Vintage Fridays: Bob Turley, 1954 Topps #85

Last week, I had some credit card rewards money that was burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided to tick a few boxes on my vintage checklist. I went to the Check Out My Cards storefront on Amazon and came away with six 1950s Topps cards (three Orioles and three one-time O's) for $25 bucks, including shipping. The key pickup was this rookie card of "Bullet" Bob Turley, who started, completed, and won the first game in Memorial Stadium, a 3-1 victory over the White Sox on April 15, 1954. The 23-year-old scattered seven hits and five walks while whiffing nine Chicago batters. In his lone season as an Oriole, Turley was the club's de facto ace, leading the team with 14 wins (against 15 losses), 247.1 innings pitched, and 185 strikeouts (against 181 walks...yikes). He also completed 14 games and posted a 3.46 ERA. Bob finished strong, going 5-1 with a 2.53 ERA in his last seven starts of the season.

I'll share the card back, since it relays a story that's pretty amusing in hindsight. Turley was from Troy, Illinois, and that led him to sign with the St. Louis Browns rather than the Yankees, so that he could pitch close to home. But by the time he reached the major leagues for good, the Browns were bound for Baltimore and the East Coast! As we now know, the Birds sent him to the Yankees prior to the 1955 season, which probably left him feeling like a plaything of fate. In the end, things worked out pretty well for Bob in New York. Two All-Star selections, a Cy Young Award in 1958 (21-7, 2.97 ERA, 19 CG), and two World Series rings qualifies as "pretty well", I think.

Vintage Fridays: Sam Mele, 1954 Topps #240

58 years ago today, it all began.

It was a dry, warm Tuesday afternoon in Detroit, Opening Day of the 1954 baseball season at Briggs Stadium, which most fans came to know as Tiger Stadium. The home team was hosting the Baltimore Orioles, who had spent the previous 52 seasons existing as the St. Louis Browns, second-class citizens in their own city and the bottom-feeders of the American League. Now they had traded in brown caps for black ones and moved to the East Coast, but the talent-deficient roster was essentially the same. Most O's fans today wouldn't recognize many of the names.

-Second baseman Bobby Young was the first batter in team history, wearing the uniform number 5 that would soon be claimed by a young third baseman who stayed around for more than 20 years. Young grounded out to first base to break the ice on Baltimore's return to the majors after a half-century absence.

-Center fielder Gil Coan, batting third, singled off of Tigers starter Steve Gromek for the Birds' first hit. The 32-year-old would be out of the league within a couple of years.

-Don Larsen (there's a familiar name) threw the first pitch for the club, and struck out the first batter he faced, Detroit second baseman Frank Bolling. He wasn't as fortunate in subsequent innings, permitting leadoff home runs to Ray Boone, Walt Dropo (who finished his career as an Oriole in 1961), and Bolling in innings 4, 6, and 7. Those three homers accounted for all the scoring in a 3-0 loss; both starters went the distance but Gromek kept Baltimore inside the park and off the scoreboard. The defeat was the first of a league-high 21 for Larsen and the first of 100 for the seventh-place Orioles. The equally woeful Athletics, playing out their final season in Philadelphia, lost 103 to keep the O's out of last place.

-Incidentally, Larsen also had the team's first extra-base hit, a double in the fifth inning.

Other notable firsts would have to wait for the next day's game. Left fielder Sam Mele drove in Bobby Young in the first inning of that contest with the Orioles' first run. The O's pushed across three runs in that frame and starter Duane Pillette made them hold up, earning the first win in team history by a 3-2 margin.

The Orioles had their home opener on Thursday April 15, topping the White Sox 3-1 in another squeaker, with Bob Turley turning in the third straight complete-game effort by a starter. Bespectacled catcher Clint "Scrap Iron" Courtney hit a home run in the fourth inning, the first ball to clear the fences at Memorial Stadium and one of just 38 career homers for him. Power was not a strong suit for those Orioles, who were dead last in the league with 52 total home runs in 1954. The Senators were next-to-last with 81, and the Pirates brought up the rear with 76 in the National League. Vern Stephens led the Birds with 8 home runs.

It wasn't always pretty, but the men, women, and children of Charm City finally had a big league team of their own.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Blyzka, 1954 Topps #152

Today is as good a day as any to write about Mike Blyzka, one of the few Orioles with a December 25 birthday. I hope his special day didn't get lost in the shuffle, which seems to be a common complaint for those born this time of year. At this moment, I don't know a single other thing about Mike, so let's give him the Fun Facts treatment!

1. He was actually born Michael Bliska, according to Baseball Reference. I don't know why or when the name change came about. If his family joined the witness relocation program, they were probably too subtle about it.

2. His birthplace was Hamtramck, MI, an oddly-named locale five miles north of Detroit. Four other Hamtramckers (Hamtramckites?) have played in the major leagues, the most recent being 1970s-1980s journeyman catcher Bill Nahorodny.

3. Mike, like many players of his era, served in the U.S. military during the Korean War. This explains the gap in his playing career from 1951-1952.

4. He debuted with the Browns in 1953 at age 24, going 2-6 with a 6.39 ERA in 33 games (including 9 starts). His totals of 56 walks and just 23 strikeouts indicates that his record was well-earned.

5. Blyzka followed the team to Baltimore in 1954, and made 37 appearances out of the bullpen. He had a 1-5 record, a single save, and a 4.69 ERA. With 51 walks and 35 strikeouts, he still wasn't fooling many batters.

6. His lone win as an Oriole came on June 8, 1954, when he relieved Bob Chakales in the seventh inning of a 3-3 game at Fenway Park and allowed a run on 5 hits over the final 3 innings. The O's bats boosted him with a pair of runs in each of the final two innings. He also singled off of future Oriole Hal "Skinny" Brown in the ninth inning for one of his two career hits.

7. After the 1954 season was through, the Birds sent Blyzka to the Yankees as part of the massive 17-player trade that delivered Gus Triandos, Gene Woodling, and Willy Miranda to Baltimore and Bob Turley and Don Larsen to the Bronx. Mike spent the next two seasons in the Yankee organization without getting the call back to the majors, and finished his pro baseball career with the Giants' AAA Minneapolis club in 1957.

8. His minor league record was 63-60 with a 4.18 ERA.

9. He lived in Denver for some time, and spent the last 32 years of his life in Cheyenne, WY. For several years he was the manager and bartender of a VFW post in the area.

Vintage Fridays: Don Lenhardt, 1954 Topps #157

On this date in 1952, the Red Sox and Tigers got together on a nine-player trade. What does that have to do with the price of eggs? Well, incredibly, eight of those nine players ultimately passed through the Orioles organization. The Red Sox acquired:

-Johnny Lipon, a shortstop who played seven games for the Browns in September 1953 and was traded to the White Sox the following February, just after the team moved to Baltimore.

-Hoot Evers, an two-time All-Star outfielder. He had stints with the O's in 1955 and 1956, hitting .239 with a .334 OBP, 7 home runs, and 34 RBI.

-George Kell, a future Hall of Fame third baseman. He finished his career in Charm City (1956-1957), mentoring young Brooks Robinson and representing the Orioles in the All-Star Game and posting a .297 average in his final season.

-Dizzy Trout, a righty pitcher who posted a 27-win season for the Tigers during World War II. He attempted an ill-fated comeback with the Birds as a 42-year-old in 1957, allowing four hits and three runs and retiring a single batter.

The following players headed to the Tigers in the deal:

-Walt Dropo, hulking first baseman and former Rookie of the Year. He too ended his career in Baltimore, batting .272 with 11 homers and 44 RBI from 1959-1961.

-Don Lenhardt, an outfielder and corner infielder who peaked with a .317 average in 97 games for the 1953 Browns. He was a member of the O's first Opening Day roster in 1954, but was traded back to Boston after playing in 13 games.

-Johnny Pesky, beloved Red Sox second baseman and three-time A.L. hits leader. The Orioles signed him in December 1954, but released him the following spring. He then called it quits.

-Bill Wight, a veteran lefty who pitched for eight different teams. He was an Oriole from 1955-1957, posting a 21-26 record and a 3.46 ERA. He made his bones as a scout for 37 years, primarily with the Braves. His signings included Joe Morgan, Dusty Baker, Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, and David Justice. Incidentally, the O's got him in 1955 by sending Hoot Evers to Cleveland.

The odd man out was infielder Fred Hatfield, an infielder known for his deft fielding and an ability to draw a walk. He never passed through the Baltimore organization, but in addition to this deal, he was a part of two other trades that involved a total of four one-time Orioles (Al Smith, Jim Brideweser, Harry Byrd, and Bob Kennedy).

I'm sure this all means something, but I couldn't began to tell you what that might be.

Vintage Fridays: Howie Fox, 1954 Topps #246

Howie Fox pitched for nine years in the major leagues and sported a gruesome 43-72 won-lost record that included a league-leading 19 losses with the Reds in 1949. He did rebound the following year with an 11-8 mark, but that kind of thing doesn't grab headlines. At the end of his career, Howie had the rare distinction of playing for the AAA International League Baltimore Orioles in 1953 and the MLB's American League Baltimore Orioles the following season. He had won 15 games for the minor-league club, but posted just a single victory in 38 games (mostly in relief) with the big league Birds in 1954. His 3.67 ERA was the lowest among the few regularly-used relievers on the club, but it was not enough to guarantee the veteran a spot on the club a year later. Instead he was dispatched to AA San Antonio, the place where his life would end shortly after the end of that 1955 season.

Fox, weighing the career prospects of a 34-year-old pitcher who's been farmed out to the Texas League, opened a tavern in San Antonio. On October 9, 1955, three men entered his bar and began harassing the bartender. Howie intervened and was stabbed by one of the aggressors. The knife wound was fatal. I was sorry to learn about the tragic and premature ending to his life, but I am relieved that no other ex-Oriole has been murdered to date. Howie Fox is buried at Laurel Grove Cemetery in Springfield, Oregon. For information about his burial site and some photos (including a full-length portrait of him in his Orioles uniform), visit this site.

I recently found Howie's 1951 Bowman card in the two-dollar bin at my local hobby shop. Knowing only that he was an ex-Oriole who was killed in a bar fight (as Wikipedia so unfortunately phrased it), I was intrigued enough to make it one of three cards from the set that I bought that day. It didn't hurt that he was pictured in a Reds uniform, allowing me to add another player/team combo to one of my sub-collections. Now that I've gotten a clearer picture of just how he died, I'm very glad to have this card in my possession and to have the chance to share a bit of his story with you.

Vintage Fridays: Vern Stephens, 1954 Topps #54

Of all of the cards that I own, this battered 56-year-old Vern Stephens may be the most badly worn of them all. Similarly, my girlfriend is in pretty rough shape right about now. She threw out her back earlier this week. Then today, her sister twisted her ankle. Meanwhile, their parents are stuck in France, grounded by an ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Iceland. What are the odds?

Long story short, I have swooped down to Southern Maryland on little notice to lend a helping hand. Nothing is bringing ol' Vern back from the collector's hinterlands, but I can be of use in the latter situation.

Vintage Fridays: Johnny Lipon, 1954 Topps #19

This is not only one of the oldest cards in my collection, it is without a doubt the most schizophrenic. As you can see, Johnny is pictured in a Red Sox cap, but identified as an Oriole. If you take a close look at the full-body photo at bottom left, you'll see that Topps attempted to airbrush the Orioles' crossed-bats-and-ball logo onto his cap. It gets better if you flip the card over. The team name on the back is the White Sox.

Huh?

Here's the timeline. On September 8, 1953, the Browns purchased Lipon's contract from the Red Sox. Of course, that offseason, the Brownies moved from St. Louis to Baltimore and became the Orioles. In February of 1954, the Birds dealt Johnny to Chicago in a four-player swap. Clear as mud? The infielder's travels didn't end there. On April 18, he was traded to the Reds, who released him 11 days later. His eight-plus year career ended with just one official at-bat in 1954.

The split personality of this card doesn't end with the team affiliation. As you can see, Johnny's listed as a third baseman. However, his card back talks about his defensive prowess at shortstop; indeed, he led American League shortstops in assists and double plays in 1950, and topped the circuit with a .980 fielding percentage two years later. It's worth noting that Lipon played 717 career games at shortstop, and only 15 at the hot corner. (There were also two games at second base tossed in for good measure.) To throw in one more bit of surreality, a previous owner of this card wrote "O.F." in ink next to Johnny's name on the card back.

Who knew that baseball cards could be so confusing?

Vintage Fridays: Duane Pillette, 1954 Topps #107

Today's card is all about beginnings and firsts. It's the first 1954 Topps card in my collection. 1954 Topps was the first modern Major League Baseball card set (along with 1954 Bowman) to feature the Baltimore Orioles. The team had just moved east from St. Louis, bringing Charm City back into the American League for the first time since 1903, when the city's charter A.L. franchise was moved to New York. That's right, the Yankees were once the Orioles. Ugh. Anyway, the St. Louis club was the first pro sports team named the Browns to relocate to Baltimore from Middle America, but they wouldn't be the last.

At the time this card was designed, pitcher Duane "Dee" Pillette had yet to suit up for the O's - no one had. Topps was able to get a hold of the team's official logo, which is reminiscent of Heckle and Jeckle. But they had to do the best they could in approximating the new team's uniforms. For the headshot, Duane's cap has been colored in black with a reasonable facsimile of the scratchy-looking "realistic bird" that the club would wear in some capacity through the 1965 season. For the inset action pose, they decided that discretion was the better part of valor and just airbrushed out the Browns insignia on Duane's jersey and cap.

Pillette himself was involved in a couple significant "firsts" in baseball history. His father Herman, who won nineteen games for the Tigers the year Duane was born (1922), lost nineteen the following year to "lead" the American League. When Pillette the younger racked up fourteen defeats as a Brownie in 1951, he and his Pop became the first (and so far, only) father-son duo to lead their league in this dubious category. In brighter news, "Dee" was the first pitcher to win a game for the new Orioles, topping the host Tigers 3-2 in the Birds' second-ever game on Wednesday, April 14, 1954. Not a bad start, and certainly not a bad finish: the righty would wrap up the season as the Birds' first team leader in earned run average, at 3.12.