#331 Dick Hall - Pittsburgh Pirates

Richard Wallace Hall
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'6"  Weight:  200
Born:  September 27, 1930, St. Louis, MO
Signed:  Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent, September 1951
Major League Teams:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1952-57, 1959; Kansas City Athletics 1960; Baltimore Orioles 1961-66; Philadelphia Phillies 1967-68; Baltimore Orioles 1970-71

Died:  June 18, 2023, Timonium, MD (age 92)

Signed out of college as an outfielder, Dick Hall converted to a pitcher full-time in 1957 and would gain fame as a reliever for the Orioles during their late 1960s/early 1970s dynasty.  Hall was a reserve outfielder for the Pirates beginning in 1952, appearing in a career-high 112 games with the club in 1954 and batting .239.  He'd begin his transition to pitching in 1955, going 12-5 with 16 complete games and a 2.24 ERA for the minor league Lincoln Chiefs.  Hall was dealt to the Orioles in April 1961, beginning the most successful stretch of his big league career.  In his first stint with the club, Hall's best seasons came between 1961 and 1964, when he went 27-17 with a 2.60 ERA in 164 appearances, saving 31 games.  After a brief stint with the Phillies, he was back with the Orioles in 1969, in time for their three-year run of postseason play.  In five postseason appearances, Hall was 2-1 with a 0.00 ERA in 8 2/3 innings pitched.  He won World Series rings with the Orioles in 1966 and 1970.  

He retired following the 1971 World Series, after two seasons of being the oldest player in the majors.  He was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame in 1989.  In 495 games pitching over 16 seasons, Hall was 93-75 with a 3.32 ERA, 20 complete games, three shutouts and 71 saves.  He walked only 236 batters to 741 strikeouts over 1,259 2/3 innings pitched.  Over 19 seasons as a batter, Hall collected 150 hits, including four home runs, and had a lifetime .210 average.

From the 1968 Phillies Yearbook

Building the Set
August 13, 1989 in Bridgeton, NJ - Card #91
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 (shown here) 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 / Pirates Team Set
Hall's rookie card can be found in the 1955 Topps set, using the same photo as seen here.  Hall's position on his rookie card is listed as "3rd base-outfield."  The cartoon panels on the back justifiably highlight his move from the outfield to the pitcher's mound.

1956 Season

With the Pirates the entire season, Hall played in 33 games overall - 19 as a pitcher, 14 as a pinch-hitter and one as the starting first baseman on August 2nd.  As a pitcher, Hall was 0-7 with a 4.76 ERA in 10 relief appearances and nine starts.  He threw a complete game in his second start of the season on April 28th.  As a batter, Hall hit .345 (10 for 29) with an RBI.  His ten hits were all singles.

Phillies Career
Hall was a bright spot in the Phillies bullpen during his two years with the club during the lean years of 1967 and 1968.  On December 15, 1966, the Orioles traded Hall to the Phillies for a player to be named later, which ended up being lefty pitcher John Morris.  Hall and Turk Farrell were the club's top relievers in 1967, with Hall going 10-8 with a 2.20 ERA in 48 appearances and 86 innings pitched.  He saved nine games, second on the team behind Farrell's 12.  Hall slumped in 1968, going 4-1 with a 4.89 ERA in 32 appearances as one of the worst relievers in a surprisingly strong Phillies' bullpen.  He was released by the Phillies following the season, and the Orioles brought him back towards the end of spring training in 1969.

In 80 games (including one start) with the Phillies, Hall was 14-9 with a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings pitched.  His pinpoint control came with him to Philadelphia, as he struck out 80 and walked only 17.

1955 Topps #126

1957 Topps #308

1962 Topps #189

1967 Topps #508

1971 Topps #417

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #126
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11):  1955-57, 1960-63, 1967-68, 1970-71
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2022 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #93FF-DH

52 - Hall non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 4/26/25.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

The Phillies Room

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #330 Jim Busby - Cleveland Indians / #332 Don Larsen - New York Yankees

Order Collected: #328 Preston Ward - Pittsburgh Pirates / #150 "Duke" Snider - Brooklyn Dodgers

#69 Chuck Tanner - Milwaukee Braves

Charles William Tanner
Milwaukee Braves
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  185
Born:  July 4, 1928, New Castle, PA
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent before 1946 season
Major League Teams:  Milwaukee Braves 1955-1957; Chicago Cubs 1957-1958; Cleveland Indians 1959-1960; Los Angeles Angels 1961-1962
As a Manager:  Chicago White Sox 1970-1975; Oakland Athletics 1976; Pittsburgh Pirates 1977-1985; Atlanta Braves 1986-1988
Died:  February 11, 2011, New Castle, PA (82)

Better known as a long-time manager, Chuck Tanner played in parts of eight seasons in the Majors with the Braves, Cubs, Indians and Angels.  Serving mainly as a backup outfielder, Tanner appeared in 396 games, hitting .261 with 21 home runs and 105 RBIs.  In his first big league at-bat in 1955, pinch-hitting for Warren Spahn (#10), Tanner hit a home run off the very first pitch he saw becoming the seventh player in major league history to accomplish that feat.  His best season came in the 1957, spending time with both the Braves and Cubs, and hitting .279 with career highs in home runs (9) and RBIs (48).

As a manager, Tanner broke in with the White Sox at the end of the 1970 season, replacing interim manager Bill Adair who had replaced regular manager Don Gutteridge.  He managed the White Sox to a 401-414 record over six seasons, finishing as high as second place in 1972.  Following one season in Oakland in 1976, the Pirates worked out a deal with A's owner Charlie Finley to acquire the home-town Tanner to be their new manager.  All-Star catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000 were sent to the A's in exchange.  Tanner spent nine seasons at the helm for the Pirates, guiding the team to their 1979 World Series title.  He finished his managerial career with the Braves, fired by then general manager Bobby Cox at the start of the 1988 season after getting off to a 12-27 start.  Overall, he managed in parts of 19 seasons and compiled a career record of 1,352-1,381.

Building the Set
April 9, 1988 from Millville, NJ - Card #56
We bought this card for $4 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.  April 9th 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.  At the time, I knew Tanner solely as a manager and I had collected his cards in Topps sets throughout the 1970s and 1980s.  Little did we know when we purchased this card he'd be fired by the Braves a little over a month later in May 1988.

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, involving 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 after we had added the Tanner card to the set.  Eventually, my tracking got even more sophisticated as I graduated to a word processing document on our new Commodore 128.

A few years ago, I featured the Ted Kluszewski (#25) card we had purchased from Brokell's, and I tried to find the building on Google Maps.  The photo above is the building I believe was Brokell's, and it appears to be a Tae Kwon Do studio today.

The Card
This is Tanner's second Topps card, and this uses the same portrait photo as his 1955 Topps rookie card.  On the back, his birth year is a year off from the actual date of 1928.

The minor league notes on the back are accurate, and Tanner did in fact hit over .300 for eight seasons in a row in the minors between 1947 and 1954.  The only year he missed the mark was his first professional season in 1946 when he hit .247 in 25 games (20 for 81) for the Evansville Braves and the Owensboro Oilers.

1956 Season
Tanner couldn't crack into the Braves' starting outfield as it was successfully already manned by Bobby Thomson (#257), Bill Bruton (#185) and Hank Aaron (#31).  In 60 games, mostly coming off the bench, Tanner he hit .238 with a home run and four RBIs.  The Braves finished second in 1956, only a game behind the pennant winning Brooklyn Dodgers.

1955 Topps #161

1960 Topps #279

1971 Topps #661

1982 Donruss #150

1988 Topps #134

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #161
First Topps Card:  1955 Topps #161
Last Topps Card (as a player):  1960 Topps #279
First Topps Card (as a manager):  1971 Topps #661
Last Topps Card (as a manager):  1988 Topps #134
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2001 Topps Archives #428
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (23):  1955-1960, 1971-1981, 1983-1988

63 - Tanner non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/11/19.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year.  Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.

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Set Order: #68 Chuck Stobbs - Washington Nationals / #70 Jim Rivera - Chicago White Sox

Order Collected: #269 Jack Meyer - Philadelphia Phillies / #1 William Harridge - A.L. President

#15 Ernie Banks - Chicago Cubs

Ernest Banks
Chicago Cubs
Shortstop

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  180
Born:  January 31, 1931, Dallas, TX
Signed:  Signed by the Chicago Cubs a free agent in 1953
Major League Teams:  Chicago Cubs 1953-1971
Died:  January 23, 2015, Chicago, IL (age 83)
Hall of Fame Induction:  1977

Known by most simply as "Mr. Cub," Ernie Banks enjoyed a 19-year playing career and encapsulated everything that a baseball player should aspire to be.  His genuine appreciation and affection for the game was unrivaled.  Banks was the runner-up to Wally Moon (#55) in 1954 for the National League Rookie of the Year Award and he won the league's MVP honors in 1958 and 1959.  An 11-time All-Star, Banks hit 512 career home runs and tallied 1,636 career RBIs.  He excelled defensively at both shortstop (1953-1961) and first base (1962-1971).  When he hit his 500th career home run on May 12, 1970, he became just the ninth member to join that exclusive club.

During his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1977, he repeated his famous quote, "There's sunshine, fresh air, and the team's behind us.  Let's play two."

Building the Set

Dad - Christmas 1997

December 25, 1997 from San Diego, CA - Card #160
This was my big Christmas present from my parents in 1997.  Like the Ted Williams (#5) card I received for Christmas 1993, my parents had a (fortunate for me) habit of splurging on a "big" baseball card to leave under the Christmas tree for me.  My Dad was always proud of his haggling abilities and soon after opening this card, he was quick to tell me that he had paid $64 for the card after negotiating down the price with an employee of Kit Young Cards.  (I probably joked with him afterwards that the starting price had been $67.)

Our copy of this card is gorgeous with four sharp corners, a well-centered front and not a scratch or blemish to be found.

The Card
I was going to research to try to figure out when the action shot took place, but someone has already done the research for me.  In a post over at the Vintage Baseball Card Blog, William Szczepanek determined that the two players congratulating Banks are #37 Gene Baker (#142 in the set) and #4 Ted Tappe.

Banks hit two grand slams in 1955 scoring both Baker and Tappe.  The first was on May 11th off Russ Meyer (#227) of the Dodgers (also scoring Randy Jackson - #223) and the second was on May 29th off Lew Burdette (#219) of the Braves (also scoring Bob Speake - #66).  Unless someone has access to the Topps archives, we'll probably never know if this photo is Banks' grand slam from May 11th or May 29th.

For the record, these grand slams were the 27th and the 31st of Banks' career and his five grand slams in 1955 set a record at the time.  The record has since been tied and then broken by Jim Gentile (5 in 1961), Don Mattingly (6 in 1987), Richie Sexson (5 in 2006), Travis Hafner (6 in 2006) and Albert Pujols (5 in 2009).  With 277 career home runs as a shortstop, Banks still holds the National League record at that position, but Cal Ripken, Jr. is now the overall leader at shortstop with his 345 home runs.

The second panel mentions that Banks had no professional experience upon joining the Cubs in 1953. However, Banks had been a member of the Kanas City Monarchs in 1950 and 1953 (before and after a two-year stint in the Army) and barnstormed with the Jackie Robinson All-Stars in 1951.  Along with Robinson (#30), the young Banks had the opportunity to play alongside of Roy Campanella (#101), Don Newcombe (#235) and Larry Doby (#250).

1956 Season
Banks was just hitting his stride in 1956.  At 25 years old, Banks made his second All-Star game. He'd finish the season with 28 home runs and 85 RBIs, although he'd miss 18 games with a hand infection breaking his consecutive game streak of 424 games.  His beloved Cubs were awful in 1956, finishing in last place in the league with a record of 60-94.

1954 Topps #94

1971 Topps #525

1973 Topps #81

2015 Topps Stadium Club #13

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1954 Topps #94
First Topps Card:  1954 Topps #94
Last Topps Card (as a player):  1971 Topps #525
First & Last Topps Card (as a coach):  1973 Topps #81
Most Recent Topps Card (post-career):  2011 Topps #247B SP
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2015 Topps Stadium Club #13
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (20):  1954-1971, 1973, 1975

Banks also appeared in the 1975 Topps set with two cards in the MVP subset to celebrate his 1958 and 1959 awards.

1,563 - Banks non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 1/25/16

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
National Baseball Hall of Fame
The Phillies Room
SABR
The Trading Card Database

In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year.  Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.

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Set Order: #14 Ken Boyer - St. Louis Cardinals / #16 Hector Lopez - Kansas City Athletics

Order Collected: #335 Don Hoak - Chicago Cubs / #36 Rudy Minarcin - Cincinnati Redlegs