#259 George Altman

George Altman  Chicago Cubs

Career: George Altman is another two-sport college star who found his way to major league success. He attended Tennessee State (then Tennessee A&I) to play basketball and did so for four seasons. Tenn A&I didn't begin their baseball program until Altman's junior year but he signed up and excelled. Altman reports (in this really nice interview) that the school played a very limited baseball schedule but it did include games against Army base teams and Negro League clubs.

He gravitated to baseball over hoops (he wasn't drafted by the NBA) and when he graduated he was recruited to join the Kansas City Monarchs where he spent the summer playing for Buck O'Neil's club. He played for the Monarchs in the summer of 1955 and drew interest from the Cubs. They signed him and he began a climb to the majors that took him through two minor league seasons wrapped around two with the US Army.

Altman made the Cubs team in 1959 and nailed down a starting outfield slot. His numbers over his first couple of seasons were hampered by nagging illnesses and injuries. He found his footing and had his most productive years in 1961 and '62. He was an All-Star both years. That was no small feat considering the NL outfield talent at the time and the fact that with Ernie Banks on the club so there wasn't any 'every team has to be represented' bias in his selection. He hit over .300 both years and contributed with speed and plenty of extra-base hits.

Rather surprisingly he was traded to the Cardinals for the '63 season. The Cards had wanted him to take advantage of the short rightfield fence in old Busch Stadium. His season was disappointing and he was then traded again, this time to the Mets. The year, 1964, was his last as a starter in the majors. He was dealt back to the Cubs where he platooned for a few years and spent most of 1967 in the minors.

He has a very successful career playing in Japan that ended with a bout with colon cancer in 1975 (he beat it). He then returned to Chicago and began a second career as a commodities broker. Altman has maintained his health and was the keynote speaker at SABR's 19th annual Jerry Malloy Negro Leagues Conference in 2016. He and his wife are active in charitable and youth-oriented programs in the Chicago area.

In 1960:  He didn't quite get into as many games as he had in his rookie season of 1959. This was due in large measure to the Cubs adding Richie Ashburn to the outfield mix. Altman started games at all three OF spots and some at first as well. His numbers across the board were better this year than the previous one. He hit .266 with 13 homers and drove in 51 runs. But he was still a season away from his All-Star days.

Off The Charts: Wikipedia sums up his career in Japan this way:

He was a spare outfielder in both 1965 and 1966, and then, in 1967, he spent part of the year at Triple-A, where at age 34 he played regularly and regained his batting stroke. It served him well the following season, when he began his career in Japanese baseball. He played from 1968 through 1975 for the Lotte Orions and the Hanshin Tigers, and enjoyed seasons of 39, 34 and 30 homers—and four more years with 20 or more blasts—and batted over .300 six times. Highlights from his NPB career included leading the Pacific League in hits (170), runs (84), and RBI (100) in 1968; and being named to the "Best Nine" Pacific League team in 1968, 1970, and 1971. He credited martial arts training for baseball success in Japan.

Altman is a pretty remarkable guy. Interesting and outspoken in many areas. His SABR bio is recommended as the interview linked above. Warning...if you are an Ernie Banks fan you may want to skip that linked interview. Just sayin'

Here is Altman at the Malloy SABR Conference in '16 and a shot from his days in Japan:

The Card: I like seeing some of Wrigley behind him. You usually get pics with the walls or scoreboard in the background but here you see a piece of the cage and the stands to the third base side of home plate. When we visited there in 2013 that's where we sat.

And his pose is more interesting than the standard headshot. This exact color combo is used on four Cubs' cards. The Cubs have eleven different combos across the set which is the most of any team. The most frequent combo for them is nearly the same but with white letters for the team and position. That one is used on seven cards and that total is the lowest 'most frequent combo' of any of the 16 clubs. Now you know.

#207 Bob Boyd

Bob Boyd  Baltimore Orioles

Career: Bob Boyd was a member of the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro Leagues in the late 40s. He became the first black player to sign with the Chicago White Sox in 1950 and made his major league debut in 1951 at the age of 31. After being held up in the Cardinals' chain for a few years, he played nine major league seasons including five with the Orioles. The man could hit line drives. His nickname was 'The Rope'. He had a career .293 average.



In 1960: Boyd had been the Orioles leading hitter for several years but he lost his spot at first base to the more powerful Jim Gentile. He played some outfield and pinch-hit and finished with a .317 average in less than a hundred at-bats.

Off The Charts: Boyd was the first player in the modern history of the Baltimore Orioles to hit over .300 in a season.

#141 Jim Proctor Sport Rookie Star

Jim Proctor  Detroit Tigers

Career: Proctor, who played briefly for the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns, was supposed to be the player to integrate the Tigers' big league roster in 1958, but he was derailed by arm problems and a military stint. He'd begun his pro career with a short stay in West Palm Beach in the D level Florida State League in 1955. He was lucky to have caught the eye of the Tigers and pitched extremely well in their system.

Proctor got a September call-up in 1959 and had two appearances. One was a start in which he was knocked out in the second inning and was tagged with the loss. He never pitched in the majors after that short look. He was out of the game after another few seasons in the minors.

In 1960: He pitched for Victoria, the Tigers' AA team, a few hours down the Texas coast from me. He won 15 games but his overall stats, while good, were not as showy as they had been before his arm woes occurred.

Off The Charts: There isn't much info available about Jim Proctor. I did find a mention of him in interviews with his West Palm teammate, Gil Black. Black mentions being released in this article in the Stamford (CT) Advocate:

Due to the strong segregation laws that existed at that time in Florida, it was extremely difficult while on the road to find hotels and restaurants that would accommodate blacks.

This became so much of an inconvenience to the team that after just a few games, "myself and fellow player Jim Proctor, who was also black, were released," said Black

Black was a bit more descriptive of their treatment in this story in the same paper, a year later:

Black and the other black player on the team, Jim Proctor, led separate lives in a sense from their teammates, because they had to stay in different hotels.
One day, the manager said, "You black guys are too much trouble," and sent them home.

Proctor attended Maryland State University, now Maryland Eastern Shore. 

#155 Charlie Neal

Charlie Neal  Los Angeles Dodgers

Career: Charlie Neal signed with the Dodgers in 1950 but as a middle infielder his spot on the major league roster was blocked at the top by a couple of guys named Reese and Robinson. He broke through in 1956 with Brooklyn and had a a short but very good eight year career. He peaked in 1959 with sparkling work at bat and in the field. He hit .287 with 19 homers and nearly 90 RBI. Add in 17 stolen bases, a Gold Glove and leading the NL with 11 triples and it's not hard to see how he finished in the top ten in the MVP balloting.

In the 1959 World Series against the White Sox Neal had two homers among his 10 hits and a .370 average. His six RBI in the Series easily topped the team.

Neal was an original '62 Met having come to New York in a trade the winter before the club opened play. He was among the few bright spots for the expansion team but in '63 he was slumping and traded to the Reds in July. He retired after that 1963 season.

Neal is also a vet of the Negro Leagues having played with the Atlanta Black Crackers.

In 1960: He was coming off his best season but his numbers dipped across the board. Despite that he again made the NL All Star squad. It was his second and final time for that honor. His average dropped nearly 30 points to .256 and his homers fell off to just eight.

WikiFacts: Neal had 24 triples in his second minor league season, 1951 with Class B Lancaster. No major leaguer has had that many in a year since 1925. Among current players only Curtis Granderson and Jimmy Rollins have had as many as 20 in a big league season season.

The Card: That's really a nice color combo for a Dodgers player in this set. Neal is in Memorial Coliseum. The season highlights give a good accounting of how well Neal played in 1959. Featured are his fielding marks (tied for most putouts in a game in MLB history) and his postseason exploits (big games in the NL playoff against the Braves and the World Series against Chicago). Too bad the card isn't on the cream colored cardboard.