#255 Bob Lemon - Cleveland Indians

Robert Granville Lemon
Cleveland Indians
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  180
Born:  September 22, 1920, San Bernardino, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1938 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1941-1942; 1946-1958

As a Manager:  Kansas City Royals 1970-1972; Chicago White Sox 1977-1978; New York Yankees 1978-1979, 1981-1982
Hall of Fame Induction:  1976

Died:  January 11, 2000, Long Beach, CA (age 79)

The first 10 games Bob Lemon played with the Indians in 1941 and 1942 were as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or back-up third baseman.  He'd miss all of 1943, 1944 and 1945 while serving during World War II, and come back as a pitcher in 1946.  After a few mediocre seasons, Lemon emerged in 1948 as one of the premier pitchers in the game.  Lemon was 20-14 in 1948, leading the league with 20 complete games and 10 shutouts, including the no-hitter he threw on June 30, 1948.  He was 2-0 in the 1948 World Series, in which the Indians defeated the Braves in six games.  Lemon was an All-Star every season between 1948 and 1954, winning at least 20 games in seven seasons and helping the Indians reach the World Series in 1948 and 1954.  He was one of several future Hall of Famers in the Indians' pitching rotation during the 1950s along with Bob Feller (#200) and Early Wynn (#187).  Lemon led the league in wins three times, in complete games five times and in innings pitched four times.  The workhorse crossed the 200-innings pitched plateau in nine straight seasons between 1948 and 1956, hitting a career-high 309 2/3 innings pitched in 1952.

Lemon was 207-128 lifetime, with a 3.23 ERA and 1,277 strikeouts over 2,850 innings pitched.  After retiring as a player, Lemon began a long career as a big league coach and manager.  He was the pitching coach for the Indians (1960), Phillies (1961), Angels (1967-1968), Royals (1970) and Yankees (1976).  Lemon's managerial career saw him go 430-403 in eight seasons with three different teams, guiding the Yankees to a World Championship in 1978.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976, and the Indians retired his #21 in 1998.

Building the Set

Summer of 1983 or 1984 in Millville, NJ - Card #34
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 Walt Dropo (#238) post, back in February.  Seven of the Original 44 came from series one, with 11 coming from series two, and this Lemon card is the last of 16 from series three.   Lemon is one of eight Hall of Famers (or future Hall of Famers) from that Original 44 haul, along with Ed Mathews (#107), Yogi Berra (#110), Willie Mays (#130), Red Schoendienst (#165), Wynn, Larry Doby (#250) and Hoyt Wilhelm (#307).

The Card / Indians Team Set
Like a lot of the players featured in Series 3 of the set, and I'm keeping track of these, Lemon had appeared exclusively in Bowman sets in 1954 and 1955.  I'm assuming Lemon is standing in the infield of Cleveland's Municipal Stadium in the "action" photo, although I could be wrong.  The cartoon panels on the back highlight his league-leading 18 wins in 1955, and his six seasons of winning at least 20 games.  He'd have his final 20-win season in 1956.  The final cartoon panel mentions the start of his career as a "slugging infielder."  In 1942, while playing for the Double-A Baltimore Orioles, then a farm team of the Indians, Lemon batted .269 with 21 home runs and 80 RBIs.

1956 Season

Now 35 years old, Lemon was one of three 20-game winners for the Indians along with Wynn and Herb Score (#140).  Lemon went 20-14 with a 3.03 ERA over 255 1/3 innings pitched.  His 21 complete games tied him for the league lead with Billy Pierce (#160).  On September 11th, Lemon recorded his 200th career victory in a 3-1 win over the Orioles.  He hit a two-run home run in the second inning, the 36th of his career, which proved to be the margin of victory.  The Indians would finish in second place, nine games behind the pennant-winning Yankees.

Phillies Career

Lemon joined the Phillies coaching staff for their 1961 season, lasting only a year as the awful team's pitching coach.  He joined Gene Mauch's staff in Mauch's first full year at the helm, along with fellow coaches Peanuts Lowrey and Al Vincent.  

The Phillies were 47-107-1 in 1961, with Art Mahaffey by far the team's best pitcher with a 11-19 record and a 4.10 ERA.  Al Widmar would replace Lemon on the coaching staff for the 1962 season.

1949 Bowman #238

1951 Bowman #53

1952 Topps #268

1957 Topps #120

1979 Topps #626

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1949 Bowman #238
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10):  1952, 1956-1958, 1960, 1971-1972, 1977-1979
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2023 Donruss #215

383 - Lemon non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 6/21/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

National Baseball Hall of Fame

The Phillies Room

SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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Set Order: #254 George Crowe - Milwaukee Braves / #256 Tom Hurd - Boston Red Sox

Order Collected: #252 Vernon Law - Pittsburgh Pirates / #263 Bob Miller - Detroit Tigers

#78 Herman Wehmeier - Philadelphia Phillies

Herman Ralph Wehmeier
Philadelphia Phillies
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  185
Born:  February 18, 1927, Cincinnati, OH
Signed:  Signed by the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent before 1945 season
Major League Teams:  Cincinnati Reds 1945, 1947-1954; Philadelphia Phillies 1954-1956; St. Louis Cardinals 1956-1958; Detroit Tigers 1958
Died:  May 21, 1973, Dallas, TX (age 46)

Despite his occasional wildness, Herm Wehmeier built a solid 13-year big league career, accumulating a record of 92-108 over 361 games.  He led or tied for the league lead in earned runs allowed in 1950, walks allowed in 1949, 1950 and 1952 and wild pitches in 1949 and 1950.  His best season came in 1951 with the Reds when he went 7-10 with a 3.70 ERA over 39 appearances.  Born in Cincinnati, he was a constant target of boos from Reds' fans while pitching for the hometown team as he never quite lived up to the expectations set of him.

He turned his career around somewhat after leaving the Reds.  With the Reds in parts of nine seasons, he was 49-69 with a 5.25 ERA.  With the Phillies, Cardinals and Tigers over parts of the next seven seasons, he was 43-39 with a 4.11 ERA.  As told in his SABR biography, he never regretted signing with his hometown Reds despite the fans' constant booing while he was with the club.

Following his playing days, he moved to Texas and became a manager for a trucking company.  In 1973, Wehmeier was called to testify at a federal court trial against an employee accused of stealing a shipment of pants off a truck.  Wehmeier suffered a heart attack while on the witness stand and passed away at the age of 46.

Building the Set
December 18, 1994 in Winston-Salem, NC - Card #134
Visiting Tommy's Collectibles before heading home for winter break, I paid $10 for this card and the Ron Negray (#7) card.  I was a junior in college and my best guess is I snuck these two cards into my Dad's stocking as cards for "his collection."  Dad was always a good sport when I did this, and the cards would migrate from his collection into our set within a matter of a few short hours.

September 1994

I had no idea at the time, but I was about to enter one of the first tumultuous periods of my life.  My parents had decided to sell our house on 12th Street, a house they had owned since the early 1970s and the house my sister and I had grown up in.  My long-time (and long distance) high school girlfriend was about to break up with me through the method of what the kids these days call "ghosting."  No returned phone calls, no returned letters, just a complete disappearance and not much I could do about it from 500 miles away in college in North Carolina.  I was also trying to decide on a college major, essentially determining the trajectory for the rest of my life.  Looking back, all these events combined don't seem as earth shattering now as they did to the 21-year-old me, but of course it's all relative.  It wasn't a great stretch for me personally and a Herm Wehmeier baseball card wouldn't have meant much to me at the time.

Given the abundance of change coming my way, it's not a huge surprise that collecting our 1956 Topps set got pushed into the background.  We added only one new card in 1995, and only six cards the year after that.  It took me until the summer of 1997 to finally emerge from my post-college haze and even then the next couple of bumps were only a few short years away.

The Card
The same head shot is used on Wehmeier's 1954 and 1955 Topps cards, and the original photo from his 1954 Topps card features a Reds logo on his hat.  The action shot on the front of the card may very well be Wehmeier, although he hadn't worn #45 since the 1949 season with the Reds.  It seems odd that Topps would need to use a seven-year-old picture of Wehmeier, from a time before the company was even producing baseball cards.  He wore #22 during his time with the Phillies.

The artist for the cartoon panels on the back of the card is clearly stretching when it comes to material to use.  Wehmeier's success in youth baseball and the fact he pitched in eight seasons for the Reds take up the first two panels.  It was actually 8 1/2 seasons, as he was sold to the Phillies in June 1954 after spending the first few months with the club.

1979 TCMA '50s #126

1956 Season/Phillies Career
Struggling with the Reds, and with the fanbase consistently deriding him, the Phillies purchased Wehmeier on June 12, 1954 for $10,000.  After a rough first outing against his old Reds teammates on June 20th (1/3 inning, four runs on four hits and four walks), Wehmeier turned his season around and finished 1954 with a 10-8 record for the Phils and a 3.85 ERA.  As part of the Phillies rotation in 1955, Wehmeier benefitted from the slider taught to him by teammate Murry Dickson (#211) as he went 10-12 with a 4.41 ERA.  He was the club's third starter behind Robin Roberts (#180) and Dickson for a Phillies team that finished with a .500 record (77-77) in 1955.

At the start of the 1956 season, Wehmeier went 0-2 for the Phillies with a 4.05 ERA over three starts.  On May 11th, he was traded with Dickson to the Cardinals for Ben Flowers, Harvey Haddix (#77) and Stu Miller (#293).  Wehmeier appeared in 34 games for the Cardinals, starting and relieving, setting a career high in wins with 12 and owning a decent 3.69 ERA.

His Phillies career lasted 59 games and he went 20-22 with a 4.17 ERA.  Wehmeier has Phillies cards in the 1955 and 1956 Topps sets along with oddball Phillies cards in the 1955 Phillies Felin's Franks, 1955 Topps Double Header and 1956 Topps Pins sets.  He's also in the 1979 TCMA '50s set in a Phillies uniform, but the team designation on the back of the card is the Reds.

1948 Bowman #46

1951 Topps Blue Backs #47

1952 Topps #80

1957 Topps #81

1959 Topps #421

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1948 Bowman #46
First Topps Card:  1951 Topps Blue Backs #47
Representative Phillies Card:  1955 Topps #29
Last Topps Card:  1959 Topps #421
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #162
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1951-1959

Of interest probably only to me, Topps went with Herman for his 1951 through 1956 cards and switched to Herm for his 1957, 1958 and 1959 cards.

37 - Wehmeier non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 11/24/19.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
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: #77 Harvey Haddix - St. Louis Cardinals / #79 Sandy Koufax - Brooklyn Dodgers

Order Collected: #7 Ron Negray - Philadelphia Phillies / #101 Roy Campanella - Brooklyn Dodgers

#44 "Windy" McCall - New York Giants

John William McCall
New York Giants
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  180
Born:  July 18, 1925, San Francisco, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1947 season
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1948-1949; Pittsburgh Pirates 1950; New York Giants 1954-1957
Died:  February 5, 2015, Tucson, AZ (age 89)

Windy McCall was one of the Giants' primary lefty releivers in the mid-1950s, appearing in 121 games for the club between 1954 and 1956 and compiling a 3.55 ERA over 233 1/3 innings pitched.  a native of San Francisco, his Major League career ended in 1957, the season before the Giants moved west from New York.  Although he didn't appear in the World Series, he won a ring in 1954 when the Giants swept the Indians in four games.  His SABR biography (linked below) tells the story of how Ted Williams gave him his nickname while McCall was in spring training with the Red Sox in 1948.

McCall served with the Marines during World War II, serving time at both Iwo Jima and Okinawa in the Pacific theater.

Building the Set
December 25, 2004 from San Diego, CA - Card #255
This is the third of six cards my Dad gave me for Christmas 2004, and I've already covered the cards for Andy Carey (#12) and Bob Kennedy (#38).  I have no record of how much my Dad paid for the six cards, ordered from Kit Young's Cards in San Diego.  It couldn't have been much as all six cards purchased would have been considered commons.

The Card
McCall is one of 25 players in the 1956 Topps set to have a nickname in quotes on the front of his card.  The full list is as follows:

#44 "Windy" McCall #50 "Dusty" Rhodes #57 "Duke" Maas #84 "Babe" Birrer #92 "Red" Wilson #118 "Nellie" Fox #125 "Minnie" Minoso

#129 "Jake" Martin #149 "Dixie" Howell #150 "Duke" Snider #151 "Spook" Jacobs #162 "Gus" Bell #165 "Red" Schoendienst

#192 "Smoky" Burgess #201 "Rip" Repulski #205 "Whitey" Lockman #224 "Bud" Podbielan #238 "Mickey" Vernon #230 "Chico" Carrasquel

#232 "Toby" Atwell #232 "Pete" Runnels #240 "Whitey" Ford #260 "Pee Wee" Reese #308 "Chuck" Harmon #324 "Rocky" Bridges

How Topps chose to put these players' nicknames in quotes seems like an arbitrary process.  I get putting Dusty and Duke and Red and Whitey in quotes, but why Minnie and Mickey and Pete?  And then cards for Granny Hamner (#197) and Yogi Berra (#110) get the quoteless treatment.  It's just another one of life's many cosmic mysteries to ponder.

1956 Season
At 30 years old, McCall was one of two lefty relievers used by the Giants in 1956 along with Dick Littlefield.  He appeared in 46 games with 4 spot starts, going 3-4 with a 3.61 ERA in 77 1/3 innings.  The 1956 Giants finished in 6th place in the National League with a record of 67-87 under new manager Bill Rigney.

1955 Topps #42

1957 Topps #291

1979 TCMA '50s #200

2006 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-WM

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #42
First Topps Card:  1955 Topps #42
Last Topps Card:  1957 Topps #291
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2006 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-WM
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3):  1955-1957

14 - McCall non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/24/19.

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: #43 Ray Moore - Baltimore Orioles / #45 Gus Zernial - Kansas City Athletics

Order Collected: #38 Bob Kennedy - Chicago White Sox / #65 Johnny O'Brien - Pittsburgh Pirates

#4 Carlos Paula - Washington Nationals

Carlos (Conill) Paula
Washington Nationals
Outfield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  195
Born:  November 28, 1927, La Habana, Cuba
Signed:  Signed by the Washington Senators prior to the 1954 season as a free agent formerly with the Paris Indians of the independent Big State League
Major League Teams:  Washington Senators 1954-1956
Died:  April 25, 1983, Miami, FL (age 55)

The Cuban-born Paula was the first black player in Washington Senators history.  He enjoyed an excellent rookie season in 1955, hitting .299 with six home runs and 45 RBIs in 115 games.  His numbers fell off in 1956 and the Senators sold him in April 1958 to the independent Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League.  Paula would bounce around several minor league teams between 1958 and 1959 and appeared in 85 games for the Mexico City Tigers in 1960 before retiring.

Building the Set
August 29, 1996 in Winston-Salem, NC - Card #143
I attended college at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  On humid days, or after a heavy rain, the air was heavy with the faint smell of tobacco.  I absolutely loved my time as a Demon Deacon and I realize how lucky I was to be able to attend such a phenomenal college.

July 9, 1996 - Dad and me at the 1996 All-Star Game,

There was a baseball card store called Season Ticket on Silas Creek Parkway that I discovered half-way through my senior year, and I'd frequent the store whenever I had a little extra spending money - which honestly wasn't very often.  Given the timing of this purchase, I don't remember if my Dad was with me or not.  Save for a visit north for the 1996 All-Star Game, I spent the summer of 1996 living in Winston-Salem and this might have been a pre-start of the semester purchase that I made on my own.  I paid $10 for a lot of four cards needed for our 1956 Topps set, which included this card.  $10 would have bought a lot of Taco Ball back then (and it still would now) but adding four more cards to our set was worth the sacrifice.

I haven't been back to North Carolina in over a decade and whenever I get around to taking my wife and my sons on a road trip to visit my old campus, I'd love to see if Season Ticket is still there.

The Card
The head shot used is the same photo used for Paula's 1955 Topps card.  Topps preferred to call the Washington team by their more-popular nickname (Nationals) even though their official team name was the Senators.  I found this interesting article on the name conundrum which sheds some light on the confusion.

I could never figure out what's happening in the action shot.  Is the player (perhaps Paula) sliding back into second base following a pick-off throw or perhaps an outfielder had caught a fly ball and he's trying to not get doubled off?

Depending on whether you believe Baseball Reference or Topps, Paula was born on either November 28, 1927 (per Baseball Reference) or November 4, 1928 (per Topps).  I'm going to side with Baseball Reference whenever there's a discrepancy like this.  Topps touts Paula's speed on the back of his card, yet he stole just two bases in his 157 big league games.

1956 Season
I was surprised to see from Paula's Baseball Reference page that he played with the Senators, Yankees and Phillies minor league teams in 1956, all while apparently still the property of the Senators.  The 28-year-old Paula was up with the Senators in May and June, appearing in 33 games all in right or left field and hitting .183 (15 for 82) with three home runs.

Phillies Connection
As I mentioned above, Paula played briefly for the Miami Marlins in 1956 who were the Phillies Triple-A affiliate at the time.  He appeared in 11 games for the Marlins, hitting just .158.

1955 Topps #97

1979 TCMA '50s #205

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #97
First Topps Card:  1955 Topps #97
Last Topps Card:  1956 Topps #4
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1979 TCMA '50s #205
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (2):  1955-1956

6 - Paula non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/29/15

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
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.

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #3 Elmer Valo - Kansas City Athletics / #5 Ted Williams - Boston Red Sox

Order Collected: #20 Al Kaline - Detroit Tigers / #114 Jim Owens - Philadelphia Phillies