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Showing posts with label .Astros. Show all posts
Showing posts with label .Astros. Show all posts

Monday, May 13, 2019

Final Card: Gary Kroll

For some reason, I thought Gary Kroll was a Pirates' outfielder, but I must have been thinking of Gary Kolb.

This is Kroll's final card (#548), and is one of the few 1966 cards I don't have, so swiped internet images will have to do.

Kroll was signed by the Phillies in 1959, and played in their organization until his August 1964 trade to the Mets. (That appears to be Phillies' pinstripes he's wearing on the card.)

He made his major-league debut with the Phillies in late-July 1964, but after only 2 games he was traded to the Mets for slugger Frank Thomas, as the Phillies geared-up for their pennant drive.


Gary pitched 32 games (10 starts) for the Mets in 1965, but that was his only full season in the majors. He played minor-league ball from 1966-71, with only brief stints in the majors (10 games with the Astros in '66 and 19 games with the Indians in '69, all as a reliever).

He finished up his career with triple-A assignments for the Angels (1970) and Cardinals (1971).
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Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Astros Rookies (#244, #539, #596)

Here are the 1966 Astros Rookie Stars cards. The first one is card #244 featuring Chuck Harrison and Sonny Jackson. Both photos are airbrushed nightmares, using techniques also found on the next card: a poorly-painted logo and fading cap edge, and the other photo looks like someone scribbled over the cap logo with a black sharpie. Both players would have much better cards in the 1967 set.



There were two other Astros Rookie Stars cards in the 1966 set, both in the high-numbered 7th series. I don't have these 2 cards, but for completeness I am including images of the card fronts I found on the internet.

Looks like the same guy was in charge of airbrushing this card (#539). ("Air-brushing" may be too generous a term, because it looks like this was done with a dime-store paintbrush.) Bill Heath looks a lot like fellow Astros' catcher John Bateman here. Heath would get a better card in the 1967 set, then disappear until having one last card in the 1970 set as a Cub.

Carroll Sembera also has a good-looking card in the 1967 set, then falls victim to the disaster inflicted on all the 1968 Astros cards. He also has a final card in the 1969 set as a capless Montreal Expo.


Ahh! A decent-looking rookies card (#596). After this card, Nate Colbert vanishes until resurfacing in the 1969 set as a San Diego Padre. This is Greg Sims' only baseball card.
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Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Ron Taylor (#174)

Ron Taylor pitched 9 full seasons (1963-71) for the Cardinals, Astros, and Mets. He also pitched a few games for the Indians in 1962 and the Padres in 1972. I knew of him only as a Mets’ reliever, as he spent 1967-71 with them.

Taylor was signed by the Indians in 1956, and pitched in their farm system for 7 years (1956-62), almost exclusively as a starter.

He played in 8 games for the Tribe in April and May 1962, but was sent back down in late May. After the ’62 season, Ron was traded to the Cardinals for 1st baseman Fred Whitfield.


Taylor compiled a 9-7 record in 1963, starting 9 of his 54 games, but also leading the team with 11 saves. The following season, he worked out of the bullpen in all but 2 of his 63 appearances. He pitched in 2 games in the 1964 World Series, picking up a save in game #4.

In June 1965, Ron and pitcher Mike Cuellar were traded to the Astros for pitchers Hal Woodeshick and Chuck Taylor. He spent 1 ½ seasons in the Astros ‘pen, working behind Claude Raymond and Jim Owens.

Ron was sold to the Mets in February 1967 and spent the next 5 seasons as a reliever in the Big Apple, never starting another game for the remainder of his career. Taylor led the Mets in saves for his first 4 seasons. In 1969, he pitched in 2 NLCS games and 2 World Series games, saving game #2 in the Fall Classic.

In 1971, he dropped to 10th man on the pitching staff, as Tug McGraw and Danny Frisella had taken over as bullpen aces. Ron was released by the Mets sold to the Expos after the 1971 season (who then released him during spring training in 1972), and was signed by the Padres in late-April. He pitched only 5 innings over 4 games for San Diego, the last on May 14th.

After baseball he became a doctor, and spent time as the team physician for his hometown Toronto Blue Jays.
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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Joe Morgan (#195)

General blog note: Yesterday, I found a 1952 Topps baseball card blog. Check it out by scrolling down to my vintage year blogroll!

Joe Morgan was the Topps all-rookie 2nd baseman in 1965. A year later, the Astros would beef up the other side of their double-play combo.

Morgan was signed by the expansion Houston Colt .45s in November 1962 (wow, that's really late in the season!). He played 2 seasons in the minors (getting brief call-ups each season).

In 1965, Joe was installed as the regular 2nd baseman at the start of the season. He started 155 games there as a rookie, led the NL with 97 walks, and finished 2nd in NL Rookie of the Year voting to Dodgers' 2nd baseman Jim Lefebvre. (I wonder why Topps didn't choose Lefebvre?)

Except for missing most of the 1968 season with injuries, Morgan was a fixture at 2nd base for the Astros from 1965 to 1971, making the all-star team in '66 and '70.


After the 1971 season, Joe was traded to the Cincinnati Reds (with pitcher Jack Billingham, infielder Denis Menke, and outfielders Cesar Geronimo and Ed Armbrister) for 1st baseman Lee May, 2nd baseman Tommy Helms, and utility infielder Jimmy Stewart. The rest is Big Red Machine history.

Morgan and the Reds went to the post-season 4 times in his first 5 years with the Reds, winning the World Series in '75 and '76. Joe was an all-star every season from 1972-79, and won the NL MVP award in '75 and '76.

Joe left the Reds via free agency after the 1979 season, and played 5 more seasons, with the Astros, Giants, Phillies, and Athletics. In 1982, he won his only silver slugger award (at age 38).

In 1983, he was reunited in Philadelphia with former Reds' teammates PETE ROSE and Tony Perez, as the Phillies went to the World Series, only to lose to the Orioles.

Morgan played 22 seasons, and was his team's regular 2nd baseman right up to the end of his career.
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Friday, September 23, 2011

Grady Hatton (#504)

Awhile back, I posted the Luman Harris card. Lum was the Astros' manager in 1965, but was fired in December (about 2 months AFTER most teams conduct their off-season firings!) Topps issued a 2nd manager card for the Astros in 1966. They would do the same in 1969 for the Senators.


Grady Hatton began his major-league playing career as the Reds' regular 3rd baseman from 1946-52. He kicked around with the White Sox, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Orioles from 1954-56, then became a minor-league player-coach until 1961 (which included a short stint in 1960 playing for the Cubs).



In 1962, Grady was hired as the director of player personnel for the expansion Houston Colt 45s. He followed that with 3 seasons as the manager of Houston's AAA Oklahoma City team before getting the call to the big club in 1966.

Hatton's major-league managerial career was brief. After 2 full seasons in 1966 (8th place) and 1967 (9th place), Grady was fired after 61 games in 1968, with his team in 10th place. I guess having the lowly Mets pass them in the standings was just not acceptable! He was replaced by Harry Walker, who had been fired in mid-1967 by the Pirates.

Hatton continued with the Astros as a scout until 1972. He also scouted for the Giants in the 1980s.
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Multi-player Cards

It's hard to figure out Topps' logic when it came to multi-player cards in the late 1960s.

In 1966, there were 5 such cards, all within the first 300 cards:
Astros
Giants
Phillies
Pirates
White Sox
In the later series, multi-player cards just disappeared.


In 1967, that number grew to 13 cards, but only for 11 teams:
Braves
Cardinals
Giants
Mets
Phillies
Pirates
Indians (2)
Orioles (2)
Tigers
Twins
White Sox


In 1968, Topps cut way back to just 3 cards (all in the 6th series):
Orioles
Stars from multiple teams (2)


In 1969, there were 4 such cards, again all in the 6th series (it's as though Topps waited until they were sure they wouldn't need a 5th Royals Rookies card!)
Giants
Orioles
Senators
Athletics
(I first discovered these baseball card blogs last September, when I stumbled upon PackAddict's 1969 Athletics' card shown in the above link.)



I previously posted the Giants' multi-player card. Here are the rest:


#152 Power Plus - How can they make a card about the Phillies' power hitters and not include Richie Allen?



#99 Buc Belters - Stargell and Clendenon would also appear together on the 1967 Pirates' multi-player card. Hey Topps, where's Roberto Clemente? In 1965, he had 10 homers to Clendenon's 14. (They both had fewer than Jim Pagliaroni's 17.)



#199 Chisox Clubbers - In the land of the Go-Go Sox, "clubbers" is a relative term. Skowron and Romano each had 18 dingers in 1965, Robinson had 14.



#273 Astro Aces - At least the title of this card isn't implying home run power for its featured players!
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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Final Card: Robin Roberts

Here is the final baseball card for 19-year veteran pitcher Robin Roberts (#530). I just received this card a few days ago, filling a prominent gap near the top of my list of retiring veterans.

Roberts was signed by the Phillies in 1948, and after only 11 games in the minors, he was brought up to the Phillies on June 18th. He ended up being the #4 starter in his rookie season, and by 1950 he was the team's ace, a position he held through the 1960 season.

Roberts led the Phillies to the 1950 World Series, and won 20 or more games every year from 1950 to 1955. This was quite a feat, since most of those Phillies teams had so-so records.



In Robin's final season with the Phillies (1961), he dropped off to a 1-10 record, and was sold to the Yankees after the season. By the following May, the Yankees released him, but he was picked up by the Orioles.

Roberts was in Baltimore's starting rotation during the years when Wally Bunker and Dave McNally were getting their start.

He was released in July 1965, and picked up by the Astros a week later. Robin started 10 games in 1965 and 12 games in 1966 before getting his release on July 4th, 1966. He played the remainder of that season with the Cubs, and in 1967 with the Phillies' double-A team in Reading, PA before retiring.
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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Final Card: Joe Gaines

Joe Gaines (#122) was a journeyman outfielder for 3 teams in the early-to-mid 1960s. He was signed by the Reds in 1956, and spent 6 seasons with their minor-league teams (although making a few major-league appearances in 1960 and 1961).

In 1962, Joe made the big leagues to stay. Joe had to be content with a pinch-hitting role, because the Reds had Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, and Wally Post starting, along with Jerry Lynch and Marty Keough as the 4th and 5th outfielders.



After the 1962 season, Joe was traded to the Orioles, where he received a little more playing time in 1963 than the previous season, primarily spelling Boog Powell in left field. After infrequent use in early 1964, Gaines was traded to the Colt .45s on June 15th for outfielder Johnny Weekly.

Gaines hit the jackpot in Houston, as he was the starting right fielder for 81 of the 85 games from June 19th to September 15th. During most of this streak (July 4 to September 15) Rusty Staub was absent from the starting lineup, and was playing in triple-A (rehab assignment?). Once Staub returned to Houston, it was to right field (and for several seasons), spelling the end of Joe Gaines' gravy train.

In 1965, Gaines was the team's 4th outfielder, logging most of his playing time as a backup to Lee Maye in left and Rusty Staub in right. In Joe's final season (1966) his playing time decreased significantly, as he spent a good portion of the season (139 games) with the Astros' triple-A team in Oklahoma City. His final major-league game was on October 2, 1966.

He spent the 1967 season with the Athletics' triple-A team in Vancouver, and 1968 with the triple-A teams of the Twins and White Sox.
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Monday, January 11, 2010

Final Card: Jim Gentile

Jim Gentile (#45) began his minor league career in 1952 with the Brooklyn Dodgers' organization. Throughout his minor-league and major-league career, he only ever played first base, except for pitching in 14 games during the 1952 season, and 1 game in his last minor-league season (1968).

Jim played in the minors from 1952 through 1959, while getting a cup of coffee with Brooklyn in 1957 and Los Angeles in 1958.

After the 1959 season, Gentile was traded to the Orioles, and became their power-hitting first baseman from 1960 to 1963. He was the runner-up for AL Rookie of the Year in 1960.



Following the 1963 season, the Orioles traded Jim to the Athletics for first baseman Norm Siebern. His stay in Kansas City was short, as he moved on to the Astros in June 1965.

This is Jim's last baseball card, but it wasn't his last team. In July 1966, the Astros traded him to the Indians. 1966 was Gentile's last major league season, but he played for 2 more seasons with the Phillies' triple-A team in San Diego.
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Friday, November 20, 2009

Lum Harris (#147)

We haven't had a manager's card for awhile. Here we have Lum Harris, the manager of the Astros (or is he?)



On the back of the card, after going on and on about Harris' career, Topps wraps up with the statement "Lum was released as manager of the Houston Astros on December 12, 1965."

This raises several questions:
1) How inept was the Astros' front office that it took until December 12th before they decided to fire their manager? What losses occurred between October 1 and December 12?

2) Why would Topps bother to include a Harris card? After reading this a second time, I noticed that the text starts off "Lum was the manager...". (Not "is", "was".) So a sentence about his firing wasn't just tacked on to the end of an already-composed card back. It's at the top! Why not just pull the card, replace it with another Astros player, and catch up later in the summer after the Astros have decided who the new manager will be?

Harris went on to manage the Braves from 1968 to 1972.
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