Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[dennis_keith]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Yes, Topps would rather us not post images from its storage website (as in, Don't). No, they don't care if we post images from its offerings once they reach eBay. We can even clean them up a little.

And these are humdingers. This is peripatetic utility infielder Ron Clark, photographed just before or just after the last at bat of his big league career, a strikeout as a pinch-hitter in the 10th inning against the Mets' Jerry Koosman in the second game of a twi-night doubleheader in New York on Friday, September 26, 1975.

George Brace got Clark in Chicago (the Phillies were at Wrigley on September 13 and 14) but these shots of him are striking because that pinch-hitting job was Clark's only game appearance in Philly garb.

Clark started with the Twins and then went to the Pilots, the A's for two tours, the Brewers, and the one-AB swan song with the Phils. I recall checking Clark's file to see if he had been captured with Seattle (and he had) but I do not remember seeing him in a Philly uni.

(As an aside to Cinemaodyssey: the Dexter Cleveland '67 shoot was abysmal. I've posted a couple here and they're so heavily shadowed as to be almost useless. I'll have another look for Siebert and Wagner. I'm afraid I have nothing on Roy Foster).

Ron Clark played for the Phillies 1975 AAA team and appeared in one game on the last day of the season as a Phillie. That was his only appearance in a Phillies uniform. I think that was his last major leagues game and he soon went into coaching.

[DeweyintheHall]

Needed as Sox, and otherwise as described:
Bill SAYLES
Biff SCHLITZER
Johnny SCHMITZ
Roland SHELDON
Keith SHEPHERD - need color image
Charlie SMITH
Doug SMITH
Eddie SMITH
Allan SOTHORON
Rob STANIFER
Dick STIGMAN - something other than faux-Sox 1966 Topps
Carl STIMSON - other than small image now on OOTP/BR
Jim SUCHECKI - larger than what's on OOTP now
Len SWORMSTEDT

Thanks!

[Merkle923]

Originally Posted by dennis_keith

Ron Clark played for the Phillies 1975 AAA team and appeared in one game on the last day of the season as a Phillie. That was his only appearance in a Phillies uniform. I think that was his last major leagues game and he soon went into coaching.

Yeah. All that is in the writing next to the two pictures.

[cinemaodyssey]

Originally Posted by DeweyintheHall

Needed as Sox, and otherwise as described:
Bill SAYLES
Biff SCHLITZER
Johnny SCHMITZ
Roland SHELDON
Keith SHEPHERD - need color image
Charlie SMITH
Doug SMITH
Eddie SMITH
Allan SOTHORON
Rob STANIFER
Dick STIGMAN - something other than faux-Sox 1966 Topps
Carl STIMSON - other than small image now on OOTP/BR
Jim SUCHECKI - larger than what's on OOTP now
Len SWORMSTEDT

Thanks!

Not a phenomenal photo, but it is the only one I had of Smith with Boston. Taken from the 1910 Red Sox team photo.

[brobby05]

Hi,

Does anybody have a nice pic of a 1974 Juan Pizarro with the Pirates and/or a link to Steve's Baseball Photos...mine is broken?

Thanks,

BRobby05

[Rainmaker]

Posted for sale this week on eBay by unclemaxie were two largely forgotten members of the 1995 World Champion Atlanta Braves.
Brad Woodall, a lefty, earned a win during a two-week stay in the majors in early May, then was recalled in late September. He was on a Bowman card, but this is a superb shot.
Terry Clark was in the majors early in '95 and appeared in three games for the Braves before he was released on May 17. He was signed by the Orioles and appeared in 38 games for Baltimore later that season.

[Rainmaker]

Shot at the same spring training camp as Woodall and Clark (and shot and sold by unclemaxie on eBay) is this phantom of Mike Birkbeck. He spent four seasons with the Brewers, then two with the Mets. But between his two separate stints in New York (1992, 1995) he spent two years as the starter-in-waiting for the Braves at Class AAA Richmond, going 13-8, 3.11 in 1993 and 13-6, 2.73 in strike-shortened '94.
A free agent, he opted for the Mets in '95 and closed out his MLB career with four games in the majors -- he would be pitching in Japan before 1995 ended.

[Pinetarpress]

Birkbeck has become a terrific collegiate pitching coach at Kent State

[Rainmaker]

The late 80s for the Atlanta Braves proved true the saying that it's always darkest before the dawn, and there have been a number of elusive white whale proving difficult for the completists. Over the years, the Topps Vault has revealed several, but Cal-Poly product Steve Ziem -- drafted in the 8th round by the Braves in 1983 -- remained elusive.
Ziem got into two games in 1987, never to reappear.

[Rainmaker]

The pride of Wake Forest University, Smith was a fifth-round pick of the Mariners in 1981, but did reach the majors until the age of 28 after a 100-RBI season in Class AA Chattanooga the year before.
Smith was with Mariners late in 1987 and again early in '88, but he was done in the the majors after that point with just a .111 average and no extra base hits.
The closest thing to an actual card of Brick (his real name) as a Mariner was an odd Sportflics "team preview" set.

[Merkle923]

I'm not sure why I haven't posted this before; it's from the '60s "collection" and depicts one of the tallest pitchers to make the majors and not really ever throw hard.

After coming over from Pittsburgh, Parsons made 13 starts for the Mets in '64 and '65 and produced a robust 2-12 record. The Mets convinced the Astros to swap Jerry Grote for him and he never again appeared in the majors.

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

I'm not sure why I haven't posted this before; it's from the '60s "collection" and depicts one of the tallest pitchers to make the majors and not really ever throw hard.

After coming over from Pittsburgh, Parsons made 13 starts for the Mets in '64 and '65 and produced a robust 2-12 record. The Mets convinced the Astros to swap Jerry Grote for him and he never again appeared in the majors.

Hmm. Not turning up in a site search, but someone posted this very similar shot somewhere (according to my rather haphazard organization, around April or May last year), and I'd have sworn it was you and I'd have sworn it was here.

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

I'm not sure why I haven't posted this before; it's from the '60s "collection" and depicts one of the tallest pitchers to make the majors and not really ever throw hard.

After coming over from Pittsburgh, Parsons made 13 starts for the Mets in '64 and '65 and produced a robust 2-12 record. The Mets convinced the Astros to swap Jerry Grote for him and he never again appeared in the majors.

You wonder what might've been had he gone to one of the powerhouse teams of that era. Leave us face it...these were the Mets and Astros of the mid-60s.

[keonleafs]

[DeweyintheHall]

Originally Posted by DeweyintheHall

Hey there Hobbs - the needs I previously posted were only from the AL East because those are the only 7 teams I'd gotten through - working on the AL West now, and I'll have some other needs to post in the next few days (I've done the ChiSox and that is the Coluccio I'm using; haven't gotten to Texas yet).

Hobbs - look what turned up on eBay recently -

[Merkle923]

It doesn't matter, because they're virtually the same, but these two Parsons images are not the same photograph.

The differences are more than just a bit of a cleanup on the one I posted in 2015 and rotating that image a few degrees to balance it out. Take a look at the eyes and eyebrows on each, and more obviously how many branches of the tree are visible just to the right of the Mets' logo patch.

These are pictures taken a few seconds apart, which makes perfect sense, and at least reassures me that my frontal lobe hasn't started melting yet.

[hobbs11]

Originally Posted by DeweyintheHall

Hobbs - look what turned up on eBay recently -

I saw that and thanks for thinking of me Dewey! The process of scouring ebay for new listings from Topps Vault is a change, but images like this are still rewarding.

Here's to a great 4th fellow forum members! J

[Rainmaker]

In the latest batch of photos from kyesportscards, this head-scratcher of Ozzie Canseco with the Montral Expos had me searching all manners of information to put it in context. Shockingly (hopefully, the sarcasm is evident) there was no mention of his time with the Expos in his baseball-reference file.
It turns out that Jose's twin, who broke in as a 18-year-old pitcher in 1983, was a non-roster invite in the Expos camp in 1996, and showed his power was not gone in a few spring games. But for the second straight year (Marlins,1995), he was cut at the end of camp and did not play anywhere in 1996.
Ozzie's desire to play is apparent in what came after: 1998 in the Northern League, 1999 in the Mexican League, 2000-2001 in the Atlantic League at age 35-36. But even then, he wasn't done. In 2013, he was named Manager of the Year in the United League -- a league which folded a year later. As late as 2016, he worked as a coach in the Arizona Winter League.

[Rainmaker]

His lone legit card was an oversized Tastycake card -- the Phillies put everyone but their assistant trainers on Tastycake cards -- so photos of 1983 Phllies pitcher Tony Ghelfi is not an everyday thing to see. There's one in the current sale of images from kylesportscards.

[Merkle923]

Hiding in plain sight: one of the great white whales of the '70s.

Ron Bryant won 57 games over parts of eight seasons with San Francisco - 24 of them in 1970 when he came out of nowhere to finish third in the NL Cy Young balloting. He drifted to the Cardinals early in '75 for Larry Herndon, and I've never before seen a color image of him in a St. Louis uniform.

Yet there he is in one of those "Picture Pak" foldout giveaways, along with a small treasure trove of difficult - if not similarly unprecedented - Cardinals (and yeah, I checked; we know of the 1976 Pak with obscure images like Willie Crawford and the like, but there does not appear to be a 1977 Pak, so...no Tom Underwood).