Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[hobbs11]

Hey all, this is what happens when the forecasted ice storm hits the midwest: A day of searching for the unfound.

It's been over a year and a half so I figured it was safe to ask if a color image of Dave Marshall as a Padre had ever surfaced. I checked tnfoto's UIN list so thought I might bump it here as we fight for milk, eggs, bread at the grocery store in the Gateway City. Thanks in advance!

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post3879697

[Merkle923]

Williams not among the Dexters from the Cleveland camp, and I assure you, given how Leon McFadden in color is one of the great white whales, if he had been there, I would've posted him first.

Once again, the only color I know of McFadden was taken for Topps while he was with the Oklahoma City 89ers in 1968, the year they shot the PCL and IL during the MLBPA boycott. Topps used two of those shots, on his 1969 rookie card and his 1970 regular card.

[Merkle923]

Earlier I posted a Dexter image of Bob Lee in one-season attire (1966 California Angels, with the CA, not the LA logo). Lee has two other tough ones, representing his final major league season split between the Dodgers and the Reds. Can't help with Cincinnati but here's his Dexter/Dodger.

[Merkle923]

Not a lot of him during his September call-up for the '67 Senators, his longer 1968 stint, or his cameo with the 1972 Cubs - but here's Dexter getting him in 1967 spring training with Washington.

[Merkle923]

Our last one for tonight. A curious career for this outfielder, seldom seen in his last stop with the Phillies (1966-68).

The infamy of the Cubs' trade of Lou Brock to St. Louis on June 15, 1964, has never abated. But somewhere along the line it became thought of as just Brock for injured starting pitcher Ernie Broglio. The Cubs also got Bobby Shantz in the deal in hopes of shoring up their bullpen - and Clemens.

Remarkably, Chicago gave Clemens 31 starts in Brock's old spot in RF after the trade, and 85 more starts in all three outfield positions in '65. Clemens didn't hit for average, wasn't a slugger, got few walks, produced nothing to speak of in retroactive analytics, never led a minor league in anything, didn't have a particularly strong throwing arm, and scores blandly on all defensive metrics - old and new.

[dennis_keith]

Johnny Wyrostek had a couple of unimpressive cups of coffee with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1942 and 1943, but after two years in the military he came back to the big leagues as a much improved player. In his first year as an everyday player with the Phillies in 1946 he hit .281 and led all National League outfielders in defensive putouts and led all center fielders in assists.
He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds before the 1948 season and had his best year in home runs that year with 17. Wyrostek would make two National League all-star teams as a Red in 1950 and 1951 and would have his career year in batting average for them in 1951, hitting .311. A trade mid-way through the 1952 season brought Johnny back to the Phillies where he held semi-regular status through 1954.
He was a late cut near the end of spring training 1955 by the Phils and that ended his career. He hit .271 lifetime in over 1,200 games.
He was photographed here as a 1946 Phillie. (Changes in the team's uniform that were unique to the 1946 season. particularly the broad bands of piping trim on the sleeves and around the collar, make this photo easy to date).

[Merkle923]

We interrupt the Dexters to present one of the great white whales: Gary Moore, three-week outfielder for the 1970 Dodgers.

Thanks to FatJack: those photo prints he noticed offered on eBay (when it says "Make Offer" it means you can negotiate a price, and they were in a hurry to get rid of all they had) include a number of guys in color in uniforms I've never seen before, and this one of Moore is the best. Previously there have been, I believe, only four back and white images of Moore: two thumbnail-sized team-photographed shots used in Dodger yearbooks; one of the "chicken wire" polaroids taken at the old Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg; and a wire photo of him sliding into the plate and his helmet coming loose and covering his face.

Parenthetically, although these look somewhat like the "proofs" that Detroit photographer J.D. McCarthy would make up to show to the players for whom he would produce postcards, seeing them in the flesh convinces me that they're somebody else's work. The poses are all wrong (McCarthy was a technical master, but if he ever photographed a player without having them kneel and put one or both hands over the raised knee, I've yet to see it).

Regardless: Gary Moore, of the University of Texas and the 1970 Dodgers, from spring training 1969:

[krantzbucks]

Dave Duncan with the Athletics

[Merkle923]

There actually are (at least) two color Brace photos of Miller during his brief stint with the Dodgers in 1969. One is reproduced in black and white in the team's "100th Anniversary" set from 1990, and I've seen the other, and they're both bad, even for Brace.

This - again, photographer unknown - is clearly from 1969 Spring Training and while hardly perfect, is a spectacular improvement.

Miller holds the distinction of having hit just two major league home runs with his first in his first big league at bat (1966 with the Yankees, on the first pitch no less) and his second in his last big league at bat (1969 with the Dodgers). He maintained the accomplishment due something totally unplanned. Four days after that Dodger homer, he was sent in to pinch hit by Walter Alston. Giants' manager Charlie Fox changed pitchers, and Alston swapped out Miller for left-handed hitting Len Gabrielson.

On top of everything else, that debut/farewell homer thing was spread over 32 games and 63 plate appearances. Miller drove in only three career runs - two on the first homer and the other on the last!

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Thanks to FatJack: those photo prints he noticed offered on eBay (when it says "Make Offer" it means you can negotiate a price, and they were in a hurry to get rid of all they had) include a number of guys in color in uniforms I've never seen before, and this one of Moore is the best.

Even if I could negotiate to half price, I still couldn't afford them.

Any chance you bought the Astro Chicken Stanley? He has no recollection of the picture being taken.

[Merkle923]

Yes. Coming up later. The images aren't that strong and need a lot of computer help.

[Merkle923]

This isn't a Dexter and it's not from the new collection but I just realized I had it and somebody had asked for one. I was surprised to find he doesn't turn up in a Yankees' uniform in a google image search other than on a Topps card.

[SDL]

Pretty sure that UU490 is the late Dr. Steve Arlin rather than Lowell Palmer.;

[Rainmaker]

Originally Posted by SDL

Pretty sure that UU490 is the late Dr. Steve Arlin rather than Lowell Palmer.;

That is a huge fix! None of the other Arlins in the Vault show him with the Phillies, but matching it with the B&W found in the Lexibell files and posted in the minor league thread leaves no doubt.

That he was placed in a long run of "P" players -- specifically between Polcastro and Plummer -- would have presumed Palmer. The Vault seems to have a way to smack down the presumptuous, doesn't it?

FYI to the membership:: we cannot post the Arlin image because it has no watermark.

[djauwerda]

Hey all, does anyone have Dave LaRoche in a Cubs uniform? I'm looking specifically for the 1973 or 1974 seasons, but I'll take anything out there.

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

That is a huge fix! None of the other Arlins in the Vault show him with the Phillies, but matching it with the B&W found in the Lexibell files and posted in the minor league thread leaves no doubt.

That he was placed in a long run of "P" players -- specifically between Polcastro and Plummer -- would have presumed Palmer. The Vault seems to have a way to smack down the presumptuous, doesn't it?

FYI to the membership:: we cannot post the Arlin image because it has no watermark.

Methinks The Vaultkeeper (or whatever the title is at Topps) has a sense of humor and likes to keep people like us on our toes. I've noticed that looking thru files that there will be a run of players whose last name starts with the same initial, but there will be a player whose name starts with a different initial to break it up for a second, then back to the run.

Palmer's glasses always had a sort of tint to them (whether it be a light tint or a dark tint)...and I had seen a head shot of Dr. Arlin in The Sporting News with a Phillie cap on just after he made his debut with the Padres back in '69. Same face, same glasses frame as well.

[DeweyintheHall]

eBay seller redgrange007 currently has this image of LaRoche up for sale. Below is the link to his store:

http://stores.ebay.com/vintagegraphs...p2047675.l2563

[Merkle923]

As somebody who actually saw the original photo archive at Topps headquarters in New York let me remind all would-be identifiers that while the images tend to appear in loose alphabetical order, you really have to visualize three facts:

1) while there were thousands and thousands of alphabetized folders neatly arranged in a few dozen filing cabinets, there were also loose individual photo shoot packets in dozens of cardboard boxes. Reaching into them could produce a bunch thrown there after an abandoned attempt at alphanetizing, or organizing by year - or it could produce a handful of random packets - or worse 90% in some kind of order (say, late '70s photos of players with names beginning with the letter "P") and then suddenly eight different shoots of Hawk Taylor.

2) the cabinets and boxes were wrapped and shipped - as was - to the Topps plant at Duryea, Pa. They were unpacked randomly. If the Topps Vault staff (literally two people) decided it needed 600 images to scan and sell in the coming two months, somebody will drive several hours to Duryea, reach in to a box and/or file and randomly pull out as many as needed. They will be scanned, and to avoid selling all 50 Hawk Taylors at once, the majority of negatives are put into another box for sale later - which is why you will see a run of players they had sold quantities of, six months or a year earlier, inexplicably reappear.

3) the Vault people have no real knowledge of the images. They are going on what the packets - notated by photographers the month the photos were taken. If the name is wrong on the packet, it's wrong on the eBay offering (they did this last week, misidentifying Norm Larker as Roy Sievers). If there is no year on the packet, they guess, so you get items like photos taken in the Polo Grounds identified as dating to 1960 when the Polo Grounds was closed between 1958 and 1961.

This is a job to them, to be done as quickly as possible. With the exception of the obvious periodic decision to "sell more stars" or "put in more recent ones," there is no more of a selection process than if you were in one of those game show booths with dollar bills flying around and you grabbed as many as you could and then a paper money collector asked you with annoyance or even shock "why aren't the serial numbers in consecutive order?"

[Oriole1952]

Thanks! This goes a long way to explain some of the quirks of the TV pics.

[Merkle923]

A few more Dexters, some by request, including the Houston receiver who played in parts of six years but got into only 106 games and couldn't hit to save his life (80 strikeouts in 279 plate appearances; a .199 career slugging percentage, and an OPS+ of 28, which is almost impossible to do).