Sus Casas Son Mis Casas

I'm probably missing some punctuation there.  Anyway, today's mailday post contains a lot of things, including a three-card lot of Triston Casas:

Triston Casas is a player I am very excited about.  He had a rough start to the season last year, but turned into one of the most consistent offensive threats in the league, finishing the season eighth in OPS.  He has some work to do defensively, but he looks like he could be a star.  Plus, he has some big personality that could make him a fan favorite.

1.  Mike Easler.  Easler cost John Tudor in trade, but was a pretty good hitter in his time in Boston, particularly in 1984.  That year he hit .313/.376/.516 with 27 home runs and 91 RBIs.  After his numbers declined in 1985, he was traded to the Yankees for Don Baylor.

2.  Stuffy McInnis.  This is my first card of Stuffy.  He is a player who gets mentioned every once in awhile when talk turns to old-time players for the Hall of Fame.  I'm not sure he's even a borderline candidate, but he had a nice career, hitting .307/.343/.381 for his career.  This card discusses his 1921 season in which he came down to the last day of the season before making his first error.  McInnis spent four years in Boston, hitting .296/.326/.361.

3.  Wil Cordero.  Cordero is a player who had some significant off-field issues.  He would likely have a hard time continuing to find work in the league due to a domestic violence charge.  

Up next is some vintage:

1.  Tom Sturdivant.  Sturdivant pitched just one season in Boston, primarily out of the bullpen.  Oddly, he was the Red Sox Opening Day starter that one season.  He ended up going 3-3 with a 4.97 ERA and was plucked by the new Senators (now Texas Rangers) in the expansion draft the next season.

2.  Haywood Sullivan.  Sullivan was mostly a backup catcher for a few seasons before also being taken in the expansion draft.  Sullivan later became the Red Sox general manager, and his son Marc played for the Red Sox for a few seasons.

3.  Jim Pagliaroni.  Pagliaroni had some big power and in his only season as the Red Sox primary catcher, hit .242/.342/.415 with 16 home runs and 58 RBIs.  He was later dealt to the Pirates in the deal that brought Dick Stuart to the Red Sox.

4.  Chuck Schilling.  Schilling was a very good defensive second-baseman who could not really hit.  He hit .239/.304/.317 with 23 home runs in his career.

DEVERS!

And finishing things off for the day is a lot of nine Curt Schilling cards.  Schilling's career certainly merits Hall of Fame induction, but he is such a blowhard and has such controversial opinions on things that it makes it difficult to focus on his playing career.  However, nothing he has done is illegal, he's just kind of an ass.  I don't think that should keep him out of the Hall of Fame.

Vintage Red Sox: T206 Frank Arellanes (Thanks ZZ!)

I received an unexpected package from Zippy Zappy himself.   I was completely shocked by what I found when I opened it:

It is one thing to find some prospect cards or other base cards, even the Sega Card-Gen cards when I open these.  This is a whole different level.  I am extremely thankful for Zippy sending me this T206 of Frank Arellanes.  That is an incredibly generous package.

Arellanes spent three seasons in the Majors, all with Boston.  He had a 1.82 ERA in 79 innings (eleven games) in 1908 then followed that up with his best season in 1909.  That year, he went 16-12 with a 2.18 ERA in 45 games (28 starts) and 230.2 innings pitched.  He led the league in games finished (15) and retroactively in saves (eight).  He notched 82 strikeouts and 43 walks.  The next season, his ERA increased to 2.88 in 18 games (100 innings).  He had some conditioning issues which led to a falling-out with the team and he never made it back to the Majors.  He died at just 36 years old in 1918 of pneumonia complications from influenza.

The package also included two other cards:

Craig Breslow did a couple of tours of duty with the Red Sox and was an important lefty out of the bullpen for the 2013 World Champions, though he struggled in the postseason.  He is currently the Red Sox Chief of Baseball Operations for the Red Sox and is undertaking a program for the team to develop its own pitchers.  He has so far organized trades of Chris Sale and Alex Verdugo for a slew of pitching prospects and infielder Vaughn Grissom and signed Lucas Giolito.

This Kaleb Ort card is from his minor league days in the Yankees organization, though the Trenton Thunder were once a Red Sox affiliate (I have cards of Nomar with them).  Ort was picked up in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft in 2021 (same draft that brought Garrett Whitlock).  Ort spent parts of three seasons in Boston and has a record of 2-4 with a 6.27 ERA.  He throws hard so teams are willing to take a chance on him.

Thank you so much Zippy.  I will try to get something out to you soon. 

Vintage Red Sox: 1955 Bowman

I can't remember what I was browsing for on Ebay Christmas Day when I came across a seller selling cheap singles from 1955 Bowman.  I always liked the design and decided that since I did not have any cards from the set (which surprised me) and it had been a long time since I bought any vintage Red Sox cards, I would grab a few.  I ended up with three.

1.  Willard Nixon.  This is my fourth Nixon card.  He spent his entire nine-year Major League career with the Red Sox primarily as a starting pitcher.  For his career, he had a record of 69-72 with a 4.39 ERA (98 ERA+), striking out 616 and walking 530 in 1,234 innings pitched.  He was a decent fielder as a pitcher and ranked among league leaders in a few categories, including leading the league in fielding percentage in 1957.  That was probably his best season as he was 12-13 with a 3.68 ERA (108 ERA+, 3.12 FIP) with 96 strikeouts and 56 walks in 191 innings, throwing eleven complete games.  Unfortunately, instead of being a sign of good things to come, his numbers nosedived in 1958 and he was released.  

2.  Billy Goodman.  This is my eighth Billy Goodman card and he is still the only player I have a cut autograph of from SP Legendary Cuts (remember that set?).  Goodman is the best player of the three cards I picked up.  I need to get more cards of him.  He is renowned for winning the A.L. batting title in 1950 (.354) despite not having a regular position.  He played left field and all four infield positions that season.  He also finished second in the MVP vote.  Goodman was a two-time All Star (1949, 1953) and finished his career hitting .300/.376/.378 in a 16-year career with the Red Sox, Orioles, White Sox and Colt .45's (Astros).  He was with the Red Sox from 1947 to 1957 when he was traded to Baltimore for reliever Mike Fornieles, a deal which worked out well for Boston.

3.  Russ Kemmerer.  This is my first card of Kemmerer, so welcome to the collection.  Kemmerer spent parts of the first three seasons in his career with the Red Sox, coming up in 1954 and putting up an impressive 3.82 ERA (109 ERA+, 3.82 FIP) in 19 games with a 5-3 record.  He struck out 37 and walked 41 in 75.1 innings seeing time as both a starter and reliever.  He struggled a bit in 1955 then spent 1956 in the minors before making it back to Boston for one game in 1957 then was traded to Washington along with Milt Bolling and Faye Throneberry for Dean Stone and Bob Chakales.  Kemmerer became an innings eater in Washington, but did not have much success and later pitched for the White Sox and Colt .45's. 

Vintage Red Sox: Bill Carrigan

Today's vintage card to show off is from the classic T206 set.  This is my second T206, joining Tubby Spencer.  This is a much more important player for the Red Sox.

I have talked about Bill Carrigan quite a bit on this blog.  Carrigan was a member of the Red Sox for ten seasons and played in 709 games with Boston.  For his career, Carrigan hit .257/.334/.314 with six home runs and 235 RBIs while stealing 35 bases.  His best season was in 1909 when he hit .296/.341/.368 with one home run and 36 RBIs.

Carrigan was a leader on the team and would eventually become the team's player/manager.  He is notable in Red Sox history for being the only manager to preside over consecutive World Series Champs for the 1915 and 1916 seasons.  Carrigan retired from baseball temporarily after the 1916 season, but came back to manage the team from 1927 through 1929.

Carrigan only wore a Red Sox uniform during his Major League career, playing with the team for ten seasons and managing them for seven. 

Vintage Red Sox: Clyde Engle

Today's vintage Red Sox card to show off is a little bit interesting.  This is an original T205 card that was collected by Topps and framed as part of the 2003 Topps 205 set.  It was an interesting idea and I always wanted one of them.  There was one I was watching a few years back, but the price was never right.  I am pretty sure it was Jake Stahl.  Well, I ended up with this one:

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Clyde Engle spent eight seasons in the Major Leagues, five of those years coming with Boston.  He was originally with the New York Highlanders (now the Yankees) and was sold to Boston early in his second season.  Engle played all over the diamond and seldomly settled on one position in a season, except in 1913 when he was the team's primary first-baseman. 

Engle was not a real good hitter, even for the Deadball Era.  He did have a very good year in 1913 when he was a regular player though.  That season, he hit .289/.363/.384 with 17 doubles, 12 triples, two home runs and 50 RBIs.  He did have some decent speed too as he stole 28 bases that season. 

In 1914, Engle was sold to Buffalo of the short-lived Federal League.  His total numbers with Boston included 512 games with a slash line of .265/.341/.338 with 55 doubles, 25 triples, six home runs, 163 RBIs and 80 stolen bases.  Not great numbers, but decent for a utility player.

Vintage Red Sox: Max Bishop

Today I am showing off a recent pickup, a 1934-1936 Diamond Stars card of infielder (mostly second base) Max Bishop:

Bishop had a 12-year career in the Majors, spent primarily with the Philadelphia Athletics.  He spent the last two seasons of his career with the Red Sox.  Bishop in many ways was well ahead of his time, he was a player who knew how to get on base.  Nicknamed "Camera Eye", Bishop drew 100 or more walks in eight straight seasons with the A's.  He was not a great hitter, as his .271 lifetime batting average and his .366 lifetime slugging average will attest.  But he was really good at getting on base.  His lifetime on-base percentage was an extremely impressive .423.  He was so good that he was typically the A's leadoff hitter, despite not being much of a base stealer (40 lifetime stolen bases).  That was strange for this time period.

Bishop was part of the package the Red Sox received when they acquired Lefty Grove from the A's in 1934.  He was coming off of a season in which he hit .294/.446/.399.  Unfortunately, Bishop did not have much left in the tank when he was acquired.  He played in just 157 games for Boston over the next two seasons.  His hitting declined, though he was still able to get on base, particularly in the first season.  Bishop hit .251/.424/.320 for the Red Sox and saw time at three infield positions.  His career was over after the 1935 season.

Max Bishop's skills were largely unnoticed due to the time period in which he played.  If he were playing today, he would be a much bigger name.

My First Real Goudey

The Goudey sets from the mid 1930's have always been one of the more attractive vintage sets.  I have been on a bit of a vintage kick lately.  And when I say that, I mean pre-WWII sets.  I have been trying to grab a few for my Red Sox collection.  And so I decided I would grab one of these Goudey cards.  And here it is:

Julius Solters, who went by the nickname "Moose", made his Major League debut with the Red Sox as a 28-year-old rookie in 1934.  That would be his only full season with the Red Sox and he hit .299/.333/.447 with seven home runs and 58 RBIs while appearing in 101 games, mostly as a center fielder.  The next season, he started out slowly and was eventually sent to the St. Louis Browns in a deal for Oscar "Ski" Melillo.  Solters would go on a tear the rest of the season, which was the first of three straight seasons in which he would hit nearly 20 home runs and drive in more than 100 runs.  His career went downhill from there.