Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[Rainmaker]

Originally Posted by SDL

I just looked at the checklist and I don't see the listings for Thomas and Gentry.in the revised AE folder

I have continue checking things and found the actual homes of several of these "orphan" images. Gentry was in Folder CC (590) and Thomas was in BC (1039). Best I can tell you is that it's all more or less a work in progress because I find errors in the master checklist (mostly mine?), but I have updated these when I find them in the VAULT checklist folder.
Frank Thomas is AE11-14 in the folder. It's a tedious process with no rhyme or reason as what's where. Glad to see someone is double checking these things.
Another "orphan" has a home: Willie Davis is actually BF771.

[keonleafs]

On today's new Topps posted, Greg Bargar (Expos 83-84, Cards 86) at Angels 1988 Spring Training Camp.

[Pinetarpress]

Hard to find Cup of Coffee Royals INF German Barranca showed up in the TV today. German was signed by the Royals out of Veracruz, Mexico and began playing in their organization in 1975. He began his career as a SS until he was switched to 2B at AA Jacksonville in 1977. The Royals called him up in September of 1979 as he played in 5 games with the big club going 3-5 with 3 SB. He struggled at AAA Omaha in 1980 hitting just .226 but did get some time in the big leagues in mid June when the Royals used him as a pinch runner in 7 games.

The Royals traded him to the Reds in January of 1981 for veteran OF Cesar Geronimo.

[Pinetarpress]

There are not a lot of solid shots of brief Mets big leaguer Billy Baldwin. Baldwin made his big league debut with the Tigers in 1975 getting into 30 games and hitting .221 in 95 at bats with 4 HR.

He was involved in a big league trade after that season when he was traded to the Mets along with Mickey Lolich in exchange for Bill Laxton and Rusty Staub. He spent 1976 in AAA with Tidewater batting .271 with 17 HR and 18 SB. He received a September call up hitting .273 in 22 AB with a HR. The left handed hitter returned to the Mets AAA club in 1977 but did not get another look in the big leagues. He played for the Pirates organization in 1978 before moving onto the Mexican League for a couple seasons.

[Pinetarpress]

Steve Barr was the 54th pick in the 1976 expansion draft by the Mariners who selected him from the Texas Rangers.

Barr had been a highly regarded pitching prospect with the Red Sox where he was 16-8 with a 2.45 E.R.A and 155 K's in 191 IP for their AA club (Bristol) in 1974. He threw a CG in his MLB debut (and only appearance in the big leagues in 1974) for the Red Sox beating the Indians,

He pitched in 3 more games for the 1975 Red Sox before he was traded along with Juan Beniquez to the Rangers for Fergie Jenkins. He pitched in 20 games with 10 starts for the 1976 Rangers and was 2-6 with a 5.59 E.R.A striking out just 27 and walking 44 in 68 IP.

He never played in the big leagues again....

After the Mariners selected him he pitched at AAA Omaha (apparently on loan from the Mariners) before finishing the season with the Indians AAA club at Toledo. He went back to Toledo in 1978 and closed out his pro career with a 11-7 record and a 5.77 E.R.A in 131 IP.

[Pinetarpress]

The Mets took INF Lute Barnes out of Oregon State University in the 21st round of the 1969 MLB Draft. He had made it to AA in 1970 playing for Memphis and hitting .290 with 12 SB in 458 AB. He played mostly SS that season but saw significant time at 2B and also handled 3B for 15 games. In 1971 he was in AAA as the everyday 2B for Tidewater batting .273 with a .340 OBP in 403 AB. He returned to Tidewater as the every day 2B in 1972 batting .258 in 392 AB. He was your typical 1970's middle infielder who made contact and got a few walks. He made his debut for the Mets on August 6th, 1972 against the Expos. He played in 24 games for the 72 Mets batting .236.

He returned to Tidewater in 1973 but saw his .avg fall to just .226 while stealing 22 bases. He got into 3 big league games in September and was 1-2. That was his last big league action.

He spent 1974 with the Mets and Reds AAA clubs batting a combined .169 in 201 AB. He closed out his pro career with 78 games for the Reds AAA club at Indianapolis in 1975 batting .201 in 174 AB.

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Pinetarpress

The Mets took INF Lute Barnes out of Oregon State University in the 21st round of the 1969 MLB Draft. He had made it to AA in 1970 playing for Memphis and hitting .290 with 12 SB in 458 AB. He played mostly SS that season but saw significant time at 2B and also handled 3B for 15 games. In 1971 he was in AAA as the everyday 2B for Tidewater batting .273 with a .340 OBP in 403 AB. He returned to Tidewater as the every day 2B in 1972 batting .258 in 392 AB. He was your typical 1970's middle infielder who made contact and got a few walks. He made his debut for the Mets on August 6th, 1972 against the Expos. He played in 24 games for the 72 Mets batting .236.

He returned to Tidewater in 1973 but saw his .avg fall to just .226 while stealing 22 bases. He got into 3 big league games in September and was 1-2. That was his last big league action.

He spent 1974 with the Mets and Reds AAA clubs batting a combined .169 in 201 AB. He closed out his pro career with 78 games for the Reds AAA club at Indianapolis in 1975 batting .201 in 174 AB.

Seeing as I live in the St. Pete area now, these two pics bring back memories for me. The top Barnes pic was taken at Stengel Huggins field next to Crescent Lake. The field is still there, now used for high school games; a dog park is behind the outfield fence. Heavy residential area; I can see why the Mets had to move.

The second pic is at Al Lang Stadium. It's still there but it's now since been reconfigured for soccer; the Tampa Bay Rowdies now play there.

[Rainmaker]

Did not want to get past this remarkably sharp, unyellowed image that came out Wednesday in the Vault. Cuibs pitcher Tony Balsamo worked in 18 games during the 1962 season, a 103-loss season during the notorious college of coaches era.
A Fordham product, Balsamo was 0-1, 6.44 over 29 innings for the Cubs, but the remarkable stat is that he never appeared in a single game the Cubs won (according to the book "Cubs By The Numbers"). His loss came in a 13-inning game against the Mets.
That would be his final pro season (he broke in 1959). Various Cub fanatics have declared him either the most obscure Cub of all time or their favorite all-time Cub. One Facebook report indicated that Balsamo is recovering from surgery in early November.

[Pinetarpress]

The second pic is at Al Lang Stadium. It's still there but it's now since been reconfigured for soccer; the Tampa Bay Rowdies now play there.[/QUOTE]

I remember going to a game at Al Lang stadium as a kid ( I believe in 1982) and my memory is that they had a singing beer vendor who was very talented. Mookie Wilson stepped out of the box to listen to him sing...

That same trip we went to the Mets minor league camp (Would that have been at Stengel Huggins?) I got an autographed baseball from Rick Ownbey, Gil Flores, Herman Winningham, and Ed Hearn....

I was in St Pete a couple years ago and went to look at the field...I saw that it was now a soccer complex....Thanks for the reply

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Pinetarpress

The second pic is at Al Lang Stadium. It's still there but it's now since been reconfigured for soccer; the Tampa Bay Rowdies now play there.

I remember going to a game at Al Lang stadium as a kid ( I believe in 1982) and my memory is that they had a singing beer vendor who was very talented. Mookie Wilson stepped out of the box to listen to him sing...

That same trip we went to the Mets minor league camp (Would that have been at Stengel Huggins?) I got an autographed baseball from Rick Ownbey, Gil Flores, Herman Winningham, and Ed Hearn....

I was in St Pete a couple years ago and went to look at the field...I saw that it was now a soccer complex....Thanks for the reply[/QUOTE]

The minor league field may have been the Busch complex, later renamed Naimoli (now Fuller). It's used today for high school games and tournaments and also hosts the St. Petersburg Baseball International Tournament. There was a rumor that after the Rays pulled out and moved to Port Charlotte that they were going to turn the complex into condos and townhomes. Luckily that was just a rumor.

[Cusick]

Don't know why Tony Balsamo would have been named the most obscure Cub, when others had shorter Cub careers. Here's an example.

Some years ago, when the Emil Verban Memorial Society of Cub fans was in its heyday in Washington, DC, Joe Garagiola was one of its celebrity guests at its biennial luncheon. Joe was asked to name his favorite Cub. With his wry sense of humor, Joe answered "Chris Kitsos." I suspect that most people in the room had no idea who Joe was talking about. Kitsos' major league career consisted of one game with the Cubs, and he didn't even get an official at bat. He appeared at shortstop on April 21, 1954.

A photo of Kitsos was posted by Bearman14 on the following page:
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...opack-431.html

[Rainmaker]

Friday, a surprise December batch of images, combined with some NFL archives, probably filled up Folder KD. Many of the highlights have already been featured previous to this post, but as a Braves fan, seeing Len Barker again caused a visceral reaction.
Damaged goods soon after his arrival, Barker's effective outings could be counted on one hand after his trade cost the Braves future all-stars in Brett Butler and Scott Jacoby.
I'll get over it. When I die.



Friday's releases
FOLDER KD
896-897 Germann Barranca; 898-899 Francisco Barrios; 900-901 Cuno Barragan; 902-903 Steve Barr; 904-907 Jim Barr; 908-909 Ed Barnowski; 910-911 Skeeter Barnes; 912-913 Lute Barnes; 914-915 Art Kusnyer; 916-919 Mike Barlow; 920-923 Len Barker; 924-925 Ray Barker; 926-927 Greg Bargar; 928-929 Jesse Barfield; 930-931 Ray Bare; 932-933 Billy Baldwin; 934-935 Ed Barbarie.

[baseball-birthdays.com]

I was hoping to find a copy of the image from which the one above (from Barnes's bb-ref page) was sampled... anyone able to help?

[Rainmaker]

Have fixed several misspellings throughout the checklist, making the site's search engine all that more effective.
"Yastrzemski" was misspelled eight times among the 45 times he shows up in the Vault. All corrected.

But here are some additional changes:

A correction from the Stone Age of the Vault.
FOLDER AN
AN571-572 is Manly Johnson, a near-folk legend White Sox minor leaguer, not Fritz Ackley.
Aside from his proper alphabetical slotting, the proof is in Ackley's rather distinctive unibrow. Johnson has heavy brows as well, but there's a gap there.

Missing ID from Folder KC:
KC941-942 Ray Lilley (Pirates)

Fixing an old goof....
FOLDER BC
BC2556 is Ray Jablonski, not Dusty Rhodes.

Almost inconsquential checklist change:
BT830 change from Ron Allen to Bob Allen. It is actually a phantom, showing Allen with Pittsburgh, who had him only in spring training of 1964, returning him to Cleveland in April.

.

[Pinetarpress]

I have seen a couple photos of brief Phillies INF Fred Andrews. TV released 2 photos of Andrews who made his MLB debut on 9/26/76 against Montreal. He had a pretty solid big league debut as he reached all 3 times up with a walk, HBP, and single while also stealing a base. Andrews was 4-6 in 1976. He made the Phillies out of Spring Training in 1977 and stayed with the team through April. He came back in September and his big league stats for 77 included a .174 .AVG, 2 RBI, and a SB.

He went to the Mets in 1978 and spent the season in AAA before heading to play in Mexico in 1979.

[Rainmaker]

A half-and-half day between baseball and football, with the Vault visiting the top of the alphabet again (sorry, still no Dwain Anderson in all-yellow Padres). The final baseball images are from burly-looking right-hander Bud Anderson, who pitched for two seasons (82-83) with the Indians but has only made Vault appearances with the Mariners, who had him as a minor leaguer from 1977-79.
Had a chance to interview him during his two seasons in Chattanooga (80-81) and was kind enough to invite me into his residence for a day of baseball talk I still remember fondly.




FOLDER KD
957-958 Johnny Ard; 959-960 Bob Apodaca; 961-962 Ken Angulo (Cal. minor leaguer); 963-964 Joaquin Andujar; 965-966 Rob Andrews; 967-968 Fred Andrews; 969-970 Mike Anderson; 971-972 Larry Anderson; 973-974 Kent Anderson; 975-976 Bud Anderson.
()NFL images 977-996)

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by SDL

The second pic is at Al Lang Stadium. It's still there but it's now since been reconfigured for soccer; the Tampa Bay Rowdies now play there.

Pretty sure that the second pic is at Beautiful Shea Stadium itself, during one of Barnes's stints with the Mets. Hard to imagine Al Lang having that MLB-sized scoreboard, much less in the same proportions and colors (pre-1980s paint job) as Big Shea's RF scoreboard.

[FatJack]

Although he never played in the majors, Jackie Stripling seemed to be popular with the Topps Vault photographers (including a couple in the most recent KD folder), so I thought I'd post notice of his passing here rather than the minor league thread.

Jackie was a 1968 draft choice of the Cardinals and played SS and OF that year, converting to the pitching mound in 1969. He ended his pro career after the 1973 season, having gotten married the year before. Following baseball, he worked as a lineman for the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company for 35 years. He kept active as a basketball referee. Jackie died on December 3. He was 67. If you're attuned to such things, you'll recognize the picture of Jackie accompanying his obituary as a Topps Vault image, cropped above the watermark. Full Vault image attached.

[Rainmaker]

Sandy Koufax of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sandy has never looked more youthful and Ebbets Field has never been more colorful. A magnificent restoration of an image from Topps Vault Folder BA.

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Pretty sure that the second pic is at Beautiful Shea Stadium itself, during one of Barnes's stints with the Mets. Hard to imagine Al Lang having that MLB-sized scoreboard, much less in the same proportions and colors (pre-1980s paint job) as Big Shea's RF scoreboard.

I think you are right. My bad