#40 George Kell

Hall of Famer George Kell was a ten-time All-Star who played 15 big league seasons. He played about half his career with the Tigers and the rest with the Phils A's (his first club), the White Sox, Red Sox and, finally, the Orioles in 1956/57. He won the AL batting crown (.343) in 1949 by a whisper over Ted Williams. But his best year came right after that. In 1950 he hit .340, led the league in hits (218) and doubles (56) and drove in 101 runs with only eight dingers.

Kell finished his career with a .306 batting average and was a pretty slick glove guy as well. He led the AL third basemen in fielding on seven occasions and in assists four times. He was the Orioles regular at 3rd before the spot was claimed by Brooks Robinson. In Kell's final season, 1957, he hit .297 in 345 at bats.

After he retired as a player he opened a car dealership (still open in Arkansas) and was a popular broadcaster for the Tigers for 37 seasons. He was elected to the Hall by the Veterans' Committee in 1983.

#28 Jim Busby

After excelling in football and baseball at TCU and (in the service) Jim Busby enjoyed a three-year climb thru the White Sox chain and then a 13-year career as a speedy, defensive-minded outfielder for five clubs.

He did two tours with both the Orioles and White Sox and played for the Indians, Senators, and Red Sox in the AL. He ended his career with a quick look in Houston in 1962. Along the way, he consistently ranks in the top ten in several fielding categories. 

Online bios mention his lack of hitting prowess but his .262 career average is not to be ignored. He had a couple of 80 RBI seasons and flashed a bit of power although in his time the big-hitting outfielders got the glory. In his one All-Star appearance, he took over in left field for Ted Williams late in the 1954 game. He was on deck with some runners on base when George Kell fanned to end the game and any chance for Busby to bat.

#24 Hobie Landrith

Hobie Landrith caught for seven different clubs over 14 seasons. He was mostly a backup but twice got into over a hundred games in a season. His first major league team was the 1950 Reds but he saw 'big league' action at the age of 15. Here's how he described it in an interview from this baseball history site named "This Great Game":

“When I was 15 years old, a Tiger scout approached me and asked if I would want to come down to Tiger Stadium and catch batting practice while they were trying to get Hank Greenberg into shape...I jumped at the chance.”

After a decade spent with the Reds, Cubs, Cardinals, and Giants, Landreth was the first player taken by the Mets in the 1961 expansion draft. Casey Stengel is supposed to have been asked why he took a catcher and replied: “You gotta have a catcher or you’re gonna have a lot of passed balls.” Despite Casey's 'endorsement' the Mets traded Landrith to the Orioles in June after he'd played just 23 games for them.

Landrith went on to play for the Senators in 1963 before retiring. For his career he hit .233 with 24 homers.

#13 Billy Hoeft

Billy Hoeft pitched for numerous clubs over a 15 year period. The high water mark came in 1955 when he was 16-7 with a sterling 2.99 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. He made his only All-Star team that year.

He had 20 wins the following year but his other numbers dropped off and show the error of basing one's evaluation of pitching on wins. (Guilty as charged). He had an outstanding year for the Orioles in 1961 as a swingman making 12 starts among 35 appearances. He had a 2.01 ERA and a 1.167 WHIP. 

In September of 1953, he became the ninth pitcher in history to record an 'immaculate inning'...three strikeouts on nine pitches. The game has changed a bit since as this occurred eight times in 2017 alone. 

The best thing about the back of the card is Topps referring to the Tigers as the 'Bengals'. When I hear that I think of sitting on our front steps and scanning old Sporting News headlines on Saturday afternoons as a kid. Old school.

#9 Hank Bauer

I read a quote at some point that said something along the lines of  "Hank Bauer had a face like a clenched fist."  And it's hard to argue that point. And he had a reputation to go along with it.

EDIT: Pulling up his Wikipedia page and I see that quote there. Unattributed.

And his Wiki page has some great info on this 14-year veteran who was an instrumental part of the Yanks' 50s dynasty. Bauer won seven rings in New York before he played out his on-field days in Kansas City. Check out this excerpt::

Born in East St. Louis, Illinois as the youngest of nine children, Bauer was the son of an Austrian immigrant, a bartender who had earlier lost his leg in an aluminum mill. With little money coming into the home, Bauer was forced to wear clothes made out of old feed sacks, helping shape his hard-nosed approach to life. (It was said that his care-worn face "looked like a clenched fist".)

While playing baseball and basketball at East St. Louis Central Catholic High School, Bauer suffered permanent damage to his nose, which was caused by an errant elbow from an opponent. Upon graduation in 1941, he was repairing furnaces in a beer-bottling plant when his brother Herman, a minor league player in the Chicago White Sox system, was able to get him a tryout that resulted in a contract with Oshkosh of the Class D Wisconsin State League.

Of course, I'm a Bauer fan thanks to his days as the manager of the Orioles and the 1966 Series title he led them to.

There are not a lot of cartoon references to military service among Topps late 50s sets. But there were still plenty of guys active that had served in WWII and especially in Korea. Bauer's days as a Marine were much discussed so it's not a surprise to see them depicted on the back of his card. I like the orange background in the 58s. The Yanks and Senators got the majority of them. The Athletics had a handful as well. It's been quite a while since I did my post tracking the colors used in this set. You can check it by clicking here.

#6 George Zuverink

George Zuverink was signed by the Cardinals in 1946 but debuted with Cleveland in 1951 after three strong seasons in their minor league chain. Without much success in a couple of looks with the Indians, he was sold to the Reds for the '54 season but was not there long as the Reds sent him on to the Tigers late in April. He enjoyed pitching for his 'home' club (he was a Michigan native) for about a year before being waived and claimed by the Orioles.

The Orioles put him in their bullpen and he won 23 games with 36 saves over parts of five seasons. He found himself back in the minors in 1960 as the Orioles were on a youth kick. He retired to Arizona after the season and sold insurance for several decades. He died in 2014 at the age of 90.

Two intersting notes from his obituaries...he was a dedicated blood donor throughout his adult life and twice in 1957 he and Orioles catcher Frank Zupo formed the majors only "Double Z" battery.

I've noticed that the name on the back of the card appears to be yet another variation in the set as it looks like the font is not italicized and not bolded. Check these two examples out and see if I'm looking too hard at this.

This is his next to last Topps card as he had one in the 1959 set. He had some certified autographs in modern Heritage sets. My favorite though is his '57 Topps.

#381 Hal Brown

After his debut with the White Sox in 1951 Hal 'Skinny' Brown pitched for five different clubs until he retired in 1964. He was a knuckleballer known for working quickly on the mound. He pitched for the Orioles for 8 seasons and went 62-48 for them during a period when they were routinely AL 'also rans'. 

In 1958 he pitched in only 19 games making 17 starts. Checking out his game logs for that year it appears he missed most of April and May, probably due to an injury. He managed to go 7-5 with a 3.02 ERA. 

This is the first posed 'action' shot I've posted. It gives us a chance to check out the Orioles' awesome late-50s road unis. Love the cartoon-ish Orioles patch and the three color stirrups! And there are a lot of great memories for me wrapped up in that Orioles logo featured on the card.

WikiFact: [During World War II Brown was] a gunner on a medium bomber, he flew combat missions with the 8th Air Force, including air support over Omaha Beach on D-Day. His plane was shot down once after a raid on submarine pens around La Havre, France.

WikiFact #2: In 1961, Brown pitched a franchise-record 36 consecutive scoreless innings. But Skinny's most unusual accomplishment probably came during a loss. On August 31, 1955, Bill Wight started for Baltimore against Cleveland rookie Herb Score. The Indians roughed up Wight for five 1st-inning runs. "Skinny" started the 2nd inning for the Orioles in relief and proceeded to pitch eight innings of no-hit ball, striking out a career-high 10 batters, but the Indians won 5-1 behind Score's 13 strikeouts.