Final Card: Dick Lines

The 1960s' Hall of Fame results are now on my 1960s Baseball blog.


This is the 2nd and last Topps card for Senators' pitcher Dick Lines (#291). His rookie card was in the 1967 set, a 1-player card showing Lines with the Senators.

Lines' career is somewhat of a mystery. He spent 9 full seasons in the minors, before pitching the entire 1966 and 1967 seasons with the Senators. Then, it was back to the minors for 2 more seasons before calling it quits.



Lines was signed by the Pirates in 1957, and pitched in their farm system for 8 seasons, all but the last as a starting pitcher. Prior to the 1965 season, his contract was sold to the Senators. That season he pitched for the Sens' AAA team in Hawaii, which finally earned him a shot in the majors.

Dick spent the entire 1966 season as the only lefthander in Washington's bullpen, which featured veterans Ron Kline and Bob Humphreys, along with Casey Cox and 3 others who floated between the bullpen and the rotation (Jim Hannan, Diego Segui, and Dick Bosman). Lines fashioned a 5-2 record in 82 innings, and had a 49/24 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

In 1967, the Senators' bullpen featured Darold Knowles (a lefty), veteran Bob Priddy, and rookie Dave Baldwin in place of Ron Kline and Diego Segui. Lines, Humphreys, and Cox were the holdovers from '66. Knowles and Baldwin were the stars in terms of saves and ERA, and Knowles, Humphreys, and Priddy had the most innings pitched among relievers. Lines had similar games, innings, and strikeout/walks to the previous season, but his record fell from 5-2 to 2-5. I guess he was just out-performed by the other guys, because he didn't pitch in the majors after 1967.

Two more seasons (1968-69) in the Nats' farm system brought an end to Dick Lines' career.