Born on the Same Day - 3/24/1937

Another installment in my "Born on the Same Day" series, featuring players who were born on the same day (!) and year. 

A few days ago, I just happened to find 4 other players who shared (2) common birthdays (Dick Egan/Bob Tillman, and Doug Clemens/Julio Gotay).

This is actually the 23rd post in the series, but since it comes chronologically after Jerry Adair and Roland Sheldon, I'm going to call it post #8.5: Dick Egan and Bob Tillman - both born on 3/24/1937.

Dick Egan was a relief pitcher who played for the Tigers in 1963 and 1964. After a season in the minors, he appeared in 10 games for the Angels early in the 1966 season, before wrapping up his career with 20 games for the Dodgers in 1967.

Bob Tillman played from 1962-1970. He was mostly a backup catcher, except for 1964-65 when he was the Red Sox' regular backstop. After 5 1/2 seasons with Boston. he made a brief stop in the Bronx before finishing up with 3 seasons in Atlanta.

The Mysterious Strangers

As I mentioned previously, 1967 was my first year of collecting baseball cards. Other than Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Harmon Killebrew, I had no idea of any MLB players, so those 1967 cards were my introduction. Since the 1967 high-number cards were not sold in my area, players in that 7th series remained unknown to me until I bought their 1968 cards.

Below are the 12 players and 2 managers whose final cards were in that 1967 7th series. As such, (except for John Sullivan, who played for the Phillies in 1968) I had no idea who they were until years later. To me, they existed only as mysterious names on the 7th-series checklist (issued as part of the 6th series) until I acquired their cards in the 1980s.


I have already posted all of these cards individually on this blog. You can follow their labels below to each post.

Click here to see all the players whose final card was in the 1967 set.

Classic Crew Cuts (part 3)

More Classic Crew Cuts (LA Dodgers edition):

First up is Dick Egan (#539), who has spent most of his 10 years so far in the minor leagues, with brief appearances for the Tigers and Angels.

Because of the absence of much recent major league service time, and the fact that this is a high-number card, I think Egan was a last-minute addition to the 1967 series by Topps, based on his early-1967 performance. After 1967, he was back in the minors for 2 more years, before retiring.


(After Tom Egan and Dick Egan on consecutive nights, we are now fresh out of Egans.)


Next is Dick Schofield (#381). It looks like you could make a chip shot off his crew cut. Dick's longest stint was with the Pirates in the early 1960s. (We see him still in his Pirates uniform here, even after 2 1/2 years.) Dick's son (Dick Schofield) played shortstop for the Angels, and the Phillies' rightfielder Jayson Werth is his grandson.




Here we have Bob Lee (#313). After 8 years in the minors, and 3 with the Angels, Bob is now coming across town to the Dodgers. He looks more like a cast member of The Bowery Boys than a ball player.




Elsewhere in Los Angeles in 1967, another crew cut was making appearances: