Jim Robertson, a catcher for the Philadelphia and Kansas City A's, passed away on
October 21, 2015, but the news just reached the necrology sites. He was 87.
Jim was a three sport star in high school and at Bradley University, and originally signed with the Yankees in 1949. He was considered quite the prospect coming through the Yankee chain, especially after hitting .303 with Binghamton in 1952. Robertson was a workhorse who was accustomed to playing every day. And he was considered a defensive standout. The Yankees gave him a look in spring training in 1953 but a lot of what they were doing was "selling" him to other clubs. These were the Yankees. Yogi Berra was their catcher. Robertson was a trading chip.
After the '53 season, Robertson was traded to the Yankees AAA farm club--the Philadelphia Athletics (yes, its sarcasm). It was an 11 person deal and, with all the bodies being swapped, the fact that the Yanks were fleecing the A's (as usual) could get lost. Especially with a blue chip youngster like Robertson coming to Philly.
It was the A's final season in the city of brotherly love and Robertson spent all of it with the parent club. He got into 63 games, hitting just .184. In 1955, he saw action in just 6 early season games for the now Kansas City Athletics. He spent the rest of the season in Portland, where he hit just .229. After the season, he was sold to the Seattle Rainiers. Seattle released him in June. He was signed by the Tigers and finished out his pro career with Charleston. After baseball, Jim worked in real estate for a while. Eventually, he settled in Vegas and got into the mail order western gear business, founding "Robertson's Buckaroo Sales".
Now, for a guy with a short career, Jim did fine on baseball cards--getting two each from both Topps and Bowman. And there are a couple of very nice B&W A's portraits of Jim, both of which were posted at Baseball-Birthdays and one of which has been colorized by both John and Krantz (and probably others). But I saw this Seattle Rainiers image on eBay and decided that's the one I wanted to tackle. A common phrase from me at B-B was "not my best work", and that applies here. I was trying for the Stillwell grass effect and there was no saving it after that. It's probably over-saturated, as well. But I do like the fact that he's got (what looks like) dirt all over his face.