#311 Hal Naragon - Cleveland Indians

Harold Richard Naragon
Cleveland Indians
Catcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  160
Born:  October 1, 1928, Zanesville, OH
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1947 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1951, 1954-59; Washington Senators 1959-60; Minnesota Twins 1961-62

Died:  August 31, 2019, Barberton, OH (age 90)

With his career interrupted two full years by military service in the early 1950s, Hal Naragon played in 10 major league seasons, mostly with the Indians.  Naragon appeared in only two roles during his years in the majors, catcher and pinch-hitter, and was a back-up for Jim Hegan (#48) and Earl Battey during his years in Cleveland and Washington/Minnesota.  Naragon caught the final inning in Game 3 of the 1954 World Series, in which the Indians lost to the Giants in four games.  His best season came in 1955 when he appeared in 57 games, batting .323 with a home run and 14 RBIs.  He'd eclipse that RBI total in 1956 with 18, and his most action during a season came in 1959 when Naragon appeared in 85 games between the Indians and Senators.  He was an original Minnesota Twin, starting 30 games behind the plate during the club's first season in 1961.  As a pinch-hitter, Naragon batted .159 (20 for 126) for his career.  Overall, he batted .266 in 424 games, with 262 hits, six home runs and 87 RBIs.

Naragon spent seven more seasons in the majors as a coach with the Twins (1963-66) and Tigers (1967-69).  He'd go to back to the World Series with the 1965 Twins and 1968 Tigers, with the Tigers prevailing over the Cardinals in seven games.

December 25, 2007

Building the Set
December 28, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchase - Card #338

I last shared this full story with the Foster Castleman (#271) post in late December, but I'll repeat myself, in an edited version, here.  The way my Dad and I finished the 1956 Topps set was somewhat anti-climatic but nevertheless a joyful memory.  Leading up to the Christmas of 2007, my Dad (with the help of my Mom) scoured eBay and other online baseball card stores for the remaining 29 cards we needed to complete the set.  Throughout the weeks and months leading up to the holidays, he knew we had completed the set but he kept it quiet, wanting to surprise me on Christmas morning.  I have no idea, and I'll never know, what the true last card was that he acquired to finish off the set.  And I have no record, nor was he able to tell me, how much they had paid for any of these final 29 cards.  

This Naragon card was one of the final 29.  It was one of the commons included in a memorable haul that included the cards of Pee Wee Reese (#260), Roberto Clemente (#33), Whitey Ford (#240) and a spotless checklist card for the 1st and 3rd Series.

The Card / Indians Team Set
Naragon's rookie card can be found in the 1955 Bowman set, and this is his first Topps card.  There's no telling whether or not that's actually Naragon sliding into second base, under the tag of what looks to be a Yankees infielder.  The cartoons on the back explain Naragon's role as the Indians' back-up catcher, and highlight his 1955 season.  The final panel focuses on his ability to catch base stealers.  For his career, Naragon threw out 35% of would-be base stealers, or 54 out of 153 attempts.  By comparison, current Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto has a career success rate of 32%, as of this writing.

1956 Season

In 53 games with the Indians, Naragon batted .287 with three home runs and 18 RBIs.  He made 33 starts behind the plate, second in the catching depth chart for the Indians, between regular Hegan and third-stringer Earl Averill.

1955 Bowman #129

1958 Topps #22

1959 Topps #376

1960 Topps #231

1962 Topps #164

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Bowman #129
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7):  1956-62
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-HN

27 - Naragon non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/17/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #310 Steve Gromek - Detroit Tigers / #312 Andy Parfko - Milwaukee Braves

Order Collected: #308 "Chuck" Harmon - Cincinnati Redlegs / #324 "Rocky" Bridges - Cincinnati Redlegs

#310 Steve Gromek - Detroit Tigers

Stephen Joseph Gromek
Detroit Tigers
Pitcher

Bats:  Both  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  180
Born:  January 15, 1920, Hamtramck, MI
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1939 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1941-53; Detroit Tigers 1953-57

Died:  March 12, 2002, Clinton Twp; Macomb County, MI (age 82)

Steve Gromek pitched in 17 big league seasons with the Indians and Tigers.  A converted infielder, Gromek was used sparingly by the Indians over his first three seasons between 1941 and 1943.  He earned a regular spot in Cleveland's rotation in 1944, turning in his first of five seasons with at least 10 wins.  Gromek's career year came in 1945 when he was 19-9 with a 2.55 ERA, with 12 complete games and a pair of shutouts.  He was named to the American League All-Star team that season, but the game was not played due to World War II.  Used as a swingman over the next several seasons, Gromek helped lead the Indians to an American League pennant in 1948, and was the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the World Series against the Boston Braves.  His post-game photo, embracing teammate Larry Doby (#250), would become an important symbol of integration in baseball.  The Indians would defeat the Braves in six games.

Gromek's 13-year run with the Indians came to an end on June 15, 1953, when he was dealt with Al Aber (#317), Ray Boone (#6) and Dick Welk to the Tigers for Owen Friend, Joe Ginsberg, Art Houtteman (#281) and Bill Wight (#286).  Starting again full-time, Gromek was 18-16 with a 2.74 ERA in 1954, and a 13-game winner in 1955.  He'd spend another season-plus with the Tigers before the club released him in August 1957.  Gromek earned a lifetime record of 123-108 in 447 games pitched.  He had a career 3.41 ERA in 2,064 2/3 innings, with 904 strikeouts.

Building the Set
July 16, 1988 from Millville, NJ - Card #59
We bought this card for $4.50 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.  July 16th 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.  

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, which involved 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 at some point in 1988.  Eventually, my tracking got even more sophisticated as I graduated to a word processing document on our new Commodore 128.

The Card / Tigers Team Set
Gromek returned to Topps with this card, after appearing exclusively in the Bowman sets in 1954 and 1955.  The cartoons on the back of the card highlight his veteran status, his 18 wins in 1954, and his early career conversion from an infielder.

1956 Season

Gromek spent most of the season pitching out of the Tigers' bullpen, yielding starts to younger pitchers Frank Lary (#191), Paul Foytack and Billy Hoeft (#152).  Gromek was 8-6 with a 4.28 ERA in 40 games and 13 starts.  He threw four complete games, and his four saves were the second most on the team behind Aber.

1949 Bowman #198

1951 Bowman #115

1952 Topps #258

1954 Bowman #199

1957 Topps #258

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1949 Bowman #198
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3):  1952, 1956-57
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1985 TCMA 1948 Play Ball #39

33 - Gromek non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/5/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #309 Don Blasingame - St. Louis Cardinals / #311 Hal Naragon - Cleveland Indians

Order Collected: #120 Richie Ashburn - Philadelphia Phillies / #174 Glen Gorbous - Philadelphia Phillies