#289 Johnny Kucks

Johnny Kucks, a strong, tall New Jersey native joined the Yankees in 1955 following a year in their minor league system and two in the service. He showed promise in '55 going 8-7 and even getting a taste of World Series ball as he appeared twice in the Series loss to the Dodgers.

Then came 1956 and Kucks had his best season in the bigs. He started 31 games for the Yanks and went 18-8. He was an All Star and ended his work that year with a 9-0 shutout of the Dodgers in the decisive seventh game of the World Series. In doing so he became the last man to win a Series game at Ebbets Field. That win by Kucks came two days after Don Larson's perfect game win and the day after a terrific but overlooked pitching duel between Clem Labine and Bob Turley in Game 6 that was won by Brooklyn 1-0 in the 10th inning.

Kucks never could replicate that '56 magic. He was under .500 as a Yankee over the next two seasons and early in 1959 was dealt to the Athletics. After a couple of less than successful years in K.C. he was traded to the Orioles and then on to the Cardinals but he never was able to reach the majors with either club. He pitched in the minors through the '63 season before retiring.

Kucks worked as a motivational speaker after his baseball days and made numerous appearances at card shows and similar events. His career as a Yankee just barely preceded my many visits to Yankee Stadium. I remember him as a Yankee but I doubt I ever saw him pitch. So I guess I missed my chance to see him posed with the facade behind him as he gazed skyward, probably in thanks for the chance to wear those pinstripes.

#265 Ron Kline

Ron Kline looks mighty happy for a pitcher who had lost 60+ games in the previous four seasons, was forced to wear a batting helmet every second he was on the mound and having to endure being in a pink framed card. He also appeared on the Buc's Hill Aces card in the 1959 set.

Kline began his seventeen big league year career with the Pirates in 1952 and then spent two years in the military. On his return he joined the Buc's starting staff and three times broke double digit wins. Unfortunately he also led the league in losses twice.

He was traded to the Cardinals for the 1960 season and as he traveled through damn near every organization in the majors he slowly transitioned away from being a starter. He had his best seasons with the Senators in the early 60s as a stopper. He led the A.L. in saves in 1965 with 29 and had 23 the next year. He also pitched for Angels, Tigers, Twins, Pirates (again), Giants, Red Sox and Braves before he retired following the 1970 season.

Kline's Bullpen page makes note of the fact that he is the only pitcher to defeat the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York and San Francisco Giants, the Yankees and Mets.

After retirement Kline served as mayor of his small Pittsburgh-area home town.

#529 George Bamberger

George Bamberger had over 200 minor league wins in a career that stretched from 1946 to 1963. Along the way he made a handful of major league appearances, seven games with the Giants in 1951/52 and three more in 1959 with the Orioles, the year this card was issued. Those games in 1959 were in April and as noted on the back of his card he was sent down in May. He never made it back to the big leagues as a player.

But he did spend a lot of time in big league dugouts. He started coaching in the minors in the early 60s even as his active playing career was winding down. He became the Orioles' minor league pitching instructor and the was named as pitching coach of the O's under Earl Weaver in 1968. He kept that job through some very glorious years for the Birds. The Orioles had four Cy Young winners and 18 twenty game winners during his time there.

In 1978 he left the Orioles and took the managerial job with the Milwaukee Brewers. That season he won the majors Manager of the Year award while guiding the Brewers to a 93-69 third place finish, He had another good year in '79 but suffered a heart attack in the spring of 1980 and resigned after that season.

He managed the Mets in 1982 and part of '83 and returned to Milwaukee as skipper in 1985/86. In each of those seasons his clubs were below .500. 'Bambi' died in 2004. Former Orioles and Mets GM Frank Cashen called him the best pitching coach he ever seen. From that NY Times obit:

''He was the best pitching coach I ever saw,'' Frank Cashen, the former general manager of the Orioles and the Mets, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
He recalled that Bamberger gave his pitchers plenty of work.
''He believed in a four-man rotation,'' Cashen said. ''His theory was, the arm was a muscle, and the more you used it, the better off you were, as long as you didn't abuse it.''
Cashen remembered that Orioles Manager Earl Weaver ''was very flamboyant and not afraid to take pitchers to task vocally,'' but that ''George was very quiet; he was their friend.''

I like this high number card for a number of reasons, not the least of which are appreciation for what he did as the Orioles pitching coach and the fact that the back is printed, as are all '59 high numbers, in black and red on cream colored cardboard. Plus it's in really nice shape. The palm tree gives away the fact that this was a spring training shot.

#198 Jim Davenport

Jim Davenport made his major league debut with the Giants in 1958 after a three season minor league apprenticeship. He was the club's thirdbaseman through the 1963 season. That span included his best season, 1962, when he made his only All Star squad and won a Gold Glove for his nifty work in the field. He had his best batting average and hit his career home run high that same season. That year coincided with the Giants near miss in the World Series against the Yankees.

The 1964 arrival of Jim Ray Hart forced Davenport out of the lineup as the everyday 3B but he still got lots of work at short and second base. Davenport spent his entire career with San Francisco, retiring as a player after the 1970 season.

He has remaining in the game, mostly with the Giants organization, since then as a coach, scout, manager (1986 Giants) and front office executive. He is still with the Giants currently.

I can't really can't say why Davenport is shown hatless. It's possible that Topps had shot pics of him in a NY Giant uni prior to the team's move to the west coast and they did their usual 'take off that cap' dance. Or maybe he had been wearing a SF Giants cap but this shot was the one they liked best.

#34 Pitchers Beware

Wow, really? Pink frame and a red background? This is one of the '59 set's ugliest cards. Al Kaline and Charlie Maxwell deserve better.

Kaline, of course, is a Hall of Famer. Great hitter and a fine right-fielder with a cannon for an arm. He finished his career 1 homer short of 400 and three points south of .300 as a career average. He signed with the Tigers in 1953 and never spent a day in the minors. But the best thing about Al Kaline? Easy, he's a Baltimore native!

The Charlie Maxwell card in the set has already been featured. He was a popular Tiger outfielder known for his Sunday hitting heroics.

Every time I scan one of these specials I have the same thought... Wouldn't it have been a better card if Topps had used the photo's background instead of filling in the circle with a solid color?

#278 Chuck Essegian

Six big league teams employed outfielder Chuck Essegian in six big league seasons. And in only one season, 1962 with the Indians, was he anything close to being a regular. But there is more to Essegian than that. He had a big moment in the sun during the 1959 World Series as a Dodger.

In that Series he pinch hit a pair of homers, the second of which came when he hit for Duke Snider. Essegian tells that story (and a lot more) in this L.A.Times article from 1995. He'd been with the Dodgers for only six weeks before that fateful Series. He had come over in a mid-season deal from the Cardinals and then was in the minors for a few months before being called up.

In a lot of the stuff I dug up on Essegian he seemed to have put baseball completely behind him once his career ended. But during his second career, as a lawyer in California, he seems to have mellowed. Again the L.A. Times relays a story about Essegian and a young fan with whom he reconnected many years later. Yet another L. A. Times article, this one from 2006, elaborates on Essegian's times with the Dodgers.

As a football player at Stanford before his baseball days Essegian played in the Rose Bowl and remains one of very few players to have appeared in that game and a World Series. Essegian's contemporary Jackie Jensen is another other as is Jackie Robinson.

As noted Essegian rarely had a full-time spot with any club but he certainly had a good year in 1962 when he knocked out 21 homers in just under 400 at bats. That was as close as he ever came to matching the power he flashed in his minor league career.

Nice portrait on Essegian on this card. The smile is in contrast to the reputation he had as a glum and dour personality. Obviously an airbrushed logo on his cap. Looks like Connie Mack Stadium behind him. He played in Philadelphia in 1958 and by blowing up the card I could barely make out pinstripes on Essegian's jersey.

#459 Bill Tuttle

Bill Tuttle played centerfield (and some third base) for three AL teams through the 50s and into the early 60s. Signed by the Tigers he debuted in 1952 and earned a starting spot in center in 1954. His .259 lifetime average is pretty indicative of his hitting prowess although he did hit .300 in 1959 for the A's.

What kept Tuttle in the lineup for the Tigers, A's and Twins for more than a decade was his ability as a fielder. He led all AL outfielders in putouts and assists twice each. His record strictly among all AL centerfielders is even more impressive.

Google his cards and two things stand out... the guy never smiled... and he always had a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth. Maybe you can't smile with a chaw in your mouth. But Tuttle paid a huge price for that tobacco habit. He developed mouth cancer and lost parts of his mouth, cheek and jaw. You can look up the pics if you want but trust me it's not attractive. He spent the last years of his life warning ballplayers and others about the dangers of smokeless tobacco. He, along with Joe Garagiola, volunteered with the National Spit Tobacco Education Program in trying to get players to at least avoid being seen with the stuff hoping to discourage it's use.

Tuttle died in 1998.