Joe Keough (#603)

This is Joe Keough’s rookie card. (I was sure he had a card in the 1968 set, but was unable to find one.) Joe is the younger brother of Marty Keough, who played for the Red Sox, Reds and others from 1956-1966.

Joe was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics in the 2nd round of the 1965 draft, right after they selected Rick Monday at #1 (and ahead of Sal Bando and Gene Tenace).   He played for their class A team in 1966 and 1967, then split the 1968 season between Oakland and their AA team.

Look at me – correcting Topps’ mistake with Keough’s bats/throws info back in 1969. 

Keough was drafted by the Royals with the 8th pick in the 1968 expansion draft.

Joe started 12 of the first 14 games in right field in the Royals’ first season, but soon found himself on the bench, and by late-May was back in the minors. He returned to the Royals in mid-July, but was mostly a spare outfielder.

In 1970 he was the 4th outfielder, backing up Lou Piniella and Pat Kelly at the corner spots. He missed the second half of the season due to a broken leg.

Joe was the team’s primary right fielder in 1971, starting 87 games there and another six games in center field.

Richie Scheinblum was acquired in 1972, and took over the right field spot (while also making the All-Star team), pushing Keough all the way down to #6 outfielder.

Joe was traded to the White Sox in February 1973 for outfielder Jim Lyttle, but only appeared in 5 games (with one at-bat) for the Sox. After a full season with Chicago’s AAA team, he was sold to the Twins in October 1973, but retired before 1974.

Keough passed away in September 2019 at age 73.

Frank Johnson (#227)

Frank Johnson had a very short career (1966-71, all with the Giants). The record shows 6 seasons, but in three of them he only played 15, 8, and 7 games. Most of his major-league playing time came in 1968 and 1970.

He's one of several Giants' prospects (along with Bobby Etheridge and Bob Schroeder) who couldn’t  wrest a job away from the likes of Ken Henderson, Hal Lanier, Tito Fuentes, or an aging Jim Davenport.

Johnson joined the Giants' organization in 1961, and played in their farm system from 1961-67, at 3rd base and the outfield. He had a few games with the Giants during September call-ups in '66 and '67.

 The cartoon says he played for the Cubs!

Frank was with the Giants for all of 1968. He played 67 games, often as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner, but also started 30 games at 3rd base (mostly in May and June). He only hit .190 (with 7 RBI) that season, so guess where he was the next year?

Sunny Phoenix! After 7 games with the Giants during the 1st month of 1969, Johnson played 1B, 3B, and OF for the Giants' AAA team for the rest of the year. Not even a token September game with the big club.

Frank got a 2nd chance with the Giants in 1970, playing 67 games (again!). He made 24 starts in left field, backing up Henderson. This time he hit .273 with 31 RBI – much better than in 1968.

Johnson played 32 games during the first half of 1971, then was sent down to the minors for the rest of the season. Some guy named Dave Kingman took his place, and you know the rest.

Frank played in Japan in 1972, then back with the Giants' and Padres' AAA teams from 1973-75.

Jim French (#199)

A few weeks ago I started watching Netflix, and now every time I get on the computer I get detoured by one show or another, and my card blogging has suffered. With the new season less than a week away, I am making an effort to get back into it. 

Jim French was a backup catcher for the Senators from 1965-71 (but mostly from 1968-70).

French was signed by the Nats in 1963, and spent part of every season from 1963-71 in the minors except for ’69 and ’70. He made his major-league debut in September 1965, but his extended MLB playing time began in late-June 1968.

 (Topps even included his stats from 1956!  LOL)

Jim played 59 games over the second half of 1968, starting 47 of them when regular catcher (and 1967 All-Star) Paul Casanova was given some rest.

French was with the Senators for all of 1969-70, and started 56 and 52 games those seasons as Casanova’s backup.

Jim started 13 games over the first month of 1971, but was sent down to the minors by late-May. Rookie Dick Billings eventually took the starting catcher’s job from Casanova by mid-season, so French was the odd man out.

He played the remainder of that year in AAA for the Nats and Braves, and was released during the last week of September.

French became an attorney after his playing days.

Two Guys Named Aurelio Rodriguez?

Can there be two guys named Aurelio Rodriguez, both on the Angels?

Topps made another blunder here, although not nearly as egregious as their 1966 Dick Ellsworth mistake. (Actually, this 1969 one is comical!)

One of these is a custom card by John Hogan at the Cards That Never Were blog (who, oddly enough has not posted for 10 months).

Aurelio Rodriguez (#653)

Here is the rookie card for Angels’ 3rd baseman Aurelio Rodriguez. More accurately, it is the rookie card for Angels’ batboy Leonard Garcia, as Topps committed their biggest blunder since featuring Ken Hubbs (the Cubs’ former 2nd baseman who had been deceased for 2 years) on Dick Ellsworth’s 1966 card.

Blogger/custom-card-maker John from the "Cards That Never Were" blog has done what Topps failed to correct, with not only a card picturing the original A-Rod, but also the same card below with the batboy’s name.

This Angels’ post is going to break up the string of Pirates cards on my sidebar which I recently noticed, and which was entirely coincidental. (I thought about making a Pirates post to my 1970 blog before this new 1969 post, but then it wouldn’t have been all coincidental.)

Rodriguez began his professional career in the Mexican League in 1965, and was purchased by the Angels in 1966. He made his major-league debut at age 19 with the Angels in September 1967.

In 1968, incumbent 3rd baseman Paul Schaal started 56 of the first 58 games at 3rd (1 start by Rodriguez), but was beaned on June 13th and missed the rest of the season. Aurelio started 61 of the final 104 games at the hot corner, himself missing the entire month of August.

Schaal was lost to the Royals in the expansion draft, so Rodriguez became the team’s full-time 3rd baseman until late April 1970, when he and outfielder Rick Reichart were traded to the Senators for 3rd baseman Ken McMullen.

After the 1970 season, he was flipped to the Tigers in an 8-player trade, with shortstop Ed Brinkman and pitchers Joe Coleman and Jim Hannan accompanying him to Detroit in exchange for pitchers Denny McLain and Norm McRae, 3rd baseman Don Wert, and outfielder Elliot Maddox. A-Rod was the Tigers’ regular 3rd-sacker for the next 9 seasons, winning his only Gold Glove in 1976. (Hmm… I’m somewhat surprised to learn today that he was never on an All-Star team.)

He spent the last 4 seasons of his career (1980-83) bouncing around to the Padres, Yankees, Blue Jays (never playing for Toronto), White Sox, Orioles, and back to the White Sox. He was primarily a bench player in those years, with his only significant playing time coming with the White Sox in 1982.

Rodriguez was granted free agency after the 1983 season, but there were no takers. He returned to the Mexican Leagues as a player from 1984-85, and as a manager from 1985-99.

Like the only other two major league players named Aurelio, Rodriguez was killed in a car accident. He was struck by a car while walking the streets of Detroit in 2000, at age 52.

Clay Dalrymple (#151)

Clay Dalrymple had two cards in the 1969 set - both #151. Unlike Donn Clendenon, who also had 2 cards in 1969, Dalrymple's cards used different photographs.

Clay began playing minor-league ball in 1956. He played 4 seasons in the minors, mostly with the unaffiliated Sacramento Solons in the Pacific Coast League. In 1959, Sacramento became part of the Milwaukee Braves farm system. After the 1959 season, the Phillies selected him in the Rule 5 draft.





As a Rule 5 pick, he remained on the roster for the entire 1960 season as the 3rd-string catcher behind fellow rookie Jimmie Coker and journeyman Cal Neeman.

Clay took over the starting job from day 1 of the 1961 season, making 107 starts behind the plate (88 more than the #2 catcher). He also started 107 games in 1962, and increased his playing time in 1963 (135 starts). Clay's best offensive seasons were 1962 and 1963. After that, his playing time and production would begin to taper off, then plummet in his last 2 seasons in Philadelphia.

The Phillies acquired veteran catcher Gus Triandos in the Jim Bunning trade prior to the 1964 season. Triandos had been the Orioles' regular catcher from 1955-61, and started 1/3 of the Phillies games in 1964, leaving 2/3 of the starts to Dalrymple.

Clay lost more playing time in 1965, as rookie catcher Pat Corrales joined the team as the #2 catcher. Eventually, Dalrymple was platooned, with Bob Uecker in 1966 and the start of 1967, with Gene Oliver for the 2nd half of 1967, and with the newly-acquired Mike Ryan in 1968. Ryan was a great defensive catcher who barely hit .200, but by that time Dalrymple's average had dropped to the Mendoza line as well.

In January 1969, Clay was traded to the Orioles for rookie outfield prospect Ron Stone. He would play for 3 seasons as Baltimore's 3rd-string catcher, and went 2-for-2 in the 1969 World Series. He retired after the 1971 season.