#286 Ray Semproch

 

 

 

 

Ray Semproch  Detroit Tigers

Career: Roman "Ray" Semproch liked to make a splash. He signed with the Phils in 1951 and won 17 games in his first minor league season. He was 13-11 in his rookie year with the Phils in 1958. In between, he worked his way up the ladder, improving with each step, and spent a couple years in the employ of Uncle Sam.

Semproch led the NL in wins at the All-Star break in '58 with 11, but things got sidetracked from there. In '59 Semproch's results continued downhill and he was dealt to the Tigers in the off-season. He was traded again, to the Dodgers, before being taken by the Senators in the Rule 5 draft. The Nats turned right around shipped him to the Angels where he pitched very briefly and was soon out of baseball.

In 1960: Semproch worked in 17 games out of the Tigers' bullpen with an ERA of 4.00 and a 3-0 record before being traded to the Dodgers. He pitched the rest of the year with their Spokane club in the PCL. He won 11 games and had a 3.96 ERA which was very good in a hitters league. 

Off The Charts: Semproch worked in his brother's Italian restaurant after baseball. He's 89 these days and I found a pic of him from 2019 with one of those stadium pieces which is drawn using the franchise's players' names.

#281 Ray Boone

Ray Boone  Milwaukee Braves

Career: Ray Boone is the patriarch of baseball's first four generation professional family*, the first family to send three generations to the All Star Game. Boone played in the majors for thirteen seasons beginning in late 1948 when he got a quick peek at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland. He played primarily for the Indians and Tigers as an infielder and was a two-time All-Star with Detroit in the mid-fifties. 

Boone, a WWII vet who served nearly four years in the Navy, led the AL in RBI in 1955 and picked up MVP votes in three seasons. He was a career .275 hitter and homered off Robin Roberts in the 1954 All Star Game. After his playing days Boone was a longtime scout for the Red Sox.

In 1960: He opened the season with the Braves but was dealt to the Red Sox in May. He hit just .205 overall in 90 at-bats combined. The Sox released Boone in September and his playing days were over.

Off The Charts: Wikipedia tells us that he was a descendant of American pioneer Daniel Boone.

The Card: I'm 99.99999% sure that the photo was taken in Yankee Stadium. And I'm also 99.99999% sure that Boone is not wearing a Braves beanie in the action pic despite the best work of the Topps artist to make it look like he is.

*=Jake Boone, Ray's great-grandson, has been drafted twice by the Nats, signed with them but has yet to play in the minors due to the cancelled season.

#273 Neil Chrisley

 

Neil Chrisley  Detroit Tigers

Career: Neil Chrisley was a left-handed bat off the bench and a spare outfielder for the Senators, Tigers, and (very briefly) the Braves over five seasons from 1957 through 1961. He signed in 1950 with the Red Sox out of Newberry College in 1950. He was an impressive minor league hitter but it took him several years, several organizations, and some military time before he made the Senators club in '57. 

1958 and 1960 (with Detroit) were his two busiest years. He appeared in about 100 games and had about 250 at-bats in each. He hit .210 for his career with 16 homers. Chrisley finished with the Braves in 1961 by getting a handful of pinch-hitting chances. He was done with the majors, but not pro ball. He spent another three seasons playing at the AAA level for three different clubs.

After baseball he went into the insurance business.

In 1960: This was his best season. He hit .255 in 96 games.

Off The Charts: Chrisley had the only hit (a first inning double) when the Tigers fell to the Red Sox' Bill Monbouquette's one-hitter in May of 1960. Exactly a week later he had his only 2 homer games. He hit both of Johnny Kucks of the Athletics.

His given name is Barbra O'Neil Chrisley. 

#261 Pete Burnside

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Pete Burnside  Detroit Tigers

Career: Burnside was a high school phenom who wowed the scouts with a blazing fastball. His control, however, was another matter. He never quite got a handle on where his ball was going. And too frequently it went over the fence.

He'd signed with the Giants in 1949 but his road to the majors was a bumpy one. His results never matched his talent and he suffered a few injuries and got detoured by Uncle Sam. He finally stuck with the Giants in 1957 but two rough years later he was traded to the Tigers.

Burnside still had that tantalizing arm strength but his results never matched it. He pitched for the Senators, Orioles, and in Japan for a few seasons without ever having much success.

In 1960: After a season in the Tigers pen, he was given a shot at starting. He started 15 of his 30 games and went 7-7. That win total was the best of his career. His other numbers were pretty lackluster and the Tigers let him go in the expansion draft.

Off The Charts: Coming out of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois Burnside was sought after by the Cubs, his favorite team. But Burnside wanted to attend Dartmouth College and the Cubs didn't sign him. He was offered (and accepted) a deal by the Giants that allowed him to attend school and report to the team when his spring semester ended. In 1952 he graduated with a double-major in history and sociology.

During his time in the service, pitching for the Fort Leonard Wood (Missouri) Hilltoppers in October 1953, he gained national attention by striking out the first 17 batters in an inter-service game.

After his two seasons in Japan ended he returned to Illinois, got his Masters at Northwestern, and began his second career as a teacher and coach at New Trier. He retired from there in the early 90s. 

#252 Ray Herbert

Ray Herbert  Kansas City Athletics

Career: Herbert's career, which began in the Tigers' chain in 1949, was a series of peaks and valleys. Starting at the AAA level, he had a terrible first year. But the Tigers must have seen potential because he remained at the top rung of the ladder and was more impressive at Toledo his second time around.

Herbert earned a spot on the Tigers' staff and sandwiched three and a third seasons around nearly two years spent with Uncle Sam. His record in Detroit, where he was mostly a mop-up reliever, ranged from 'not bad' to terrible. He was traded to the Athletics in May of 1955 and spent the rest of that season pitching batting practice (in real games to opponents). Two years of seasoning in the minors transformed Herbert into a much better pitcher. He grabbed the role of a starter and won 36 games for the A's. He had enough value to be a key part of a deal that sent him to the White Sox in June of 1961.

Hebert's best years came on the South Side. He won 20 in 1962, made the All-Star team (he pitched three innings and got the win in the second of that years' ASGs), and even got a look from MVP voters. After a 13-win '63 season and a 6-win 1964 (diminishing returns), he was dealt to the Phils. There he had decent numbers as a starter one year, not-so-good as a reliever the next and retired after being released in December of 1966.


In 1960: Herbert had a really good season with a 3.28 ERA and a 14-15 record on a team that finished last and 38 games below .500.  It's not surprising that he was dealt off the next year. What IS surprising is that it was to the White Sox and not the Yankees.

Off The Charts: His SABR bio tells us about his post-playing days...

"Herbert and his family continued to live in the Detroit area. Herbert had been employed by Montgomery Ward as a sporting goods department manager during the offseason, and now this became his full-time occupation. Herbert continued to be involved with baseball, working as batting practice pitcher for the Tigers from 1967 to 1992 when the team was at home. He was also president of the Detroit Tigers Alumni Association. The Tigers appreciated Herbert enough to include him with their traveling group for playoff games, and for the World Series in 1968 and 1984."

Since he's from the upper Midwest and not Louisiana I'm assuming we were correct as kids when we called him Ray "Her-burt". Now that I'm in Texas and near Cajun country, I slip into thinking it's 'ā-bear". Thought you should know.

The Card: I don't hate headshot cards as much as some do but this just isn't a good one. Cropping it differently, maybe showing more uni, would have made a difference. I always like that Athletics' logo though.

#245 Eddie Yost

Eddie Yost  Detroit Tigers

Career: Eddie Yost was known as 'The Walking Man", and for good reason. He led the AL in bases on balls six times and was in the Top 10 twelve times. The Brooklyn native signed with Washington in 1944 and debuted as a 17-year-old that year. He spent a year in the service and returned to the majors never having played a game in the minors.

Yost was an institution at third in Washington playing 14 seasons with the Senators. He made the 1952 AL All-Star team but didn't play in the game. He received some scattered MVP votes, even playing on some terrible clubs.

He was traded to the Tigers and was their starting third-baseman in 1959/60. He finished his playing career as a part-timer and player/coach with the Angels. Yost spent 23 seasons as a coach for the Senators, Mets, and Red Sox. He was on the staff of the Mets' NL title clubs in 1969 and 1973. He got his ring in '69.

He ranks eleventh on the all-time walks list. 

In 1960: This was Yost's final season as an everyday player. He led the AL in walks (again) and in .OBP for the second straight year. He hit a respectable .260 for the Tigers. They nonetheless left him unprotected in the expansion draft and he was taken 25th by the Angels.

Off The Charts: This is from a bio of Yost on DC Baseball History blog I stumbled across:

The Boston Red Sox invited Yost to work out with the team in Boston in 1943. They liked what they saw. But when the Sox sent a scout to his Brooklyn home to sign him, they learned, from his mother, that Eddie was in St. Louis with the Washington club. Yost signed with Washington before the 1944 season. Boston Manager and former Nats shortstop Joe Cronin told Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich at the time, “Any right handed hitter who would sign with Washington when he had a chance to shoot for our left field fence deserves no sympathy.” But the Nats had finished 2^nd in 1943. Boston finished 7^th.

Yost was the first Los Angeles Angel to appear in a game when he led off in the fledgling club's opener in Baltimore on April 11, 1961.

Yost earned a Masters in Physical education at NYU during the off-seasons in the early 50s. He had played baseball and basketball there as an undergrad before he joined the Senators.

The Card: Pencil scribbles on the reverse don't bug me much. I might dig up a better one when we get back to having card shows.

#243 Bubba Phillips

Bubba Phillips  Cleveland Indians

Career: Bubba Phillips was a better football than baseball player when he got to Southern Mississippi University. He'd only played softball in high school. But he became a diamond standout and he signed with the Tigers in 1948. He made the Tigers in 1955 after a minor league stretch and time in the Army. He played for the Tigers, Indians and White Sox as an outfielder and third baseman through 1964.

Phillips hit .255 for his career. He was never an all-star but got some scattered MVP votes in 1961.

In the 1959 World Series for the Sox, he played three games and went three for ten including a double.

In 1960: Despite a solid season in 1959 with the White Sox Phillips was dealt to the Indians as part of the trade that brought Minnie Minoso back to Chicago. Phillips went on to have the worst season of his career, hitting only .207 and losing his full-time job at third. But as noted, he bounced back with a nice season in 1961.

Off The Chart: Phillips had one small movie role, playing Coach Hardy for a 1981 biopic on Satchel Paige. The film, Don’t Look Back, starred Louis Gossett Jr. as Paige.

The Card: Fun cartoon of Bubba swimming with the fishes.

#201 Larry Osborne

Larry 'Bobo' Osborne  Detroit Tigers

Career: Bobo (or just 'Bo') Osborne must have loved baseball because he spent a lot of time riding the busses through the minors both before and after his major league career. He had passed up a football scholarship at Auburn and signed with the Tigers in 1953. He fought his way up the ladder and finally won a job with the Tigers in 1959. The Georgia native played about half the games that year, mostly at first.

He returned to the Tigers after another minor league season and spent '62/'63 as a bench piece who didn't see much playing time. A trade to the Senators saw him get a full-time spot for the first and only time in the bigs. He played in 125 games for the Nationals, struggled at the plate, and then returned to the minors where he stuck it out for six more years. He was later a scout for the Giants.

In 1960: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution summed it all up in his obit in 2011:

In 1960, Mr. Osborne enjoyed what might have been the highlight of his baseball career. Playing for Denver, the Detroit Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate, he battled Carl Yastrzemski, a Red Sox prospect with Minneapolis at the time, for the American Association batting title. It was decided over the last two games of the season, with Mr. Osborne winning with a .342 batting average to Yastrzemski’s .339. With 34 home runs and 119 RBIs, Mr. Osborne also was the league triple crown winner that season.

Off The Charts: Bobo's dad, Tiny, was a pitcher for the Cubs and Dodgers in the 20s. That is mentioned with the cartoon on the back.

The Card: I haven't noticed a lot of Tiger Stadium shots in this set. But this is one of them. I'm happy that the checklist has progressed back to the cream-colored card backs. The gold/cream/black backs rank up there with my all-time favorites. Nice color combo on the front, too.

EDITED TO ADD: Since I have mostly completed my research into the set's color combos I have found that Osborne's card is the first one in the checklist that has red as the first color in the name. Up until this point every one-player card had the name printed with yellow or black as the first letter.

#186 Dave Sisler

Dave Sisler  Detroit Tigers

Career: A Princeton man, Dave Sisler was the youngest son of Hall of Famer George Sisler and brother of NL first baseman/outfielder Dick Sisler. After one (very successful) minor league season and a couple of years in the military, Sisler broke in with the Red Sox in 1956. His three full years with the Sox were pretty consistent as he hovered around .500 and a 4.75 ERA, mostly as a starter. He got a higher percentage of starting assignments each season. As the card notes, he struggled in 1959 and was traded to the Tigers in May.

He rebounded in Detroit, now pitching exclusively out of the bullpen. But was exposed in the expansion draft and was taken by the Senators. He was in D.C. for a season then traded to the Reds, pitching one final season in the majors and one in AAA in 1963.  He retired with 38 big league wins and became an investment broker.

In 1960: This was his best season statistically. He was 7-5 with five saves, which were not career highs, but his ERA and WHIP were easily better than he had ever posted or ever would.

Off The Charts: His boston.com obit tells us "...Sisler was a three-sport standout in high school in St. Louis, then played basketball and baseball at Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude. Toiling for Princeton’s Tigers in 1951, Mr. Sisler posted a microscopic earned-run average of 0.99. He was the last pitcher from Princeton to start a major league game before Chris Young did it for Texas in 2004."

#141 Jim Proctor Sport Rookie Star

Jim Proctor  Detroit Tigers

Career: Proctor, who played briefly for the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns, was supposed to be the player to integrate the Tigers' big league roster in 1958, but he was derailed by arm problems and a military stint. He'd begun his pro career with a short stay in West Palm Beach in the D level Florida State League in 1955. He was lucky to have caught the eye of the Tigers and pitched extremely well in their system.

Proctor got a September call-up in 1959 and had two appearances. One was a start in which he was knocked out in the second inning and was tagged with the loss. He never pitched in the majors after that short look. He was out of the game after another few seasons in the minors.

In 1960: He pitched for Victoria, the Tigers' AA team, a few hours down the Texas coast from me. He won 15 games but his overall stats, while good, were not as showy as they had been before his arm woes occurred.

Off The Charts: There isn't much info available about Jim Proctor. I did find a mention of him in interviews with his West Palm teammate, Gil Black. Black mentions being released in this article in the Stamford (CT) Advocate:

Due to the strong segregation laws that existed at that time in Florida, it was extremely difficult while on the road to find hotels and restaurants that would accommodate blacks.

This became so much of an inconvenience to the team that after just a few games, "myself and fellow player Jim Proctor, who was also black, were released," said Black

Black was a bit more descriptive of their treatment in this story in the same paper, a year later:

Black and the other black player on the team, Jim Proctor, led separate lives in a sense from their teammates, because they had to stay in different hotels.
One day, the manager said, "You black guys are too much trouble," and sent them home.

Proctor attended Maryland State University, now Maryland Eastern Shore. 

#171 Johnny Groth

Johnny Groth  Detroit Tigers

Career: After drawing attention playing ball on Bob Feller's team in 1945 Groth signed with the Tigers for a nice bonus. He got some looks from the Tigers with three call-ups before he claimed the starting center fielders job in 1949. He had a terrific opening month before cooling off and eventually having his rookie year cut short with an injury. He finished fourth in the RoY balloting.

Groth was an outstanding fielder and hit at or near .300 for his four seasons with the Tigers. He was traded to the Browns in 1956, was beaned (by Billy Pierce 😧) and never played up to the level of his early seasons. He was traded several times and finished with another stint with the Tigers.

In 1960: This was Groth's final spin around the majors. He was serving as a pinch-hitter and doing well in his limited chances (.397 in less than 20 at-bats) when the Tigers optioned him back to AAA with a promise to give him a manager's job in their system the following year.  They made good on their promise and Groth spent a couple of seasons in their lower rungs as a skipper.

Off The Charts: Groth is one of the few players I've come across with more than one entry on the SABR site. This one is the standard (very detailed as always) bio page. The other one is a nice sidebar that looks at his debut month the hype that grew as he got off to a hot start. Both make for entertaining reading.

#161 Ray Narleski

Ray Narleski  Detroit Tigers

Career: Ray Narleski, a Jersey native, was signed out o high school by Cleveland and experienced a tough first year as a pro in 1948. When a promised AAA-level raise wasn't forthcoming Narleski sat out a season. He returned in 1950 and had a successful four-year tour of the Indians' system.

He made the team in 1954, was put in the bullpen, and helped the Indians win the AL title. Narleski pitched in '54 Series against the Giants and had two effective outings. He allowed only a single (to Willie Mays in Game Three) over four innings.

With the Indians, he became part of a bullpen tandem with Don Mossi and the pair became friends. Narleski led the AL with 19 saves in 1955. He was eased into getting more starts as his career moved along. He had been a starter in the minors and preferred that role. He made two AL All-Star teams. He was traded (along with his pal, Mossi) to the Tigers following the 1958 season. His year in Detroit was hampered by injuries and turned out to be the end of the line for him.

In 1960: Narleski had back surgery early in the year and spent the season on the DL. He returned to the team in 1961 but left baseball rather than accept a potential minor league assignment.

Off The Charts: According to his SABR bio, Narleski played semipro ball in New Jersey and Delaware. He went to work as a mechanic/truck builder. His father, Bill Narleski, had played two seasons for the Red Sox as a platoon/utility infielder.

#152 Gail Harris

Gail Harris  Detroit Tigers

Career: Harris was a Virginia native signed by the New York Giants in 1950. He showed a ton of power in the minors but it took him until June of 1955 to crack the Giants big league roster. He hit 12 homers that year but never showed the power he had had in the minors. He was dealt to the Tigers before the '58 season and led them with 20 homers to go along with 83 RBI and a .273 average. His production in '59 was far below that level.

In 1960: After playing in just a handful of games for the Tigers he was traded to the Dodgers for Sandy Amoros on May 8. He spent the rest of this season (and the next) in the minors and then retired to work in the insurance field.

Off The Charts: His given name is Boyd Gail Harris, Jr. and he was the last New York Giant to homer before the team bailed to the West Coast. He hit it off the Pirates' Eddie O'Brien, normally an infielder. Harris had himself a nice game as this was his second homer to go along with a triple and he drove in seven of the Giants' runs.

#118 Bob Bruce Sport Rookie Star

Bob Bruce  Detroit Tigers

Career: He pitched six seasons in the minors and spent over a year in the service before getting to debut in September 1959. After a nice rookie season, he regressed in 1961 and was traded to Houston where he went on to be a solid starter for four seasons. He peaked with a 15 win/2.86 ERA effort in '64. After an off-year in '66 he was dealt to the Braves where he finished his career splitting one season between Atlanta and AAA. Bruce was 49-71 with a 3.85 ERA while pitching for generally second division teams.

In 1960:  This was his rookie season and he made the most of it. His 4-7 record doesn't reflect better stats like his 3.74 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in a season of big-hitting in the AL.

Off The Charts: He was the starting pitcher for the Colt .45s in their last game at Colt Stadium and the starting pitcher for the Astros in their first NL game in the Astrodome.

#99 Lenny Green

Lenny Green Washington Senators

Career: After a few years of honing his skills playing ball against and with many big league stars in the Army, Green played for five clubs over twelve seasons, all in the American League. He was described as a 'steady, graceful, line-drive hitting outfielder.' His last season as a regular on a big league club was with the '65 Red Sox. His best shot at postseason play came in his last season, 1968. He spent a few weeks with the Tigers but was in the minors for most of the season. Detroit went on to win the Series that year. He retired after that and worked for Ford in the Detroit area, his hometown. He passed away earlier in 2019 on his 86th birthday.

In 1960: This was the busiest season yet in his career. Not quite a fulltime outfielder, he was about to take over the centerfield spot when the Nats moved to Minnesota. His .294 batting average was a career high.

Off The Charts: In Washington, during the late 50s, he had a daily sports radio program on WUST. Later in his career, according to SABR 'He was also one of four Twins players named to an in-house committee to study the problem of planning for racially integrated housing arrangements at their Orlando spring training locale.'

The Card: Outside the batting cage shots are nice. That's 1959 Rookie of the Year Bobby Allison in the background.

#97 Ted Lepcio

Ted Lepcio  Philadelphia Phillies

Career: The bulk of Lepcio's 10-year career came with the Red Sox (1952-1958 + a week or two of '59) and the bulk of THAT time saw him competing for the second base job with Billy Goodman. Once he moved on to the Tigers in '59 kept his bags packed. He spent a year with them, a few games with the White Sox, and nearly a year each with the Phils and the Twins. In 1962 he joined the Mets during their initial Spring Training camp but was released before the season. He finished with 69 homers and a .245 career average and a few 1st place spots in some of the esoteric fielding stat categories that I don't understand (total zone runs?)

In 1960: This was his next-to-last season and he spent it as the Phils' utility infielder getting into almost 70 games and hitting .227 with a pair of homers.

Off The Charts:  Lepcio had been a college star at Seton Hall. Just a year later, as a rookie in 1952, he was Jimmy Piersall's roommate and got a close up look at Piersall's struggles on and off the field.

The Card: After Lepcio's early December '59 trade to the Phils Topps was able to make the card update but used his photo as a Tiger. It's a nice one though, and one of the rare Tiger (Briggs) Stadium shots you'll see from this era of Topps cards. Pink/blue/yellow/white works better than it seems it should! The back hits all the right notes as well.

#85 Frank Lary

Frank Lary  Detroit Tigers

Career: Frank Lary came to the Tigers after a couple years in the service and in their farm system. He was a double-digit winner from 1955 through 1961. He was a workhorse who led the league in starts and innings on several occasions and in wins with 21 in 1956. He was a two-time All-Star, a Gold Glove winner and he finished third in the Cy Young voting in his 23-win-season of 1961.  A leg injury he suffered on Opening Day in 1962 led to arm woes that killed his effectiveness and he finished his career scrambling for wins with the Mets, Braves and White Sox before his retirement. 

In 1960: He finished 15-15 but a lot of that was due to the Tigers poor season. The numbers show that he was much better than his W/L and he made the All-Star team.

Off The Charts: He was called 'The Yankee Killer' due to his dominance over the Bronx crew. I once asked my father if he hated Lary and another guy with a reputation of beating the Yanks, Charlie Maxwell. He said 'No, it just means the Yanks are good. Nobody cares who kills the Senators.' Point taken. BTW...he was 28-13 against New York. That is by far his best record against any opposing team. 

The Card: this dugout photo could be from almost any AL stadium. Odds are it's NY but that is by no means a given. Three of the highlights listed for 1959 come against the Yankees and the August 4 entry notes his mastery of them.

Tigers Team Trio #72, #214 & #461

The Tigers finished sixth in the AL in 1960. They were 26 games back of the Yankees and knotted in a bunch with the Indians and Senators. They were mid-pack at best in hitting, fielding, and pitching overall ratings as well.

Frank Lary, Jim Bunning and Don Mossi were the top of the rotation with Hank Aguirre serving as what passed for a 'closer' in those days. He had 10 saves.

The Tigers had plenty of power and finished second to the Yankees in homers but were at or near the bottom in runs, RBIs and average. They had some speed as they were #2 in stolen bases. This wasn't one of Al Kaline's best years and the homer and RBI team crowns went to Rocky Colivito.

Sharp design on the team cards and, as usual, I got off cheap by buying one that has a marked up checklist reverse. 

I know for sure what Jimmie/Jimmy Dykes is doing. He's composing a letter asking Topps to at least spell his name the same way on both sides of his cards.

Jimmy/Jimmie managed for twenty one years in the big leagues, mostly with the White Sox. He was a player/manager for his first six seasons in Chicago. He later had stints with the Athletics, Reds, Orioles, Tigers and Indians. His three year run with the A's was the longest of any with those clubs. He averaged a fifth place finish in his long managerial career and three 3rd place finishes with the ChiSox were the best he could muster.

He had 21 seasons as a player and hit .280 for his career. He played in three World Series and won two of them. All that time in a dugout certainly helped him perfect the 'foot up on the dugout looking thoughtful' step thing. - 5 Tool Collector, May 2013,

In a weird transaction, he was part of the only manager-for-manager trade in baseball history.  He switched jobs with  Joe Gordon of the Indians in August. If that wasn't odd enough, two coaches were swapped as well.

Luke Appling was a Hall of Fame player and Billy Hitchcock was a baseball lifer who spent time as a college and pro player, coach, manager and front office-type. Tom Ferrick was a relief pitcher for six different AL clubs in the 40s and 50s and served in the Pacific with the Navy in WWII. He was coached and scouted. 

#33 Tom Morgan

Tom Morgan  Detroit Tigers

Career: Morgan was an under-the-radar spot starter turned reliever for the powerful Yankee clubs of the early to mid-50s. He put up fairly consistent numbers in the Bronx.  And he won three rings. His time with the Tigers, A's and Senators was a bit rockier but he found his form again 1961 in Los Angeles. He went 8-2, had ten saves and a WHIP under 1 and backed that up in '62 with a nine-save season. He retired as a player after 1963 but spent many years as a pitching coach, manager, and instructor in several organizations.

In 1960: Morgan was dealt from the Tigers to the Senators in July. He made 36 appearances overall and his subpar numbers gave no indication of the nice season he was to have with the fledgling Angels in 1961. 

Off The Charts: Morgan was traded twice in 1957..in February from the Yankees to the Athletics and in November from the A's to the Tigers. Those two trades involved 25 different players. 

The Card: Morgan seems to attract the oddball colors in Topps' sets. He had a sweet pink card in 1958 and a lime green one in '59. Seafoam green/red/yellow/white is not common in this 1960. I've come across worse I guess.

#6 Lou Berberet

Lou Berberet   Detroit Tigers

Career: Berberet was originally the property of the Yankees beginning in 1950. He spent some time in the military and then continued to put up pretty solid numbers at the plate in the minors. But as a catcher he had a roadblock named Yogi Berra in his way to say nothing of Johnny Blanchard, Elston Howard, Gus Triandos and longtime sub Charlie Silvera. It must have been like being the fifth son of the King...you know you'll never sniff the throne. 

The Yanks dealt Berberet to the Senators before the 1956 season and he spent two years there sharing the catching job with Clint Courtney and Ed Fitz Gerald. Washington sent him on to the Red Sox early in the '58 season and then it was on to Detroit where he wrapped up his career in a platoon with Red Wilson.

In 1960: This was the final season in baseball for Berberet. He got nearly 300 plate appearances playing in half the games for the Tigers but hit just .194, his lowest full-season average. He then headed west to work in California as a sales manager in the liquor business, a career he continued later in Las Vegas until he retired.

WikiFacts: This nice tribute comes from his Associated Press obit in 2004:

Whether it was on the football fields and baseball diamonds of Long Beach as a youth, in major league club houses as a seven-year big league catcher or in a Las Vegas care facility following a 1993 stroke, Lou Berberet spent his life making friends.

"Especially here in Long Beach, everyone knew him," Tom Berberet said of his father, who passed away [on April 6, 2004] in Las Vegas after six months of heart trouble at the age of 74. "He never went any place where people didn't know him.

"He lived in Las Vegas for 26 or 27 years, but even now, people (in Long Beach) ask about him."

Card: Yes, that's a nice big jagged crease cutting across the card from the right edge. The corners are pretty soft as well. I keep a running tab on cards I might upgrade someday. My dealer friend Darrell has a bunch of 1960s in his bargain bin and I always forget to bring my list.