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: Stu Miller

Here's one for you Orioles fans:

Stu Miller (#345) began his minor-league career in 1949. His major-league debut was in 1952 with the Cardinals.

In early 1956, the Cardinals traded him to the Phillies (along with Harvey Haddix) for 2 guys named Murry Dickson (a 39-year-old starting pitcher who led the league in losses from 1952 to 1954) and Herm Wehmeier. At the end of the season, the Phillies traded him to the New York Giants for Jim Hearn, a pitcher in his mid-thirties.

After having been a starter and reliever during his career, Miller became primarily a reliever beginning in 1959. In 1961, he led the NL in saves, and appeared in the all-star game. (I remember Richie Ashburn telling a story on the radio of how Miller was blown off the mound during a game in San Francisco's Candlestick Park. I later learned it was the 1961 all-star game.)



After the 1962 season, Miller was traded to the Orioles in a 6-player deal. He led the AL in games and saves in 1963. He was the Orioles closer for the next 4 years, before being phased out in late 1966 and 1967 in favor of Moe Drabowsky and Eddie Watt.

Prior to the 1968 season, Stu was sold to the Braves, where he made 2 appearances before being released before the end of April. Following that, he appeared in 13 games with the Cardinals' triple-A team in Tulsa.

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.

Tony Cloninger (#490)

Tony Cloninger was the Braves' top starting pitcher during their final years in Milwaukee. This was the era between Warren Spahn and Phil Niekro, when Cloninger led a rotation that also included Ken Johnson, Denver Lemaster, and Wade Blasingame. (Niekro wouldn't become a starter until mid-June 1967.)

Cloninger won 19 games in 1964, and 24 games in 1965. After winning 14 games in 1966, his career took a downturn. Oddly enough, while winning a total of 38 games in 1965 and 1966, he also led the league in walks and wild pitches in both years.



On the card back we learn that Cloninger also hit 2 grand slams in the same game, as he collected 9 RBI in the Braves' 17-3 rout of the Giants on 7/3/1966.

In mid-1968, Cloninger was traded to the Reds along with relief pitcher Clay Carroll and 2nd baseman Woody Woodward for pitchers Milt Pappas and Ted Davidson, and utility infielder Bob Johnson. His 3 1/2 years with the Reds was unremarkable, and he was traded to the Cardinals prior to the 1972 season. The Cardinals released him in mid-1972.

As a youngster in 1967, I would sometimes hear Tony Cloninger's name on the radio during Phillies vs. Braves broadcasts. I would also occasionally hear Tony Conigliaro's name mentioned, but it wasn't until late in the season (probably when I got this card) that I realized they were 2 different players.


Also check out Cloninger's 1966 card.

Final Card: Bob Buhl

Bob Buhl (#68) began his minor-league career back in 1947, with the White Sox and then the Braves. After 2 years in the service, he made the Milwaukee Braves team in 1953, winning in double-digits for 6 of the next 8 seasons. Those 2 "off-seasons" were not what they appear to be. In 1954 Buhl was used primarily in relief, and in 1958 he appeared in less than a dozen games due to injury.

For most of the 1950s, he was the #3 starter behind the great Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette. Buhl usually gets short-changed by most people nowadays as the washed-up stiff that the Phillies acquired for Fergie Jenkins, but he apparently was quite a good pitcher back in the 1950s.


In April 1962, he was traded to the Cubs, where he continued to win. It wasn't until 1966 that he slowed down. Unfortunately for the Phillies, he was in their employ at the time.

Buhl's last game was on April 30th. The Phillies released him on May 16th, as part of their early-season purge of ineffective, aging relievers that included Ruben Gomez (May 8) and Pedro Ramos (May 31).