Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[tnfoto]

Thanks so much for the Johnson/Expos image and the great Braces! Love the photos, background info, and related stories.

[Merkle923]

By request.

Long time Chicago Cub, very short time Clevelander, getting a brief twirl in 1958 and winning 24 in the Southern Association. Pretty certain this is a McCarthy - he did travel to Cleveland from his base in Detroit.

[Merkle923]

Longtime Orioles reliever who saved nine games one year and pitched twice for Earl Weaver in two different ALC series. Also one of the stars of one of the great Topps cards, the 1971 Rookie Pitchers (which might as well have been titled "Rookie Reynolds" - Archie, Bob, and Ken).

Finished up with the Tigers and Indians in '75 and none of the usual subjects seemed to have gotten him. The Tigers, though, did publish a team publicity photo - capless (if you've read Bouton you know why players walked around capless pre-game). Posted by request.

[Patsy Tebeau]

Any photos of Sam Crawford with the Reds?

[rrb77]

1899-1902 Cincinnati Reds

[Merkle923]

Here's that Crawford shot without that eBay seller slapping a watermark on an image that to my knowledge appears only in Lawrence Ritter's The Glory Of Their Times

[Patsy Tebeau]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Here's that Crawford shot without that eBay seller slapping a watermark on an image that to my knowledge appears only in Lawrence Ritter's The Glory Of Their Times

Oh I remember seeing that in that book now! Thanks for posting it because I couldn't find it anywhere online at all!

[Merkle923]

50 years later and I still don't get this trade. The Cubs sent Burt Hooton, 92 starts into his career, to the Dodgers for Eddie Solomon and Geoff Zahn. Two-and-a-half months later the Cubs traded Solomon to St. Louis for Ken Crosby. Twenty months later the Cubs released Zahn. At the time of the trade Hooton was 0-2. He'd go 18-7 in L.A. and later make six World Series starts for the Dodgers.

Solomon, caught by Brace, by request.

[Merkle923]

By request.

325 career plate appearances with the Indians, Cards, Reds, and Orioles and 159 of them were as a pinch-hitter. It was a theme that seemed to stick post-playing career.

After eight years managing in their system, he was named to run the Mets in 1976, they had a somnambulant season under him, then began 15-30 in 1977. He was fired in favor of (briefly) player-manager Joe Torre, and only then did the Mets commit the roster purge from which the franchise has never fully recovered (Seaver to the Reds, Kingman to the Padres).

The Reds' photo has not been widely seen before. It's a team-produced publicity shot.

[prewinter]

Originally Posted by tnfoto

Picture taken from the 1888 Toledo Maumees team composite. Thanks to SABR for image provision!

The known image of Al Strueve came from this composite. I'm trying to locate an image of Lewis C. Hill, who I think played with Toledo in 1888. Can someone provide me with the full image? Thank you!

[tnfoto]

Originally Posted by prewinter

The known image of Al Strueve came from this composite. I'm trying to locate an image of Lewis C. Hill, who I think played with Toledo in 1888. Can someone provide me with the full image? Thank you!

Here is the 1888 Toledo team composite, but Lewis Hill is not shown, unless he played under a different name.

[prewinter]

Originally Posted by tnfoto

Here is the 1888 Toledo team composite, but Lewis Hill is not shown, unless he played under a different name.

He played under his own name as far as I know. Thank you for the assist. I can look elsewhere now.

[Merkle923]

Lots of '60s players from lots of towns with great names (Jim McAndrew: Lost Nation, Iowa) and Greg Washburn was competitive - Coal City, Illinois.

He got eight appearances in two stints with the '69 Angels, and shared a Topps rookie card in 1970 (straying off the topic, the photo of the other fella on that card, Wally Wolf, was originally used in the 1963 set!). That card is the only color shot I've ever seen of him.

But here are two good images from the Brace collection. The prints had faded color, to say nothing of scotch tape on them; I've cleaned them up as best I could.

[Merkle923]

Long before the era of the late Fernando Valenzuela, the Angels mined the Mexican League for pitching talent. Minnie Rojas, Jose Ramon Lopez, and Jorge Rubio all made the big club in 1966 - but Rubio was first.

He made the opening day roster two years running, pitched effectively 10 times, was part of a deal to the Reds for Sammy Ellis, but ultimately was never comfortable in U.S. ball and went back to the Mexican League in '68.

These are two pretty nice Braces, of a guy whose only out-there color is from the Fritsch One Year Winners set, from a Topps shoot at Yankee Stadium "loaned" to Larry Fritsch by the collector and longtime Topps Sports Editor Bill Haber.

[Merkle923]

There aren't many confirmed cases of werewolves in MLB but...

Or, if you prefer, an early model for Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine. Mind you these Braces of the Angels' and Reds' lefty shows the evolution of Garrett's sideburn game over the course of the same season. Obviously they're from different visits to Comiskey Park (lord, I hope so).

In just 55 games Garrett piled up a 2.0 WAR and a 2.48 ERA, but his 89 strikeouts to 87 walks ratio (including 2 K's to 10 BB with the 1971 Reds) sank his hopes.

Garrett was on a three-player Topps rookie card, got his own 1971 card with a blacked out cap, and has shown up in a couple of Topps Vault negatives with both California and Cincinnati. There is also a 1971 Dell Stamp with his name, auto and bio, but it ain't him. The pitcher is a righty and Garrett was a southpaw (I have reason to believe the stamp actually shows the elusive Wally Wolf - more on that subsequently).

[Merkle923]

Well this was a surprise. One of the greatest of the white whales, hiding in plain sight. And he's been hiding there since 1971, while so many of us have been putting him on our wanted lists.

Wally Wolf was signed by the Houston Colt .45s before the big league team took the field. He appeared on two Topps rookie cards (using the same colorized Houston head shot) in 1963 and 1970, and in six games as an Angels' reliever late in 1969 and early in 1970.

There are several Colt head shots, a minor league Padres publicity photo, a minor league team picture in which he's included. But I had never seen a photo of him with the Angels (or thought I hadn't) until tonight when I did a search connected with the Greg Garrett post above. That search turned up the 1971 Dell Stamp purporting to show Garrett and even though I bought that set when it came out it had never dawned on me that the stamp showed a righty but Garrett was a lefty.

In a casual check to see who "Garrett" really was, I noticed there's a short name on the pitcher's glove and it appears to begin with a "W." I compared the "Garrett" to the Wolfs in my file and it's a 100% match.

A color Wally Wolf/Angels, at Yankee Stadium no less! It fits; he was sent to the minors on May 16, 1970 and was with California when they visited the Yankees on April 28-29-30.

I've cleaned up one of the Dell stamps and attach it, the original, and a couple of the known Wolfs to confirm the match. It's so clearly him that his uneven smile appears in both the 1964 Houston press guide photo of Wolf, and the Wolf/Garrett stamp.

Amazing.

[Terry D]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

By request.

Bell was enough a prospect that after being chosen seventh overall in the old January draft, he was promoted to become the starting 3rd Baseman of the White Sox in the middle of the 1976 season. But his good prep and minor league numbers proved to be almost exclusively against lefty pitchers (he hit .319 versus them as a rookie, .201 versus righties, and was .259/.198 lifetime).

It probably explains why he only spent one full season in Chicago (1980) and in it hit .178. The Sox released him that winter, he signed with the Padres and was then dealt to the A's in Spring Training. After two unpromising seasons in the PCL they brought him for a three-game cameo in September, 1982, where he eluded most photographers. Doug McWilliams got him in Oakland and it turns out Brace got him at Comiskey.

ADDED: Came across this shot I took of Bell shortly after his recall by the ChiSox. The remodeled Yankee Stadium was new, he was a rookie, the old-timey uniform set was new, and I was 17! On the other hand the base looks like it was used by Tinker, Evers and Chance.

That's a super shot of Kevin Bell in 82, thanks. And thanks as well for Rodney Scott with the Yanks.

[rrb77]

I removed the Garrett signature as best as I could, hope that is helpful. Thanks Merkle!

[Terry D]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

There aren't many confirmed cases of werewolves in MLB but...

Or, if you prefer, an early model for Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine. Mind you these Braces of the Angels' and Reds' lefty shows the evolution of Garrett's sideburn game over the course of the same season. Obviously they're from different visits to Comiskey Park (lord, I hope so).

In just 55 games Garrett piled up a 2.0 WAR and a 2.48 ERA, but his 89 strikeouts to 87 walks ratio (including 2 K's to 10 BB with the 1971 Reds) sank his hopes.

Garrett was on a three-player Topps rookie card, got his own 1971 card with a blacked out cap, and has shown up in a couple of Topps Vault negatives with both California and Cincinnati. There is also a 1971 Dell Stamp with his name, auto and bio, but it ain't him. The pitcher is a righty and Garrett was a southpaw (I have reason to believe the stamp actually shows the elusive Wally Wolf - more on that subsequently).

I saw Greg Garrett drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's.

[Merkle923]

Back to the Brace-a-thon and this 20-year lefty who eight times had seasons registering a WAR of 3.7 or more (and whose career mark of 42.7 puts him just behind Hall of Famers Jack Morris and Lefty Gomez, and just ahead of Hall of Famers Charles Bender and Jack Chesbro).

It kind of boggles the mind today but Simmons had 17 wins and was the let ace of a Phillies team on its way to an unexpected in September, 1950, when his National Guard unit was called up and sent to Korea. No one-month delay, no off-season service, just a ten-day pass for the World Series (and Commissioner Happy Chandler inexplicably ruled him ineligible for it). Simmons had to watch his Phils get swept by the Yankees, then he had to wait 14 years for another chance, starting twice against the Yanks as the Cards won the '64 classic.

These two images are from his last stops. The Cards sold him to the Cubs in June 1966, and the Cubs sent him to the Angels in August 1967 (he threw a shutout and got a save in the pennant race yet didn't get asked back for a 21st season in '68). Topps did not photograph Simmons in Chicago but did get him with the Angels. The Brace Angels shot and Cubs pitching pose have been out there for awhile but I'd never seen the Cubs portrait before.