Vintage Fridays: Larry Miller, 1969 Topps #323

(When I was whining about being sick on Wednesday night, I had no idea that I wouldn't be able to keep any food or drink down for most of Thursday. I'm doing much better today than yesterday, so you get a blog post. Everybody wins!)

If you don't remember Larry Miller pitching for the Orioles, that's probably because he never pitched for the Orioles. Miller actually debuted with the Dodgers in 1964 as a 27-year-old rookie. He was a collegiate player at the University of Kansas, and also lost a couple of years to military service. He was 4-8 with a 4.18 ERA in his lone season in Los Angeles before being traded to the Mets. Larry didn't fare so well in New York, going 1-6 with a 5.35 ERA in parts of two seasons. That was the last of it, as far as Miller's big league career was concerned; he threw his last MLB pitch in 1966. It seems that Topps rolled the dice and assumed that the expansion-diluted rosters would open up a spot for Larry on the Baltimore staff, but it didn't happen. He spent the year with the Giants' AAA Phoenix team, and that was the end of his pro career.