Steve's Baseball Photography Pages

These two shots of Joe Rudi are just about flawless. In fact I'm tempted to walk away from this because I fear I'll never find another piece of film as nice as these.....

Here's an interesting item I found while looking at Jim Merritt's game logs from his best season of 1970 when he went 20-12. In the few games that Pat Corrales was his catcher his performance nose-dived. I know it's not enough statistical data to mean much but the difference in his performance when Johnny Bench was catching is astounding. It could be the fact that maybe Corrales caught Merritt more often in the second half of the season when Merritt's performance nose-dived (injury-related, I believe) after a 14-6 record in the first half of the season.

Also of note is the fact that only 11 players attempted a stolen base while Jim was pitching that year and 7 were caught stealing.

Here's a link to an interesting article on the 1970 Reds on the Baseball Minutia blog.

Bob Shaw was a pretty good pitcher from 1957 to 1967. He had outstanding seasons in 1959 (with White Sox), 1962 (Milwaukee Braves) , and 1965 (SF Giants). He was a one-time all-star (1962) and received MVP votes in other two seasons.

Here's a link to another outstanding article by Steve Treder. He does a pretty good breakdown of the 1966 Giants team.

The pride of Flemington, WV Paul Popovich was the prototypical utilityman, playing 2b-ss-3b and switch-hitting with little power and not striking out or walking very often.

The great catcher hustling around the paths in during his best season. 10 consecutive gold gloves.....14 all-star appearances.

"One day when a pitcher insisted on throwing fastballs even though he didn't have much velocity, Bench caught one of the pitches with his bare hand, just to make the point."

"He is one of the few professional baseball players ever to be a professional bowler."

Jose Cruz was a really good player who amassed 2251 career hits and surprising only made two all-star appearances (1980 and 1985). Jose wasn't a home run hitter but of his 165 career homers 106 of them were hit on the road. He also was dangerous on the basepaths, amassing 317 stolen bases.

Cliff Johnson was a dangerous right handed hitter for 15 years. A right handed platoon player with limited fielding skills he bounced around 7 different organizations...usually getting traded after a couple of effective seasons for a minor leaguer or two.

"Charles was originally drafted by the Boston Braves in 1952. He spent eight seasons in the Braves’ farm system in the still-segregated Deep South, during which he wrote poetry concerning baseball and racism. Due to the presence of longtime All-Star Eddie Mathews at third base, the Braves traded Charles to the Athletics prior to the 1962 season."

I don't own this one but I had someone contact me yesterday looking to see if someone offered prints of this famous shot. Mr. Roark shot this for the LA Herald-Examiner which went out of business in 1989. It looks like the LA Public Library has the photo archive of the Examiner and you can buy prints here. It's a great shot and the story behind the photographer and the paper in general are also very interesting.

Mike Corkins pictured with that super-cool "200th anniversary patch" on his left shoulder.

Please keep in mind that I don't have time to list all of the available prints on eBay. So if you are waiting for a certain image to appear for sale on that site then you may be in for a long, long wait. If there's something that interests you please feel free to contact me.

A pair of Oriole catching prospects. I believe the Andy Etchebarren shot was taken in 1964 and the Larry Haney was taken in 1962, a full four years before Larry's major league debut.

Pat Dobson in a similar pose two years apart. I wonder why the Braves, after acquiring Dobson in a big November 1972 trade with Baltimore, traded him away just two months into the 1973 season. His performance for the Braves was subpar but it seems that they bailed out on this workhorse pitcher rather hastily. He went on of course to have several more decent seasons with the Yankees and Indians.

I have nothing enthralling or captivating to say about Jerry Stephenson. I do recall liking his 1971 Topps card featuring him on the Dodgers. Also, I do have several images of him with the Pilots in a game versus the Angels on June 29th, 1969. This was one of only two appearances that Jerry made for the Pilots.

Dan Norman didn't live up to expectations that Met's fans had after being acquired in the 1977 Tom Seaver trade with Cincinnati. The Seaver and Dave Kingman trades on June 15th, 1977 were collectively known as the "Midnight Massacre" and are mentioned briefly in this wikipedia entry.

Happy 58th birthday to Tom Norton. He performed pretty well in his only season (1972) in the big leagues. His role was pretty clearly defined by his game logs from that season. The Twins record was 3-18 in games that Tom appeared in.

Hal McRae was an excellent hitter as evidenced by his 2091 career hits, 484 doubles and a .290 career batting average. He was traded by the Reds along with Wayne Simpson for Richie Scheinblum and Roger Nelson in November of 1972. I'm not sure why this trade came about......Nelson and Simpson were sore-armed pitchers, McRae a promising prospect and Richie Scheinblum was coming of his career year (.300 BA and his only all-star appearance). The Reds were well-stocked in the outfield (Rose, Tolan, Geronimo, Foster, Griffey etc) so they didn't need Scheinblum. The Royals obviously knew something since they gave up on of their best players to get McRae. Scheinblum ended up flopping in Cincy and was traded at the June 15th trading deadline in 1973 to the Angels for two minor leaguers.

Bud Harrelson and Gene Michael epitomized the old-school version of a no-hit good-field shortstop. They had remarkably similar batting stats -- roughly .230 career batting averages and ~.287 slugging percentages --- but Harrelson had a much better ability to take a walk as evidenced by his 39 point advantage OBP. One thing I didn't realize until now was that Michael made his debut at age 28 in 1967 with the Pirates....so he spent a lot of time on the bus after being signed in 1959.

Until seeing this I didn't realize that John McMamara was a coach for the Giants after his stint managing Oakland in 1969-70 and before his 1974-77 tour with the Padres. A good manager who unfortunately took jobs managing some bad teams (1974 Padres) and others that were aging (1979 Reds and 1983 Angels). I'm not sure why he left the A's after a second place finish in 1970. It's likely that Finley became enamored of having Dick Williams take over the squad for 1971.

If we can agree that Rocky Colavito has the best name in baseball history then Tito Fuentes surely has to fall in the top 5? No? Perhaps to clear room for Lou Whitaker the Tigers sold Tito to the Expos after the 1977 despite his having batted .309 in 151 games at second base in 1977. The Expos released him at the end of Spring Training and he was picked up by the A's and lasted only 5 weeks before they cut him and his career ended at the age of 34. According to wikipedia these days he's an analyst for the Spanish language Giants radio broadcasts.

Toby Harrah was sure handed infielder with nice power and a great eye. In 17 seasons this 4 time all-star walked 1153 time and only struck out 868 times. Overall a very underrated player who spent his whole career on some pretty miserable Texas and Cleveland teams.

Aside from playing 151 games at SS for the 1972 Brewers and performing admirably as a fill-in for an injured Bill Russell in 1975 Rick Auerbach's career consisted mostly of backup duty at 2B and SS. He seemed to alternate between batting .320 on year and .150 the next.

Rod Carew applying an icepack to the face of teammate Jerry Terrell. It looks like a fan is offering up a refreshment to the players. I like this one.

A big thank you for all the people who have taken time to let me know you enjoy the site. Positive or constructive feedback is always welcome. I am working on re-doing the site to allow comments by viewers and also to create a searchable database. Hopefully over the coming month this will all come together.

Jim Brewer was an outstanding reliever for the Dodgers for 11 years. I was saddened to see he passed away in 1987 at the age of 50 in an auto accident in Tyler, TX.

Jim Fairey came back to the Dodgers in 1973 after 4 years in Montreal. He was a September call-up and got 9 at-bats in the final days of his major league career.

Long before he was a manager (O's, Rangers) Johnny Oates was a decent catcher who made stops in Baltimore, Atlanta, LA, and New York (Yankees). Unfortunately a brain tumor took his life in December of 2004. Here's a quote (from Wikipedia.org) from him concerning his playing career....

"I still don't know how I got to the big leagues, because I wasn't that good," he said in a 2003 interview. "I was a slap hitter. I kept my mouth shut. I did. I kept my mouth shut. I couldn't throw. I couldn't throw a lick."

Juan Pizzaro had 4 strong seasons as a starter with the White Sox in the early 60s and made the all-star team twice (1963 and 1964). After a 1965 season in which he made only 18 starts spread out over the whole season (sore arm?) his role became more of a middle reliever with the occasional fill-in role in the rotation until the end of his career in 1974 with the Pirates.

Here's a very nice one of Joe Ferguson taken a year prior to his major league debut. Here's some info lifted straight from Wikipedia.org.

"'The strong-armed Ferguson may be best known for his role in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 1974 World Series. After reaching third on an error, Sal Bando tagged up on a Reggie Jackson fly ball to center field, as Jimmy Wynn camped under it. Sprinting from his position in right field, Ferguson cut in front of Wynn to catch the ball and heave it to the plate, where Steve Yeager makes the tag as the throw just beats him."

There's not a whole lot I can say about Earl Stephenson's short career but in looking at his game logs for 1972 (the only year he saw extensive action) it appears that except for a couple bad outings later in the season he pitched very well overall. He was included in the big October 1972 trade between the Brewers and Phils that also sent Ken Brett, Jim Lonborg, and Ken Sanders to Philly while Don Money, John Vukovich, and Bill Champion headed to Milwaukee.

The classic catcher's pose as demonstrated by a very young Bill Fahey. Bill's most extensive action of his 11-year career was with the Padres in 1979 and 1980. I would love to find some shots of him with San Diego.

At the age of 46, eight years after his last major league game, pitching coach Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish looks like he wants to get back out on the mound in this interesting shot.

After being drafting by the Milwaukee Braves in 1959 Elrod Hendricks bounced around for 9 years before winning a spot with the Orioles in 1968. He was an essential part of the Orioles 1969-71 mini-dynasty, splitting catching duties with Andy Etchebarren (and also Clay Dalrymple)

In general Terry Crowley was used as lefty bat off the bench throughout his 15 year career. Of course Terry was mentioned in the famous x-rated Earl Weaver tirade on Manager's Corner.

Even as a kid I admired the career trajectory of players like Fred Norman. He was signed by the KC A's in 1961 but didn't really stick around in the bigs until 1970 with the Dodgers. He went on, of course, to be part of two World Series champion teams with the Reds in 1975 and 1976 before closing out his career with 1980 with Montreal.

I always wondered why the Royals would trade a 28 year old right handed starter like Dick Drago (1100+ innings in previous 5 years) for 30 year old right handed starter like Marty Pattin (1100+ innings in the previous 5 years. In many ways Pattin and Drago were so similar I wonder if the trade was driven by other issues with their respective clubs. Perhaps both teams thought they were pulling a fast one on the other team by trading a sore-armed pitcher? For their new teams both players quickly became spot starter/long relievers rather than the workhorses they had been.

Maybe one of the uniform lovers at uniwatchblog.com can tell me how often these were worn?

It's strange how Ray Fosse's stats declined precipitously during his stay with the A's and then jumped back up when traded back to Cleveland in 1976.

 Year Ag Tm  Lg  G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG *OPS+  TB   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP 
 +--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 1973 26 OAK AL 143  492   37  126  23  2   7   52   2  2  25  62  .256  .291  .354   85  174   9   5   4   1  10
 1974 27 OAK AL  69  204   20   40   8  3   4   23   1  1  11  31  .196  .241  .324   66   66   2   3   1   2   6
 1975 28 OAK AL  82  136   14   19   3  2   0   12   0  1   8  19  .140  .192  .191   10   26   1   1   0   1   5
 1976 29 CLE AL  90  276   26   83   9  1   2   30   1  2  20  20  .301  .347  .362  110  100   3   1   1   0   8

Len Barker's perfect game on May 15th, 1981 is just one of 17 pitched in the history of major league baseball. BOXSCORE

Cleveland coach Larry Doby. The first African-American player in the American League and a 6-time all-star centerfielder throughout the 1950's for the Indians and White Sox. His last season in the bigs was 1959 and he ended up playing for the Chunichi Dragons in 1962 thus becoming the 3rd American player to play in Japan. STATS

What more can be said about Super Joe? Joe Charboneau tales abound....here's a couple..... He opened beer bottles with his eye socket. He also entertained teammates by drinking beer through a straw in his nose.....this of course to wash down the cigarettes he ate. STATS

I usually don't mess around with the "new" stuff but this one of Sandy Alomar Jr. is timeless.

Another newer one but Julio Franco is so cool. I hope someone picks him up this year so he can play when turns 50 in August.

Rick Manning was a rock-solid centerfielder for 13 seasons with the Indians and Brewers.

Gaylord Perry won the Cy Young award in his first year in Cleveland in 1972. He compiled 64 victories in his 3 full seasons with the Indians and another 6 in 1975 before being traded 2 days before the trading deadline to the Rangers for 3 players (Jackie Brown, Jim Bibby, and Rick Waits) and $100,000.

Dick Bosman has just pitched a no-hitter against the mighty A's and is addressing the crowd in this July 19, 1974 image. It would have been a perfect game except for a 4th inning throwing error by Bosman himself. BOXSCORE

Jim Northrup was a very underrated player whose raw numbers were probably hurt by playing most of his career in what can be considered a "mini-dead ball era", except of course for 1969-1970. His playing time was also affected by playing all of his Detroit years with a loaded Detroit outfield which also included Al Kaline, Willie Horton, and Mickey Stanley. STATS

Here's Bob Aspromonte suited up in his final Spring Training (1972) and Frank Duffy probably in his first (1970). Put another way, Aspromonte had already played his last regular season game (he didn't make the Reds squad) and Frank had yet to play his first.

Here's 4 rather obscure Giants. Bob Delong never made it to the bigs, Jim McKnight had stints with the Cubs in 1960 and 1962, Mike Davison saw action with the Giants in 1969-70, and Bobby Fenwick only saw limited MLB duty with the Astros and Cards in 1972-73. Unfortunately McKnight passed on in 1994 at the age of 57.

Juan Marichal, the "Dominican Dandy", was as good a right handed starter as there was in the 1960's. In the 9-year stretch from 1961 to 1969 he compiled 185 victories despite a leg injury in 1967 which limited him to just 26 starts.

Unfortunately for Giants fans the management decided to retain the likes of Len Gabrielson and Matty's brother Jesus rather than Matty. It probably worked out better for Matty though because he received hitting instruction from Harry "the Hat" Walker and blossomed into a top-notch slap hitter for the Bucs. WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON MATTY ALOU

Bill Freehan was another top-notch defensive catcher with a dangerous bat. An 11-time all-star, I never hear his name mentioned amongst potential hall of famers.

To be honest John may never have achieved the kind of success he had hoped for in his 10 year career. STATS. However he appears to have been a successful baseball coach at his alma mater, William Carey College, for 11 seasons and also at Southeastern Louisiana University for 6 more years. He then served a stint under Jeff Torborg during the latter's tenure with the White Sox, and is back as an assistant today with SeLU. He caught the first strikeout of Nolan Ryan's career while with the Mets on 9/11/66. The first victim?.....Atlanta pitcher Pat Jarvis.

Mike Epstein's stay in the bigs with O's was very brief, just 24 at bats in 1966-67 before being traded to the Senators in the trade that brought Pete Richert to Baltimore. His first major league at bat on 9/16/66 was against Chicago hurler Joel Horlen......he popped out the SS Jerry Adair. Horlen was masterful that day, shutting out the soon-to-be World Champion Orioles on just 3 hits.

Mike Fiore is an interesting case. After being drafted by the Royals in the 1968 expansion draft he got some playing time and performed very well, especially for a 24-year old, for the young Royals. After that he appears to have completely lost it, providing neither power or average while being shuffled to three other teams (Boston, St. Louis, and San Diego) before his career ended in 1972. I'm very curious about how/why this happened.

 Year Ag Tm  Lg  G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG *OPS+  TB   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP 
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 1968 23 BAL AL   6   17    2    1   0  0   0    0   0  0   4   4  .059  .273  .059    5    1   0   0   0   1   0
 1969 24 KCR AL 107  339   53   93  14  1  12   35   4  4  84  63  .274  .420  .428  138  145   1   1   4   2   9
 1970 25 TOT AL  66  122   11   20   2  0   0    8   1  1  21  28  .164  .285  .180   30   22   0   1   1   0   2
         KCR AL  25   72    6   13   2  0   0    4   1  1  13  24  .181  .306  .208   46   15   0   0   0   0   1
         BOS AL  41   50    5    7   0  0   0    4   0  0   8   4  .140  .254  .140    9    7   0   1   1   0   1
 1971 26 BOS AL  51   62    9   11   2  0   1    6   0  3  12  14  .177  .311  .258   58   16   1   0   1   0   1
 1972 27 TOT NL  24   16    0    1   0  0   0    1   0  0   3   6  .063  .211  .063  -17    1   1   0   1   0   1
         STL NL  17   10    0    1   0  0   0    1   0  0   2   3  .100  .250  .100    4    1   1   0   0   0   1
         SDP NL   7    6    0    0   0  0   0    0   0  0   1   3  .000  .143  .000  -55    0   0   0   1   0   0
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 5 Seasons      254  556   75  126  18  1  13   50   5  8 124 115  .227  .369  .333   97  185   3   2   7   3  13

Here's an interesting one....Clete Boyer apparently getting drilled in the ribs and jumping up off the ground. The was shot in Dodger Stadium during the time the Angels shared that facility whilst their own digs were under construction.

Dick Hall spent the first 3 years of his career as an outfielder with the Pirates until switching over to the mound in 1955. He spent a good part of the 1960s as part of the O's bullpen. He allowed only 3 hits in 8 2/3 innings of relief work in the postseason during the O's 1969-1971 run. Also, for his career he ranks 18th among all pitchers in having the lowest WHIP ratio (walks+hits per inning). The only modern day pitchers ahead of him are Pedro Martinez, Johan Santana, and Juan Marichal. I told you he was good. DICK HALL STATS

Another shot from Dodger Stadium featuring Elston Howard batting against the Angels.

Believe or not, kids. In 1980 this hairstyle was something we all strived to attain. Along those same lines, I am presently in a retro period myself as I have grown a mustache that rivals Rudy Meoli's. Rudy never played a regular season game with the Giants, he spent just 3 weeks with them in Spring Training of 1980.

Frank Estrada singled in his first major league at-bat in a September 14th, 1971 12-1 blowout loss to the Expos while playing for the Mets. That was his only major league game and he concluded his career with a .500 batting average. In the aforementioned game Nolan Ryan took a beating and was traded just 3 months later to the Angels.

Walt Dropo had one of the best rookie seasons ever with the Red Sox in 1950 at age 27. I'm not sure why his performance level dropped after that. He made stops with the Tigers, White Sox, and Reds before ending up with the Orioles in mid-1959 until his career ended in 1961.

 Year Ag Tm  Lg  G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG *OPS+  TB   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP 
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+---+---+
 1950 27 BOS AL 136  559  101  180  28  8  34  144   0  0  45  75  .322  .378  .583  134  326   0           5  16

The well-traveled Jerry Davanon was an original Padre. He struggled for them and then was traded on May 22. 1969 to the Cardinals where he batted .300 in limited duty in the first of his 3 stints with St. Louis.

An extremely rare shot since "Stick" spent a mere 2 1/2 months in 1976 with the Boston organization and never saw regular season action with them.

A very good pitcher on some great Baltimore teams, Dave McNally should also be recognized, along with Andy Messersmith, for lending his name to the lawsuit which helped usher in the free agency era in MLB.

Ed Bailey was a good power-hitting left-handed swinging catcher who played for 14 seasons, hit 155 home runs, and was a 5-time all-star. Unfortunately he passed on last year at the age of 73. STATS

Here's another well-traveled infielder. Luis won the MVP in 1969 while playing for the Louisville Colonels of the International League. I can't think of much else to say about Luis Alvarado other than I'm sorry to see he died at the too-young age of 52.

Before the batting donut became all the craze Willie Stargell used a sledge hammer.

Here's Willie looking a bit puzzled as he poses with longtime batboy/clubhouse guy/equipment manager Mike Murphy. Murphy is still active and has been with the Giants organization ever since the big move in 1958.

With Roberto Clemente's passing it was a big opportunity for Pirate youngsters Richie Zisk to shine. Richie's 147 OPS+ was the second on the squad to Willie Stargell and his .324 batting average led the team. As you can see from the stat box below Manny Sanguillen tried to take over his friend's spot in right field and actually showed much more range than Zisk, who was ill-suited for the position.

Right Field Inn GS G   PO    A   E   DP .973 *2.01
-----------+----+---+---+----+----+---+---+-----+-----
RZisk        552 62 64 102    6   2   3 .982 1.76
MSanguillen 523 59 59 140    6   8   2 .948 2.51
GClines      213 25 25   43    5   3   0 .941 2.02
DParker      136 15 19   36    3   1   1 .975 2.58

From 1971 to 1975 Wilbur Wood averaged 45 starts and 334 innings pitched. A line drive off the bat of Ron LeFlore in 1976 effectively ended "Wilbah's" career.

Here's a great link to some Olan Mills bad portraits from the 1970s. It will bring a smile to your face.

Here's a great site called the Baseball Card Blog. Scroll down a bit on their main page and you can see some of the worst air-brushed 1970s Topps cards.

I believe these were taken in Detroit on August 11, 1973. If that's correct.....it is only Brian Downing's 3rd game in the major leagues. This was also Jerry Hairston's rookie year and it's the first year that Tony Muser saw any extensive action. Muser, of course, was the starting first basemen in the second half of the season after Dick Allen's injury.

Bob Stickles, Bob Stickles oh where are you?? If anybody has any info on Bob please send it along to me. All I know is that he played for the Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team from 1965 to 1967. Among his teammates were future major leaguers Stan Bahnsen and Gary Neibauer.

Until I came across this one I had no idea that Vic Correll was ever in the Indians organization. He apparently was drafted by them in 1967 and then released in 1971. The White Sox picked him and then he was drafted from the White Sox by the Red Sox in the winter of 1971. He finally made his major league debut in 1972. Unfortunately for Vic the Red Sox were pretty well set at the catching position though....

It's a Stahl-a-thon today on SBPP! The perfect Larry trifecta! I like the last one the most.....reminds of the 1971 Mike Fiore (or even Norm Cash) Topps card. Larry was strictly a platoon player, getting only 95 plate appearances versus lefties in his career while getting 1764 versus righties. He was sort of a pinch hitter deluxe in his final season with the Reds in 1973, the left handed compliment to Phil Gagliano. STATS

If only Wayne Garrett has shown the Mets a little more in his rookie season of 1969. Instead they traded Amos Otis to get 3b Joe Foy and then when he didn't work out they traded Nolan Ryan and Lee Roy Stanton in order to acquire a worn-out Jim Fregosi. Ouch!

A great shot of Clarence Gaston taken in Shea Stadium. At some point Clarence became Cito. All 11 of his Topps cards as a player (1969-1979) were as Clarence. He had a great start to his career in 1970 but for some reason his performance went downhill for the rest of his career. The Padres offense should have been set up pretty good with Gaston, Ollie Brown, and Nate Colbert (and later Dave Winfield) but it just didn't work out.

Here's another player who peaked in 1970-71. He was a favorite of mine and had a good eye, 445 walks versus 382 strikeouts over his career which spanned from 1968 to 1980. I would love to find some good action shots of him.

Here's another guy who I know little about. I only know that he played in the Florida State League in 1965. This shot was taken in 1966. Anybody have any info on what became of Gene Noble?

Dick Ellsworth was a very good left-handed workhorse for several years with the Cubs, including a 22-win campaign for Chicago in 1963.

After his MLB career was over, John Bateman caught for Eddie Feigner's famous traveling 4-man softball team, The King and his Court.

Another great Expos shot, this one of scrappy outfielder Jim Fairey.....I can't get enough of these. The Expos had the whitest white home uniforms around, followed closely by the Dodgers.

An outstanding centerfielder for the Bucs for 5 years (1966-70), averaging 197 hits a year and leading the league in batting .342 in 1966. STATS

A very interesting man, this Baldwin fella. Here's a link to his website, SnakeJazz, also a link to an interview done for the SABR magazine

Johnny was a good hitter with a good eye. For some reason my hometown team, the Twins, released him in 1976. He went on to play in Japan, I believe.

Little did Bobby know he would have to wait 6 more years until getting a full-blown chance in the bigs with the Twins in 1972. It seems that he was still a pitcher when he was in the O's organization.. STATS

I think that's Jim Minshall over on the left. His career consisted of facing 20 batters over 6 games in 1974-75. Out of those 20 batters, he only allowed one hit, a bunt single, by Bake McBride but unfortunately took the loss in this September 25th, 1974 wild Cardinals victory. Despite this loss, which put the Cardinals into first place ahead of the Pirates, the Pirates managed to pull of an exciting extra-inning come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the Cubs in game 162 to take home the NL East division crown.

It just looks so uncomfortable to have a jersey top over a windbreaker. After a breakout year in 1970 (15 wins) and a great performance in the 1970 NLCS against the Reds Luke had two so-so seasons, one bad one and then was shipped off to Detroit for the 1974 season.

Bill Davis, an almost original Padre....traded to the Padres on May 22, 1969. Thanks to Steve S. for correcting my screw up.

Here's another nice one of Orioles farmhand Steve Cosgrove taken in 1966. As I mentioned the other day I would like to track him down and see if he wants a copy of these photos. I had a good lead on a gentlemen named Steve Cosgrove in Auburn, AL who is involved in youth baseball and is about the right age but unfortunately he was "the Wrong Steve".

A pretty rare shot since Nossek ended up with only 6 major league at-bats in his stay with Oakland.

In the same way that I need your support (via print sales) I also urge you to consider sponsoring a page on baseball-reference.com. I signed up for 4 pages yesterday. The site really is essential for any baseball addict.

Oh what a difference a year can make. One day you're a member of powerhouse World Champion team (Baltimore 1970) and the next season you're toiling for the lowly Padres. Pat Dobson has taken your place in the Oriole rotation and is getting enough run support to make him the 4th 20 game winner on the team.

A four-time all-star and father of Buddy etc etc... Does anyone know where these shots were taken? Thanks to Jon Helf and Steve S. for informing that the one on the left was taken in Shibe Park.

You cannot argue with a 109-50 career won-loss record. I know he was part of the initial free agent draft in November of 1976. Can anyone remember what kind of contract the Yankees gave him? I seem to remember him being a very sought-after pitcher but I can't believe the Yankees went too crazy since Gullett was coming off two seasons with 22 and 20 games started. I wonder if he got one of those Wayne Garland-like ten-year contracts.

Paul's primary job with the Pirates seemed to be as a pinch-hitter (and subsequent defensive replacement) for weak-hitting Bucs shortstops Frank Taveras and Mario Mendoza. He did it well in the 1974 NLCS against the Dodgers, going 3 for 5 in the four game set. I would kill to get some nice shots from that series. Anyone have any 35mm slides of that series? Please?

The lefty hitting journeyman catcher had a nice abbreviated season with the Astros in 1966, batting .301 in 123 at-bats. Bill never did get a home run in his career (199 at-bats), but he walked (26 times) more than he struck out (22 times) so had a good eye and could put the bat on the ball. STATS He also had very cool 1967 (Astros) and 1970 (w/Cubs) Topps cards. I can't recall any specific examples but I seem to recall some players who were featured on 3-4 Topps cards in their careers and all of them were....let's just say...not the most attractive cards.

A great article by Steve Treder in the Hardball Times and Rob Neyer of ESPN help shed some light on Adolfo's career and it's unfortunate early demise. I would love the get a nice shot like this of Adolfo on the Indians in 1972. I believe there was a postcard made that showed him on the Indians. I saw it a few years ago on eBay and should have grabbed that one.

SABR member Rick Swaine has a mention of Jim in his excellent article "The Ill-Fated Rookie Class of 1964". Also, he is mentioned in this Hardball Times article. It seems Jim's stats were affected adversely by his home park (Candlestick) more than any other top player from 1957 until present.

Steve never made it to the bigs. Does anyone out there have any info on his whereabouts? I would love to know if he's interested in a copy of this great 1966 photo.

What do Al Downing and Jimmy Driscoll have to do with each other?......well....leading off the 4th inning in a September 29th, 1970 game in Oakland Jimmy slammed his only major league home run off of Downing. I've talked to Jimmy and he has fond memories of that day and of playing for that A's team in general. I forgot to ask him if his homer was a wind-aided flyball or, more likely, a rocket launched into the upper deck.

Here's a great shot of Matty Alou taken during his last stop in the majors in 1974. He was released in July of 1974 by the Pads who apparently decided to go with the younger outfield of Dave Winfield, Johnny Grubb, and Bobby Tolan.

A great crisp shot of the Giants utility player Chris Arnold. Drafted by the Giants in 1965 Chris only managed to pick 435 at-bats over 6 seasons (1971-76) but you gotta respect him, like many others, who kept chasing their dream.

A rock-solid SS for the entire decade of the 1970s Frank was a part of two interesting ill-fated trades. Do you think the Giants might regret these two trades? The Giants had a terrible tendency to dump young talented players in the mid-late 60s also....off-hand I can recall Ollie Brown, Matty Alou, Jose Cardenal and Randy Hundley.

Very cool batting cage shot....one of my new favorites. 2743 hits, seven-time all-star.

The numbers are telling me that this guy was the effective equivalent of Gossage, Sutter, Fingers, and Lyle yet he only made the all-star team once. He allowed a home run every 23 innings, saved 3 games in the 1979 series and even played left field long enough to get a putout in 1979. Check out his stats here.

Here's Clay captured during his better days with Philadelphia. I remember him most from his last 3 seasons spent as the Orioles #3 catcher behind Etchebarren and Elrod Hendricks.

Roger Metzger was a slick fielder who managed to compile the odd combo of 101 doubles and 71 triples in his 11-season career.

Eddie Bressoud was a good hitting shortstop for some bad Boston teams. He was a 1964 all-star when, for the season, he hit 41 doubles and batted .293. While in 1962 and 1964 his home/road splits weren't too different it was in 1963 that Fenway was "home sweet home" for him....he batted .295 at home and a weak .219 on the road.

Holy Cow! It doesn't get much better than this....my two favorites captured at the peak of their careers in this beautiful shot taken in Sarasota during Spring Training. Nice!

A great one taken in 1973 in Three Rivers Stadium. I was not a fan of the Reds especially after they captured the 1972 pennant on Bob Moose's game 5 9th inning wild pitch in the 1972 NLCS. Absolutely heartbreaking for an almost 9 year old....

Sudden Sam's final 3 months as a major leaguer were with the Pirates in early 1975. After a fearsome run with the Indians in the late 60s Sam's career headed downhill rather quickly with stops in San Francisco, New York (Yanks), and Pittsburgh.

I took a bunch of images from this page and put them into the "archives of front pages", see links on left. There's plenty of good stuff on those pages so please take the time to check them out. This should make this page load much faster.

One of my favorites of the Topps negatives I own. A classic pose in front of the dugout and very nicely exposed. Aspromonte was a very good third basemen all through the 1960s and had his best years with the Astros/Colt 45s.

The 1971 Topps set has always been my favorite and I'm partial to players who appeared in that set.

"Blue Moon" was an important member of the A's staff during and through their championship years of 1972-1974. There's no doubt the A's had the best jersey combos in the majors at this time.

Tony must have hurt his arm because after a good rookie season in 1967 he faltered a bit in 1968 and never made it to the majors again. This shot was taken in 1969 and he was released in May of 1970.

For the whole decade of the 60s Ron Perranoski was one of the top relievers in all of baseball. Here's a link to his stats

After enjoying perhaps his best season in 1972 the A's traded Epstein to the Rangers for Horacio Pina. My guess is that the A's figured that 1972 World Series hero Gene Tenace could take over at first for 1973 and thus Mike was expendable. Unfortunately after miserable stints in Texas and California Epstein was released by the Angels in May of 1974 and his career was over. Perhaps his poor 1972 post-season (3 for 32 with one rbi) got him into Charlie Finley's doghouse?

I remember it well....my Twins had a new centerfielder in 1972.....a former pitcher obtained from the Dodgers. As a virtual rookie at 29 Darwin started the season on fire by belting 6 homers and knocking 19 runs in the team's first 12 games. He cooled off somewhat but still put up some decent numbers for the season (22 homers, 80 rbi's). He went on to have a couple more good seasons of 90+ rbi's for the Twins and then spent his last few seasons with the Brewers, Red Sox, and Cubs.

Woodie was a little before my time but after learning about him through Strat-O-Matic baseball I now realize what a good, versatile player he was. A borderline all-star, he played more than 100 games in his career at 6 different positions (2b-ss-3b-lf-cf-rf) and slammed 179 career homers while mostly playing for poor Cleveland teams.

Little did Syd realize that this is the last major league uniform he would wear after being traded to the Brewers at the end of July in 1972. Nice shot though....appears to have been taken in County Stadium.

After enjoying some success as a reliever with the Giants in 1970 and the White Sox in 1974 Skip's career pretty much ended. Arm injury perhaps? He was traded to the A's along with Stan Bahnsen for Dave Hamilton and Chet Lemon in 1975. Imagine if the A's had hung onto Lemon , another draftee that they traded away named Dan Ford, and George Hendrick.

www.bruce.mlblogs.com Bruce Markusen's bi-weekly Cooperstown Confidential always lends some insight to players of the past along with present-day baseball thoughts.

www.deadballera.com Pays homage to the heroes of my youth who have died. Unfortunately time waits for no one and the site is growing every week.

www.thisistheusfl.com/index.htm Ditto the above comments. The internet is a better place when people can share their passion for whatever interests them.

www.baseball-reference.com A very easy to use database of just about everything you need to know about baseball statistics. Not as detailed as www.retrosheet.org but more user-friendly.

www.dpreview.com -- discussions and reviews of everything related to digital photography

www.stevesforums.com -- lots of digital discussion also.....leans more towards basic consumer-level issues though.

www.photo-net.com -- plenty of digital photo info here and also lots of traditional photo stuff

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