TCMA The 60s Set Series II Minor League subset

The nine minor league cards from the TCMA Stars of the 60s Series II set have trickled in and I thought they were worth a post. As is the case with many of the TCMA sets this little subset seems to be random at first glance. Or maybe it isn't. It's as if they needed to fill in a gap so they used whatever photos they had at the front of the folder marked 'Minor League Pictures'. That would explain why there are three 'Andersons', Buford, Beard, Brickell, Cook and Coleman included. Pumpsie Green's picture had probably been misfiled with the guys at the beginning of the alphabet.

These are not in checklist order. 

Fritzie Brickell- Buffalo Bisons

The back of this card of short time Yankee Fritz Brickell lists him as a member of the Buffalo Bisons. That's an uncorrected (and uncatalogued AFAIK) error. He never played for Buffalo and he is wearing the uniform of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He played for Toronto in 1961 and '62. 

Interestingly Toronto is listed as unaffiliated with any MLB club for '61 but as a farm team of the Braves in '62. Which leads us to the next card....

Sparky Anderson-Toronto Maple Leafs

Sparky is 27 years old give or take in this shot from his stint with Toronto ('60-'63). He looks closer to 40...or maybe 50.

Below is the back of Sparky's card. It's printed with black ink unlike the rest of Series II (but it matches some of the cards from previous TCMA issues). It's also notable (and weird) that all nine of the cards have 'upside down' backs. In a binder you have to flip the page around to read them.

Ted Beard- Indianapolis Indians

The funny thing about Ted Beard is that he played for Indianapolis in 13 different seasons and through several different affiliations between 1947 and 1963. In between Indy stints he played in seven seasons for the Pirates and White Sox.


Pumpsie Green- Buffalo Bisons

Three things you should know about Pumpsie Green...his brother was Cornell Green who was a five time Pro Bowl safety for the Cowboys...his given name is Eliajh...he was the first African-American player to appear for the Boston Red Sox.

Syracuse was the Mets' AAA farm club and Green played there beginning in 1963.

John Anderson- Toronto Maple Leafs

The second of three Andersons among the nine cards belongs to pitcher John Anderson. He appeared in 24 games over three seasons for the Phils, Orioles, Cardinals and Colt 45s. He pitched for Toronto for three seasons in the early 60s.

Don Buford- Indianapolis Indians

Discounting Hall of Famer Sparky Anderson's dugout career Don Buford represents the best on-the-field major leaguer included. His time with Indianapolis was from 1962 to '63 when the team was affiliated with the White Sox. He put up some terrific numbers both seasons.

After some decent seasons with the Sox he was traded to the Orioles in 1968 and became 1) a handy and valuable switch hitter for three pennant winners and 2) one of my very favorite big leaguers. His stance was memorable and one I liked to imitate when we played corkball outside the dorms when I was in college.

Buford later managed in the Orioles organization, played several years in Japan and had a son, Damon, who played big league ball.


Choo Choo Coleman- Syracuse Chiefs

Clarence 'Choo Choo' Coleman was an Original Met having been claimed from the Phils in the '61 expansion draft. He began the '62 season in Syracuse which is when this picture must have been taken. He was with the Mets later in 1962 and 1963 and had a return six game engagement in 1966. Meanwhile he spent plenty of time in the Mets' system and finished his career with two seasons in Mexico.

If Baseball Reference is to be believed (and I do) then TCMA erred in saying on the back of Coleman's card that he was with Syracuse prior to his major league debut with the Phillies in 1961. Coleman, as noted above, played with Syracuse in 1962 after he was selected by the Mets. Spokane is probably the team they should have made mention of.

Craig Anderson- Buffalo Bisons

I've already posted these last two cards. Craig Anderson won three games and lost 17 for the 1962 Mets. He pitched for Buffalo during parts of each season from 1963 thru 1965.

Cliff Cook-Buffalo Bisons

Cook was a third baseman and outfielder who played one season's worth of games (163) over the course of five years for the Reds and Mets. He played for Buffalo in 1962 and '63.

And that wraps up my posts on the TCMA sets from 1978 and 1981. It was a fun project. A comprehensive  TCMA project would include more sets than I could ever hope to track down. Tom Collier and Mike Aronstein were very prolific producers of cards back in their heyday. All sorts of reprint, specialty and minor league sets flooded the marketplace in the late 70s and early 80s. None of them (or these 'Stars' sets) can compare with the mother of them all, their original SSPC monster, but these in particular are a whole lot of fun.

Lastly several folks have commented or emailed about collecting these Stars sets. Words of advice from someone who has tracked these for a long time. If you look online, particularly on eBay, you'll see wildly divergent asking prices for these things. I've seen Series I and II listed for over $120...each! I've also seen them going as a complete package for half that. So the advice is 'have patience'!

It's A Girl!!!!

Eri Yoshida is a 5' 1" Japanese born knuckleball pitcher who made her United States pro debut with the Chico Outlaws in 2010. That's her card from the teams' set from that year. She has moved on to a couple of different clubs in the subsequent seasons but she's still going at it. She is one of only a handful of females to play pro ball here in the States.

She has put up some decent numbers (as seen on her Baseball Reference page) at times and has a 5-10 career record. Her ERA is high but she has a fair hits per inning ratio. She walks far too many though.

A reader sent me the set and I found a couple of other familiar names in it. I'll post those cards soon.

At the risk of coming off as a perv of some sort I won't comment on Eri anymore other than to say she has a nice pitching form. But you don't see me posting six pics of Elrod Hendricks, do you?

And you know, that's not a terribly designed card. Kind of cool actually.

1953 Baltimore Orioles Program

It's just a bit the worse for wear but here is another Baltimore Orioles game program from their days prior to re-entering the major leagues. This time the publication comes from the 1953 season as a farm club of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The program had been folded and the lines are easy to see. The cover has a big ol' chunk torn off as well. But the cover artwork is in tact so that makes it still collectible to me. The program is from one of the three series' the O's played against Buffalo in '53.

The management page shows Jack Dunn III who was the third in a long line of Jack Dunns that played prominent roles in the franchise history. His grandfather's T206 card was featured in a post awhile back on this blog. Manager Don Heffner spent forty years in the game and was managing the Reds when his GM, Bill DeWitt, made the infamous Frank Robinson-to-the-Orioles deal.

As always it's fun to see some of the old ads that ran in these publications. "Fresh Up with 7 Up. It likes You." What the hell does that mean? There are several bios of Oriole players scattered through the program. This club had a number of guys who had or would play in the majors but none is a household name. This page shows Marvin E. Rackley.

The program is unscored.

That was followed by a stat page which was half taken up by an ad for a lounge inside LaGuardia Airport. Apparently it's the place where celebrities meet. I once saw Tony Bennett in LaGuardia, but it wasn't in a lounge.

General info on the team, the stadium, tickets, etc.

More ads and another bio. John B. Graham.

                  

The back page. The two Orioles broadcasters are wearing airbrushed caps. They look better than a lot of the caps Topps messed up in their card sets through the years. BTW... Baxter Ward left the Baltimore market for the greener pastures (and faster life) of Los Angeles where he did news anchoring before becoming a semi-successful politician. John MacLean later did radio games for the Senators and red Sox as well as working Mutual's Game of the Day in the later 1950s.

One Night in Frisco (Minor League Baseball)

Stand by for some of the worst pictures ever blogged.

I was up in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, earlier this week for a teachers convention. Since the Rangers' AA club plays their games right under my hotel window I decided it would be a fun way to spend Monday evening. Plus, I like minor league ball almost more than major league ball. It's relaxed, intimate and hassle-free. It helped that the convention organizers had cheap tickets available.

That night the Frisco Roughriders were playing the San Antonio Missions. I was surprised to find out the Missions are a Padres' farm club. I had assumed they still were part of the Dodger chain as that had been for many years.

I was also surprised to find that the Roughriders' starting pitcher was going to be Neftali Feliz. He was making a rehab start and that had the fans excited. I got to the game early because I like to poke around minor league parks. This one is called Dr. Pepper ballpark and it's about ten years old.

I had a seat in the 14th row behind home plate. I didn't have a decent camera so I had to use my phone camera. You can click the pictures to make them bigger, of course.

That red speck on the mound is Feliz warming up. A guy behind me told me that Feliz pitched for the Roughriders a few years ago on his way up the Ranger ladder. I was likely the only guy in the park who wasn't aware that he was Rookie of the Year a couple of seasons ago.

That's the Embassy Suites where I was staying that looms over the park beyond centerfield. My room was just to the left of the Dr. Pepper sign. It's not exactly as close as it looks in the picture. There is a street and a little park sort of area between the hotel and the stadium.

Feliz had control problems in the first inning and that, combined with some terrible defense put him in a hole early. That shortstop is Jurickson Profar and the fans were pretty high on the guy. He's from Curacao and the guy behind me said the Rangers might trade off their current shortstop to give this kid the job next year.

Those are some of the buildings that stretch all the way down each line behind the stands. Concessions, restrooms, some sort of roped off private boxes that required a secret handshake or something are among them. It's a nice clean place. Reminded me of the Dell Diamond in Round Rock north of Austin that used to be an Astros' farmclubs' home. Now it's the Rangers team, too, I think.

Feliz only pitched two innings and took the loss. I doubt he cared much. I was a bit surprised that he went and sat in the bullpen after his two innings. On my way out I stopped and watched a bit from behind the home bullpen area. That's Feliz in the blue jacket. He was talking to some guy through the chain link fence. I saw him give some poor teenage girl a hard time when she came over and asked for an autograph on an 8x10. He finally signed it.