New York-born Joe Ginsberg was raised in Detroit and signed with the Tigers in 1944 at the age of 17. He soon found himself in the Army and playing service ball in the Philippines. After WWII he returned to the Tigers and debuted with them with a ten-game trial late in the 1948 season.
In 1950 he made the team for good and went on to spend thirteen seasons in the majors with seven different clubs. Except for a couple of years as the lead backstop in a platoon situation for Detroit, he played mostly as a backup catcher.
Ginsberg played his last big league game as an Original Met in 1962. He started their home opener in the Polo Grounds but mostly sat on the bench after that as was released around the first of May. He had a brief whirl in the minors later that season but soon retired to work as a sales rep for the Jack Daniels distillery.
Lee Walls played for ten seasons in the majors after being signed by the Pirates in 1951. He had some big seasons in their chain but failed to produce much with the big club and was dealt to the Cubs in 1957.
The year this card was produced was easily his best in the majors as he made the NL All-Star team and had career highs in homers, RBIs and batting average. He finished in the Top Ten of several offensive categories, including WAR.
He later toured much of the rest of the NL, playing for the Reds, Phils, and Dodgers, mostly as a fourth outfielder and pinch-hitter. He was on the Dodgers 1963 Series team but didn't get into a Series game.
He returned to baseball 15 seasons after his playing days as a coach and minor league manager. He died at 60 in 1993.
My copy is obviously off-center and sort of scuffed but, man, check out that cartoon!
Longtime big leaguer Lindy McDaniel's younger brother, Von, didn't have the kind of career as his older sibling. In fact, he only enjoyed 19 games in the majors. But he certainly made a splash in that short time.
In 1957 he signed out of high school with the Cards (Lindy's team at the time) and was placed on the roster as per the bonus signee rules in effect then. After a couple of relief appearances (including a win in Ebbetts Field), he pitched a two-hit shutout to beat the Dodgers on June 21 for his first win. He went on to win seven games and helped the Cards to a second place finish. This Cardinals blog has an entertaining post describing McDaniel's rookie season.
Von developed arm issues the following spring and lost command of his pitches. After a couple of rocky outings, the Cardinals shipped him to the minors where he eventually transitioned into a third baseman (he was a pretty good hitter) but he never returned to the majors.
The McDaniel brothers only appeared in one game together that I can find. In September of '57 Von had a bumpy start against the Reds and was relieved by Lindy in the second inning. Older brother ended up getting a win out in that one.
Western Pennsylvania native Joe Lonnett spent 24 years in baseball as a player and coach, signing with the Philadelphia Phillies as a free agent in 1948. He missed two seasons while serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II and the Korean War. Lonnett spent four seasons as a catcher with the Phillies, from 1956-59, batting .166 with six home runs and 27 RBI. His roommate with the Phils was Robin Roberts.
He later coached for the Pirates under friend and fellow Pittsburgh area native Chuck Tanner. He was on the staff of the '79 championship team. He succumbed to Alzheimer's disease in 2011 at the age of 84.
Nuxhall debuted in MLB before his 16th birthday in 1944 due to the thinning of talent due to WWII. He then did the usual minor league work and returned to the Reds in 1952. Baseball Reference shows he was out of baseball in 1946 with 'voluntarily retired' given as the reason for no stats. I'd like to think he spent the year getting ready for his high school prom.
He went on to win 135 games over 16 seasons, all but five of those wins with the Reds. He went on to become a long-time, much-loved broadcaster for the Reds before retiring in 2004, a full six decades after his debut. Even then he wasn't completely retired as he sometimes pitched batting practice at Reds home games.
Since I only caught the tail end of Joe DeMaestri's career I think of him as a Yankee but he spent far more time with the Athletics through the 1950s.
He was originally a Red Sox signee out of the Bay Area but debuted with the White Sox in 1951 after being claimed in the Rule 5 draft. He played a year in Chicago, was dealt to the Browns and spend a year with them. He was a 'good field-no hit' infielder.
After two trades in the winter of 1952-53 he found himself in Philadelphia and he established himself as the Athletics' starting shortstop and held that spot for seven seasons. He was an All Starin 1957. After being dealt to the Yankees (in the same trade that brought over Roger Maris) he was on the pennant-winning 1960 club that lost to the Pirates. He had a hit in two trips in that Series. He was also on the Series-winning 1961 Yankee team but didn't play in the Series at all. He retired after the 1961 season and, like his pal Maris, went into the beer distribution business.
His biggest day in the majors came in 1955 with the A's when on July 8, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, he had six singles in six at-bats.
Del Ennis doesn't look like a big hitting outfielder on this card but for a stretch form 1946 to 1957 he was just that. He played 11 seasons for the Phils and a few for the Cardinals as a double-digit home run threat with RBI and batting average numbers that should have gotten him more notoriety. But in the NL there was plenty of OF talent and Ennis never generated much buzz across the country.
He had an outstanding rookie year in 1946 and made the NL All-Star team and garnered some MVP votes. He was a year too early although as the RoY award wasn't instituted until '47 (and w/Jackie Robinson in the mix in '47 Ennis would have lost out anyway).
Ennis rarely missed a game during his career and finished with 288 homers and a .284 average. He led the NL with 126 RBIs in the Phils 'Whiz Kid' 1950 season.
His numbers fell off sharply in 1958 and he finished his career by splitting the '59 season between the White Sox and Reds. He notably served in the Pacific Theater with the Navy during WWII. After baseball he owned a bowling alley, coached a bit at the college level and dabbled in greyhound racing.
Dave Sisler was a St. Louis native who signed on with the Red Sox out of Princeton in 1953. He had a natural baseball background as his father, Hall of Famer George Sisler, and one of his brothers, Dick Sisler, also played baseball in the big leagues. Another brother, George Sisler, Jr., was a general manager for several minor league baseball teams, and later became president of the International League from 1966 to 1976.
He had a nice first year in the minors and then served two years in the military before returning to baseball. He began as a starter and pitched for three seasons in Boston and part of a fourth before being dealt to the Tigers early in the '59 season.
He spent the rest of his career as a middle relief innings eater and sometimes closer as he bounced from the Tigers to the Senators and finally the Reds in 1962. He retired after spending 1963 with the Reds' San Diego club in the PCL and went to work in investment banking.
I got a kick out of the mention, in his SABR bio, of Sisler playing corkball as a kid. My best friend is from St. Louis, the birthplace of the sport, and he introduced all of us in the dorm building we occupied to corkball back in 1970. We played for hours out in the yard between the buildings of the dorm complex. Probably should have spent more of that time on productive things.
Art Schult is another one of those interesting guys that not many remember. He was a college educated, NYC area athlete who played semi-pro ball in high school as a teen and in college summer leagues while enrolled at Georgetown University.
Drafted by the Yankees, he put together some solid minor league numbers but had his career interrupted by Uncle Sam and he served in a tank outfit in the Korean War.
His army travails (he was 6' 4" and couldn't fit through this tank's escape hatch), issues with the Yankee brass and nomadic career make for an interesting read. This website has the details and an interview with Schult. Highly recommended.
In the end, he played in about one season's worth of games in the majors spread out over 5 years with four clubs. His son and grandson played minor league and college ball with some success. Shult passed away in 2014 at the age of 86.
Tim Thompson was a US Navy vet who signed with the Dodgers in 1947 and hit well in the minors. His problem was that, in 1949 and 1950 as he was probably ready to make the big league club (he batted .293 in '49), he was roadblocked by some guy named Roy Campanella.
Thompson got a taste of the big leagues in 1954 and was finally, after half a decade of waiting patiently at the AAA level, dealt to the A's on the eve of the 1956 season. He spent two years as a platoon catcher in Kansas City, a handful of games with the '58 Tigers, and a couple more minor league seasons before retiring from the ballfield. Over his 14-year minor league career, he had a .293 batting average.
He went on to a long career as a minor league coach, scout, and head of scouting for the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Orioles. He is credited as being the first NL backstop to wear glasses while playing. I like how much the cartoon depiction resembles him.
Bill Fischer was a baseball 'lifer' who pitched professionally for two decades and spent almost another five(!) decades as a scout, instructor, coach, minor league manager and about everything else you can be in baseball. He was still active as the Royals' senior pitching advisor in 2018 before passing away in October.
He spent nine seasons pitching for the Senators/Twins, White Sox, Tigers, and Athletics winning 45 games and losing 58. Of his 281 appearances, 78 were starts.
He was a drill sergeant in the Marines for two years in the early 50s and was quoted as saying “The only two-year contract I ever had in my life was when I was drafted into the Marines.”
His SABR bio is a roadmap through modern baseball.
Alfonso 'Chico' Carrasquel, a native of Venezuela, was a standout defensive player at short for the WhieSox, Indians, A's and Orioles through the fifties. He started as a pro in his native country at 17 and was signed originally by the Dodgers in 1949. He was traded to the White Sox (possibly because of his difficulty with the English language) and became a fixture on the South Side for six seasons.
While always known for his glove, Carrasquel was a pretty decent hitter. He had a few seasons with double-digit homers and had a career .258 average which is far above the Mendoza Line. He was dealt to the Indians after the '55 season to make way for another Venezuelan shortstop, Luis Aparicio. After two and a half years in Cleveland, he moved on to play w half year in Kanas City and then one final year at short for the Orioles. He attempted to rejoin the White Sox in 1960 but didn't make the team out of Spring Training. After a season in the minors, he retired. He returned home to play in the Winter Leagues and work with underprivileged kids in and around Caracas. There was a foundation started in his name to that end as well. I like how it appears that he is wearing a much too large uni in this photo. The jersey is puckered, the pants cinched and the uni lettering just above his waist.
Norm Siebern was a baseball and basketball star in college. He played at Southwest Missouri State Teachers College along with Yankee teammate Jerry Lumpe. He had a military stint and a long minor league stretch before making the Yankees for good in 1958. He won a Gold Glove that season. He went to Kansas City in the trade that brought Roger Maris to New York and later preceeded Boog Powell as the Orioles' first baseman.
He won two World Series with theYankeess and played in a third while with the '67 Impossible Dream Red Sox. In his bast season, 1962, Siebern hit 25/117/.305/.412 and garnered enough MVP votes to finish 7th on the list.
The Yanks don't have many yellow cards in this set. their main color is orange.
Morrie Martin's baseball numbers are not very impressive..... a 38-34 record with a 4.29 ERA while playing for seven teams in over ten seasons. But Morrie Martin was a combat engineer with the Army's 49th Battalion in World War II. He was hit by enemy fire twice and survived the landing at Normandy. He was awarded two Purple Hearts, four battle stars, and an Oak Leaf Cluster. Those numbers are very impressive. His service had him involved in Operation Torch, Operation Overlord, Operation Cobra, and the Battle of the Bulge.
Martin began with the White Sox organization but through a couple of murky, very 1940-ish transactions ended up with Brooklyn. He was impressive as he moved up through the Dodgers' system in the 40s (when he wasn't fighting Nazis, that is). He twice was a double-digit winner for some lousy Philadelphia Athletics clubs in the early 50s. Then he set out on a trip through the bigs that had him traveling through both leagues as a journeyman reliever until he retired in 1960.
When your nickname is 'The Great One' there isn't much a humble blogger can add. Here is a list of Roberto Clemente's 'Notable Achievements' from his Baseball Reference Bullpen page (which is the grandest one I've come across to date):
12-time NL All-Star (1960-1967 & 1969-1972)
NL MVP (1966)
1971 World Series MVP
12-time NL Gold Glove Winner (1961-1972)
4-time NL Batting Average Leader (1961, 1964, 1965 & 1967)
2-time NL Hits Leader (1964 & 1967)
NL Triples Leader (1969)
20-Home Run Seasons: 3 (1961, 1966 & 1967)
100 RBI Seasons: 2 (1966 & 1967)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 3 (1961, 1966 & 1967)
200 Hits Seasons: 4 (1961, 1964, 1966 & 1967)
Won two World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1960 & 1971)
Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 1973
That page also had this quote which comes from one of the many bios written about Clemente. I think it says a lot about him....
"When I was a boy, I realized what lovely people my mother and father were. I was treated real good. I learned the right way to live. I never heard any hate in my house. Not for anybody. I never heard my mother say a bad word to my father, or my father to my mother.""During the war, when food was hard to get, my parents fed their children first and they ate what was left. They always thought of us.”“My mother have to really work. My mother used to get up at one o’clock in the morning. She had to work and make lunches for these people that used to work in the sugar cane plantations. Now, my mother never went to a show. My mother, she didn’t know how to dance.""But even the way we used to live, we were happy. We would sit down to eat and make jokes and talk and eat whatever there was. That was something wonderful... to grow up with people who had to struggle to eat.”
BP was a Detroit kid who signed with the hometown Tigers in 1945 and appeared in a few games for them that season. He spent the next few years getting some minor league experience and returned to the bigs in 1948. He was knocked around pretty hard and the Tigers traded him to the White Sox and he went on to a sterling career on the South Side and, beginning in 1962, in San Francisco.
Here are his career achievements as listed on Baseball Reference's Bullpen page:
Won a World Series with the Detroit Tigers in 1945 (he did not play in the World Series)
He was a member of three pennant-winning clubs over the course of three decades (Detroit 1945, Chicago 1959, and San Francisco 1962) which is something I'm not sure too many players can claim. He was skipped over for a start in the '59 Series by manager Al Lopez which never sat well with ChiSox fans. He was an All-Star that year with solid numbers so the decision was odd.
Billy a committee member of Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities for 46 years, serving as president of the CBCC for over 20 years. His son, Robert, now serves as chairman.
Forrest 'Smoky' Burgess made his name as a pinch-hitter late in his 18-season career. But he was a pretty solid everyday catcher through the 50s and early-60s with the Pirates. He was a six-time All-Star who finished with a .295 career batting average. He played for the Phils, Cubs, Reds, and Pirates in the NL before finishing his career with the White Sox serving primarily as a clutch bat off the bench.
He led NL catchers in fielding percentage three times but, having suffered an arm injury in an accident during his military service, was easy to run on throughout his career. When he retired he was the career pinch-hit leader with 145. His record has since been surpassed by several players.
Smoky played in five games in the 1960 World Series and went 6 for 18. His clutch single in Game Seven preceded Hal Smith's important three-run homer in the 7th off Bobby Shantz.
After he retired he ran a car dealership and then worked for the Braves as a scout and minor league instructor and coach.
The cartoons on the back of the card seem to be pretty close approximations of Smoky himself!
When this card fell out of packs opened in the spring of 1958 Chuck Harmon had already played his last big league game. He had debuted with the Reds in 1954 as that club's first African-American player. In his four seasons in the NL, he hit just .238 but don't sell him short. That record doesn't begin to tell his story.
Harmon, still alive and kicking at 94-years-young as of today, was an Indiana schoolboy hoops champ, twice! And you know how tough Indiana basketball was back then. From there he moved on to the University of Toledo where he led the team to the NIT title game in an era when that tournament was king.
His college career (he also played baseball at Toledo) was interrupted by a three-year active duty stint in the U.S. Navy. After college, he gave hoops another whirl and, after being cut by the newly-integrated NBA Celtics, he led the ABL's Utica franchise to a league title. He served as a player-coach and became the first African-American coach to lead an integrated pro sports team to a championship. Meanwhile, he had played in the St. Louis Browns' minor league chain in the summers of 1947 and 1949.
After a short stay with the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns, he signed with the Reds and spent two minor league seasons working his way to the bigs. His major league career was spent with the Cardinals and Phils as well as the Reds.
He spent four more years in the minors after that final 1957 major league season and then, according to Wikipedia, Harmon worked as a scout with the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves in baseball, and the Indiana Pacers in basketball. Later he worked as an administrative assistant for the Hamilton County Court System in Cincinnati, Ohio. He remains active in SWAP (Seniors With A Purpose) and other youth-related services.
Sounds like a life well-led to me. Here are some links to stories and sites with more info on this rather remarkable, 'under-the-radar,' athlete.
This is Roger Maris' rookie card and it's one of the more costly cards in the set. When I first decided to chase the Topps '58 set I tracked down a copy of this card at a too-good-to-be-true price on eBay. And, as you might have guessed, it was too good to be true. The card I bought was fake. But I learned a valuable lesson...read the whole description. The seller had, in very fine print at the bottom of the description, implied that the card might not be authentic. This copy is legit.
Maris was highly touted and had a minor league career that lived up to the hype. He made the Indians in 1957 and was off to a great start when injuries derailed his season. In 1958 a new regime, led by Frank Lane and Bobby Bragan, took over the Indians and after another injury, Maris' days in Cleveland were numbered.
He was traded to the Athletics in June and played well for KC until the inevitable trade to the Yankees for the 1960 season. Most of the rest is well known...the trials of his '61 homer season, trade to the Cardinals, etc. Here is Baseball Reference's list of Maris' notable achievements:
4-time AL All-Star (1959-1962)
2-time AL MVP (1960 & 1961)
AL Gold Glove Winner (1960/RF)
AL Slugging Percentage Leader (1960)
AL Runs Scored Leader (1961)
AL Total Bases Leader (1961)
AL Home Runs Leader (1961)
2-time AL RBI Leader (1960 & 1961)
20-Home Run Seasons: 6 (1958 & 1960-1964)
30-Home Run Seasons: 3 (1960-1962)
40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (1961)
50-Home Run Seasons: 1 (1961)
60-Home Run Seasons: 1 (1961)
100 RBI Seasons: 3 (1960-1962)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 1 (1961)
Won three World Series with the New York Yankees (1961 & 1962) and the St. Louis Cardinals (1967)
Looking at the reverse side of the cards shows that Maris is one of the very few players whose name is given a non-italic treatment to go along with the comic-style first letters.
It's kind of cool that lefty hurler Lou Sleater's life paralleled his career. He was born in St Louis and made his debut with the Browns but he was raised in Baltimore and finished his career with the Orioles.
Along the way, he pitched for just about every team this side of the House of David. He threw a knuckleball and his biggest claim to fame is probably the fact that he was the guy who stopped Walt Dropo's streak of 12 consecutive hits when he struck out the big first baseman in July of 1952. Here is Sleater's baseball journey, based on the teams and organizations he toiled for:
Boston Braves->Chicago Cubs->New York Giants->St. Louis Browns-> Washington Senators->New York Yankees->Kansas City Athletics->Milwaukee Braves->Detroit Tigers->Baltimore Orioles.
At one time or another, he was signed, released, traded, waived, purchased and drafted. Overall he pitched for seven seasons and won 12 games. His busiest time was in '51-'52 when he totaled 19 starts for the Browns and Senators. He wasn't a bad hitter, either. In 1957 he had three homers for the Tigers and hit over .200 for his career.
A two-sport star, Dick Groat went from being a hoops sensation at Duke to being a five-time big league All-Star and MVP. After seeing Groat's athletic talent Branch Rickey offered him a contract during his junior year at Duke but Groat wanted to complete his four-year obligation to the Blue Devils. He signed with the Pirates in 1952. He immediately was inserted into the club's lineup at shortstop. He hit .284 in almost 400 at-bats and was third in the Rookie of the Year balloting.
Meanwhile, he was drafted in the first round by the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons franchise and he played in just under half their games in an unusual situation where the Pistons flew him in for games and then back to Duke where he was finishing up his coursework. He had the second highest PPG on the team but that was the end of his basketball career. He was drafted into the army and after his two years of service, he devoted himself to baseball only.
He was a standout at short for 14 seasons and finished with a .286 career average and World Series rings he won with the Pirates in 1960 and the Cardinals in 1964. He is a member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame. He was part of the Hall's second induction group, the Class of 2007. He went in alongside my man, Guy V. Lewis.
The 1958 Senators finished 8th in the eight-team American League. That certainly wasn't unusual as they hadn't landed better than fifth since WWII. Just a couple of years away from their move to Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Nats were last in hitting, pitching and fielding among the AL clubs. But they were the youngest club and their nucleus of youngsters included Harmon Killebrew, Bobby Allison, and Camilo Pascual. Those three would later go on to anchor the AL pennant-winning Twins club in 1965.
I'm not really very involved in advanced stats but I found it interesting that the player who had the best WAR on the '58 Nats was reliever Dick Hyde. He went 10-3 with 19 saves (league leader!) to go with a sterling 1.75 and his WAR was second among all AL pitchers. Hyde's season was by far the best of his career.
The card shows a well-checked second series checklist on the back. Mickey Mantle shows up as #150. As anyone that has read my posts knows, I'm OK with marked checklists.
Sal 'The Barber' Maglie who had one of the more fascinating baseball career paths you'll ever come across. He broke in with the Giants in 1945 after having pitched in two other organizations' systems for several years.
He then spent time working in a defense plant after having been turned down by his draft board for medical reasons. He soon jumped on an opportunity to pitch in Mexico in a fledgling 'major league' there and found himself banned from returning to the majors.
He pitched in Canada in an independent league and then, in 1950 returned to the Giants after his ban was lifted. And it was a very successful return indeed. Maglie went 18-4 with a league-leading 2.71 ERA. He followed that up with a 23 win season in '51. He made the NL All-Star squads in '51/'52 and won a ring with the '54 Giants.
He later continued his long, strange trip with the Indians, Dodgers, and Yankees before finishing with the Cardinals. His SABR bio has all the glorious details and I can't begin to summarize it all. One highlight is his 1956 season which saw him begin with Cleveland, make two appearances, and then be dealt (for $100!!!) to the Dodgers in May. He went on to win 13 games for The Bums and finished second on both the Cy Young and MVP balloting. His second World Series ring was a nice bonus in a season that began with him buried in the Indians' bullpen and contemplating retirement.
I always have to stop and look a second time at this card since Maglie never says 'Yankees' to me. He only pitched in 13 games for them from late in the 1957 season through a sale to the Cards in June of 1958.
Here is 'The Barber' in a 1957 appearance on the old What's My Line? show. The panel includes Phil Rizzuto and panel mainstay, Arlene Francis, wearing what appears to be a large empty soup can. She was a Dodger fan and Sal didn't fool her for a second. A great 5-minute watch.
Haven't had an orange card in awhile which reminds me that it was a long time ago that I posted some info on the colors in this great set. If you are interested you can check these links:
Johnny Roseboro is primarily remembered for the terrible 1965 confrontation he had with Juan Marichal and that's a shame because he was an outstanding big league catcher. After five seasons in the minors and a year in the service, Roseboro was thrust into the new spotlight of Dodger baseball in Los Angeles by the unfortunate accident that befell Roy Campanella in the winter of 1957.
Roseboro went on to make the NL All-Star squad that first full season and had a 14-year career that included three more All-Star teams, two Gold Gloves, and three World Series rings in four tries.
After a decade of catching the likes of Koufax, Drysdale, Osteen, and Sutton he was traded to the Twins where he helped win a division title in 1969. He finished up with a year with the Senators. He later coached with a couple of major league clubs and served as a hitting instructor as well. Roseboro caught two of Sandy Koufax' no-hitters.
For those who have never seen them here are some outstanding pics of the 1965 incident.
