Thursday, June 7, 2012

Gary Wagner (#529)

Here's a spring training shot of Phillies' reliever Gary Wagner.

Wagner was signed in 1961, and upon joining the Phillies in April 1965, he became such a key member of their bullpen that the Phillies traded away their long-time ace Jack Baldschun after the season.

 

Gary couldn't capitalize on that situation, as he spent most of the next 2 seasons in the minors as a starting pitcher, before returning to the Phillies' bullpen full-time in 1968. That season he went 4-4 with a 3.00 ERA in 44 games as the #2 man in the bullpen behind Turk Farrell.

After spending most of 1969 back in the Phillies' farm system, he was traded to the Red Sox in early September and spent the remainder of that season and most of 1970 pitching for Boston.

The Red Sox released him just before the start of the 1971 season.

2 comments:

Douglas said...

When you think about, its not a good sign your career is going well if you are sent to the minors when about 40 mlb jobs open due to expansion.

Jeff said...

That's the same picture Topps used on his 1969 catd too.