Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[BklynJace]

Between McMillan, Metzger and the glorious shots of Al Schmelz and Tom Parsons that Merkle so kindly shared, what a bang-up December for Mets dorks like me.

[crosses fingers for a Vinegar Bend Mizell or full-body Billy Murphy as Topps continues through the Ms....]

[Merkle923]

Merry Christmas!

This isn't Topps - it's from 1967 training camp, after his career was over - but it's in the same style. There are a lot of obscure images in here, but counting multiple poses there are also a lot of images to go through (about 16,000 all told).

[Pinetarpress]

It was pretty hard to break into the big leagues in the 70's...when you are behind the depth chart with a future Hall of Famer at the top it is that much more difficult.

Perhaps, Andy Merchant would have had a longer career had he caught for a team like the Mariners, Blue Jays (where his minor league mate Ernie Whitt ended up), Astros, or Braves...But, instead he spent 5 seasons with the Red Sox AAA team and a grand total of 3 games in the majors going 2-6.

[SDL]

Are there any Topps Vault images of J.C. Martin out there?

[Buccos]

This is surely an outtake from a Sports Illustrated photo shoot when Pete Rose became a free agent after the 1978 season.

More pics of Pete with different caps can be seen here: SI Vault - Nov. 6, 1978 - Page 36

[rico43]

Originally Posted by SDL

Are there any Topps Vault images of J.C. Martin out there?

Topps is currently releasing a big batch of "M" images. Stay tunred.

[hobbs11]

It is such a great feeling when you realize that new images have been loaded out on TV. And then a different feeling when after immediately opening them, you realize that most of them are football......

[Merkle923]

On the cover of that 11/6/78 SI? A horse racing/gambling scandal.

Oops.

[Merkle923]

Continuing the festival of images, I think this is the first color image I've ever seen of this very brief Cubs' pitcher.

[brobby05]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Better still, they also posted him with the team with which he broke in with 10 appearances in 1974 - the Giants.

These would be the first publicly available color images of him with San Francisco.

Hey Merkle,


Bud, YOU are my hero!!! I've been looking for a color shot of Metzger with SF ever since High Heat Baseball 2003!!! I LOVE it!!! The only other pic I saw as SF was the B & W one in my 1974 Giants yearbook.


Thanks a million, billion for all you do for this site!


BRobby05


PS: Is McLaughlin (Joey) the same as Byron?

[DeweyintheHall]

Joey is not Byron (again, to our friends at the FBI and Interpol, Joey and Byron are most definitely NOT the same person). If they were, it'd be the best case of "hiding in plain sight" ever.

[Merkle923]

Joey is not Byron is not Bo.

There were three right handed pitchers of dubious merit in the majors in the 1976-84 era: Byron with Seattle and California (and later a criminal still sought by US authorities), Joey with Atlanta, Toronto, and Texas (and usually with glasses), and Bo with Houston, Atlanta, and Oakland (and usually with a 'fro - also later pitching coach of the Rockies). Just to fuzz things up further, Joey and Bo were in the Braves' bullpen simultaneously in 1979.

Here is Bo from Topps Vault, dating to 1976, at Wrigley Field:

[Merkle923]

Not a Topps Vault, but a nice shot from the spring of 1968 as he arrived to share catching duties with Jerry Grote (left) and the famous World Series bunt was only about 19 months away:

[brobby05]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Joey is not Byron is not Bo.

There were three right handed pitchers of dubious merit in the majors in the 1976-84 era: Byron with Seattle and California (and later a criminal still sought by US authorities), Joey with Atlanta, Toronto, and Texas (and usually with glasses), and Bo with Houston, Atlanta, and Oakland (and usually with a 'fro - also later pitching coach of the Rockies). Just to fuzz things up further, Joey and Bo were in the Braves' bullpen simultaneously in 1979.

Here is Bo from Topps Vault, dating to 1976, at Wrigley Field:

I'm sorry but I was specific enough...my fault. I was probably half asleep. Are all the "McLaughlins" pronounced the same?


Thanks,


BRobby05

[Merkle923]

Yes. As posted earlier. McLofflin.

[hobbs11]

Nice pic offered on ebay by andy1921....

There are color images floating around of him as part of a Dell stamp, and an action shot from Steve's Baseball page that I've seen. (not to mention plenty of B&W pics)

Haven't seen this one as of yet which betters any color version I had...

[Merkle923]

Here's another toughie bubbling up from the bottomless lagoon that is Topps Vault. Puente made four starts and two relief appearances for the 1970 Giants and certainly didn't have as many color photos taken of him:

[Merkle923]

Not impossible with the 1982-83 Giants, but pretty scarce:

[Merkle923]

They uploaded images of this well-traveled middle reliever (possibly the first "mop-up man" to get a $100,000 salary) with the Cards and Sox. Though he was only with the former for 14 games it seems as if there are fewer Chicago images out there:

[Merkle923]

Previous discussion of the origins of the thumbnail-sized image of Dave Wallace with the 1978 Blue Jays (the Jays' 25th Anniversary hard cover book from 2001 illustrates each of the players on their all-time roster to that date) got me wondering - could any of the images of some of the obscure players be enhanced to serve our various purposes?

Yes and no. Here's Matt E. Williams, briefly a Jays pitcher in 1983 and then with Texas in 1985, who largely eluded color film during his big league career. As a bonus, a google image search produced a 1982 spring training shot at an unlikely site: Getty U.K.