Thursday, October 4, 2012

Final Card: Tony Pierce

Here is the only solo card for Athletics' pitcher Tony Pierce (#38). He also appeared in a late-series Athletics Rookie Stars card in the 1967 set.

Pierce was signed by the Kansas City Athletics in 1964, and was a starting pitcher in their minor-league system for 3 seasons. Tony advanced slowly, pitching in Rookie and A ball in '64, repeating A ball in '65, and moving up to AA in '66.


After compiling a 13-8 record with AA Mobile in 1966, Pierce skipped over triple-A, jumping up to Kansas City to start the 1967 season. Tony worked out of the bullpen, where he and Paul Lindblad were the only lefties on the entire staff. Besides his 43 relief appearances, he also started 6 games (including all 5 of his games in September).

When the Athletics moved to Oakland in 1968, Pierce returned to the bullpen. He only pitched in 17 games that season, the last on June 21st. I suspect he came down with arm problems, since he never played in the majors or minors again.

3 comments:

Eric C. Loy said...

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dxQ_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=IE8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=4636,4016038&dq=tony+pierce+oakland&hl=en

The above article has Pierce showing up for 1971 camp after being out of action for two years. A 1968 article had him with tendonitis, and a 1969 one had him out for the year with elbow problems. This article mentions removing bone chips from his elbow.

Jim from Downingtown said...

Thanks for the info Eric.


(Do you have any '73 football cards on the front burner?)

Eric C. Loy said...

Yes I do plus some players that didn't make the set thanks to Topps Archives. High school football is about over and life is slowing to the point I can get back to it!