Final Card: Joe Adcock

This is Joe Adcock's first and last manager card (#563). Joe retired as a player at the end of 1966, and was immediately hired to be the Indians' manager, without any previous major or minor league coaching or managerial experience. (!?!) He finished the season with the Indians, but was replaced for 1968 by Al Dark, fresh off Dark's firing by the Athletics the previous August.

I'm posting Joe's manager card here because his last card as a player was in 1963, even though he was the Angels' regular first baseman from 1964 to 1966. It's a mystery why he didn't have a card for those years. (None of the usual reasons, like diminished playing time, an extended trip to the minors, or a late-season release apply in this case.) While browsing the internet yesterday for possible reasons, I found none, but also learned that Orioles' pitcher Dick Hall didn't have a card from 1964 to 1966 either. If anyone knows why these players didn't have a card, please comment below.



You can view his stats here: minor-league major-league

Joe began his pro career in 1947 in the Reds system. After 3 seasons, he made the Reds team in 1950, and played for 3 seasons in Cincinnati, primarily as an outfielder.

Prior to the 1953 season, Adcock was traded to the Milwaukee Braves in a 4-team deal that also included the Phillies and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Once with the Braves, he switched to first base, staying there for the rest of his career. Joe hit 35 or more homers twice while with the Braves. He also played in 2 World Series with the Braves, both times against the Yankees (winning in '57, losing in '58).

Following the 1962 season, Joe was traded to the Indians. He only played one season in Cleveland, as after the season he was sent to the Angels for slugging outfielder Leon Wagner. Adcock was the team's full-time first baseman for his first 2 seasons with the Angels, and shared the position with Norm Siebern in 1966. He was released after the season, ending a 17-year playing career.

After managing the Indians in 1967, he managed the Angels' triple-A team in Seattle for the 1968 season.

Final Card: Vern Law

A few days ago on my 1966 blog, I posted the card of Pirate great Bob Friend. Vern Law (#351) was the other half of the Pirates' long-time 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation. Law's career paralleled Friend's, except that Law missed 2 years early on to the military, and stayed in Pittsburgh 2 years after Friend was traded.

1960 was a big year for Vern as he was a 20-game winner, and won the Cy Young award. He also won 2 games in the World Series, as the Pirates defeated the Yankees.



The 1961 to 1963 seasons seem to have been troublesome ones for Vern. Maybe this was due to injuries? He only made 10 starts in 1961. In 1962 he was back, appearing in 23 games (20 starts), but still not the 35-40 games that top starting pitchers made back in those days. In 1963, Law appeared in 18 games (12 starts) but only pitched 76 innings. He also made 2 starts for class-A Kinston. (Sent down to class A? This seems like a rehab assignment.)

In 1964, Law returned to the Pirates rotation full-time, but by now Bob Veale (who has previously been a reliever) was the top dog. Eventually, aging stars like Bob Friend and Vern Law were squeezed out by the younger Steve Blass and Woody Fryman.

Law's final appearance was on August 20, 1967, ending his 16-year career.

Final Card: Johnny Klippstein

I started collecting baseball cards in 1967. This set was my original source of all major league baseball player knowledge. Aside from a few players like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, and Johnny Callison, I didn't know who any of the players were prior to 1967.

Since the high-number 7th series was not sold in my neighborhood that year, most of the players in that series remained a mystery to me. When the 1968 cards came out, I got my first look at the likes of Rocky Colavito, Juan Pizarro, Mickey Stanley, etc, but names like Johnny Klippstein, Jack Sanford, Jim Owens, Jimmy Piersall, and Don Demeter (all whose last card was in 1967) remained unknown to me for almost two decades, until I completed most of that series.



Here we have the final card for Johnny Klippstein (#588), who began his minor-league career before the end of World War 2!

After five years in the Cardinals organization and one with the Brooklyn Dodgers' double-A Mobile team, he made his big-league debut in 1950 with the Cubs. Johnny was a swingman early in his career, but beginning in 1958, he became almost exclusively a reliever.

Along the way, he played for the Cubs, Reds (twice), Dodgers, Indians, Senators, Phillies, Twins, and Tigers. He pitched in two World Series: 1 game for the Dodgers in 1959, and two games for the Twins in 1965 (which I recently saw on the MLB Network).

The Tigers signed him the day before the season opener in 1967, and after 5 appearances (6 innings) released him on June 2nd, ending his 18-year career.

(Notice that the wrong heading was used for his pitching statistics!)

Final Card: Lou Burdette

(Now that the World Series is over, I'm putting away my Yankees and Phillies cards, and will focus on players' final cards for awhile.)

Is it "Lou" or "Lew" Burdette? Baseball-Reference.com says "Lew", but this card says "Lou" in 5 places, including his autograph.

This is the last card for 18-year veteran Lou Burdette (#265). His big-league debut came in 1950, where he appeared in 2 games for the Yankees (for a total of 1.1 innings). In August 1951, the Yankees traded him to the Boston Braves for pitcher Johnny Sain. (This appears to be a regrettable move for the Yankees.)

In 1952, Burdette appeared in 45 games for the Braves (mostly in relief, and notched 7 saves. He also made 9 starts. He was the team's closer in 1953 as well, but in 1954 he joined the starting rotation, teaming up with lefty Warren Spahn. In 1955 Bob Buhl would join them, to make an excellent trio of starters through the 1962 season.


(When there was more than one team in a city, Topps usually put (A) or (N) next to the city in the stats, if it isn't otherwise stated on the card. They forgot here.)


Burdette began to slip in 1963, and was traded to the Cardinals in mid-season. This began 3 consecutive years of mid-season trades for Burdette, first to the Cardinals, then the Cubs, and finally to the Phillies in mid-1965.

The Phillies released him after the season, and he was quickly signed by the Angels, where he played the last 2 years of his career, before being released a week before the 1967 season ended.

As with many long-time veterans, Topps omitted his minor league statistics, which can be found here.

Final Card: Whitey Ford (#5)

Whitey Ford made his debut with the Yankees in 1950, and after 2 years in the service, he became a fixture in the starting rotation from 1953 (or 1933, according to the back of this card!) to 1965.

After 13 consecutive seasons of winning in double figures (and better than .500 records), Whitey slipped to a 2-5 record in 1966. He pitched in 7 games (all starts) in 1967, his last being on May 21st, and he retired at the end of May.

Final Card: Jim Piersall (#584)

What can be said about Jim Piersall's career and his off-field struggles that hasn't already been said? (I'll leave that for you to Google.)

He played 8 seasons with the Red Sox, 3 with the Indians, and then bounced around for 6 more years. Here is his 1967 card. Since it's a high number card, Topps has updated it with an announcement of Piersall's retirement. They were also thoughtful enough to tell us he moved into a job with the Angels' promotion department!



As they often do with long-time veterans, Topps has left Piersall's minor league stats off the card. He played in the minors from 1948 to 1952. (From his minor-league stat page, you can link over to his major-league stats, to find that his last game was on 5/1/67. He had 5 plate appearances in his last season.)