Branching out into the 1960s with my "Dedicated Rookies" theme, this time a 1962 card for flame-thrower Bob Veale of the Pittsburgh Pirates:
Veale would make his MLB
debut that season at the age of 26, appearing in elevel games for the
Pirates, going 2-2 with a 3.74 earned run average over 45.2 innings.
After
a Sophomore season that saw him go 5-1 with a brilliant 1.04 ERA over
34 games in 1963, generally in relief, the lefty put in his first full
year in 1964 and had a great year, going 18-12 over 39 games, all but
two of them starts, posting an ERA of 2.74 in 279.2 innings with a
league-leading 250 strikeouts, the first of what would be four seasons
topping 200 K's.
He'd retire after the 1974 season with a tidy 120-95 record, with a 3.07 earned run average and 1703 K's with 20 shutouts.
Between 1964 and 1970 Veale was a very solid Major League starter,
averaging 15 wins and 213 strikeouts over those seven years, easily
keeping pace with contemporaries like Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning and Jim
Maloney.
