Jim Gentile is 90

 

Happy 90th birthday (6/3) to Jim Gentile!

1964 Topps Giant Cards (Part 4)

Wow! Aside from a bunch of 1965 Topps cards, I have bought so little product in the past few years that it's surprising that I could lose track of some of the items I did buy.

Today I found these 5 Topps Giant cards from 1964 in a box with other stuff. I don't remember where or when I bought them, but I do know it was since my last adventure. I already had 13 of these cards, and now I can add 5 more to the set. (Now all I need to get are some pages to put them in. I've seen the correct size at a store I frequent, but only in boxes of 100. No thanks!)


All three of these players were stars for their teams, but by 1967 would be on the downside of their careers.  Unfortunately for Phillies' fans, Dick Groat and Dick Ellsworth would do their regressing while with the Phils.  Leon Wagner was a slugging outfielder whose power vanished overnight in 1967.

The last two cards are for Ken Johnson and Jim Gentile. Both are wearing soon-to-be-retired uniform styles. In 1965 the Colt .45s became the Astros, and the Kansas City Athletics switched to green/gold/white uniforms about this time. After 1967 they moved to Oakland, so the caps would change again.

My 1964 Giant card scoreboard:
3 - Colt .45s
2 - Athletics, Dodgers, White Sox
1 - Angels, Braves, Cardinals, Cubs, Indians, Mets, Orioles, Phillies, Twins
0 - Giants, Pirates, Red Sox, Reds, Senators, Tigers, Yankees

I also found four 1964 baseball coins today, which will be a topic for a future post.
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Philadelphia was no place for a young player in 1967

After trading away rookie pitcher Ferguson Jenkins for 2 old-timers (Larry Jackson, Bob Buhl) in early 1966, the Phillies apparently thought old = good, as they loaded up on aging veterans in the off-season. Pitchers Pedro Ramos, Ruben Gomez, Dick Hall, and Joey Jay were all brought in to supplement Bob Buhl and Terry Fox in the bullpen. First baseman Jim Gentile was signed to give the equally-old Bill White some time off.

This preference for geezers soon went by the wayside, as Jay, Fox, and Gentile never made it out of spring training (the latter two spending the year with the Phillies' triple-A team in San Diego, while surprisingly, Joey Jay wrapped up a long career by pitching for the Phillies single-A team in Tidewater). By mid-June, the Phillies had also dumped Buhl, Ramos, and Gomez, along with aging position players Dick Groat and Jackie Brandt. For good measure, little-used pitcher Dallas Green was let go 2 weeks before season's end.