#501 Bobby Tiefenauer

Oh, the irony! Knuckleball specialist Bobby Tiefenauer (and I'm NOT typing that again) spent from 1948 through 1969 playing pro baseball across North America and another 20 coaching but in 1959, the year this card was issued.... he was 'voluntarily retired'.

Signed by the Cardinals in 1948 he pitched in their minor league system for the better part of eight seasons getting a six game look in 1952 and a more extended 18 game stint in 1955. Those shots totaled 40 innings. In September of '56 the Cards dealt him to the Tigers in the first of a dizzying array of transactions for Tief that saw him pitch for six major league teams and in the system of a seventh in addition to being the property of several independent AAA clubs.

Rather than try to reproduce a 'map' of his career I'll let Baseball Reference lay it all out.

Teams Played For

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Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff
1948	18	Tallassee Indians	Georgia-Alabama League	D	STL
1949	19	Tallassee Cardinals	Georgia-Alabama League	D	STL
1950	20	Winston-Salem Cardinals	Carolina League	B	STL
1951	21	Rochester Red Wings	International League	AAA	STL
1952	22	Rochester Red Wings	International League	AAA	STL
1952	22	Columbus Red Birds	American Association	AAA	STL
1952	22	St. Louis Cardinals	National League	MLB	STL	1	1952-07-14	1952-08-08
1953	23	Rochester Red Wings	International League	AAA	STL
1954	24	Houston Buffaloes	Texas League	AA	STL
1955	25	Omaha Cardinals	American Association	AAA	STL
1955	25	St. Louis Cardinals	National League	MLB	STL	1	1955-04-16	1955-06-22
1956	26	Charleston Senators	American Association	AAA	DET
1957	27	Toronto Maple Leafs	International League	AAA
1958	28	Toronto Maple Leafs	International League	AAA
1959	29	Voluntarily Retired
1960	30	Rochester Red Wings	International League	AAA	STL
1960	30	Cleveland Indians	American League	MLB	CLE	1	1960-04-19	1960-05-31
1961	31	San Juan/Charleston Marlins	International League	AAA	STL
1961	31	St. Louis Cardinals	National League	MLB	STL	1	1961-04-14	1961-05-02
1962	32	Houston Colt .45's	National League	MLB	HOU	1	1962-04-13	1962-09-29
1963	33	Atlanta Crackers	International League	AAA	STL	1
1963	33	Milwaukee Braves	National League	MLB	MLN	1	1963-08-15	1963-09-27
1963	33	Toronto Maple Leafs	International League	AAA	MLN	2
1964	34	Milwaukee Braves	National League	MLB	MLN	1	1964-04-15	1964-10-01
1965	35	Atlanta Crackers	International League	AAA	MLN	1
1965	35	Milwaukee Braves	National League	MLB	MLN	1	1965-04-21	1965-05-23
1965	35	Toledo Mud Hens	International League	AAA	NYY	2
1965	35	New York Yankees	American League	MLB	NYY	2	1965-06-18	1965-07-06
1965	35	Cleveland Indians	American League	MLB	CLE	3	1965-08-13	1965-09-18
1966	36	Portland Beavers	Pacific Coast League	AAA	CLE
1967	37	Portland Beavers	Pacific Coast League	AAA	CLE
1967	37	Cleveland Indians	American League	MLB	CLE	1	1967-09-10	1967-09-24
1968	38	Tacoma Cubs	Pacific Coast League	AAA	CHC
1968	38	Chicago Cubs	National League	MLB	CHC	1	1968-04-10	1968-09-21
1969	39	Tacoma Cubs	Pacific Coast League	AAA	CHC

One odd detail in all this is that Tief looked to be ready to establish himself  in the majors in '59 as he was coming off some very good seasons in Toronto. I can't find anything that hints at why he sat out that season after being traded to Cleveland. Since SABR doesn't have a Tief bio it remains a mystery. Perhaps he had gotten comfortable in Toronto and would have preferred to stay there.

But he did report to the Indians in 1960 and that began a 10 season odyssey of trades, sales, demotions, and promotions among several organizations. His busiest major league seasons came in 1962 when he pitched in 43 games for Houston and 1964/'65 when he had 46 and 31 appearances for the Braves (and Yankees in the second half of '65). He had 13 saves for Milwaukee in '64 which is more than half his career total.

In all he won nine games with a 3.84 ERA in 179 big league innings. In almost 850 minor league games over 19 seasons he was 162-96 with an ERA of just 2.66. He is enshrined in the International League Hall of Fame.

He last pitched in 1969 with the Cubs' AAA club and then spent nearly two decades in the Philadelphia Phillies' organization, working as a bullpen coach and a minor league pitching coach. He passed away at the age of 70 in 2000.

#433 Billy Harrell

This card of Cardinals' infielder Billy Harrell seems pretty mundane with the hatless subject staring out into the middle distance from what I'm guessing is the visitors' dugout in Yankee Stadium. But some of the most mundane cards reveal some of the coolest stories.

Billy Harrell has one such story. The Norristown, Pennsylvania native played basketball for Sienna College from 1949 through 1952. He was very good at it, too. So good that he was known as 'The Flash', received UPI All American honorable mention honors and he led Sienna to the National Catholic Invitational Tournament championship in 1950. Don't sell that short. The NCIT was considered a top tournament back in those days, right up there with the NIT (then the most prestigious postseason prize) and NCAA tournaments.

The tournament was still in it's infancy then and was scheduled to he held in Baltimore until it was learned that the area hotels would not allow the black players to stay at their establishments. Sienna, who had already received their invite as the #3 seed, offered to host and Harrell and his teammates ran the table (Harrell apparently was a hellacious rebounder) and took home the trophy.

As an interesting aside, City College of New York won both the NIT and NCAA tourneys that year (the only team to ever pull that off) but had both crowns were spoiled by a point shaving scandal that erupted within a year.

Harrell finished his Sienna career as the schools season rebounding record holder, a record that was only broken in 2011. His #10 was the first uniform number ever retired by the school.

Harrell moved on to pro sports after his Sienna days and played baseball for the Birmingham Barons of the Negro Leagues and hoops for the ABL's Saratoga Harlem Yankees. He had previously rejected offers from the Minneapolis Lakers and Harlem Globetrotters. Eventually he signed with the Cleveland Indians and spent six seasons in their system. He had call-ups in 1956 and 1957 and hit pretty well. He spent the entire season with Cleveland in 1958 and played some at shortstop getting almost 250 at bats. He hit only .218 and the Indians waived him that winter and he was claimed by St. Louis.

Although shown as a Cardinal Harrell never made the team and spent two full seasons at the AAA level. His bat (he hit ..293 in 1960) attracted the Red Sox and they took him in the minor league draft and used him a bit in 1961 but after that he was never able to rise past the AAA level and remained there until he retired in 1966. The cardback has a line indicating St. Louis sending him down before the season.

Billy Harrell is (unofficially) the only player to have played in three countries over a span of two days. With Rochester in 1960 he played past midnight in a doubleheader in Havana before catching the 'red eye' to Toronto for the International League All Star Game that evening. He then rejoined his teammates for a home game stateside the next day.

At last report Harrell is retired in Albany, NY, where he had been employed with the State Youth Division in placement and counseling. An article/interview that focused on him and the plight of other former players who fell outside the old baseball pension guidelines can be found here.

Here is a small pic of Harrell playing for Sienna.

#371 Dick Brodowski

Only 30 cards remain in the 1959 Topps set after this one of Dick Bordowski is posted. There is one superstar's card, a couple of All Star cards and a bunch of the high number series cards remaining. If I can keep to my regular every-other-day posting habits I should complete the cards before Opening Day, which would be 55 years after the set was first issued.

New Jersey born right-hander Dick Bordowski signed with the Red Sox straight out of high school in 1951 and made an immediate splash in their minor league system with a 21-5 season at the 'D' level. He pitched well the next season at AAA and was rewarded with a June call-up to the Sox. He had one good, one OK and one bad outing right off the bat but when called upon to start late in the month he rewarded the Sox with a pair of complete game wins. He had a roller coaster season after that and ended up with a 5-5 record and an ERA of 4.40 with 12 starts over 20 appearances.

He was in the service for the next two years and interestingly he didn't pitch much even though he was a member of the Army's baseball team. Instead he played second base. He had originally been signed as a duel position player (inf/p) and over his career he was a good hitter. Bordowski was back with the Sox for the '55 season and was generally ineffective. He was traded to Washington in 1956 and the Indians in 1958. Over those four years after his Boston days he was up and down between the majors and minors every season.

After one poor outing in 1960 he was out of the game as a player. After baseball Bordowski worked as a salesman, an insurance agent and in security. The Baseball Historian blog has a neat interview with him. He's sharp, funny and has some interesting Ted Williams stories. The interview is here and it's worth a look.

#369 Dick Tomanek

He was 6'1" and 175 so Dick Tomanek was called 'Bones'. Topps really had a great cartoon for the cardback:

Tomanek was a native of Avon Lake, Ohio and was signed by the Indians in 1950. Cleveland was just down the shoreline and Tomanek tells this story on Baseball Reference:

"My dad told a group of his friends in a bar that if I made it up to the Indians he would walk the twenty miles from our home in Avon Lake to Municipal Stadium to see me pitch, and he did it."

That debut came late in the 1953 season after Tomanek had spent three seasons in the Indians' system and one in the employ of Uncle Sam. It was worth the wait for both Tomanek and his father as the lefty put together a six hit complete game win over Detroit on September 25. 

Tomanek made the big club in 1954. He made his first appearance on April 17th when he was called upon in the first inning following a shelling of Indians starter Art Houtteman by Chicago. Tomanek was rushed into the game and in the second inning he had to be removed with a sore arm. This page from a book on Google gives the details. Tomanek didn't pitch again that season and spent the next two in the minors. 

Back with the Indians in '57 Tomanek had mixed results through the summer of '58 when he was traded to the Athletics as part of the deal that sent Roger Maris to Kansas City. He was more effective that year with the A's than he had been with the Indians but 1959 was another story. He pitched only 21 innings and had a long mid-season idle stretch (injured?) and was gone from baseball after spending a rocky year in the minors in 1960.

Tomanek went to work for B. F. Goodrich Chemical and stayed with them until he retired in 1990. He reportedly still resides in Avon Lake.

I found a Cleveland-centric card website maintained by Tomanek's nephew although it's been inactive for quite awhile. He does feature his uncle's cards on one of the pages.

Yes, that's Yankee Stadium. 

#363 Bobby Avila

Bobby Avila may not be the most obscure batting champ since WWII (I'd go with Bill Mueller who I've never heard of till now) but he's among them. And that's too bad because Avila had a pretty solid career in the 50s. Growing up in Mexico his well-to-do family wanted him to be a lawyer like his father but the teenage 'Beto' Avila played soccer and well as baseball.

He signed to play in the Mexican leagues and began there at age 19 in 1943. His play caught the attention of big league scouts but Avila turned down several offers before finally signing with the Cleveland Indians in 1948. He spent that season with the Indians' top farm club in Baltimore and then sat on the Indians bench for a good bit of 1949 as a bonus baby. In 1950 he got over 200 at bats and hit .299 as he moved into the Indians lineup at second base.

Beginning in 1951 he held down the teams' keystone spot for eight seasons. He made three AL All Star squads during that time, three times hit .300 or better and twice finished in the top ten in MVP voting. He was a good fielder and bunter and led or tied for the league lead in sacrifice hits twice. His best season was 1954 which not so coincidentally was the year the Indians went to the World Series. Avila won the batting crown that season with a .341 average despite playing for about half the year with a thumb broken in a baseline collision with Hank Bauer. He had career highs in homers and RBIs that year as well. According to unofficial numbers 13 of his 15 homers either tied the game for the Indians or gave them a win.

By 1958, as an 34 year old, his playing time and skills were slipping and he was traded to the Orioles for the '59 season. He played 20 games for the Birds before being waived and picked up by the Red Sox in May. In July he was waived again and this time he was claimed by the Braves where he finished out the year. He was active in the Mexican League in 1960, had a very good and probably very satisfying final season, and then retired.

Following his playing days Avila bought into a Mexican League club and went on to become the league president. He later got into politics and was elected mayor of his native Vera Cruz. He is a member of both the Mexican and Latin American Halls of Fame.

Avila died in 2004.

#247 Don Ferrarese

Don Ferrarese won only 19 games for five different teams over the course of eight seasons. Those numbers don't knock you over but he certainly shouldn't be dismissed that easily. You see it's what Don Ferrarese has done with his life after baseball that makes him stand out. But back to the game...

... Ferrarese signed on with the Phils in 1948. He wound his way through independent ball in the PCL and was dealt to the White Sox and spent time in the service. He was traded to the Orioles and debuted briefly in 1955. He made the O's staff in '56 and then spent 1957 shuttled between the O's and AAA ball. His baseball journey took many twists and turns as he was traded several times and through 1962 he was rostered by the White Sox (again), the Phils (again) the Indians, Cards and finally the Colt 45s for whom he never played.

Through it all he appeared in 183 games including 50 starts. He had a record of 19-36 with 12 complete games, two shutouts and 5 saves. His best game came with the Orioles on May 12 of 1956 when he entered the ninth having held the Yankees hitless. He lost the no-no but won a 1-0 game on a two hitter.

He once tossed four straight shutouts with San Antonio in the Texas League and had a three double day as a hitter for the Indians in May, 1959.

When he retired he went to work running his parents deli business and then he went into the real estate business. He was very successful and established a charitable foundation that benefits, among other things, needy students in his area of California. He has raised and donated millions of dollars. His foundations' website can be seen here. A few interviews with Ferrarese are here and here. More about his foundation is found here and here.

Sometimes what you find when you look into what appears to be just another '59 card can be amazing.