Mike Cuellar led the staff with 16 wins, and after 1968 was rewarded for his perseverance by being traded to the Orioles, where he flourished for many years.
Transactions from the end of the 1966 season to the end of 1967:
The 1967 Topps cards were my starting point for baseball card collecting, and I had completed series 1 to 6 in 1967. The 7th series was not sold in my area, but I was able to obtain all but 5 (Seaver, Carew, Robinson, Wills, John) of those cards at card shows in the early 1980s. In my opinion, this is the best looking series issued by Topps. -- 25-SEP-2009
Mike Cuellar led the staff with 16 wins, and after 1968 was rewarded for his perseverance by being traded to the Orioles, where he flourished for many years.
Transactions from the end of the 1966 season to the end of 1967:
Mets: Greg Goossen, Bart Shirley, and Bill Denehy were lunch-pailers, but Topps redeemed itself with Tom Seaver's inclusion. Don Shaw also appeared on an NL Rookies card.As Ed McMahon always said to Carnac, “I hold in my hand the last…”
There were 490 players with their own card in the 1967 Topps set. Before today, I had blogged about 489 of them on one or another of my set blogs. And now, last but (not?) least…
Monteagudo was signed by the Kansas City Athletics in 1961, and played in the minor leagues every season from 1961 to 1973. After playing in the Mexican League from 1974-1980, he made a 1-game comeback in 1983 with the Angels’ AAA team.
Aurelio made his major-league debut in September 1963 with the Athletics, appearing in 4 games in relief. In 1964 he pitched in 11 games, starting half of them. Those would be his last major-league starts except for his one game with the White Sox in 1967.
After 4 relief appearances in 1966, the A’s sent him to the Astros in May, where he made 10 relief appearances.
At the end of the 1966 season, the Astros sold him to the Reds, but he never played for the Reds in the majors or minors, and was released in mid-July.
On the same day, the White Sox signed him, and after starting one game, he was cut a week later. On THAT same day, the Reds picked him up. (Essentially, he was loaned out to the White Sox for one game.)
Monteagudo did not play for the remainder of 1967, but pitched for the Reds' farm teams for all of 1968 and the first half of 1969.
In June 1969 he was traded to the Cardinals for pitcher Dennis Ribant. Playing no games for St. Louis, he was selected by the Royals in the post-1969 minor-league draft. He started the ’70 season in the minors, but pitched 21 games for the Royals in the second half, before returning to the minors for all of 1971. (Wow, Topps had their hands full dealing with his yo-yoing career!)
In November 1971 he was selected by the Brewers in the Rule 5 draft. (Ok, that explains his 1972 card with the Brewers.) However, he was released during spring training, having never played for Milwaukee. The same day, the Padres took THEIR turn on this merry-go-round, but by mid-June they swapped him to the Angels for infielder Ron Clark.
Aurelio pitched 15 games for the Angels in the second half, then was dealt to the Phillies in December. Monteagudo never played for the Phillies, but did show up as a Phillie in the 1974 “Traded” subset. (If you couldn’t make the 1974 Phillies’ bullpen, you know it’s time to hang them up.)
That’s exactly what he did, moving down to Mexico where he was primarily a starter for 4 different teams from 1974-80.
So, I have posted all the 1967 player cards I planned to, but that's not the end of this blog. I still need to complete my team reviews for the Astros and the Mets, then just freelance whatever comes along.
Earlier this week, FleerFan posted a video and some photos of the Topps 1967 cards on his Fleer Sticker Project blog. I wanted to also loop it into my blog.
The Angels finished in 5th place in 1967, with a record of 84-77. They also hosted the All-Star game that summer.
They were loaded with aging veterans, with Jack Sanford, Curt Simmons, Lou Burdette, Jim Coates, Bill Skowron, Jim Piersall, and John Werhas all in their final seasons.
The much-traveled George Brunet (9 teams in 15 seasons) headed up the Angels’ rotation, despite leading the AL with 19 losses. Jim McGlothlin posted a 12-8 record and was named to the All-Star team. Rule 5 draftee Rickey Clark posted a 12-11 record in his rookie season. It would be his best year. Jack Hamilton was acquired from the Mets on June 10th for Nick Willhite. 12/02/66 - Traded Dean Chance and Jackie Hernandez to the Twins for Pete Cimino, Jimmie Hall and Don Mincher.
12/07/66 - Traded pitcher Dick Egan to the Dodgers for pitcher Howie Reed.
12/14/66 - Traded 1B Norm Siebern to the Giants for Len Gabrielson.
12/15/66 - Traded pitcher Bob Lee to the Dodgers for Nick Willhite.
02/13/67 - Released outfielder Al Spangler.
02/16/67 - Purchased infielder Chuck Cottier from the Senators.
04/10/67 - Purchased Orlando McFarlane from the Detroit Tigers.
05/06/67 - Traded Cotton Nash to the White Sox for Bill Skowron.
05/10/67 - Traded Len Gabrielson to the Dodgers for John Werhas.
05/12/67 - Released Jim Piersall.
06/08/67 - Released catcher Chris Krug.06/10/67 - Traded Nick Willhite to the Mets for Jack Hamilton.
07/24/67 - Traded a player to be named later (Don Wallace) to the Mets for Hawk Taylor.
09/23/67 - Released Lew Burdette.
10/09/67 - Released Curt Simmons and Bill Skowron.
10/17/67 - Sold John Werhas to the Senators.
11/28/67 - Lost Elrod Hendricks to the Orioles in the rule 5 draft.