#298 Johnny Schmitz - Boston Red Sox

John Albert Schmitz
Boston Red Sox
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  170
Born:  November 27, 1920, Wausau, WI

Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1938 season
Major League Teams:   Chicago Cubs 1941-42, 1946-51; Brooklyn Dodgers 1951-52; New York Yankees 1952; Cincinnati Reds 1952; New York Yankees 1953; Washington Senators 1953-55; Boston Red Sox 1956; Baltimore Orioles 1956

Died:  October 1, 2011, Weston, WI (age 90)

Johnny Schmitz appeared in 28 games for the Cubs in 1941 and 1942 before his baseball career was put on hold while he served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theatre of World War II for three years.  Upon his return in 1946, Schmitz had one of his best seasons, going 11-11 for the Cubs and leading the league with 135 strikeouts.  Schmitz made the National League All-Star squad in 1946 and 1948 and was the losing pitcher in the 1948 game when he allowed three runs during his outing.  He pitched in over 200 innings each season between 1946 and 1949.

Schmitz bounced around the majors following his trade from the Cubs in June 1951, playing with the Dodgers, Yankees (twice), Reds, Senators, Red Sox and Orioles.  His last solid season came with the Senators in 1954 when he was 11-8 with a 2.91 ERA in 29 games and 185 1/3 innings pitched.  An excellent fielder throughout his career, Schmitz twice led the league in assists, double plays turned as a pitcher and fielding percentage.  In 13 big league seasons, Schmitz was 93-114 with a 3.55 ERA, 86 complete games and 16 shutouts.

Building the Set
August 13, 1989 in Bridgeton, NJ - Card #85
We went nuts at the Bridgeton Baseball Card Show in August 1989, buying 12 different cards for our 1956 Topps set, all at $1.50 a piece.  That's an impressive haul for $18!


I have no other information on the location of this show, other than it was held in the nearby city of Bridgeton, New Jersey.  What I do have however is the checklist I brought with us to the show.  I believe this is the second full checklist we carried around, having retired the prior version I created in 1988 and posted with the William Harridge (#1) card.

Just looking at this checklist brings back fond memories of finding the cards, deciding to make a purchase, negotiating a price and then finding a flat surface so that we could cross off the newest additions.

The Card / Red Sox Team Set
This is Schmitz's final appearance in a Topps set, and he'd sign reprints of this card for the 2005 Topps Heritage release.  He'd very likely wearing a Senators jersey and hat here, with the Topps' artists doing some quick edits to put him into Red Sox gear.  I believe he's standing inside Yankee Stadium given the rectangular building beyond the outfield scoreboard with the Ballantine Beer advertisement.  The back of the card highlights his journeyman status and his fine control.

1956 Season

On November 8, 1955, Schmitz was traded from Washington with Bob Porterfield (#248), Tom Umphlett and Mickey Vernon (#228) to the Red Sox for Al Curtis, Dick Brodowski (#157), Neil Chrisley, Tex Clevenger and Karl Olson (#322).  Schmitz must not have been one of the key reasons for the Red Sox to pull off the massive nine-player deal, as they sold him to the Orioles on May 14th.  Schmitz appeared in two games for the Red Sox, pitching 4 1/3 innings before the trade.  With the Orioles, he pitched in the final 18 games of his major league career, going 0-3 with a 3.99 ERA.

1949 Bowman #52

1950 Bowman #24

1951 Topps Blue Backs #41

1952 Topps #136

1954 Topps #33

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1949 Bowman #52
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (5):  1951-52, 1954-56
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2005 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #RO-JS

38 - Schmitz non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/5/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #297 Bob Skinner - Pittsburgh Pirates / #299 Charlie Neal - Brooklyn Dodgers

Order Collected: #296 Andy Seminick - Philadelphia Phillies / #305 Brooks Lawrence - Cincinnati Redlegs

#297 Bob Skinner - Pittsburgh Pirates

Robert Ralph Skinner
Pittsburgh Pirates
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'4"  Weight:  190
Born:  October 3, 1931, La Jolla, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent before 1951 season
Major League Teams:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1954, 1956-1963; Cincinnati Reds 1963-1964; St. Louis Cardinals 1964-1966

As a Manager:  Philadelphia Phillies 1968-1969; San Diego Padres 1977

Bob Skinner spent over 50 years in baseball as a player, manager, coach and scout.  Most of his playing career was spent with the Pirates where he was an All-Star in 1958 and for both games in 1960.  As the regular left fielder for the Pirates, Skinner had his best season in 1958 when he batted .321 with 13 home runs and 70 RBIs, finishing in the top ten in the National League in most major offensive categories and earning MVP votes.  In 1960, Skinner was second on the club with 86 RBIs, behind only Roberto Clemente (#33) for the team lead, helping the Pirates clinch the pennant and eventually win the World Series in seven games over the Yankees.  After a few seasons with the Reds, Skinner ended his playing career as a pinch-hitter and back-up outfielder for the Cardinals.  He had four pinch-hitting appearances in the 1964 World Series, going 2 for 3 as St. Louis prevailed over the Yankees.  In 1,381 career games, Skinner batted .277 with 103 home runs and 531 RBIs.

Skinner began his managerial career in 1967 with the San Diego Padres, then the top minor league affiliate for the Phillies.  He won Minor League Manager of the Year honors after leading the Padres to an 85-63 record and winning the 1967 Pacific Coast League Championship.  On June 16, 1968, Skinner was named as the new manager of the Phillies after Gene Mauch was fired.  Skinner's time as manager of the Phillies would last a little over a year before he'd resign from the position.  Skinner would coach in the majors with the Padres (1970-1973, 1977), Pirates (1974-1976, 1979-1985), Angels (1978) and Braves (1986-1988), and he earned his third World Series ring as the hitting coach for the Pirates in 1979.  He'd work in the Astros organization as a special assignment scout until 2009.  Skinner's son Joel played nine seasons in the majors with the White Sox, Yankees and Indians.  Joel Skinner briefly managed the Indians in the second half of the 2002 season.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set
December 25, 2003 from San Diego, CA (Kit Young Cards) - Card #250
My Dad/Santa brought me nine cards for our set for Christmas in 2003, with all but one of the cards coming from his dealer of choice, Kit Young Cards in San Diego.  The Brooklyn Dodgers team card (#166) was the lone non-Kit Young Cards addition, as that card came from TemDee in Turnersville, New Jersey.  It was a strange mix of commons from Kit Young Cards, with no semi-star or star card to balance out the lot.  We were admittedly in a lull collecting the set, with only 18 cards added during all of 2003 and only six cards added, as Christmas presents, in 2004.

Pictures from the Christmas of 2003 show us opening gifts at my Mom's house on December 26th, which has since become a tradition for us.  So while the official set records indicate these nine cards were added on December 25th, it was most likely a day later I opened the cards while in Millville.

The Card / Pirates Team Set
Skinner's rookie card can be found in the 1955 Topps set, and this card reuses the main head shot photo from that card.  The action shot features an excellent play at the plate, and it would look as if Skinner is out.  But thanks to the magic of the internet, I found the source photo showing the home plate umpire signaling Skinner as safe.  In a play that happened in the first inning of the Pirates-Giants game on April 20, 1954, Skinner slid under the tag of Giants' catcher Ray Katt as the on-deck batter, Jack Shepard, wearing #10, looks on.  It looks as if Topps decided to move Skinner's head in the photo used for the card.

On the back, Topps imagines playing in New Orleans as a non-stop Mardi Gras celebration, complete with a parade and marching band.

1956 Season

Still a few years away from his break-out season of 1958, Skinner spent all of 1955 in the minor leagues and made the Pirates' opening day roster in 1956.  He spent the season learning to play the outfield, and served as a utility player for the club, making starts in left field (21), first base (19) and right field (9).  In 113 games overall, Skinner batted .202 with five home runs and 29 RBIs.

Phillies Career
Skinner's managerial career with the Phillies did not go well, which was somewhat surprising at the time given his success with the Triple-A Padres.  In 1968, Skinner inherited a team from Mauch in fifth place, but only 5 1/2 games out of first place.  The 1968 Phillies finished the season with 86 losses overall and 21 games out of first place.  In 1969, Skinner continued to clash with star Dick Allen.  When Allen skipped a double header in New York on June 24th, he was suspended and missed the next 26 games.  With the Phillies front office seemingly negotiating with Allen behind Skinner's back, the manager abruptly resigned in early August.  The story from the Phillies was that Skinner resigned because the team wouldn't extend his contract beyond the 1969 season, but Skinner maintained the reason for his departure was the constant clashing with Allen.  Third base coach George Myatt managed the team for the remainder of the season.  Skinner was 92-123 overall for the Phillies, in a managerial tenure that lasted a little over one year.

1955 Topps #88

1958 Topps #94

1961 Topps #204

1969 Topps #369

1985 Topps #139

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #88
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (16):  1955-1966, 1969, 1973-1974, 1985
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1992 Fleer ProCards #503

98 - Skinner non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/1/24.

Sources:  
1965 Topps Blog

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Phillies Room
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #296 Andy Seminick - Philadelphia Phillies / #298 Johnny Schmitz - Boston Red Sox

Order Collected: #282 Warren Hacker - Chicago Cubs / #333 Rube Walker - Brooklyn Dodgers