Back in August of last year I profiled pitcher Bob Garibaldi and
his 1971 Topps card (#701) because it showed him as a Kansas City Royal
player even though he never appeared in a single game for them in his
career.
As a matter of fact, Garibaldi would never appear in another Major
League game after the 1969 season, leaving us with a pretty cool mystery
as to how he was photographed in a Royals uniform since he never suited
up for them (I suspect it was a Spring training
shot during the 1971 pre-season).
But it was only after I profiled this card that I realized that he
was also given a high-numbered card in the 1970 Topps set (#681), even
though he only appeared in ONE game during the 1969 season, good for
only five innings!
Here's the card:
It's wild to think that this guy got a card in BOTH the 1970 and 1971 set based on one game and five innings!
For his career Garibaldi totaled 15 games and 26.1 innings over
four sparse years pitching for the San Francisco Giants, finishing with
an 0-2 record and a 3.08 E.R.A.
He pitched in the bulk of his games during his rookie year in 1962
with 9, then got into four games in 1963, a game in 1966 and that final
game in 1969.
I'm sure it's little or no consolation to him, but at least he
walked away from the game with TWO baseball cards as a Big Leaguer.
"Half-full" right?!
