#545 Tom Morgan

I was ready to dismiss Tom Morgan as another short time guy because I wasn't familiar with him. Then I flipped over his card and checked Baseball Reference and saw that he had a nice career over 12 seasons including a stint with the Yanks that got him into three World Series. 

He came up to the Yanks in 1951 and then missed part of '52 and all of '53 due to military service. Returning to New York he resumed his spot starting/long relief role through 1956. For the 1957 season he went the way of all non-star Pin-Stripers.... out to Kansas City. He was part of the same deal that sent Billy Hunter to the A's that was discussed a few days back.

He was a spot starter for the A's in 1957 before being traded to the Tigers for '58 as part of another huge trade that seemed to be in fashion back them. He spent two and a half mundane years in Detroit, half a year with the Senators and finished with a stint in Los Angeles where he made a comeback of sorts as stopper for the Angels in 1961. He retired after 1963 and spent many years as a scout, minor league manager and as pitching coach for the Angels, Padres and briefly for the Yankees.

He finished with a 67-47 record and a World Series batting average of 1.000! He led off the bottom of the fourth inning of Game Two of the 1956 Series with a single off Don Bessent and came around to score. That was the good news. The bad news is that Morgan was shelled in his two innings of relief work and took the loss. 

This sure is an old school looking picture on the card, isn't it? I think it's the pose and the fact that the uni looks so plain from that angle. That plus the fact that Morgan appears to be about 60. It's got soft corners but being a high numer it would cost a bit to replace it so I don't have it on my upgrade list.