#36 Rudy Minarcin - Cincinnati Redlegs

Rudy Anthony Minarcin
Cincinnati Redlegs
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  195
Born:  March 25, 1930, North Vandergrift, PA
Signed:  Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent before the 1948 season
Major League Teams:  Cincinnati Reds 1955; Boston Red Sox 1956-1957
Died:  October 15, 2013, Cabot, PA (age 83)

Rudy Minarcin was a multi-sport star for Vandergrift high school, leading the Phillies to sign him and place him with their Class C minor league team conveniently also located in Vandergrift.  Left unprotected in the 1949 Rule 5 draft, the Reds selected him from the Phillies and he'd make his big league debut with the club in 1955.  Minarcin had missed a few years serving in the military, where he suffered a knee injury that may have contributed to his shortened playing career.

In parts of three seasons, Minarcin made 70 appearances, mostly in relief, and compiled a 6-9 record and a 4.66 ERA.  He'd play professionally in the minor leagues through 1959 before retiring from baseball at the age of 29.

Building the Set
October 10, 1998 in Winston-Salem, NC - Card #161
In what had to have been a post-birthday purchase, I spent $52 in the Season Ticket baseball card store in Winston-Salem for 10 1956 Topps cards.  This Minarcin card cost me $4.  I say it had to have been a post-birthday purchase as I didn't have a lot of disposable income back then, but I made sure that any birthday money from my parents went towards something fun and not towards something practical.

I spent 5 years living in Winston-Salem, but I still managed to get lost driving around in those pre-GPS days quite frequently.  Season Ticket was one of the few locations in the city that I memorized and I could drive to without having to ask someone to remind me of the directions.  I mean no disrespect to the former owners, but the place was a glorious dump.  Baseball cards were stacked precariously and haphazardly throughout the store, there was hardly any flat surface without something piled on it, nothing was ever in order and if you asked for something specific the owners may or may not remember the generally direction of where they had last seen it.

And I loved it in there.  I took my Dad a few times when my parents visited me, and he couldn't wait to get out of the store and back into some fresh air.  Sadly, a recent Google Maps search shows that Season Ticket has gone the way of a lot of hobby shops, and there's now something called Beauty Touch in its place.  But I bet there are still random stacks of baseball cards hiding in a nook or crevice somewhere in the shop.

The Card
I've not been keeping track of this (yet), but Minarcin only appeared in 3 games in 1956 which has to be the least amount of games played that season for a player in the set.  Or at least it has to be close.

1956 Season
Minarcin spent most of the 1956 season pitching for the Havana Sugar Kings, the top farm team for the Reds and located in Cuba.  He had a record of 15-12 and an impressive 2.92 ERA over 40 games (30 starts) before the Reds sold him to the Red Sox on September 9th.  He pitched in 3 games for the Red Sox, getting a win in relief against the Yankees on September 29th.

Phillies Connection
As mentioned above, and on the card's back, Minarcin was originally signed by the Phillies and his SABR biography notes his signing bonus was thought to be $6,000.  Playing for the Class C Vandergrift Pioneers as an 18-year-old, Minarcin went 7-7 with a 3.44 ERA.  Of the 21 players on the 1948 Pioneers squad, Minarcin was the only one to ever reach the Majors.  The Pioneers franchise lasted only four seasons, fielding a team between 1947 and 1950.

(Postcard above from Worth Point.)

1955 Topps #174

2005 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RM

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #174
First Topps Card:  1955 Topps #174
Last Topps Card (as a player):  1956 Topps #36
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2005 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RM
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (2):  1955-1956

6 - Minarcin non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/11/19.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year.  Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.

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Set Order: #35 Al Rosen - Cleveland Indians / #37 Alex Grammas - St. Louis Cardinals

Order Collected: #15 Ernie Banks - Chicago Cubs / #50 "Dusty" Rhodes - New York Giants