Joe Coleman (#127)

Joe Coleman Jr. was a starting pitcher for the Senators (1965-70) and Tigers (1971-76), then spent his last 2 ½ years bouncing around to 5 different teams.

Coleman (whose father pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics and others from 1942-55) was the Senators’ 1st-round pick in the June 1965 draft. He made his major-league debut that September, with 2 complete-game wins at age 18.

After spending much of 1966 back in the minors, Joe made the Senators on a permanent basis in April 1967. He started 22 games and posted 8 wins in his rookie season.

Coleman won 12 games in 1968 and 1969 – not bad for a perennially bad team. He also had an identical 3.27 ERA both years, and struck out 139 and 182 batters.

After an off-year in 1970, Joe was part of an 8-player trade with the Tigers. Coleman, along with shortstop Ed Brinkman, 3rd baseman Aurelio Rodriguez, and pitcher Jim Hannan were exchanged for pitchers Denny McLain and Norm McRae, 3rd baseman Don Wert, and outfielder Elliott Maddox. With McLain’s career crumbling, the Tigers got the better of that deal.

Joe put in 5 full seasons with Detroit, including winning 20, 19, and 23 games from 1971-73. He also struck out over 200 batters each of those seasons, and made the All-Star team in 1972.

In June 1976 he was sold to the Cubs, which started the slow unwinding of his career, as he bounced from the Cubs to the Athletics, Blue Jays, Giants, and finally the Pirates in 1979.

Coleman has been a minor and major-league pitching coach for the Angels, Cardinals, Rays, Tigers, and Marlins since 1980.

Joe Jr was the middleman in 3 generations of ballplayers. His son Casey pitched for the Cubs and Royals from 2010 to 2014.

Dick Bosman (#175)

Dick Bosman was one of several young hurlers to come up through the Senators’ system in the mid-1960s (along with Joe Coleman, Barry Moore, and Casey Cox).

Actually, he was signed by the Pirates (I did not know that!) before the 1963 season, and then drafted by the Giants in the minor-league first-year draft after that season (didn’t know that either). He made his way into Washington’s organization 1 year later via the minor-league draft.

After playing all of 1965 for the Senators' AA team in York, PA, Bosman split the '66 season between the majors and AAA, then was back in the minors for most of 1967, until his recall for the final month of the season.

Dick was a key member of the Nats' staff for several seasons beginning in 1968. In '68 he was mostly a reliever, but was 4th on the team with 139 innings pitched in his 46 games (10 starts).

The following season, he was primarily a starter, posting a 14-5 record with a 2.19 ERA as the team's #2 starter behind Coleman.

In 1970 he was the team's only pitcher with double-figure wins, finishing with a 16-12 record and a 3.00 ERA.

After that season, Coleman (and others) were traded to Detroit for Denny McLain and others. However, McLain was a shadow of his former self, leaving Bosman as the team's pitching ace in 1971.

Dick slipped to 12 wins in '71, and 8 wins in '72 (the team's first in Texas). He started the last game in Washington Senators history, and the first in Texas Rangers history.

In May 1973 he was traded to the Indians, and pitched a no-hitter for them in 1974.

In May 1975 he was traded again – this time to Oakland for pitcher Blue Moon Odom. Bosman won 11 games for the A’s in 1975 (his last as a fulltime starter), then wrapped up his career in 1976 with a 4-2 record, making 15 starts and 12 relief appearances.

He was released near the end of spring training in 1977.

After his playing career he was a pitching coach for the White Sox, Orioles, and Rangers. More recently he has been a minor-league coach for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Final Card: Cisco Carlos

Cisco Carlos (#487) had a brief 4-year career for the White Sox (1967-69) and Senators (1969-70). This is his final Topps card. He previously appeared on a White Sox Rookies card in the 1968 set, and had his own card in the 1969 set. Since this ’70 card is a capless mess, I am also going to post his 1969 card below.

Carlos pitched in the 1960 College World Series with the University of Northern Colorado, then was signed by the White Sox before the 1961 season. He worked his way up their organizational ladder, finally spending 3 full seasons in double-A ball (1964-66).

Cisco began the 1967 season with the White Sox' AAA team, and made his major-league debut with the Sox in late-August 1967. He won 2 games in the final weeks of the ’67 season as the Sox tried to keep pace with the Red Sox and 2 other teams.

Carlos returned for a full season in Chicago in 1968 (the only year he was not also in the minors). He had been primarily a starting pitcher in the minors and majors through the 1968 season, but after a 4-14 record in 1968, Carlos was relegated to the bullpen the following season.

He began the 1969 season with 6 games for Chicago’s AAA team, then pitched 25 games for the Sox between late-May and mid-August. On August 25th he was sold to the Senators.

Carlos pitched 6 games for the Nats in September 1969 (starting 4), then was in the minors for all of 1970 until he was recalled in September, and played his final 5 big-league games.

He kicked around in the minors from 1971-73 (with his final season in the Astros’ organization) before retiring.

Del Unser (#336)

Here’s centerfielder Del Unser, perusing the bat rack. (Actually, it looks more like the perennial second-division Senators “borrowed” a shopping cart from the local A&P for their bats.)

Unser came up with the Senators in 1968 and immediately took over the center field position, starting 153 games in his rookie season. He finished a distant second place in the Rookie of the Year voting to Yankees’ pitcher Stan Bahnsen.

Unser was drafted by the Twins in June 1965 and by the Pirates in January 1966, but did not sign. He was the Senators’ #1 pick in the June 1966 draft, and played the remainder of that year and all of 1967 for the York (PA) White Roses, the Nats’ double-A team.

The following season he jumped to the majors out of spring training, and was Washington’s starting center gardener for the 1968 and 1969 seasons. After starting the first 11 games in 1970, Del was relegated to the bench for much of the season, only starting 21 games after April 27th, as Ed Stroud took over his position.

In 1971 Unser was back in the driver’s seat, starting 2/3 of the games in center, while the newly-acquired Elliot Maddox starting most of the other games.

Del was traded to the Indians after the 1971 season in an 8-player deal, but only lasted 1 season in Cleveland. A year later he was traded to the Phillies for outfielders Oscar Gamble and Roger Freed. [Oh, how I LOVED this trade back then! The Phillies were getting a bona fide center fielder in exchange for two stiffs that had worn out their welcome. It was one of the first deals by Paul Owens, who had taken over as Phillies’ GM in June 1972.] 

Pushing 1971-72 center fielder Willie Montanez over to right field, Unser manned center field for the Phillies during the ’73 and ’74 seasons. After 1974, he was traded to the Mets (with reliever Mac Scarce and catching prospect John Stearns) for reliever Tug McGraw and 2 backup outfielders. (Obviously, McGraw made major contributions for the next half-dozen seasons.)

After a few seasons with the Mets and Expos, Unser returned to the Phillies in 1979, this time as a pinch-hitter extraordinaire. He played in over 90 games each in ’79 and ’80, but started less than a third of them. His value was now in his timely hitting (.298 in 1979). After 2 more seasons with the Phillies, Del retired after the 1982 season.

Unser has worked off-and-on for the Phillies since then, most notably as a batting coach and minor-league instructor.

Del’s father Al was a catcher for the Tigers and Reds in the mid-1940s.