THE WHOLE NINE: SERIES 2- CAREER-CAPPER: 1959 BOB LEMON

Today on the blog we post up my 1959 "career-capper" for Hall of Fame righty Bob Lemon, who closed out an excellent Big League career in 1958 with the Cleveland Indians:

Over the course of his 13-year career, he only actually put in 10 full seasons, yet he posted an incredible seven 20-win campaigns!

Along the way as part of the legendary Indians rotation that also included Early Wynn, Mike Garcia and a dude named Bob Feller, Lemon led the league in wins three times, complete games five times, shutouts (with 10) once, and was named to seven straight all-star teams between 1948-1954.

When he retired after the 1958 season, he finished with a 207-128 record with a 3.32 earned run average, 31 shutouts and 1277 K's over 460 games (350 of which were starts), and 2850 innings pitched.

After his playing days were over he went on to a respectable managerial career, leading the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees between 1970 and 1982.

Of course he's remembered as the skipper who took over the famous "Bronx Zoo" Yankees in 1978 and led them to an incredible drive that saw them go 48-20.

That drive eventually tying the Boston Red Sox and forcing the "Bucky &^%$% Dent Game", and a World Championship over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

If not for the War, we could easily be looking at a near-300 game winner being that he didn't even start playing until he was 25.

Nevertheless, Cooperstown came calling and he found his place alongside former teammates Feller and Wynn. 

Three Hall of Fame starters on one rotation. Awesome…

CUSTOM SPOTLIGHT- "MISSING" 1959 TED WILLIAMS

On the blog today, I spotlight my "missing" 1959 card for Ted Williams, which was part of my custom "Whole Nine" set released last Summer:

Of course we all know that Williams was left out of the Topps sets in 1959 and 1960 because of his deal with Fleer, but that just gives us an opportunity to create our magic all these years later!

“The Splendid Splinter” was just incredible as a hitter. The last .400 hitter, 521 home runs, a .344 lifetime average with SIX batting titles, and the man missed MULTIPLE years in his prime due to war and his service in the military.
I remember as a kid (nerd alert) I used to love averaging out the three seasons before and after his missed seasons and then factoring them into his final career numbers, and they were insane!
If I remember correctly (‘cause I ain’t doing it now) he would have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 home runs, 3500 hits, 2000+ runs scored and runs batted in along with the slugging and on-base percentages that would have made his already monster career just other-worldly!

The man was truly a “hitting-machine”, perhaps the greatest pure hitter ever (or the Babe? Or Cobb? Musial?).

By the way, by today’s rules, Williams should have won SEVEN batting titles, but in 1954 he lost out to the Cleveland Indians Bobby Avila, who hit .341 with the THEN required official at-bats instead of 501 plate appearances.
Williams hit .345 with 526 plate appearances based on his 386 at-bats and 136 walks, but under the rules of the day was denied that seventh title.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- 1959 ROCKY COLAVITO SLAMS FOUR HOMERS IN A GAME

Next up in my “Turn Back the Clock” sub-set series is former slugger (and another fellow Brooklyn native) Rocky Colavito, who slammed four home runs on June 10th against the Baltimore Orioles:

Leading the Indians to an 11-8 win, all Colavito did that day was go 4-4 with four round-trippers, driving in six runs while scoring five himself.
The game would help him take the home run title that season, hitting 42 of them while driving in 111 runs after hitting 41 the previous year.
It’s easy to forget after all these years that Colavito was one of the top all-time home run hitters when he retired after the 1968 season, swatting 374 of them along with 1159 RBI’s and 971 runs scored.
Ironically, right after he led the American League in homers in 1959 he was traded to the Detroit Tigers for batting champ Harvey Kuenn on April 17th of 1960, the only time a batting champ was traded for a home run champ.
He would not disappoint the Detroit fans, averaging just under 35 home runs during his four years in the “Motor City”, including a career high of 45 during the homer-crazy 1961 season.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- 1959 HARVEY HADDIX AND THE GREATEST GAME EVER LOST

Imagine pitching what many consider the greatest game ever pitched and yet come out the loser?!
Today we celebrate Harvey Haddix and the 12 perfect innings he pitched in 1959 against the defending National League champion Milwaukee Braves before losing it all in the unlucky 13th inning:

As we all pretty much know be heart now, on May 26th of 1959 Haddix took the hill against the Milwaukee Braves, led by sluggers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock among others.
Well, all Haddix went on to do was retire the first 36 batters he faced! That’s 12 straight innings of three-up, three-down.
What adds to the incredible accomplishment was that, according to Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, who was playing behind Haddix that day at second base, there were no game-saving defensive gems.
Haddix was in complete control as he went through the order four times before reaching the 13th inning.
His opposing pitcher, Lew Burdette, wasn’t throwing a perfect game, or even a no-hitter, but he WAS shutting the Pirates out as well, necessitating the game going into extra innings.
Sadly for Haddix, the 13th opened up with an error by third baseman Don Hoak, allowing Felix Mantilla to reach first base.
After a sacrifice bunt by Eddie Mathews (imagine that today!), he understandably walked Hank Aaron to face Joe Adcock, not exactly an easy out himself.
Well, Adcock drilled a Haddix pitch into the stands, hitting what seemed to be the game-winning 3-0 homer.
But with the game already legendary it couldn’t end THAT easily right?
Turns out upon Adcock hitting the game-winner, Aaron decided to just head straight for the dugout instead of running out the bases, which then led to Adcock passing him at second base, resulting in an out, leading to National League President Warren Giles to rule the hit a game-winning double, going into the books officially as a Braves 2-0 win.
Nevertheless, 12-consecutive perfect innings is something that you can’t even dream of.
Just incredible.
But for Haddix not incredible enough...

TURN BACK THE CLOCK: WILLIE McCOVEY DEBUTS WITH A BANG!

Today’s “Turn Back the Clock” card celebrates Willie McCovey’s “Hello” to the Major Leagues, a game that saw him go 4-for-4 including two triples against a future Hall of Fame pitcher no less, Robin Roberts:

McCovey absolutely lit the baseball world on fire the rest of his abbreviated big league season, hitting .354 over 52 games with 13 home runs and 38 runs batted in along with nine doubles and five triples!
Granted when you’re put between two OTHER future Hall of Fame players in Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda the line up there’s bound to be some help, but McCovey proved to fit right alongside them, as well as anybody else you could try stacking him up against.
All he’d do is go on to play 22-years in the Majors, hitting 521 homers, slamming 18 grand slams, winning an MVP Award in 1969 and of course cop the Rookie of the Year Award back in ‘59.
The man truly was a BEAST, evidenced by his 85 intentional walks in 1969/1970 with opposing teams not even wanting to give him a chance to punish them with his bat.
Needless to say when his chance for Hall of Fame induction came along in 1986 he was voted in on his first try.
No-brainer!

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- THE "GO-GO" SOX TAKE THE PENNANT!

The first baseball event from 1959 that I wanted to celebrate with a 20th anniversary 1979 card is the phenomena of the “Go-Go” Chicago White Sox who stormed to a 1st place finish in the American League that was dominated by the New York Yankees in the 1950’s:

Led by eventual Cy Young winner Early Wynn and eventual Most Valuable Player winner Nellie Fox, the White Sox finished 94-60, 5-games ahead of the Cleveland Indians.
Ironically, the last A.L. team aside from the Yankees to finish in first place was the 1954 Indians, led by none-other than the manager of the ‘59 White Sox, Al Lopez.
Besides the guys like Wynn, Fox and another future Hall of Fame member, Luis Aparicio, the Sox had strong contributions from slugger Ted Kluszewski, catcher Sherm Lollar, Al Smith and pitcher Bob Shaw.
Sadly for them however, the team ran into a strong Los Angeles Dodger team, who would end up the World Champs, beating Chicago 4 games to 2, with guys like Koufax, Drysdale, Hodges and Snider leading the way.

1975 "CY YOUNG AWARD" SUB-SET: WHAT IF? 1959

Next up on my 1975 "Cy Young Award" thread is the 1959 season, with Early Wynn of the Chicago White Sox as the actual winner when the award was only given to one player, and Sam Jones of the St. Louis Cardinals as the supposed National League winner according to the folks at SABR.

Take a look at my card design first:

Early Wynn was already a long time veteran by the time the 1959 season came along, and even at the age of 39 he still had a lot left in the tank.

Pitching in his second season for the White Sox, Wynn lead them to the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, going 22-10 with a 3.17 E.R.A with five shutouts over a league-leading 255.2 innings.

Not bad for a guy who first appeared on a Major League mound 20 years earlier as a 19-year old for the Washington Senators.

Wynn would eventually reach that magical 300th win in 1963, retiring soon after, ending his career with a 300-244 record and a Hall of Fame induction in 1972.

At the height of his career he was a member of perhaps one of the best pitching staffs in baseball history with the Cleveland Indians of the 1950's. This was a staff that featured two other future Hall of Famers: Bob Lemon and Bob Feller, as well as star Mike Garcia, along with other productive arms like Herb Score, Art Houtteman, and in a part time role as he was closing out his career, Hal Newhouser.

Sadly for the Indians, they would constantly have to take a back seat to the Yankee dynasty of the decade, only managing to end up at the top in 1954 when they set the then American League record of 111 wins on their way to a World Series loss to the New York Giants.

Over in the National League, in a year where no one pitcher took the lead and dominated, we have Sam Jones posting up solid numbers in his first year pitching for the San Francisco Giants after being traded from the Cardinals (hence the fact that he's shown as a Cardinal on the 1959 Topps card), leading to a probable Cy Young win for him in the N.L. had they selected a winner for each league back then.

For the year, Jones posted a record of 21-15, leading the league in wins, along with a league-leading 2.83 earned run average and four shutouts to go along with 209 strikeouts.

He even managed to tack on four saves during the year as he appeared in 50 games, with 35 of them being starts.

1959 was easily the best season of Jones' career, but he did have one more good year in 1960 as he posted an 18-14 record with a 3.19 earned run average, three shutouts and 190 strikeouts.

After that he patched together four more years with the Giants, Tigers, Cardinals and Orioles before retiring after the 1964 season.

During his career Jones lead the National League in strikeouts three times, with a high of 225 in 1958 with the Cardinals, but also lead the league in walks four times, with a whopping high of 185 in 1955 while hurling for the Chicago Cubs.

By the time he retired he had a final record of 102-101 with a 3.59 E.R.A and 1376 K's in only 1643.1 inning s pitched.

Next on this thread we move into the 1960's, and have the actual Cy Young winner that year, Vern Law of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the proposed American League winner, Jim Perry, brother of future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry.

Keep an eye out for it.