General Baseball Image Discussion

[Rainmaker]

Sir, you have the knack!

[dennis_keith]

July 19: Happy 95th birthday to Rachel Robinson (Jackie Robinson's wife) who will receive the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award during Hall of Fame induction weekend July 29-30.

[SPORTSMEM817]

38 years is way too young may he rest in peace. John was a number 1 draft pick for the A's and made it to the majors with the Texas Rangers

http://www.bnd.com/sports/article162607843.html

[Rainmaker]

Would appreciate having these images cleaned up; many of them are found nowhere else; others a potentially the BEST shot of a player that I've found. Thanks in advance.



Robert Guzek (White Sox) hv855



Larry Bohannon (Colt 45s) kc336



Paul Doyle (Giants) ka922



Billy Moran (Indians) hv847
Even better shot than earlier image



Pete Reiser (Dodgers) hv559
Did not realize this one existed before

[SPORTSMEM817]

Photos supplied by Rainmaker color corrected

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Anyone having trouble getting to the tradingcarddb.com site? message I am getting is can't bring up this site. just curious if anyone tried to go to site having same trouble? Thanks to any response

[SPORTSMEM817]

I have had trouble several times getting to this site....??

[SPORTSMEM817]

yesterday and early this morning it is fine now

[SPORTSMEM817]

Sun Journal New Bern NC:

Around the time New Bern’s best-known sports icon, Walt Bellamy, was making his name on the basketball court in high school and later in the NBA, another talented athlete was doing the same thing on the baseball diamond.

At West Street High School (a black school during segregation), Bobby Perry played outfield and put a hurting on baseballs.

Perry, born in New Bern in 1933, died July 2 at the age of 83.

After he graduated from West Street in 1953, Perry began playing baseball in the minor leagues.

This was a time that was just six years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in MLB in 1947.

Two of Perry’s West Street schoolmates Robert Phillips and Scobby Midgette recall memories of their friend.

“Oh Bobby was great, he could hit the ball so well and was fast,” Midgette said.

“He was playing a game here and a New York Giants’ scout came to watch another guy play and ended up so impressed with Bobby.”

Phillips, who lived side-by-side to Perry and their mothers were best friends, went to school together and fought in the Korean War with his buddy as well.

“He started out with the Giants and then played all over the place in the minors and then went on to the Angels,” Phillips said.

“I got to see him play in Washington D.C. when the Angels came and played the Senators.”

Phillips said Perry was a hero here in New Bern when he came back into town.

On the back of Perry’s 1964 Topps baseball card, it lists his career as follows: 1953 - OshKosh, Wis.; 1954-55 - Military Service (Korean War); 1956 - Muskogee, Okla.; 1957 - Danville, Va.; 1958 - Charlotte, N.C. and Springfield, Mass.; 1959 - Sacramento, Calif.; 1960-62 - Tacoma, Wash.; 1963 - Tacoma and Hawaii; 1963-64 - Los Angeles Angels.

Though Perry’s Major League career spanned just two years with the Angels, his baseball career is filled with noteworthy moments.

“Bobby got traded to the Angels because the Giants had Willie Mays in centerfield,” Midgette said.

Perry was “stuck” behind one of the greatest statistical players of all time in Mays on a Giants team that also had Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda.

In addition to getting to know Mays, Perry had a home run in his career that according to those close to them, he never forgot and didn’t let them either.
″(The Angels) were playing the Yankees and Hall of Famer Whitey Ford was pitching,” Phillips said.

“In his first at-bat against Whitey, Bobby hit a home run.”

Perry’s daughter, Ivette Perry-Jones said she also remembers her father bragging about that home run off Ford.

“Oh he was so proud of that,” she said.

Perry’s career MLB stats include a .266 batting average, 103 hits, 17 doubles, a triple, six home runs and 35 runs scored.

Phillips said that Perry just truly loved the game and still talked about baseball and watched it after he was done playing.

“He went and played winter ball down in Panama and when the Negro Leagues would barnstorm and come through New Bern, playing games at Kafer Park, if Bobby was in town, he’d play with them,” Phillips said.

Phillips recalled seeing Mays hit a ball 500-plus feet in one game.

“He hit that thing all the way out and into the frog pond,” Phillips said.

A group of friends would go up to Bojangles in the mornings and share stories and gather in friendship.

Phillips said that Perry often talked about the vast difference in what players make these days versus when he played.

“Bobby made $1,300 a month,” Phillips said.

“Now that was good money back then.”

Phillips said that Perry worked at Cherry Point after his baseball career was through.

Phillips noted that he and Perry had been best friends for 75 years leading up to Perry’s death July 2.

[FatJack]

Hadn't seen it posted anywhere until just now, but former Cardinal pitcher Steve Waterbury passed away on May 19, 2017.

Steve got into 5 games with the Cards in 1976 without a decision. He gave up 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings, with 4 strikeouts. I don't remember him, but it's said he had a blazing fastball. At the time he played, his claim to fame was that he was, at 6' 5", baseball's second tallest pitcher (behind 6' 8" J.R. Richard) in 1976.

Around these parts, I could see his claim to fame being that he was involved in the 1977 trade with the Phillies that brought the even more elusive in a Cardinals uni image Tom Underwood to St. Louis. There's a decent looking head shot of Steve with the Phillies in one of those Newspapers.com pages, but I (happily) let my subscription lapse. The attached, from some autograph sales site, is the best image of Steve with the Cards that I could find online. Tom Underwood with the Cards? Still nothing useful. Steve, btw, never got back to the show. The Cubs gave him a spring invite in 1979, after the Phils released him, but he did not impress. And so ended his baseball career.

Steve went back to his Marion, Illinois home where he eventually became the Chief of Police. He made headlines in 2013/2014 when it was found that Marion's former Police Chief had a Meth lab in his garage (no, I will not post the picture of the wacky Meth Steve Waterbury). He plead to a lesser charge and got off fairly light. It does sound like he cleaned up his life after that.

The best he ever did, as far as a baseball card, appears to be a B&W minor league card with the 1976 Tulsa Oilers and a 1977-78 sticker from Venezuela. Both can be seen online, if you look, and both are (visually) not worth looking for. Just sayin'.

[SPORTSMEM817]

Mr Mays death was tweeted on twitter by two former Reds Tom Hume‏ @THume47 11h11 hours ago
More
What a great person. Always happy. Will surely be missed. My friend too RT @LennyHarris: Lee May RIP my friend

One of the most feared hitters of his generation, Lee May is one of only 11 major leaguers to have 100-RBI seasons for three different teams. He also had 11 consecutive seasons (1968-1978) of at least 20 home runs and 80 RBIs. In an 18-year major-league career, the “Big Bopper of Birmingham” played for the Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles, and Kansas City Royals. A three-time All-Star (1969, 1971, and 1972), he appeared in the postseason three times, including the 1970 World Series for the Reds and the 1979 Series for the Orioles. (The third was a Division Series in 1981 when he was with the Royals.)

May was a solid first baseman defensively (.994 career fielding percentage), but also struck out often (100 or more in ten seasons). What he was really known for, however, was his power. He slammed 354 home runs and drove in 1,244 runs the major leagues. He freely admitted, “I deliberately try to hit a home run every time up. That is what they pay me for.”1 Still, despite his power numbers, he lacks some recognition and, as sportswriter Jim Murray once wrote, “played in the undeserved obscurity of a bullpen catcher.”2

Lee Andrew May was born on March 23, 1943, in Birmingham, Alabama. His father, Tommy, who played semipro ball around Alabama, made mattresses and springs. His mother, Mildred, plucked and washed chickens in a poultry house. Young Lee held various jobs growing up in Birmingham, including delivering newspapers and office cleaning. Five years later, on May 17, 1948, the Mays welcomed another son into the family, Carlos, who himself had a ten-year career with the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, and California Angels. Lee and Carlos’s parents divorced, and Mildred and the two boys moved in with their grandmother.

Lee was a three-sport athlete (football, basketball, and baseball) at Parker High School in Birmingham. He was a forward for four years on Parker’s championship basketball team and a fullback on the football team, which won county and city titles. He was tall and hefty (6-feet-2 and 190 pounds), and as a youngster kept a birth certificate in his back pocket to prove that he wasn’t older than his teammates in little league.3

“They called me the Big Bopper,” he said in an interview with the author in 2011. “That was fine with me. I always wanted to be a home-run hitter when I was growing up. My favorite player was Harmon Killebrew. … I wanted to be just like Killebrew and hit a lot of homers. …”more of this story click herehttps://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1e424faf

[Oriole1952]

May was a respected and well-liked member on the Orioles. He played a good game and after Eddie Murray had a great rookie season as a DH, he switched places with Eddie and not a peep of protest. He will be missed..prayers to his family.

[ortforshort]

I have six active listings on eBay that you guys might be interested in. They are listed with a Buy it Now price or Best Offer. For these six items, if you make a best offer of 15 bucks (to cover postage) and mention that you learned about the offer via OOTP, then I will let you have the items at that price.
The items are:

273 8x10 Color Photos of Baseball Players from Sport Magazine
Item Id: 142461731549

363 8x10 color glossy photos of big league baseball players from 1946 to present
Item Id: 142461732052
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142461732052

Twenty Vintage Issues of Baseball Magazine from World War II
Item Id: 142461732512
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142461732512

Vintage Baseball Photo Albums From the Fifties and Sixties
Item Id: 142461732900
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142461732900

Nineteen Surf Topps Baseball Card Team Books from the Eighties
Item Id: 142461733244
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142461733244

Yankees Collectors Items Yearbooks Stamps 8x10 Photos Albums Cards Magazines
Item Id: 142461734400
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142461734400

[SDL]

Originally Posted by Oriole1952

May was a respected and well-liked member on the Orioles. He played a good game and after Eddie Murray had a great rookie season as a DH, he switched places with Eddie and not a peep of protest. He will be missed..prayers to his family.

I'd see him every year at Rays Fan Fest when he was a coach here. Always friendly to the fans

Always wondered. If he stayed with the Reds, would he have made it to the HOF?

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Any known photos of Newark Co-Pilots G.M. Don Young?

[Rainmaker]

Originally Posted by rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com

Any known photos of Newark Co-Pilots G.M. Don Young?

If he's the same Donald Young who was the Braves' No. 1 pick in 1975, I've looking for him for years. Good luck.

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

If he's the same Donald Young who was the Braves' No. 1 pick in 1975, I've looking for him for years. Good luck.

No. This Don Young was the Co-Pilots G.M. 1969-early 1972. Thanks for the info.

[Oriole1952]

Good question. His HR production really dropped off in Houston and in Baltimore he only hit about 25 per year. Another question might be what would have happened to Tony Perez had he stayed in Cincy? I doubt if Perez could have held his own as a 3rd baseman all those years. Almost like the situation in SF a few years earlier where Cepeda was traded to clear 1st for McCovey. The difference there was Cepeda did much better post SF than May did after leaving the Reds.

[FatJack]

Originally Posted by Oriole1952

Good question. His HR production really dropped off in Houston and in Baltimore he only hit about 25 per year. Another question might be what would have happened to Tony Perez had he stayed in Cincy? I doubt if Perez could have held his own as a 3rd baseman all those years. Almost like the situation in SF a few years earlier where Cepeda was traded to clear 1st for McCovey. The difference there was Cepeda did much better post SF than May did after leaving the Reds.

Cincinnati was a hitters park while the Astrodome was pitcher's paradise. That said, you can't just change one piece without changing the entire puzzle. Without Joe Morgan, the Reds don't become the dominant team they became and Lee May's production--which would likely have seen only a relatively small increase--would be less meaningful to the idiots of the BBWA (they do luvz them some titles). Moreover, May's overall numbers at the end are far from Hall worthy. I mean, well, he had worse numbers than Gil Hodges. I've always felt Gil should be in the Hall, but the writers never did. Unless you think May would have hit 50 or 60 home runs a year in Cincy, instead of the 27 he averaged in Houston and the 23-24 he averaged in Baltimore (not counting his last year there), I'm not seeing it. And, frankly, I think his drop off after coming to Baltimore wasn't due to the park, but to age. May's biggest problem was playing in an era when the pitching was dominant. In another era, yeah, then he probably puts up the numbers and makes it.

Of course, I don't think Kirby Puckett's got any business being in the Hall, either. So what do I know?

[jwisenberg]

Originally Posted by Rainmaker

If he's the same Donald Young who was the Braves' No. 1 pick in 1975, I've looking for him for years. Good luck.

How about a senior class picture of Braves no 1 pick Donald Young from Dos Pueblos class of 75 yearbook and one of him from a team photo