#71 Frank Sullivan - Boston Red Sox

Franklin Leal Sullivan
Boston Red Sox
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'6"  Weight:  215
Born:  January 23, 1930, Hollywood, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1948 season
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1953-1960; Philadelphia Phillies 1961-1962; Minnesota Twins 1962-1963
Died:  January 19, 2016, Lihue, HI (age 85)

Frank Sullivan was a two-time All-Star with the Red Sox, and he was at the height of his playing career when this 1956 Topps card was issued.  Sullivan tallied at least 13 wins in five of his eight seasons playing in Boston, with his best season coming in 1955 when he went 18-13 with a 2.91 ERA over 35 starts and a league-leading 260 innings pitched.  In his 11-year big league career, Sullivan went 97-100 and retired following the 1963 season at the age of 33.

After retiring from baseball, Sullivan moved to Hawaii in 1964 with his good friend and former batterymate Sammy White (#168).  Sullivan had never set foot on the islands before making his big move, and he'd go on to eventually become the head golf pro at Kauai Surf Hotel.  He was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2008.

Building the Set
January 8, 2000 in Raleigh, NC - Card #195
Having survived Y2K, this is one of three cards I purchased at the Raleigh Sportscard & Memorabilia Show a week into the new year, along with Alex Grammas (#37) and Dale Long (#37).  My records show I paid $3 for the card.  I would have had to call my Dad to tell him to update his lists, as he was still working in Millville, NJ at the time.

The late 1990s and early 2000s were a very confusing time for me, and those years are all but lost in my memory.  I have little to no recollection as to the apartments or houses in which I was living or the things I was doing on a day to day basis.  Sometimes I feel as if the experiences of those years are something that happened to someone else.

The Card
This is Sullivan's second Topps card, and it uses the same portrait photo as his 1955 Topps rookie card.  It's the third blue-yellow top bar color combination in a row, following Chuck Tanner (#69) and Jim Rivera (#70).  His Baseball Reference height is listed at 6'6", but the back of this Topps card gives him an extra inch and a half.  The back references his service in Korea where he served for two years following the 1950 season, spending 4 1/2 months on the front lines.  He was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant in 1952 having been awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge.

1956 Season
Sullivan was one of the Red Sox' two top starting pitchers in 1956 along with Tom Brewer (#34).  He went 14-7 with a 3.42 ERA over 33 starts and was second only to Brewer in complete games pitched with 12 - Brewer had 15.

1962 Topps #352

On an off-day during the 1956 season, Sullivan, along with his teammates White and Jackie Jensen (#115) were told to take a drive to meet with who they were told was a photographer.  The photographer, who was actually famous painter Norman Rockwell, used the photographs he took that day as the basis of his painting, The Rookie, which appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in March 1957.  Sullivan, who actually wore #18 at the time, is the player with #8 on his back.  In 2014, the original Rockwell painting sold for $22.5 million.  Sullivan and the model for the arriving rookie player, Sherman Safford, posed with the painting at an exhibition at Fenway Park prior to its sale.

Phillies Career
On December 15, 1960, the Red Sox traded Sullivan to the Phillies for Gene Conley (#17).  Conley had refused to end his basketball career to focus on baseball and the Red Sox were looking to upgrade their pitching staff after Sullivan went 6-16 with a 5.10 ERA in 1960.  Two of the tallest pitchers of the era had just been traded for each other.  Crushed to be leaving the only team he had ever known, his new manager Gene Mauch had to talk him out of retiring.  Sullivan was one of the more reliable pitchers on an awful Phillies pitching staff, but he still went 3-18 with a 4.54 ERA in 68 games with the club.

As the closer for the woeful 1961 Phillies team, Sullivan told his SABR biographer, "I shudder whenever I think of that team."  The 1961 Phillies lost five straight games, won one and then lost another 23 consecutive games from late July through most of August.  That team finished the season with a 47-107 record and was one of the worst teams in franchise history.  Sullivan appeared in 19 games for the Phillies early in the 1962 season before being released on July 14th.  He appears in the 1961 and 1962 Topps sets as a Phillie.

1955 Bowman #15

1955 Topps #106

1959 Topps #323

1963 Topps #389

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Bowman #15
First Topps Card:  1955 Topps #106
Representative Phillies Card:  1962 Topps #352
Last Topps Card:  1963 Topps #389
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2012 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-FS
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1955-1963

32 - Sullivan non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/19/19.

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.

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #70 Jim Rivera - Chicago White Sox / #72 Philadelphia Phillies Team Card

Order Collected: #56 Dale Long - Pittsburgh Pirates / #91 Gail Harris - New York Giants

#70 Jim Rivera - Chicago White Sox

Manuel Joseph Rivera
Chicago White Sox
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  196
Born:  July 22, 1921, New York, NY
Acquired:  Purchased by the Chicago White Sox from Seattle (PCL).
Major League Teams:  St. Louis Browns 1952; Chicago White Sox 1952-1961; Kansas City Athletics 1961
Died:  November 13, 2017, Fort Wayne, IN (96)

Jim Rivera was a mainstay in the White Sox line-up throughout the 1950s, and all but 161 of his 1,171 career games were played for Chicago.  A speedy outfielder who hit for average, Rivera was the White Sox starting center or right fielder for four consecutive seasons between 1953 and 1956.  As pointed out by his SABR biography, Rivera earned the nickname of "Jungle Jim" for his "daredevil running and sliding, his terrific fielding and . . . his all-out style," which made him one of the more popular White Sox players from that era.

Despite his popularity, I found Rivera to have one of the most troubling histories of anyone I've researched so far within the 1956 Topps set.  He honed his baseball skills while playing for a prison team while serving out a life sentence for the attempted rape of the daughter of an Army officer.  Paroled after only five years, Rivera was scouted and eventually signed by Rogers Hornsby, following the baseball legend when he was named manager of the Browns.  Traded to the White Sox

in late July, he found himself in trouble again on the last day of the 1952 season, once again accused of sexual assault.

In his 10 big league seasons, Rivera hit .256 with 83 home runs and he found himself atop the leaderboard for fielding statistics in most seasons.  In his sole postseason appearance, Rivera went 0 for 11 against the Dodgers in the 1959 World Series.  He stayed loyal to the White Sox after his playing days, modeling the shorts players would wear for one game in 1976 and appearing with his 1959 teammates as Luis Aparicio (#292) threw out the first pitch prior to Game 1 of the 2005 World Series.

Pictured to the right are J.C. Martin, Billy Pierce (#160), Rivera wearing #7, Aparicio, then White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, Jim Landis and Bob Shaw.  Rivera was 84 at the time this picture was taken.

Building the Set
October 3, 1999 in Raleigh, NC - Card #184
We bought this card on October 3rd at the Raleigh Sports Card Show, and it ended up being part of a birthday present to me from my Dad.  I was still living in Raleigh in late 1999, and my parents made the trip south to visit me for my birthday.  We bought 8 cards that day (that I knew about) paying $5 for seven of the cards, including this Rivera card, and $2 for the Grady Hatton (#26) card.  Unbeknownst to me, my Dad also purchased the Sandy Koufax card (#79) but squirreled that one away until Christmas morning 1999.

The Card
What a fantastic action photo!  So far in the set, the majority of the action photos have been posed shots or maybe a scene featuring a baserunner and a fielder.  This action photo for Rivera features him about to make a catch (maybe?) while several spectators look on and what looks to be a security guard ducks out of the way.  The fans, which appear to be all men, are shown with mouths open and necks craning as they wait to see if Rivera will make the catch.  In a sign of the times, most of the fans are wearing sport coats, I see one hat and the guy all the way to the left is wearing a tie and appears to be smoking a cigarette.

The birth year on the back of the card is off by two years, as he was actually born in 1921.  Rivera not only led the A.L. in stolen bases in 1955 with 25, but he also led the league in the caught stealing category with 16.  His teammate Minnie Minoso (#125) was runner-up in leading the league in steals with 19.

1956 Season
Rivera was 33, soon to be 34 at the start of the 1956 season and he shared White Sox starting outfield duties with Minoso and Larry Doby (#250).  He appeared in 139 games, hitting .255 with 12 home runs (third on the team) and 66 RBIs.

1953 Topps #156

1957 Topps #107

1958 Topps #11

1959 Topps #213

1961 Topps #367

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1953 Topps #156
First Topps Card:  1953 Topps #156
Last Topps Card:  1961 Topps #367
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2010 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-JR
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1953-1961

39 - Rivera 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.

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #69 Chuck Tanner - Milwaukee Braves / #71 Frank Sullivan - Boston Red Sox

Order Collected: #67 Vic Power - Kansas City Athletics / #115 Jackie Jensen - Boston Red Sox

#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.

Previous Card / Next Card

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

#68 Chuck Stobbs - Washington Nationals

Charles Klein Stobbs
Washington Nationals
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  185
Born:  July 2, 1929, Wheeling, WV
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before the 1947 season
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1947-1951; Chicago White Sox 1952; Washington Senators 1953-1958; St. Louis Cardinals 1959; Washington Senators 1959-1960; Minnesota Twins 1961
Died:  July 11, 2008, Sarasota, FL (age 79)

1961 Topps #406

A bonus baby with the Red Sox, the 18-year-old Stobbs made his big league debut in 1947 and would go on to pitch in parts of 15 seasons with five different teams.  All but 17 of his 459 career appearances came in the American League, and he tallied a lifetime record of 107-130 with a 4.29 ERA.  Stobbs is probably best remembered as the pitcher who surrendered a home run to Mickey Mantle (#135) in 1953 that completely exited Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC.  Mantle's 565-foot blast is celebrated with a card in the 1961 Topps set.

Stobbs was a 20-game loser in 1957 and he pitched mostly in relief following that season until his final year in 1961.  He followed the Senators to Minnesota for the 1961 season, and he was an "Original Twin," appearing in 24 games before being released by the franchise following the season.

Building the Set
September 25, 2005 in Ft. Washington, PA - Card #259
This was a late edition to our set and one of 11 cards we purchased at the 92nd Philadelphia Sports Card Show held at the convention center in Ft. Washington.  My records show we paid $6 for this card. With the Ocean City baseball card shows long gone by now, our only options for local baseball card shows were the "Philly Shows" held in Ft. Washington at the time or the occasional mall baseball card show.

My Dad didn't like the drive to Ft. Washington, and this would have been one of only a few shows we attended together in this location.  Our next show together was a few months later in December, also in Ft. Washington.  Looking at my records of when and where we purchased our cards, a full year would go by before we'd add any more cards to the set after that December show.

The year-long hiatus in collecting the set came at a time my wife and I were expecting our first son and as we moved into our first real house, so we had a pretty good excuse not to be purchasing baseball cards at the time.

I've scanned the checklist I would have had with us at both the September and December Ft. Washington shows, at the listing at the bottom left corner displays the nine remaining "big" cards we needed.  At the time, Roberto Clemente (#33) and Hank Aaron (#31) led the way.  Aaron would enter our collection on Christmas Day 2006 and the Clemente card ended up being one of the final cards added to complete our set on December 28, 2007.

The Card
It's pretty unusual to see an action shot involving a pitcher diving back head first into first base.  In fact, until learning more about this post for Stobbs, I didn't realize he was a pitcher despite the position designation on the front of his card!

1956 Season
Stobbs enjoyed his best season in 1956 with the Senators, going 15-15 with a 3.60 ERA and pitching a career high 240 innings.  He was by far the team's most reliable pitcher, but his efforts weren't enough to keep the Senators from a seventh place finish in the A.L.  He had the lowest walks per nine innings pitched ratio (2.025) among every starting pitcher in the league, with Dick Donovan (#18) finishing second (2.263).

Phillies Connection?
I couldn't find any support for Stobbs being named for Phillies great, Chuck Klein, and Stobbs' naming was only a coincidence.  Klein was born in 1904 in Indianapolis, and he would have been in his first full year with the Phillies in 1929 the summer that Stobbs was born.

1952 Topps #62

1953 Topps #89

1957 Topps #101

1959 Topps #26

1961 Topps #431

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1952 Topps #62
First Topps Card:  1952 Topps #62
Last Topps Card:  1961 Topps #431
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #185
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10):  1952-1961

46 - Stobbs non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/18/19.

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.

Previous Card / Next Card

Set Order: #67 Vic Power - Kansas City Athletics / #69 Chuck Tanner - Milwaukee Braves

Order Collected: #160 Billy Pierce - Chicago White Sox / #74 Jim King - Chicago Cubs

#67 Vic Power - Kansas City Athletics

Victor Pellot Power
Kansas City Athletics
First Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  186
Born:  November 1, 1927, Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Acquired:  Purchased by the New York Yankees from Drummondville (Provincial) before 1951 season
Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Athletics 1954; Kansas City Athletics 1955-1958; Cleveland Indians 1958-1961; Minnesota Twins 1962-1964; Los Angeles Angels 1964; Philadelphia Phillies 1964; California Angels 1965
Died:  November 29, 2005, Bayamon, Puerto Rico (age 78)

Vic Power, who assumed that name for American baseball but used his actual name of Vic Pellot when playing in Puerto Rico, played for 12 years in the Majors, making the All-Star team in four seasons and winning seven consecutive Gold Gloves for his defense at first base.  Traded by the Yankees to the Philadelphia A's in December 1953, he was the first player of Puerto Rican descent to play for the club.  Despite the rampant racial discrimination he experienced during his early playing days, Power became a star with the A's and later the Indians, second only to Roberto Clemente (#33) in popularity back in his native Puerto Rico.

Power accumulated 126 career home runs and 658 RBIs while hitting .284, finishing in the top ten for hits in the American League in five different seasons.  Power never played in the postseason, getting closest to winning pennants with the 1959 Indians, the 1962 Twins and the 1964 Phillies, all teams that finished in second place.  He retired at the age of 37 following the 1965 season in which he hit .259 over 124 games for the Angels.

Building the Set
October 3, 1999 in Raleigh, NC - Card #183
We bought this card on October 3rd at the Raleigh Sports Card Show, and it ended up being part of a birthday present to me from my Dad.  I was still living in Raleigh in late 1999, and my parents made the trip south to visit me for my birthday.  We bought 8 cards that day (that I knew about) paying $5 for seven of the cards, including this Power card, and $2 for the Grady Hatton (#26) card.  Unbeknownst to me, my Dad also purchased the Sandy Koufax card (#79) but squirreled that one away until Christmas morning 1999.

The Card
Power appears to be out at a play at the plate, and my best guess at the catcher is Sammy White (#168) who wore #22 and was the primary catcher for the Red Sox in 1955.  The Tigers' Frank House (#32) is also a possibility as he wore #2.  The head shot of Power is the same used on his 1954 and 1955 Topps cards, and it appears as if the photo features him in a Yankees uniform with the blue pinstripes still visible.

On the back of the card, Topps skims four years off Power's age, stating he was born in 1931 while all other current sources show his birth year as 1927.

1956 Season
Power enjoyed his second All-Star season in 1956, hitting .319 with 14 home runs and 63 RBIs. 

Despite an impressive line-up consisting of Power, third baseman Hector Lopez (#16) and right fielder Harry Simpson (#239), the A's finished in last place in the American League with a record of 52-102.

Phillies Career
On September 9, 1964, the Phillies acquired Power from the Angels for a player to be named later and cash.  The Phillies would send pitcher Marcelino Lopez to the Angels a month later to complete the deal.  The Phillies' regular first baseman, Frank Thomas (#153), had broken his thumb and Power was seen as a right-handed hitting compliment at the position to the left-handed hitting John Herrnstein.

Power became the second player in Phillies franchise history to wear #62, as the number had been worn earlier in the season by rookie pitcher Rick Wise.  Relief pitchers Ken Roberts and Patrick Schuster wore the number for the Phillies in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Power's month with the Phillies allowed him to witness one of the worst collapses in professional sports history as the team had a 6 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals on September 20th, but ended up finishing the season in second place.  Power hit .208 (10 for 48) over 18 games with four doubles and three RBIs, starting 11 of those games at first base.  Following the season, the Phillies sold Power back to the Angels.

He has one Phillies "baseball card" to his name, having appeared within the 1964 Philadelphia Bulletin Phillies Album series.

1954 Topps #52

1957 Topps #167

1959 Topps #229

1963 Topps #40

1966 Topps #192

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1954 Topps #52
First Topps Card:  1954 Topps #52
Representative Phillies Card:  1964 Philadelphia Bulletin Phillies Album
Last Topps Card:  1966 Topps #192
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #52
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (13):  1954-1966

77 - Power non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/15/19.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Phillies Room
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: #66 Bob Speake - Chicago Cubs / #68 Chuck Stobbs - Washington Nationals

Order Collected: #64 Luis Arroyo - St. Louis Cardinals / #70 Jim Rivera - Chicago White Sox

#66 Bob Speake - Chicago Cubs

Robert Charles Speake
Chicago Cubs
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  178
Born:  August 22, 1930, Springfield, MO
Signed:  Signed by the Chicago Cubs as an amateur free agent, November 8, 1948
Major League Teams:  Chicago Cubs 1955, 1957; San Francisco Giants 1958-1959

Over the course of four big league seasons, Bob Speake appeared in 305 games for the Cubs and Giants, hitting .223 with 31 home runs and 104 RBIs.  He saw the most action in 1957 when he appeared in 129 games for the Cubs and was the team's primary center fielder.

In April 1958, he was traded to the Giants for fan favorite Bobby Thomson (#257).

Building the Set
June 20, 1992 in Ocean City, NJ - Card #105
This is one of 11 cards (and the 7th I've covered on this blog) that my Dad and I bought in June 1992 at the Ocean City baseball card show held on the boardwalk at the Music Pier.  We paid $60 for the lot of 11 cards, which at the time was most likely a steal.  Chronologically, I have this listed as the 105th card we added to the set.  Like the other cards in this lot, this card is gorgeous with four sharp corners.  I'd love to get into my time machine and buy whatever other 1956 Topps cards this dealer had for sale as they're some of the finest cards in our set.

The Card
This is Speake's rookie card and he'd go on to appear in Topps' flagship sets in 1957, 1958 and 1959.

When I first read the middle panel, I had no idea what the "K.O.M." was.  Turns out it's the D-Level Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League and Speake played there in 1949 with the Carthage Cubs.  D-Level would have been the equivalent of the current Rookie League and Speake's 14 home runs lead the league that season.

1956 Season
Speake is the second player in the set (so far) to have not appeared in the Majors in 1956, along with Nelson Burbrink (#27).  Speake played in 158 games for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, hitting an even .300 with 25 home runs and 111 RBIs.  It's odd that his successful season didn't at least earn him a late season promotion, especially since the 1956 Cubs were destined to finish 8th in the National League with a record of 60-94.  The Cubs relied on Walt Moryn, Pete Whisenant, Monte Irvin (#194) and Jim King (#74) in the outfield and apparently they didn't need Speake.

With the Angels, Speake was a teammate of Steve Bilko in 1956 as Bilko was electrifying the minor leagues with his amazing season.  Bilko led the PCL in eight offensive categories, hitting .360 with 55 home runs and 164 RBIs.  The Angels ran away with the PCL title with a record of 107-61, and perhaps the Angels' historic run was one of the reasons why Speake didn't get a promotion to the Cubs.

1957 Topps #339

1958 Topps #437

1959 Topps #526

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1956 Topps #66
First Topps Card:  1956 Topps #66
Last Topps Card:  1959 Topps #526
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2008 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-BSP
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1956-1959

8 - Speake non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/11/19.

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: #65 Johnny O'Brien - Pittsburgh Pirates / #67 Vic Power - Kansas City Athletics

Order Collected: #57 "Duke" Maas - Detroit Tigers / #81 Wally Westlake - Philadelphia Phillies

#65 Johnny O'Brien - Pittsburgh Pirates

John Thomas O'Brien
Pittsburgh Pirates
Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'9"  Weight:  170
Born:  December 11, 1930, South Amboy, NJ
Signed:  Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent, March 19, 1953
Major League Teams:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1953, 1955-1958; St. Louis Cardinals 1958; Milwaukee Braves 1959

Johnny O'Brien, along with his twin brother Eddie (#116), became the first twins in Major League history to play for the same team in the same game, first accomplishing the feat on May 10, 1953.  Johnny was originally a basketball star (with Eddie) at Seattle University and he was the first player in NCAA history to score 1,000 points, despite his less than six-foot stature.  As an infielder (and occasional relief pitcher), O'Brien played in parts of six seasons, hitting .250 with four career home runs.  He pitched in 25 games between 1956 and 1958, tallying a 1-3 record and a 5.61 ERA over 61 innings.

Following his playing days, O'Brien served as the head of security, sales and promotion at Seattle's Kingdome, the home of the expansion Seattle Mariners.

Building the Set
December 25, 2004 from San Diego, CA - Card #256

Dad - Christmas Eve 2004

This is the fourth of six cards my Dad gave me for Christmas 2004, and I've already covered the cards for Andy Carey (#12), Bob Kennedy (#38) and "Windy" McCall (#44).  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
This is O'Brien's fourth Topps card, but only his third solo card as he and his brother Eddie shared a card in the 1954 Topps set.  The portrait photo is the same photo used for his 1955 Topps card.  That's O'Brien sliding head first back into the base (first base?) in what looks to be a pick-off play.

There's no mention of his twin brother on the back of his card, but it does mention his successful college basketball career.  O'Brien hit .299 for the 1955 Pirates, but I don't think he had enough plate appearances (304) to technically qualify for the team lead.  Dale Long, who hit .291 had 479 plate appearances and is credited with winning the Pirates batting title that season.

Only after scanning did I realize the back of my card is crooked and miscut.

1956 Season
O'Brien missed all of the 1954 season while in military service and he struggled in his third season in the Majors.  Appearing in 73 games, O'Brien hit .173 (18 for 104) and served as back-up infielder to Bill Mazeroski.  He actually found more success as a relief pitcher, first appearing in relief on June 27th and pitching a shutout inning while striking out two Reds batters - Frank Robinson and Roy McMillan (#123).  O'Brien would go on to make eight relief appearances in 1956, throwing 19 total innings with an impressive ERA of 2.84.  His worst outing came during a blow-out loss to the Giants in which he allowed three runs on three hits and four walks.

1953 Topps #223

1954 Topps #139

1955 Topps #135

1958 Topps #426

1959 Topps #499

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1953 Topps #223
First Topps Card:  1953 Topps #223
Last Topps Card:  1959 Topps #499
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2008 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-JO
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1953-1956, 1958-1959

17 - O'Brien non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/1/19.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia

Also, here's a great article from a 2018 edition of The Seattle Times providing more detail on the O'Brien twins legacy in the state.

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: #64 Luis Arroyo - St. Louis Cardinals / #66 Bob Speake - Chicago Cubs

Order Collected: #44 "Windy" McCall - New York Giants / #80 Gus Triandos - Baltimore Orioles