Final Card: Hal Woodeshick

In his final six years, Hal Woodeshick (#324) went from expansion-team draftee (twice) to pitching in the World Series.

Woodeshick was signed by the Phillies prior to the 1950 season, and played one year of minor-league ball for them. After the season, he was traded to an unaffiliated minor-league team. A year later he was acquired by the New York Giants organization.

After 1 year with a Giants' farm team, the 1953 and 1954 seasons are unaccounted for in his Baseball-Reference.com record. Was he injured? Was he in the military? Usually, Baseball-Reference.com will document military service, but not missing seasons due to injury. Woodeshick's Wikipedia page says he was in the military. In any case, he returned to the Giants' farm system in 1955.



After the 1955 season, Hal was drafted by the Tigers, and spent most of 1956 and all of 1957 in the Tigers' farm system. He appeared in 2 games for Detroit in September 1956. Hal was acquired by the Indians in 1958, and divided his time between the majors and triple-A.

In May 1959, Woodeshick was traded to the (old) Washington Senators, and finally got some decent playing time. He appeared in 31 games in 1959 and 41 games in 1960.

Following the 1960 season, the Senators moved to Minnesota, but unfortunately for Hal, he did not, as the expansion Senators selected him off the Twins' roster. His punishment would be short-lived, as he was traded to the Tigers in June for infielder Chuck Cottier.

Just as Woodeshick was counting his blessings for having escaped from an expansion team, the upstart Houston Colt .45s purchased him from the Tigers after the 1961 season!

With Houston, Hal was the #4 starter behind Turk Farrell, Ken Johnson, and Bob Bruce, starting 26 of his 31 games in 1962. In 1963, he compiled an 11-9 record with 10 saves as Houston's closer. In 1964 he appeared in 61 games and picked up 23 saves.

1965 was a different story altogether. After appearing in 27 games (32 innings), he was traded to the Cardinals on June 15th for pitchers Mike Cuellar and Ron Taylor. (This seems like a win-win. The Astros get Mike Cuellar, and Woodeshick not only escapes Houston, he goes to one of the top NL teams.)

Woodeshick took over the closer's role with the Cardinals, appearing in 51 games while collecting 15 saves in the 2nd half of 1965. The following season, the emergence of Joe Hoerner and Nelson Briles pushed Woodeshick down 2 slots in the bullpen.

With the addition of Ron Willis and Jack Lamabe, Woodeshick only pitched 36 innings in 1967, with his final appearance coming on September 4th. He pitched 1 inning in game 6 of the World Series.

Final Card: Jack Kralick

Jack Kralick (#316) is one of those players you don't really give a second thought to. By 1967 he was a borderline pitcher, he played in the American League (which most young Phillies' fans could probably care less about), AND he played for the Indians (which in 1967, most baseball fans outside of Cleveland could care less about).

Kralick played in the White Sox' farm system from 1955 until he was released in June 1958. After the 1958 season, he was signed by the (old) Washington Senators. Jack spent most of the 1959 season at double-A Chattanooga, but appeared in 6 games for the Senators.

1960 was his first full season in the majors, and he was the #4 starter (in starts and innings pitched) behind Pedro Ramos, Camilo Pascual, and Don Lee. In 1961 the team moved to Minnesota, and Kralick moved up a notch, behind Ramos and Pascual. 1962 was more of the same for Kralick, but with 2nd-year man Jim Kaat leading the rotation (in place of Ramos).



In May 1963, Kralick was traded to the Indians for pitcher Jim Perry (as the Twins began their quest to corner the market on pitchers named Jim).

Jack led the Indians in wins in 1963 and 1964, but after that he faded into relative obscurity as Cleveland's rotation was taken over by Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant, Sonny Siebert, and Steve Hargan.

On May 1, 1967, he was purchased by the Mets. This seems like a dubious move by the Mets, since Kralick's final major league game was on April 23rd, and he has no minor league record during or after 1967.

Here's a funny news item I found a few months ago about the Mets' acquisition of Kralick.

Final Card: Earl Battey

Here is the final card for long-time Twins' catcher Earl Battey (#15). Starting in the 2nd series, Topps put a dot between the player's name and position. On this 1st series card, the player's name and position just run together.

Battey began his career in the White Sox organization in 1953. He had brief cups of coffee with the White Sox in 1955 and 1956. In 1957, Earl split the season between the Los Angeles Angels (the Brooklyn Dodgers' triple-A team), and the White Sox.

In 1958, Battey made the major leagues to stay, as the backup catcher to Sherm Lollar in 1958, and the #3 catcher behind Lollar and Johnny Romano in 1959.



Just before the 1960 season began, Battey was traded (along with rookie first baseman Don Mincher) to the Washington Senators for first baseman Roy Sievers. Earl immediately assumed the #1 catching job, a role he would keep through the 1966 season.

The three Twins catchers in 1966 and 1967 (Battey, Russ Nixon, and Jerry Zimmerman) were all the same age (31 in 1966). Battey was the starter through 1966, but in 1967 he played the least of the three, with Zimmerman taking over the #1 spot.

In 1967, Battey caught 41 games, and pinch-hit in 7 other games. His last game was in the final week of September.

Classic Crew Cuts (part 2)

Here's another installment of "Classic Crew Cuts":

Tito Francona has a flattop to die for, but in this pose, he's letting it go to waste. Francona was a last-minute addition to the Phillies team, having been acquired a day or 2 before the start of the season, after Bill White's off-season paddleball-induced injury didn't heal quickly enough, and spring-training invitee Jim Gentile didn't pan out. Although Topps changed the team name on the front and back of the card, the text still talks about how important Tito is to the Cardinals. ... Best to keep the hat-less photo handy, as the Phillies sent him on to Atlanta by mid-June! (Tito was signed by the St. Louis Browns in 1952.)




Bob Bruce was an original member of the Houston Colt .45s in 1962. After consecutive 9-18 and 3-13 seasons, he was traded from Houston to Atlanta for Eddie Mathews. (This doesn't speak well for Mathews!) The Braves and Astros seemed to make a lot of deals that year (Ed Mathews, Bob Bruce, Dave Nicholson, Denver Lemaster, Claude Raymond, Sonny Jackson, Wade Blasingame).

This is the only card where I've seen a "Wilkes-Barre" team on the back (now relegated to a partnership with Scranton, PA).




Here we have Ted Abernathy, the first submariner pitcher I ever saw. Ted's on his 4th team in 4 years. Still, I remember him as the Reds' go-to guy in 1967. Abernathy started way back in 1952, and spent many years bouncing around the minors. Notice how, since this is a "high-number" card, Topps was able to put some current-season commentary on the card.




And today's wildcard crew cut:

Lt. Col. Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, one of the original 7 Mercury astronauts. Deke came down with medical issues, and never flew in space during the 1960s. Instead, he became the "den mother" for the astronauts, until he was finally cleared to fly in the joint US/USSR Apollo-Soyuz mission, after all the moon landings were completed.

Topps forgets their own team color scheme

In 1967, Topps departed from the team color scheme they used in 1966 (and would repeat in 1968 and 1969). In 1967, the new scheme included green for the Twins and Giants, purple for the Pirates and White Sox, and orange for the Cubs and Red Sox. However, for some unexplained reason, three cards deviate from that color scheme:

Harmon Killebrew was Minnesota's own Sultan of Swat. According to his card, he spent 2 years with the old (pre-1961) Washington Senators before ever playing MINOR league ball. (Cynics would say "How could you tell the difference?"). After clouting 29 homers for Chattanooga in his 4th pro season, it still took him 2 years to reach the majors to stay. Although I didn't follow MLB until 1967, I was aware of the Twins and Harmon Killebrew in particular, because in the early '60s, my next-door neighbor's grandchildren (Lori & Todd) would visit from Minnesota every summer. Guess who their favorite player was?



Hmm... Here's the THIRD color used for a Twins card. Maybe there was some extra purple ink laying around, since it wouldn't be used for the third card below:




Orange was the color used for all Red Sox cards, while purple was used for the White Sox cards. Maybe Topps forgot which "Sox" were on this card, as there was no multi-player card for the Red Sox in 1967.

Another point to make on this card is, one typically thinks of power hitters when a card is labeled "Sockers". Here, Pete Ward and Don Buford are pictured, along with tales of how Ward hit 22 and 23 home runs 3 to 4 years ago. For Buford, the narration focuses on his batting average and stolen base stats. Not exactly in the same category as Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison!