#64 Jack Meyer

Jack Meyer  Philadelphia Phillies

Career: Meyer was a Philadelphia-area native and had a very successful rise through the Phils' organization as a starter before making the club in 1955. He was used chiefly as a reliever that season (as he was the rest of his career) and he led the NL with 16 saves.  He finished second to Bill Virdon in the RoY voting.  He never matched that rookie season and his career, beset by injuries and other issues, ended with a few innings for the Phils in 1961. He died of heart problems in 1965 at the age of 35. 

In 1960: He was coming off a busy '59 season but was able to make only a few appearances through May before he was sidelined.

Off The Charts: If Wikipedia is to be believed...[Meyer's] career was negatively affected by his growing reputation as a drinker and late-night carouser. He was a member—with fellow pitchers Turk Farrell and Jim Owens—of the so-called "Dalton Gang", who received notoriety around baseball for multiple, and well-publicized, off-field incidents. 

His nephew, Brian Meyer pitched in 34 games as a reliever for the Astros from 1988 to 1990.

The Card: Looks like a nice crowd at Connie Mack was in attendance the day this picture was taken. It's unusual that a card shows so many folks in the stands since the pics seemingly were taken long before game time. My original copy of this card had a serious crease and this upgrade came my way just a few weeks ago at a card show. 

#63 George Strickland

George Strickland  Cleveland Indians

Career: He was a good-field, no-hit shortstop for ten seasons with the Pirates and Indians. He did have one nice year with the bat hitting .284 in 1953, his first full season in Cleveland. He appeared in three games in the 1954 Series against the Giants but went hitless in nine at-bats. He led the AL shortstops in fielding in 1955.

In 1960: He was at the end of his career but made the club due to an injury to Woody Held. He was on the bench for most of the summer and was released early in August. He had hit .167 in 32 games as a fill-in at short and third.

Off The Charts: According to SABR.."After his playing career ended, Strickland scouted for one year and coached for ten with the Indians, the Minnesota Twins, and the Kansas City Royals. In 1964 he became the first New Orleans native to manage in the majors when he filled in for an ailing Birdie Tebbetts."

The Card: The blurb mentions that he had been retired for a year before returning to the Indians in 1959. It's a nice combo of colors and it's a three-color combo at that.

#62 Roger Craig

Roger Craig  Los Angeles Dodgers

Career: Craig had a nice four-year spell in the minors and a two-year military break before he debuted with the '55 Brooklyn Dodgers. He pitched seven years for them, on both coasts. Later he pitched through 1966 for the Phils, Cardinals, Mets, and Reds. He lost 20+ games for the Mets in each of their first two seasons which doesn't help his sub-.500 career win percentage. He almost split his appearances evenly between starts and the bullpen over the course of his career. He got MVP votes in 1959 when he won 11 games with four shutouts after being brought up in June.

He pitched in four World Series and won three of them. He later was a longtime pitching coach and had a 10-year managerial career with the Padres and Giants. His SF team won a pennant in 1989.

In 1960: He was coming off his best year and had 8 wins but his other numbers had begun to edge upwards which is why he was allowed to go to the Mets in the expansion draft a few years later. 

Off The Charts: He became associated with the split-finger fastball as a pitching coach and is sometimes credited with inventing it. Craig set the record straight: “People think I invented that,” Craig said. “I did not. Bruce Sutter did. I just found a way to teach it and it worked out.”

The Card: It's an oddly cropped photo. I get the feeling that this was a multi-player picture and this was how it had to be cropped to include only Craig. My guess on the locale is Wrigley Field. But I say that with not much confidence.

The cartoon references his second-half contributions to the Dodgers' 1959 championship season.

#60 Gus Triandos

Gus Triandos  Baltimore Orioles

Career: The “Golden Greek of Chesapeake”, as he was known in Baltimore, began as a Yankees farmhand and was far down the list of catchers in the team's stocked system. The Yanks gave him a couple of looks and then he was dealt in a 17 player deal to the Orioles in November of 1954. He became the Orioles first 'star', a powerful, extremely slow, and much-loved icon in Charm City. He played eight seasons as the O's backstop and made the All-Star team three times. He hit 30 homers in 1958 to become the second AL catcher in history to hit that many in a year. He finished his career in 1965 after some time with the Phils, Tigers, and Astros.  

In 1960: He raised his average fifty points from 1959 but his power began to wane (12 homers) and he was not selected as an All-Star after having that honor for three consecutive years. 

Off The Charts: Triandos, who Bill James called the slowest player of the decade of the 50s, legged out an inside-the-park homer on August 31, 1957, in Memorial Stadium. The story goes that he hit the ball so hard it ricocheted past Ted Williams in right field and by the time Ted tracked it down Gus had crossed the plate standing up. Triandos' SABR bio, an otherwise wonderful read btw, gets the stadium wrong.

The Card: The cartoon informs us that he led all AL catchers in putouts in 1958. That means there were a lot of plays at the plate. Given the state of the Orioles staff at that point, it's not a surprise.

#59 Juan Pizarro

Juan Pizarro  Milwaukee Braves

Career: He pitched for eight clubs over a span of 18 seasons and had a career that is often overlooked. His stats (131 wins, a sub 3.80 ERA and a good WHIP land him in the 'Hall of the Above Average' His best seasons came in 1963 and '64 with the White Sox and he made the All-Star teams in those two years. He won a ring with the '57 Braves and appeared in the '58 Series with them as well. 

In 1960: In his final season of four with the Braves he saw his stats (and workload) decline. He appeared in 21 games (17 starts) with a 4.55 ERA. He was dealt to the AL champion White Sox in a three-team deal after the season. The trade brought Roy McMillan to the Braves from the Reds.

Off The Charts: As a professional Pizarro won nearly 400 games including the majors (131), minors (66), the Mexican league (38) and the Puerto Rican Winter League (157). 

The Card: Another Seals Stadium shot with a nice color combo and the colorful Braves cap. I'm partial to Pizarro cards and have a nice PC of him.

#58 Gino Cimoli

Gino Cimoli   Pittsburgh Pirates

Career: He had an impressive minor league career in the Dodgers' chain but it was hard to move up in that stocked system. He debuted in Brooklyn in 1956 and went on to play for seven clubs over ten seasons. A .265 career hitter, he led the AL in triples in 1962 and in assists by an outfielder in '63. He made the NL All-Star team in 1956 and played in one game of that year's World Series.

In 1960: He was with his third club in as many years but was just in time to help the Bucs win the Series. As the team's fourth outfielder (behind Skinner, Virdon and Clemente) he hit .267 but his biggest moment came in Game Seven of the Series. He got a pinch single to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning that started the rally which put the Pirates in the lead (which they soon blew before they celebrated Mazeroski's famous homer).

Off The Charts: From Wikipedia...After retiring from baseball, Cimoli worked as a delivery driver for United Parcel Service where, in 1990, the company honored Cimoli for completing 21 years of service without a traffic accident. Cimoli, then 60 years old and still working for the company, was now referred to as "The Lou Gehrig of UPS."

He was the first player to bat in a major league game in California when he stepped into the box for the Dodgers at Seals Stadium on April 15, 1958, against Ruben Gomez and the Giants. He fanned, btw.

The Card: The picture is from 1959 and was taken in the park where he had made that first-in-history West Coast at-bat, Seals Stadium in San Francisco. Cimoli's card comes just a few numbers after Bill Mazeroski's and tells us that it was revised after the trade that winter.

Also revised was the last entry in his highlights list...The December 21 trade is shown and the font is just a bit lighter than the lines above it. I crawled down the rabbit hole and I've decided that the trade entry replaced one for his game on July 12 when he went 3 for five, homered, and then drove in the eventual winning run in the top of the tenth with a single to beat the Pirates. The single actually occurred a month later since the game (the second half of a doubleheader) had been suspended in the top of the ninth. So I'm guessing that the last entry originally looked like this:

• July 12: Gets 3 hits, homer, and clutch single in extras to beat Bucs.
  

#57 Win-Savers

Turk Lown - Gerry Staley

In 1960: Following up on their AL title season that is documented in the card's text, these two relievers had solid years. Staley went 13-8 over 64 relief appearances with 10 saves while Lown added five saves.


The Card: A lot of these combo shots from vintage Topps sets feel like they were included just because they had a picture sitting around. This one had some reasoning behind it. Staley and Lown were a valuable 1-2 punch for Al Lopez in 1959.

Nice Yankee Stadium shot. #20 in the background Johnny Romano. He was the only White Sox player to wear that number in 1958/59, the two years that Lown and Staley were there prior to the card being issued.

The back is seriously mis-cut. But that sure isn't enough to warrant an upgrade.