Final Card: Jim Lemon

This is Jim Lemon's 2nd and final card as a manager (#294). It's the same photo Topps used for his 1968 card.

As the comment on the back indicates, Lemon wasn't the team's manager. After finishing last in his only season as a skipper, THREE MONTHS LATER he was canned in favor of Ted Williams, who has a card later in the set.

I'm wondering why, if Topps knew about his firing (to be able to add the note on the back), why did they even include a card for him? Why not pull it and replace it with, oh I don't know, maybe a SENATORS ROOKIE STARS CARD?

Prior to managing, Lemon was an outfielder for the (old) Senators and Twins, which you can read about here. He was also a coach for the Twins from 1965-67, and 1981-84.

Lemon passed away in 2006 at age 78.

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.

Brant Alyea (#48)

At age 77 and 317 days, Brant Alyea is the oldest living player from the 1965-70 era that I have not blogged about yet.

Alyea was a backup outfielder for the Senators, Twins, and others from 1965 to 1972.

He was signed by the Reds (I learned something today!) before the 1962 season, and was selected by the Senators in the minor-league draft after that season.

Alyea played 5 ½ seasons in the Senators’ farm system before getting a permanent call-up in the last week of July 1968. (He did have a cup of coffee in September 1965, and hit a home run on his first major-league pitch (the 9th player to do so). Despite that, he labored in the minors for another 2 ½ seasons. )

Brant made 33 starts at a corner outfield spot for the remainder of 1968, and was used as a pinch-hitter in another dozen or so games. (With Frank Howard, Cap Peterson, and Ed Stroud on hand as corner outfielders, playing time was hard to come by.)

He played one more season with the Senators (starting 56 games in 1969), then was traded to the Twins during Spring training in 1970 for pitcher Joe Grzenda.

Alyea was the Twins’ primary left fielder in 1970 (although only starting 73 games there) and hit .291 with 16 home runs.

In 1971 he only made 44 starts there because Cesar Tovar moved over from center field that season. Alyea ended up as the team’s fifth outfielder behind Tovar, Tony Oliva, Jim Holt, and Jim Nettles. He dropped so far in the space of 1 year that he was left exposed to the Rule 5 draft, and was taken by returned to the Athletics 2 months later.

After the season the A’s traded him again – this time to the Rangers for pitcher Paul Lindblad.

Brant played parts of 1972 and 1973 in the minors before retiring.

After baseball, he worked in an Atlantic City casino.

No Senators Rookie Stars?

 
I just realized today that there are no Senators Rookie Stars cards in the 1969 Topps set.

It took me 42 years of owning the 1968 set to realize there were no Giants rookies cards in that set. I have owned the 1969 set for 48 years, so I am clearly not learning from my mistakes!

Why no Senators Rookie Stars cards? Maybe Topps blew their Senators' allotment on having multiple manager cards and a miscellaneous card:

Or maybe there were no prospects worthy of a card (NOT LIKELY, given some of the schmoes Topps has featured on "Rookie Stars" cards!)  Let's see who they had to work with:

Steve Jones had some good stats in 1968, but he was selected by the Royals in the expansion draft. Surely catcher Dick Billings and pitcher Jan Dukes rated a Rookie Stars card, based on their 1968 stats.  They wouldn't get cards until 1971 and 1970, respectively.

Topps whiffed on this one.

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.

Gary Holman (#361)

Gary Holman was the 1st baseman on the 1968 Topps All-Rookie Team. Back in the day, I considered him interchangeable with another backup short-time 1st baseman featured on a "green team".

Holman was signed by the Dodgers in 1964. After one season with LA’s class-A teams in Salisbury, NC and Santa Barbara, CA, Holman was plucked by the Senators in the first-year minor-league draft. Gary spent 2 seasons in AA followed by 1 season in single-A ball, then jumped up to triple-A in 1968.

He made his major-league debut with the Senators in late-June 1968. I wondered today why Topps anointed him the All-Rookie 1st baseman, because he only got 98 at-bats spread over 75 games, and made only 12 starts in his rookie season – 3 at 1st base and 9 in the outfield. [A quick check of Baseball-Reference.com gave me my answer – there were no other rookie 1st basemen in 1968 that played more than 8 games.]

Holman was back with the Senators to start the 1969 season, but with Mike Epstein starting 2/3 of the games at 1st base (and Frank Howard moving in from left field to start the rest) there was no room for Holman. After appearing in 41 games (mostly as a pinch-hitter) he was sent back to the minors in mid-June, never to return. His major-league career consisted of 51 calendar-weeks on the Senators’ roster.

Gary finished out the ’69 season with triple-A Buffalo, then retired after the season.

Ted Shows How (#539)

Here's one of the four multi-player cards in the 1969 set. There is also a multi-player card for the Athletics in this set, which the previous owner of this blog posted in August 2009. I stumbled upon it a month later, which was my introduction to Google Blogger. A few days later, I started my 1967 and 1968 blogs.


Here, the Senators' manager Ted Williams apparently is showing young first baseman Mike Epstein the value of choking up on the bat. Epstein came over to the Senators early in the 1967 season from the Orioles, where he was blocked by Boog Powell.

Epstein played 2 seasons with the Nats before Williams' tenure as manager. During their first 2 seasons together, Epstein's stats improved greatly.

Perhaps the best example of Williams' influence on a player's batting was perennial light-weight Ed Brinkman. Prior to Ted's arrival in 1969, Brinkman struggled to reach the Mendoza Line. In fact, in 3 of the 4 seasons prior to 1969, Ed hit in the .180's. In the two seasons under Williams' tutelage, Brinkman's batting average soared to .268 and .262.

He was traded to the Tigers after the 1970 season, where his average plummeted 40 to 60 points below his 1969 high in each of the next 4 seasons.

Here is a post on my 1966 blog, listing all the multi-player cards in the 1966 to 1969 sets.

Final Card: Bruce Howard

This is the last of 6 cards for Bruce Howard (#226). Howard had 4 White Sox cards (including 2 Rookie Stars), followed by an Orioles’ card in 1968, then wrapped up with this Senators’ card.

Bruce was signed by the White Sox in 1962, spent 3 seasons as a starting pitcher in the minors, and had September call-ups in both 1963 and 1964.

Howard spent 3 seasons (1965-67) in the Sox’ starting rotation. After two 9-win seasons, he had a 3-10 stinker in 1967, resulting in a trip to the minors, and a post-season trade to Baltimore. The Sox shipped him (with pitcher Roger Nelson and 2B-OF Don Buford) to the Orioles for shortstop Luis Aparicio and outfielder Russ Snyder.

After only 10 appearances, the Orioles flipped him to the Senators for outfielder Fred Valentine in June. Howard fared no better in Washington for the remainder of the season, and played his last major-league game on 9/7/1968.

He played the 1969 season in the minors with the Senators’ and White Sox’ organizations, including some time in the Florida Instructional League, and retired after the season.

His son David was an infielder for the Kansas City Royals in the 1990s.

Ted Williams (#650)

Today we have Ted Williams' rookie card (as a manager). This is the 2nd Senators' manager card in the 1969 set. Jim Lemon's card appeared earlier in the set, but he had been fired before the start of the season, after a 10th place finish in 1968, his only season as a manager. (Topps had also issued 2 manager cards for the Houston Astros in 1966.)



After a long career with the Red Sox (1939-1960), Teddy Ballgame had been out of baseball for several years. (I seem to recall he was a spokesman for fishing gear - maybe for Sears.) In 1969, the Senators came calling, and Williams spent 4 seasons as their manager, including the team's first season as the Texas Rangers. The team finished in 4th, 5th, and 6th during his tenure, an improvement over 1968's 10th-place finish.

Williams is also credited with imparting his hitting knowledge to his players, most notably to perennial weak-hitting shortstop Ed Brinkman. Brinkman routinely batted below the Mendoza line during his career up through 1968. In his 2 seasons under Williams' guidance, he batted above .260. After Ed was traded to the Tigers in 1971, he reverted back to his previous lackluster batting averages for the remainder of his career.

Williams was replaced for 1973 by Whitey Herzog, who didn't make it to the end of the season.