Indians Worst Trade - Don't Knock the Rock

Cleveland sports writer Russell Schneider in his book, The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia 3rd Edition, lists what he considers the 15 Best Trades and the 15 Worst Trades ever made by Cleveland. I can still remember the trade that he calls the worst, and I fully agree that it was the worst. April 17, 1960, General Manager Frank Lane traded Rocky Colavito to the Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. The Rock had tied Harmon Killebrew in 1959 for the AL home run lead with 42 and Kuenn was the AL batting champ. As a nine-year-old whose favorite player had been traded, I was extremely upset and disliked GM Lane, as did most Indian fans. Because of his numerous trades, he had been called Trader Lane. This was now changed to Traitor Lane. Kuenn's batting average dropped from .353 to .308 and he was traded to the SF Giants after the season. Even though he played a full season with the Tribe, he never had a Topps card as an Indian, which is just as well since they would all have probably ended up as BB gun targets.

The Indians got pitcher Johnny Antonelli and outfielder Willie Kirkland from the Giants. Antonelli was 0-4 in eleven games, and Kirkland had three fairly mediocre years in Cleveland compared to what the Rock was doing in Detroit. Willie eventually played in Japan and married a Japanese woman.

Rocky was in Detroit four years, then a year at Kansas City, and then returned to Cleveland for three years. He led the AL in RBI in 1965, his first year back. The trade that got him back was a three-way deal with the White Sox and Athletics. Russell Schneider calls it the sixth worst trade in Tribe history, since we gave up Tommie Agee, Johnny Romano and a pitcher named Tommy John.

The ABC's of Baseball Hats

I think I found an error in Topps 1969 #571. They have the name as "Cap Peterson", but I think it really is "Cap-less Peterson". HaHa.

That little bit of humor leads me to the subject of this blog: From the late 1950's to the early 1970's Topps avoided showing the old team logo on the hat of any player who had been traded to a new team. I do not know if this was for legal reasons or just aesthetics. I have discovered three different methods that the company used to keep from showing the old team logo. The first I call the "Cap-less Peterson Method" in honor of the above card. Topps would simply take a picture of a player without a cap. Then if he was traded during the next year, they would have a picture to use that didn't show any cap logo. Almost always these were head shots since they were also trying to hide the old uniform. 1959 was the first year this method was applied to the Indians, with Billy Martin, Randy Jackson and Al Cicotte going bare-headed. In 1960 there were six players hat-less, and five in 1961. These were the final years of GM Frank "Trader" Lane, sometimes called "Traitor" Lane after giving Rocky Colavito to the Tigers. Rocky was traded for Harvey Kuenn, who only spent one year with the Tribe and never got a baseball card as an Indian. Harvey was traded to the SF Giants for Johnny Antonelli and Willie Kirkland, both of whom got the cap-less treatment in 1961. In fact, Willie was hat-less in his old Giants uniform in 1962, also, and became the first Indian to go without a hat two years in a row! (Lee Maye, Willie Smith and Ken Suarez would also go hat-less two years in a row.) Kirkland was joined by five other cap-less teammates in 1962, which was the year that saw the second Topps method for avoiding old logos appear in the Indians cards.

If Topps didn't have a hat-less photo of a traded player, they would simply air brush the hat to get rid of the logo. Harry Chiti was the first Tribesman to get this treatment in 1962. Almost always the hat would be entirely black. The only exception I am aware of is the 1969 Jose Cardenal card, where the old Angels hat still has a red bill, but no logo. The hat darkening treatment was given to many Indians: Rocky on his return to the Wigwam, Jim Landis, Stan Williams, Ken Suarez (after two years of being hat-less!) and Manager Al Dark. In fact, Al Dark was air brushed in both 1968 and '69 and is the only Indian to be so treated. I think it is only appropriate that this second method of logo hiding be called the "Al Dark-ening Method".

The third method that Topps employed for not showing old logos was first used in 1963, I think inadvertently. If a player glanced up in the air (as if he were looking at a bird, for instance) just as his picture was being taken, then the bill of his cap would hide the logo and very simply solve the problem. That is exactly what happened in 1963 to, of all people, the new Tribe manager, Birdie Tebbets! I have to call this the "Birdie-watching Tebbets Method". Bud Daley used it, possibly also inadvertently, in 1965. It was not used again until 1972, the Topps psychedelic year, when five players, including Gaylord Perry, showed their interest in ornithology. It is obvious that Topps was now intentionally using this method as all five players were new to Cleveland. They used it once in 1973 and twice in '75.

Now you know the ABC's of baseball hats according to Al, Birdie and Cap.

Tribe Hurlers Who Won 20 Games

It is amazing that the Tribe has had back-to-back Cy Young Award winners in C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee. Of course CC is no longer an Indian and he wasn't a 20-game winner, so we won't talk about him. Cliff Lee broke a long spell of not having a 20-game winner in Cleveland - 34 years. In fact, since 1957 the Tribe has only had six, 20-game seasons by five players: Lee in 2008, Gaylord Perry in 1972 and '74, Sam McDowell in 1970, Luis Tiant in 1968 and Dick Donovan in 1962. Poor pitching was not always the case for Cleveland. From 1951 to 1956 they had twelve 20-game seasons by five pitchers. Bob Feller in 1951, Mike Garcia in 1951 and '52, Early Wynn in 1951, '52, '54 and '56, Bob Lemon in 1952, '53, '54 and '56 and Herb Score in 1956. From 1917 to 1921 three pitchers had a total of seven 20-game seasons: Jim Bagby in 1917 and '20, Stan Coveleski in 1918, '19, '20 and '21 and Ray Caldwell in 1920. In franchise history Cleveland has had a total of 56 20-game seasons by 25 different pitchers. Will Carl Pavano be the next one?

1957 Topps - A Favorite

There are several reasons why I consider the 1957 Topps set one of my favorites. It is the first team set in my collection. Although I have a couple dozen Bowman and Topps from the early '50's, the 1957 set is the first that I have made a serious effort to finish. It is the first year that I actually recognize the names of players that I saw play or heard about on the radio. I certainly remember the four that are shown above. The standard 3.5" by 2.5" card dimensions started that year. That was certainly a needed innovation. I also like the design of the cards. They are much better than the cartoonish ones that preceded them. They don't have the high tech look of modern cards, but they do have a design that is similar to a modern one.

Woody or Woodie

The first Indians shortstop that I remember was George Strickland. He just barely kept his BA above the Mendoza line, before there actually was a Mendoza. The next shortstop I remember was one of my all-time favorites: Woody Held. Woody played beside third baseman Bubba Phillips. They were a pair, Woody and Bubba. And then in the outfield we had Rocky and Tito. Even after 50 years, I can still remember those great names. Woody's full name was Woodson George Held. Apparently, Topps didn't know if he went by Woody or Woodie. Notice that in 1961 they spelled it "Woodie" and all the other years "Woody". Woody liked to have his picture taken wearing his batting helmet. He is actually wearing the exact same one for the 1962 and 1963 cards. He usually hit about .250 with 20 homers.

1981 Minor League sets

These cards come from my oldest minor league sets from 1981. The Batavia Trojans and the Chattanooga Lookouts. Browsing through these old sets, it becomes quite obvious why the Indians had such terrible teams in the eighties, no farm system. That also helps explain why Tribe collectors can put together massive collections of cards at reasonable cost - there are very few star cards that need to be purchased. These sets were printed by TCMA. My first few sets from them have similar black and white photos with red borders. In 1982, some of their sets started having color photos. I have nine TCMA sets in my collection from the early '80's, until ProCards took over the minor league market. The TCMA cards, although simple designs, are all attractive. They avoided the garish designs that are found on many of the ProCard sets.

A few Akron Aeros cards

I have eight sets of Akron Aeros cards. All were printed by Multi-Ad Sports. Starting in 1998 with Russell Branyan, I have shown one card from each set. I picked Dustan Mohr from the 1999 set, not because he ever played for the Tribe, but because he played for the Crimson Tide while my daughter was getting her accounting degree at the University of Alabama. CC was at Akron in 2000 and Jason Stanford in 2001. Jared Wright was in the 5th Anniversary set also in 2001. Then Victor for 2002, Grady in 2003 and Kevin Kouzmanoff in 2006. I think it's a shame when a guy is the first player in history to hit a grand slam on his first major league pitch and then gets traded. Especially when Barfield has been such a disappointment.