Today's "Super Veteran" is a player who came up as an outfielder,
but "made his bones" as a pitcher out of the bullpen en route to a
16-year career: Dick Hall.
Check out my card design first:
There's a slight difference in layout compared to the other 1971
"Then & Now" subjects (Jim Bunning, Ernie Banks and Dick Schofield)
because Hall's rookie card happened to be in the 1955 (horizontal) set.
As I mentioned, Hall came up with the Pittsburgh Pirates as an
outfielder in 1951, playing the first three years as such before
switching over to pitching duties in 1955.
He parlayed this into a solid career out of the 'pen, pitching nine
out of the final twelve years of his career in Baltimore, even winning
two championships with them in 1966 and 1970.
A look at his final numbers give a good idea into his
effectiveness: a 93-75 record with a career 3.32 earned run average and
68 saves over 495 games.
In five of those seasons he posted a sub-2.00 E.R.A., with two of them under 2.00.
He finally retired after the 1971 season at the age of 40, even
pitching an inning in the World Series against the Pirates, ironically
enough.
