#47 Jim Finigan

1959 in Baltimore was Jim Finigan's last major league stop in a five season career that saw him play for four teams (five if you count the Philadelphia A's and Kansas City A's separately). Finigan signed with the Yankees in the late 40s. He had four pretty good seasons in their minor league chain and a couple of years in the military during the Korean War before he was traded to the A's with whom he debuted in 1954.

He was the A's regular third-baseman that season and hit .302, made the AL All Star team, was second in ROY voting (behind Yankee hurler Bob Grim but ahead of someone named Al Kaline!) and got some MVP votes. He moved to second base and saw his average drop in 1955 by nearly 50 points but again made the All Star Game. That was his final season as a full time starter in the bigs. In 1956 he hit only .216 and played in 91 games. He was traded to the Tigers for 1957, on to the Giants and then to the Orioles for 1959.

For the Orioles he played quite a bit of third base while a slumping Brooks Robinson spent some time in AAA and recovered from a seriously injured arm. When Brooks returned Finigan was back on the bench. He ended his career with a few seasons in the Orioles chain and then some minor league managing. He later coached at Quincy College in Illinois before he died at the age of 52 in 1981.

With his Giants uni showing the picture of Finigan can be traced to 1958. So he was 30 when it was taken. Looks older than that don't ya think? And I'd say he resembles on of my childhood favorites, Howdy Doody.

#51 Rip Coleman

Walter Gary Coleman, better known as 'Rip' Coleman was a Yankee signee out of Syracuse and Wake Forest Universities in 1952. It took him four seasons to climb the ladder and he debuted with the Yanks in August 1955 after winning 12 games in Denver that season. 

His first game was a start against the Orioles. He was pretty shaky allowing five hits, five walks and six earned runs in five plus innings. Luckily for Rip the Yanks had their hitting shoes on that day and had staked him to a big lead. Bob Grim finished the game and Rip Coleman had a win. The O's starter and loser was Ray Moore whose card was recently profiled here.

Coleman pitched in nine more games that season and got into Game Four of the '55 Series against the Dodgers. He was hit hard in his inning plus allowing five singles and a couple of runs. He was also with the Yanks during the 1956 Series but didn't appear. Likely got a ring, though. 

After a 3-5 1956 season as a spot starter and reliever he was shipped to Kansas City (surprise!) for '57. He was in the minors for a portion of that year and then was knocked around and saddled with an 0-7 mark with the Athletics. Note that the back of his card calls it a "rough 1957 campaign". 

After spending 1958 in the minors he went 2-10 in KC in 1959 before he was waived and picked up by the Orioles. He pitched sparing for the Orioles but kept posting some decent minor league stats before hanging up his spikes after the 1962 year. 

Some of these white cardboard cards give my scanner the jumps. I've tried to adjust the brightness and contrast with Google's online tools because I'm too lazy to re-scan it. Topps airbrushed the "A" onto Rip's cap. Probably over the "NY". They probably cropped it 'tight' to eliminate the need to do much with the pinstripes which are barely visible. I replaced a centered but bruised copy with this sharper but mis-cut version. 

#167 Duke Maas

Ring...ring...ring..."Good Morning, Kansas City Athletics, Mr. Selkirk's office. How can I help you?"

"Hello, Marge? George Weiss of the Yankees here. Is Selkirk in?"

"No, Mr. Weiss, but he told me to give you anything you wanted, just like he always does."

"Sounds great, Marge, we need a pitcher or two. Send me Duke Maas."

"Sure thing Mr. Weiss. Would you like Virgil Trucks, too? I just saw him walk past."

"Sounds good, Marge. I'll send something your way. Won't be much but they'll be breathing, probably. My best to Ol' Selkirk. Always nice ripping...err...doing business with the A's!"

"Bye, Mr. Weiss, call again when the Yanks need something. We're here to serve" ...click...

And so it went through the 50's.The Yanks needed to fill a hole, the A's obliged. In 1958 it was Duke Maas.  He was coming off a couple of double digit win seasons for the Tigers, had settled in with some nice numbers for the punch-less A's and then, bingo, off he went to the Yanks to help them in their drive to the American League pennant in 1958. 

Actually I thought Duke Maas had a really reat name. And any card that shows off the various decks of Yankee Stadium (including my frequent upper deck perch) qualifies as cool. That's Jerry Lumpe (#11) in the background waiting for his BP cuts. (Lumpe rode the KC/NY Express the other way when the Yanks brought over Hector Lopez and Ralph Terry in 1959.)

After minor league and military duty (in Korea) Maas broke in with the Tigers in 1954. He was dealt to KC in '58 and ended up on the Yanks. He pitched in two World Series with New York.

His best year, at least record-wise, came in 1959 with the Yanks when he went 14-8. He was drafted by the Angels in the December 1960 expansion draft but traded back to the Yanks for the '61 season which he spent nearly all of in the minors before he hung it up.

Duane Fredrick "Duke" Maas died in 1976 at the young age of 47. 

#251 Cletis Boyer

I saw a lot of Clete Boyer when he was active. He was the Yankees' third baseman when I was living up there and attending games at the Stadium. He was traded to the Braves at the same time I was moving to Houston. The first friend I made was a Braves fan so we went to quite a few of their games in the Dome in '67 and '68. 

I never heard anyone call him 'Cletis' except for possibly Red Barber. Anyway, Boyer a 'good field/good hit' third baseman for the Yankees and Braves through the decade of the 60's. He arrived in New York via the well established 'Kansas City to New York Express' in 1958. Seems like when the Yanks called, the A's always answered the phone.

Boyer, a Missouri native, never hit for a high average but he had good power and after coming over to the Braves in 1967 he had a career high 26 dingers. For the Yanks he was usually good for double digit homer totals and he anchored a pretty solid infield along side Tony Kubek, Bobby Richardson and Moose Skowron or Joe Pepitone. 

As good as he was in the field he only won one Gold Glove, that coming in the NL in 1969. Playing in the same league as Brooks Robinson and then Ron Santo will do that.

There were three Boyers in the big leagues. Clete, his well known (and very accomplished) brother Ken, and Cloyd who was a teammate of Clete when he was ending his pitching career with the A's in 1955. Cloyd and Ken were both property of the Cardinals in the early 50s but Ken was serving in the military and missed the chance to share the field with Cloyd.

Clete played on five straight Yankee pennant winners from 1960 thru 1964, winning two tiles. He and Ken were the opposing third basemen in the 1964 Series won by the Cards.In the seventh game Clete and Ken became the only brothers to ever homer in the same World Series contest. Clete got another taste of the postseason as a Brave in the 1969 playoffs when his club lost to the Amazin' Mets. 

Clete Boyer died in 2007. Nice interview from 2004 with him right here.

Boyer's first Topps rookie card was in the '57 set (his 'rookie' card is a 1955 Bowman). He was a member of the Athletics and the shot was taken at Yankee Stadium. Since the '59 Boyer is an early series card the picture is likely from the same time. (Hard to fool me, yes?) Anyway the point is that Topps wanted to show Boyer as a Yankee and they airbrushed the NY onto his cap. Poorly. It's too small. No doubt they wanted to have it visible but it would have been better to just add the part that would have actually been seen from the angle of the shot.  

What IS seen from that (or any) angle is that my Boyer isn't one of the better cards in my '59 set. It's one of the few creased examples I haven't tried to upgrade yet. One of these days I'll get to it.

1957 Topps Clete Boyer:

1955 Bowman Clete Cloyd Boyer:

#222 Bobby Shantz

I frequent a baseball related forum and a thread came up recently concerning which team you associate a particular player with. For example: Bill Madlock... Pirates? Cubs? Or Nolan Ryan... Angels? Rangers? Astros?

I thought of that when I was looking at Bobby Shantz' career. To me he's a Yankee but he actually only spent four of sixteen big league seasons in the Bronx. And his best work by far came in his days with the Athletics, particularly in Philadelphia.

In 1951, his third season in the bigs he went 18-10 for a 70 win A's club and he backed that up in '52 with a superb season. He was 24-7 for the A's who won 79 games total. He posted an ERA of 2.48 and a WHIP of 1.048, best in the league. For his efforts the 5'6" side-armer was named AL MVP. Not an easy thing to do in those days of sluggers and stars. 

Shantz never approached those numbers again in the remainder of his career but he finished with eight Gold Gloves for his fielding prowess (he'd have won more perhaps had they been awarded prior to 1957. He moved to a relievers role in 1958. He was a three time All Star and picked up a World Series ring and two more AL titles while with the Yankees in the late 50's and 1960.

Shantz' brother Billy, a catcher, teamed with him with the A's in both Philly and Kansas City and briefly with the Yanks in 1960. I believe Bobby still does card shows.

#313 Frank House

Happy Birthday, Frank House. Frank was born on this date in 1930. He passed away at the age of 75 in 2005. He was a part-timer/platoon catcher through the 1950's, beginning and ending his major league career with the Tigers. He squeezed in stints with the A's and Reds as well. He was property of the Orioles during the 1961 season but never got a call-up from Rochester and then was dealt to the Tigers in July of that year.

He's pictured here in his Athletics uni but I think there is a good chance that he posed as a Tiger and was airbrushed enhanced, but maybe I'm just paranoid. I AM sure he is posing at Yankee Stadium. And I bet Topps wasn't lying when they state in House's blurb that he was 'a powerhouse behind the plate'. He looks pretty solid.

This blog will have it's share of cards in nice condition but more than not will appear to have lived a full life as has this example. After all, I am building my set one fair to good card at a time.