Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[SPORTSMEM817]

Was not the best black and white photo to work with but definitely better than I had

[FatJack]

As you probably know, the Vault spit out a couple of Bob Cerv with the Mets images a while back. So I was doing a little research on Bob's time with them. Bob had had knee surgery late in 1961 and the knee really hadn't come around so he started only 3 games for the Yankees in '62 and 5 for the Colts. The rest of the time, he was just used as a pinch hitter. Through his career, he'd been a fearsome pinch hitter, but not in '62. So the Colts released him at the end of July and Bob was talking retirement. Home with his family in August, however, he changed his mind and, figuring he'd be another year removed from the knee surgery, he was talking comeback.

So the Mets invited him to spring training in 1963. What did they have to lose, they reasoned. Well, the knee still hadn't come around by spring and Cerv was limited to just three pinch hitting appearances in spring games (going 0-for-3) before he was released on March 25. But Bob had done something else while in camp. In the first intrasquad game on March 3, he took a mighty swing and connected....with catcher and Mets teammate Chris Cannizzaro. That's Chris lying on the ground in the picture (with the umpire and Cerv standing). A few days later, he did the same to Norm Sherry. Cerv was not offered a contract.

[cinemaodyssey]

Pictured as a member of the 1900 Sioux City Cornhuskers.

[cinemaodyssey]

Pictured as a member of the 1900 Sioux City Cornhuskers

[cinemaodyssey]

Pictured as a member of the 1900 Sioux City Cornhuskers

[cinemaodyssey]

Pictured at the end of his very long baseball career, with the 1900 Sioux City Cornhuskers. He was 42 years old!

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

anyone with Rich Hinton, Tommy Mutz, Oscar Del Busto and Rick O'Keeffe in aCincy UNI?

[Buster Narum]

Originally Posted by rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com

anyone with Rich Hinton.... in aCincy UNI?

12 games and a 7.64 ERA for the 1976 Reds

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Originally Posted by Buster Narum

12 games and a 7.64 ERA for the 1976 Reds

THANKS so much!

[cheech411]

[cheech411]

[DeweyintheHall]

It's one of mine - which I'm totally cool with - I'm happy to see someone using one of my creations. Tom's Astro teammates can be found here:
One Man's Exercise in Narcissism
Along with links to the other 25 teams...

[Rainmaker]

As someone who attended spring training during the players' strike of 1995, I've wondered if the hearsay about the replacement players is true.

That is: major league baseball and the photographers who normally shot players for the card companies did not, either under orders or unilaterally, not shoot photos of the replacement players. I have seen a photo or two of players who were in the replacement camps, but not any source.

Since Topps dealt with the players' union, I felt sure they kept hands off, but I was curious about anyone shooting photos for posterity.

Does anyone have any specific information about those players in spring training that year?

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

As someone who attended spring training during the players' strike of 1995, I've wondered if the hearsay about the replacement players is true.

That is: major league baseball and the photographers who normally shot players for the card companies did not, either under orders or unilaterally, not shoot photos of the replacement players. I have seen a photo or two of players who were in the replacement camps, but not any source.

Since Topps dealt with the players' union, I felt sure they kept hands off, but I was curious about anyone shooting photos for posterity.

Does anyone have any specific information about those players in spring training that year?

Topps or any other card company would have been in violation of their contract with the Players Association to shoot replacement players.

If you go to Getty and search for 1995 baseball replacement players, a small handful of images comes up. This suggests that their could be more in the portfolios of Sports Illustrated or assorted local newspapers, but it also looks like they were careful not to overdo it. They are mostly group shots, shots of minor leaguers (not yet in the union), and shots of managers and coaches. And, really, outside of doing a perfunctory piece on the state of the game at the outset of spring training, what kind of "posterity" would you be looking to record? It was really one of the darkest chapters in the history of the game. Everybody just wanted it to be over and forgotten.

FWIW, among the Getty shots is a pitcher identified as "Steve Sharto". No person with that name appears in Baseball-Register. But then who is to say they got the ID right? 48 year old Pedro Borbon is there as is a Detroit pitcher William Kostich who played in the minors in '93 and '95, but not in '94.

EDIT: Ah. Just found a minor league card of Steve SHARTS, tagged as a replacement player, whose pro career ended in 1990. Well, that mystery is solved at least.

[Merkle923]

The real mystery is why he didn't change his unfortunate name TO "Sharto" or anything else.

Over the years I've found about 30-40 photos of replacement players. There are a few extant scorecards and such with head shots of a few members of some teams but if you're hoping for a hidden file somewhere I wouldn't depend on it.

[Cusick]

The great majority of replacement players came with past minor league experience. That meant that most of them had appeared in minor league card baseball card sets, and their images can be found. We're talking about numbers in the hundreds here, because of the quantity of replacement players that year.

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Originally Posted by Cusick

The great majority of replacement players came with past minor league experience. That meant that most of them had appeared in minor league card baseball card sets, and their images can be found. We're talking about numbers in the hundreds here, because of the quantity of replacement players that year.

Pedro Borbon Sr. was even a replacement player for the Reds

[cheech411]

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by Cusick

The great majority of replacement players came with past minor league experience. That meant that most of them had appeared in minor league card baseball card sets, and their images can be found. We're talking about numbers in the hundreds here, because of the quantity of replacement players that year.

I presume(d) that Rainmaker was interested in pictures of replacement players IN THAT ROLE THAT SPRING. Yeah, you could build a decent size cache of replacement players if any picture of them would do (because, yes, almost all of them had played pro baseball before). But it would be nearly impossible, I would think, to put together a complete team using only images of the players in their major league uniforms that were taken in the spring of 1995.

[Mountain Rivera]

Hello again OOTP, I have a small request here.
I have a project near completed, I would like to get an ID on two players from the 1903 NY Highlanders Team Photo.
I am hoping somebody could point which players in the photo are:
Monte Beville, C
Barney Wolfe, P
Feel free to ID ALL PLAYERS in this Photo, as I may then go with a different approach to this project!
Always appreciated, thanks in advance...

1903 NY Highlanders (In Color)