Ron Brand (#549)

Here is Montreal Expos’ catcher Ron Brand, shown in a late-series card in his brand new Expos uniform. Not only that, but we have an “in-action” shot (rare for 1960s’ cards) that includes his full catching gear. Now THIS is a card!

Brand split the catching duties for the upstart Expos with John Bateman, just like he did for the past few years with the Astros.

Brand was signed by the Pirates in 1958, and labored in the minors for 7 seasons, although he also saw action in 46 games with the Bucs for part of 1964. He mostly played 2B and SS for his first 3 seasons in the minors, then began catching in 1961 (while still playing infield).

After the 1964 season, the Astros selected him in the Rule 5 draft, and he played the next 3 full seasons with the Astros, getting significant playing time in 1965, but was clearly Bateman’s backup in ’66 and ’67.

In 1968, he dropped to 3rd-string behind Bateman and Dave Adlesh, and spent part of the season in triple-A.

1969 brought a change of scenery for him, but unfortunately, Bateman followed him to Montreal. Although Brand caught more games in 1969 than Bateman or the 3rd “B” in the catching corps (John Boccabella), Ron was glued to the Expos’ bench for all of 1970 and 1971, and when he did play, it was usually as the backup shortstop.

He played for the Expos’ AAA team during 1972, then managed class-A teams in the minors from 1974-1976 for 3 different teams (Pirates, Dodgers, Reds). He also played 31 games in 1975 for the Dodgers’ class-A team in Bakersfield.

Also check out Brand's 1968 card.

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Does anyone remember “The King Family Show” from the mid-1960s? About 3 dozen members of this family had a musical variety show on TV for a year or so. The older ladies comprised “The King Sisters”, a popular quartet during the big-band era in the 1940s and 1950s.

Some segments of the show featured them, while other segments featured the teen cousins (pictured below) singing the top pop hits of the day while wearing matching white sweaters with their names (like in the Mickey Mouse Club). There were also segments featuring the smaller children, and the entire family.

Why do I bring this up? Ron Brand is married to the King cousin named Candy (4th from the left below).

The most well-known cousin was Tina Cole (far right). She was on the "My Three Sons" TV show for several years as one of the sons’ wife. Tina, Candy, and 2 of the other girls have toured in recent decades as “The King Cousins”, following in their mothers’ footsteps.

Other King Family trivia:  Liza (tallest one above) is the mother of Arcade Fire musicians Win and Will Butler. The more you know...

The Astros are Back

After a season and a half of ugly Astros Houston cards, the Astros cap logo re-appears in the later 1969 series cards.

For continuity, Topps still used the team name "Houston", but no longer felt the need to use capless photos or butcher the photos with ridiculous airbrushing techniques (such as the "let's not even try" method of completely blacking out the cap).

Most of these players are featured in their road uniforms, which complied neatly with the edict, while only Larry Dierker is shown in his (somewhat obscured) home uniform.

Mike Cuellar (#453)

Well, this is the 769th post I’ve made across my 1963 to 1970 blogs, and I’m just now getting around to Mike Cuellar. (That’s just not right!)

I have Cuellar’s ’67, ’68, and ’69 cards, but the 1968 Astros cards are a disaster, so it’s down to his ’67 or ’69 card. I was initially going to post his ’67 Astros card because it’s something of a novelty, but this guy IS an Oriole, so here we go…

Before signing with the Reds in 1957 (I did not know he was with the Reds!), Mike Cuellar pitched for the Cuban Army team, and tossed a no-hitter in 1955. He played his first 5 pro seasons for Cincinnati’s AAA team. From 1957 to early 1960, this was on his home turf of Havana, Cuba.

During the 1960 season, the Havana team relocated to Jersey City, then to Indianapolis in 1961. Mike also played 2 games for the Reds in April 1959.

Cuellar spent the 1962 season pitching for Monterrey in the Mexican League.

He returned stateside in 1963, now playing for the Jacksonville Suns, the Indians’ AAA team. In 1964 Jacksonville became a Cardinals’ affiliate, so Cuellar was now a Cardinal. He was promoted to St. Louis in mid-June, and appeared in 32 games, mostly working out of the Cards’ bullpen.

Cuellar was back in Jacksonville to start the 1965 season, but in mid-June was traded (with pitcher Ron Taylor) to the Astros for pitchers Hal Woodeshick and Chuck Taylor. Mike finished out the season in the Astros’ bullpen, as the rotation was stocked with Bob Bruce, Turk Farrell, Don Nottebart, Larry Dierker, Dave Giusti, and Robin Roberts.

In 1966, Cuellar joined the rotation in late-April, and cruised up the depth chart past all those pitchers, leading the staff with 227 innings pitched, and finished up with 12 wins. Mike was also the staff ace in ’67, winning 16 games and making his first of 4 all-star teams.

After an off year in 1968 (8-11, 170 innings), Cuellar was traded to the Orioles for outfielder Curt Blefary. He joined a starting rotation that also featured Dave McNally and Jim Palmer, and helped power the Orioles teams in the 1969-74 era. Cuellar won the Cy Young award in his 1st season with the O’s, and in 1970 his 24 wins tied him for the AL lead (with teammate McNally). He also led the AL with 21 complete games.

In his first six seasons with Baltimore, he won 23, 24, 20, 18, 18, and 22 games. During this span, the Orioles made the post-season 5 of 6 years, and won the World Series in 1970. Mike hit a grand-slam in the 1970 ALCS, the only pitcher ever to do so.

Cuellar came back to Earth in 1975, fashioning a 14-12 record. After a disastrous 1976 season, where he compiled a 4-13 record in only 107 innings, he was released that December.

Mike hooked on with the Angels in January 1977, but appeared in only 2 games. He was released on May 16th, ending his 15-year career.

Cuellar passed away in 2010 from cancer at age 72.

Joe Grzenda (#121)

Here is Joe Grzenda’s rookie card. Although he played in 20 games for the Kansas City Athletics in both 1964 and 1966, and a dozen games with the Mets in ’67, Topps didn’t see fit to include him until 1969.

My first recollection of Grzenda was in 1967, when I was at a Phillies/Mets game in Philadelphia. When I looked him up in Retrosheet.org today, I saw that it was on August 15th and was his first game of the season for the Mets. Joe pitched in both ends of a doubleheader that day. (I don’t remember any details of the game – only that I thought “Hey, this guy’s missing some vowels!”)

Grzenda was signed by the Tigers in 1955, and wallowed in their farm system as a starting pitcher for 9 years until he was released in July 1963. His only big-league time with the Bengals was 4 games in early 1961, for a total of 5 innings.

Joe got an invite to the Athletics for spring training 1964, and pitched in their organization for the next 3 ½ years. He played 20 games for Kansas City that summer, and another 21 in late 1966, but spent the balance of his time with their AA and AAA teams. By now he was strictly a reliever, both in the majors and minors.

The Mets purchased his contract on 8/14/67, and the next day he pitched in both ends of a doubleheader in Philly. After the season he was sold to the Twins, but spent the entire 1968 season in the minors.

1969 to 1972 were Joe’s only full seasons in the major leagues. They were also his only years with baseball cards. He pitched in 38 games for the Twins in ’69, as the left-handed short man out of the ‘pen.

He was traded to the Senators the following spring, and pitched in over 40 games in each of his 2 seasons there, the Nats’ final 2 years in Washington. Grzenda pitched the last inning of the last-ever Senators game, on 9/30/1971. After getting 2 outs the fans stormed the field to begin collecting souvenirs, causing the game to be forfeited.

After 1971, Joe didn’t make the move to Texas with the rest of his team – he was traded to the Cardinals for infielder Ted Kubiak, and played his final season with St. Louis.

Grzenda played in the minors in ’73 and ’74 before retiring.

Don Buford (#478)

At age 78 years 8 months, Don Buford is the oldest living player from the 1966-70 era that I have not yet featured on one of my blogs.

He played his first 5 seasons as the White Sox’ 2nd or 3rd baseman, but may be better known for his 5 years as the Orioles’ left fielder during their late-60s/early-70s glory years.

Buford was signed by the ChiSox in November 1959, and played 4 seasons in the minors before making his major-league debut with the Sox in September 1963. He started the final 8 games at 3rd base, replacing Pete Ward, who had started every game at 3rd up to that time.

Don began the 1964 season starting 15 of the first 17 games at 3rd base, then moved over to 2nd base, where he split the job evenly with Al Weis. Both Weis and Buford were switch-hitters, so I don’t know what determined who was starting on a given day.

1965 started out the same as the previous season (splitting 2B with Weis, with a few starts at 3rd base), but Buford was the 2nd baseman for every game from July 17th onward.

Don played 2nd base for the first 2 months of 1966, but in June the White Sox acquired veteran 2nd basemen Jerry Adair and Wayne Causey, moving Buford over to 3rd base for 115 of the final 127 games (including 67 consecutive starts – surprising given how many mix-and-match infielders the Sox had!)

In his final season in Chicago (1967) Don started only 94 games at 3rd, and 39 at 2nd base. The Sox had acquired veteran 3rd-sacker Ken Boyer from the Mets in mid-season, and were also auditioning rookie Dick Kenworthy at the hot corner.

In November 1967, Buford and pitchers Bruce Howard and Roger Nelson were traded to the Orioles for shortstop Luis Aparicio and outfielder Russ Snyder. The O’s already had Brooks Robinson at 3rd base and Dave Johnson at 2nd base, so Buford rode the bench for 2 months in 1968 until finally working his way into the lineup with frequent starts at 2nd base, center field, or left field.

He was the team’s regular left fielder for his final 4 seasons (1969-72). Buford played in the post-season in ’69, ‘70, and ’71, hitting a combined 5 homers with 11 RBI. Although his ALCS batting average was .357, his World Series average was only .207.

After his February 1973 release he played in Japan for 4 years, retiring after the 1976 season.

His son Damon Buford was an outfielder for several teams from 1993-2001.

Dave Marshall (#464)

Since I previously posted the Topps All-Star Rookie outfielder Bobby Bonds, today I’m wrapping up this subset with outfielder Dave Marshall. 

Marshall had a 6-year major-league career (7 years, if you count one pinch-running appearance in 1967), mostly for the Giants and Mets. Dave was signed by the Los Angeles Angels in 1963, and played 3 seasons in their farm system before he was traded to the Giants in April 1966 for minor-league shortstop Hector Torres. Marshall worked his way up the Giants’ minor-league ladder for 2 seasons, then made the Giants’ squad at the start of the 1968 season.

Marshall was the Giants’ 6th outfielder in 1968 (having the misfortune of joining the team the same year as rookie Bobby Bonds). The following season, he was promoted to 4th outfielder. (Actually, the Giants had lost Jesus Alou and Ollie Brown in the expansion draft.)

In December 1969 Dave was traded to the Mets (with pitcher Ray Sadecki) for outfielder Jim Gosger and infielder Bob Heise. [WHAT were the Giants THINKING? Surely Sadecki alone was worth more than those 2 players.] Marshall was a bench player for the Mets for 3 seasons (1970-72), missing both the World Championship 1969 season and the NL Championship 1973 season. He never moved above #5 on the outfield depth chart, and was shipped out to the Padres after the ’72 season.

Dave split the 1973 season between the Padres and the minors, a place he hadn’t seen since 1967. In late September he was sold to the White Sox, but never played for them, and retired after the ’73 season.

Del Unser (#338)

Continuing our series on the Topps' All-Rookie Team... 

Besides appearing as the center fielder on the Topps All-Rookie team, this is Del Unser's rookie card. Among its other shortcomings, the 1968 Topps set was missing some key 1968 rookies: Reggie Jackson, Bobby Bonds, Sparky Lyle, Andy Messersmith, Joe Rudi, and Del Unser all played significant roles for their teams that season. (Jackson and Lyle had actually played quite a bit in 1967 as well.)

Unser made his major-league debut on opening day 1968, and started 154 of the Senators' 161 games in center field that season.  Del was the team's leadoff batter for 148 of those starts. His first day off did not occur until May 25th.

Despite only batting .230 and hitting just 1 home run, Unser finished 2nd in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.

For more on Del Unser's career, check out this post on my 1970 Topps blog.