Today’s
Nitty Gritty Card of the Day (evening edition) is from the
1958 Topps set and features one of my favorite players of all time, it is card number
424 of Cleveland Indians outfielder Larry Doby. This is another one of the great vintage cards that came my way from Chris of the
Project 1962 blog.
I keep on promising to post the whole lot of cards that he sent, but I continue to post them one at a time over here. Sooner or later they will all get posted.
There is a poll up on the Collective Troll encouraging readers to vote for the next player that I collect.
Larry Doby is one of my favorites of all time; he was a fantastic player who basically had 2 separate All Star careers in 2 separate leagues. He is historically significant and was truly one of the best ever. He would be a no-brainer to collect, but there is one problem…
I want to collect one of EVERY SINGLE CARD EVER made of the player that I collect. Doby has a lot of pricey cards.
I don’t mind paying for his late 40s and early 50s classic vintage cards, but cards like this one here which is
listed on eBay with a BIN price of $499.00 make me nervous. I know that just because they are asking it doesn't mean that is what its worth, but I am pretty sure I can't find this card for 5 bucks. Just saying. On a good day I might pay 100 bucks for a vintage card of a player that I love. I have paid 200 bucks for a vintage rookie of a player that I really liked that was in a set I was trying to finish. I don’t plan on doing that ever again, but I still wouldn’t pay more than 30 bucks for a current card, no matter how great the player is or how rare the card is. It’s a good looking card of a great player, but it’s practically a mortgage payment. Can’t do it.
The other guys that y’all seem to be leaning towards like Oscar Gamble and Roy Face would be much more logical options.
That said I will collect whomever the Troll readers choose. If y’all pick Doby, I will gladly scour the countryside for bargains on each and every one of his cards and I will be proud to own them. The reason why I say he was a man with two careers is that during the 1940s he was an All Star second baseman for the Newark Eagles from 1942 until he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1947. In between those teams he lost a couple of years serving in World War II.
With the Eagles, he played alongside a number of future Hall of Fame players including Willie Wells, Ray Dandridge, Monte Irvin and Leon Day. The Eagles won the Negro World Series in 1946 and the following season Doby broke the color barrier in the American League when he joined the Indians in July.
As a rookie his play was limited and he only made it into 29 games, mainly as a pinch hitter. The following season however, he took over as the Indians starting centerfielder and he batted .301 to help lead the Indians to the World Series. In the Series he batted .318 with a homerun and 2 RBI and the Indians defeated the Braves to win the World Championship. In 1949 he was named to his first All Star team in the major leagues.
It would begin a streak for him of 7 consecutive All Star appearances, highlighted in 1950 when he started the game in centerfield and played the entire game and reached base twice with a double and a run scored. He owns a .300 career All Star batting average in the majors. In 1954 he entered the game as a pinch hitter and hit a homerun in his only at-bat.
During the regular season in ’54 he had another great year at the plate. He batted .272 and slugged 32 homers and drove in 126 runs. He paced the AL in the latter 2 categories. He also led the Indians to a second American League pennant. 
Larry Doby had a subpar Series and the Tribe fell to the Giants who were led by his former teammate and friend Monte Irvin. 1955 his run production fell off a bit and it was the last time he was named to the All Star team, but he did not play. After the ’55 season he was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Chico Carrasquel and Jim Busby. With the Sox he topped the 100 RBI plateau for the 5th time and the 100 walk mark for the 4th time. His time in Chicago was short-lived and he would be traded to the Baltimore Orioles in a 7-player deal after the 1957 season. He never played a single inning for the Orioles and was traded back to the Indians right before the first pitch of the ’58 season when this card was produced. The back of the card mentions that Doby was a 4-sport athlete in high school and that he led the AL in homers twice with 32 homers each time.
It also calls him one of the most consistent RBI men in the game. He would drive in 45 runs for the Indians in 1958, but he played in only 89 games that year. They traded him again, this time to the Detroit Tigers prior to the ’59 season in exchange for Tito Francona. He would only play in 19 games in Detroit before they sold him back to the White Sox. 1959 would be Doby’s final season. Injuries had slowed him down and he retired from the Major Leagues at age 35. He would return to the game to begin a third career playing in Japan in the 1960s.
His final career numbers included 253 homers and 970 RBI over 1533 games and 13 seasons. He owns a career batting of .283 and a .490 slugging percentage. He led the AL in homers twice and also paced the league in runs scored, runs batted in, slugging and on-base percentage. His major league career was cut short by injuries and it started late due to segregation and that didn’t allow Doby to post the career numbers that many of his peers in the Hall of Fame did, but even with only 10 full seasons of production, he was among the league’s best during those 10 seasons. He was in the top ten in slugging percentage, walks, total bases, times on base and at-bats/homeruns 8 times. He was in the top ten in homers and RBI 7 times and was among the top ten in runs scored 6 times.
Baseball Reference dot com shows his 162 game average including a .283 batting average with 107 walks, 103 runs scored, 160 hits, 26 doubles, 5 triples and 27 homeruns in addition to 103 runs batted in and an OPS of .876. After retiring as a player Doby was a coach with both the Cleveland Indians and the Montreal Expos. He also briefly managed the Chicago White Sox for 87 games in 1978. He received the ultimate honor for a baseball player when the Veterans Committee elected him to the
National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. He was inducted along with turn of the century infielder George Davis, fellow negro league star Bullet Joe Rogan, executive Lee MacPhail and 300 game winner Don Sutton. Doby was able to attend the ceremony and accept the honor. He passed away 5 years after being immortalized. He will forever be ingrained into the rich history of baseball and will live forever in the hearts and memories of fans.
Thanks so much to Chris of Project 1962 for this great card and all of the fond memories that came along with it. For the current cards that came from
Project 1962, click
HERE. For the rest of the vintage he sent, stay tuned! To the dear readers who stuck it out and read this entire post, I thank you! It happens so often that I begin to post about a single card and drift off into their life story.
I just love this game and this hobby and it’s legends soo much! 52 years, LATER!
Okay, with that out of the way, here is today’s Card of the Day: From the 1968 Topps set it is card #89 of New York Yankees catcher Jake Gibbs. Gibbs was a superstar college athlete who chose baseball over football thanks to a whole lot of bonus $$$ from the Yankees. Gibbs was an All American quarterback on the University of Mississippi football team. He led Ole Miss to a 10-0-1 record in 1960 as a senior and the Rebels were voted DuS/NWAA National Champs. He was drafted by both the Houston Oilers and Cleveland Browns, but opted for a bigger contract in New York to play baseball. He jumped directly to AAA ball and spent the next 5 seasons splitting time between the AAA Richmond squad and backing up Elston Howard in New York. He spent the entire ’66 season with the Yankees and when Howard was traded to Boston in 1967 he took over as the Yankees full-time catcher. He was a .230 hitter without much power, but his arm was amazing and he owned a career .986 fielding percentage behind the plate. In 1968 he had 55 assists and threw out 30 would be base stealers. His role as the Yankees starting catcher lasted less than 3 seasons. 
Thurman Munson arrived, won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1970 and took the job. Gibbs retired from playing after the 1971 season at the age of 32. He played in 459 games behind the plate and threw out 108 potential thieves at a rate of 44%. During his pro baseball career Gibbs was an assistant football coach at Ole Miss in the offseason and in 1995 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Immediately after retiring as a player Gibbs took over as Ole Miss’ baseball coach and held that post for 19 seasons. He served as a coach for the Yankees in 1993 and also managed the Tampa Yankees (A-FSL) in 1994 and 1995. He also used a very large mitt. Thanks for reading and thanks for voicing your opinion in the Best Ever polls! 42 years later.
Now these 2 cards came out within 4 years of each other and they have the same team name, but they are 2 totally different teams. The Senators that Throneberry played for in 1960 left Washington for Minnesota the next year and became the Twins. By 1965 they went from American League doormats to American League Champions while Blasingame and the new Senators finished 8th in the AL. Those Sens existed for 11 seasons before packing it in and heading for Texas. Basically, the Nitty Gritty supports both lovable losing teams from our Nation’s Capital. These Senators are a team that I hold a special place for… When my father was a child and his father, my Grandfather (Pop-Pop) worked at the Pentagon they attended many Senators games. My Pop-Pop actually liked the Sens. He was a fan of the underdog. Most politicians attended Sens games because they were right there, but hated the losers from DC. Okay, getting back on track… Faye Throneberry, the older brother of Marvelous Marv, spent most of his 8 year big league career on the bench, but in 1959 he was Washington’s starting right fielder. The 
Beyond the big 5 in their lineup there was a big drop off at the plate and the team had a collective batting average of just .237. Couple that with a team ERA over 4 and you understand why they only won 63 games. Throneberry played in 117 games for them and set career highs in nearly every category. His previous high in games was 98 in his rookie season with the Red Sox. He played in 85 games the next year and just 24 games in 1961, his final season in the big leagues. Over his 8 year career 
"Blazer" was the epitome of the gritty second baseman in the 50s and 60s. He could lay down a bunt, steal a base, take the extra base, work a count, move the runner over and he was a solid fielder. He was an All Star in 1958 with the Cardinals the year after he led the NL in at-bats, scored 108 runs and stole 21 bases. Five different times during his career 
Blasingame had the ONLY hit for his team on the bad side of a one-hit shutout. The poll is closed to vote for the greatest left fielder ever! Eventually every position will be polled to determine the Nitty Gritty All-Time All-Star team. It looks like Ted Williams is the top left fielder, to his right will be Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron, the vote for centerfielder is coming... Oh, this card is 
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but the last 3 cards I have posted have been from the 70s. This will be the last one for a bit. It will probably be the last ’75 card ever. I prefer to leave that set 
Scoop was one of the top hitters of his generation, but he lacked a defined position, splitting time between left field, right field, first base and designated hitter which require higher power numbers and center field which requires higher stolen base totals. His versatility costs him being remembered as a great at one position, but he does stand out as one of the greatest hitters of his time. He is a rare player who won Silver Slugger Awards at 3 different positions. He is in the top-50 All Time in both hits and doubles. He was an All Star 7 times, a World Series Champ and a batting champ who topped the 300 mark 12 times and holds a .303 life time batting average. For more 
Nowadays I get excited about Andrew McCutchen, Garrett Jones, Aki Iwamura and Lastings Milledge. If they do live up to their potential, they won’t be in the ‘Burgh for long. So enjoy the card of the day and remember a time, 30 seasons ago, when the Pittsburgh Pirates were Kings and no one laughed when you said their name. LATER!
Pierce was coming off a year in 1962 where he went 16-6 and helped lead the Giants to a National League Pennant. The back of the card mentions that he led the American League with 21 complete games in 1956 with 21. 
He would lead in that category the next two years as well. Enjoy!
Oh, if only this giant sized card showed a full vertical photo of Marichal's awesome leg kick... If only. 
It does on the back, but man I wish it was on the front! I won't spoil this with a bunch of words. Enjoy!
Obviously it wasn’t. Jackson is and will always be Mr. October. He has 4 World Series rings, 18 postseason homers and a plaque on the wall in Cooperstown. Still, none of that was certain just yet when this card was printed. After seeing the amazing 
Something innocent, uncertain, classy and cool about this one. Can’t put my finger on it… Thanks for reading! 39 years LATER!
He played for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues in 1947. He starred for the Boston Celtics of the NBA in the early 50s. He spent 3 years in the Navy during World War II and he was “
He had just 3 at-bats for the Cards, but his lone hit was an RBI triple. After St. Louis, he spent his final days in the big leagues with Philadelphia, appearing in 56 games for the Phillies and batting .256. In 1959 he batted .300 with 11 homers and 101 RBI in AAA and he played AAA ball up until 1962, but never returned to the big leagues. He retired as a player in 1962, but continued as a scout. He is now in his 80s and fully retired from the game that he loves, but he still enjoys going to Reds games and talking baseball. He also enjoys getting fan mail and signing autographs through the mail. You can find his mailing address on his website, 
He won 4 Gold Gloves, topped the 200 hit plateau 6-times and paced the NL in hits twice. He won the NL MVP Award in 1974, was the All Star MVP and the NLCS MVP in 1978 and won a second NLCS MVP in 1984. He took the Roberto Clemente Award in 1981 and the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1984. He was one of the most consistent hitters and fielders in the National League throughout his 19 year career. His 2,599 hits ranks him 75th of all time. He topped the 300 mark 16 times over his career and owns a lifetime .294 average. He appeared on the HOF ballot for the maximum of 15 times, achieving his highest support of 42%, his first year on the ballot in 1993. He is currently in Hall of Fame limbo. I should have mentioned that I was speaking of first baseman 
This is from the days when the back of the card actually said “On the front of the card is an authentic piece of a bat used by 
He retired after the 1972 season, one year after winning a second World Series with the Bucs. Don’t forget, there is just one more day to vote for my new player collection. That also means just one more day till the big CT Contest Giveaway! Thanks for reading! 45 years LATER!
I am not going to go into a full history of Perry’s career like I normally do. We all know that he won the Cy Young Award in both leagues, he won 15 games or more in 13 consecutive seasons, he won over 300 games and he is deservedly in the Hall of Fame. I picked this card because it came out before he became that guy. He was just a young guy fighting for a spot in the rotation. He would win over 20 games the next year, 1966, and he and Juan Marichal would be a one-two punch that rivaled Koufax and Drysdale, but in 1965 he was just Jim Perry’s little brother. 
45 years, LATER!
I loved the picture on this card. He looks so fed up, disinterested, frustrated and angry all at once. Like he just recieved the news he was going to Korea. Newk won the National League’s Rookie of the Year Award in 1949 and was an All Star in each of his first 3 seasons before missing the entire 1952 and 1953 seasons for military service. He came back rusty in 1954, but he returned to his All Star form in 1955, winning 20 games again on the mound and batting .359 with 7 homers while 
He is the only player to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP Awards. In ’56 the Dodgers repeated as NL Champs, but fell to the Yankees in the Series. That would be the last time Newk would win 20 games, in fact his highest win total after that was 13 games. The Dodgers traded Newk to the Reds in 1958 where he played till 1960 when he signed with the Indians. He retired from the majors after the 1960 season at 34 years of age. He had a career record of 149-90. That is just one win less win than Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean. His career is another that makes fans wonder “what if?” he had not loss two full seasons in the prime of his career to military service. Incidentally, 
He also has a long name with a manufactured patch card for each letter which could be tough to track down, not to mention he played in the 40s and is in 1952 Topps and has Cy Young duel autographed cards paired with Whitey Ford. Whether I collect him or not, here is one card I want to track down, cuz I do LOVE refractors! 
Either way, the choice is up to you the reader. Thanks for reading! (image borrowed from an auction site) 58 years, LATER!
From the day he signed as a bonus baby in 1953 to the day he retired in 1974 he ONLY wore a Detroit Tigers uniform. He never spent a day in the minor leagues, he went right to the majors as an 18-year-old rookie and by the time he was 20-years-old he was a major league superstar. He won his first and only batting title at 20 years of age in 1955 when he batted .340 with 200 hits, 27 homers, 102 RBIs and 121 runs scored. He finished second in the AL MVP vote behind Yogi Berra (who batted 68 points lower, but did it behind the plate) and established himself as a superstar. He played in his first of 18 All Star Games and had 14 assists from right field. He didn’t win his first Gold Glove Award until 1957 and he would win 10 of those awards over his career. He never won another batting title, but he finished in batting average 3 times and posted a .297 career batting average with 3007 hits. The back of this card from 1964 states “One of Al’s biggest ambitions is to lead the Tigers to a pennant and play in a World Series”. 
He and his Tigers did just that 4 years later when they won the World Series in 1968 behind his .379 average, 2 homers and 8 RBI against the Cardinals. That was the final piece missing from the legend that is Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline. The true final piece came in 1980 when he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In 5 days there will be a contest on the Nitty Gritty’s brother blog, the 
He also threw a forkball which was super cool and he had a great nickname, The Baron. My Uncle Harry was a professor at Lehigh University when I was a kid and he always sent me Pirates stuff as Christmas gifts, so even before I lived in Pirate City, I was following the team and its records. Other things that blew me away as a kid statistically were that he pitched in 9 straight games, he won 22 games in a row and of course his record in 1959 was astounding to me then and still is. He posted an 18-1 record for the Pirates. The next year he won 10 more games in relief, appeared in 68 games and helped the Pirates win the National League Pennant for the first time in 33 seasons. He set a record by saving 3 games in the World Series. The record has been tied since, but has yet to be broken 50 years later. 
They weren’t one pitch saves either, those 3 appearances covered 10 innings of World Series work. Face worked hard for his saves. He held the National League record for saves (193) until 1986 when future Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter surpassed him. To achieve his 193 saves Face pitched 1314 innings. Trevor Hoffman is the present leader in saves with 591 and he just passed the 1000 inning mark last season. Bruce Sutter, who is in the Hall of Fame with his 300 saves, worked 300 less innings than Face did. He also won 28 fewer games than Face. Roy Face led the National League in saves 3 times and spent nearly 2 decades as the career leader in that category, but the role of closer has changed greatly of late and he has fallen to 41st All Time in that category and will likely continue to fall. He has remained in the top 20 in games finished (574) and ranks 33rd in games played with 848. He remained on the Hall of Fame ballot for 15 years, but never received more than 18% of the vote and was removed from the ballot in 1990. He has more wins and a higher winning percentage than several pitchers in Cooperstown and can make a solid case for enshrinement, but he is in the hands of the Veteran’s Committee. 
It has been a few years since I have seen Mr. Face, the bullpen at Pirate City is named in honor of him and I have the pleasure of meeting him and sitting down for a lengthy chat. He loves the game that I love and I was thrilled to be able to speak with him about it. I recently received another very special card of Roy Face from another Blogger Kindness package and I am strongly considering adding him as my next player collection. His accolades speak for themselves; he was the BEST reliever of the 60s. As far as me collecting him, that is a decision for the Blog-O-Sphere to make over the next week. If you would like to cast your vote, there is a poll up on the Collective Troll with 23 players to choose from, including Roy Face. There is a post explaining why I decided to leave it up my readers rather than myself that you can read HERE. Face’s career stats can be viewed 
A six-time All Star, Face retired after the 1969 season with a career mark of 104 wins against 95 losses and a 3.48 ERA. He had 193 saves and also pitched 5 complete games. He also revolutionized the game and the role of a bullpen pitcher. Thanks so much for these great cards and everything that you sent my way! Check out Chris’ blog, 
Wickersham went to Detroit in the Rocky Colavito trade between the Kansas City Athletics and the Tigers after the 1963 season. Topps was on the ball and included him in this set and he responded by having a career year setting personal bests in Ks (164), innings (254), complete games (11), starts (36) and wins with 19. His mark of 19-12 with a 3.44 ERA was by far the best of his 10 year career as he never won more than 12 games in any other season. During the ’64 season Wickersham was ejected from a game during the 7th inning, he left with the scored knotted at 1 and received a no-decision. The Tigers went on to win the ball game, which could have been his 20th win. After the ’67 season the Tigers traded him to the Pirates for Dennis Ribant. 
From there he went to the Kansas City Royals and after the ’69 season he was traded to the Atlanta Braves, but never pitched for them. 1969 would be his final big league season. His career line reads 68-57 with a 3.66 ERA, 29 complete games, 5 shutouts, 18 saves and 638 strikeouts. You can view his complete stats 
All of the Tucciarone kids were huge Yankees fans. This 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats is the only card I have of Tony Lazzeri, but I wouldn’t mind tracking down some more, especially the Diamond Stars card I show at the bottom of this post. He paved the way for many great Italian-American Yankees like Frank Crossetti, Yogi Berra and Joltin Joe DiMaggio, but he also made my own family feel at home. My Grandma Philomena loves the Yanks and she took me to my first game at the Stadium in 1981. They weren’t too good then. She took me to many more games from 1981 up till 1993 when I moved away. They were never very good. I never liked them either. I was that rare kid who grew up between New York and Massachusetts who didn’t like the Yankees or the Red Sox. 
I hated both teams, but I loved the times I spent with my family at Yankee Stadium. My Grandma took me most often. We rode the train to New York and took the subway to the Bronx to get to the Stadium. We never drove in a car. There were a few times that my Great-Aunts and Uncles would come, too. I will never forget going to the stadium in the mid-80s with my Uncles Julius and Jack and my Aunts Edna, Rita, Eleanor, Lena and my Grandma Phil. In the late 80s when Steve Balboni returned to the Yankees we went to a lot of games. My Uncle Julius was a big Balboni fan. He was big guy period. So was Balboni. He called him Baby Babe. We were there when big Steve hit a homer and you would have thought it won the WS the way my family carried on. He had loved the Yankees since he was a little boy and Tony Lazzeri was still winning World Series with the Yankees. He cheered for Frank Crosetti, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra and Joe D and he kept on cheering for Dave Righetti, Joe Peppitone and Joe Torre. 
Had he still been alive he would be nominating Joe Girardi for sainthood right about now. Much of my family (on both sides) were involved in politics. Uncle Julius was, too. When he passed away at his funeral there were 3 photos above his casket. He and Frank Sinatra, he and Joe DiMaggio and a photo of him and John F. Kennedy. Everyone there knew who Joe Dimaggio and Frank Sinatra were, but I heard a lot of people ask who that other guy was with Julius in reference to Kennedy. That was a long story for a little card, but I wanted to explain where my love of the game came from. I do thank my Mom’s side of the family for sharing their love of the game with me and taking me so often to the House That Ruth Built. They always called the Yankees our home team. I disputed this once because we lived an equal distance from Shea Stadium and Fenway Park. The response was “This is where we are, this is our home team”. Fair enough. I did take in plenty of games at Shea and Fenway and even Olympic Stadium, but when I was with a Tucciarone, we were always home at Yankee Stadium.
Moving back to 
He had 512 total bases that year! At the big league level in 1929 he hit .354 with 18 homers and 106 RBI. He drove in runs from the top of the order on the powerhouse Yankees teams of the late 20s and was the smallest member of Murderers Row. His highest All Time ranking is in triples. He sits at 108th of All Time with 115 3-baggers. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, 45 years after his death. The Veterans Committee realized what my family knew all along, that 
