Gary Waslewski (#607)

Gary Waslewski pitched for 5 teams in his short 6-year career.

He was signed by the Pirates in 1960, and eventually dealt to the Red Sox in 1964. Gary made his major-league debut with the AL champion Red Sox in June 1967, and also started game 6 of the World Series.

After 46 games in 2 years with Boston, he was traded to the NL Champion Cardinals after the 1968 season for shortstop Dick Schofield.

His good fortune didn’t last long, as he was flipped to the expansion Expos in June for pitcher Jim Grant. Gary started 14 of his 30 games for the Expos, and was 5th in innings pitched for a team using 18 pitchers in its inaugural season.

The following May, it was on to the Yankees. Waslewski pitched more games for the New York (50) than with any other team. The Yankees releases him near the end of Spring Training in 1972, and he was picked up by the Athletics in mid-May.

He only pitched 8 games for the A’s that season, spending most of the year in AAA ball. Gary pitched in triple-A for the Athletics (1973) and Red Sox (1974) before retiring.

Larry Stahl (#494)

Larry Stahl had the misfortune of playing on some bad teams during his career: Kansas City Athletics (1964-66), Mets (1967-68), and Padres (1969-72). He finally received some payback by wrapping up his career with the 1973 Reds, and appeared in the 1973 NLCS, going 2-for-4 in spot duty.

Stahl was signed by the Athletics in 1960, and labored in the minors for 5 seasons before making his major-league debut in September 1964.

He played briefly for the A’s in 1965 (June and September), then was with the team for all of 1966, playing in 119 games. It’s odd that with all that playing time, he was left out of the 1967 Topps set. (Meanwhile, a stiff like Bruce Brubaker and his previous grand total of ZERO major league games got a card that year.)

Stahl was picked up by the Mets after the 1966 season, and played most of 1967 with them (except for mid-May to mid-June, and for the 2nd half of the 1968 season. Unfortunately for him, the Mets had guys like Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee, and Ron Swoboda patrolling the outfield, so Larry was left exposed to the expansion draft and was selected by the Padres, thus missing out on the Mets’ 1969 miracle season.

Even with the fledgling Padres, Larry was no better than 6th outfielder, behind starters Ollie Brown, Cito Gaston, and Al Ferrara, along with Tony Gonzalez and Ivan Murrell. Stahl stuck around with the Pads for 4 seasons (except for spending the first 2 months of 1970 in triple-A).

To his credit, by 1971 he had advanced to being a co-starter in left field (along with Murrell and Leron Lee), and was actually 3rd among outfielders in innings played (behind Brown and Gaston), although he spent some time in right field as well.

In one of his final games with the Padres in September 1972, the Cubs’ Milt Pappas had retired the first 26 batters, only to walk Stahl, blowing a perfect game.

After the 1972 season, the Reds purchased his contract, and he spent his final season as the Reds’ 7th outfielder, being one of 5 players the Reds used in right field (along with Bobby Tolan, Andy Kosco, Johnny Bench, and Ken Griffey Sr).

Gil Garrido (#48)

Gil Garrido is another one of those players (like Tom Timmermann and Paul Doyle) that didn’t play much (or at all) in the 1960s, and I probably would not have blogged about him had he not showed up on my list of “oldest players not yet blogged”.

I did learn 2 things from this card. 1) Garrido first played for the Giants back in 1964 (news to me), and 2) Topps misspelled his first name on the front of the card. (It’s spelled correctly on the back.)

Garrido was signed by the Giants in 1960, and had a 14-game stint with them from late-April to mid-June 1964, starting 7 games at shortstop. Then it was back to the minors for 4 years.

A May 1966 trade sent him to the Braves, and he was promoted in late-August 1968 where he started 14 games at shortstop over the final 5 weeks of the season. Was he auditioned for the job? Maybe so. He made the Braves from the get-go in 1969, and for the next 2 seasons, he and Sonny Jackson split the shortstop duties about evenly.

That arrangement ended in 1971, when rookie shortstop Marty Perez sent Jackson to center field and Garrido to the bench. Gil hung on for 2 seasons as a backup infielder, then played for the Braves’ AAA team in 1973 before retiring at the ripe old age of 32.

Eddie Watt (#497)

Eddie Watt was the Orioles' closer from 1968 through the 1972 season. He pitched 411 games over his 10 seasons, all in relief except for 13 starts late in his rookie season.

Watt was signed by the Orioles in September 1961 and made his major-league debut in April 1966.

As a rookie, he appeared in 43 games, mostly in relief except for 13 starts from mid-July to mid-September. He returned to the bullpen for the final 2 weeks of the season, and stayed there for the remainder of his career. Eddie collected 102 strikeouts in his 1st year, 3rd on the team behind Dave McNally and Jim Palmer.

After another season under the wing of veteran Moe Drabowsky, Watt became the top man in the bullpen for the next 5 seasons. He led the team in saves in '68, '69, and '71, and was 1 behind the leader in '70 and '72.

In 1969 he fashioned a 1.65 ERA, and appeared in 7 post-season games between 1969-71. (The O's won their first World Series in his rookie year of 1966, but Baltimore swept the Dodgers in 4 games (including 3 complete game shutouts) so most of the bullpen didn’t even play that Fall.) 

After dropping to 3rd on the bullpen depth chart in 1973 (but with another post-season appearance), Watt was sold to the Phillies after the season, and pitched 1 year for Philadelphia.

The Phillies released him during spring training in 1975, and he was soon picked up by the Cubs, where he pitched only 6 games (the last coming in mid-June 1975) and finished the season with the Cubs' AAA team, then was released in early-September.

Watt pitched for the Padres’ AAA team in '76 and '77, and 2 games for their class-A team in 1978 before retiring.

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.

Clyde Wright (#543)

Clyde Wright was another of the young Angels’ pitchers who debuted in the 1966-69 time frame, but who went ignored by Topps until several seasons into their career. (Others were Rickey Clark, Tom Burgmeier, Marty Pattin, Andy Messersmith, and Tom Murphy.)

Look at the chart below. In 1967 and 1968, the Angels’ pitching staff was filling in with some nice young talent, but Topps missed the boat on their rookie cards. None of the pitchers in the top half of the chart received their first card until 1969 or 1970, and by then Burgmeier and Pattin were playing for expansion teams.

Instead, Topps chose the pitchers in the lower half of the chart to feature on their Angels Rookie Stars cards from 1967 to 1969, clearly whiffing on these selections.

(It seems odd that Clark's first card came after a season where he only pitched 9 innings!)


Clyde Wright was signed by the Angels in June 1965, and made his major-league debut in June 1966. He split the ’66 and ’67 seasons between the Angels and the minors, then joined the Angels fulltime in 1968.

In ’68 and ’69 Wright was primarily a reliever, but was one of their top starters from 1970-73, winning 22 games in 1970. He also made his only All-Star team that season, and finished 6th in the Cy Young voting.

He was the team’s pitching ace in 1970, then shared that designation with Messersmith in 1971. With the addition of Nolan Ryan in 1972, Wright was pushed down to #2 in the rotation, and then to #3 in 1973 when Bill SInger came aboard.

Clyde followed up his excellent 1970 season by winning 16 and 18 games in the next 2 seasons, but after posting a 11-19 record in 1973, he was traded to the Brewers (along with pitcher Steve Barber, outfielder Ken Berry, and catcher Art Kusnyer) for outfielders Ollie Brown and Joe Lahoud, pitcher Skip Lockwood, and catcher Ellie Rodriguez.

After a disappointing 9-20 season for Milwaukee in 1974, Wright was traded to the Rangers and pitched his final big-league season in 1975.

He also played in Japan from 1976-78.

New Teams, New Uniforms, New Photos

One of the best things about the 1970 set is all the new photos of players for the 4 new teams, shown in their brand-new uniforms. It's quite a change from the early-series' cards in the 1969 set!

Paul Popovich (#258)

Paul Popovich was a backup middle infielder, mostly for the Cubs, but he also played briefly for the Dodgers and Pirates.

Popovich was signed by the Cubs in 1960. He played 7 seasons in their farm system, almost exclusively at 2nd base. During this time he managed to appear for the Cubs in 1 game in April 1964 and 2 games in September 1966.

Paul made the Cubs' team in 1967, and played 49 games in his rookie season. He started 26 games at shortstop (every game that Don Kessinger did not start) including most of the games in early June and early July. In November 1967 he was traded to the Dodgers for outfielder Lou Johnson.

Surprisingly (even to me now), Popovich was the Dodgers' primary 2nd baseman in 1968. He started 80 games there (to Jim Lefebvre's 53 starts). I can only assume that Lefebvre was out of the lineup with injuries. Popovich also started another 35 games at shortstop, giving the newly-acquired bust Zoilo Versalles some (much-needed) time off.

All in all, Paul started 115 games for LA that season and played in 134 total games, making 462 plate appearances – all career highs for him. The following year, he would return to utility infielder status for the remainder of his career.

With 1969 ROY Ted Sizemore's arrival, Popovich was without a position in 1969. He only started 12 games during the season's first half, then was traded to the expansion Expos in mid-June (with outfielder Ron Fairly) for shortstop Maury Wills and outfielder Manny Mota.

The same day, Montreal flipped him to the Cubs for pitcher Jack Lamabe and center fielder Adolfo Phillips. Now back in Chicago, Popovich picked up where he left off in 1967 – giving the Cubs’ regular infielders (mostly 2B Glenn Beckert, but also Kessinger and 3B Ron Santo) a day off now and then. This continued through the 1973 season.

Just before the start of the 1974 season, he was swapped to the Pirates for pitcher Tom Dettore. Paul was the backup 2nd baseman to Rennie Stennett (the Pirates had just lost Dave Cash to the Phillies in the off-season) for the next year and a half. He also appeared in 3 games in the 1974 NLCS.

Popovich was released at the end of July 1975 to make room for mid-season call-up Willie Randolph.

Rollie Fingers (#502)

Here is Rollie Fingers’ first solo card. (He appeared in a late-series AL Rookie Stars card in the 1969 set.) Fingers pitched for the Athletics (1968-76), Padres (1977-80), and Brewers (1981-85) in his 17-year career.

He was signed by the Athletics in December 1964, and after 4 seasons in the minors, he got his feet wet with Oakland in 1 game in September 1968.

Always a starter in the minors, he was primarily a reliever with Oakland, but started 8 games in 1969, 19 in 1970, and 8 in 1971. Beginning in 1972, it was only bullpen work for Rollie for the remainder of his career (except for 2 starts in 1973).

Fingers was an All-Star with the Athletics every season from 1973-76, and led the AL in games pitched in ’74 and ’75. Rollie pitched in every post-season from 1971-75 with the Athletics.

After the 1976 season he was granted free agency, and signed with the Padres. He pitched 4 seasons in San Diego, leading the NL in saves in ‘77 and ’78, and making the All-Star team in 1978.

Traded to the Cardinals in December 1980 in an 11-player deal, 4 days later he was sent to the Brewers in a 7-player deal.

Fingers made the All-Star team in his first 2 seasons in Milwaukee, and led the AL in saves in 1981. He also won the Cy Young and MVP awards in 1981. Although he pitched in the ’81 ALDS, he missed the entire 1982 post-season (including the World Series) due to injury.

After missing the 1983 season with that injury, he returned for 2 more seasons with the Brewers (still with a full workload at age 37 and 38) before getting his release after the 1985 season.

Rumor is that Pete Rose offered him a contract to play for the Reds in 1986, but he would have had to shave off his mustache per team policy, so he declined.

Fingers was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992, only the second reliever to gain entry to Cooperstown by that time.

Jackie Hernandez (#686)

Jackie Hernandez was the Kansas City Royals’ first starting shortstop. Earlier, he had played 2 seasons for the Twins, and later wrapped up his career with the Pirates.

Hernandez was signed by the Indians in 1961, and was initially a catcher. He switched over to shortstop during his 2nd pro season, although still catching a few dozen games from ’62 to ’64.

The Indians released him in May 1965, and he was quickly snapped up by the Angels. He made his major-league debut with 1 game in September 1965.

Jackie was with the Angels for all of the 1966 season, but only played in 58 games. He was used as a pinch-runner in 37 of those games (sort of a pre-Herb Washington!) and also backed up the infield positions.

In April 1967, Hernandez was sent to the Twins as the “player to be named” in the Dean Chance for Don Mincher, Jimmie Hall, and Pete Cimino deal. Jackie spent most of the ’67 season in triple-A, but played 29 games for the Twins in August and September.

The Twins traded their starting shortstop Zoilo Versalles to the Dodgers after the 1967 season for a bunch of players, and handed Jackie the starting job for 1968. He started the first 29 games (and 58 of the first 80 games), but was sent down to the minors for most of July and all of August, when the Twins tried Ron Clark and Rick Renick at the position.

In October 1968, Hernandez was selected by the Royals in the expansion draft, and became their everyday shortstop in 1969. He started 139 games, and played in 6 more. His 145 games played tied him with Joe Foy for most games played by a Royal in 1969. He was also 2nd (to Foy) in plate appearances and at-bats. Not a bad turnaround for someone who up until then appeared to be destined to be a utility scrub.

Jackie started off the 1970 season as the starting shortstop, but by mid-June was benched in favor of rookie Rich Severson and the newly-acquired Tom Matchick.

After the 1970 season, Hernandez (along with pitcher Bob Johnson and backup catcher Jim Campanis) were traded to the Pirates for shortstop Freddie Patek, catcher Jerry May, and pitcher Bruce Dal Canton.

Hernandez spend the next 3 seasons as a backup to Gene Alley. He started quite a bit over the last 6 weeks on the 1971 season, and also started all the games in the NLCS and all but 1 game in the World Series (maybe Alley was injured?)

Jackie was traded to the Phillies in January 1974 for catcher Mike Ryan, but was released in late April, without having played for the Phillies. The Pirates resigned him the same day, but he played the entire season for their triple-A team,

Hernandez finished out his career playing in Mexico from 1975-76.

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.

John Odom (#55)

John “Blue Moon” Odom had one of the all-time best nicknames in baseball history. He played for the Athletics from 1964-75, and played briefly for 3 other teams in the final 2 years of his career.

Odom pitched 8 no-hitters in high school and led his team to 2 straight state championships, with a combined 42-2-record.

The Kansas City Athletics signed him in June 1964. He played in the minors for the next 2 years, although making his big-league debut with a few games in September of that year, and also pitching 1 game for the A’s in 1965.

He joined Kansas City on a permanent basis at the end of June 1966, and compiled a 5-5 record in 14 starts in his rookie year. He also appeared in 3 other games as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner.

Blue Moon was a key member of the team’s starting rotation for the next 7 seasons (1967-73), winning 16 games in ’68 and 15 games twice. He also made the ’68 and ’69 All-Star teams. He started 2 games in the 1972 ALCS (winning both, 1 a complete game shutout) and 2 games in the World Series vs. the Reds. He also appeared in relief in 3 games in the ’73 post season and the ’74 post-season.

In 1974, Odom spent most of his time in the Athletics’ bullpen, while Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman, and various youngsters filled out the rotation.

In May 1975, Odom was traded to the Indians for pitchers Jim Perry and Dick Bosman. 3 weeks later, he was flipped to the Braves for pitcher Roric Harrison. Odom was 1-7 with a 7.07 ERA in 15 games (10 starts) for the Braves for the remainder of the 1975 season, and began the 1976 season in the minors.

In June ’76 he was traded to the White Sox for backup catcher Pete Varney, but didn’t get promoted to Chicago until mid-July. He pitched 8 games for the Sox from mid-July to mid-August, and was released the following January, ending his 13-year career.

Odom was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

Fritz Peterson (#142)

Here’s Fritz “Fred Ingels” Peterson, one of the top players from the late 1960s that I have not featured on any of my blogs yet. I chose to use his 1970 card because of the unusual pose. I don’t know if he’s trying to hypnotize the batter, or put the Malocchio on him!

Fritz was signed by the Yankees in 1963, and made his major-league debut in April 1966. He won 12 games for a bad Yankees team as a rookie. Peterson was the Yankees’ top left-handed starter, right behind staff ace Mel Stottlemyre.

Peterson’s best seasons with the Yankees were from 1969-72. Over that span, he won 17, 20, 15, and 17 games (again, for some bad teams), and made his only All-Star team in 1970. That was an unusual season for the Yankees in that they finished in 2nd place, while spending most of 1966-73 near the basement.

Just as the Yankees began to turn it around in 1974, Peterson was gone – traded to the Indians in late-April in a 7-player deal that brought 1st baseman Chris Chambliss to the Bronx.

After 2 seasons as the top southpaw starter in Cleveland, Fritz was traded to the Rangers in late-May 1976. By then his career was shot. He made his last appearance 3 weeks later, missing the remainder of the 1976 season due to a shoulder injury.

He was released by Texas in early-February 1977. Two weeks later he was signed by the White Sox, but after a 2nd shoulder surgery he decided to call it a career, having not pitched in '77.

Peterson retired in May 1977 after 11 seasons, with a record of 133-131.

Hal Lanier (#583)

For players that have been around for a while, I much prefer to post their ‘66, ‘67, ‘68, or ‘69 card, than their 1970 card. But I have so many cards queued up for 1967 to 1969, that some veterans are being pushed onto my 1970 list. (I don’t mind bypassing the ‘68 and ‘69 Astros and ‘68 Athletics – those cards are a mess.) 


Hal Lanier (whose father Max was a pitcher for the Cardinals and others from 1938-53) was signed by the Giants in 1961 and made his Giants’ debut in June 1964. He was named to the Topps All-Rookie team that year.

Originally a 2nd baseman, he was the team’s regular there from his debut in mid-June ‘64 through the 1966 season.

Hal swapped positions with Tito Fuentes at the start of the 1967 season, and was the Giant’s regular shortstop for the next 4 years, until he was replaced by rookie Chris Speier at the start of the 1971 season.

After a year on the bench, Lanier was sold to the Yankees before the 1972 season. He played his final 2 seasons as a utility infielder for New York.

Hal then had a long coaching career with the Cardinals, Phillies, and others, and also managed the Astros from 1986-88 (winning the NL West in ’86). In recent years he has managed independent minor-league teams.


From 1966:

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