The Nitty Gritty Card of the Day!

Yesterday’s Nitty Gritty Card of the Day was of Don Blasingame of the Washington Senators-the Senators who turned into the Texas Rangers. Today’s Nitty Gritty Card of the Day is from the 1960 Topps set, card #9 of Washington Senators outfielder Faye Throneberry. 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 Washington Senators won just 63 games in 1959, but that wasn’t due to a lack of offense. Throneberry was 5th on the team with 10 homers, but the real power came from their young third baseman Harmon Killebrew (42), Jim Lemon (33), Bob Allison (30) and Roy Sievers with 21. 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 Faye Throneberry played in 521 games, batted .236 and hit 29 homeruns. The back of this card highlights Throneberry at his best in 1959. Thanks goes out to Adam E from the Thoughts and Sox Blog for sending this gem my way… Thanks for reading… 50 years LATER.