Roy Face (#198)

Roy Face was a long-time Pirates reliever.

He began his minor-league career in 1949 in the Phillies' farm system. After 2 seasons, he was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers, and played in their organization for 2 additional seasons.

Prior to the 1953 season, he was selected by the Pirates in the rule 5 draft. As such, he was required to stay on the Pirates major-league roster for the entire season. After appearing in 41 games for the Pirates, he spent the following season (1954) in the minor leagues.

In 1955, Face was back with the Pirates to stay. He would be the workhorse in the Pirates' bullpen through the 1968 season. Roy led the league with 68 appearances in both 1956 and 1960. He also played in the 1960 World Series with the Pirates.



On August 31, 1968 he was sold to the Tigers, giving him another World Series appearance.

In 1969, he was released by the Tigers in spring training, and signed by the expansion Expos a few weeks later. In mid-August, he would be released again, ending his 16-year major-league career. He played minor-league ball in 1970 for the Angels' triple-A team.

Ernie Banks (#355)

Here we have Chicago Cubs superstar Ernie Banks. "Mr. Cub" never played minor league baseball, but he did play for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League from 1950 to 1953.

Banks is one of a handful of former Negro League players still playing major league baseball into the late 1960s. I guess it's common knowledge that Willie Mays and Hank Aaron were Negro League veterans, but I recently learned that Yankees catcher Elston Howard was Banks' teammate with the Monarchs. (I also discovered that early 1970s Detroit Tigers infielder Ike Brown played in the Negro Leagues. I mistakenly assumed that anyone not making the major leagues until the 1970s would have been too young to play Negro League baseball.)

Banks was signed by the Cubs on September 8, 1953, and made his major-league debut at shortstop on September 17th, playing 10 games that first season.

From 1954 to 1969, Banks was in the lineup almost every day, playing 150 or more games for 12 of those 16 seasons. Between 1954 and 1960, he led the league in games played 6 times. Banks was originally the Cubs regular shortstop, but in 1962 he moved over to first base.



Beginning with the 1970 season, the 39-year-old Banks cut back his workload, sharing the first base job with Jim Hickman. In 1971, Joe Pepitone took over the first base chores, while Banks only played 20 games at 1B. He appeared in 52 other games as a pinch-hitter.

Ernie was released by the Cubs after the 1971 season. He had played his entire 19-year major-league career with the Cubs, and retired with 512 homeruns. His 277 homeruns as a shortstop was the record until Cal Ripken came along.

Final Card: Al Worthington

Al Worthington (#473) began his minor league career in 1951 with the Cubs. A year later, he was traded to the New York Giants organization, and made his major-league debut with the Giants in 1953.

He spent most of 1954 and all of 1955 back in the minors, but from 1956 to 1958, he was one of the Giants' regular starting pitchers.

In 1959, Worthington became a relief pitcher. He made 39 relief appearances, and only 3 starts, which would be the last starts of his career.


Just before the 1960 season, Al was traded to the Red Sox. This began a few years of living out of a suitcase, as he spent 1960 with the Red Sox, their triple-A team in Minneapolis, and the White Sox. This was followed by 2 years in the White Sox farm system before returning the the major leagues in 1963 with the Reds.

Midway through the 1964 season, the Reds traded Worthington to the Twins, where he settled in as their closer until ending his career after the 1969 season. He pitched briefly in the 1965 World Series for the Twins. (In the World Series, there wasn't a lot of relief pitching for the Twins, since Jim Grant pitched 2 complete games in his 3 starts, and Jim Kaat pitched 1 complete game in his 3 starts.)

I don't know why there was no baseball card for Al Worthington in 1969. He pitched in 54 games in 1968 (leading the league with 18 saves), and went on to pitch in 46 games in his final year of 1969.