Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[SDL]

Originally Posted by 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.

I remember reading a story about him in The Sporting News. I think it was after he pitched a no-hitter. Always wondered why he never got to the bigs. He had good numbers.

[SDL]

Originally Posted by 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.

Attachment 481201

And I have always wondered how many more games he would've won had he not been forced to retire.

[Rainmaker]

There is a reason you rarely see photos of Atlanta Braves outfielder Brian Asselstine in the red, white and blue pinstripes worn at home for the 1979 season. That's because eight games into the season, having won the starting job in spring training, Asselstine suffered a horrific ankle injury when he attempted to climb the cheap-a** chain link fence the penny-pinching Braves had in the outfield.
The Braves switched to plexi-glass in 1980, but Asselstine's ankle was never the same and his big league career was over a year later at age 27.




FOLDER KE
001-002 Mike Atkinson; 003-004 Paul Assenmacher; 005-008 Brian Asselstine; 009-010 Ed Assaf; 011-014 Ken Aspromonte; 015-016 Bob Aspromonte; 017-018 Sam Ashford; 019-020 Alan Ashby; 021-022 Rudy Arroyo; 023-024 Fernando Arroyo; 025-026 Gerry Arrigo; 027-028 Greg Arnold; 029-032 Chris Arnold; 033-034 Mike Armstrong; 035-036 Jack Armstrong; 037-038 Ed Armbrister; 039-040 Steve Arlin.

[oldtimers]

Good Morning to all. Looking for any pics of Joe Azcue and Elston Howard. Old Magazine pics or Black and white pics ( i have seen some of the BallPlayers in 4x5 negatives in Black and white) If you have these Players in that would love to see them? Moose Skowron in the old 4x5 would be cool to see to. Thanks for any help.

[cheech411]

[Rainmaker]

Any ID on the meter reader in the background?

[FatJack]

Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, the youngest player ever to play in a regular season game for the N.L. Philadelphia franchise, passed away Thursday (12/9/16) at the age of 89.

Ralph was signed by Philadelphia in 1944. At the time, he was just 16. Less than a week after signing, he was with the major league team. In both 1944 and 1945, the Phillies were being marketed as the Philadelphia Blue Jays--an attempt to distance themselves from a Phillies losing tradition that stretched back some 16 years. A contest was held to choose the new identity and Blue Jays was the winner. While the contest was popular, the new nickname was not. There was mild outrage in some quarters but, mostly, fans were either confused or indifferent. The Blue Jays moniker was dropped after the two seasons. As they would learn a few years later, the best marketing strategy is to win. Putsy was the last living player to have played with the Philadelphia Blue Jays.

Ralph played parts of 8 major league seasons--all with Philadelphia. He played second and third base and showed good fielding skills. Though his batting average was never all that great, he wasn't that far off of the team average through 1948. The Phillies would turn the corner, with players like Richie Ashburn leading the way and The Whiz Kids reached the Series in 1950, losing to the Yankees. Ralph appeared in 3 Series games, going 0 for 1 at the plate. Ralph hit just one home run in his major league career, that coming in 1951.

Though he continued through 1955 in the minor leagues (still in the Phillies organization), Putsy got his last major league action in 1952. At that time, he was still just 24.

After baseball, Ralph ran a pest-control business in New Orleans. He lost his home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and had to go on food stamps and other assistance programs at the time.


I've seen several good B&W pictures of Putsy. Accompanying his obituary is a small color photo which has previously been posted here by krantzbucks. I don't suppose anybody has a larger or complete version (the thumbnail, as they sometimes do, shows more of the picture than the image presents--down to his feet). Lacking that, perhaps someone has a larger or better scan of Putsy's 1949 Eureka Sportstamp--also color (attached...from eBay).

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

Any ID on the meter reader in the background?

I forget the name (and it's on the tip of my tongue, goshdarnit!) but I'm sure he batted .292 in AA ball the season before. He won the MVMR award.

[Rainmaker]

Originally Posted by SDL

I forget the name (and it's on the tip of my tongue, goshdarnit!) but I'm sure he batted .292 in AA ball the season before. He won the MVMR award.

I remember the guy you're talking about. A pioneer in the field of metrics.

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

I remember the guy you're talking about. A pioneer in the field of metrics.

He earned that MVMR Award!

[Rainmaker]

Continuing the review of the Vault checklist, I found a short run of photos in Folder GR that were not ID'd. They are watermarked, but very small.

Here are those numbers:

414 Kerry Wood
415 ?
416 Albert Belle
417?
418 Chipper Jones

GR415

GR417


The patch visible on the GR 415 is 1998 anniversary.

[Penale52]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

Continuing the review of the Vault checklist, I found a short run of photos in Folder GR that were not ID'd. They are watermarked, but very small.

Here are those numbers:

414 Kerry Wood
415 ?
416 Albert Belle
417?
418 Chipper Jones

GR415
Attachment 481429
GR417
Attachment 481430

The patch visible on the GR 415 is 1998 anniversary.

415 looks like he's wearing #58, so my best guess is pitcher Sean Maloney

[dennis_keith]

There are a couple of baseball card sets that are on sale on ebay now that include the late Putsy Caballero. One is a 1950 Whiz Kids set and the other appears to be a mix of Philadelphia sports stars including both Phila. Athletics and Phillies. Photos in both are in black and white.
There are now just three living 1950 Phillies Whiz Kids and only two of them were part of the core - 25 man roster. Core players include pitchers Bob Miller, 90 and Curt Simmons, 87. September 1950 call up, pitcher Paul Stuffel is also still alive at age 89.
After Caballero's death, only third baseman, Don Hasenmayer, 89, remains of those plyers who played for the Phillies before the end of World War Two. Hasenmayer played parts of the 1945 and 1946 seasons and made his MLB debut on May 2, 1945 less than a week before the end of hostilities in Europe. He was only 19 when he played his last major league game in 1946.

[dennis_keith]

I'm pretty sure that the years the Phillies were known as the Philadelphia Blue Jays were 1943 and 1944, and did not include 1945.

[Pinetarpress]

415 looks like Paul Konerko and 417 looks like Adrian Beltre

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by dennis_keith

I'm pretty sure that the years the Phillies were known as the Philadelphia Blue Jays were 1943 and 1944, and did not include 1945.

I based what I wrote on this from Baseball Reference:
In 1944 & 1945 Phillies used a Blue Jays emblem & used the nickname "Blue Jays", extensively but it was dropped after the 1945 season due to fan outrage/apathy.

The piece (essay?) linked to by B-R has the decision to switch names occurring in the off-season between 1943 and 1944, with the contest announcement coming on January 25, 1944 and the winner announced on March 4, 1944 (appearing in the Sporting News of March 16, 1944). The sleeve patch was abandoned with the uniform change in 1946 and the "Blue Jays" name itself was officially scrapped (it says) on January 10, 1950.

The Hall of Fame's "Dressed To The Nines" uniform database shows the blue unis with the Blue Jay shoulder patch in 1944 and 1945. Searching the newspapers.com database brings up zero references to the Philadelphia Blue Jays in 1943 (among participating newspapers), but many in '44 and '45 (with the last 1945 mention on August 22).

Wikipedia has the Blue Jays name running from 1943 to 1949.

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by Pinetarpress

415 looks like Paul Konerko and 417 looks like Adrian Beltre

Silly me. It only just occurred to me to check my files just now as I labeled those files when The Vault posted them to eBay (I started doing that somewhere in the Gs). Pinetarpress is correct on those IDs.

[baseball-birthdays.com]

Originally Posted by FatJack

Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, the youngest player ever to play in a regular season game for the N.L. Philadelphia franchise

here he is at age 16...

[Rainmaker]

Left-hander Scott Bailes is a major league rarity -- he went five years between major league appearances and appeared in 70 games after formally retiring.
Bailes, a prep prodigy in the state of Missouri (he's in the state sports Hall of Fame), was a busy swing man for the Indians and Angels from 1986-92. As a rookie, he had 10 wins (eight in relief) and seven saves while appearing in 62 games. After being released by the Angels following the '92 season, he found himself mired in the minors and retired in 1993.
Keeping his healthy left arm in shape playing in Missouri semi-pro ball, he signed with the Rangers in December of 1996 and returned to the majors during the 1997 season. He would go on to record a 2-0 record in 70 appearances in 1997-98 and retired for a second time after being released.




Friday's Folder KE releases
041-042 Tommy Harper; 043-044 Toby Harrah; 045-046 Ken Harrelson; 047-048 Bud Harrelson; 049-050 Jerry Adair; 051-052 Howard Bailey; 053-054 Ed Bailey; 055-056 Scott Bailes; 057-058 Tom Badcock; 059-060 Bobby Avila.

[dennis_keith]

Originally Posted by FatJack

I based what I wrote on this from Baseball Reference:
In 1944 & 1945 Phillies used a Blue Jays emblem & used the nickname "Blue Jays", extensively but it was dropped after the 1945 season due to fan outrage/apathy.

The piece (essay?) linked to by B-R has the decision to switch names occurring in the off-season between 1943 and 1944, with the contest announcement coming on January 25, 1944 and the winner announced on March 4, 1944 (appearing in the Sporting News of March 16, 1944). The sleeve patch was abandoned with the uniform change in 1946 and the "Blue Jays" name itself was officially scrapped (it says) on January 10, 1950.

The Hall of Fame's "Dressed To The Nines" uniform database shows the blue unis with the Blue Jay shoulder patch in 1944 and 1945. Searching the newspapers.com database brings up zero references to the Philadelphia Blue Jays in 1943 (among participating newspapers), but many in '44 and '45 (with the last 1945 mention on August 22).

Wikipedia has the Blue Jays name running from 1943 to 1949.

I'm basing my statement on the fact that people are saying that Ralph Caballero was the last living Phila. Blue Jay. This does not coincide with the fact that there is one player from the 1945 Philadelphia (NL) team that is still alive - Don Hasenmayer. He is not credited as being a Blue Jay - therefore he must be a Phillie. That means that the name Blue Jays no longer applied in 1945 and must have reverted back to the Phillies. I've also read that the Blue Jays name lasted until 1949, but that was only on paper somewhere in Bob Carpenter's office and no one called them that after '44..