Saturday, October 10, 2009

Final Card: Ozzie Virgil (#132)

No Mets or Giants cards yet... Let's fix that now:

Ozzie Virgil was one of the last active players who played for the New York Giants. (Others (and their final year) were Bill White '69, Al Worthington '69, Mike McCormick '71, Hoyt Wilhelm '72, and the last (fittingly) was Willie Mays '73.)

Ozzie was not with the Giants or any other major-league team in 1967 or 1968. I was all set to include him in a series I call "Already Retired", when I discovered that he was with the Giants' AAA team in Phoenix during 1967 and 1968 as the backup 2B-C-3B-1B in 1967, and as the #1 catcher in 1968. (He split catching duties with Don Bryant in both years.) In 1969, he had one pinch-hitting appearance with San Francisco (on June 27th), and that was the end of his career.



Ozzie's son (Ozzie Virgil Jr) was a catcher with the Phillies in the 1980s.

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