Minor League Baseball Players

[Cusick]

I've already taken my guess at identifying all four Afro-American players in the 1968 Corning team photo. Either I'm wrong about one of the players or John Nelson isn't in it. If he is in it, my best guess is that he is the fellow in the bottom row instead of Drew. John Nelson was 5'10" in height when he played. The photo comes from the Daily News-Post (Monrovia, CA) of May 24, 1968. He was in Duarte High School at the time.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=nelson001joh

[Cusick]

My guess is that O'Donnell appears as the fifth player from the left in the bottom row of the 1968 Corning team photo. His playing height was 5'9" and that fifth player appears to be short. The mouth shapes also appear to match.

The photo of O'Donnell comes from the Asbury Park (NJ) Press of June 7, 1968. O"Donnell attended high school in Neptune, NJ, which is just a few miles from Asbury Park.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=odonne001ken

[Cusick]

Doug Pautz was 6'4", so he should be found only among the tallest players in the 1968 Corning photo. Given the attached photo, I think he bears the closest resemblance to the player who is fifth from left in the top row. The attached is from the Minneapolis Star of Jan. 15, 1964 and shows Pautz during his freshman year in college.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=pautz-001dou

[PinsonHOF]

I see Tony Pena had quite a year for the Bison in '79. 34 HR 97 RBI's hitting .313. Do you remember the date of the game you attended? I can easily see the roster for the Buffalo Bison on Baseball Reference. I am a Missouri native.

[PinsonHOF]

Here are 3 images of centerfielder Barry Shetrone who played for the Orioles and Senators from '59 to '63. The first is from 1957 when Shetrone dominated the Class C Arizona-Mexico league scoring 151 runs and hitting .371 for the Phoneix Stars. A year later he skipped all other levels holding his own at age 19 with a .267 batting average for the Vancouver Mounties. In the photo with Shetrone is Bill Lajoie 1B-OF and former Oriole , Cardinal and Negro league veteran Joe Durham. The last photo is of Barry Shetrone when he played for the 1964 Seattle Rainiers.

[PinsonHOF]

From the 1962 Seattle Rainiers here is six year Red Sox farmhand Ken Wolfe who played from '57 to '63. Hitting .216 with only occasional power. But it appears he was better than that and had stretches where he hit. He drew walks. Injury prone. No information on his place of birth on Baseball Reference.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=wolfe-001ken

[PinsonHOF]

A good minor league hitter in the 60's from AA on down. Just 20 games in Triple A. Led the Michigan Wolverines in hitting his junior and senior year. Played 6 seasons with the Tigers, Senators, Colt .45's, and White Sox organizations. Had one truly great year in 1963. I wonder if he ever got a spring training look.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=frankl001wil

[Cusick]

Wilbert "Bert" Franklin is shown here with the Montgomery Rebels. The photo is from the Montgomery (AL) Avertiser of April 16, 1965.

To my knowledge, Franklin was never on a major league spring roster nor was he a non-roster invitee to a major league spring camp. His Sporting News contract card is at the following link, and it shows him only being transferred among minor league teams, never mentioning a movement to a major league club.

https://digital.la84.org/digital/col...id/79353/rec/1

[PinsonHOF]

The Sporting News contract card was interesting. Franklin basically ended his career on the restricted list after an early season suspension. Not his first time on the restricted list. I have found an image of Wilbert Franklin in his batting stance as a Michigan Wolverine. He led the Wolverines in hitting in 1958 and '59 hitting .347 and .383.

[PinsonHOF]

I have included a few links for former Orioles farmhand Herm Rathman and his high school photo featuring his prowess in three sports. Rathman also played briefly for the Reds and Kansas City A's organizations.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1458...-with-orioles/
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=rathma001her

https://www.leavenworthtimes.com/new...ons-are-better

[PinsonHOF]

Mickelson is pictured here during his 1959 season with the Sacramento Salons. Mickelson pitched from 1956 to 1963 entirely as Milwaukee Braves farmhand reaching AAA in '59 but never advancing further. He won 17 games for the Evansville Braves in the Indiana-Illinois-Iowa league in 1957. The six foot six Mickelson was also a college basketball player at San Diego State university. He passed away in 2014.

[PinsonHOF]

I bungled the screen shot. I'll never get out of A ball making these kind of errors.

[Cusick]

Thanks for posting the photo of Mickelsen. It prompted me to look into his background and to learn that he had been a non-roster invitee with the Milwaukee Braves in 1961, which I had not known previously. He began that spring training camp on the Louisville roster, but there was a point when he was moved over to the major league camp for three weeks. He got into a total of three innings in a "B" game, and calculated that he was paid an average of $36 per pitch by the Milwaukee Braves. Chump change in today's world, but a tidy sum in 1961. The info came from an article in the San Diego Union of March 23, 1961.

Note the corrected spelling of his last name.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mickel001noe

[PinsonHOF]

Slider toiled 11 years as player in the Kansas City A's, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox organizations primarily at shortstop. He would labor another 21 years as a minor league manager for the Red Sox from Rookie ball to AAA. This baseball lifer finally made it to the majors as a bullpen coach for the Red Sox in 1987 and would stay at Fenway Park until 1990 moving on to serve as a minor league infield instructor. Here he is pictured as a Seattle Rainier where Slider played off and on from 1962 to 1964.

[PinsonHOF]

I am posting a link from a recent article about Rac Slider and how he spends some of his days at church with The Amazing Grays. When I heard that name I hoped it was a senior league ball team as colorful as The House of David ... Here is a collage of Slider through the years as a player and coach and a link to the article.

https://www.txcumc.org/newsdetail/ex...grays-12792027

[Rainier 1]

The picture posted (post # 3373) is Pete Jernigan not Rac Slider.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=jernig001pau

Paul "Pete" Jernigan was an outfielder that played for the Rainiers in 1962, 63 & 64.

[PinsonHOF]

Thanks to Rainier for that correction. I just threw the ball in the stands. Here is one more image of Pete Jernigan in what I assume is a Boston Red Sox spring training appearance. Pete's minor league career spanned the 60's with his best years occurring at the beginning in Class D ball. He was a hot prospect for awhile. I have included a link to a blog detailing an incident that got him into hot water.

http://boblemke.blogspot.com/2015/06...use-today.html

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=jernig001pau

[PinsonHOF]

Gregson was a converted third baseman who played for the Minnesota Twins minor league affiliates from 1962 to 1968. He began pitching in '63.
Don Gregson won 12 games at AAA Denver at age 22 in 1965. It appears that arm problems derailed his very promising career. Here is what I believe to be a spring training photo of Gregson uploaded from Ebay.

[Cusick]

Don Gregson was a non-roster invitee to the Minnesota Twins' spring camp three years in a row, 1964 through 1966.

[PinsonHOF]

Breaking the spell of minor leaguers who never made it , here is a photo of long time American league southpaw Steve Mingori. Mingori pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen for the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals from 1970 to 1979. He saved his best work for the Royals teams of the mid to late 70's pitching in three consecutive playoffs against the New York Yankees. Here is a photo of Mingori from 1968 when he suited up for the Indianapolis Indians when they were a geographically challenged member of the Pacific Coast league.