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I hope you enjoy your visit. Please pass along this URL to others who may be interested.
99% of these images have never been published before. Professional quality prints are available of almost all of the images on this site. These images are not scanned photos from my collection, they are scans of the original negatives and transparencies. I ask that you respect me and the copyrights I hold under U.S. Copyright law.
I'm doing my best to help fans of 1960s-70s baseball improve their photo collections. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Please be sure to check out the "archives of front pages" on the left hand side. There are some fantastic images in those pages and 99% are not in any other gallery.
06.28.2009
Don Mincher was a dangerous lefty swinger whose career park-adjusted OPS was
very similar to those of recent HOF inductee Jim Rice. His inability hit to
lefties meant he didn't get the number of at-bats that would have been necessary
to accumulate more impressive raw numbers. He was an all-star with California in
1967 and Seattle in 1969. In those appearances he singled against Bob Gibson in
1967 and was struck out by Gibson in 1969.
Bob Miller was a very good durable reliever (mostly) for 18 years.
Unfortunately he passed away at a too-young age of 54 in 1993 due to a car
accident.
06.19.2009
This shot is definitely not for the purist (or any
Orioles fan).
Boog Powell spent his final season (1977) as a pinch hitter for the Dodgers,
batting only .222 (8 for 36) with no homers.
With just 8 hits in 60 at-bats - and 27 strikeouts -
during two short stints with the Astros, Houston gave up on
Nate Colbert and he was drafted by the Padres in the 1969 expansion draft.
Oops! If the Astros could have recognized the talent of Colbert (or John
Mayberry) maybe they would been contenders through the mid-70s in the NL West.
Don't even get me started on Joe Morgan...
Denny McLain had nothing left in the tank at this point in his career. He
pitched 7 shutout innings in his debut with the A's in game 3 of the season but
after that it was all downhill as his ERA climbed to 6.04 before his trade to
the Braves.
Jerry McNertney was acquired by the Pirates to back up new starting catcher
Milt May. May ended up starting 54 of the first 57 games for the Bucs so
McNertney got just 4 at bats in his two months with the team until the Manny
Sanguillen As Right Fielder Experiment was shelved and Jerry was released.
06.14.2009

Jim McGlothlin died of leukemia on December 23rd, 1975 - at the age of 32 - less than two years after his big league career ended with his release by the White Sox in March of 1974. I remember hearing the news when I was a young man. I had a young cousin who died from that disease a few years earlier so the news of the McGlothlin's death stuck with me. I'm no cancer expert but I believe that at the time a diagnosis of leukemia was pretty much a death sentence and thankfully many forms of it are now are very treatable, if not curable.

On a much lighter note....what is going on with Dick Allen's eyebrows? Have I been missing out on something that everyone else knows? Is it some kind of fashion statement? For the record, I've got some healthy eyebrows but other than plucking the occasional stray I'm not touching them.
05.29.2009
"Rarities"
Dave Nicholson was a strikeout prone slugger whose career
peaked in 1963 at the age of 23 when he hit 23 homers for the ChiSox. His last
major league at bats came in 1967 with the Braves. This photo is from 1969.
Ray Miller spent 10 seasons in the minors and did not make
it to the big leagues. It was after his playing career that he made his mark as
a pitching coach and as a manager during short stints with the Twins and
Orioles.
Vic Larose' major league
career consisted of 3 appearances as a defensive replacement and a single
solitary start at SS on
September 14th, 1968 in front of a Shibe Park crowd of 2,251 people. After
getting hit by the Phillies veteran Larry Jackson in his first plate appearance
he struck out looking and grounded out to fellow shortstop Roberta Pena in his
next two PA's.
Bob O'Brien may have only
appeared in 14 major league games of mostly mop-up duty with the 1971 Dodgers
but on
June 21st he was a rising star as he threw a 6-hit shutout over the visiting
St. Louis Cardinals. After the season he was sent to the Orioles as part of the
Frank Robinson trade.
Wilbur Howard had a very brief tenure with the Brewers in 1973 before being
traded to the Astros where he played for 5 years.
Bob Scott never made to the big leagues but it wasn't for lack of trying as
he spent 12 years in the minors with about 9 different teams from 1960 through
1971.
Herb Hippauf made it into just 3 major league games with the Braves in 1966.
Unfortunately he passed away in 1995 at the age of 56.
05.26.2009
From The Sporting News:
"Players call the catcher's armor the 'tools of ignorance.' Outfielders contend that no one in their senses would clutter themselves up with a mask, a heavy chest protector and weigh down their legs with shin guards. All of this when the mercury is trying to climb out of the top of the tube, and those outfielders are on vacation, waiting for something to happen."

05.11.2009

05.10.2009
Hello Mets fans!!

05.09.2009

John Bateman is an interesting guy....here's a cut from his wikipedia page...
Bateman had a unique, if not trivial, place in Canadian history. He played for the Montreal Expos in October 1970, the same time the October Crisis was happening in the city. This was one of the most notorious and tense time in recent Canadian political history. On November 6, the hiding place of one of the FLQ terrorist cells was discovered. John Bateman loved hanging out with the police, and being a star on the new pro team in town, the Montreal police also loved his company. As retold on a television documentary about the history of the Expos, the manager Gene Mauch was watching these events with his staff on TV, and the camera focused on the hiding place in the house. And what do they see, on national TV, but John Bateman's bulky frame coming out of the hiding place. Evidently the police let him have some fun. Mauch was not amused.
He always was a catcher for Eddie Feigner's barnstorming 4-man softball team, "The King and His Court" from 1977-1980.
Unfortunately he passed away in 1996.
05.08.2009
I've got plenty of these lined up and ready to display. I hope to have some time this weekend to begin adding some information or comments about each player posted.

05.07.2009
Over the past week I've spent many, many hours scanning some great new images. My fellow baseball fans --- Be prepared to be overwhelmed. Enjoy!

04.01.2009
I'm happy to say I've acquired a couple thousand baseball negatives from former Pirates team photographer Les Banos. Unfortunately my film scanner is acting up so it may be awhile before I can really dig into some of the great stuff that Les shot. Thanks very much Les, you are an interesting and very, very nice man. BTW, if you are ever in the Pittsburgh area you must stop in at the Roberto Clemente Museum at 3339 Penn Ave. It was created by photographer Duane Reider and features not only great images of Roberto by Les Banos and many other photographers but also some very rare memorabilia from Roberto's career. It was an overwhelming experience, Duane has done a great job with it.

03.17.2008
Hello Hello baseball fans! I'm so sorry to have taken the winter off from the site but I'm back and ready to start updating on a regular basis.
Let's start the Spring off by viewing 4 great shots of Hank Aaron. You know him right? The real HR champion. Thanks again to photographer Manny Rubio for being there and capturing some great moments on film. You'll be seeing a steady stream of great Aaron images in the coming months....enjoy!!




11.05.2008
I've added some great ones to the hockey page also...T Esposito, Orr, Hull, Dryden, and Cheevers.

09.25.2008
I've also placed 8 great new Blackhawks and Bruins images on the hockey page today.

09.10.2008

09.06.2008


09.02.2008
A few more days have spent organizing so hopefully soon I'll get back to almost daily updates.
I'm sure the uniform watchers from uniwatchblog.com will appreciate the close-up of Davey Johnson's repaired uniform.

08.26.2008
Just a few days off to try and get things organized. I'll be placing some great images on both the baseball and hockey pages in the coming week.

08.16.2008

08.15.2008
Sorry no baseball today. I will post a couple tomorrow morning. I did add 3 new ones to the hockey though.
08.13.2008
Finally some new baseball images! Of course, I've also added a few new hockey ones also.

08.11.2008
Sorry no baseball today. I just ran out of time. I did add 3 great new B&W images to the hockey page though.
08.10.2008
No new baseball today. I will place more shots from the 1972 All-Star game tomorrow. I've added 4 great shots to the hockey page.
08.09.2008
5 new hockey images have also been placed today.

08.08.2008
I'll find time this weekend to put up about a dozen new baseball images. I also updated the HOCKEY page today.

08.06.2008
more HOCKEY tomorrow...and maybe a couple baseball if I have the time.

08.04.2008
I will update the baseball tomorrow....I do have some new hockey though...
08.03.2008
6 new hockey images have been posted also.

08.01.2008
I've got some great new baseball and hockey images today.

07.31.2008
Hockey fans please go HERE. I'll update the hockey page most everyday and the baseball page every other day for the time being.

07.29.2008
Out of all the great new images I've acquired lately I am as excited about the great new Wilie Stargell shots as much as any of them. A childhood hero and a universally well-liked man here he is during his very peak with his ultra-cool sideburns and fu manchu.
Unfortunately the baseball updates will come a little slower as I am concentrating on the hockey stuff right now. I'll try and make time to do a large update (12 photos or so) later this week.

07.27.2008
Be sure to check out my new HOCKEY page. The greatest stars of the game from the early 70s.


07.26.2008
I have created a HOCKEY page to display some of the finest hockey images you'll ever see.

I'm not sure who that is wearing a #70 jersey and the #12 helmet. Whoever it is must have stolen Dusty Baker's helmet.
I'm drawing a complete blank on who #29 for the Orioles is.......this was taken at the 1972 All-Star game.
I'm sure the Uniwatch people will find the Chris Speier photo an interesting one. He's wearing a Houston Astros helmet!
I can't say that I've seen any images before showing Denny McLain during his swan song with the Braves in 1972.
07.24.2008
What is this you ask? Hockey images on a baseball website? Here's the story.....I have been fortunate enough to acquire the complete baseball and hockey archives of noted photographer Manny Rubio. I will be creating a website this weekend which features these and many more outstanding images. Stay tuned for more details.

Here's a couple of my favorites that Manny took during the 1972 All-Star game in Atlanta.

07.20.2008

07.19.2008
Here's the "safe" shot that Topps photographers took in the case player might be traded after this was shot but before the card set came out. Much less work to crop out or airbrush the team name on the jersey if necessary.

A gaggle of really old school Twins for those interested.

07.16.2008

Directly from Bruce Markusen's Where Are They Now? page for the 1972 A's
"Once dubbed the 'Little Roberto Clemente' because of his physical resemblance to the Pittsburgh Pirates' superstar, Mangual never matched the promise of his rookie season in 1971. Still, the native Puerto Rican remained with the A's as a part-time player until 1976, when the team released him to make room for the late Cesar Tovar. In 1997, Mangual's post-baseball fortunes turned sour when he was arrested on charges of drug trafficking."
Unfortunately for the A's he apparently showed more promise than another young outfielder named George Hendrick. Hendrick was traded along with Dave Duncan to the Indians for catcher Ray Fosse and infielder Jack Heidemann in March of 1973. Mangual was a member of all 3 A's championship teams.


I'm sure it's apparent that I have somewhat of a preference for some of the more "behind the scenes" type photos.
BTW, In 1978 and 1979 and the age of 33-34 Davey Lopes stole 89 bases and was caught only 8 times. Simply outstanding.
I've been watching quite a bit of baseball this year and I love watching the Twins because they steal bases and bunt for hits quite often. I think the steroid era emphasis on the longball was getting a bit tired and I'm glad to see the stolen base gain a little bit more value in the game.
07.15.2008

The Sam Mele shot is really an outstanding one. The batting cage netting really gives the image some context. Sam was a player for 10 seasons and then went on the manage the Twins from mid-1961 until mid- 1967. He led the Twins to a WS appearance in 1965 and unfortunately was fired during the 1967 season with his team sitting at 25-25 and 6 games behind league leading Detroit. With Cal Ermer taking the reins the Twins ended up losing the 1967 pennant to the Red Sox in the last game of the season. Sam is still alive and well at age 86.
Archie Reynolds is no relation to Bob or Ken Reynolds. I believe I also have an image of Ken Reynolds (Phillies) somewhere that I'll have to track down. Does anybody name their children Archie anymore? I hope so.....you can't just let a name like that die. Perhaps the trend will go away from the names Jacob, Joshua, and Benjamin and we'll see a resurgence of Archies.
Bob Reynolds got battered pretty good in his lone appearance for the Expos on September 19, 1969. After being traded to the Orioles at the end of Spring Training in 1972 he went on the have a couple well above-average seasons as a reliever in 1973 and 1974.
07.14.2008
Click here to see some more great shots of Barry Larkin.

Here's an unusual one of Ron Blomberg.

I love the one of Vida Blue attempting to bunt.


Click here to see some more Ron Gant.

07.13.2008
This is just one of many great Jack Clark images that I have. In order to not clutter up the main page with 1980s and early 1990s images I will just post one example for each player and you can view more by going to that player's or team's sub-page. Click here to see more Jack Clark images.
To see more of Steve Avery (along with Mike Bielecki, Francisco Cabrera, Paul Assenmacher, Rick Mahler, and Rafael Belliard click HERE.
Here's a few more nice ones of David Justice.
Baseball is not baseball without characters like Yogi Berra.

And last but not least for today I present the greatest catcher of the 1970s...Johnny Bench. 14-time all-star, 10-time gold-glover and a man who threw out 45% of baserunners attempting to steal in his career.

07.12.2008
I'll be slipping a few in from the 80s and early 90s in the coming week.

07.11.2008

07.09.2008

07.07.2008
As promised here's the rare Blefary shots and also a couple great ones of Dave Duncan.

07.04.2008
Happy 4th of July to all! Here's a mega-update for you.
Mudcat Grant was a very effective reliever during his final two seasons (1970-71), spending parts of both seasons with the A's and Pirates. Unfortunately the Pirates sold his rights to the A's in August of 1971 and he missed out on the Pirates successful World Series run. After pitching so well for the A's and also helping a young Rollie Fingers make the transition to the bullpen he was released in Spring Training of 1972 because Charlie O. thought his $60,000 salary was too steep. I thought I read somewhere that he then auditioned for the Cleveland Indians after his release but didn't catch on. Perhaps one of you could verify my memory for me?

What better player to display on the fourth of July than the all-around All-American Steve Garvey? I can't say I'm a huge fan of his but I certainly respect his glovework and the fact that he missed only 8 games during the period from 1974-82.

Here's a couple of Curt (Clank) Blefary that I'm really excited about having. After a great start to his career unfortunately his performance went downhill rather quickly. One interesting thing about Blefary is that the Orioles attempted to convert him into a catcher in 1968 since they were loaded in the outfield with Paul Blair, Don Buford, Frank Robinson and the promising rookies Dave May and Curt Motton. He caught 40 games and threw out 18 of 37 runners attempting to steal. Despite leading the AL in E.R.A. in 1968 the Orioles traded Curt to Houston for Mike Cuellar and with the 1969 return of Jim Palmer the Orioles proceeded to win 109 games in 1969. Blefary traveled from Houston to NY, Oakland, and SD before his career ended in 1972 at the age of 29. Unfortunately he passed away in 2001 of pancreatitis.
Stay tuned for my next update and I'll post 3 great new images of Curt Blefary with the A's in 1971.


07.03.2008
I've finally taken all of the new images from March and April of 2008 and broke them off into a separate page which can be accessed from the ARCHIVES OF "FRONT PAGES" link on the left side of the page. This should make this page load much faster. In the coming weeks I will be uploading a substantial amount of images. At that point I will be transferring the new images from May and June into a separate page. I'm sorry if my navigation system is a bit cumbersome. If you really want to see some good stuff please take the time to check out the previous "front pages".
Here's a look at a couple of my favorite players whose careers cover essentially my whole period of interest in baseball photography. Born six months apart in the mid-south (Rick Monday in Arkansas and Bobby Murcer in Oklahoma) these two were good fielding left handed hitters whose statistics are remarkably similar.
Murcer, I'm sure, is perceived as the bigger star but the stats show that they were essentially equally productive as batters and also in the field. This perception is probably because of Murcer's 5 straight All-Star appearances (1971-75) and also because of being considered the heir apparent to Mickey Mantle in centerfield for the Yankees. Monday's difficulties against lefty pitching also play into it as went from being sat down against some lefties early in his career to becoming a strictly platoon player by the time of his trade to the Dodgers in 1977.
BTW, the Cubs road uniforms during this period were some of the dreariest of the 70s.

07.02.2008
Hondo! The Capital Punisher!

06.29.2008

06.28.2008

Fritz Fisher's career was the shortest among this group of lefties. He faced a mere 5 batters in one game in 1964. After striking out Harmon Killebrew he walked Zoilo Versalles and Bernie Allen before giving up a single to light-hitting Twins catcher Jerry Zimmerman and a double to pitcher Camilio Pascual. Fritz was then pulled by manager Chuck Dressen for Ed Rakow in the April 19th game.
Pete Richert was a promising lefty for the Dodgers who was traded to the Senators as part of the huge 1964 which involved Claude Osteen, Frank Howard, and Ken McMullen among others. He then blossomed into an all-star pitcher for the Washington squad in 1965 and 1966 until faltering a bit and being traded to the Orioles in 1967.
06.23.2008

06.22.2008

06.15.2008

06.11.2008

Pedro Borbon apparently borrowed Bill Plummer's glove for this shot.
Earl Battey was a great catcher for the Twins for several years. He languished in the White Sox farm system until being traded away along with other future stars Norm Cash, Johnny Callison, and Don Mincher by the apparently short-sighted Pale Hose in the 1959-60 off-season..
I should have included Bob Arnzen in my June 9th update. He looks a bit worn out in this shot.
I love the classic posed shot of Jimmy Stewart. I wonder if the Topps photographers ever suggested to Reggie Jackson or Frank Howard that they pose in the "I'm gonna move that runner over" bunting fashion, ala Tito Fuentes and J. Stewart.
06.09.2009 "Close, but no cigar"
All six of the players below never made it to the big leagues. I know nothing about all of them except that Greg Arnold (an Orioles third round pick in 1967) was rumored to be the inspiration for the character Ebby "Nuke" LaLoosh in the movie "Bull Durham".
I must say that the three Oriole pitching prospects sure had an uphill climb in attempting to make the Orioles roster at that time. The Orioles were stacked with pitching at the major and minor league level (Rochester) for many years.

06.08.2008
In search of a theme for the day I have chosen to select a few players that have died too young. Cap Peterson unfortunately passed on in 1980 at the age of 37 due to some sort of kidney problem. Here he is featured during his final major league season in 1969.
Clint Courtney was managing the the Richmond Braves when he was stricken with a heart attack at age 48 while playing ping-pong with a player during a road trip to Rochester, NY. Clint was the first to use the Paul Richards-designed oversized catcher's mitt in an attempt to better catch knuckleballs from Hoyt Wilhelm.

Chico Salmon was a super-sub for most of his career, playing all positions except for catcher and pitcher. He was the main backup infielder for the 1969-71 Orioles mini-dynasty. He didn't get much playing time of course since Powell, Johnson, Belanger, and B. Robinson were pretty set in the Baltimore infield. Chico was the subject of the famous quote by an Oriole teammate...."If Chico's hands get any worse, we'll have to amputate." Bruce Markusen recently did a nice write up (as usual) of Chico on his blog. A heart attack in 2000 ended Chico's life at age 59.
Dave McNally had a splendid run with the Orioles, especially from 1968-74 when averaged 19 wins a season. ESPN.com has a nice article which explains McNally's important role in the creation of free agency. Unfortunately Dave died in 2002 due to lung cancer.
06.07.2008

06.06.2008
06.05.2008

06.04.2008
I understand this page is probably ridiculously overloaded and may be slow-loading. I'll take care of that in the next few days.
Before I starting doing some research on today's players I thought it was an uninspiring bunch. Was I ever wrong.
Norm Bass' story is a fascinating one. Stricken with meningitis at age ten, driven from a promising major league career (with also a short stint in the AFL) by rheumatoid arthritis he turned to table tennis and played in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney.
Please take the time to check out these links. Here's a link to a CNN/SI article on him and also a link to a website created by his son, who also written a book about his father.
Dave Roberts was a well-traveled lefty who changed organizations 11 times in his pro career. His best season was perhaps 1971 when he finished second in the NL with a 2.10 era but with a poor Padres team he managed only a 14-17 record. Here's an interesting bit of info from his wikipedia entry.
"He was initially signed in June 1963 as an undrafted amateur free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies because they reportedly wanted to have a player of Jewish faith in the organization to attract the Jewish fan base."
Steve Hamilton would be considered a "situational lefty" if he played today. At 6'7" he played 2 seasons in the NBA with the Lakers as power forward/center in the late 50s. Later in his career he was one of few practitioners of the "folly floater", also known as the "eephus pitch". Here are his stats and his wikipedia entry. Unfortunately he died of cancer at the age of 62 in 1997.
He obviously had a sense of humor based on the writing on his glove...."A Genuine Steve Hamilton Model"
06.03.2008

Unfortunately 2 of these original Padres are no longer with us. Roberto Pena died in 1983 of "accidental alcohol poisoning" and Ron Davis died in 1992.
Danny Breeden, was the brother of Expos first baseman Hal Breeden and accumulated a mere 73 at bats over 2 seasons (1969 Reds and 1971 Cubs) for his major league career.
Ron Slocum is an interesting case in that while he is pictured here in 1969 with his catcher's gear he did not play catcher for the Padres in 1969, instead he played 2b,ss, and 3b. In 1970 he played those three positions and played 19 games behind the plate for the Pads.
Out of these 4 players two of them, Ron Davis and Danny Breeden never appeared in a major league game with the Padres.
06.02.2008
Here's a study in contrast. Denny Doyle wearing what appears to be a Casey
Jones-style engineer's hat and looking as green as can be in a shot taken 2
years before his ML debut and Bo Belinsky looking a bit more worldly as he gazes
off-camera, no doubt pondering some very deep thoughts.
I really love the early Padres....I've got only about 5 more of these and I'll put them up for Tuesday's update.
06.01.2008

From Bobby Del Greco's wikipedia entry "Del Greco played his last major-league game for the Phillies in May 1965 and remained in the minor leagues through 1967. Following his retirement from baseball, he went to work as a delivery driver for The Pittsburgh Press. Del Greco threw batting practice for the Pittsburgh Pirates until the early 1990s."
Chuck Dobson was the benefactor of perhaps the greatest run support in ML history during the 1971 season. The A's batters averaged 5.96 runs during his 30 starts, allowing him to post a record of 15-5 while sporting a relatively high ERA of 3.81. Unfortunately arm/shoulder/elbow problems prevented him from playing any kind of role with the 1972-74 A's dynasty.
05.31.2008
I've already got tomorrow's update ready to go so be sure to check back on Sunday morning.
A big thank you to those who responded to my questions about some mystery Angels from my last update. I've corrected the post from 5/26.
Perhaps most of you know this already but I just found out that Dock Ellis is gravely ill with cirrhosis of the liver. That's not good at all....Dock was a big favorite of mine. The 1971 World Series was the first one I remember watching and the Pirates were MY team. Maybe it was because of the cool uniforms or maybe it was because my brother's favorite team was the Orioles.

05.26.2008
?? A little help please in ID'ing the Angel? Fred Newman,
probably taken on 8/12/64 when the Indians visited Dodger Stadium. Newman bested
McDowell to run his record for the season to 10-5. Coincidentally, Kevin
of the 1965 Topps blog recently had a
post about Fred Newman.
Minnie Rojas?
Of course not....it's Rudy May sans glasses.

05.25.2008
I love this shot of
Gene Tenace. I remember the first re-entry draft in late 76....I believe
teams drafted the right to negotiate with a player. I don't know how many teams
could select one player though or how many players one team could draft.
Here's the list of players involved in that draft....lifted straight from retrosheet.org
Bill Campbell was the first player signed. Nate Colbert and Willie McCovey were not selected by any team.

A slick-fielder with a decent bat,
I wonder why
Willie Montanez spent his whole career being traded from team to team.
Rodney Scott was a dangerous baserunner and a decent 2nd baseman but his low
batting average prevented him from being more valued. Upon being released by the
Expos in 1982 Rodney's friend and Expo teammate Bill Lee staged a one-game
walkout in protest....and was promptly released. Lee claims he was blackballed
and never played in the majors again.
Here's a few "fan shots" from an 1976 exhibition game that the Reds played in Indianapolis (I believe).

05.24.2008
Vicente Romo was a pretty good relief pitcher for the Indians, Red Sox,
Padres, and Dodgers. I find it interesting that he's from Baja California, I'm
sure there aren't too many players from that Mexican state besides Vicente and
his brother Enrique. After playing for the Padres in 1974 he didn't appear in
the majors until 1982 with the Dodgers.
Felix Millan was one of the NL's best second baseman for about a decade
until a shoulder injury suffered in an August 1977 brawl ended his major league
career. He played in Japan after that for 3 seasons. Here's some great memories
of him from the
Ultimate Mets Database.
Dave Ricketts' playing resume is not all that strong (213 at bats over 6
seasons) but he later spent 19 seasons as a well-respected coach for the Pirates
and Cardinals and was a member of the 1967 World Champion Cardinals.
Gary Peters was an outstanding pitcher for the White Sox who had lost much
of his effectiveness by the time he was traded to the Red Sox for the 1970
season at age 33.
05.22.2008
I hope to get back on my regular schedule of daily updates again this weekend so hang tight there's some more great stuff on the way.
This says something about me for sure but out of
today's three additions I'm most interested in this shot of
Ron Brand. Doing a little bit of research uncovers a couple of interesting
things about Ron.
He was primarily a catcher but it wasn't until his last two seasons (1970 and 1971) that he played shortstop. Gene Mauch must have really been desperate for offense so Brand played 41 games at ss over those two seasons, often starting at ss and then being relieved later in the game by the light hitting but slick fielding Bobby Wine.
Ron is one of relatively few Mormons who have played in the big leagues. He also played for Sacramento in something called the MSBL from 1989-94. It appears it's some kind of over 35 or over 40 amateur baseball league. Many other former major leaguers have also played in the league. Here's the roster.
Jay Johnstone's time spent with the Yankees was pretty short (June 14, 1978
to June 15, 1979) so this is a pretty rare shot from Spring Training 1979.
A nice shot from early in
Bob Boone's long career. I did not know until checking his
baseball-reference page that he went to Stanford. I don't know if he graduated
but I'm still impressed.
05.19.2008
As some of you may know the first baseball card set
that I really remember well is the 1971 Topps set.
Angel Bravo's card was among many of my favorites way back then. The
diminutive Venezuelan had a decent 1970 season with the Reds as a pinch-hitter
deluxe but after being traded to the Padres in April of 1971 he failed miserably
in the same role for the lowly Padres and his major league career was over. I
find it interesting that Angel is posed as a righty in this shot when
everybody knows he was a lefty swinger.
After winning 20 games for the AL West Champion 1969
Twins, Dave Boswell lost a 1-0 duel to Dave McNally and the O's in the 1969 ALCS
while pitching 10 2/3 innings. His career was cut short by an arm injury
suffered while pitching to Frank Robinson in the 10th inning of that game.
Here's a good
interview with Dave.
Dave Boswell will forever be remembered for being throttled by his manager Billy Martin in a Detroit bar in 1969. Here's a good account of the incident.
Tommie Reynolds' best opportunity in the big leagues was with the 1969
A's playing left field alongside future stars Rick Monday and Reggie Jackson. He
didn't perform badly but his OPS+ of 88 (relative to the league) was not good
enough for Oakland's management so the A's traded Jim Nash to the Braves to get
Felipe Alou to play LF in 1970 while Tommie's contract was sold to California in
May of 1970.. Ironically Alou performed no better than Reynolds and also posted
an OPS+ of 88 in his lone full season with the club.
05.17.2008
A sincere thank you goes out to all of you who have contacted me offering condolences for our family's loss. I didn't intend to take this much time off from updating the site but now I'm rested and have recharged my batteries. Stay tuned for some great changes at SBPP......a new searchable website is coming very soon and I hope to be displaying perhaps 1000 new images over the summer months.
I'm sure you are all aware of the tragic story of Lyman Bostock.
A tribute page can be found here and a great article from the LA Times from April 22, 2008 can be found here.
Free agency rules were different back in 1977 and Bostock was allowed to leave via free agency after just 3 full seasons in the big leagues. Larry Hisle also left the Twins that November and the squad was devastated as they went from leading the AL in runs and batting average in 1977 to being 8th in runs and 4th in batting average in 1978. Their replacements in the outfield were the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time-players Willie Norwood and Hosken Powell and Bombo Rivera.
Don't know much at all about
Gary Boyd except that his career consisted of 11 very long innings for the
Indians in 1969.
Rob
Gardner was a well-traveled lefty who's best season was 1972 with the
Yankees when he notched 8 wins in spot starter duty. I primarily
remember him from his really bad Topps cards from 1971 and 1973.
05.05.2008
My mom passed away suddenly yesterday at the age of 77. Even after 44 years she still called me her "baby". I didn't always like that but I came to understand.....that's why my 4-year old son will always be my "baby boy".
Here's a few of Lucy Dewing's favorite ballplayers.
At about age 11 I remember waiting with mom in the pavilion area beyond centerfield at Met Stadium for Larry's autograph. He signed a pennant for me and I remember her commenting about how nice he was to the swarm of kids around him.
I'll be taking a couple days off from updating this week.

05.04.2008
OK, OK so it's not a double-sized update. Maybe tomorrow.
Here's the "Hawk",
Ken Harrelson , in a nice shot taken during Spring Training 1967. He spent
just the latter half of 1966 and the early part of 1967 with the Senators before
being traded back to the KC A's. Of course, he was subsequently released by the
A's for referring to owner Charlie Finley as a "menace to baseball" and caught
on with the Red Sox as a replacement for the injured Tony Conigliaro during
their 1967 pennant season.
I seem to remember
Adrian Garrett one of those guys whose minor league numbers on the back of
their "rookie stars" baseball card looked really good but couldn't translate
that success to the big leagues. He spent at least 15 years in organized
baseball and had only 276 at-bats (and 11 homers) to show for it.
I guess I'm at a loss to comment on
Russ Gibson. I don't know much about him except that this is a cool shot.
Ernie Bowman was a utility infielder who played parts of three seasons with
the Giants (1961-63). He hit his only major league HR in 205 at bats on
August 23, 1962 at the Polo Grounds against Mets lefty Al Jackson. This
photo is from 1966.
05.03.2008
Stay tuned for a double-size update for tomorrow.
"3-Dog"
was a 2-time all-star and 3-time gold glover while playing centerfield for the
Dodgers from 1960-1973, Montreal in 1974, Tex-StL in 1975, SD in 1976, and the
Angels as a backup in 1979. After being released by the Padres in January 1977
he spent two years playing in Japan. Had he been able to stick around as a
regular in 1977-78 he would have approached 3000 hits for his career, as is
stands he ended up with 2561 hits along with 398 stolen bases and 138 triples.
In the span of two days (Dec 5-6,1973) the Dodgers made 3 interesting trades. Firstly they traded Willie Davis for Mike Marshall. This gave them a good reliever but created a hole in CF. They then traded Pete Richert to St Louis for Tommie Agee. Lastly they traded Claude Osteen to the Astros for Jimmy Wynn.
Agee was released in March 1974 (thus ending his career) but otherwise worked well for them since Wynn had an outstanding year in 1974 and of course Mike Marshall ended up winning the Cy Young award while pitching an astounding 106 games (208 innings) in relief. You could make a strong argument that Wynn should have won the MVP award rather than teammate Steve Garvey.
Here's a couple of interesting items from his wikipedia entry.
"a Buddhist convert, he nonetheless irritated teammates by constantly fingering his prayer beads and chanting before games."
"Off the field, Davis had substance abuse problems. Eventually, with the help of teammate Tommy Davis and friend Tommy Hawkins, Davis recuperated."
Brant Alyea was one of many players to
have "career years" in 1970. Others that come to mind are Jim Hickman, Bernie
Carbo, Clarence Gaston, Dick Dietz, and Tommy Harper. After a poor 1971 season
he was drafted from the Twins by the A's and performed poorly in limited duty
with the A's and Cardinals in 1972 to end his career.
from
Bud
Harrelson's wikipedia entry.
"Harrelson is currently the co-owner, Senior Vice President for Baseball Operations and first base coach of the Long Island Ducks, an unaffiliated minor league baseball team.'
05.02.2008
John Gelnar saw limited duty with the
Pirates during the 1964 and 1967 seasons and performed poorly. He was purchased
by the Royals but was traded along with Steve Whitaker on April 1st, 1969 in the
infamous Lou Piniella trade. His next tour in the bigs proved much more
successful as the appeared in 39 games (107 innings) and posted a 3.31 era for
the lowly Pilots. After a decent season in 1970 with the Brewers and a
couple of appearances for Milwaukee in 1971 he was traded to the Tigers and
never made it back to "the show". He's also one of Alan Johnson's favorite
players.
Orlando Pena was such a well-traveled
pitcher that it's easy to forget that he spent some time in the O's
organization. He appeared in 5 games for the Orioles in 1971 and another 11 in
1973 before being sold the the Cardinals. He's wearing #62 in this Spring
Training shot.....below he is shown wearing #27 in the "Johnny Pro" card from
1973.
05.01.2008

Gary Geiger was a good player for several years. Most of his success came as a centerfielder with the Red Sox from 1959 to 1965, although his last two years with the team were marred by injuries. Sadly enough he died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1996 at the age of 59. Here's a link to a very touching article about him
Gary Gentry was a good young pitcher whose career was ended by what is
described as "ruinous elbow injury" during his first year with the Braves. After
his injury, which I believe happened during a
June 5th, 1973 game against the Expos, Gary pitched just another 32 1/3
innings at the major league level.
| Boston Red Sox | Luis Alvarado |
| Boston Red Sox | Juan Beniquez |
| Boston Red Sox | Wade Boggs |
| Boston Red Sox | Jack Brohamer |
| Boston Red Sox | Orlando Cepeda |
| Boston Red Sox | Tony Conigliaro |
| Boston Red Sox | Billy Conigliaro |
| Boston Red Sox | Dwight Evans |
| Boston Red Sox | Carlton Fisk |
| Boston Red Sox | Joe Foy |
| Boston Red Sox | Mike Garman |
| Boston Red Sox | Mike Greenwell |
| Boston Red Sox | Ken Harrelson |
| Boston Red Sox | Ramon Hernandez |
| Boston Red Sox | Butch Hobson |
| Boston Red Sox | Dalton Jones |
| Boston Red Sox | Carney Lansford |
| Boston Red Sox | Bill Lee |
| Boston Red Sox | Jim Lonborg |
| Boston Red Sox | Sparky Lyle |
| Boston Red Sox | Fred Lynn |
| Boston Red Sox | Syd O'Brien |
| Boston Red Sox | Mike Paxton |
| Boston Red Sox | Rico Petrocelli |
| Boston Red Sox | Steve Renko |
| Boston Red Sox | Jim Rice |
| Boston Red Sox | George Scott |
| Boston Red Sox | Sonny Siebert |
| Boston Red Sox | Reggie Smith |
| Boston Red Sox | Bob Stanley |
| Boston Red Sox | Luis Tiant |
| Boston Red Sox | John Tudor |
| Boston Red Sox | Gary Wagner |
| Boston Red Sox | Jim Willoughby |
| Boston Red Sox | Carl Yastrzemski |
| Boston Red Sox | Don Zimmer |
| California Angels | Sandy Alomar |
| California Angels | Jose Azcue |
| California Angels | Don Baylor |
| California Angels | Bobby Bonds |
| California Angels | Lyman Bostock |
| California Angels | Ken Brett |
| California Angels | Leo Cardenas |
| California Angels | Rod Carew |
| California Angels | Dean Chance |
| California Angels | Rickey Clark |
| California Angels | Tony Conigliaro |
| California Angels | Chuck Cottier |
| California Angels | Billy Cowan |
| California Angels | Brian Downing |
| California Angels | Jim Fregosi |
| California Angels | Dave Frost |
| California Angels | Alex Johnson |
| California Angels | Steve Kealey |
| California Angels | Bobby Knoop |
| California Angels | Carney Lansford |
| California Angels | Rudy May |
| California Angels | Carlos May |
| California Angels | Ken McMullen |
| California Angels | Andy Messersmith |
| California Angels | Don Mincher |
| California Angels | Tom Murphy |
| California Angels | Rick Reichardt |
| California Angels | Jerry Remy |
| California Angels | Mickey Rivers |
| California Angels | Frank Robinson |
| California Angels | Minnie Rojas |
| California Angels | Joe Rudi |
| California Angels | Nolan Ryan |
| California Angels | Richie Scheinblum |
| California Angels | Bill Singer |
| California Angels | Jim Spencer |
| California Angels | Frank Tanana |
| California Angels | Bobby Valentine |
| California Angels | Bill Voss |
| California Angels | Clyde Wright |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Luis Alcarez |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Richie Allen |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Walt Alston |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Rick Auerbach |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Bob Bailey |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Dusty Baker |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Ken Boyer |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Bill Buckner |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Jim Bunning |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Ron Cey |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Willie Crawford |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Willie Davis |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Don Drysdale |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Joe Ferguson |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Alan Foster |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Steve Garvey |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Charlie Hough |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Ron Hunt |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Tommy John |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Andy Kosco |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Sandy Koufax |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Jim Lefebvre |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Davey Lopes |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Andy Messersmith |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Rick Monday |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Claude Osteen |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Wes Parker |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Doug Rau |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Rick Rhoden |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Frank Robinson |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Bill Russell |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Ted Savage |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Dick Schofield |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Duke Sims |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Bill Singer |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Ted Sizemore |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Reggie Smith |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Don Sutton |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Maury Wills |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Jimmy Wynn |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Steve Yeager |
| Oakland A's | Jesus Alou |
| Oakland A's | Stan Bahnsen |
| Oakland A's | Sal Bando |
| Oakland A's | Vida Blue |
| Oakland A's | Bert Campaneris |
| Oakland A's | Danny Cater |
| Oakland A's | Vic Davalillo |
| Oakland A's | Mike Epstein |
| Oakland A's | Rollie Fingers |
| Oakland A's | Tito Francona |
| Oakland A's | Phil Garner |
| Oakland A's | Dick Green |
| Oakland A's | Larry Haney |
| Oakland A's | Ken Holtzman |
| Oakland A's | Catfish Hunter |
| Oakland A's | Reggie Jackson |
| Oakland A's | Joe Keough |
| Oakland A's | Paul Lindblad |
| Oakland A's | Ted Martinez |
| Oakland A's | Rick Monday |
| Oakland A's | Bill North |
| Oakland A's | Blue Moon Odom |
| Oakland A's | Tommie Reynolds |
| Oakland A's | Phil Roof |
| Oakland A's | Joe Rudi |
| Oakland A's | Gene Tenace |
| Oakland A's | Cesar Tovar |
| Oakland A's | Dick Williams |
FAVORITE SPORTS LINKS:
www.bruce.mlblogs.com Bruce Markusen's bi-weekly Cooperstown Confidential always lends some insight to players of the past along with present-day baseball thoughts.
www.hardballtimes.com Great site. Steve Treder's columns about the old days are very in-depth and very interesting.
www.deadballera.com Pays homage to the heroes of my youth who have died. Unfortunately time waits for no one and the site is growing every week.
www.thisistheusfl.com/index.htm Ditto the above comments. The internet is a better place when people can share their passion for whatever interests them.
www.baseball-reference.com A very easy to use database of just about everything you need to know about baseball statistics. Not as detailed as www.retrosheet.org but more user-friendly.
FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPHIC LINKS:
www.dpreview.com -- discussions and reviews of everything related to digital photography
www.stevesforums.com -- lots of digital discussion also.....leans more towards basic consumer-level issues though.
www.photo-net.com -- plenty of digital photo info here and also lots of traditional photo stuff
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/ Another great place to learn about B&W printing
** All of these images are from original negatives and slides which I own. If you would like to use them for a "web" purpose please do the proper thing and ask first.
This is
not an official publication of any sports league, team, or player.
The photographs sold on thatsmyboy03.com are not licensed or endorsed by any
professional sports league, any professional sports team, any player's
association, or any player from said league or player's association or any other
individual or entity which may appear in the photographs. Leagues and entities
mentioned above may include but are not limited to: the MLB, the MLBPA,
the PGA, or the NFL.
Contact Info:
Steve 612-986-2817