#146 Ted Wieand Sport Rookie Star

Ted Wieand  Cincinnati Reds

Career: Originally in the Cardinals chain, Wieand spent seven seasons in the minors before he got a one-game taste of the majors with Cincinnati at the tail end of the 1958 season. He had come to the Reds the previous winter in the deal that sent Curt Flood to St. Louis. Other than another short trial with the Reds two years later, Weiand played out his career at the AAA level with the Reds and Yankees before he retired after the 1962 season. In his six total games, his only decision was a loss in his second game in '60.

In 1960: Wieand made the Reds' roster out of Spring Training but was knocked around in five shots out of the pen and was demoted to AAA.

Off The Charts: Wieand gave up a homer to the first batter he faced in the majors, Milwaukee's Frank Torre. And he gave up a homer to the last batter he faced in the majors, the Phils' Jimmie Coker.

Wieand's father was unemployed when young Ted was born in 1933, the last of 10. Grateful for President Franklin Roosevelt's WPA, which gave him an income in hard times, the elder Mr. Wieand named his newborn Franklin Delano Roosevelt Wieand. According to Ted, some in his family were not as enthusiastic about FDR as his father, and they took to calling him 'Teddy' as in Republican icon Teddy Roosevelt.

This came from a 2014 interview that was posted on Soundcloud. I'm unsure if the show (John Pielli's Passed Ball Show) was part of a podcast series or a local radio thing.

One of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 'Ted' Wieand's teammates on that 1960 Reds club was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma 'Cal' McLish. I figured you'd want to know.

The Card: Neat cartoon and Wieand looks like somewhat of a badass on this, his only Topps card, no?

#144 Al Stieglitz Sport Rookie Star

Al Stieglitz  San Francisco Giants

Career: Stieglitz spent six years in the minors after the Giants signed him in 1953. He made it as far as AAA for one injury-shortened season (a broken leg in 1959) and never appeared in a big-league game. He was a .283 hitter for his career in the minors and had some power. But he wasn't able to make enough progress to stick with the Giants. As the card notes, he spent two years in the Navy in the middle of his baseball career. Baseball-Reference has him listed as a Georgia Bulldog but their latest media guide doesn't show him as a letterman.

In 1960: This was the end of the trail for Al. He came back from his broken leg to find himself in AA ball. After hitting .243 in 98 games in the Texas League, he hung up his shin guards.

Off The Charts: I'd like to report that Al Stieglitz married a starlet, was elected to Congress, or even shot a man in Reno (just to watch him die). Best I could come up with, after an eight-page dip into Google, was a reference from a card-related book that he once had a beer with Willie McCovey, Hobie Landruth, and Sy Berger of Topps. So there's that.

#183 Eli Grba

Eli Grba  New York Yankees

Career: Grba was originally a Red Sox signee and he pitched for four years in their system before Uncle Sam called and he spent two years in the Army. When he returned in 1959 he was promptly traded to the Yankees and he was called up to debut in June. He had a bumpy ride and was back in the minors to start 1960.

The Angels drafted him as their first-ever player for 1961. He spent a couple of years in their rotation and finished his career with a year in the Mexican League and the minors. His career, and life immediately afterward, was marked by alcoholism which he beat later in life. He was able to get back into baseball as a scout in the 1980s.

In 1960: He got off to a terrific start in AAA at Richmond (7-1 2.83) and was called up to the Yanks in June. He went 6-4 in 25 games including nine starts. He appeared in the World Series as a pinch-runner when Elston Howard was hit in the hand by a pitch in the second inning of Game Six. He didn't get to pitch in the Series.

Off The Charts: Grba was the first player taken by the Angels in the AL expansion draft in December 1960. He was selected on the recommendation of his former Yankee manager Casey Stengel who had turned down a managerial offer from the team but was serving as an informal advisor.

The Card: It's been mentioned here and elsewhere...some of the photos used for the set were weirdly cropped with the subject crowded off to one side of the photo on the card. This is one of those. But other than that the red/blue/yellow/white combo is a nice one.

#182 Glen Hobbie

Glen Hobbie  Chicago Cubs

Career: Hobbie spent all but 13 of his 284 big league games with the Cubs from 1957 through 1964. He was 62-81 in his career with 42 of those wins coming when he was in his early 20s, from 1958 to 1960. He was a spot starter and reliever in his first full season before becoming a part of the rotation in 1959 and remaining there through 1963. After a rocky couple of months in 1964, he was traded to the Cardinals for Lew Burdette. He was traded again and then spent the '65 season, his last as a pro, in the minors for the Tigers.

In 1960: He pitched in 46 games, 36 of them starts. He went 16-20 for a terrible (64-90) Cubs club. His stat line wasn't much different from the previous couple of seasons and the 16 wins matched his career-best. It was the last season for him to rack up as many as ten wins.

In late August he hooked up with Vinegar Bend Mizell of the Pirates in a pitching duel that was 1-1 at Wrigley in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Hobbie was allowed to bat(!) by skipper Lou Boudreau. Hobbie proceeded to launch his first (of four) career homers into the left-field stands to win his own game.

Off The Charts: In April 1959 Hobbie pitched a one-hit shutout over the Cardinals. He had a no-hitter until Stan Musial roped a single in the 7th inning. His post-game quote: “The first thing I said to myself when Stan got the hit was, ‘I’m glad he didn’t hit a lollipop; he hit my best pitch.’ ”

After retiring from baseball, Hobbie worked as a supervisor for the Roller Derby Association. I kid you not.

#181 Billy Loes

Billy Loes  San Francisco Giants

Career: Loes was signed by the Dodgers in 1949 as a local kid from Long Island. He spent only one season in the minors before serving in the military and then jumping into a regular role with the powerhouse Dodgers of the era. Loes won double-digit games in each of his four seasons and had 50 wins for Brooklyn. He pitched in three World Series.

After one disastrous start in 1956 he was sold to the Orioles. In 1957 he had his best season since his rookie year and made his only All-Star team (three scoreless innings, btw). He finished up his career with the Giants and retired after the 1961 season.

In 1960: He made 31 relief appearances for the Giants and nailed down six saves and a 3-2 record. But while he pitched only 45 innings, the lowest of his career, he pitched well enough to earn a spot as a starter in '61.

Off The Charts: Loes is best described as 'eccentric' but to fully appreciate him you need to read his SABR bio. He was a strange guy, no doubt. A sample: On the eve of the 1952 World Series, Loes found himself in a mini-controversy when reporters asked him to clarify his prediction that the New York Yankees would beat his Dodgers in six games. Claiming that he was misquoted, Loes responded, “I never told that guy the Yanks would win it in six. I said they’d win it in seven.”

The Card: There is nothing attractive about this card. Not even the nifty Yankee Stadium locale can save it.

#143 Al Spangler Sport Rookie Star

Al Spangler  Milwaukee Braves

Career: After four minor league seasons and two years in the service, Al Spangler made the Braves in 1960 and spent a few years as a spare outfielder. His career got a boost with NL expansion and being drafted by the Colt .45s. His time in Houston, from 1962 through June 1965, was his only spell as an everyday player.

He spent the rest of '65 with the Angels, was farmed out for much of '66, and was released. He signed with the Cubs and played in Chicago until 1971 with a few more minor league stretches thrown in. Spangler had little power, hitting just 21 career homers in almost a thousand games, but he maintained a decent average, was fast, and was a good defensive player.

In 1960: He saw duty in over 100 games but managed only 122 at-bats. Much of his play came as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner or defensive late-inning guy. He hit .267 but went without a homer and had six RBIs.

Off The Charts: Spangler was a graduate of Duke University where he was a baseball All-American (as the cartoon notes). He completed a degree in mathematics. After a year or two as a coach with the Cubs' organization in the 70s, Spangler became a coach and AD at Hargraves (Huffman, Tx) High School, not far up the road from me.

#142 Bill Short Sport Rookie Star

Bill Short   New York Yankees

Career: Six seasons, six teams. Short took a long time to make his way up through the Yankees system. He signed in 1955 and debuted out of Spring Training in 1960. His first game was a win over the Orioles as he went seven innings in a 3-2 win. He dodged a few bullets by allowing five hits and walking six. But a debut win is a debut win.

He was back in the minors in 1961 and was taken by the Orioles in the Rule 5 Draft and pitched for them in 1962 and 1966. In between, he was banging around the Orioles chain. He was traded to the Red Sox in August 1966 and missed out on a shot at pitching in the Series.

From there it was a tour of the NL with stops in Pittsburgh, back in NYC with the Mets, and finally with the Reds in 1969.  His career mark was 5 wins and 11 losses.

In 1960: Game logs for 1960 indicate that he came and went between the Yanks and AAA all season. He was with the team through May but after that he was he got the call to make spot starts and had decent enough results. He took a tough 2-1 loss to the Orioles the week after his debut but his problem was as before: six walks. He finished 3-5 with an ERA of 4.79 in 47 innings.

Short was much better with Richmond. His work there was curtailed a bit by elbow issues, but he had a fine stat line.

Off The Charts: Hard to pin down exactly how this timeline falls, but on his SABR page we find this: Short wrote, “Paul Krichell, scout of the Yankees, signed me after I finished high school, but before I signed I had to go to Watertown, N.Y. to play a year of semi-pro.” That's Night Owl's hometown.

The Card: Love the first line of the write-up on the back...'Bill looks a little like Whitey Ford...'. Really? Then I look a little like Elston Howard.

Seriously, this is another "I remember this card" card. In 1960 I was just branching out from under my Dad's 'umbrella' and finding my own teams. But I was, well, not a 'fan' exactly, but a Yankee 'follower' since they were all over every sports page, and we got three newspapers and listened to Stan Lomax every night before dinner. It was hard NOT to know everything about them. Not to mention that getting a Yankee on a card was a big deal among the couple of friends I had in the year or two we lived on Long Island.