Three posts in seven days? The last time that happened here was at the end of last year. It almost feels like I'm back on a regular blogging schedule. In reality... I've just set aside some time for my favorite hobby to sort and scan cards... then write about them.
Over the weekend, I scanned this insert of Catfish Hunter that Rod (Padrographs) sent me awhile back:
2021 Panini Mosaic Eyes on the Prize #EOP3
At first glance, I thought this photo was a World Series celebration photo, because the paragraph on the back references his 3-0 record and 2.19 ERA in his seven World Series appearances during the A's World Series title run from 1972 to 1974:
The first step was to figure out who is wearing #17, so I went over to Baseball Reference. That's where I discovered the only A's catcher during that era to wear that number was Jim Pagliaroni. The good news is he only played with the A's for two seasons (1968 and 1969).
Next I looked into every shutout he caught and within a couple of minutes I figured out that this photo captured Hunter's perfect game on May 8, 1968 against the Minnesota Twins. Obviously a perfect game is super impressive. But did you know that he also went 3 for 4 at the plate that day and drove in three of the A's four runs that day?
Sadly... Panini failed to mention any of this. I guess they weren't expecting this curious collector to do some cardboard detective work.
Mystery solved.
On the other hand, here's a mystery I couldn't solve. Anyone recognize this guy:
And based on the jersey and hat style, I have deduced that this Padre was photographed either in 1972 or 1973. After that I used COMC to look at every Padres Topps base card from 1972 to 1975 to see if they ever used this photo. If they did, I didn't find it. I also didn't match the player in the photo to any of those players on the cards. Once again, I could have missed someone.
This is one of those blank backed Topps Vault items:
But at this juncture in my life, time is more crucial than ever before... so I halted my investigation after about twenty minutes. That being said... if you recognize him... feel free to comment down below.
Thank you Rod for these two cards! Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
Extra Innings
Thanks to the fine detective work by sg488 and an anonymous commenter, I think the mystery has been solved:
In June of 1972, Don Eddy was traded from the Chicago White Sox to the San Diego Padres. He pitched at the MLB level for the Sox, but never got back after moving to Southern California.
14 comments:
Looking at the picture kinda looks like Dave Campbell or Danny Frishbahn
I thought of Dave Freisleben first, too, but don't know if that's right. It doesn't really sync up with any of his card photos.
The two Daves are right handed while the guy in the picture is left handed...my two cents... :)
Spot a ghost and skin a nickel, I'm stumped as well.
Yeah, it doesn't look like any lefty who pitched for the Padres in either of those seasons. Probably a guy who was on the spring training roster but didn't go north (well, west, really) with the team. Apparently Topps used to have a site to search by sticker number, but it's long gone.
What year did DHing start in the AL?
with rod involved, i wouldn't be surprised if the padre player pictured was a guy who never got the call. rod may have wanted a photo of the guy in uniform to create one of his customs. typically that would mean it's a player who never got a card but did get called up so who knows. it's too bad topps no longer hosts the database for their vault releases.
sweet catfish card! i have a soft spot for those early oakland a's unis.
That's an interesting mystery. I spent a long time looking myself and couldn't find anything. He doesn't match up to any San Diego or Hawaii lefties from 1973 or 1974. Might have been cut in spring training.
Or, might be a right-hander pulling a fast one on the Topps photographer, and the lefthandedness is a red herring . . .
Kinda looks like Don Eddy. Padres got him from the White Sox in June of '72 for Ed Spiezio. Lefthander pitched briefly for Hawaii in '72 and Alexandria in '73. Photo may be from '73 spring training.
Check out 1972 #413 White Sox rookies ,he does look like Don Eddy.
Amazing that there's no way to track down what came from the Topps Vault. Topps should still keep track of the stuff
You'd think that Topps could just put a sticker on the back of the case identifying the player and photo's source. It wouldn't have been that hard.
Thank you all for the feedback! I'm thinking Anonymous & sg488 have it right with their Don Eddy call.
Brett Alan - It's a shame they didn't keep that database up for collectors.
baseballcardstore.ca - AL started using DH in 1973. Even after that happened... Hunter got 4 plate appearances (went 1 for 4).
gcrl - yeah, i'm thinking he probably picked it up for one of his customs too. when i emailed him, he didn't remember the player though
bo - i can always count on you for your hard detective work. when you didn't know... i figured it was a lost cause.
anonymous and sg488 - thanks. i think you guys solved the cardboard mystery
jafronius - i wonder if they do, but they don't make it public. it would truly be a shame if they just dumped that database
jon - i agree. definitely wouldn't be that hard.
Very excellent post! Also nice you got one of those vault cards that never were. I looked him up on wikipedia, it's always interesting to me to read about older baseball players that were more like the rest of us - they had jobs after baseball and so on.
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