Friday, June 14, 2019

I didn't know they were Pirates

A short post today about four short-time Pirates, who were well-known for their time with other teams.  I didn't know before these cards that any of these players had ever been on the Pirates, and in each case I'm not sure exactly how I found out.  But I now have these cards of these great players with the Pirates, more or less.
1961 Topps Bobby Shantz.
1968 Topps Maury Wills.
 I say that I have them with the Pirates "more or less" because Bobby Shantz here is clearly still in his Yankees uniform in the picture.  But the card says he's a Pirate, so that's enough for me.  I posted about Bobby Shantz before, and how my dad would have been a little kid in the Philly area when he was a star with the Philadelphia A's.  Bobby Shantz spent 1961 with the Bucs after leaving the Yankees, going 6-3 with 2 saves, mainly pitching as a reliever, going 89.1 innings in 43 games.  Maury Wills is of course famous as a Dodger, but spent all of 1967 and 1968 with Pittsburgh.  He kept up his usual ways, batting .302 with 29 steals in 1967 and batting .278 with 52 steals in 1968.  He next made a stop in Montreal before returning to the Dodgers.
1984 Fleer Update Amos Otis.
1985 Topps Traded George Hendrick.
Skipping the 70s, we move on to two 1980s short-time Pirates.  First we have Amos Otis from the 1984 Fleer Update set.  I remember Otis from the talented 1980 Royals team that the Phillies beat in the World Series.  It's too bad that Otis didn't stay with the Royals long enough for them to win it in 1985; his career ended playing 40 games with the Pirates in 1984.  Then we have George Hendrick pictured here on his 1985 Topps Traded card.  I admit, I never noticed George Hendrick back in the day, and only started paying attention to his cards with Night Owl's post around the time I started blogging.  (I didn't pay much attention at the time, but Night Owl did include this card of Hendrick.)  So I've picked up some nice cards of Hendrick here and there, including this, to commemorate the 69 games he played with the Bucs in 1985.

Thanks for reading!  Please feel free to use the comments to suggest any other great players who spent short stints with the Pirates, and I'll consider picking up cards of them in black and gold if I don't have any yet.

2 comments:

  1. The ultimate guide to short term stops is the great series Dime Box Nick did. Here’s his Pirates post. http://baseballdimebox.blogspot.com/2017/01/short-term-stops-all-pirates-team.html He missed Otis!

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    1. Thanks -- I didn't know about Nick's series; it looks like it was a few months before I started blogging. For some reason I don't remember Kirk Gibson as a Pirate even though I would have been following the team back then. And Luis Tiant looks like a good card for me to pick up.

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