'Who'd you get!? Who'd you get!?' Opening those first 2012 cards

I finally found some 2012 Topps cards at a local Target, and even though I was going to boycott them this year for putting Jose Reyes in a Marlins uniform when he hasn't even played a game for them, I couldn't help myself. I bought one of the Target-exclusive 10-pack (eight cards each) boxes and an additional five single packs holding 12 cards each.

First off, the exclusive commemorative patch card in the box was one of the weak "Historical Stitches" meant to resemble the ID stitching sewn onto the jerseys back in the day. I got Bob Gibson, which if it were a patch of his number, I might be more excited about it. But his name? Meh. So that card, along with several others I pulled, I've put up on eBay in team-sorted lots of varying sizes. I'm not expecting too many hits, but figured it was worth a shot. The only ones I knew I definitely wanted to keep were any Mets and a few other players I like. I also have an affinity for the stars who helped me win my fantasy league last year, so I put those aside.

Now, for the Mets. Out of 140 cards, I drew five Mets, which seems like a solid ratio compared to past years, but it's certainly possible that I'm not remembering it accurately. A better ratio? I went 5-for-5 in not drawing black jerseys. Even better: two pinstriped uniforms, two white with blue hats/helmets, and one road uniform.

Here are the five, from least desirable to most (in my mind), with a few thoughts on each:

Not many people want Mike Pelfrey on the Mets, let alone his baseball card. But it's a beautiful sunny day in the pinstripes, so there's no better look in Queens. And he looks like a cat sticking out its tongue. Here's hoping for a rebound season.

After two years of underachieving, hopefully this is the year Jason Bay comes close to producing for what he's paid. Right? RIGHT?! The closer fences should only help. He just has to stay healthy. I saw the guy hit a grand slam last season, so hopefully that's a sign.

I was torn as to whether this or the next card is my second-favorite, but you'll see why the next one won out. I like Lucas Duda as a promising power source this year, plus the horizontal orientation is nice. And I'm 99.9 percent certain that the photo was taken after his walk-off single against the Padres on Aug. 8 last season. In fact, I believe it's this moment at the 48-second mark: The high-five matches up; Willie Harris is furthest from the TV camera and closest to the first-base photo pit; Terry Collins has come out for a handshake; and Ken Oberkfell is the big head behind Duda's in the video still and his jersey is to the left of Collins' head.

The reason R.A. Dickey is No. 2 should be obvious: Dickey Face! I've also seen it in person in Baltimore, but how can you beat a sunny day in the pinstripes? Plus, it's a great vantage point, probably taken from a concourse with a super telephoto lens. I've seen some of the pros shooting up there several times.

And the top Mets card I pulled is none other than David Wright's. This is the first standard base card of Wright that I've drawn in some time. I think any recent ones I have I bought on eBay.

Wanna guess which team showed up the most on cards I pulled? Yeah, the Yankees -- nine of them, including two Jesus Montero cards, one of which was the Target-exclusive red-border variation. I also got Derek Jeter's base card and a couple of subsets that forced Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle into the set. And CC Sabathia came in the form of the 1987 Topps mini homage, the only time you're likely to hear "mini" when relating to Sabathia. (The other two '87 minis I got were David Price -- one of the stalwarts of the pitching staff of my Doherty Silk Sox championship team -- and Buster Posey.)

I'm toying with the idea of buying more -- perhaps a hobby box online -- to see what else comes up, but I'm going to give myself the weekend to mull it over. Of course, it would all be worth it if I drew one of the short prints that are fetching $30 and up on eBay. I have no need for fake a Reyes or Pujols card or a squirrel.

Stealing home on a '56 Topps card

Did a little Jackie Robinson research this morning, prompted by the 1956 Topps card shown above. I was curious as to when the slide into home may have occurred, presuming the scene depicted was based on a photograph of an actual occurrence. It was the number of the batter, really, that piqued my interest -- who is that? Through good deduction, dumb luck or whatever, it only took a few clicks to come up with the answer.

First, I suspected that it was a steal of home, because of the position of the batter so close to the plate, with his bat on his shoulder, gave me the impression that he had just stepped back. If Robinson was scoring on a hit, the batter would probably be further away from the plate, perhaps giving direction on whether -- and where -- to slide. Second, I figured that the opposing team was the Cardinals, based on the catcher's stirrups.

So I simply went to Baseball-Reference's Play Index (before I came across that list of Robinson's steals of home) and got the list of games in which Robinson stole a base against the Cardinals, then started clicking through box scores. Neither of his stolen bases in the two-steal game were of the plate, but the second one on the list -- August 29, 1955, was, and the play-by-play confirms that it was when starting pitcher Johnny Podres -- No. 45 in your '55 Dodgers scorecard -- was batting. Furthermore, Cardinals catcher Bill Sarni wore No. 15 in '55, and that certainly looks like a 5 on the back of the catcher; even if it's a 6, Sarni wore 16 in previous years with St. Louis.

Perhaps even more noteworthy: It was a triple steal to boot! That event didn't warrant much mention, however. In the New York Times story the following day, it had one paragraph dedicated to it, 10 grafs into the story. Podres' plunking of Stan Musial in a back-and-forth brushback spat grabbed the headlines and the photo. Musial was hit in the hand in the fourth inning but wasn't replaced until a double-switch in the seventh. (X-rays were negative, and he was in the lineup in Pittsburgh the next day.)

Compare that to the last triple steal, which wasn't even a straight steal of home (it involved a rundown), but did warrant its own headlines. It's so rare to even see a straight steal of home these days -- such an exciting play -- that the likelihood of a triple steal ever happening again has to be remote.

Updating Topps' father-son set

The first baseball cards I got as a kid were from the 1985 Topps set. Those block letters set at an angle, colorful fronts and the moss-green backs with red lettering (like Christmas in every pack) still take me back to a specific part of my childhood, of the pharmacy down the street where I'd buy my packs.

Two years later, I started going regularly when, in 1987, I started chasing the complete set. Then in 1988, my collecting really took off as I bought Topps by the wax box and dove into the new Score set. (I never really chased after Donruss or Fleer as much, though whether it was because those sets didn't appeal to me as much or they weren't carried in my neighborhood, I'm not sure.)

But the '85 set stands out, because even though I didn't come close to collecting all of them, that was the first time I bought any packs regularly. Plus, it had two seminal subsets: the 1984 Olympic baseball team and the Father/Son cards. The Team USA cards, of course, took off when, three years later, the Mark McGwire card became his true rookie card.

But I didn't really get the concept of the Olympic team at that age (I don't recall any of the '84 Olympics, even though I was 8 years old; it wasn't until the '88 Olympics -- and Ben Johnson -- that my sports world expanded). So it was the Father/Son set that drew my interest, particularly the card of Yogi and Dale Berra -- the once and current Yankee, even though Dale's photo on the Father/Son card showed him with the Pirates. Probably because he was the Yankees manager at the time, Yogi Berra was to me everything the Yankees were -- the history and all that. We weren't (and aren't) a Yankee family, so my parents never told
me about Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle or even Thurman Munson. So Yogi stood out as the representative of the pinstripes. And because of that, the Berras' Father/Son card struck me as possibly being the coolest card in the set. (Plus, even then, I think I was aware that Yogi lived in Montclair, which though a long ways away -- at 9, I judged distances by whether or not we had to drive on a highway to get there -- was the town where my mom's aunt and uncle lived and near my grandparents' house.)

And so I got to thinking about some of the other Father/Son cards -- the Schofields, Bells, Kennedys, Boones, Laws, Skinners and Franconas. That led me to some of today's players whose fathers played the game and I wished that Topps would bring back the Father/Son cards. While I think some of their recent player pairings have been fun to see, I'd like a reprise of actual baseball lineage, more than just "Legendary Lineage" as Topps sees it.

I know others out there on this series of tubes we call the internet have Photoshopped some recent Father/Son pairings, but I wanted to do a whole set in the 1985 style -- 13 cards showing the father on a Topps card of yore and a photo of the current player in a pose with his current team. The restrictions of current players eliminated some recent offspring who played, like Brian Bannister (who's now in Japan) and Ken Griffey Jr. But I still found enough pairings for 13 cards, including some current stars and some past heroes. And true to the '85 originals, they can't all be studs, so there's even a direct descendant of the Berra card featuring a Hall of Fame dad and a well-traveled, role-playing son.

Ike Davis was the first card I wanted to (re-)produce. Hardly a week goes by without the Mets' announcers mentioning Ron Davis' career, which spanned 11 years and five teams, mostly the Twins and Yankees. And Ike, of course, seems to be the face of the New Mets, the future from here.

I'll go alphabetically for the rest ...

Michael Brantley is projected to be the Indians' starting left fielder this year. He was the player to be named later in the 2008 trade that sent CC Sabathia to the Brewers. Mickey Brantley played 302 games in four seasons with the Mariners. This 1989 Topps card records Mickey's best season in '88: .263/.296/.399, 15 home runs, 56 RBI and 18 stolen bases in 149 games.

Sal Butera spent four of his nine seasons with the Twins, but Drew was drafted by the Mets in 2005. (I recently discovered that I saw Drew Butera play for the Hagerstown Suns, catching for Jon Niese in a game in Lakewood in 2006.) The Mets dealt Drew to Minnesota as one of two players sent over for Luis Castillo, so if there's one good thing to come out of that deal, it's that it allowed the Buteras to become the first father-son duo in Twins history.

Robinson Cano is one of the biggest stars in this set, an All-Star second baseman for the sport's biggest draw in its biggest market. Jose Cano is one of the smallest, a right-handed pitcher whose entire career consisted of just six games with the Astros in 1989.

Other than Ike, Kyle Drabek is probably the baseball heir I'm most interested in seeing this season. A first-round pick of the Phillies in '06, Kyle pitched for the BlueClaws before being dealt to Toronto in the Roy Halladay deal. He made his debut last September, losing all three of his starts, but that was just a cameo. It'll be interesting to see what he can accomplish this season, particularly if he sticks in the rotation after Brandon Morrow returns from the disabled list. Doug Drabek, of course, pitched 13 seasons and won a Cy Young Award while with the Pirates in 1990, going 22-6.

Here's another well-known duo, though one that doesn't speak to one another anymore. I think that makes Prince Fielder's expression on this card very apt -- it's what he might look like if someone told him he were going to be on a baseball card with his father. Cecil Fielder made his name after his stint in Japan -- which followed his four seasons in Toronto from 1985-88 -- when he returned stateside to hit 204 home runs for the Tigers, Yankees and Angels. I was at Yankee Stadium for the final game of the 1990 season, when Cecil hit two home runs to finish with 51 -- the first 50-homer season since George Foster in 1977.

I nearly produced an error card in this set. After uploading all these images to the blog, I then went through to write the text and when I got to this one, I noticed I had neglected to change the player's name and team below Tony Gwynn Jr.'s photo; it still read Adam LaRoche, Nationals. This card is the equal of the Berras' card from '85: a Hall of Fame father in Tony Gwynn and a son who hasn't developed into a star. I'm not faulting the offspring here, just making a comparison.

It's a shame, but if there's one thing Adam LaRoche doesn't have, it's his dad's sense of facial hair style. Dave LaRoche remains in the game, most recently as the pitching coach in 2010 of the Las Vegas 51s, the Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate.

Before he landed with the straitlaced Yankees, Nick Swisher had a flair for the hair, just like his dad. Nick has been known long before he broke into the big leagues, based on his good fortune to be drafted by the A's in 2002 -- the Moneyball draft -- out of Ohio State. Steve Swisher was a Bobcat, not a Buckeye -- he went to Ohio University.

Man, Will Venable looks happy to be a ballplayer! He has good reason to be, penciled in as the Padres' Opening Day right fielder. Last year, he and Gwynn Jr. roamed the PETCO Park outfield together. Max Venable spent eight of his 12 seasons in California, playing five years with the Giants and three with the Angels.

Neil Walker is, like the younger Drabek, a guy I'm interested in watching this season. It'd be nice if the Pirates had something good happen with another homegrown player. And I love this card of Tom Walker, primarily because it features the Cardinals' pillbox cap. If the Pirates have a throwback day in their pillbox lids, I may have to update this card.

This is the fifth card in this set with a Yankees connection (Ron Davis, Doug Drabek and Cecil Fielder also played in pinstripes, not to mention the two sons who currently do). This one might require an asterisk, because Dennis Werth is the stepfather to Jayson Werth, but the fact that Jayson has Dennis' surname is a good enough relationship to me.

And we close with EY and EY Jr., a pair of Jersey boys and a duo that played for the Rockies. Eric Young grew up in New Brunswick and played at Rutgers; Eric Young Jr. was drafted by Colorado out of Piscataway High School. I really wanted to use a Rockies card of EY, but the Google search did not turn up one suitable enough, and my collecting era ended before he joined the Rockies for their first season in 1993, so I don't have any in my possession.

We almost have a full starting lineup with the sons in this 13-player set -- only shortstop and third base are missing. I'm sure we could move Robby Cano over to short and maybe young Walker or Young could shift to third to fill the hole there. The roster of fathers is heavy on pitchers and outfielders, so we'd need to play several of them out of position in order to stage a father-son faceoff on the diamond.

From ND to MLB: Johnny Mohardt

As I've mentioned in previous posts of this series, one of the issues with trying to track down and collect evidence of the Major League careers of the 77 men who have passed through South Bend on their way to The Show is that so many of them were Domers long before the Majors became known as The Show, long before Topps came on the scene.

There are quite a few guys for whom I may have to fork over $10-20 for an autographed index card, or $5-10 for a reprint of a black-and-white photo. For others, it may take upwards of $30 (or much more) to land a tobacco card, and there are two for whom I've found signed index cards that would set me back triple figures (and it doesn't help that one of those guys played for the Boston Braves in 1910-11 and shares the same name as an actor in one of those godforsaken tween vampire series AND the name of a golfer in the 1930s: Billy Burke). I'm trying to do this in a much more economical way than that. For some players, like Cy Williams, I've passed on the $30 autographed index card for a $3 Conlon card from 1991. For others, I will have to improvise.

This is the first improvisation. I've been a fan of The Infinite Baseball Card Set since discovering it sometime last year through Uni Watch. In his blog, graphic designer Gary Cieradkowski researches players that interest him, then creates beautiful tobacco cards depicting the players from a particular part of their careers, often in the minor leagues or amateur and semi-pro stages. I purchased the first printed set he put out and it was from one of those cards -- of Otto Rettig -- that I learned of the Doherty Silk Sox semi-pro team that played in my current hometown of Clifton in the 1920s. Major League clubs would often make the trip to the ballfield behind James Doherty's silk factory to play exhibition games -- including the Cardinals, Phillies, Red Sox and Giants, bringing with them the likes of Rogers Hornsby and Babe Ruth.

Anyway, when Gary started asking for guest entries, an idea struck me: If I came across a player with a compelling story, the right background to really warrant such a fabulous tribute as inclusion in the Infinite Card Set, I would contact Gary to see if he'd consider it. I'd already been in touch with him to suggest a card of Jack Kerouac -- and it turned out that he had already come up with the design long before I wrote him, so my e-mail send the card to the top of his list. This time, the turnaround was just as quick.

I wrote to Gary on Saturday, Feb. 5 with my proposal and included my full writeup so that he could learn the whole story should he want more background. Two days later, he wrote back and said he liked the idea. Last Thursday, he wrote again to say he had the front of the card done and just needed from me a 160-word summary for the back of the card.

And so I present to you John Mohardt, Irish football and baseball player from 1919-21. Detroit Tiger in 1922. Chicago Bear in 1925. And there's a lot more. But I don't want to take away from Gary's efforts, so to read the full story on Mohardt, please visit The Infinite Baseball Card Set and then look around at some of the past entries. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Here's the blurb from the back of Mohardt's card to pique your interest:

Mohardt distinguished himself in three fields – the ballfield, the gridiron and the operating room – while playing with and for some of the largest legends in American sport. At Notre Dame from 1918-22, he was a teammate of George Gipp and Curly Lambeau under Knute Rockne. In Detroit, he took orders from player/manager Ty Cobb, who once called for the rookie to pinch-run for him. After a brief five-game Major League career, Mohardt played professional football, sharing a backfield on the Chicago Bears with the Galloping Ghost, Red Grange, under coach George Halas. When he wasn’t lacing up his spikes, Mohardt was earning his medical degree. With that in hand, he gave up his athletic endeavors for good. He worked at the Mayo Clinic before serving in the Army during World War II, then offered his services to Veterans Affairs after the war. He eventually relocated to Southern California, where he died by his own hand at the age of 63.

Fresh outta the pack

So just like Keith Olbermann, the first 2011 Topps card I laid eyes on after opening my first pack of the year was that of Russell Branyan. And the one beneath it was also Alex Rodriguez.

But things got quite a bit better from there in the one $4.99 rack pack I bought at Target. For all the bad luck Paul had in pulling multiple Yankees and Phillies, I came away with four Mets cards, including David Wright's base card -- showing him in the home white uniform and blue hat, a double win. Out of all the packs I bought in 2010 -- Series 1 and Series 2 -- I'm pretty sure I was shut out of Wright base cards; I ended up buying it on eBay with a couple others I wanted but didn't pull in my purchases. Other than the aforementioned A-Rod, I got the Robinson Cano Toppstown card and A-Rod on a diamond foil AL RBI leaders card -- and that was it for Yanks or Phils.

The Mets team card featuring Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan in a celebratory postgame leap in the home whites is probably my favorite team card in a long time. I also got Dillon Gee's rookie card (in the black jersey; blah) and a Diamond Duo featuring Hisanori Takahashi and Koji Uehara. The beauty of Takahashi in a white uniform and blue hat on a bright, sunny day was tempered a bit by the fact that he's now an Angel.

Other cards of note included Hanley Ramirez, Andrew McCutchen (love the kid), David Price, Aroldis Chapman and a Diamond Anniversary reprint of Jackie Robinson's 1952 Topps card. The one Kimball Champions reprint I pulled was Justin Upton. The cards are nice enough, but I've never really chased the limited subsets in recent years. I'll probably buy individuals of the Mets or other favorite players, but I'm not sure I'll keep a checklist if I find myself buying boxes of 2011 Topps.

There were also a few cards that I enjoyed for the photography. Scott Hairston is shown in one of the Padres' brown-and-mustard throwback uniforms; Randy Wolf is depicted in a closely cropped action shot on a horizontal card; and the Orioles team card shows three players in mid-leap after a win, multiple arms and legs seemingly emanating from one body.

This year's design is decent. I do like the arcing panel for the players' names and the baseball in the corner housing the team logo, but after thoroughly loving last year's design with the club logo -- often the uniform logo -- designating the team, this set is a minor step back for me. The love for last year's design may be what prompted me to buy more packs (and 36-pack boxes for the first time since I was a kid in the early '90s) last year, so I'm not sure how much money I'll spend on packs. Maybe I'll just buy individual cards online. We'll see.

ND to MLB: Dick Thoenen

You're forgiven if this is the first time you've heard of either of these players. Of the roughly 17,364 men who have played Major League Baseball, 964 of them never got into another game after their debuts -- and these are two of them. 


I don't know about you, but that seemed pretty remarkable to me -- that two guys who share the same rookie card ended up appearing in one game each, for three combined innings, and never got into a second game. As it turns out, they both now live in Oregon, which struck me as another interesting coincidence. I was able to find an address for a Richard Thoenen, now 67, and wrote him a letter at the beginning of the month. The return envelope arrived yesterday, with a few brief answers written beneath the questions I asked.


Born in Mexico, Mo., in 1944, Dick Thoenen was a three-sport star at Mexico High. In 1959, he pitched and played outfield on Mexico's Junior Legion team. The big right-hander -- listed at 6-foot-6, 215 pounds on his Baseball-Reference page -- arrived in South Bend in the fall of 1961. "I went to [Notre Dame] on a basketball scholarship," he told me. 


He signed with the Phillies in 1963, after one season with the Irish back in the days before freshmen could play with the varsity. Asked what he remembered about signing that first contract, he said, "Shaking while writing," no doubt excited, nervous or both. He was assigned to Spartanburg in the Western Carolinas League, where he went 10-13 with a 3.36 ERA. In mid-June, he stood atop the leaderboard with a 0.70 ERA. He pitched a four-hitter for the Spartanburg Phillies on July 29, fanning 10 Rock Hill Wrens to earn his ninth victory.


His second season was also solid but not spectacular. In a career-high 178 innings for Bakersfield in the California League in '64, he went 11-11 with a 3.64 ERA. On June 15, he pitched a gem against Reno, allowing two hits after the second inning and striking out seven in a complete-game six-hitter, winning 2-1.

Thoenen's 1965 season was split between Chattanooga in the Southern League and Eugene of the Northwest League. After six starts with the Class AA Lookouts, in which he went 0-2 with a 3.44 ERA, he was sent to Class A Eugene. He finished the season with a combined 9-10 record and 3.90 ERA.


In 1966, he opened the season with Macon, making one start -- the last of his career -- before moving to the bullpen for good. On June 12, he came on in the fourth against the Columbus and held the Yankees to to one hit, allowing the Peaches to mount a comeback in a 7-4 win. He appeared in 40 games that year, split between Macon, like Chattanooga a Class AA team, and San Diego, his first experience at Class AAA. That October, Thoenen was among several Phillies farmhands who had their contracts acquired by the big club. An infielder from Spartanburg named Larry Bowa was among the moves reported in The Sporting News on Oct. 29, 1966. 


In January 1967, beginning what could be considered his finest year in the game, Thoenen was included in the weekly paper's list of big league birthdays (as was former Notre Dame hurler Jim Hannan, then with the Senators). Based on the game accounts I could find, it appears that Thoenen was one of the top relievers on his team in '67, often closing out games before the term "closer" had been used to refer to a relief pitcher.


After spending much of spring training with the Phillies, Thoenen was sent to minor league camp in April and started the season with their Class AAA affiliate in San Diego. He earned the save -- before the statistic was tracked daily -- on May 10 when he came on with the bases loaded and a one-run lead at Phoenix, inducing Ozzie Virgil to ground out, preserving an 8-7 Padres win. On July 24, Thoenen came into a game started by Larry Colton with the Padres trailing, 4-0, and pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing three singles, as San Diego rallied for a 6-4 victory over Hawaii. Thoenen doubled in what proved to be the winning run and scored twice.


In an Aug. 7 column in the Arizona Republic, Bob Eger speculated that the Padres -- who had led the Pacific Coast League's Eastern Division for "most of the season" -- might not be able to hold their lead, which stood at just 1 1/2 games over Indianapolis and Oklahoma City on that date:

Diamond Jim Gentile, who's hammered out 19 home runs, will be lost to San Diego for at least two weeks due to a leg injury. 

Most insiders figure he's through for the season.

Two key pitchers, starter Larry Loughlin and reliever Dick Thoenen, will be missing for two weeks due to military obligations.

During that time the Padres will be knocking heads with their chief contenders including nine games in one six-day stretch.

On Aug. 22, San Diego -- which would lead the Pacific Coast League with 134 home runs -- hit five in a 9-7 win over Tulsa. Thoenen came on with one out in the first (starter John Tsitouris was charged with six unearned runs) and earned the win with 5 2/3 innings of three-hit, one-run ball, fanning five. He also joined the hit parade with a solo shot in the sixth that briefly gave the Padres a 7-6 lead before the Oilers tied it again.


The Padres not only held on to win the PCL's Eastern Division, they expanded their lead to finish 8 1/2 games ahead of Indianapolis, earning the right to face Western Division winner Spokane for the circuit's title. Thoenen, who was 6-2 with a 1.67 ERA in 35 relief appearances for San Diego that season, earned the win in the first game. He pitched two perfect innings on Sept. 6 to close out the contest and benefited from San Diego's eight-run eighth -- in which he contributed a single and a run. The Padres won the best-of-7 set in six games, taking the decisive game, 5-3, on Sept. 12 after opening a five-run lead. Thoenen was on the mound for the final out, coming on in the eighth with no outs and three runs already in. He got the last six outs, allowing nothing more than two hits.

His minor league season complete, Thoenen earned a promotion to Philadelphia. His San Diego teammate Colton and Bowa, who played that year in Reading, also got the call, but neither would appear in a game. On Sept. 16, four days after closing out the Padres' championship, Thoenen was in the bullpen at Connie Mack Stadium. Despite beautiful weather for a ballgame -- upper 60s/low 70s, with a strong breeze -- just 5,549 fans were on hand to watch the fifth-place Phillies face the eighth-place Dodgers. A 21-year-old Rick Wise, in his third season, started for Philly but was pulled in the third inning for a pinch-hitter after allowing three runs on six hits. When the home team took the field for the top of the fourth, Thoenen went out to the mound to warm up, No. 43 on his red pinstriped jersey.


Dodgers third baseman Bob Bailey, batting seventh in the lineup, led off with a double to left field. Second baseman Luis Alcaraz followed with a single to left that scored Bailey, giving Thoenen a career ERA, at that moment, of infinity. Pitcher Don Sutton came to the plate to sacrifice, bunting it back to Thoenen, who got the out at first, allowing Alcaraz to move to second. Los Angeles' leadoff hitter, Nate Oliver, came up next and lined out to left fielder Tony Gonzalez. Thoenen then retired Dodgers first baseman Wes Parker on a comebacker to get out of the inning.


The Phillies' 3-4-5 hitters went down in order in the bottom of the fourth, and though Thoenen had often pitched multiple innings in relief for San Diego, Philadelphia manager Gene Mauch sent Grant Jackson out to the mound to pitch the fifth. There was no way of knowing it at the time, but Thoenen's Major League career was complete: one inning, five batters faced, two hits, one run, no walks, no strikeouts, two assists. "It was somewhat of a blur," he wrote to me.


When the Phillies' postseason shares were distributed after the season, Thoenen was one of 10 players who received one-fifth of a share -- $39.43. A full share for the fifth-place Phils that year was $197.18. He spent that offseason pitching for Lara in the Venezuelan winter league, with Bobby Cox as one of his teammates.


In 1968, after spending much of the spring with the Phillies, Thoenen was optioned back to San Diego to start the season. He closed out the Padres' first win of the season when he struck out Indianapolis' Frank Obregon with the bases loaded to preserve a 5-4 victory. Not long after that, Colton saw his only Major League action, pitching two innings, allowing one run, in a blowout loss at Cincinnati's Crosley Field.


That year was San Diego's 33rd and final campaign in the Pacific Coast League before the club joined the National League. Thoenen also had a role in the season finale, hitting a home run in an 8-7, 10-inning win, but the Padres finished second to the Tulsa Oilers. In 36 games, he went 1-3 with a 2.41 ERA, striking out 40 and walking 31 in 71 innings. 


(I also thought it was worth mentioning this gem that came up in my research: Roughly midway through the season, on July 28, 1968, Colton allowed a home run to Tucson's Jim Dunegan on a 3-2 pitch to lead off the game -- and then held the Toros hitless the rest of the way in an 8-1 victory.)


With the Padres becoming a big-league team in 1969, the Phillies moved their top farm club to Eugene, Ore. Thoenen, in what would be his final professional season, was with the Emeralds, who ran away with the PCL's Southern Division title -- finishing 13 games ahead of the Phoenix Giants. He appeared in just 12 games, throwing 22 innings with a 4.09 ERA, but his contributions were enough to earn him a spot in the team photo (which of course could have been taken at a time when he was with the team; I was unable to determine why he pitched so few innings). The Emeralds also featured a 23-year-old Bowa in his final minor league season.

After retiring from baseball, Thoenen began his second career ("Sales" is all he wrote in response to my question about his post-playing life) and, I can only assume, liked the Beaver State enough to settle there. He's now one of 104 pitchers whose career lasted exactly one inning in one game. Colton is one of 88 whose one-game career lasted two frames. After hanging up his spikes, he taught in the Portland school system and then became a writer and founded the Community of Writers.

Thoenen's responses to my questions were short -- he wrote only in the spaces I left between questions, not on the back or on another sheet of paper -- and, in one case, difficult to read. I'm not complaining; he didn't have to respond to me at all. But the one answer I couldn't make out was to the last question I asked him: if he had any thoughts when he looked at his rookie card now, 43 years -- his uniform number -- after it appeared. I couldn't quite make out what he wrote, but he signed the sheet as well. Looking at it now, it appears it could say, "What a kid." 

------
Research sources included The Sporting News and other online newspaper archives, plus Cappy Gagnon's Notre Dame Baseball Greats.

From ND to MLB: Frank Carpin

As the "From Notre Dame to the Major Leagues" series resumes today, it bears a new look. First, it has a graphic, however rudimentary, that, when clicked, will take you to all of the posts in the series. There's a simple graphic -- an include, as we call it in the biz -- embedded in each post and a static one with player images at the top of the right rail.

And secondly, this latest installment is more than just my thoughts and observations gleaned from searching the internet for information on a long-ago player. After the New Year, I went to Notre Dame's online alumni directory to see which former players had contact information listed. Last Saturday, I wrote out e-mails to those with web addresses, and on Monday, I sent out a letter to another. There are still more I have yet to contact, but after this initial effort, I'm more than pleased with the response. Of the six e-mails sent, I had three responses by Monday afternoon.

We'll begin with the first response, because he wrote back within 24 hours and has been very helpful and forthcoming. I'm not a fan of Q&A formatted interviews (it doesn't feel like writing to me), so I think the best way to present this is with some research and background, with his comments included for greater detail.

And with that, the From Notre Dame to the Major Leagues" series continues with ...






Frank Carpin, a left-handed pitcher born in Brooklyn who went to high school in Richmond, Va., played just one season at Notre Dame, in 1958. The Irish went 20-11, reaching the NCAA Tournament, but falling in the district round with a 2-2 record in Kalamazoo, Mich. I picked up this 1966 Topps card -- Carpin's only card -- at the same show where I got the 1965 Jim Hannan that began this project. (I'm not positive, but it looks like Carpin's photo may have been taken at Shea Stadium. It looks like Shea's left-field corner, and because of the card stock and quality of 1960s photos, I can't be sure if the uniform is white or gray -- and in '65, both of the Bucs' jerseys said "PIRATES." Carpin was with the Pirates for all of their trips to New York that season.)

Baseball had no part in my decision to attend ND. I chose ND because of its reputation and Catholic background. My first choice was West Point, but that was not an option when I realized my pro baseball potential. I turned down scholarships to many Southern schools, including Wake Forest [the 1955 NCAA champ]. Ironically, the man who got me the scholarship was Syd Thrift, a Pirate scout, who later engineered my being drafted from the Yankee farm system. I did receive a walk-on scholarship at ND, but signed [with the Yankees] after one year.

But Carpin left his mark in his one season. His 102 strikeouts remained the single-season record until Aaron Heilman broke it with 118 in 1999. Heilman now holds the top three single-season strikeouts totals in Irish history, fanning 118 again in 2000 and finishing up with 111 in 2001. Jeff Manship equalled the 111 in 2006 and Danny Tamayo struck out 106 in '01. Those, along with Carpin's 102 and David Phelps' 102 in 2007, are the only 100-strikeout seasons in Notre Dame history, and all but Carpin's came in the past 12 years. To put it into greater perspective, in 1958, the Irish played 36 games. The rest of those hurlers compiled their strikeout totals in no fewer than 61 games.

To his credit, Carpin still holds the all-time marks for strikeouts per nine innings (12.63) and in a game. On April 16, 1958, he struck out 19 Indiana Hoosiers, then hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the 10th of a 12-10 Irish victory.

After that stellar season, Carpin accepted the Yankees' offer and headed to Greensboro in the Class B Carolina League in 1959.

Despite signing with the Yankees in 1959, the Tigers made a better offer. [John] McHale was the GM then and an ND graduate. But my father liked the Yankees and since the Dodgers were not interested, the natural choice was the opposition ... just like ND became the choice when West Point was not possible.

After going 12-9 with a 3.24 ERA and 1.47 WHIP (minor league stats for the time period are incomplete, so we have to take what we can get) at age 20 with Greensboro, Carpin moved up to Class A Binghamton in the Eastern League in 1960, going 11-8/3.69/1.52. In '61, he made the jump to Triple-A and got to go home, playing for Richmond in the International League. He went 7-9/3.52/1.25 with 104 strikeouts in 125 innings and returned the Virginians in '62. But after starting out 1-6/4.71/1.65, he was demoted to Double-A Amarillo in the Texas League.

The most humbling [moment] was being sent down in 1962 by the Triple-A Yankee team from my hometown -- Richmond -- to the Texas League. I went from a prospect who nearly made the Yankees in 1961 and 1962 to a suspect who could not win a game until sent out of the organization in 1963 to Lynchburg.

In '63, Carpin returned to the Southeast, starting out with the Augusta (Ga.) Yankees in the Double-A South Atlantic League before being sent to Lynchburg in the same circuit, but part of the White Sox organization. It was with Lynchburg where he experienced a turning point.

I told this story to the young kids I coached to help them understand what is necessary to be successful in sports or any field. In 1963, I was languishing in the bullpen in Double-A Augusta, Georgia, after a horrible 1962 season and demotion from Triple-A to Double-A. I literally could not get anybody out and the August manager had to send someone out at cut time. They couldn't send me back to Greensboro, where I had started five years earlier, because of option rules, so they offered me to Lynchburg in the same league. I walked across the diamond that night to join the opposing Lynchburg team, and the manager, Les Moss, asked if I could pitch that night because I was all they had. I eagerly accepted the start and pitched better than I had in two years. The minute I crossed the diamond from one clubhouse to another, everything changed. Two of my next three starts were shutouts on the way to a 15-game winning season and another win in the playoffs against my former Yankee teammates. I asked my kids -- What changed? I had the same arm and same "stuff." The only performance-enhancing substance I took was Wheaties. That's how much the mental aspect plays in sports and the confidence you get when someone tells you, "You're all we got."

Carpin finished '63 with a 15-9 record, 3.12 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, fanning 142 in 196 innings. He spent '64 back with Richmond, going 5-3/2.79/1.39, fanning 87 in 97 frames. After the season, the Pirates selected him in the minor league draft, assigning him to Triple-A Columbus, where he started 4-0/2.67/1.44 before getting the call. On May 25, 1965, he made his debut with the Pirates.

The happiest moment was the news of the call-up while in Triple-A early in 1965 and the win that night. My debut was very memorable: Two innings of relief and a win against the Cubs that started a long winning streak for the Pirates, who had started very poorly. I became a good luck charm among the players.

The win in Carpin's debut was actually the fifth in a 12-game winning streak for the Pirates that season. Before the streak started, they had been 9-24 on the season; Carpin's win improved Pittsburgh's record to 10-24. By the end of the streak, they were 21-24 and had cut their deficit in the National League from 13 1/2 games to 7 1/2 and improved their standing from last place (10th in the league) to sixth. They spent most of the season in the middle of the pack before going 10-2 over the final two weeks to finish third.

Carpin finished his rookie year with a 3-1 record, 3.18 ERA and 1.49 WHIP in 39 games, all out of the bullpen. He finished 14 contests, saving four of them, and struck out 27 and walked 24 in 39 2/3 innings. After the season, the Astros selected him in the Rule 5 Draft.

He opened the '66 season with Houston, appearing in four games and earning the fourth win of his career before being sent down to Triple-A Oklahoma City. On May 5 at the Astrodome, he came into a tie game with two outs in the top of the 13th inning, caught the Cubs' Adolfo Phillips trying to steal home to get out of the inning and earned the win without throwing a pitch when Joe Morgan scored the game-winner for Houston in the bottom half.

During his 44-game stint with the 89ers, Carpin went 3-5/2.92/1.35 before a recall to the big leagues. He finished the season with a total of six innings in 10 Major League games, going 1-0/7.50/2.50. His final game came on Sept. 3, 1966, two innings in a 12-2 loss at Atlanta, allowing no hits and three walks.

In 1966 I had three children and an expectant wife. There were bone chips starting to develop in my pitching elbow and the Houston doctor told me I had an arthrithic elbow. He suggested they send me home in late August and see how things looked in the spring. I was making $12,000 and this was before free agency and arthroscopic surgery. I also had a Notre Dame degree and my oldest son would start grade school in the fall. My wife said she was not going to accompany me the following year and take my son out of the Richmond school. In addition, I had been working in a training program in the offseason to become a stock broker. All I needed was to pass the exam. I did so that October. What if there had been arthroscopic surgery then? Free agency? More than $12,000 salaries? I rested for two years then started pitching again. Blood flow had dissolved the developing chips and I only pitched once a week in the summer college league in Shennandoah Valley. The results were outstanding. Scouts asked if I would report to their Triple-A clubs right away if they could secure my services. I said no. My brokerage career was taking off, my family was happy in their place and pitching once a week wouldn’t cut it in pro ball. Plus, the money was not there as free agency was still a few years off. But looking back, it is easy to second guess.

Carpin's career line reads 49 games in those two seasons, a 4-1 record and 3.74 ERA. He holds a distinction for having the most wins since 1930 without allowing a home run, though Craig Kimbrell won four games for the Braves last season, his rookie year, without allowing a long ball. For the moment, Kimbrell and Carpin share that distinction.



Though his career was cut short, Carpin counts five Hall of Famers among his teammates: Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski and Willie Stargell with the Pirates and Joe Morgan and Robin Roberts with the Astros.

Interesting point on Robin Roberts ... I first met him in Yankee spring camp 1961 and renewed the relationship in 1966 at Cocoa Beach (Astros). He invited me fishing in Ft. Lauderdale and we surf fished together at Cocoa Beach. My first encounter with him was Richmond, Va., circa 1949. The Phillies were barnstorming north prior to the season and they came to Richmond to play the Cardinals. I was the only one at the ballpark early one Saturday morning when I saw him staring at the outfield in a box seat. I asked for his autograph and he never broke his stare. In 1961, I told him that story and the next day two autograph pictures were in my locker. Then he invited me fishing offshore and in 1966 he confided with me about Marvin Miller and his part in having a players union with Marvin as head. He introduced me to Marvin, who was also a Brooklyn native and Dodger fan. The Astros, I believe, were the only team that voted against the union and Marvin Miller. Management poisoned everyone's minds, except me ... The rest is history. Maz was a great teammate in Pittsburgh and Willie and Roberto were obviously great players. My Astro experience was a big letdown after Pittsburgh.

Now 72, Carpin still lives in Richmond, where he is a stock and commodities broker for Oppenheimer & Co. He said he follows Notre Dame football "religiously," attending several games a year, and keeps tabs on the basketball, baseball and top Irish women's sports. "My wife played against Pat Summit's first team, so that and soccer are on my viewing list," he told me. In a follow-up e-mail he sent me yesterday, he offered some thoughts on his decision to leave Notre Dame. With the news that star receiver Michael Floyd would return for his senior season in the fall, I found Carpin's comments to be quite poignant.

Looking back on my decisions as a young man, I do regret leaving Notre Dame after one year as a baseball player. My education and receiving a degree is not the issue. I graduated in February 1962 with a B.A. in history. Although my career at ND was short, I am more proud that I was Domer than I was a Major League player. And I regret that I cut my college athletic experience short. I think about this when the NFL beckons with the big money. Today's players don't have much choice with injury a major concern, especially football players. But baseball is different. There was some money involved, but the main reason I jumped was wanting to find out if I could compete. Patience has never been a virtue, but I wish it had in respect to ND.

As I take this "From ND to MLB" series forward, I think Mr. Carpin's willingness to share his memories have set the bar pretty high. In addition to trading e-mails with me during the week, he also asked for my mailing address. Yesterday, two signed photos of him at Forbes Field (one posted above, the other here) arrived in my mailbox -- such a kind gesture. I wasn't expecting anything and won't be asking others for anything in return -- only their time and their memories. I can't wait to see what comes next.