NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1973 PAUL RATLIFF

Today on the blog we have a 1973 “not so missing” card for four-year Big Leaguer Paul Ratliff, closing out his tenure after appearing in 22 games for the Milwaukee Brewers during the 1972 campaign:

Ratliff, who originally made it up to the Majors in 1963 at the age of 19 with the Minnesota Twins for 10 games, would have to wait until the 1970 season before getting another shot at Big League action, appearing in 69 games and hitting .268 before coming back for 44 games in 1971 split between the Twins and Brewers, when he hit .165 over 85 official at-bats.
In 1972, he hit .071 with three hits in 42 at-bats for the Brewers while filling in at catcher, finishing up his brief career with a .205 batting average, with 12 homers and 42 runs batted in over 145 games and 297 at-bats, never again playing pro ball.

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1972 PAUL RATLIFF

Today I present one of my personal “white whales”, a 1972 “not really missing” card for former catcher Paul Ratliff of the Milwaukee Brewers:

Luckily, I’m doing a small project for the Brewers organization, and my buddy Jason over there was able to track an image of Ratliff in Brewers garb!
Ratliff was traded over to the Brewers from the Minnesota Twins for Phil Roof, and played 23 games for his new team to finish off the 1971 season.
He’d end up playing another 22 games for them in 1972, which would end up being the last MLB action he’d see in his Big League career.
Originally up in 1963 with the Twins as a 19-year-old, he was on a multi-player rookie card in the 1963 Topps set, then would have to wait all the way to 1970 for another card, sharing it with tragic figure Herman Hill.
I don’t know what happened after the 1972 season, but it seems that Ratliff never even played Minor League ball after that.
Anyone know what happened?
As it was, he finished his four-year MLB career with a .205 average over 145 games and 297 at-bats, with 61 hits and 12 home runs to go with 28 runs scored and 42 runs batted in.

LONG TIME NO SEE: 1970 PAUL RATLIFF (#267)

Talk about perseverance! 

I recently took a closer look (for no reason whatsoever) at card #267 of Topps 1970 set, which is a multi-player Twins rookie card, and looked up the stats for each guy.

I normally don't bother with these cards since they very frequently depict guys that never even made it up to the Majors, so it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel if I decided to pick those player choices apart here.

But the name Paul Ratliff sounded familiar, and when I "Googled" his name I saw that he actually appeared on a baseball card way back in 1963 on one of those God-awful looking multi-player rookie cards. 

You know the cards, Pete Rose's rookie is one of them.

Ugly doesn't even begin to explain how these cards look!

Anyway, getting back to the 1970 card, I realized this guy went seven years between cards, and was STILL on a rookie-card all those years later.

Take a look at both cards:

Ratliff as a 19-year-old prospect in 1963..

 

His next card appearance seven years later, in 1970.

 

Seems Ratliff came up as a 19-year old for the Minnesota Twins in 1963 and got into 10 games, good for 24 plate appearances and four hits while playing behind the plate.

But sadly for him, that would be it, as he was sent back down to the Minors where he toiled for the next six years, flip-flopping between the Twins and Senators four times in the late-60's.

If you look at his Minor League numbers, nothing really stands out. But in 1969 he did hit an admirable .302 over the course of about half a season with Double-A Charlotte.

I guess that was enough for Topps to give him a slot on card #267 along with another Twins prospect, Herman Hill.

For Ratliff, the next three years saw him get into a handful of Major League action for both the Twins and the Milwaukee Brewers, totaling 135 games between 1970-1972, before walking away from the game at the age of 28.

Seven years between cards. That's one of the lengthier gaps I've come across between cards.

Let's see if I can dig up some others.