#132 Don Lee The Sporting News Rookie Star

Geeky high school teacher: "I'll take 'Fathers and Sons' for $200, Alex."

Thornton Lee and Don Lee

Geeky high school teacher: "What duo gave up homers to Ted F'ing Williams 21 years apart?"

"Correct!"


And, btw, according to Wikipedia Ted is the only one to do that.

Anyway righthanded pitcher Don Lee signed with the Detroit Tigers out of the University of Arizona in  1956 and pitched in a dozen games for them in '57/'58. Half of those were starts. Traded to the Senators in 1960 he stayed with the Nats/Twins into 1962 when he was dealt to the Angels. That '62 season was his best, he won 11 games.

He pitched for the Astros and Cubs in '65/'66 and then spent the 1967 season in the minors. He finished with a 40-44 record and a 3.61 ERA. His father, the aforementioned Thornton Lee won 117 games in 16 big league seasons between 1933 and 1948. His ERA was nearly the same as his son's, 3.56.

#170 Gene Woodling

Gene Woodling's career stretched from 1943 with the Indians through 1962 with the expansion Mets. Along the way he was a reliable hitter who had a good on base percentage, a .284 lifetime average, hit .318 in five World Series (he won them all as a Yankee and they were in consecutive years), had enough power to register double digit homers nine times, made the AL All Star team in 1959 and garnered a reputation as an all around valuable edition to every team he played for and a good guy to boot.

He broke into pro ball in 1940 as a 17 year old Indians signee and made the bigs in 1943 as noted. After a couple of years in the Navy during WWII Woodling returned to the Indians, was traded to the Pirates and then to the Yankees where he spent 6 seasons and won his five rings.

His first run with the Orioles, in 1955, wasn't very successful but after three years in Cleveland he returned to Charm City in 1958 and was one of the clubs better players. He continued on to play for the expansion Senators and then the Mets before retiring.

After his playing days he served as a coach for the Orioles for several years. He published a book on hitting in the late 60s. He died in 2001. EDIT: for some reason my browser is giving me a malware warning when I attempt to access the SABR site. YMMV  His SABR page is a very complete bio... as always it's recommended.

more late edit:

Gene has a page at the Baseball in Wartime blog. And it features this great picture. Not sure how I missed that in my initial research.

VERY LATE EDIT (Feb 20, 2014)... In a comment Paul pointed out that this picture on the baseball in Wartime site was flipped horizontally. Here is a corrected picture:

#268 Tito Francona

John Patsy "Tito" Francona (yes, his middle name is 'Patsy.. I bet he grew up tough) signed with the St. Louis Browns in 1952 and spent a couple of years in their chain before Uncle Sam called and he spent a few more in the service. By the time he made the bigs the woeful Brownies had moved to Baltimore and become the woeful Orioles.

Francona stepped right in and played full-time in the O's outfield in 1956 hitting .258 with nine homers. He finished tied with Rocky Colavito for second in the Rookie of the Year balloting in the AL that season. That means he and The Rock each got a vote while Luis Aparicio got the other 22!

Despite that he spent some time in the minors early in the 1957 season and when he did return he wasn't quite able to produce consistently. He was traded to the White Sox in December of 1957 and split the '58 season between Chicago and, after a trade, the Detroit Tigers.

Another trade, in March of 1959, sent Francona to the Indians and it was in Cleveland that he finally established himself. That season he had a 'Brady Anderson' year hitting 20 homers and batting .363 for no apparent reason. Harmonic Convergence perhaps.

He continued to play well for the Indians over most of his six seasons with the club. From 1960 through 1963 he's pop up in the lists for Top Ten in various hitting categories.

After his run with the Indians Francona went on to play for the Cardinals, Phillies, A's and Brewers. For the most part he was no longer an everyday player but he did hit .286 with almost 400 plate appearances with the '68 Braves. And in 1969 he hit .319 in limited play in a season he split between the Braves and A's. His 1970 release by the Brewers marked the end of his career.

Tito Francona is, of course, the father of Terry Francona who piloted the Red Sox to much success (two titles) in the last decade, managed the Phils before that and is the new skipper in Cleveland, completing a circle of sorts.

Tito also holds a place in my heart because he wore the #44 for the Orioles which was 'my' number back when I was wearing one.

#271 Orlando Pena

Havana native Orlando Pena debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 1958 after being picked up from an independent team in Daytona Beach and spending three impressive seasons in the minors.

He then embarked on a 14 season career with eight clubs that spanned from the '58 debut until 1975. His most successful run came with the Kansas City A's from '62 through '64 when he was a member of their starting rotation. His 20 loss 1963 season (he won 12) was actually one of his best numbers-wise.

After that he spent time in six other organizations and kicked around the minors as well and even pitched batting practice for the Royals between major league stints in the early 70s. In 1972 he was a combined 22-3 with Miami and Rochester in the Orioles chain. Oddly he led the AL in fielding percentage as a pitcher in 1963 and then led in errors in 1964.

After leaving the game in 1975 he resurfaced very briefly in 1979 with the independent Miami Amigos with a six frame outing for that Inter-American League club. Davey Johnson managed that team which was part of a brief, failed experimental league.

Nice to see Fidel Castro make an appearance on the back of Topps card, isn't it? And just because I can I'll show you his final Topps card, from 1975.

#107 Norm Larker

Norm Larker began as a pro in 1949 in his hometown of Hazleton, Pennsylvania and caught the eye of Brooklyn scouts who signed him for the 1950 season. Larker began a long trek through the loaded Dodger system as an outfielder before he finally emerged with the now-Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958.

In his rookie season he batted .277 in 99 games. The following year, 1959, he played mostly first base and picked up a World Series ring playing in all six games and hitting .188. In 1960 he moved to first base spelling Gil Hodges and had by far his best season. Hitting .323 he finished 2nd in the batting race and made the NL All Star squad.

His production and playing time declined in 1961 and he was drafted by the expansion Houston franchise for which he played one year. He was traded to the Braves and then to the Giants late in 1963. That was his last season in the majors although he played some minor league ball and also played in Japan through 1966.

Pretty standard card for this set. That's the LA Coliseum in the background.

The September 10, 1962 issue of Sports Illustrated featured a bit of by-play that included both Norm Larker and a player whose card was featured a week or so ago, Hal Woodeshick:

The Houston Colts put on quite a show for early arrivals in Cincinnati's Crosley Field recently. First, Pitcher Hal Woodeshick and Catcher Jim Campbell almost had a fight when Campbell tried to hurry his teammate out of the batting cage. Woodeshick refused to be hurried, saying, "I'm taking my cuts." "What for?" said Campbell. "You're never around long enough to bat." Woodeshick went for Campbell and the two had to be separated.
Then Infielder Bob Aspromonte, upset because First Baseman Norm Larker wouldn't let him use one of his bats, threw it the length of the dugout and broke the knob end. Then he pulled all of Larker's bats out of the rack onto the concrete floor. Larker didn't go for Aspromonte—just for Aspromonte's bats, pulling them out of the rack and flinging them to the floor, too. When none broke, he took one and started hitting it against the concrete steps.
"What in hell is going on here?" suddenly roared Manager Harry Craft, and an uneasy peace settled over the Houston Colts.

#209 Lenny Green

Always nice to see an Oriole pop up, even one that didn't play a whole lot in Charm City. Baltimore signed Lenny Green in 1955 out of Detroit's Pershing High School. He put up some impressive minor league numbers and earned himself a look with the big league club in 1957.

He failed to stick and split the '58 season between the O's and the minors. In late May of 1959, despite a .292 average in limited play, Green was dealt to the Senators. He earned a job in the Nats/Twins outfield for 1960 thru 1962 and hit well and stole some bases. He hit a career high 14 dingers in 1962.

With his numbers declining he began bouncing around the AL including a second ride with the Orioles. He recaptured a bit of magic in Boston in 1965 when he earned over 400 plate appearances. He finished his career with the 1968 Tigers but was not around at season's end to possibly enjoy the Tigers World Series spoils.

He worked with the Ford Motor Company for 27 years after his baseball days. His SABR bio (as usual) is chock full of interesting details about Lenny Green. And early in his career Green was considered (by some) to be the first 'true' African-American player for the Senators. Details in an interesting web page found here.

I love the fact that the card depicts Green's smiling face with Memorial Stadium in the background. I think that style of light tower was unique to that dear old ballpark.

#44 Vito Valentinetti

Vito John Valentinetti, if that's not a classic Italian name I don't know what one is. And I speak with the authority of one who's mother's name was Esposito.

Anyway, Bronx native Vito (I am not going to keep typing his last name) signed with the Chicago White Sox out of Iona College in 1950 (he's a member of their Hall of Fame) and then, after a brief minor league fling, spent two seasons in the military.  He pitched in one game for the Sox in 1954 and went back to the minors.

Following that he was acquired by the Cubs for 1955 and spent parts of 1956 and early 1957 with them before being traded to the Dodgers for whom he never pitched at the major league level. Before the '57 season was over he was purchased by the Indians. They traded him to the Tigers in March of 1958, and then the Tigers dealt him to the Senators that June.

He went 4-8 with the Nats (with a horrendous ERA) through 1959. Even so he had been traded around Opening Day of '59 to the Orioles but the trade was voided (maybe the O's thought his frequent flyer miles were coming in the trade) and went back to Washington to finish the season. He had a 13-14 career W/L mark in 108 games including 15 starts.

The O's did pick him up for 1960 (I hope someone is taking notes) but he stayed in the minors and then retired. Following his playing (and traveling days) he spent many years as batting practice pitcher for both the Mets and Yankees.

I'm not sure why this card appears sort of 'washed out' in this scan. The actual card is really a nice bright orange. I might have to dig up the book and read about my scanner settings.

I'm also not sure where this shot was taken. Looks like it could be a spring training facility but with Vito's convoluted career itinerary it could be anywhere.