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Charles William Tanner
Milwaukee Braves
Outfield
Bats: Left Throws: Left Height: 6'0" Weight: 185
Born: July 4, 1928, New Castle, PA
Signed: Signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent before 1946 season
Major League Teams: Milwaukee Braves 1955-1957; Chicago Cubs 1957-1958; Cleveland Indians 1959-1960; Los Angeles Angels 1961-1962
As a Manager: Chicago White Sox 1970-1975; Oakland Athletics 1976; Pittsburgh Pirates 1977-1985; Atlanta Braves 1986-1988
Died: February 11, 2011, New Castle, PA (82)
Better known as a long-time manager, Chuck Tanner played in parts of eight seasons in the Majors with the Braves, Cubs, Indians and Angels. Serving mainly as a backup outfielder, Tanner appeared in 396 games, hitting .261 with 21 home runs and 105 RBIs. In his first big league at-bat in 1955, pinch-hitting for Warren Spahn (#10), Tanner hit a home run off the very first pitch he saw becoming the seventh player in major league history to accomplish that feat. His best season came in the 1957, spending time with both the Braves and Cubs, and hitting .279 with career highs in home runs (9) and RBIs (48).
As a manager, Tanner broke in with the White Sox at the end of the 1970 season, replacing interim manager Bill Adair who had replaced regular manager Don Gutteridge. He managed the White Sox to a 401-414 record over six seasons, finishing as high as second place in 1972. Following one season in Oakland in 1976, the Pirates worked out a deal with A's owner Charlie Finley to acquire the home-town Tanner to be their new manager. All-Star catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000 were sent to the A's in exchange. Tanner spent nine seasons at the helm for the Pirates, guiding the team to their 1979 World Series title. He finished his managerial career with the Braves, fired by then general manager Bobby Cox at the start of the 1988 season after getting off to a 12-27 start. Overall, he managed in parts of 19 seasons and compiled a career record of 1,352-1,381.Building the Set
April 9, 1988 from Millville, NJ - Card #56
We bought this card for $4 from a local card shop called Brokell's in Millville, NJ back in 1988. My Dad and I frequented this store, and this was one of four cards for our 1956 set we purchased from Brokell's that year. April 9th was a Saturday so if I had to guess, we most likely acquired this card before or after enjoying a few burgs from Jim's Lunch. At the time, I knew Tanner solely as a manager and I had collected his cards in Topps sets throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Little did we know when we purchased this card he'd be fired by the Braves a little over a month later in May 1988.
As an eighth grader in 1988, I realized the need to start tracking these cards as my Dad and I added them to our set. I wanted a record of where and when and how much we had paid for each card, and so I created a tracking schedule using our very sophisticated Commodore 64. This was a complicated process, involving typing out the checklist, printing the checklist, taking those pages to the library and using the photocopier to shrink the size of the pages, and then rubber cementing the pages to another piece of paper. I have two pages similar to the one below for this tracking exercise, which I seemingly quickly abandoned after we had added the Tanner card to the set. Eventually, my tracking got even more sophisticated as I graduated to a word processing document on our new Commodore 128.
A few years ago, I featured the Ted Kluszewski (#25) card we had purchased from Brokell's, and I tried to find the building on Google Maps. The photo above is the building I believe was Brokell's, and it appears to be a Tae Kwon Do studio today.
The Card
This is Tanner's second Topps card, and this uses the same portrait photo as his 1955 Topps rookie card. On the back, his birth year is a year off from the actual date of 1928.
The minor league notes on the back are accurate, and Tanner did in fact hit over .300 for eight seasons in a row in the minors between 1947 and 1954. The only year he missed the mark was his first professional season in 1946 when he hit .247 in 25 games (20 for 81) for the Evansville Braves and the Owensboro Oilers.
1956 Season
Tanner couldn't crack into the Braves' starting outfield as it was successfully already manned by Bobby Thomson (#257), Bill Bruton (#185) and Hank Aaron (#31). In 60 games, mostly coming off the bench, Tanner he hit .238 with a home run and four RBIs. The Braves finished second in 1956, only a game behind the pennant winning Brooklyn Dodgers.
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First Mainstream Card: 1955 Topps #161
First Topps Card: 1955 Topps #161
Last Topps Card (as a player): 1960 Topps #279
First Topps Card (as a manager): 1971 Topps #661
Last Topps Card (as a manager): 1988 Topps #134
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2001 Topps Archives #428
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (23): 1955-1960, 1971-1981, 1983-1988
63 - Tanner non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/11/19.
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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Order Collected: #269 Jack Meyer - Philadelphia Phillies / #1 William Harridge - A.L. President
My only memories of Tanner were his years managing the Pirates. Very good memories though considering he lead them to a WS Championship.
ReplyDeleteI was always fascinated to learn that the "old" guy who was the manager of a current team used to be younger and actually played the game!
ReplyDelete