#192 Charley Beamon

This card is seemingly the only place you'll see pitcher Charlie Beamon's name spelled as "Charley". Why Topps used a "Y" is a mystery to me. Anyway, Beamon came out of Oakland's McClymonds High School as did several other major leaguers including two Hall of Famers, Ernie Lombardi and Frank Robinson. In addition to Robinson three players with 1959 cards already featured here came from McClymonds: Vada Pinson, fellow Oriole Willie Tasby, and Curt Flood.

Beamon began his pro career on the West Coast in 1953 and found his way to the Oriole system by the end of 1955. In '56 he pitched for the Os' Vancouver club and earned a September call up. He debuted in fairly spectacular fashion with a four hit shutout of the New York Yankees. Beamon and the Birds beat Whitey Ford 1-0 on September 26 and prevented him reaching 20 wins for the season. How cool is that?

He actually picked up another win in his only other 1956 game with a victory in a four inning relief stint over the Senators. Unfortunately that five day span was to be the highlight of Beamon's brief career. In 1957 he pitched in four games while spending most of the season in the minors and then in 1958 he spent most of the year in the majors, made a handful of starts mid-season and ended up with a 1-3 record in 21 games. He never returned to the majors after that and retired in 1961.

Beamon's son, Charlie Beamon, Jr. spent parts of three seasons with the Jays and Mariners between 1978 and 1981. He was listed as a DH, pinch hitter and pinch runner by Baseball Reference.

Behind Beamon in the Yankee Stadium shot we see what I believe is a member of New York's Finest. He could very well be and usher but I seem to recall the Yankee Stadium ushers wearing hats with and orange or red stripe around the crown. I could very well be wrong on that. I'll try to find other Yankee Stadium backgrounds within the set and dig something up. I love '59 card-based mysteries!

BTW... Charlie Beamon has set an unofficial record for the number of 'open tabs' in my browser during a post write-up. Between Beamon's stat page and bio page, his game logs and two boxscores, tabs for fellow McClymonds grads, two for Charlie Jr, and some odds and ends like Wikipedia and such, there are 24 tabs open. All that for a guy who won three major league games. Nearly one for every appearance. Crazy!

EDIT: I've come up with one picture of what could be late 50s era YS ushers:

And although I think of NYC cops decked out in navy blue I find pics of them in white on a google search. Still inconclusive. And nobody cares except me. 

#432 Smoky Burgess

Good Ol' Smoky Burgess. As kids we thought it was cool because he looked like everyone's quiet Uncle Phil yet was playing baseball. He always reminded me of the school crossing guard who was planted at the corner of Centre St. and St. Mary's Place in Nutley, New Jersey where I was a kid.

Burgess had a reputation as a great pinch hitter, it was a well deserved reputation but it came later in his career. After signing with the Cubs in 1944 he put together a playing career which lasted through the 1967 season.

In his prime Burgess was a solid semi-regular catcher with the Phils, Reds and Pirates. His best season was probably 1955 when he hit 21 homers to go along with 78 RBIs and a .301 average. He had been traded from the Phils to the Reds three weeks into the season and then made his second of six All Star clubs.

He won a World Series title with the 1960 Pirates going 6 or 20 against the Yanks. He was dealt to the White Sox in 1964 and led the American League in pinch hits in 1965 and 1966. In 1966, he set a dubious record: most at-bats in a season (67) without scoring a run and also had the most hits in a season (21) and most RBI (15) without scoring. 

He retired following the 1967 campaign with a .295 career average and the record for lifetime pinch hits (195). That record has since been surpassed. After his playing days he had a car dealership in his native North Carolina and spent many years managing and coaching at various levels of the Braves organization. 

Smoky got the 'airbrush' treatment on his '59 card. He was likely wearing Reds' gear when the picture was snapped in Los Angeles. Over his shoulder we see a figure that appears to be either: an usher, another air-brushed Reds player, or the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson. 

#399 Larry Jackson

Take a peek at Larry Jackson's numbers and I'll bet you will say something along the lines of  "He was pretty good, why don't I know anything about him?"

And he was pretty good. He won 194 major league games, made the All Star team four times and finished second in Cy Young voting in 1964. And those were the days of just one Cy Young Award. Had there been one for each league Jackson would have grabbed the NL version. According to Wikipedia "his 194 career NL victories are the most in the league since 1900 by any right-hander who never played for a first-place team".

That 1964 season was the durable righty's best year. He went 24-11 with a 3.14 ERA for a Cubs team that won only 76 games! For his career he averaged 225 inning per 162 game average season. In contrast last season only two pitched had at least 225 innings in the NL.

Jackson was signed by the Cardinals in 1951 out of Boise State. He spent four seasons in their talent-rich system, including a 1952 campaign in Class C Fresno where he won 28 games! He made the Cardinals starting rotation in 1955, spent the '56 season in the bullpen and then returned to the rotation for good. He put up double digit wins every year from '56 through the end of his career in 1968 with the Phils.

In April of 1966 he was involved in the trade that sent Fergie Jenkins from the Phils to the Cubs. In 1968 he was drafted from the Phils by the expansion Expos but decided to retire rather than toil for the fledgling club.

It's one of those pink framed jobs! And in pretty nice shape, too.

#344 Russ Nixon

Russ Nixon, a Cincinnati product, attended the University of Cincinnati. Nixon and his twin brother, Roy, an infielder, each signed with the Indians in '53. Roy never made it to the majors but Russ played a total of 12 years with the Indians (1957–1960), Red Sox (1960–1965 and again in 1968) and Twins (1966–1967).

His best season was 1958 when he appeared in 113 games for Cleveland and batted .301 with nine homers and 46 RBI. After a less productive 1959 and a slow first half in 1960 he was shipped to the Red Sox. That was the second time he'd been traded to the Sox that year. A spring training deal fell through when Sammy White balked at reporting to Cleveland. Nixon was returned to Cleveland after a few Red Sox appearances in spring games. Finally a Red Sox he was the catcher on Sunday October 1, 1961 when Roger Maris hit and broke Babe Ruth's single season home run record with his 61st homer, the well known shot off Tracy Stallard into the right-field stands.

Nixon appeared in 906 games over all or parts of 12 seasons, and with a career .268 average. One odd note....he holds the record for most games played without ever stealing a base. After retiring as a player he began a long career as a coach and manager at both the minor and major league levels. He had two whirls at the managerial reins in the bigs, with the Reds and Braves between 1982 and 1990. His clubs were not able to do better than 6th place.

He managed in the Astros' farm system into 2005 and then joined Nolan Ryan in the Rangers front office. He's no longer listed on their webpage.

The light blue frame isn't among the more commonly seen in this set. The tall Yankee Stadium grandstands loom over his shoulder in this one.

#380 Hank Aaron

If you are reading this blog then you don't need me to try to summarize the brilliant career of Hank Aaron. So I'd do what I usually do with mega stars here, a list of accomplishments from Hank's BR Bullpen page, and a few notes and links.

• 1953 MVP South Atlantic League Jacksonville Tars
• 24-time All-Star (1955-1975)
• NL MVP (1957)
• 3-time NL Gold Glove Winner (1958-1960/RF)
• 2-time NL Batting Average Leader (1956 & 1959)
• 4-time NL Slugging Percentage Leader (1959, 1963, 1967 & 1971)
• 3-time NL OPS Leader (1959, 1963 & 1971)
• 3-time NL Runs Scored Leader (1957, 1963 & 1967)
• 2-time NL Hits Leader (1956 & 1959)
• 8-time NL Total Bases Leader (1956, 1957, 1959-1961, 1963, 1967 & 1969)
• 4-time NL Doubles Leader (1955, 1956, 1961 & 1965)
• 4-time NL Home Runs Leader (1957, 1963, 1966 & 1967)
• 4-time NL RBI Leader (1957, 1960, 1963 & 1966)
• 20-Home Run Seasons: 20 (1955-1974)
• 30-Home Run Seasons: 15 (1957-1963, 1965-1967 & 1969-1973)
• 40-Home Run Seasons: 8 (1957, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1969, 1971 & 1973)
• 100 RBI Seasons: 11 (1955, 1957, 1959-1963, 1966, 1967, 1970 & 1971)
• 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 15 (1955-1967, 1969 & 1970)
• 200 Hits Seasons: 3 (1956, 1959 & 1963)
• Won a World Series with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957
• Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 1982

Just some Hank stuff... I was at Shea on a May night in 1969 when Aaron hit #513. Two night later he hit a pair in one game.... I saw him hit two in 1973, the first off Jerry Reuss in May, it was #684 and I saw him hit #712 in the Astrodome in September 22, 1973. It was the winning blow in a 4-2 Braves win.... from his Hall of Fame bio:

Biography: Exhibiting an understated style that became his trademark, Hank Aaron became the all-time home-run champion via one of the most consistent offensive careers in baseball history, with 3,771 hits. In addition to his 755 home runs, he also set Major League records for total bases, extra-base hits and RBIs. Aaron was the 1957 National League MVP, won three Gold Gloves for his play in right field and was named to a record 25 All-Star squads.

He has three other cards  in this set: his All Star card, a Baseball Thrills card and a combo card shared with Eddie Mathews.  This is the best of them in my eyes. You can't see much of that great Braves uni but, hey, it's Hank Aaron. You know it looks great on him. 

#398 Wally Post

Wally Post signed on as a pitcher with the Reds organization in 1946 and won 17 games the next season in 'D' ball but by 1949 he'd moved to the outfield. The Reds likely wanted that big booming bat  put to better use than appearing every fourth day. Post split the next four seasons between the Reds and the minors until he got a full time shot in 1954. He took the right field job and held it nearly full time through the 1957 season.  During that time he belted 114 homers. His best season came in '55 when he batted with 40 homers and 109  RBI.

But lack of contact on a consistent basis (he topped the NL in whiffs three times) led to a trade to the Phils for 1958. He spent two and a half seasons with Philadelphia, was traded back to the Reds and then with his numbers and playing time declining, finished his career with a couple of stints in the AL, with the Twins and Indians.

Post was elected to the NL All Star game in 1957 but was replaced by Hank Aaron when Commissioner Ford Frick ruled that Reds' fan had 'stuffed' the ballot box. Post was injured and would have been unable to play anyway. That was Post's only All Star 'selection'. He hit .333 with the Reds in the '61 Series loss to the Yanks. He homered off Bud Daley in the final game, Game Five. Post hit the first ever home run in Dodger Stadium in April of 1962. He is a member of the Reds' Hall of Fame. He died at the age of 52 in 1982.

If you have never seen any of the original Home Run Derby shows you should take a look at this one featuring Wally Post versus Hank Aaron which aired on April 3, 1960. Apparently the videos are watchable at numerous sites but I first found it at Hulu and, except for the online commercials, it looks great and plays flawlessly. Be warned that the video starts as soon as the page loads so make sure you have your speakers at an acceptable level.

Home Run Derby Post v. Aaron

Wally Post, Gus Bell and Ted Kluszewski on the cover of SI in 1956. 

#101 Alex Kellner

Signed out of Tenssesse by the Cincinnati Reds in 1941 lefty Alex Kellner only had time to pitch one year of (pretty good) minor league ball before the U.S. Navy became his four year home during WWII. After his service in the Pacific (details are here) he briefly returned to semi-pro baseball and then was back in the pros with the A's organization in 1947.

He got a taste of the bigs in 1948 but had an outstanding true rookie season in 1949 in Philadelphia. That year he won 20 games (of the teams' 81 under Connie Mack) and made the All Star club. He was the first to win 20 for the A's since Lefty grove in 1933. Even for a war-seasoned, not-so-young rookie that had to be heady stuff. He was second to Roy Sievers in Rookie of the Year balloting in the A.L.

He remained a member of the A's starting staff (in Kansas City) through 1957. Although he managed to pull down double digit win seasons along the way (and one 20 loss season) he never re-captured the magic of that rookie season. For parts of two seasons he had his brother Walt Kellner as a teammate.

In 1958 he was waived and picked up by the Reds and then traded, despite doing some of his best pitching in half a decade, to the Cards for 1959. He pitched his last innings in June of '59. This card represent the last season and final stop in a respectable career. He was a good hitting pitcher, hitting .215 with four homers.

This picture, with Kellner in a Red's road top, has the L.A. Coliseum in the background so it was shot on one of the Reds trips to the Coast after he was traded from the A's in 1958. The Reds were in L.A. in July and August.