Meet the Brewers #26: Mike Hershberger

On April 22, 1970, the Brewers debuted a new starting rightfielder. Mike Hershberger was finally healthy again, and he found himself batting third against the California Angels and its starter, Clyde Wright, in front of only 5,120 fans in Anaheim. Hershberger went 1-for-4 -- a single in the midst of three straight hits in the sixth inning against Wright that plated the only run Milwaukee scored in the game.

During Spring Training in 1970, Hershberger was impressing the Brewers' staff and front office with his hitting. He was set to be the Brewers starting rightfielder. Then, Hershberger pulled his right groin muscle and found himself watching the first two weeks of the season from the bench.

1970 McDonald's Milwaukee Brewers

Norman Michael Hershberger was born in Massillon, Ohio, on October 9, 1939. He was a great athlete in high school, as one would expect, and he starred in both baseball and football. Indeed, he logged one year of college at the University of Cincinnati after high school on a football scholarship. After his freshman year, however, and despite being slated to be the starting tailback for the Bearcats the next season, he signed to play professional baseball with the Chicago White Sox.

Hershberger got married to his high school sweetheart Judy in the fall of 1959. Those two stories are odd in that Judy Hershberger seems to have gotten more press coverage than most anyone else's wife that I have seen so far. The first link is from a Sarasota newspaper in 1959 and is titled, "Think You'd Like To Be A Baseball Player's Wife?" (subtitled, "Reporter Interviews Five 'Unusual' Visitors"). The second is from the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1970 and highlighted the fact that five Brewers' wives lived within two blocks of one another in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The weird thing about that second story is that it comes across about 150% more sexist than the first article -- providing first names for only two of the women (they are otherwise known as "Mrs. [fill in ballplayer's name]") and calling Ted Kubiak's wife, "a long legged Canadian beauty" -- again, without providing her first name!

1971 O-Pee-Chee [Back]

By the time he turned 22 years old, Hershberger had already made his major league debut for the White Sox in 1961. He spent four years on Chicago's South Side and, like the remainder of his baseball career, he showed very good contact skills -- striking out in less than 10% of his plate appearances (Hershberger regularly featured in the top 10 most at-bats per strikeout between 1963 and 1967) -- but not much power. Add in the fact that he was not a very successful base stealer (74 of 110 for his career), and you have someone who best fit the role of a fourth outfielder. Still, he had a strong arm and led the AL in assists in 1965, 1966, and 1967.

1971 Topps/O-Pee-Chee

His career with the White Sox ended before the 1965 season when he was a part of a big three-team trade. He went to the Kansas City Athletics with Jim Landis and, eventually, Fred Talbot from Chicago. The A's sent Rocky Colavito to Cleveland in the deal. The White Sox sent Cam Carreon to the Indians as well. Cleveland sent Tommie Agee, Tommy John, and John Romano to the White Sox.

His career with Kansas City and, then, Oakland, went well until 1968. In 1968, the A's started forming the base of the team that would become the back-to-back-to-back World Series Champions from 1972 to 1974. The base of the team to which I'm referring is their outfield, comprised of 21-year-old Joe Rudi, 22-year-old Rick Monday, and 22-year-old Reggie Jackson. Of course, that 1968 A's team has a bunch of guys who would later play with Milwaukee/Seattle in the next two-to-three years, so that tells you that they weren't quite ready for primetime yet (that list includes Hershberger, Jim Pagliaroni, Ted Kubiak, Phil Roof, Jim Gosger, Lew Krausse, Jack Aker, Ed Sprague, Diego Segui, Ken Sanders, and George Lauzerique at least).

1970 Flavor-est Milk Set (1986 Reprint)

Hershberger's time in Milwaukee did not last past 1970. Hershberger pulled another groin muscle -- this time on his left side -- near the end of July, causing his season to end after a 1-for-3 performance on July 26. How he pulled the muscle underlines what an unlucky season it was for him: According to the July 29, 1970, Milwaukee Journal, Herschberger was attending a family picnic on an off day after the July 26 game against Boston. The skies opened up, and the family ran for the car. As Hershberger ran for his car, he slipped and pulled the muscle.  In the end, he started just 28 games in 1970, and the team released him after the season. He caught on for one more season in Chicago before retiring.

1994 Miller Commemorative Set

After his baseball career ended, Hershberger ended up in sales in the toy industry. He worked for Hasbro Industries -- the company that gave us the excellent game that killed many folks, "Javelin Darts" or "Jarts" or, simply, lawn darts. Accompanying that nightmare game was another game called The Hypo-Squirt -- described on Wikipedia as "a hypodermic needle shaped water gun tagged by the press as a "junior junkie" kit.

Any of you guys who collect toys own a "Hypo-Squirt"?

Anyway, Hershberger left Hasbro in 1975 and went to work for The Ohio Art Company -- which produced and owned the "Etch A Sketch" toy for over five decades until it sold the product to Spin Master Corp. in January of 2016. 

From there, he moved on to working in sporting good sales for the rest of his life. He spent his spare time working with charities such as the St. Joseph's Orphanage, the Special Olympics, and The Massillon Boys Club, among others. Hershberger passed away at the age of 72 on July 1, 2012. 

Hershberger appears on 8 cards/items as a Brewer (counting the original and the reprint Flavor-Est Milk sets as two separate items). I have the ones I have shown here, and I am missing the 1970 Mike Andersen Postcard (which features the same photo as the Flavor-Est set again...) and the 1970 Milwaukee Brewers Picture Pack of Hershberger.

Have a great day, and thanks for reading.

Meet the Brewers #25: Phil Roof

When the Brewers began the 1970 season, manager Dave Bristol seemingly had decided that veteran catcher Jerry McNertney would be his regular catcher. McNertney had been the starter in Seattle the year before, so perhaps there was a bit of incumbency bias going on there. As a result, it took Phil Roof until the sixth game of the season to get into a game -- and then only because the Brewers and White Sox played a doubleheader, with Roof starting game 2 of the doubleheader.

1970 McDonald's Milwaukee Brewers

By the end of the season, however, Roof had played parts of 107 games behind the plate and McNertney had played in 95 as the backstop. It wasn't a platoon -- both bat right-handed. The two men were the only players to appear at catcher that year for the Brewers, making catcher a strange island of stability (along with shortstop) when compared to rightfield (12 different players appeared), leftfield (11), and first base (10, including both catchers).

The back of Roof's 1971 O-Pee-Chee Card

Phillip Anthony Roof was born in Paducah, Kentucky in a baseball-playing family. His cousin Eddie Haas appeared in 55 total games in the big leagues in the late 1950s and in 1960, and his brother Gene Roof made 48 total appearances in the 1980s (mostly for the Cardinals but also 8 games with the Expos in 1983). Additionally, Roof brothers Adrian, Paul, and David all played minor league ball as did Gene's sons Shawn, Eric, and Jonathan.

By far the most prolific of the family, Phil played in 15 total major league seasons. Roof has a number of strange distinctions. He is one of just three players to appear for both the Milwaukee Braves and Milwaukee Brewers (2 games for the Braves, 1 in 1961 and one in 1964). The other two are Felipe Alou (who hit three times for the Brewers in 1974) and Hank Aaron. A fourth player, George Brunet, appeared for the Milwaukee Braves and the Seattle Pilots, but he never made it to Milwaukee.

1971 Topps (or 1971 O-Pee-Chee, your choice)

Roof also appeared for the first iteration of the California Angels in 1965 after their name change from being the LA Angels. He was a member of the first Oakland A's team after their move from Kansas City. He stayed two seasons in Oakland before he was traded. Phil joined the Brewers organization while it was nominally still the Pilots, coming to the Brewers with Mike Hershberger, Lew Krausse, and Ken Sanders from Oakland in exchange for Ron Clark and Jaybarkerfan idol Don Mincher in a January 1970 trade.

Finally, he also made 5 plate appearances in his final season as a member of the inaugural Toronto Blue Jays. Amidst all those interesting places, he spent the most time with the Minnesota Twins -- parts of 6 seasons, starting in 1971 and ending 1976. Through it all, however, Roof was definitely more of a member of the backup catchers' and defensive specialists' union than any kind of star.

1970 Flavor-Est Milk (Reprint)

After his retirement as an active player, he spent eight seasons as a major league coach with the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and Chicago Cubs. Then, the Twins came calling and asked him to serve as a minor-league manager. He did that for 16 years before retiring in 2005. Finally, he pinch-hit as the bullpen coach for the Twins in 2011 while regular bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek recovered from eye surgery.

1994 Miller Brewing Set

As recently as 2013 (that's as recent as I can find), the then-72-year-old Roof still was coming to Twins spring training and throwing batting practice. In various interviews with Roof -- whether in 2000 when he managed the Triple-A Salt Lake Buzz, in 2011 when talking about his pal Bert Blyleven's induction into the Hall of Fame, or later that same year when Roof himself was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame -- he comes across as someone who understands how lucky he has been to be able to spend his entire life in and around a game he's loved since he was a kid.

Counting the "milk" set, Roof appears on a total of 9 cards as a Milwaukee Brewer (10 if you count the original Milk set and the reprint separately). Of those, I have the five I've shown here. I'm missing the 1970 Mike Andersen Postcard, the 1970 and 1971 Brewers Picture Packs, the original Milk set card, and the 1971 Dell Today's Team Stamp.

Meet the Brewers #23: Wayne Comer

Wayne Comer did not play until the Brewers' third game, serving as a pinch hitter for Russ Snyder before playing right field against the Chicago White Sox in a 5-4 loss in the third game of the season. 

In 1970, Wayne Comer was coming off a very successful rookie season with the Seattle Pilots. In 147 games (573 plate appearances), he put up good numbers: 15 HRs, 54 RBI, 18 SB (in 25 attempts...not so hot), and slashing .245/.354/.380. He walked more than he struck out -- 82 walks, 79 strikeouts -- at the age of just 25 years old. And yet, he played 57 more games in 1969 than in any other season in his career.

Why the 26-year-old who was coming off a fairly successful season did not get to start is a big question: the other options were the 36-year-old Snyder and 33-year-old Ted Savage, amongst others. 

1970 McDonald's Milwaukee Brewers

Perhaps it was this: during an exhibition game just prior to the season that took place in Oakland, Comer was at bat. He fouled a ball off straight down, and it bounced up and hit him in the head. Oddly, his SABR Biography does not make note of this and calls Comer the Brewers' starting centerfielder. This clearly was not true as he made only two starts -- only one in centerfield -- for the Brewers during the first month of the season.

Even though he was a rookie in 1969, he already had a World Series ring. He served as a pinch hitter for the Detroit Tigers in 1968, going 6 for 48. But, he was on the World Series roster against the St. Louis Cardinals in that last World Series before the addition of divisions and the League Championship Series. He batted once in the 1968 Series and singled, meaning he had a perfect post-season career.

Despite the very good 1969, it seems that his talents were not appreciated in his day. Yes, this is another example of baseball people focusing on batting average rather than on-base percentage. His major league OBP in 807 plate appearances was .331, but his batting average was just .229. His minor league OBP was .367 versus a batting average of .275. 

1988 Reprint of 1970 Flavor-Est Milk Set 

The other thing going on here may be as simple as someone actually understanding park effects. Sick's Stadium in Seattle was a bandbox -- just 305 feet down the left-field line. It was a terrible stadium -- just read the Wikipedia entry about it to hear all the problems. For instance, on opening day 1969, some people had to wait to sit down for three innings because workers were still putting the seats together.

Comer did not last long in Milwaukee. He went hitless for his first fifteen at-bats, got a pinch-hit single in the first game of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators on May 10, then made an out pinch hitting again in the second game of that doubleheader. That was his last game in Milwaukee, as Comer was traded to the Senators on May 11, 1970 for Hank Allen and Ron Theobald.

1994 Miller Brewing Milwaukee Brewers

Comer played in the minor leagues until the age of 30 in 1974. Thereafter, he first went into sporting goods sales. After that, he became a local teacher and baseball coach in his hometown of Shenandoah, Virginia -- a small town along the South Fork of the Shenandoah River near Interstate 81 in western Virginia -- and in nearby Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

Comer was certainly a local celebrity -- to the point where one reference to him came up on a church website for the Vision of Hope United Methodist Church. The reference is in a sermon overview, and it provides something of a window into what Comer really was like:

Many of you know the name of Wayne Comer. A resident of Page County, Wayne was a super-talented baseball player who made it all the way to the Show -- the major leagues. He was a utility infielder on the 1968 World Champion Detroit Tigers, and also played for the Seattle Pilots. . . . Wayne spent several years operating a very successful sporting goods franchise here in Harrisonburg. And upon retiring from that, he did a short stint as coach of the Spotswood High School Trailblazers baseball team.

The sermon continued by comparing Comer to Bobby Knight and the "my-way-or-the-highway approach" and described Wayne's personality as follows:

Now anyone who has ever known Wayne will agree he has no lack of confidence. And many will tell you he's an arrogant ol' cuss.

Yet, as the sermon continued, it talked about how long after retirement, Comer agreed to come help a struggling second grade boy who needed someone to keep tabs on him and provide a control and a role model on how to act properly in class and school. It worked like a charm.

Wayne Comer has just 11 cards of him from his playing career on the Trading Card Database. Of course, that Broder-type "Flavor-Est" milk set is not in the Trading Card Database, so make it 12. Out of those 12, four show him as a Brewer -- the three I've shown here along with his 1970 Mike Andersen Postcard -- the photo for which is the same as this Flavor-Est card.

A Pop-up Home Run & Another eBay Win

I've got two shorter posts combined today. But, as we all know if we lived through the 1980s, it takes two to make a thing go right.

You sure you wanna hear this man? You sure?

Bert from Swing and a Popup sent me a single card PWE a couple of weeks ago with a note saying only, "This definitely belongs in your collection."

He was right. This card does:

That is a 2005 Donruss Zenith "Z-Jersey" card, complete with the sparkling rays background. This is an incredible card, and many thanks go out to Bert for being so kind to send it my way! 

As the title of this post says, this card is definitely a home run.

2005 is a year that would have driven me nuts as a collector -- it was the height of Donruss's over-the-top parallelization of its sets. According to Beckett, Donruss baseball sets had 2077 total "main" set cards and 12,567 parallels to go along with 3,469 insert cards and 5,544 parallels of inserts.

Of course, that seems like a lot. Then, I check out what Topps did in baseball in 2014: 6,773 main set cards and 52,387 parallels. Add in 11,535 inserts and 19,479 parallel inserts -- and remember, we are talking about individual cards here, not total press runs -- and you see why people complain about Topps and its money grabs.

Okay, I complain about Topps and its money grabs. Just so you know, of those cards, there were a total of 706 Miguel Cabreras, 684 Paul Goldschmidts, 624 Mike Trouts, 582 Freddie Freemans, and 544 Clayton Kershaws.  Those were your top 5 players in terms of number of individual cards in the Beckett database for 2014. 

Talk about overproduction era...Let's move on, before I start overanalyzing those numbers.

I dunno. That Crapital One card ad at the beginning of that video was kind of funny. Tim Fite was profiled in Billboard for his album called iBeenHACKED. It's kind of a neat concept album.

So, talking about being hacked and all that, how about an interesting reprint set that I picked up on eBay?

Larry Fritsch Cards out of Stevens Point, Wisconsin -- from whom I bought this -- claims that this set was originally "[i]ssued in 1970 as a statewide milk promotion in Wisconsin."

I disagree with this, because Bob Lemke and the "Big Book" disagree. As Mr. Lemke puts it: "While purporting to be a dairy issue, this is actually a collectors' set produced by Illinois hobbyist Bob Solon." Lemke's paragraph closes by saying, "Ironically, this set was later reissued in a marked reprint."

I have the reprint, obviously, as the back of the card above shows. I bought the reprint because I have yet to see an original set from 1970 for sale anywhere. The Lemke book from 2011 puts the estimated near-mint price on an original set at $25. I'd probably pay that tomorrow if I saw it.

But, it was never a statewide milk promotion in Wisconsin. Wouldn't that be sort of like a statewide ice promotion in Alaska? Or a statewide peach promotion in Georgia? Or a statewide "drive like an idiot" promotion in Massachusetts?

Some things don't need promotion. 

Fritsch did throw in a nice promo card for another of their sets. Does anyone collect the Kansas City Monarchs?

Or Jackie Robinson? The back carries an offer that if you return the card to Larry Fritsch Cards, the company will give you $2 off the complete 119-card set of Negro League Baseball Stars. That set normally runs $19.95 -- marked down now to $14.95 so buy now! -- so maybe the $2 pays part of the shipping cost?

It's tempting.