Minor League Baseball Players

[Cusick]

With Vancouver Mounties. From team photo on worthpoint.com.

[PinsonHOF]

I found a few thumbnail images of an interesting player Harold Joe "Hap" Richie. The left handed hitting and throwing Richie was primarily a first baseman for the Milwaukee Braves, Kansas City A's, Los Angeles Angels and Yankees organizations. He played from '58 to '63.
It looks like he was a line drive hitter who drew a lot of walks. In 1959 he walked 141 times for Midland in Class D. In 1962 he .255 in AAA with 15 homeruns. I have a grainy photo here of him in a Hawaii Islanders uniform of that year. Also included is an unidentified thumbnail from his obituary in 2016 and one from his first professional season in 1958 with the McCook Braves in the Nebraska State league.

[PinsonHOF]

Longtime Giants farmhand Julio Linares is pictured here in what I believe is the uniform of the 1962 El Paso Sun Kings. Linares played second, short and third, a little first and over a hundred games in the outfield. Julio Linares was a career .284 hitter and an even better hitter in AAA at .294. He had no power and average speed but this player looks like the perfect utility man. Linares did make it to the majors in 1994 with the Astros as a coach.

[Cusick]

As a player, Linares did make it onto the San Francisco Giants' spring roster in 1970. He had played mostly at third base the previous year at Phoenix. The photo is from The Topps Vault.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=linare001jul

[PinsonHOF]

I'm looking for two 60's minor leaguers. Faulkner played 8 seasons with the Cubs, Yankees, Orioles and White Sox organizations. He was a left handed hitting outfielder. Alton Williams pitched from '63 to '66 mostly with the Yankees farm teams and briefly in his final minor league season for San Jose in the California League under the Angels umbrella. Williams had his best year at Ft: Lauderdale in 1965 winning 12 games. Any help here is much appreciated.

[Cusick]

Faulkner is shown with the Elmira Pioneers, a AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The photo is from the Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette of August 10, 1966.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=faulkn002ken

[Cusick]

Williams is shown with the Fort Lauderdale Yankees. The photo is from the Miami Herald of July 10, 1965.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=willia001alt

[PinsonHOF]

Here are a couple of images of Cubs and Phillies outfielder Joe Marty. A Sacramento native he played in the National league for five years from 1937 to 1941 displaying occasional power and hitting .261. His major league career was permanently interrupted by WWII. Military service caused Marty to miss 4 complete seasons. He came back in 1946 and returned to his hometown to play for the AAA Sacremento Salons. where he would finish his professional career in 1952. From 1950 onward Joe Marty was there player/manager. During his playing days he owned a restaurant that bore his name and lived on after his death until a fire destroyed it in 2005.

[PinsonHOF]

Here is one time Cubs and Cardinals minor league catcher Jim Procopio who played 1963 to 1968. He also played with the Angels and White Sox organizations. His big year was 1965 in the Northwest league when the left handed hitting backstop hit.333 for the Wenatchee Chiefs. Before and after the 5'9 Procopio was dependably average at the plate.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=procop001jam



This photo came from a West Virginia History On View . Org . No mention if it is a Mountaineer or minor league uniform.

[Cusick]

The photo of Gary Washington on the left is from the Oneonta (NY) Star of March 20, 1968. It shows him with the Oneonta Yankees. The photo on the right shows him with Mississippi State University. It is from the Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger of June 1, 1966.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=washin001gar

[PinsonHOF]

Here is an image of 60's and 70's minor leaguer Tommy Murray (as he is called on Baseball Reference) on a baseball card from the Venezuelan winter league. I do not know the year of the card. Murray played the corners, first and third, left and right field as players used to do and hit 130 homeruns in 9 seasons. He hit 26 HR's for Oklahoma City in 1966 but did not merit a call up to the young Astros. Undoubtedly there is a spring training photo somewhere for this player. Here he is playing for the Valencia Industriales whose last year in the VZ league was 1968. Curiously he has Pericos across his uniform chest. Pericos Pueblas is a Mexican league team but he has a Valencia V on his hat.

[Cusick]

This is former major league pitcher Dick LeMay. It is clearly the same card issue as the one of Tom Murray above. It is a 1967 Venezuelan card. It shows LeMay with the Industriales de Valencia. He is listed with that team on the following Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catego...lencia_players

I can't explain why Murray is wearing a jersey with a name which seems incongruous with the Valencia team, though the trim on the sleeve seems the same as LeMay's. To my knowledge, there is no evidence that Murray was in any spring camp with the Astros as either a roster player or a non-roster invitee. If anyone knows of such evidence, I'd be happy to be corrected on this.

P.S. Had a thought that Perico may have been the name of an industrial firm which was the sponsor of the team at the time. Have not been able to confirm that hunch. There is a city in Venezuela by the name of Perico, but it's hundreds of miles from Valencia, so that wouldn't make sense.

P.P.S. Found the answer on why Perico was on the jersey. Perico means parakeet in Spanish. The green color of the Valencia uniform caused the team to be called "The Parakeets." Source for this conclusion was the following webpage:

http://blog.banesco.com/el-olvidado-tricampeon/

The sentence -- Aquellos Industriales, apodados "los pericos" por el color verde de su uniforme ...--- translates into that explanation.

[baseball-birthdays.com]

Dick Williams, 1949 Ft. Worth Cats

posted on eBay by fedxit

[PinsonHOF]

Here is the late Blue Jays All Star Damaso Garcia with the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees at age 19. This photo was pulled from his Wikipedia page.

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Any photos of Jerry Bernard Kushner? Played in the Reds system 1964-65.

[Cusick]

Originally Posted by rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com

Any photos of Jerry Bernard Kushner? Played in the Reds system 1964-65.

This photo of Jerry Kushner shows him with the Hawaiian Islanders. It is from the Honolulu Advertiser of June 17, 1966.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=kushne001ger

[PinsonHOF]

Another member of the Mexican league hall of fame (Salon la Fama) Alfredo "Yacqui" Rios was a slick fielding second baseman beginning his career in Mexico as a Rookie of the Year in 1954 and finishing up in 1971. There is no record of Rios playing for any American minor league affiliate. According to a roughly translated site Yacqui was a consummate contact hitter once going 196 at bats without striking out. He was member of 6 championship teams. He was not as successful as a manager with one first place finish in 8 seasons.Here is Alfredo Rios pictured playing for Ostioneros of his hometown Guaymas ( The Oyster baseball club) and for the Monterrey Sultanes.

[PinsonHOF]

Steve Bilko , the burly fellow on the left won the Pacific Coast league triple crown in 1956 for the AAA Los Angeles Angels. He would later be the cleanup man for the '61 expansion Los Angeles Angels.. My father saw him play in the mid fifties for the St. Louis Cardinals. Players of that era wore no helmet and Bilko would crowd the plate with his paunch ever so slightly in the strike zone. Bilko would raise his arms and bat over his head holding his ground when he was thrown at. My dad tried to emulate him in a semi-pro ball game and a veteran pitcher name of Tootie Thurston took his cloth hat clean off. Tootie's fastball hit the bill of the cap first as he threw his arms and bat high over his head and somehow the ball missed making hard contact with my father's skull. It grazed me he said.
Dick Stuart was a fine major league hitter with the Pirates and Red Sox in particular, but he struggled at first base to the point that his nickname became " Dr. Strangeglove." My father says he would cover first base with the wrong foot and even on one occasion he saw Stuart get his feet crossed and missed the bag altogether. Here is with the '57 Hollywood Stars. This photo is dated April, 19, 1957 from the now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

[PinsonHOF]

Does anyone have an image of this 50's and 60's minor leaguer? He started as an infielder in the Reds organization in 1953. He hit .335 in Class D ball in 1960 for the Statesville Owls and won 3 games on the mound. The following year Thomas was converted to pitching full time. He had two very solid AAA seasons in '62 and '63 winning 13 games for Dallas-Fort Worth and winning 14 for Hawaii and striking out 153. Neither season merited a call up however. His career ended with an ineffective 1964 season. Gail Thomas played for the Reds, Senators, Angels, Phillies, Braves and Tigers organizations.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=thomas001edw

[Cusick]

Edwin Gail "Squirrel" Thomas made it up to the Angels' spring camps twice, each time as a pitcher. In 1963 he was a non-roster invitee. In 1964, he was on their 40-man spring roster.

The photo is from the Fort Worth Star Telegram of July 30, 1962. He is shown with the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers of the American Association.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=thomas001edw