1963 Topps Baseball

Some years ago, I posted Bob Bruce's final card as part of a group post, but without any mention of his career. Now it’s time to give him the full treatment.

Bruce began his career in the Tigers' organization in 1953. He missed the 1957 season due to military service, but returned the following season, and made his Tigers’ debut in September 1959.

Bob played all of 1960 (34 games, 15 starts) and part of 1961 with the Tigers.


He was traded to the Houston Colt .45s a few months prior to their inaugural 1962 season, and along with Turk Farrell was one of the team's top starting pitchers from 1962-65.

In April 1964 he stuck out the side on NINE pitches, one day after Sandy Koufax had done the same. Bob is one of 12 pitchers to have done that.

Bruce was the opening day pitcher in 1965, the first regular-season game played in the Astrodome.

After an off-year in 1966, and with the emergence of Larry Dierker and Mike Cuellar, Bruce was traded to the Braves prior to the 1967 season (with outfielder Dave Nicholson) for 3rd baseman Eddie Mathews, infielder Sandy Alomar, and pitcher Arnold Umbach.

Bob only pitched 12 games for the Braves in his final season, the last coming on June 24th. He played the 2nd half of the season with the Braves' AAA team, before retiring.

Bruce passed away in March 2017 at age 83.

Bob Bruce signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1953. The righty pitcher took a long slow trip up the Tigers' minor league ladder and spent a year in the military before he finally debuted in September of 1959. His first appearance that year was a one inning mop up stint in which he walked two. He returned to the mound on September 27 making his first career start. It was against the White Sox at Briggs Stadium and Bruce was treated pretty shabbily, and not just by the Sox. Here is the Baseball Reference play-by-play for the top of the first:

Top of the 1st, White Sox Batting, Tied 0-0, Tigers' Bob Bruce facing 1-2-3
t1	0-0	0	---			CHW	L. Aparicio	B. Bruce			Single to LF
t1	0-0	0	1--			CHW	N. Fox	B. Bruce			Aparicio Steals 2B
t1	0-0	0	-2-			CHW	N. Fox	B. Bruce			Aparicio Steals 3B
t1	0-0	0	--3			CHW	N. Fox	B. Bruce			Walk
t1	0-0	0	1-3		R	CHW	J. Landis	B. Bruce			Reached on E6 (Ground Ball); Aparicio Scores; Fox to 2B; Landis to 1B
t1	1-0	0	12-			CHW	T. Kluszewski	B. Bruce			Wild Pitch; Landis to 2B; Fox to 3B
t1	1-0	0	-23		RO	CHW	T. Kluszewski	B. Bruce			Groundout: 2B-1B; Fox Scores; Landis to 3B
t1	2-0	1	--3		R	CHW	J. Romano	B. Bruce			Reached on E5 (Ground Ball); Landis Scores/No RBI/unER
t1	3-0	1	1--		O	CHW	A. Smith	B. Bruce			Strikeout
t1	3-0	2	1--		RR	CHW	J. Rivera	B. Bruce			Home Run (Deep RF); Romano Scores/unER; Rivera Scores/unER
t1	5-0	2	---		O	CHW	B. Phillips	B. Bruce			Popfly: SS

So Bruce gives up a hit to Luis Aparicio, allows him to steal second and third, walks Nellie Fox, gets Jim Landis to ground to short where it's booted (or thrown away), uncorks a wild pitch, coaxes a run scoring grounder out of Big Klu, gets Johnny Romano to ground to third where it's booted (or thrown away), whiffs Al Smith, gives up a home run to Jungle Jim Rivera and finally gets out of the inning on a pop up. Jimmy Dykes pulled the plug on Bruce to start the second and with the season ending a few days later Bruce had the whole winter to re-live that nightmare inning.

Another interesting thing happened later in the same game and it had nothing to do with Bob Bruce directly. Sox manager Al Lopez replaced his entire team on the field to start to bottom of the sixth. Again, here is the BR game summary:

Barry Latman replaces Bob Shaw pitching and batting 9th
Cam Carreon replaces John Romano playing C batting 5th
Earl Torgeson replaces Ted Kluszewski playing 1B batting 4th
Billy Goodman replaces Nellie Fox playing 2B batting 2nd
J.C. Martin replaces Bubba Phillips playing 3B batting 8th
Sammy Esposito replaces Luis Aparicio playing SS batting 1st
Johnny Callison replaces Al Smith playing LF batting 6th
Joe Hicks replaces Jim Landis playing CF batting 3rd
Jim McAnany replaces Jim Rivera playing RF batting 7th

You don't see that happening very often. Looks like El Señor was saving his troops for the post season. His club had clinched the pennant five days earlier.

But Bob Bruce persevered and remained with the Tigers through 1961 as a reliever and spot starter. He was traded to Houston in December of 1961 and became a solid member of the Colt 45s' starting rotation in their first season. He won 42 games for the Colts/Astros in five seasons. He was the first pitcher in that franchise's history to win 15 games (1964) and he pitched in the last game played in Colt Stadium and the first game in the Astrodome. In and April 1964 game versus the Dodgers he struck out the side on 9 pitches. He became only the twelvth pitcher to do that. Amazingly he did it the next day after Sandy Koufax had become the eleventh to do it.

Bruce finished his career in 1967 with the Atlanta Braves and retired to San Antonio, Texas where he works in the real estate business.

Little Topps quirks that amuse me department: I've been in Houston since 1967 and have never seen the city's name abbreviated as 'HSTN.' except on a Topps card.

Jim Umbricht was a relief pitcher in the early 1960s with the Pirates and Houston Colt .45s.

He began his pro career in 1953, playing for unaffiliated teams in '53 and '56 (missing 2 seasons in the military). After the 1956 season, he was sold to the Milwaukee Braves. After 2 seasons in the Braves' system, Jim was traded to the Pirates, making his major-league debut in September 1959.

After 2 more seasons bouncing between the Pirates and the minor leagues, Umbricht was selected by Houston in the expansion draft, and spent 2 seasons in their bullpen.

 
The 1963 season was his last, as at the start of spring training he was diagnosed with melanoma. After surgery in March to remove a tumor, he made it back to the active roster for opening day, and pitched the entire season for the Colts. His situation helped to raise awareness of the disease. Umbricht compiled a 4-3 record over 76 innings in 1963.

His health deteriorated soon after the season ended, and the team released him in December. After being in and out of hospitals for much of the winter, he finally passed away at age 33 on the day before the 1964 season. Jim's body was cremated, and his ashes spread over the construction site for the Astrodome. The Astros retired his number in 1965.


 [The Astros' relatively brief history seems to be filled with tragedies. After Jim Umbricht, ex-Astros' outfielder Walt Bond died of leukemia in 1967, a few months after playing for the Twins; pitcher Don Wilson died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the off-season before the 1975 season; J.R Richard suffered a stroke just prior to a game in 1980; and more recently, ex-Astros pitcher Darryl Kile died while a member of the Cardinals.]