General Baseball Image Discussion

[dennis_keith]

Oscar Gamble hit exactly 200 home runs and hit .265 in over 1,500 MLB games. In his next-to-last major league game, in 1985, he was instrumental in a White Sox rally that netted Tom Seaver's 300th career victory (vs. the NY Yankees at Yankee Stadium).

[dennis_keith]

His tenure with the Phillies might have been very brief (just 5 pinch hitting appearances at the start of the 1956 season), but unless some one can prove otherwise, at age 97 years and 3 months, Wally
Westlake is the 2nd longest living Phillies player that ever lived. He trails only infielder, Alex Monchak, who had a similarly brief stint with the Phillies in 1940. Monchak lived to be 98 years and 7 months of age.(1916-2015). The Phillies were Westlake's final stop on a 10 year MLB career (1947-1956) whose start was delayed by military service during World War Two. He was a solid regular outfielder/third baseman during the first five years of hi career with the Pirates smacking 17, 17, 23, 24 and 22 home runs in that order between 1947 and 1951. Westlake was a 1951 National League all-star. He later served as a very reliable bench player for the 1954 Cleveland Indians whose 111-43, .721 win % set regular season records, in wins and win percentage, with Wesltake contributing 11 home runs in 85 games off the bench.
Wikipedia now lists Westlake as the 6th oldest currently living MLB player.

[FatJack]

Laurin Pepper, who pitched parts of four seasons for the Pirates in the 50s, passed away on Sunday (February 4, 2018) at the age of 88.

While Pepper played major league baseball, he was likely better known for his play on the college gridiron. An All-American halfback from Mississippi Southern, Laurin averaged over 8 yards a carry and led the school to the Sun Bowl in 1953. Drafted by the Steelers in 1954, the Pittsburgh Pirates more than doubled the football team's offer and Pepper chose baseball. That was probably a mistake.

Under the bonus rules of the day, Laurin was required to spend his first two seasons on the major league roster. The Pirates were terrible and he certainly was not ready for the major leagues. In those first two seasons, Pepper combined for a 1-6 record with an ERA well north of 8.00. He split the next two seasons between Pittsburgh and Hollywood, then spent 6 more years in AAA trying to get back to The Show.

Upon retiring, Laurin became the head football coach (and, later, the A.D.) at Ocean Springs High School in Mississippi, retiring in 1992. The school's field has been named for him and he is enshrined at the University of Southern Mississippi Football Hall of Fame.

The B&W image was previously posted by tnfoto.

[SPORTSMEM817]

In lieu of flowers a donation to a mental health services a was indicated....

[FatJack]

Roy Dietzel, an infielder who played 9 games for the 1954 Washington Senators, passed away on Saturday (February 3, 2018). He was 87.

Roy signed with Washington in 1950, broke his leg three times in three yeas, then finally had his cup of coffee with the Senators in September 1954. In his debut game, he went 2 for 4 with an RBI. Overall, he hit .238.

After a couple more minor league seasons, Roy hung up his cleats and went into insurance in the Charlotte, NC area, retiring in 1993.

The images attached accompanied Roy's obituary. Another image, posted previously by tnfoto, can be found here.

[SPORTSMEM817]

Choate was a former Cardinal draft pick and later was traded to the Giants. Tacoma photo comes from Lexi files and the other two Topps facsimiles came from another forum on this site years ago


http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bat...&pid=188082121

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

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[SPORTSMEM817]

'"Wallace Wade "Wally" Moon had a 12-year career in the National League, with a good average, better than average walks, and better than average power. Overall, he hit .289 with 142 home runs.

Moon was born in Arkansas in 1930, and was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1950, receiving a $6,000 signing bonus. He attended Texas A&M University, studying education, and eventually earned a master's degree there. Moon lettered for the Aggie baseball team in 1949 and 1950. He was an All-Southwest Conference selection. Because of his studies, he appeared in only 82 games for the Omaha Cardinals in 1950 and 16 in 1951. He did have an excellent season for the Rochester Red Wings in 1953, when he hit .307 with 12 homers and 61 RBIs in 131 games.

He came to the big leagues in 1954, playing as a regular. The story is that he mistakenly showed up at the major league camp in spring training instead of the minor league camp, and the Cardinals kept him; in fact he had been playing winter ball in Venezuela and his team, Pastora de Occidente made it to the 1954 Caribbean Series finals. As the minor league camp was about to wind up, General Manager Dick Meyer gave him the option of going straight to the major league camp, although manager Eddie Stanky was not aware of the deal. For his part, he had told himself that either he won a job with the Cardinals or he would quit, returning to Arkansas with his wife and children to take up a teaching job that was offered him. But he impressed enough in spring training that not only did he make the team, but the Cardinals decided to trade veteran Enos Slaughter and make him the starter in right field.

That trade was very unpopular with the team's fans, and Wally was booed when he took part in the pre-Opening Day parade, and again when he stepped up to bat in the 1st inning against Paul Minner of the Chicago Cubs on April 13th. He shut down the cries of "We want Enos!" by sending Minner's third pitch over right field pavilion at Sportsman's Park for a home run. He was only the second player for the Cardinals to homer in his first big league at-bat, after Eddie Morgan in 1936. He continued to hit well in the early going with five-hit games on April 23rd and May 12th, and a game in which he stole four bases on May 25th. The April 23rd game was against the Milwaukee Braves and is remembered for being the one in which fellow rookie Hank Aaron hit his first major league home run. Moon won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1954, beating out Aaron, who hit .280 in 122 games, as well as Ernie Banks of the Cubs. Moon hit .304 with 29 doubles and 12 home runs, and was fourth in the National League with 9 triples. The 1954 Cardinals outfield consisted of Moon, Stan Musial, and Rip Repulski.

During the next three years, 1955-1957, Moon hit around .295 each year, with moderate power. He had 11 triples and 80 walks in 1956, and a high of 24 home runs in 1957. He was named to the All-Star team in 1957. After slumping to a .238 average in 1958, he was traded with Phil Paine to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Gino Cimoli.

1959 was the Dodgers' second year in Los Angeles, and they won the World Series that year. Moon was a key regular, hitting .302 with 19 home runs and a league-leading 11 triples. Moon became a fan favorite in Los Angeles for his ability, hitting from the left side, to launch high fly-ball home runs to left field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The venerable stadium was oddly configured for baseball. His popular "Moon Shots" cleared the 40-foot-high screen meant to compensate for the short distance, just 250 feet down the line. In the World Series against the Chicago White Sox, he was the #3 hitter in the lineup, hitting in front of the cleanup hitter, who was either Duke Snider or Norm Larker, depending on the game. Moon was 4th in the MVP voting that year and was on the All-Star team again. He was the starting left fielder, with Willie Mays in center and Hank Aaron in right, in both the First and Second All-Star Games played that year"https://texags.com/s/27089/a-legend-...oon-dies-at-87

[SPORTSMEM817]

"It would be impossible to contain the story of Angelo Dagres on the back of one of his old, worn-out baseball cards. It’s a tale that belies the former major leaguer’s lifetime .267 batting average, the three RBIs, the one career walk.


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To the untrained eye, it would appear that Dagres was nothing but an emergency call-up who never even had time to finish his cup of coffee with the big boys.

Nothing could be further from the truth. There was a day, albeit a half-century ago, when Dagres was considered one of the can’t-miss prospects in baseball. A kid from Newburyport with all the tools who was going to roam major league outfields for years.

“I was always the best at what I did growing up,’’ said the 76-year-old Dagres at his Rowley home, breaking into a loud cackle. “I just knew I was going to be playing in the majors for a long time.’’

But stories of fantasy and fame rarely escape the pages of children’s books.

Dagres was the Bo Jackson of Essex County during the late ’40s and early ’50s. As a basketball star, the Newburyport High Wall of Famer established a school career mark for points with 1,350, averaging 32 per game as a senior. On the diamond, Dagres was putting up video game numbers, hitting .679 in his senior year.

“The biggest decision that I had to make was whether to go pro in basketball rather than baseball,’’ said the barely 5-foot-11-inch former guard. “The only thing that kept me from that [basketball] money was my size.’’

His athletic excellence would continue at the University of Rhode Island, where he received a basketball scholarship. But it was on the baseball field where he did most of his damage. In his two years as a Ram, he hit over .400 both seasons.

Dagres was on the well-traveled path that nearly all ballplayers end up taking on their way to The Show. After his sophomore season at Rhode Island, he enjoyed a record-breaking season in the Maine-New Brunswick League, where he set the standard with 15 home runs, 52 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases while hitting .422 en route to winning the 1954 MVP award, according to records of the now defunct league.

“I thought that I was pretty good,’’ said Dagres.

He was inching closer to his dream, but he was also inching closer to his heartbreak.

Major league teams wanted Dagres’s golden touch - by his count, 13 of the 16 teams that made up the league offered a contract to the 20-year-old outfielder. Full of enough pride to rival his talent, he refused to sign anything other than a major league deal. In the end, it was the Baltimore Orioles who made the strongest pitch." from a Boston Globe article see below his obit



https://www.fsrobertsandson.com/noti...oJunior-Dagres

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

Here is some of Krantbucks custom photos put to custom cards 1969 and 1971 Ron Tompkins

[SPORTSMEM817]

http://www.consigliruggeriofuneralho...tituaries/1071

All the black and white photos were from the Lexi archives and the card is from a forum on this site years ago

[SPORTSMEM817]

John “Tito” Francona has passed away, the Cleveland Indians confirmed on Wednesday, the first day for pitchers and catchers at spring training. He was 84 years old.

Francona, who spent 15 years in the MLB, played with the Indians for six years. He’s the father of Terry Francona, the Tribe manager since 2013 who occasionally goes by “Tito” too.

The elder Francona made his big-league debut in 1956 with the Baltimore Orioles. He was an All-Star in 1961.


http://www.wkyc.com/article/sports/m...t/95-518708106

[dennis_keith]

Art Ditmar joins the 100 oldest MLB players list at #100. He is 88 years, 10 1/2 months old.
He is also the only player in Wikipedia's 100 Oldest Livng Major Leaguers list who is not at least 89 years of age.
Ditmar had a nine year
MLB career from 1954 to 1962 with the Athletics, in both Philadelphia and Kansas City and the New York Yankees.
He had a 72-77 record with a 3.98 e.r.a., pitching 41 Complete Games and 5 Shut Outs. His 13-9 and 15-9 seasons
with the Yanks in 1959 & 1960 respectively, were far and away his best efforts,
but he went 12-22 for the lowly 1956 Kansas City A's to lead the American League in Losses.

[dennis_keith]

Originally Posted by dennis_keith

His tenure with the Phillies might have been very brief (just 5 pinch hitting appearances at the start of the 1956 season), but unless some one can prove otherwise, at age 97 years and 3 months, Wally
Westlake is the 2nd longest living Phillies player that ever lived. He trails only infielder, Alex Monchak, who had a similarly brief stint with the Phillies in 1940. Monchak lived to be 98 years and 7 months of age.(1916-2015). The Phillies were Westlake's final stop on a 10 year MLB career (1947-1956) whose start was delayed by military service during World War Two. He was a solid regular outfielder/third baseman during the first five years of hi career with the Pirates smacking 17, 17, 23, 24 and 22 home runs in that order between 1947 and 1951. Westlake was a 1951 National League all-star. He later served as a very reliable bench player for the 1954 Cleveland Indians whose 111-43, .721 win % set regular season records, in wins and win percentage, with Wesltake contributing 11 home runs in 85 games off the bench.
Wikipedia now lists Westlake as the 6th oldest currently living MLB player.

I just Found that one Phillies player, Art Mahan lived a few months longer than Westlake's current age. That makes Westake number 3, Mahan number 2, and Alex Monchak #1 as far as longest living Phillies go that I'm able to determine.
Mahan was a first baseman with the 1940 Phillies team, his only major league team and his distinction is that he played a near-record 146 games (in an 154 game schedule) in one season and never played in any other big league seasons. George "Sparky" Anderson may be the record holder in this odd category of "Most Games Played In a One season MLB Career". He played 152 games (in a 154 game schedule) for the Phillies in 1959 and never played another major league game.

[dennis_keith]

There are now 43 living persons who played major league baseball in the 1940s. Bobby Doerr, who died in November 2017 at the age of 99 was the last living person who played MLB ball in the 1930s. Al Lopez, who died in October 2005 at age 97, a few days after his beloved Chicago White Sox won the World Series, was the last living player to have played MLB in the 1920s.

[SPORTSMEM817]

http://www.kiserfuneralhome.com/noti...mAustin-Brewer

[FatJack]

I don't know how many folks here are aware, but Topps had announced that, for 2018 Topps Heritage (the 1969 design), the inserts would include autographed cards of several former Seattle Pilots (like last year's Corky Evans). These are likely to be tough to come by (like last year's Corky Evans) and expensive on the secondary market (like last year's Corky Evans). Nonetheless, how cool is this going to be? Well...I think...very cool.

Now, me, I fully expected the usual suspects...Jim Bouton, for example. Skip Lockwood maybe. That sort of thing. And its a shame so many former Pilots have already passed on. But the Pilots cards I wanted to see....is the list of Pilots cards we're going to get to see! Hell, there's even a Ron Kotick on the list, and we've yet to see a Vault shot of that elusive dude.

So, yes, the checklist is out (product will be out in a week) and here are your new Seattle Pilots!

Bill Edgerton
Bill Parsons
Bob Richmond
Bernie Smith
Buzz Stephen
Dick Baney
Dick Bates
Frank Kimball
Fred Stanley
Jim Bouton
Mike Rollyson
Pete Koegel
Roric Harrison
Ron Kotick
Ray Peters

I'm in a good mood, now, so I think maybe I'll go post a colorized Bernie Smith in the Random thread.

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

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[SPORTSMEM817]

"Jack Hamilton, whose errant inside pitch damaged the eyesight of Boston's Tony Conigliaro in 1967 and caused a premature end to the career of the Red Sox star, died Thursday at the age of 79". Black & White photo is a team issue, the color one is self explanatory, and the facsimile cards were from a different forum on this site years ago.

http://http//www.espn.com/mlb/story/...-pitch-dies-79

[SPORTSMEM817]

"Rudy Regalado is one of few players—perhaps the only player—to have participated in the College World Series, Caribbean World Series, the Junior World Series, and the Major League World Series. He was successful on the diamond on every level from high school to the major leagues. In his career, he was in the company of some of the greatest players in baseball history. His is a unique story of one man whose dreams came true". The three black and whites are from Lexi Files the postcard is an image I made a while back and colorized. RIP


http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/san...&pid=188284785