#239 Bob Trowbridge

After signing with the Boston Braves in 1950 Hudson, New York native Bob Trowbridge pitched very well for a season in the low minors and then spent three full years in the military. While serving Uncle Sam Trowbridge honed his pitching skills and won 60 games while losing only six for the Nellis Air Force Base team located near Las Vegas.

He returned to the pro ranks in 1954 and was a standout in the minors. He earned a trip to the majors for a good chunk of the 1956 season and went 3-2 in 19 games for the Braves. He sported a 2.66 ERA but his numbers indicate a tendency to walk guys.

In 1957 he started well at the AAA level and again was brought up. He made 16 starts in 32 appearances and had success. He tossed a pair of gems in September of that year including his only career shutout and a five hit one run effort late in the month.

He appeared in Game Three of the World Series against the Yankees that year, He pitched the seventh inning and had a pretty rough go of it as he allowed two hits and walked three and saw each of those runners score. Tony Kubek's homer was the big blow. Trowbridge did get Mickey Mantle to fly out to end the inning. I'd give up ten years of my life to say I faced Mickey Mantle in a World Series game. It might have been a rocky outing but he got a ring that season.

He was almost exclusively a reliever for the next two seasons and didn't have the success he'd had previously. Trowbridge found himself traded to Kansas City for 1960 where he had modest numbers and pitched some in the minors. He was back in the minors briefly in 1961 before he was done with the game.

He went on to work for the Department of Corrections near his upstate New York home until he passed away at the age of only 49 in 1980.

I wouldn't swear to it but that might be Connie Mack Stadium behind Trowbridge. I think I see just enough red to make that possible. There have been enough Phillies cards showing that park for me to know that the Topps photographers did make it that far across the Hudson (and Delaware) Rivers.

Or it could be the Polo Grounds.

#230 Bill Fischer

Look up the term 'baseball lifer' and you are likely to see a picture of Dom Zimmer or, just maybe, Bill Fischer. He was just 17 when the Chicago White Sox inked him to a pro deal out of Wisconsin and the righthander debuted as a pro with a 14-3 record in 19 starts the low minors.

He moved up the Sox' chain, spent two years in the military, pitched in the independent PCL, was re-acquired by Chicago and finally debuted with the White Sox in 1956. He made three appearances that season before being returned to the minors and then he was back in the bigs in 1957.

Over the course of the next nine seasons he pitched for four different organizations, mostly out of the bullpen but he was a part of the Washington Senators' rotation in '59 and then into 1960 before he was traded to Detroit for the second time in his career. That appears to be a Tigers' uni he's wearing in this card's picture with a drawn-in 'W' on the cap.

His career mark over those nine seasons with the Senators/Twins, Athletics, White Sox and Tigers was 45-58 with two shutouts and 13 saves. In 1962 with Kansas City he set a major league record by pitching 84 1/3 consecutive innings without a walk, a record that still stands.

From 1965 through 1968 he pitched in the White Sox chain at the AAA level and had really good numbers each of those seasons but he never again appeared in a major league game. That doesn't mean he never wore a major league uniform however.

His Baseball Reference Bullpen page gives a good account of Fischer's coaching odyssey which followed his days on the mound:

After his playing days, Fischer was a minor league pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals from 1975 to 1978, a Cincinnati Reds coach from 1979 to 1983, a minor league coach for the Royals again in 1984, and a member of the Boston Red Sox staff from 1985 to 1991. He worked in the Atlanta Braves chain from 1992 to 1999 and then was Tampa Bay Devil Rays pitching coach in 2000 and 2001. He returned to Atlanta for the period from 2002 to 2006. He has worked in the Kansas City Royals organization since 2007, serving as their Minor League Pitching Coordinator in 2009 and more recently as a Senior Pitching Advisor.

Fischer was the pitching coach for Roger Clemens when the then Red Sox ace won three of his Cy Young awards. Only Leo Mazzone, Dave Duncan and George Bamberger have coached more Cy Young winners. A year ago, according to this page on the KC Royals' site, Fischer even stepped back into his active coaching role, even if only as a fill-in for a couple of games. So since 1948, with a couple of years away serving his country, Bill Fischer has been associated with baseball. That's a 65 year stretch. That's a 'baseball life'!.

#228 Don Gross

I'm not really sure what prompted Topps to pose pitcher Don Gross holding a bat in Seals Stadium much less use the shot on his 1959 card. It's not like he was a good hitting pitcher or a converted position player. Just a curiosity of the set I guess.

Anyway, the left-handed Gross signed with the Reds in 1950 after playing (though not lettering apparently) at Michigan State University. He worked his way up through the Reds' chain with some impressive numbers, spent 1953 in the military, and debuted in July of 1955 with Cincinnati.

He went 4-5 that first half season in 11 starts over 17 appearances. He split the '56 season between the Reds and AAA Havana and then was 7-9 in a spot starters role in 1958. He was traded to the Pirates after that season in a deal that brought Bob Purkey to the Reds. While Purkey went on to All Star status with the Reds Gross won only six more games as his career finished with him bouncing around the minors through 1963.

A near no-hitter against the Braves that turned into a tough luck 1-0 loss on May 28th of 1958 was his career highlight. Or maybe not. Gross was part of a wacky 9 run bottom of the ninth rally that the Giants put together on May 5, 1958 in Seals Stadium.

Cruising along with an 11-1 lead Vern Law looked to finish off the Giants with three more outs. Then this happened:

Leading off, Ray Jablonski singles, and so does Orlando Cepeda. Hank Sauer reaches on an error and the bases are loaded. Willie Kirkland flies out. Jim King hits a pinch double to score two. John Antonelli doubles in two more to make it 11-5. Bob Speake hits a pinch double, the third in a row by the Giants and it's now 11-6. Curt Raydon replaces Law and promptly walks Willie Mays who is then forced at second, the second out of the inning.

Ray Jablonski then hits a 3 run homer to draw the Giants to within two at 11-9. Ron Blackburn comes on to pitch and gives up a homer to Cepeda and it's suddenly a one run game! But were are not quite done. Sauer walks, representing the tying run and on to pitch comes our guy, Don Gross. He walks pinch hitter Bob Schmidt and Jim Finigan, hitting for King grounds to short where it's booted for an error. The bases are now loaded. Any of the 5,502 Giants fans who had stayed to the end on a runaway game must have thought the were about to witness one of the best comebacks in baseball history.

But Don Taussig, the fifth pinch hitter of the inning, pops out to second to end the fiasco and give Don Gross a save, his first of seven that season.

Bottom line on the Giants ninth inning:
9 runs, 7 hits including three consecutive doubles and back-to-back homers, 3 walks, 
5 pinch-hitters, a pinch-runner, 2 errors and 3 LOB.

The line score:

                1  2  3   4  5  6   7  8  9    R  H  E
                -  -  -   -  -  -   -  -  -    -  -  -
Pirates         0  2  0   0  0  1   5  0  3   11 14  3
Giants          1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  9   10 12  1

And now that I think about it, given the the picture on this card was taken in '58 at Seals Stadium in San Francisco, might Gross have been trying to send some subliminal message by holding up a bat? Taunting the Giants on the day following that crazy game? I guess we'll never know.

#171 Willard Schmidt

Willard Schmidt has a great card, doesn't he?. The back frame that contrasts and compliments those Reds' duds, Seals Stadium with the distinctive red railings and, maybe best of all, a terrific cartoon on the reverse. It became even greater as I researched his career as you will see. 

Schmidt was signed out of Hays, Kansas in 1949 by the Cardinals. He won 56 games in three seasons as he climbed through the Cards' well stocked farm system. He got brief looks in St. Louis in 1952 and '53 but was back in the minors for the following season and a half where he again was impressive. He won 30 games over that span and was recalled to the Majors by the Cards in July of '55, this time for good. 

He was primarily a starter for that '55 season and continued in that role in 1956. He posted impressive numbers, especially in his rookie campaign. That half year he went 7-6 with a 2.86 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. He had some memorable games among his fifteen starts. His first start resulted in a four hit complete game win over the Giants in New York. Ten days later he nearly matched that with a five hit win over the Pirates at home.

On August 11th he took a no-hitter into the seventh against the Braves in Milwaukee. Johnny Logan singled to end the no hit bid but Schmidt breezed through the rest of the game for the shutout win. On September 4th he took a perfect game into the 7th before the Cubs got to him and tagged him for a loss. Finally, on September 21, in what turned out to be his final start of the season, he went 12 and a third against Cubs at home. He had allowed just seven hits and three runs going into the 13th but the Cubs rocked him and he took a 7-4 loss. Hard to envision that game given the changes that have taken place in baseball since then. Twelve and a third innings is probably two games work for many of the games starters these days. 

His 1956 numbers were not quite up to those of his rookie season and in '57 he was converted to a reliever. He went 10-3 but his hits per inning went way up and the Cards had younger prospects on the rise. After that year he was traded to the Reds in the deal that brought Curt Flood to St. Louis. In '58/'59 he won six games and then found himself back in the minors to close out his career. 

Before he was done though he was able to grab a bit of notoriety by becoming the first player in major league history to get hit by a pitch twice in the same inning by two different pitchers when Bob Rush and Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Braves hit him in the third inning of a wild and crazy 11–10 Reds win on April 26th of 1959. From the box score it appears he took a shot off the bat of his old nemesis Johnny Logan that KO'd him. 

After his retirement he co-owned Schmidt-Tullius Dodge and Schmidt Bicycle and Lawnmower Center in the Norman, Oklahoma area and later retired from that to a small farm in Newcastle, Oklahoma. His 2007 obituary states he had been preceded in death by six brothers and three sisters and survived by two other sisters, that his family had been among the first German-Russian settlers in the Hays, Kansas area and that his first language was German. He also attended Fort Hays College for a year before turning to pro baseball.

In the process of researching Willard Schmidt I came across a blog written by his great nephew, James Schmidt. James, a chemist by trade, is a Civil War historian and author who specializes in the art/science of medicine during that remarkable time. As a Abe Lincoln-phile I immediately had my interest piqued and then I was really pleased to find that James lives right here in Houston and does lectures and discussions on his interests and books. In fact I missed one held by the Houston Public Library by just a week or so. Fascinating stuff. 

I had found a post on his blog centered on great-uncle Willard and I reached out to James and he was kind enough to respond and point me to another post and he filled in a bit of his family background. How great is that? I'm looking forward to meeting James Schmidt one of these days and hearing more about his great uncle and especially more about his field of interest, the Civil War. 

Oh, that cartoon on the back of Willard Schmidt's '59 Topps?  Behold this classic:

#197 Ray Semproch

Cleveland native Ray Semproch signed with the Phillies in 1951 and won 17 games in the lower minors that season before he spent the next two years in the military. Returning to baseball in 1954 he worked his way to the majors with four more seasons of minor league ball. Interestingly his 1957 season at AAA was far better than any previous year he spent at a lower level. I came across a few pages in a book on Google that tells of a heroic pitching effort Semproch delivered in the International League championship series in 1956 for Miami.

He earned himself a job in the Phils' rotation in 1958 and he went 13-11. At one point he was 13-6 and his 11 wins at mid-season led the league. A look at his game logs for '58 show that he mixed some really nice starts with some real stinkers. That win total was second only to Robin Roberts on the Phillies' staff and is made even more special when you compare it to the teams' 69-85 season record.

Semproch never again approached the success he had as a rookie. He went 3-9 in 1959 and was then traded to the Tigers. He won three games in relief in Detroit in 1960 but was traded to the Dodgers in mid-season and was farmed out.

He was drafted by Washington in December of '60 thus becoming one of the first players acquired by the 'new' version of the Senators but was sold to the equally new Angels in April of '61. He pitched only twice for the Angels, spent most of the year in the minors, and then retired.

He worked in his brother's Italian restaurant after that. Semproch's first Topps card came in 1958. On it he is listed by his given name of 'Roman'.

His nickname was 'Baby". I have no idea why.

#129 Frank Herrera The Sporting News Rookie Stars

Cuban born Francisco "Pancho" or "Frank" Herrera played in 300 games with the Phillies over three years between 1958 and 1961. Don't let that short career fool you. Herrera is one very interesting guy. When he debuted for the Phils at the age of 23 he had already been in organized ball for about 8 years. He began at 15 or so around Havana as a member of a group of youngsters called gitanillos, or little gypsies. These players worked with Cuban pro teams during practices but sat in the stands with the other fans during games. Occasionally they were called on to actually fill-in for a regular.

He was also boxing (until him mother saw him KO'd and made him quit) and an agricultural student around that time. But baseball called and he signed to play pro ball in Cuba in 1950. He was obtained by the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1952. His contract was purchased by the Phillies and he began in their organization in 1955.

He played some in Philly in 1958 and hit .270 in 63 at bats but spent the '59 season in the International League with Buffalo and just tore the league up to earn MVP honors. He stepped into a regular role as the Phils' first baseman in 1960 and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting. He put together a .281 average with 17 dingers and 71 RBI but he fell off in '61, went back to the minors and was dealt to the Pirates. He never again played in the majors although he hung on in the minors with several organization through 1969 and then played in Mexico and with an independent Florida State league club as late as 1974. At times he served as player/manager.

Along the way Herrera had played winter ball in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in addition to Cuba. He made his home in the US in Miami and was part of the Cuban culture there for many years. He worked for United Airlines and for a health service provider in South Florida as well as having several baseball-related interests such as batting instructor in Mexico and running a baseball camp with fellow Cuban Paul Casanova. 

The father of three daughters Frank Herrera died in 2005 in Miami. He is a member of the International League Hall of Fame. You can (and should!) check out his SABR bio here. More info on Herrera and his part in the integration of baseball (he was the Phils first black Latino player) can be found in this book on Google.

This card is one of three 'rookie' cards issued by Topps for Frank Herrera. One version of his 1958 card is prized because of the 'error' which is described as a misspelled name on the front. It seems to be a printing error. 

Here is the more common 'correct' version:

The 1959 Rookie Stars card is featured up top and he also had a 'rookie star' card in the 1960 set. That one is my favorite because I am a fan of that '60 Rookie subset.

Interestingly he had a 1961 All Star card but no regular card by Topps.

#189 Neil Chrisley

Here we have another of those multi-sport stars, Neil Chrisley. At Newberry College he played baseball and basketball. He was drafted by the Red Sox in 1950 and spent five years in the minors and two in the military before making his debut in the majors with the Washington Senators in 1957.

The left handed hitting outfielder spent the '58 season in Washington where he hit just .215 in part-time duty and was traded to the Tigers. He was again a part-timer in Detroit but he did manage to put together a decent season in 1960 hitting five homers while batting .255 in nearly a hundred games. His most memorable week came in May of that year when he had the only hit, a first inning double, off Bill Monbouquette in a one-hitter by the Red Sox hurler. A week later he had his only career two homer game.

He was traded to the Braves and played very little in 1961 and was sold to the fledgling New York Mets that October. The Mets returned Chrisley to the Braves on the eve of Opening Day. The Braves farmed him out and he never returned to the majors. He retired to become an insurance salesman in 1964.

Chrisley, whose given name was Barbra, passed away earlier this year in his native South Carolina.