#204 Art Swanson - Pittsburgh Pirates

Arthur Leonard Swanson
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  175
Born:  October 15, 1936, Baton Rouge, LA
Signed:  Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent (bonus baby), August 27, 1955
Major League Teams:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1955-1957

Given the bonus baby rules of the day, Art "Red" Swanson was required to be kept on the Pirates active major league roster during the first two years of his professional playing career.  Pirates managers Fred Haney and Bobby Bragan used him sparingly during those two years, and he only pitched 13 2/3 innings over 10 games.  He made his big league debut on September 10, 1955, just shy of his 19th birthday, and gave up four runs, including a home run to Chuck Tanner (#69), in a blow-out loss to the Braves.  Swanson appeared in 32 games for the Pirates in 1957, making eight starts, and was 3-3 with a 3.72 ERA over 72 2/3 innings pitched.  He'd pitch in six more seasons in the Pirates' minor league system before retiring in 1963.  For his big league career, Swanson was 3-3 with a 4.90 ERA in 42 games pitched.  In the minors, he was 37-38 in 194 appearances.

2005 Topps Heritage
Real One Autographs #RO-AS

Building the Set

Summer of 1983 or 1984 in Millville, NJ - Card #23
This was one of the Original 44, and I re-told the story of how my Dad and I started collecting this set with the Early Wynn (#187) post, back in January.  Seven of the Original 44 came from series one, with 11 coming from series two, and this is the fifth of 16 from series three.

The Card / Pirates Team Set
This is Swanson's first and last mainstream baseball card release, and he'd sign reprints of the card for inclusion in the 2005 Topps Heritage set.  The back of the card highlights his signing bonus, his stellar high school career and his time pitching for Louisiana State University.  Swanson's father was A.L. Swanson, a long-time football, baseball and basketball coach at LSU between 1930 and 1948.

1956 Season

Enjoying most of the Pirates' season as a spectator from the bullpen or the dugout, Swanson appeared in nine games between April and August.  In only one of those appearances did Swanson not allow a run or an inherited run to score.  In his final big league appearance of the season on August 14th against the Phillies, Swanson entered in the second with runners on first and second and one out.  He surrendered singles to Granny Hamner (#197) and opposing pitcher Curt Simmons (#290) to score both his inherited runners.  Swanson retired Richie Ashburn (#120) on a grounder to first, and he'd not pitch in the majors again until May 1957.  For the season, Swanson was 0-0 with a 10.03 ERA in 11 2/3 innings pitched.

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1956 Topps #204
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (1):  1956
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2005 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #RO-AS

3 - Swanson non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/27/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #203 Bill Tuttle - Detroit Tigers / #205 "Whitey" Lockman - New York Giants

Order Collected: #198 Ed FitzGerald - Washington Nationals / #210 Mike Garcia - Cleveland Indians