Final Card: Dick Calmus

After reading about all the goings-on at Wrigley Wax Headquarters, I decided to offer up a little-known Cubs card.

After first appearing in the 1964 set as a Dodger, Dick Calmus (#427) dropped off Topps' radar for 3 years, but returned here for his final card. When I first got this card back in 1968, I thought he looked like a young Jack Kennedy!

Calmus was signed by the Dodgers in 1962. After playing 1 season of class-D ball, he spent the entire 1963 season with the Dodgers, appearing in 21 games (all but 1 in relief). He then spent the next 3 seasons in the Dodgers farm system, mostly as a starting pitcher. Calmus was at AA Albuquerque in 1964, and AAA Spokane in 1965 and 1966.


In late April 1967, he was traded to the Cubs for pitcher Fred Norman (who would go on to pitch many years with the Padres and Reds). Calmus spent the entire season at triple-A Tacoma, then made one appearance with the Cubs on September 2nd. It would be his last major-league game.

Dick would play in the minors for 2 more seasons: for the Cubs in 1968 and the Dodgers in 1969.

I wonder why he even has a card here in 1968, since he pitched a grand total of 4.1 innings in 1967, and none in 1968.

Bob Kennedy (#183)

Bob Kennedy was the first manager of the Oakland Athletics. In the A's final season in Kansas City (1967), manager Alvin Dark was given the boot with 40 games remaining. He was replaced on an interim basis by Luke Appling, with Kennedy making a fresh start in 1968 in Oakland.

Bob's tenure at the A's helm only lasted one season. After finishing 82-80, the Athletics brought in former Orioles' skipper Hank Bauer for 1969. (Bauer' stint was even shorter than Kennedy's, lasting only 149 games in 1969.)



Unlike almost all of his players' cards, Kennedy didn't get the "black cap" treatment from Topps. Here we see him in his Cubs' uniform, in a semi-recent picture. Bob served as the Cubs "head coach" from 1961 to 1965.

(From 1961 to 1965, instead of hiring a manager like all teams have done since baseball was invented, the Cubs got the bright idea of using a "manager-by-committee" approach. This College of Coaches included Kennedy and at least 5 other guys. Amazingly, this management strategy did not put an end to the Cubs decades-long record of futility. [/sarc] What the Cubs did do was put an end to this ridiculous arrangement in 1966 by hiring Leo Durocher as their manager.)

Bob's son Terry was a catcher for the Padres and other teams from 1978-1991.

Back on Topps' Radar: Dave Duncan

Dave Duncan (#261) had his first baseball card in 1964 as half of an Athletics Rookie Stars card. He only played 25 games in 1964, then returned to the minors until resurfacing in 1967 for 34 games. Because of this, he was excluded from the 1965-67 sets. He would have a card every year from 1968 to 1977.

Duncan was signed by the Kansas City Athletics in 1963. After only one season in class-A ball, he spent the entire 1964 season with Kansas City (but only appeared in 25 games).

From 1965 to 1967, he played class A and AA baseball, and also appeared in some games for the Athletics in 1967, backing up #1 catcher Phil Roof. Dave's only season in triple-A came in 1968, when he split his time between Vancouver and the (now Oakland) Athletics. Duncan split the starting catching duties with the newly-acquired Jim Pagliaroni in 1968.



In 1969, Roof was back in the starter's chair, with Duncan and Larry Haney manning the 2nd and 3rd string catchers jobs. The following season, Dave again split the starting catching assignments, this time with Frank Fernandez. However, rookie Gene Tenace arrived on the scene, catching about 20% of the games.

1971 and 1972 were Duncan's only seasons as the Athletics' clear-cut starting catcher (with Tenace in reserve).

The latter part of Dave's career was spent bouncing from team to team. Before the 1973 season he was traded to the Indians for catcher Ray Fosse. In February 1975, he moved on to the Orioles for 1st baseman Boog Powell. After the 1976 season, the Orioles traded him to the White Sox for outfielder Pat Kelly, but Duncan was released in spring training.

Dave went on to have a long (and still active) career as a pitching coach for Tony LaRussa in Oakland and St. Louis. I wonder if any other non-pitcher was ever a major-league pitching coach?

Back on Topps Radar: Frank Quilici

Frank Quilici (#557) first appeared on a card in the 1966 set. After being left out of the 1967 set, he returns here, for the first of several consecutive seasons.

Quilici was signed by the Twins in 1961. After 4 1/2 seasons in the minors, he made his major-league debut in July 1965, and was the Twins' starting 2nd baseman for long stretches of games in July and September. He also played every inning at 2nd base for the Twins in the 1965 World Series. It's puzzling why he then spent the entire 1966 season back in triple-A. (Maybe an old-school Twins' fan can clear this up?)



In 1967, Frank played 11 games at triple-A and only 23 games with the Twins. Why the colossal lack of playing time? Two words: Rod Carew. That was Carew's rookie season, so any chance of Quilici recapturing his 1965 role went up in smoke.

In 1968, Quilici's playing time increased, as he started 40+ games each at 2B and 3B. The following year was even better for him, as he was a quasi-starter at 3rd base. Regular 3rd baseman Harmon Killebrew also played a significant number of games at 1st base, opening up 3rd for Quilici. (The same arrangement was used several years earlier with Killebrew, Don Mincher, and Rich Rollins.)

1970 was Frank's last season in the majors, and he went out in a flurry of activity. He played in 111 games, starting 41 of them at 2nd base (as Carew was limited to 45 games at 2nd base that season).

Multi-player Cards

Continuing with the theme from yesterday's post on my 1966 blog, here are the only 3 multi-player cards in the 1968 set.



#530 Bird Belters - These 2 players appeared (along with manager Hank Bauer) on card #1 in the 1967 set, as members of the 1966 world champion Orioles. It seems odd that Topps printed another Orioles' multi-player card in 1968, after issuing two in 1967. (A card for the 1967 champion Cardinals would have made more sense.)




#480 Manager's Dream - Here's a departure from the normal multi-player cards: players from different teams posing together. This would be Cardenas' last season in Cincinnati before shipping out to the Twins.




#490 Super Stars - One of the last cards featuring Mickey Mantle (no doubt taken at the 1967 All-Star Game).

Back on Topps' Radar: Ron Brand

Astros' catcher Ron Brand (#317) is back on Topps' card roster after being left off in 1967.

Brand was signed by the Pirates in 1958, and played in the minors for 7 seasons, first as a middle infielder, before switching to catcher in 1961. Ron appeared in 46 games for the Pirates in 1963, mostly as a 3rd-string catcher.

His big break came after the 1964 season, when the Houston Colt .45s selected him in the Rule 5 draft. He became the Astros' #1 catcher in 1965, starting 94 games (to John Bateman's 38 starts). In 1966, Bateman took over the #1 job, starting 120 games behind the plate. Brand was 3rd on the games played list at catcher, behind Bill Heath (which explains Heath's presence on a 1967 card, instead of Brand).

In 1967, Brand and Bateman divided the starting job fairly evenly, but Bateman was the clear starter in 1968. To make matters worse, Brand had dropped to #3 catcher behind Dave Adlesh.



After the 1968 season, Ron was selected by the Montreal Expos in the expansion draft. One would think this led to a starting job for Brand, but the Expos also selected the Astros' other catcher (John Bateman) as well. So, Bateman and Brand picked up where they left off in Houston. In 1969 they split the starting job. In 1970, Bateman was the undisputed starter, and Brand actually got more playing time at 3B and SS than he did as a catcher. 1971 was a carbon copy of 1970 as far as Ron's playing time was concerned.

1971 was Brand's final season in the big leagues. He spent the 1972 season playing for Montreal's triple-A team. After not playing in 1973 and 1974, he played for the Dodgers' class-A team in Bakersfield, California at several positions, including 3 games as a pitcher.

Also check out Brand's 1969 card.

Walt Williams (#172)

From the previous post, we move across Chicago to the White Sox and Walt "No Neck" Williams. This is the 2nd year in a row that a White Sox' outfielder was named to the Topps All-Rookie team. (Tommie Agee was named the previous year. I wonder if it was Williams' fine play that enabled the Sox to move Agee to the Mets after the 1967 season?)

In 1966, 1968, and 1969, Topps used the same color-coding for each team's cards. Each color was used for one AL and one NL team. Coincidently, both the White Sox and Cubs were orange.


Williams was signed by the Houston Colt .45s in 1963. After one season in their farm system, he was picked up by the Cardinals and played 3 seasons with their minor-league teams, until he was traded to the White Sox in December 1966 (along with pitcher Don Dennis) for catcher Johnny Romano.



Walt spent the next 6 years in the White Sox' outfield (although he was in the minors for a good part of the 1968 season). He was a backup in the corner outfield spots as a rookie, but after returning to full-time status in 1969, he became the regular right fielder.

In 1970, Walt shared the right field job with Bill Melton. (Melton had been the regular 3rd baseman before and after 1970, but divided his time between 3rd and left in 1970.)

The following year, it was Pat Kelly who kept Williams from playing full-time in right field, as they shared the position evenly. In 1972, Kelly's playing time in right field increased to about two-thirds, while Walt's decreased further.

After one season as the Indians' backup left fielder, Walt was traded to the Yankees prior to the 1974 season. Williams spent his final 2 seasons with the Yankees, but rarely played the outfield.

Lou Johnson (#184)

Here we see the hatless "Sweet Lou" Johnson, joining the Cubs after several seasons with the Dodgers.

Johnson was signed by the Yankees way back in 1953, but didn't make his major-league debut until April 1960, with the Cubs. In between, he spent several seasons with the Yankees' and Pirates' organizations, and played one season with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, until the Cubs acquired him in 1956.

Lou only played 35 games for the Cubs in his rookie season, spending most of that season with the Cubs' triple-A Houston Buffs team. On April 1, 1961 the Cubs traded him to the Los Angeles Angels. After one game with the Angels, he was traded to the triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs (an independent team in 1961) for outfielder Leon Wagner.

In 1962 Toronto became affiliated with the Milwaukee Braves, and Lou spent some time playing in Milwaukee. Johnson was back in the minors for all of 1963, first as Braves' property, then after May 8th, as a Tigers' farmhand.



Just before the start of the 1964 season, the Tigers traded Lou to the Dodgers for pitcher Larry Sherry. After playing for triple-A Spokane for the entire 1964 season, Johnson got his big "break" in early 1965, when the Dodgers' left fielder Tommy Davis broke his leg. Lou would be the Dodgers' primary left fielder for the next 3 seasons. His playing time slipped somewhat in 1967, due to an early-season ankle injury. The Dodgers brought in outfielder Len Gabrielsen to share the outfield load with Al Ferrara.

After the 1967 season, Lou was traded to the Cubs for infielder Paul Popovich and minor-league outfielder Jim Williams. Midway through 1968, it was on to the Indians in exchange for "Wonderful" Willie Smith.

After half-seasons in Chicago and Cleveland, Lou spent his final season (1969) back with the Angels. His last game was on September 6, 1969. His final baseball card was also in 1969.