#302 Don Mossi

No cheap Don Mossi jokes from me. Sure he had those big ears and sad, hound dog looks but he was a very good major league pitcher for a number of years. And by all accounts he was a darn nice guy to boot.  There are plenty of places to get a chuckle at Mossi's expense. Just google him and you'll find clever stuff about Mossi written by nearly every blogger and Bill James, too.

OK, so he isn't Don Drysdale, he was a guy who answered the call for several American League clubs in the 50s and 60s and did a nice job in whatever role he was asked to fill.

Mossi originally signed with the Indians in 1949 and worked his way through the minors, debuting in 1954 with the Tribe. That was a nice year to debut since Cleveland made it to the World Series. After a season where he went 6-1 with 7 saves and a sub 2.00 ERA Mossi got into three games in the Series, pitched four innings and didn't allow a run. 

After a couple more seasons working out of the Indians bullpen as a lefty compliment to righty Ray Narleski, Mossi was handed a starters slot in 1957 and he won 11 games. Then it was back to the pen for 1958 and following that a trade to the Tigers for 1959.

He started for five seasons in Detroit, winning 59 games then rounded out his career with a season each with the White Sox and Athletics. He wound up with 101 wins along with 80 losses, and All Star appearance (1957) and that World Series experience. All in all, not a bad career.

Red framed, airbrushed shot in Yankee Stadium. Seen these before. I will give credit to the Topps airbrush guy. He restrained what had to be an overwhelming urge to tinker with stuff other than Mossi's cap logo. Does that count as a cheap Don Mossi joke?

#261 Gene Stephens

OK, it was just a throw away line on Gene Stephens' Wikipedia page:

 On June 18, 1953 Stephens became the first major leaguer in the modern era (since 1900) to have 3 hits in a single inning. The record was matched in 2004 by Johnny Damon, who coincidently also accomplished this feat as a Red Sox as well.

I mulled that over for a few seconds, impressed. Then I looked closer and saw the same info is part on his cardback cartoon. Then It dawned on me.... they batted around...twice! Wow! I gotta check that out. I did and I was pretty amazed/amused.

Click the box score page from Baseball Reference. Scroll down to the bottom of the seventh. I'll sum it up if you are too lazy: Sox lead the Tigers 5-3 as the Sox come to bat. Then this happens.....Single, single (that's Stephens' first hit and he steals 2nd), single, strikeout, double, intentional walk, single, homer, single, walk, wild pitch, double (that's Stephens' second hit), walk, single, flyout, single, walk, walk, single, single, single (there goes Stephens' third hit), another single, another walk, and then mercifully, George Kell flys out to leftfield. The damage: 17 runs on 14 hits and 6 walks. Yikes. Oddly George Kell made two of the outs.

Tiger righty Steve Gromeck took most of the pounding. He'd been a Tiger for just three days after being acquired from the Indians on June 15! I wonder what Tiger management was thinking as that inning ended. Gromeck entered the game with a 3.27 ERA and exited with 9.75. LOL

Stephens was a fourth outfielder and defensive caddy for Ted Williams for the bulk of his career. He broke in with the Red Sox in 1952 and stuck with the big club beginning in '55. In 1960 he was traded to the Orioles and then spent pieces of the next three seasons with the White Sox and A's. After a minor league stint in 1967 Stephens hung up his glove for good.

He finished with a .240 batting average and 34 homers as well as a feature role in that amazing 1953 game. A very far reaching interview and bio of Stephens is available here.

Interesting that fellow Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon is the only other player since 1900 that has three hits in an inning. He pulled it off on June 27, 2003. Waaay back in 1883 three Chicago White Stockings players, Tom Burns, Ned Williamson and Fred Pfeffer all (yes, all) had three hits in the same inning. But those guys were playing rounders back then. I don't know how that record even was recorded.

You gotta like the Stephens '59 card. Gene poses on the dugout steps in Yankee Stadium, green frame matching the green (peeling) paint of the ballpark. Gene showing off his bat. Not a typical pose.

#458 Gordon Jones

Gordon Jones put in a lot of time in the St. Louis Cardinals' farm system before getting his shot with the big club in 1954. He made 10 starts for the Cardinals that season and went 4-4 with a 2.00 ERA. He never had as good a season after that.

After nine starts with the Cards in '55 he moved to the bullpen almost exclusively for the rest of his career which spanned parts of eleven seasons for the Giants, Orioles, A's and Astros after leaving St. Louis.

His career win totals show a 15-18 mark with 12 saves. His cap shows that crappy faux Giants logo that Topps insisted on painting on Giants players well after the clubs move to the Bay area. It's a SF Seals design and shows the lazy side of Topps design team. 

Interestingly this card was used as Gordon's card in the 1991 Crown Oil/Coca Cola Orioles set.  THAT designer simply took the Topps '59 trimmed it back some and recycled it. Ryan at The Great Orioles Autograph Project did a great post on this. Here's the card:

Yikes, is that obviously a cribbed shot or what? And, as Ryan points out, they could have used his 1960 Topps card if they were going to recycle an image.

#510 New York Yankees

Leave it to the Yankees to have a team shot taken at an angle. I don't think I've seen any other club do this. The 1959 club was coming off the '58 World Series win over the Braves. They fell off to 79-75 and finished in third behind the White Sox and the Indians. A long way behind, 10 back of the Tribe, 15 out of first.

Lots of things seemed to work against the Yanks in 1959. It was one of only two seasons under Casey Stengel (the other being 1954) that they did not finish first. Mickey Mantle had a sub par year, hitting 31 homers but only .285. Whitey Ford led the club's staff with 16 wins. The Yanks turned it back around in 1960 and all was well again in the Bronx.

When I was a kid the 4th of July usually meant one thing... and it wasn't firecrackers. It meant a trip to Yankee Stadium for a doubleheader with my Dad. I don't remember the Orioles ever being the visitors on the Fourth or on Labor Day either which was the other summer doubleheader tradition we had. 

The back of this card looks better than the front, at least in terms of condition. It's clean and unchecked while the front is a little scruffy. I like the scheme though. And as much as I hate to admit it, I like the classic Yankee top hat logo.

Happy Fourth, everyone!!

#150 Stan Musial

"I throw him four wide ones and then I try to pick him off first base." - Preacher Roe

"How good was Stan Musial?  He was good enough to take your breath away." - Vin Scully

Consider Stan Musial's Hall of Fame bio:

After 22 years as a Cardinal, Stan Musial ranked at or near the top of baseball's all-time lists in almost every batting category. The dead-armed Class C pitcher was transformed into a slugging outfielder who topped the .300 mark 17 times and won seven National League batting titles with his famed corkscrew stance and ringing line drives. A three-time MVP, he played in 24 All-Star games. He was nicknamed The Man by Dodgers fans for the havoc he wrought at Ebbets Field and was but one home run shy of capturing the National League Triple Crown in 1948.

Yup, three MVPs, seven batting titles, 24 All Star games. I'm no new age stats guy but even I can follow this from Baseball Reference:

He ranks fifth all-time among hitters on the Black Ink Test, and third all-time on the Gray Ink Test—measures designed to compare players of different eras. He ranks first on Baseball-Reference's Hall of Fame Monitor Test, and is tied for second in the Hall of Fame Career Standards Test.

And finally, consider this list of accomplishments, also from Baseball Reference:

Notable Achievements

• 20-time NL All-Star (1943, 1944 & 1946-1963)

• 3-time NL MVP (1943, 1946 & 1948)

• 7-time NL Batting Average Leader (1943, 1946, 1948, 1950-1952 & 1957)

• 6-time NL On-Base Percentage Leader (1943, 1944, 1948, 1949, 1953 & 1957)

• 6-time NL Slugging Percentage Leader (1943, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1950 & 1952)

• 7-time NL OPS Leader (1943, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952 & 1957)

• NL At Bats Leader (1946)

• 5-time NL Runs Scored Leader (1946, 1948, 1951, 1952 & 1954)

• 6-time NL Hits Leader (1943, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1949 & 1952)

• 6-time NL Total Bases Leader (1943, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1951 & 1952)

• NL Singles Leader (1946)

• 8-time NL Doubles Leader (1943, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1949 & 1952-1954)

• 5-time NL Triples Leader (1943, 1946, 1948, 1949 & 1951)

• 2-time NL RBI Leader (1948 & 1956)

• NL Bases on Balls Leader (1953)

• 20-Home Run Seasons: 10 (1948-1957)

• 30-Home Run Seasons: 6 (1948, 1949, 1951 & 1953-1955)

• 100 RBI Seasons: 10 (1946, 1948-1951 & 1953-1957)

• 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 11 (1943, 1944 & 1946-1954)

• 200 Hits Seasons: 6 (1943, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1951 & 1953)

• Won three World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals (1942, 1944 & 1946)

• Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 1969

The Baseball Page has the best Musial bio I came across on the web, a nice read for sure. Stan Musial was elected to the Hall on the first ballot with 93% of the vote. Whoever is represented by that other 7% should have had their voting privileges revolked immediately. I'd guess that no other baseball player is more revered in any city than Musial is in St. Louis. There is a new George Vecsey biography of Musial out this summer which I have not read yet but has gotten good reviews. He was recently honored at the White House and has a pretty nice website.

Great card of Stan Musial in this '59 set, doing what he did best, swinging the bat. I like the blue and red cap. The Cards had last worn that in 1955 so this picture was several years old when Topps used it. My copy is off center obviously, but has fairly nice corners and nice color. I was very happy to get it for the price I did.

#483 Clint Courtney

I tend to think of Clint Courtney as an Oriole but that's because he was part of their club when I first really began to follow the game, 1960 or so. But 'Scrap Iron' was around almost a decade prior to that and he actually did the bulk of his playing in Washington with the Senators.

Always known for his hard nosed style that belied his bookish looks, Courtney came up as a Yankee signee in 1951, playing one game before being dealt to the Browns for the '52 season. He was runner-up in the Rookie of the Year chase that season. He held down the Brown's catching job and held it through the franchise's first year in Baltimore. 

The O's traded him to the White Sox and he was dealt again to the Nats, all during 1955. In five seasons with the Senators he platooned behind the plate except in 1958 when he held the job himself and had personal bests in homers and RBIs.

It was back to Baltimore for 1960. It was during that stint that he pioneered the use of an over-sized catcher's mitt to handle Hoyt Wilhem's knuckleball. The glove was the brainchild of O's manager Paul Richards. 

The O's traded him to Kansas City that winter but after just one game (one at bat!) with the Athletics he was returned to the O's where he lasted until July before being released.

Courtney turned to coaching after playing a couple more seasons as a minor leaguer. He works for the Astros as bullpen coach and then managed in the Braves' chain with sights on a major league job. He died in 1975 at the age of 48 before attaining that goal.

SABR has a cool bio of Clint Courtney. If you don't want to read it I'll show you the best part, this great picture of him in his Brownie gear. Gotta love that. His '59 Topps just 'says' Clint Courtney. You don't even have to see his name to know who that is if you followed 50s/60s baseball at all. I'm glad my copy of his card is pretty nice. Good color and decent corners. 

#1 Ford Frick

Like pulling the Warren Giles, getting a card of Ford Frick must have been a terrible buzz kill for a kid opening a pack in 1959. I mean who wants a card of a guy who looks just like your pediatrician?

Ford Frick was a graduate of DePauw University and he is inducted in their Athletic Hall of Fame. He became a fairly well known sportswriter and ghostwrote (is that a word?) articles for Babe Ruth, a job that would figure prominently in the biggest decision of his career as the commissioner.

Frick served as NL president for many years before getting picked for the top job in the game. He became well known (notorious?) for his decision to place and asterisk on Roger Maris' 61 homer record in 1961. That decision allowed Frick's buddy Ruth to retain at least a version of his single season home run record. He's a member of the Hall of Fame.

Tons of info on Frick is available on the web. Check out these bios if interested and a YouTubed appearance he made on TV's What's My Line.

His card is #1 card in the set and as such commands a premium if found in nice condition. That's due I'm told to the 'kids rubber banded their stacks on cards back then' factor. My copy is pretty good actually. Some corner wear but the centering isn't terrible and the colors remain bright. It's a nice looking but boring piece of 1959 cardboard.