#271 Julio Becquer

 

 

Julio Becquer   Washington Senators

Career: First-baseman Julio Becquer was another in a long line of players scouted and signed by Joe Cambria. Cambria worked for the senators for many years and had and eye for talent which he uncovered in Cuba and in the Negro Leagues. 

Becquer, renowned for his glove-work at first, began in the Senators organization in 1952. There are gaps in his record at Baseball-Reference but he did make the Senators in 1955 and appeared in 10 games. He spent '56 at AAA and returned to D.C. for the '57 season and played for the Nats as a pinch-hitter and backup at first through 1959. His only year even approaching full time starting status was 1960.

He was taken by the Angels in the expansion draft, was quickly sold to the Phils and then back to his original team which was by then the Twins. Back to the minors went Becquer for '62 and he made one pinch-running appearance for the Twins in 1963 and then was out of baseball.

In 1960: He played in about half the games for the Senators, starting 61 at first. He hit .252, drove in 35 runs and even pitched an inning.

Off The Charts: He got the call to the mound in the second game of an August doubleheader in Kansas City. He game up a two-out homer to Dick Williams in an 8-3 loss. He got another shot at pitching the next season, again in Kansas City, again in a doubleheader. This time he was summoned in the seventh inning of the first game and he poured gas on the 6-1 fire by allowing two singles followed by two doubles as five runs came across. He got out of it by getting Deron Johnson to ground out. Sam Mele brought him back out for the eighth and he only allowed a walk.

He was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.

#268 Al Worthington

 

 Al Worthington  San Francisco Giants

Career: Alabama-born Al Worthington played baseball and some football for the Crimson Tide before signing a pro baseball contract with the Nashville Vols of the Southern Association. When he signed in 1951 Nashville was a Cubs affiliate. The club became part of the Giants chain the next year and Worthington became Giants' property. I have no idea how that worked and his SABR bio has formatting errors so it is not much help.

But in the end, Worthington, showing promise, spent the 1953 through '55 seasons bouncing back and forth between the Polo Grounds and the scrubs. He was a starting pitcher for the most part but, like a lot of guys back then, also made quite a few relief appearances. In '56 Worthington nailed down a spot in the Giants rotation and spent four seasons with the club while moving to a relief role permanently.

He moved on to pitch for the White Sox, Red Sox and Reds before finding a place with the Twins in 1964 (at the age of 35) and was a key bullpen piece through 1969. He even led the AL in saves in '68.

Worthington pitched in the World Series in 1965 and his last big league appearance came in the AL Playoffs series versus the Orioles in 1969. He went on to become a coach in the bigs and then took the head coaching job at Liberty University and later became their AD.

In 1960: This is the second consecutive card I've posted of a player who didn't play for the team he is depicted with in 1960. In a nice bit of serendipity, Worthington was traded to the Red Sox for Jim Marshall in late March. After spending much of the season in the minors, he was moved to the White Sox in what was termed a 'conditional deal' late in August. For the year he was a combined 1-2 in 10 games. His minor league stats at AA Minneapolis were really good. Given his later success with the Twins, there must have been something about the Minnesota air that agreed with him.

Off The Charts: Worthington, a deeply religious guy, was bothered by the cheating he noticed with both the Giants and White Sox. Both clubs were reportedly stealing signs and Worthington expressed his issues with that to his managers, Bill Rigney in San Francisco and Al Lopez in Chicago. Worthington has always maintained that his doing so led to the trades form both clubs. In one instance he walked away from the game for a bit because of the issue. Details in this story on the Alabama.com site (you'll need to turn off any ad-blocker to read).

The Card: I'd call this a near perfect example of what the 1960 set can be. Really nice portrait of Worthington with an unusual color combo and the preferred (by me at least) cream and gold back. Just a great card.

One issue though...the cartoon labels Worthington a football 'star' at Bama but his bios state that he only played sparingly and had more success on the diamond there.

#210 Harmon Killebrew

Harmon Killebrew  Washington Senators

Career: Harmon Killebrew, elected to the Hall of Fame in 1984, was the face of the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise beginning with his first full season in 1959 and continuing through to the early 1970s. He is one of 30 Idaho natives to make the majors, and the only Hall of Famer.

From Baseball Reference's Bullpen page...

Notable Achievements

• 11-time AL All-Star (1959, 1961 & 1963-1971)
• AL MVP (1969)
• AL On-Base Percentage Leader (1969)
• AL Slugging Percentage Leader (1963)
• 6-time AL Home Runs Leader (1959, 1962-1964, 1967 & 1969)
• 3-time AL RBI Leader (1962, 1969 & 1971)
• 4-time AL Bases on Balls Leader (1966, 1967, 1969 & 1971)
• 20-Home Run Seasons: 13 (1959-1967 & 1969-1972)
• 30-Home Run Seasons: 10 (1959-1964, 1966, 1967, 1969 & 1970)
• 40-Home Run Seasons: 8 (1959, 1961-1964, 1967, 1969 & 1970)
• 100 RBI Seasons: 9 (1959, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967 & 1969-1971)
• 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 2 (1967 & 1969)
• Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 1984

In 1960: After his first All-Star season in 1959, Killebrew's numbers fell off a bit in 1960. While he raised his average over 30 points his homers and RBI totals were down. He didn't receive any MVP votes or make the All-Star squad, a situation that didn't occur again until the end of the decade.

Off The Charts: Killebrew led all of MLB with 393 homers in the 1960s, topping 40 six times during the decade – in which he also led the AL in homers six times.  In 1965, Killebrew was elected to start at first base for AL All-Star team, becoming the first player elected to an All-Star Team at three positions (Killebrew had previously been elected to start at 3B and LF).

#123 Dan Dobbek Sport Rookie Star

Dan Dobbek  Washington Senators

Career: He was a highly touted power-hitting outfield prospect when he signed with the Senators in 1955. He was a three-sport star in his hometown on Michigan's Upper Peninsula and attended Western Michigan before turning pro. He didn't disappoint the Nats when he hit 23 homers in each of his two full seasons in the minors and got a September call-up in 1959.

His career was seriously affected by an injury to his shoulder when he ran into an outfield fence in K.C. in 1961. He hung on for a couple more seasons in the minors and then was out of the game.

In 1960: This was his only complete major league year and he served as the Senator's fourth outfielder and #1 pinch-hitter. He played in over 100 games and had nearly 300 plate appearances while hitting .218 and banging out 10 homers.

Off The Charts: From Baseball Reference's Bullpen page for Dobbek..."The Boston Red Sox didn't want to pitch to Dan on April 22, 1960, as he tied a major league record when he received three intentional bases-on-balls in one game."

He moved along with the Senators when they became the Twins in 1961, and he hit the first Grand Slam in the team's history.

The Card: This is his second 'rookie star' card. He had one in the 1959 set.

Senators Team Trio #43, #221 & #470

The Team: The 1960 Senators were the last edition of the original franchise in the nation's capital. In 1961 they were the Twins and an expansion Senators team was playing in D.C.

This club had the nucleus of the better Twins' clubs of the mid-60s including Harmon Killebrew,  Zolio Versalles, Earl Battey, Bob Allison, and Camilo Pascual. They were 5th in the AL in the standings and last in attendance.

The back of the card is a marked checklist.

The Manager: Cookie Lavagetto had a ten-year big league career as an infielder with the Pirates and Dodgers. In the middle of his playing days, he served four years in the military during WWII. He was a full-time starter in Brooklyn for the five seasons leading up to his military service and was an NL All-Star for four of them. He managed the Senators through their transition to Minnesota. The '60 finish, fifth place, was his best. I commented on this card, and posted some links to Lavagetto's 1947 World Series notable moment, over on my regular blog. It's near the bottom of that post. Ignore the Facebook stuff, I'm gone from there.

The cartoons on the backs of these manager cards are great as the artists had room to stretch out a bit.

The Coaches: Sam Mele stands out in this group. He had a solid, if unspectacular, ten-year career as a member of the Red Sox and several other AL clubs in the 40s and 50s. He took over for Lavagetto as Twins manager in 1961 and was in the dugout for the 1965 AL pennant.  Bob Swift was a bench player for several clubs for 14 seasons in the 40s and early 50s. He managed the Tigers for two short stints in 1965 and '66. Ellis Clary was a long-time minor league infielder who made the majors for a few seasons during WWII. He spent nearly three decades as a coach and scout for the Nats, Twins, White Sox and  Blue Jays.

#14 Jim 'Mudcat' Grant

Jim Grant  Cleveland Indians

Career:  Grant spent 14 seasons in the majors, seven with the Indians. His biggest splash came when he led the AL with 21 wins and six shutouts for the pennant-winning Twins in 1965. But it's hard to overlook his 1970 season when, at the age of 34, he pitched in 80 games out of the pen for the Pirates and A's with 24 saves, a 1.86 ERA and a 1.064 WHIP.

He was twice an All-Star and made three starts in the '65 Series versus the Dodgers. In that Series he got complete-game wins in Games One and Six while taking the loss in Game Four. That Game Six win came on two days rest. He also started the first game in Montreal Expos history in April 1969.

Grant was well known as a singer and entertainer and hosted a local TV program in the Minneapolis area in 1965. At the bottom of this post I have embedded a video of Grant signing at a tribute to the late Harmon Killebrew (accompanied on guitar by Tony Oliva's son).

In 1960: In his third season in the majors Grant's numbers took a slight downturn from his previous two. But the most notable thing about the 1960 season for him was something that occurred that September that seems remarkable for the time and certainly connects to the current political climate. I don't believe I'd ever heard about this incident until I was researching this post. And I thought I knew a little something about Jim Grant.  Click here to read about the national anthem performance that ended his season in an article that appeared last October in the Tampa Bay Times.

WikiFacts: Also contained in that article in the Tampa Bay Times :

The two-time All-Star was the AL's first black pitcher to win 20 games (for the Twins in 1965), and there's a street named after him in his hometown. His legacy includes two nephews (Troy and Darren Hambrick) who played in the NFL.

He was also the first black pitcher to win a World Series game for an AL team (Twins, 1965).

From Wikipedia:

After his playing career ended, Grant worked for the North American Softball League, one of three Men's Professional Softball Leagues active in the pro softball era. He later worked as a broadcaster and executive for the Indians, and also as a broadcaster for the Athletics.

In recent years, Grant has dedicated himself to studying and promoting the history of blacks in baseball. On his official website, Grant pays tribute to the fifteen black pitchers (including himself) who have won 20 games in a season. The "15 Black Aces" are: Vida Blue, Al Downing, Bob Gibson, Dwight Gooden, Grant, Ferguson Jenkins, Sad Sam Jones, Don Newcombe, Mike Norris, David Price, J. R. Richard, CC Sabathia, Dave Stewart, Dontrelle Willis, and Earl Wilson. In 2006, Grant released his long-awaited book, The Black Aces, Baseball's Only black Twenty-Game Winners, featuring chapters on each of the black pitchers to have at least one twenty win season, and also featuring Negro League players that Mudcat felt would have been 20 game winners if they were allowed to play. The book was featured in the Hall of Fame during Induction Weekend 2006, and in February 2007 President Bush honored Mudcat and fellow Aces, Ferguson Jenkins, Dontrelle Willis and Mike Norris, and the publication of the book at a ceremony at the White House.

The Card: This is just a terrific card. I love cards that have pink as part of the design. Add to that there is a neat Jim Davis cartoon, the Season's Highlights block and the fact that it's The Mudcat! Good stuff.