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John Robert Meyer
Philadelphia Phillies
Pitcher
Born: March 23, 1932, Philadelphia, PA
Signed: Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent before 1951 season
Major League Teams: Philadelphia Phillies 1955-1961
Died: March 9, 1967, Philadelphia, PA (age 34)
After pitching for the Wake Forest College (now University) baseball team, Jack Meyer signed with the Phillies in 1951 to begin his professional career. He spent four seasons working his way up through the Phillies' minor league system, and as a starting pitcher he won at least 12 games each season between 1952 and 1954. He recorded a league-leading 226 strikeouts in 1953 while pitching for the Class A Schenectady Blue Jays. Meyer made the Phillies opening day squad in 1955, and was initially inserted into their starting pitching rotation. Moving to the bullpen permanently in late May, Meyer would record a league-leading 16 saves and finish as runner-up in Rookie of the Year voting behind the Cardinals' Bill Virdon (#170). Injuries and his participation in extracurricular, late-night activities along with fellow pitchers Turk Farrell and Jim Owens (#114), the "Dalton Gang," limited Meyer's success over the next few seasons.
He'd rebound somewhat in 1958 and 1959, serving as a reliable reliever for the Phillies. A back injury suffered in 1960 after a postgame drinking binge limited his output to seven games in 1960 and one last game in 1961. Unable to continue pitching, Meyer retired from baseball at the age of 29 on May 9, 1961. In 202 games over seven seasons with the Phillies, Meyer was 24-34 with 21 saves and a 3.92 ERA. He struck out 375 batters over 455 innings pitched. Sadly, Meyer passed away at the age of 34 after suffering a heart attack.
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| June 1988 - Dad mowing the lawn on 12th Street |
February 27, 1988 in Bridgeton, NJ (Hummel's) - Card #55
My notes indicate we bought this card at Hummel's in Bridgeton, New Jersey in February 1988 along with the Billy Klaus (#217) card. This was a Saturday, and I'm guessing my Dad and I needed to get out of the house so we made the quick drive to Bridgeton to purchase some baseball cards. I'm also assuming I was anxious to get my hands on more new packs of 1988 Topps, and we knew Hummel's most likely had a box or two for sale. My set collecting records show we had completed the 1974 Topps set earlier in the month, we were about half-way through with the 1976 Topps set and we'd start to collect the 1973 Topps set that June. It was a very good year.
My memories of Hummel's are hazy at best, but I seem to recall it was a large building with a sprawling liquor store on the first floor and a baseball card shop on the second floor. With baseball card stores booming in the mid to late 1980s, we'd often take a ride to one of the four or five local card shops we were lucky enough to have near us.
The Card / Phillies Team Set
This is Meyer's rookie card and given his status as one of the top rookies in the game, I imagine kids (including my Dad) would have been thrilled to finally find a Meyer card in Series 4 packs of 1956 Topps. The cartoons on the back highlight his success in 1954 in the minor leagues, his high strikeout rate and his switch to the bullpen during the 1955 season.
1956 Season
Phillies Career
I'd highly recommend reading Meyer's full SABR biography, linked below, to get a sense of the self-created destruction the young pitcher put himself through during his brief pitching career. With some better role models and a little direction, it seems as if Meyer could have been a star pitcher for the Phillies during some the franchise's leaner years. Robin Roberts (#180) remembered Meyer as having "Nolan Ryan-type stuff with a sharp curveball to go with a blazing fastball."
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First Mainstream Card: 1956 Topps #269
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6): 1956-1961
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1961 Topps #111
13 - Meyer non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 11/20/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
The Trading Card Database
Previous Card / Next Card
Order Collected: #217 Billy Klaus - Boston Red Sox / #69 Chuck Tanner - Milwaukee Braves
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