The Nitty Gritty Card of the Day!

Today’s Nitty Gritty card of the Day comes from 1965 Topps baseball, card #84 of Giants pitcher Ron Herbel.

Herbel had a 9 year big league career, mainly with the Giants. He was a very active pitcher, beginning as a spot starter with San Francisco in 1964. Statistically his best year came when this card was released in 1965 when he was 12-9 with a 3.85 ERA in 47 games, 21 of them starts. As the decade progressed he pitched more and more out of the bullpen. He was most active in 1970 with the Mets and Padres. He was 9-7 in a league leading 76 games. He made one start, finished 38 games and notched 10 saves that season. His career record is 42-37 over 331 games with 11 complete games, 3 shutouts and 16 saves.

Borrowing a line from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius, "Everybody’s Got a Record". Mr. Herbel’s record is a dubious one… Over his 9 year career as a pitcher in the National League Herbel appeared in 332 games, he also went to the plate 225 times. When you take away the few times he walked and laid down a bunt, he had 206 at-bats and hit safely 6 times… Yep, over his career Herbel was 6 for 206 at the plate. He hit 2 doubles and drove in 3, but his .029 batting average is the WORST career mark for anyone with over 100 at bats. His best year came in 1967 when he had 3 hits in 28 at bats (.107) including 2 doubles, but he had many lean years. He went three full seasons (’68-’70) without a hit in 33 at bats.



Being good enough on the mound to be that bad at the plate makes Ron Herbel Nitty Gritty… I love this game; I love its history and I LOVE this hobby! 45 years LATER!

The Nitty Gritty Card of the Day!

Today’s Nitty Gritty Card of the Day comes from 1965 Topps Baseball, card #318 of San Francisco Giants outfielder Matty Alou.

In 1965 Alou was in his 6th and final year with the San Francisco Giants. He broke in with them in 1960 as a 21 year old playing in 4 games. As a rookie in 1961 Alou batted .310 in 81 games for the Giants as a part time outfielder. The next year he continued to platoon and batted .292 in 78 games for the National League Champions. As the back of the card reminds us, Alou batted .333 (4 for 12) in the World Series against the Yankees.

In 1963 Matty Alou made history along with his brothers Felipe and Jesus when the 3 Alou brothers filled the Giants outfield with all 3 starting the same game. 1965 would be Matty Alou’s most active year with the Giants playing in 117 games, but his batting average dipped down to .231 and he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates after that season for Joe Gibbon and Ozzie Virgil.

In his final year in San Francisco Alou made his pitching debut throwing the final 2 innings of a game – he faced 10 batters, gave up 3 hits, allowed zero runs and struck out 3.

His trade to Pittsburgh sparked huge career resurgence. In his first season with the Bucs his batting average skyrocketed .111 points! From .231 up to .342. He set career highs in games (141), runs (86), doubles (18), triples (9), RBIs (27), steals (23) and batting average with his .342 mark.

He won the 1966 National League batting crown by a 15 point (.015) margin. Second in the batting race was his brother and former teammate Felipe Alou who batted .327 for the Braves.
Matty Alou would never win another batting crown, but he had a breakout year with the Bucs in 1969 when he batted .331 with a career high and league leading 231 hits and 41 doubles. He also scored 105 runs and stole 22 bases and was the NLs starting center fielder in the All Star Game.

He would leave Pittsburgh after the 1970 season, traded to the Cardinals for Vic Davilillo and Nellie Briles. After 5 seasons in Pittsburgh Alou owned a .327 batting average. He did nearly as well in St. Louis, batting .314 over 3 seasons as a Cardinal. Matty Alou would be traded 5 times over his last 3 years in the big leagues before retiring after the 1974 season with the Padres. Along the way he stopped in Oakland and won a World Series ring with the A’s in 1972.

He retired a 15 year veteran with a .307 career batting average (134th All Time!), 1777 hits and 780 runs scored.

I believe at some point this card was used to patch a hole in someone’s roof and the tar remains on the front as a reminder. That fits in well with Matty Alou – a hardnosed, hard tar sticky and Nitty Gritty guy.

I love this game and I love this hobby! I really love this set, too. If you are so inclined, you can find my shrinking want list for 1965 Topps right here. I have dupes to trade and have a number of vintage singles that I would gladly trade for any card on this list.

The Nitty Gritty 45 Year Old Card of the Day!

Welcome! The Nitty Gritty lives!!! There is a pretty LONG post on 1965 Topps coming, but for now, here is the Nitty Gritty Card of the Day. As stated, it comes from the ’65 Topps set, card #50 of San Francisco Giants All Star pitcher Juan Marichal. The first 12 cards in this set are League Leader cards. Those are littered with stars and Hall of Famers and Marichal makes his first appearance in the set this way. He led the NL in complete games, placed 2nd in wins, 4th in ERA and 7th in strikeouts. Between card #13 and #50 there are 3 Hall of Famer cards and each one is a pitcher, Marichal being the 3rd. You can view the entire '65 Topps checklist HERE courtesy of the top 1965 Topps blog on the web.

Time constraints won’t allow a proper bio, but 1965 did turn out to be a good year for Manito. He started the All Star Game, pitched 3 innings of one-hit ball and was named the game’s MVP. It was his first start (of 2) and 5th selection overall (out of 10). His career All Star stats look like this: 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA. He struck out 12 batters, yielded 7 hits and allowed one run in 8 AS appearances. For his complete pitching stats-All Star, regular and postseason-click HERE. For now, just enjoy this 45 year old beauty. The back of the card props Marichal’s 1963 no-hitter against the Colt 45s on June 15, 1963. The cartoon is PERFECT! That would be the only no-hitter in Marichal’s Hall of Fame career, but two weeks later he pitched an 8-hitter that was even more legendary.
Facing Warren Spahn and the Braves in a true Ace versus Ace matchup Marichal and Spahn dueled and each shut down the opposition to a mind-boggling degree. The game lasted 16 innings before the first run crossed the plate. Marichal took the hard earned win after Willie Mays hit a game ending solo homer in the 16th inning to give the Giants a 1-0 victory. Facing Marichal Hank Aaron was 0-6 on the day. The 15,000+ fans at Candlestick Park REALLY got their money’s worth that day. Until the next card, 45 years LATER.