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Merkle923 · 12-23-2016, 08:20 PM

It's not as well known as the '67 and '68 issues but Dexter started with a set of Angels postcards in 1966. In addition to showcasing a lot of guys who don't appear otherwise in color in the first full season of the "CA"-capped "California" team name, there are all these other players they shot.

Most who can recall baseball in the '70s know that Willie Montanez was one of those guys - like Cecil Cooper - whom somebody was smart enough to grab in the Rule V draft, but not smart enough to keep. The Angels saw something in his 87 plate appearances as a 17-year old for the Cardinals' Gulf Coast League Rookie League team in 1965 to take the gamble on him.

But though the pre-1968 roster rules permitted teams to keep 28 men until a final cutdown about May 15, the Angels missed the boat on Montanez completely. He would be no superstar, but his contemporaneous reputation was as a fancy-dan first baseman with good if not great power (a .729 career OPS but an OPS+ of 102 suggests he was a pretty good player). But Bill Rigney used him twice as a pinch-hitter, six times as a pinch-runner, and only let him play a total of one inning in two appearances at first base.

They sent him back to the Cardinals on May 5, 1966.

Montanez, of course, would be involved in another strange transaction four years when the Cards sent him to Philly as compensation for Curt Flood's world-changing refusal to report to the Phillies after the Dick Allen/Tim McCarver trade.

(As a postscript I should note that there are at least two Montanez/Angels images taken by George Brace, and one of them has been sold as an autographed item, but I think we can agree this is just far better work. Additionally, if anybody has a good color shot of Montanez during his 1980 tenure in San Diego - other than the slightly blurry Brace - I'd appreciate them posting it).

12-23-2016, 08:20 PM	#29735
Merkle923 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2013 Posts: 2,208	Merry Christmas #2: Willie Montanez 1966 It's not as well known as the '67 and '68 issues but Dexter started with a set of Angels postcards in 1966. In addition to showcasing a lot of guys who don't appear otherwise in color in the first full season of the "CA"-capped "California" team name, there are all these other players they shot. Most who can recall baseball in the '70s know that Willie Montanez was one of those guys - like Cecil Cooper - whom somebody was smart enough to grab in the Rule V draft, but not smart enough to keep. The Angels saw something in his 87 plate appearances as a 17-year old for the Cardinals' Gulf Coast League Rookie League team in 1965 to take the gamble on him. But though the pre-1968 roster rules permitted teams to keep 28 men until a final cutdown about May 15, the Angels missed the boat on Montanez completely. He would be no superstar, but his contemporaneous reputation was as a fancy-dan first baseman with good if not great power (a .729 career OPS but an OPS+ of 102 suggests he was a pretty good player). But Bill Rigney used him twice as a pinch-hitter, six times as a pinch-runner, and only let him play a total of one inning in two appearances at first base. They sent him back to the Cardinals on May 5, 1966. Montanez, of course, would be involved in another strange transaction four years when the Cards sent him to Philly as compensation for Curt Flood's world-changing refusal to report to the Phillies after the Dick Allen/Tim McCarver trade. (As a postscript I should note that there are at least two Montanez/Angels images taken by George Brace, and one of them has been sold as an autographed item, but I think we can agree this is just far better work. Additionally, if anybody has a good color shot of Montanez during his 1980 tenure in San Diego - other than the slightly blurry Brace - I'd appreciate them posting it). Last edited by Merkle923; 08-04-2017 at 01:45 AM.