciated, and keep those 80's guys coming!

Agreed. The posting of hard to find color pics from the 60-80s has me checking this thread daily... harkens back to the halcyon days of the Vault posting pics in folders a few years ago. Keep them coming Merkle! Please....?

[Merkle923]

Called up by the Phillies in May, 1967, a one-time Santa Clara University star was hit hard (nine earned in three appearances) and was sent back to AAA on June 27. This underscores the other key aspect to George Brace's photography: the luck of the schedule. Loughlin's last two days in the majors were spent in Chicago where Brace grabbed these.

There's only been one image of Loughlin on the net, from the Fritsch One Year Winners set. It was a Topps shot taken at Spring Training 1969 when the Phillies still dressed their minor leaguers in gray uniforms with a small script "P" on the chest - and a red cap with no logo (Loughlin added a windbreaker). Topps also shot him during the MLBPA boycott of 1968, with the minor league San Diego Padres, but I don't think they uploaded any of those shots to the vault.

[Merkle923]

Imagine the Reds' surprise when they dealt Tommy Harper to Cleveland for a slugging first baseman who'd slumped to 9 homers in 1967 after hitting 53 homers in the previous two seasons. That was Fred Whitfield. He'd hit only 7 for them in 1968, bat .149 in 1969, and be released.

There are two other color images of him in Cincinnati garb: a spring training shot in pinstripes, probably taken for the Dexter postcard set, and an unused Topps image taken at Crosley Field during the '69 season that got out somehow (again, the Rule of W at Topps - there were only sporadic files of players whose names started with a letter later than "T.")

These Braces, not carrying the 100th Anniversary logo, are by process of elimination, from 1968.

Whitfield finished up with a one week, 1-for-15 cameo for the '70 Expos. I've never seen any color of him with Montreal and don't expect to. His brief tenure did not feature a stop in New York or San Francisco (for Topps) or Chicago (for Brace).

[sthomas]

Thanks much for these and the others previously. What I can add is my autograph-collecting mentor, Jim Rowe, used to sell b/w versions of the Brace catalogue, along with the classic Burke photography. Jim had an immense negative collection, as well as an incredible autograph inventory, which I was fortunate to see many times in his basement office/darkroom in Berwyn, Illinols.

[Merkle923]

Rent, don't own.

Hank Fischer came up with the Braves in '62 (the uniform number 45 dates this Brace to his rookie year) and moved with them to Atlanta in '66. His capless Topps card was entirely fitting. The franchise had moved, then it moved Hank to the Reds at the trade deadline for Joey Jay, and then the Reds sent him to the Red Sox two months later on August 15.

[Merkle923]

Four caps in 11 months is a lot of movement, but the worst part was that he was dumped by the Impossible Dream Red Sox two months before they reached the World Series. Lingering arm problems put him on the disabled list for much of '67 and after he was reactivated in August, they sent him to the minors. He retired the next season.

Topps sold one shot of Fischer in the Atlanta cap (taken during the great Opening Day shoot in '66 where all the outstanding Phil Niekros came from) and got him in September '66 in another beautiful shoot at Yankee Stadium and used one of those images in their 1967 set. I think these are the first non-Topps Boston shots of him, and I know they did not catch him during his stopover in Cincy.

[Patsy Tebeau]

He played in their minor league system but never got called up

[Cusick]

Originally Posted by Patsy Tebeau

He played in their minor league system but never got called up

Earl Weaver was on the St. Louis Cardinals' spring roster in 1952. He appeared in several spring training games in the same starting lineup with Stan Musial. Earl was a second baseman.

[Merkle923]

Ken Johnson pitched in 13 major league seasons and somehow didn't finish the season with the same team, six different times. Managed to win in double figures five years in a row (half of the time with very bad Houston times), was a key figure in the Reds' drive to the pennant in '61, managed to lose a no-hitter, and finished sixth in the NL in strikeouts in '62. He once told me "I have no idea how I did any of that. I threw slop!" He was mostly being modest but he gradually evolved into a full-time knuckleballer who set up the pitch with stuff that was almost as slow.

Brace managed to get Johnson with the A's (he'd been a Spring Training batboy for them under Connie Mack in West Palm Beach), in his half season with the Reds, with the Colts, in his half season in Milwaukee, with the Braves after they moved to Atlanta, and I think being posted here for the first time, during his nine-game stint with the '69 Cubs (all the Topps image of him with Chicago are from Spring Training '70).

[Merkle923]

Brace didn't get him with the Astros. Houston traded him on May 23, 1965, putting him in that narrow window of so many players from the first year they were the Astros. I've never seen a shot of Johnson - color or black and white - in the actual Astros cap, just the interim star-only thing they wore in Spring Training (Note TNFoto's invaluable correction below. That image is marked on the back as being from Johnson's last start with Houston, May 23. Still haven't seen him posed)

He also didn't get him with the Yankees during a two-month stay there in 1969. Interestingly, Topps didn't get him either. Online, there's what appears to be a J.D. McCarthy shot of him taken at Detroit. It's been digitally reproduced and a lot of the lines are wavy; I've never seen a better version. Brace also didn't get him with the Expos, with whom he opened 1970. They released him on April 28.

There IS a Johnson Expos shot, black and white, thumbnail sized, in an anniversary poster from a Montreal scorecard - and there's a crease right in the middle. I've never seen the original. Anyway here he is at Wrigley as both kinds of Brave, and as Cub:

[tnfoto]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Brace didn't get him with the Astros. Houston traded him on May 23, 1965, putting him in that narrow window of so many players from the first year they were the Astros. I've never seen a shot of Johnson - color or black and white - in the actual Astros cap, just the interim star-only thing they wore in Spring Training.

Thanks so much for these, and for the history of Johnson's photo availability (or lack thereof). I haven't seen the Expos composite with Johnson; would love to find one of those.

FWIW, among the many star-only or H cap Johnson/Astros images in my collection, this is the only photo I've found of him wearing an "actual" 1965 Astros cap.

[Merkle923]

Yes! I was rapidly corrected on the Astros image in the Lexibell/Sporting News bottomless pit of images.

Also there IS a clean version of the JD McCarthy of Johnson with the Yankees in 1969 at Tiger Stadium, so here it is. Yankee photographer Michael Grossbardt also got him in color at Yankee Stadium but he's pretty rigid on copyright enforcement. I'll see if I can dig up that disappointingly creased Expo image - I found the scorecard somewhere).

As an aside: apologies for not replying sooner but there were no Fregosis in the Brace collection I obtained.