#142 Gene Baker - Chicago Cubs

Eugene Walter Baker
Chicago Cubs
Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  170
Born:  June 15, 1925, Davenport, IA
Signed:  Signed by the Chicago Cubs as an amateur free agent, April 1, 1950
Major League Teams:  Chicago Cubs 1953-1957; Pittsburgh Pirates 1957-1958, 1960-1961
Died:  December 1, 1999, Davenport, IA (age 74)

Gene Baker began his professional baseball career as the regular shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues in 1948 and 1949 before signing with the Cubs organization in 1950.  He was moved to second base when the Cubs acquired a second shortstop, Ernie Banks (#15), shortly after Baker had made his Cubs debut.  Baker enjoyed his strongest season in 1955, being named to the N.L. All-Star team and batting .268 with 11 home runs and 52 RBIs while playing in all the Cubs' 154 games.  Traded to the Pirates on May 1, 1957 with Dee Fondy (#112) for Dale Long (#56) and Lee Walls, Baker moved to third base and was a reserve for the team when they went to the World Series in 1960.  Baker made three pinch-hitting appearances in the 1960 World Series and earned a ring when the Pirates downed the Yankees in seven games.  For his career, Baker appeared in 630 games and batted .265.

In 1961, Baker became the first African-American manager in professional baseball when he was named the player/manager for the Batavia Pirates in the Class D New York-Pennsylvania League.  After serving as a coach in 1962 with the Triple-A Columbus Jets, the Pirates promoted Baker to their major league coaching staff following Buck O'Neil as the second African-American coach in the big leagues.  He was also technically the first black manager in the majors when he took over the team following Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh's and coach Frank Oceak's ejections on September 21, 1963.  Baker later served as a scout for the Pirates for 23 years, covering their Midwest territory.

Building the Set
December 25, 2006 from Mays Landing, NJ - Card #279
I was officially given this card on Christmas Day in 2006, but my Dad had purchased it several weeks (months?) earlier at a baseball card show held at the Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing, New Jersey.

This was one of nine cards I received that Christmas from my Dad, and he spent a total of $210 on all nine cards with the Hank Aaron (#31) card being the big ticket item at $150.  Like all his purchases, he was extremely proud of this card's condition and I'm sure there was a negotiation story that went along with the acquisition.

Our first son Doug was born a few weeks before Christmas that year and we brought him home just in time for the big day.  He obviously doesn't remember much from his first Christmas, but he spent the holidays being held and loved by his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.  The picture shown here is from Christmas Day 2006, shortly after I had added those nine cards to our (and one day Doug's) 1956 Topps set.  One of the great joys of my life was seeing how proud my Dad was to have a grandson.

The Card / Cubs Team Set
This is Baker's first Topps card, and his rookie card can be found in the 1955 Bowman set.  I'll take a wild guess here and surmise the baserunner in the action shot is Giants' infielder Al Dark (#148), who wore #19 between 1950 and 1956.  If so, the photo was taken at New York's Polo Grounds as Baker is shown wearing a Cubs' away jersey with Chicago written across the front and underlined.

So much time and effort went into the backs of these Topps cards, and it's a shame there's not as much care taken with the company's newer issues.  (I'll be right back as I need to tell some pesky kids to get off my lawn.)  Baker's cartoon panels highlight his 154 game run in 1955, as well as his league leading 432 putouts and 444 assists.  The middle panel references Banks' arrival without actually naming the Cubs' shortstop and future Hall of Famer.

1956 Season

Baker enjoyed another steady season as the Cubs' regular second baseman, appearing in 140 games and batting .258.  He had 12 home runs and 57 RBIs for a Cubs team that lost 94 games.  Banks was his main double play partner with Fondy usually at first base and Don Hoak (#335) getting the majority of starts at third.

1955 Bowman #7

1957 Topps #176

1958 Topps #358

1959 Topps #238

1961 Topps #339

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Bowman #7
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1956-1961
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1979 TCMA The 1950s #48

29 - Baker non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/14/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Also, 142 cards down and an even 200 to go!

#141 Joe Frazier - St. Louis Cardinals

Joseph Filmore Frazier
St. Louis Cardinals
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  180
Born:  October 6, 1922, Liberty, NC
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1941 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1947; St. Louis Cardinals 1954-1956; Cincinnati Reds 1956; Baltimore Orioles 1956
As a Manager:  New York Mets 1976-1977
Died:  February 15, 2011, Broken Arrow, OK (age 88)

Joe Frazier spent parts of four seasons in the major leagues, being used as a pinch-hitter in 171 of his 217 total games played.  After a brief stint with the Indians in 1947, and making his big league debut on August 31st of that season, he was traded to the St. Louis Browns.  He'd spend six seasons playing in the minor league systems of the Browns and White Sox, before finally making it back to the majors with the Cardinals in 1954.  Frazier appeared in 81 games with the Cardinals in 1954, another 58 games with the club in 1955, and then spent 1956 in the uniforms of the Cardinals, Reds and Orioles.

He retired after four more seasons in the minors with a career major league batting average of .241.  Frazier took a job as a scout for the expansion Houston Colt .45s in 1961, and was elevated to the manager of the Bradenton Astros in 1965.  He joined the Mets organization in 1968, finding success at each level of their minor league system.  In 1975, he guided the Triple-A Tidewater Tides to the International League pennant and was named The Sporting News Minor League Manager of the Year.  Frazier was hired as the Mets' new manager to start their 1976 season and he guided the club to an improved 86-76 record and a third place finish.  The 1977 season started poorly though, with Frazier fired after the Mets began the season at 15-30.  His final managerial job came with the Triple-A Louisville Cardinals in 1982, and he remained with the Cardinals' organization as a scout through the mid-1980s.

Building the Set

February 9, 2002 in Cooperstown, NY - Card #233
This is one of only four cards I purchased in 2002, which was one of the tougher years for me personally.  I made a solo unscheduled and unplanned trip to Cooperstown in early 2002 in an attempt to clear my mind one weekend.  It was an escape.  Thinking back on that time now 19 years later, I realize Cooperstown was a logical choice for me to make my escape as I could leave my present worries behind and live in the past for a few days.  I spent a lot of time walking around the Hall of Fame, taking my time and actually relaxing.

I didn't have a lot of money for this trip, but I visited Baseball Nostalgia that Saturday afternoon and purchased four cards for our 1956 Topps set, including this Frazier card.  The other three cards purchased were Jim Davis (#102), Don Kaiser (#124) and Tom Gorman (#246) and the four cards together cost me $18.50.  That's a fairly low price to pay for some much needed baseball card therapy.

I'm happy to see Baseball Nostalgia is still open.  My wife and I have discussed taking a trip back to Cooperstown when everything gets back to normal as neither of our boys have ever visited before.  Whenever that trip happens, I'll be sure to pay a visit to Baseball Nostalgia.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set
The main photo of Frazier is repeated from his 1955 Topps rookie card, and the action photo shows the edge of his #24, the number he wore with the Cardinals for three seasons.  His pinch-hitting skills are highlighted on the back of the card.  For his career, Frazier was a .221 pinch-hitter (31 for 140) with 7 doubles, 1 triple and 3 home runs.  The power threat mentioned in the final panel is from his minor league days.  While he hit just 10 home runs in the majors, he hit 144 in the minor leagues with a career high 22 home runs in 1953 with the Oklahoma City Indians.

1956 Season

This was a busy year for Frazier.  He began the season with the Cardinals, appearing in 14 games, and then was traded to the Reds with Alex Grammas (#37) on May 16th for Chuck Harmon (#308).  He was with the Reds for a little over a month, appearing in 10 games, and then was sold to the Orioles on June 26th.  He finished out the year with the Orioles, appearing in 45 games.  For the season, he batted .245 over 69 games with the three different teams.  His final major league game came on September 30th when he started in right field for the Orioles, batting clean-up.  In his final big league at-bat, Frazier hit a solo home run to deep right field off Senators' pitcher Ted Abernathy.

1955 Topps #89

1976 SSPC #610

1976 Topps #531

1977 Topps #259

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #89
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1955-1956, 1976-1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1977 Topps #259

17 - Frazier non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/10/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

#140 Herb Score - Cleveland Indians

Herbert Jude Score
Cleveland Indians
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  185
Born:  June 7, 1933, Rosedale, NY
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as a free agent, June 7, 1952
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1955-1959; Chicago White Sox 1960-1962
Died:  November 11, 2008, Rocky River, OH (age 75)

Herb Score was the 1955 American League Rookie of the Year, and a 20-game winner the following season before a scary on field incident in 1957 altered his career trajectory.  Score led the league in strikeouts his first two seasons with 245 in 1955 and a career high 263 in 1956.  He rocketed to stardom early, joining a dominant pitching staff that already had Early Wynn (#187) and Bob Lemon (#255), and Score appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on May 30, 1955.  On May 7, 1957, Score was hit with a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald (#225), missing the rest of the season.  He returned in 1958 but tore a tendon in his arm, limiting him to just 12 games.  A trade at the start of the 1960 season sent Score to the White Sox, where he'd pitch the final three years of his career.

After retiring as a player, Score pivoted to the broadcast booth, where he announced Indians games for 34 years between 1964 and 1997.  A fan favorite, he was inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame in 2006.

Building the Set
October 3, 1999 in Raleigh, NC - Card #186

We bought this card on October 3rd at the Raleigh Sports Card Show, and it ended up being part of a birthday present to me from my Dad.  I was still living in Raleigh in late 1999, and my parents made the trip south to visit me for my birthday.  We bought 8 cards that day (that I knew about) paying $5 for six of the cards, including this Score card, and $2 for the Grady Hatton (#26) and Danny O'Connell (#272) cards.  Unbeknownst to me, my Dad also purchased the Sandy Koufax card (#79) but he squirreled that one away until Christmas morning 1999.

From the back of a checklist from this time period, my notes show we were simultaneously collecting the 1972 Topps set during this timeframe.

The Card / Indians Team Set
I imagine this would have been a highly desirable card when found in series two packs during the summer of 1956, given Score was the reigning American League Rookie of the Year and this was his first readily available baseball card.  For the record, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year was the Cardinals' Bill Virdon (#170).  The back of the card mentions his rookie strikeout record.  His 245 strikeouts in 1955 easily eclipsed the mark set by the Phillies' Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1911 who had 227 strikeouts.  And Dwight Gooden easily eclipsed Score's mark with 276 strikeouts in 1984.  Sadly, due to the injuries mentioned above, the Hall of Fame induction imagined in the final panel never came to fruition.

Score's reprinted Topps rookie card can be found in the following sets:  2001 Topps Archives and Archives Reserve, 2001 Topps Team Topps Autographs and 2002 Topps Archives.

1956 Season

Score continued his dominance, appearing in 35 games and going 20-9 with a 2.53 ERA with 16 complete games and 5 shutouts.  Wynn and Lemon also both won 20 games.  He became the first player in modern baseball history to strike out more than 200 batters in his first two seasons, and he pitched a scoreless eighth inning in the 1956 All-Star Game.  His 7.5 WAR for the year was third in the American League behind Wynn's 8.4 and Mickey Mantle's (#135) 11.2. 

1957 Topps #50

1958 Topps #495

1959 Topps #88

1961 Topps #185

1962 Topps #116

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1956 Topps #140
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7):  1956-1962
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2009 Tristar Obak #68

84 - Score non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/10/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

#139 Tommy Carroll - New York Yankees

Thomas Edward Carroll
New York Yankees
Shortstop

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  186
Born:  September 17, 1936, Jamaica, NY
Signed:  Signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent, January 26, 1955
Major League Teams:  New York Yankees 1955-1956; Kansas City Athletics 1959

Signed as a bonus baby before the 1955 season, Tom Carroll was required to stay on the Yankees active roster for the entire year.  He appeared in only 14 games in 1955, batting .333 (2 for 6) as a pinch-runner or late-inning defensive replacement at shortstop.  He picked up his first hit on September 25th off Red Sox pitcher Frank Baumann, and was rewarded with a start at shortstop in the final regular season game for the Yankees, batting lead-off.  Carroll returned in 1956, appearing in 36 games and again used primarily as a pinch-runner.  After spending the 1957 and 1958 seasons in the Yankees' minor league system, he was dealt to the Athletics on April 12, 1959 with Russ Snyder for Mike Baxes and Bob Martyn.

Circa 1994

Carroll appeared in 14 games for the Athletics in 1959, and after another season in the minors in 1960 he retired from baseball at the age of 23.  He tallied 64 big league games and batted an even .300 (9 for 30).

Building the Set
March 26, 1994 in Winston-Salem, NC - Card #124
This was a seemingly random purchase from Tommy's Collectibles in Winston-Salem, North Carolina during the spring semester of my sophomore year at Wake Forest University.  I paid $4 for the card, which would have been a small fortune to me back in 1994.  We added only 17 cards to our set during the lean year of 1994, with 7 of those arriving on Christmas day courtesy of Kit Young Cards.

My memory is fairly hazy, but I believe Tommy's Collectibles was located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem in the general vicinity, if not in the same plaza, as Elizabeth's Pizza.  Maybe I wondered into Tommy's this March day after a slice at Elizabeth's?  While Tommy's is long gone, I was happy to quickly find Elizabeth's Pizza after a quick Google search.  That restaurant meant so much to me as a young college student, I took the picture above from their parking lot at some point during the spring of 1994.

The Card / Yankees Team Set
After three Hall of Fame Yankees in a row - Yogi Berra (#110), Phil Rizzuto (#113) and Mickey Mantle (#135) - we come back down to Earth somewhat with a non-Hall of Fame Yankees card.  Upon closer inspection, it looks as if there's a tiny bit of paper loss on Carroll's hat, but otherwise this card is pristine.  If I were in to card grading, I'd be tempted to see what grade this would receive.

The head shot is the same used for Carroll's 1955 Topps rookie card, and the action shot seems to show Carroll being forced out at second base during one of his many pinch-running appearances.  The cartoon panels on the back of the card highlight his collegiate career at Notre Dame, his large signing bonus and his skills as a baserunner.

1956 Season

Still only 19 years old, Carroll appeared in 36 games and batted a very respectable .353 (6 for 17) off the bench.  He made just one start the entire season, on September 30th in the final regular season game, making it two years in a row he received his lone start on the final day of the year.  Batting 8th and playing third base, Carroll flew out in the second and singled to left off Red Sox pitcher Dave Sisler in the fourth.  He may have injured himself on the base paths as Jerry Lumpe replaced him at third to start the top of the fifth.  That was to be the last time Carroll would appear with the Yankees, and his final major league game until April 15, 1959 with the Athletics.

1955 Topps #158

1957 Topps #164

1959 Topps #513

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #158
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1955-1957, 1959
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2008 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-TC

8 - Carroll non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/9/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database