Meet the Brewers #44: Wayne Twitchell

As is usual in September for teams going nowhere, the 1970 Brewers called up a few guys from the minors to give them an opportunity to be around the big club and dip their toes into the big league waters. Such was the case on September 7, 1970, when another tall righty pitcher from the Brewers system made his debut in the first game of a doubleheader.

Six-foot, six-inch tall Wayne Twitchell was summoned from the bullpen for the bottom of the fifth inning with the Brewers having rebounded in the top of the inning from 7-1 down to pull within 7-4 against the Minnesota Twins. Twitchell was tossed into the deep end -- he was asked to face the heart of the Twins order...the 4-5-6 hitters. The first guy Twitchell ever faced in the big leagues was Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, and Twitchell struck him out. In fact, Twitchell struck out all three guys he got for outs in his first inning of work -- sandwiching an error by Roberto Pena and a walk in between each out.

1971 Topps/O-Pee-Chee

Wayne Lee Twitchell was born on March 10, 1948 in Portland, Oregon. As is often the case for players in this era, Twitchell was a multisport star in high school and was named to the Oregon All-State team in both football and baseball. According to the excellent SABR biography for Twitchell, he had the chance to play college football at Arizona State. If he had done that, he would have been following in his father's footsteps, as his dad was a standout running back for Oregon State in the 1930s. 

When decision time came, however, a new option had arisen. Twitchell was selected third overall in the 1966 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros -- behind complete washout Steve Chilcott and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. Twitchell's dad had warned Wayne that his family had a history of knee problems, and those problems would have only been exacerbated by trying to play football. 

So, baseball it was. Twitchell was known for being a hard thrower with questionable command, and he toiled for four up-and-down seasons in the Astros organization. As he put it himself, "I always seem[ed] to have the knack of always bringing the teacher out in people. I was taught close to 20 different deliveries, which complicated things." 

The Astros gave up on Twitchell in November of 1969 and sold his contract to the Seattle Pilots. Twitchell was ecstatic to be pitching back in the Pacific Northwest. That ecstasy was dashed when the team was sold and moved to Milwaukee, but Twitchell spent 1970 at home in Portland in Triple-A -- and met his future wife that year as well. 

Twitchell only appeared in 2 games for the Brewers in September of 1970. His second outing was much worse than the first, as he gave up three hits and two earned runs in 2/3 of an inning. Interestingly, Twitchell recorded those two outs by way of a strikeout as well. So, for his Brewers "career," Twitchell has a K/9 of 27. Only the immortal Ray Krawcyzk of the 1989 Brewers finished with more Ks and a K/9 of 27, striking out 6 in 2 innings of work on April 28, 1989 in his only Brewers appearance.

Still, things between Twitchell and Milwaukee were not good. Twitchell's SABR bio quotes him as saying that he "just didn't fit in with Milwaukee. They had their ideas about pitching and it wasn't about my style. I was a fastball pitcher and they were trying to make me into a spot pitcher." This quote makes me wonder if, perhaps, the organizational ethos over the years held back the team from developing pitchers. Obviously things changed a lot in the early years, and that couldn't have helped either.

1994 Miller 25th Anniversary Set

Despite being a 22-year-old pitcher with a history of being a first round pick and for whatever reason, the Brewers gave up on Twitchell quickly as well. At the end of spring training in 1971, Twitchell was traded to Philadelphia for minor league outfielder Patrick Srkable. Skrable played one year of 70 games in Triple-A for Milwaukee and was done. Twitchell himself said that he almost quit baseball after he was traded. 

Thankfully for him, he was sent first to Triple-A Eugene in Oregon. Surrounded by family and his new wife and having a manager in Andy Seminick who left him alone, Twitchell pitched for the last time in the minor leagues -- because he spent the next 9 seasons in the major leagues. Called up to the majors in 1971, Twitchell blossomed in Philadelphia and made the All-Star team in 1973.

Unfortunately, just as Wayne was getting on a roll, those knee problems from the Twitchell family history kicked up. Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs was trying to beat out an infield single on September 18, 1973 at Wrigley Field and slid head first into Twitchell's knee. That was the end of his season and led to a four-hour surgery and eight weeks in a full leg cast. The rehab was brutal and necessary; his doctor told him that if he didn't follow his rehab to the tee "you'll never walk normal again."

From that 1973 season, it was downhill. Twitchell stayed in Philadelphia into 1977, with his only real success being in 1976 -- a 1.75 ERA and a 3.72 K/BB ratio working mainly as a reliever. Stats like that make me wonder if he wasn't misplaced in the starting rotation. He was traded in 1977 to the Expos on June 15, and stayed there through the 1978 season. In 1979, he pitched in 33 games for the Mets before his contract was purchased in August of 1979 by Seattle. Finally getting to pitch for his "hometown" team had to be a pleasure for him, but he was released after the season and was done with baseball.

After his baseball career, he moved back to Oregon and became a commercial real-estate broker. He fought cancer for quite some time, but lost that battle on September 16, 2010, aged just 62 years old.

The three cards that picture Twitchell as a Brewer are shown above. I don't have any of the 1971 cards, as that card is from the difficult-to-find high number set. Weirdly, by the time that the card came out, Twitchell had long since been traded to Philly, but I guess that card had been designed long before. It's also weird to me that the Brewers/Miller used a New York Mets photo for his 1994 Miller card -- I guess it's all they could find.

Rest in Peace, Ray

I had a feeling something was wrong with my friend Ray Peters all week last week. When I made my first post back blogging about Pete Koegel on May 4, the first thing I did after finishing it was send a link to it to Ray by email. I kept checking my email all week expecting to see a response from him. It wasn't like Ray to let an email go unanswered for that long -- he should have responded by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest in my mind.  I hoped that he was alright.

My first autograph from Ray

Unfortunately, things were not all right. When the email came in yesterday from his account as sent by his wife, it surprised me how much loss I felt in many respects. I had never met Ray in person, but he had quickly become a friend to me through his many emails and through the multiple calls that we had. 

As you can see above, we bonded over our love of history. Ray received a degree in Spanish and Latin American studies from Harvard, and I have a degree from Vanderbilt in political science but focused on Latin American politics and history, so we had that in common along with our love for baseball. 

The thing that defined Ray to me was how much he wanted to make sure that his teammates were never forgotten -- especially their contributions to his success. For example, the card above was a photo of Ray having hit a grand slam homerun for the Portland Beavers after being sent down to the minors in 1970. He was quick to point out to me that he used Floyd Wicker's bat to hit the home run and gave Floyd credit for that. 

Ray helped spearhead the Topps Heritage subsets of the Pilots in 2018. He told me a lot of things about how that whole process worked that he asked me not to share, and I will respect that. 

I will say this, however: he loved his card in the subset for the 2019 Heritage set. As he said to me in an email in February, "I am ecstatic to say the least. Truly after 50 years I finally have a Topps baseball card from the team I played with in The Show! How fortunate am I ???!!!"

Funny thing was that the Brew Crew Autographs subset in 2019 Heritage was identified as being on the checklist long before Ray was asked to be a part of it. When he did find out, as you can see, it made him incredibly happy.

Ray was kind enough to send me both of the Heritage autographs that he signed. And whisper it, but I think I have a 1/1 from the 2018 Heritage: I believe I have the only one that Ray signed with a red sharpie instead of a blue one. 

Ray was always generous with his time for me as well. Even when he should have been impatient with me, or when I went days or even weeks without corresponding, he never said a cross word to me. Not even when I delayed and delayed on writing the "Meet The Brewers" for guys that were his friends. Not even once.

I knew he was having some health issues. He mentioned them in passing in his emails and minimized their severity. But, you can tell just looking at his autograph on the 2019 Heritage card above -- as compared to its 2018 compatriot right next to it -- that he was starting to struggle a bit. His signature was shaky, and when I saw it, I actually started to worry about him. Even in my last email to him, I said that I hoped he was well and that I would get to talk to him soon. 

I wish I had had that opportunity.

Ray was much too young to pass away. He was only 72 years old. I know -- that sounds like a long life, but it's not. Not these days. 

All the things they say about telling people that you care for them before it's too late apply here to me. I wish I had gotten the opportunity to tell him how much I appreciated his thoughtful deep dives into Brewer history. I wish I had taken the time to tell him how much I enjoyed his emails and his calls. And, I wish I had another ten or fifteen years to get to know Ray better, to hear more stories, to learn more about him.

Yet, I know I'm lucky. Thanks to Ray, I spent an hour on the phone talking to one of his roommates from the minor leagues -- Jim Slaton -- just hearing about Jim's career. I hope someday to hear more. Thanks to Ray, I got to talk with Fred Stanley a bit about his career and to buy this incredible print:

Thanks to Ray, the 1970 Milwaukee Brewers went from being names on a piece of paper or on the internet to being wonderful, humorous, and even sometimes flawed human beings. 

According to the email that I (and others) received from his wife Janis, Ray died on May 4, 2019. His younger son set up a website called Big Train Ray (https://bigtrainray.com/) to honor his dad. It's a great website, and it has numerous links to stories about Ray's career and life. 

Though I never met you in person, I'll miss you, Ray.

Meet the Brewers #36: Dave May

In this series of biographies, I've talked a number of times about how Marvin Milkes seemingly started making moves simply for the sake of making them. Just like the cliched "blind squirrel," it seemed inevitable that Milkes would make a decent move eventually. Perhaps that move came on June 15, while the team was in Baltimore, when, at the trade deadline, Milkes sent minor league pitchers Dick Baney and Buzz Stephen (both of whom had pitched in the majors before) to the Orioles in exchange for Brewer #36, Dave May. The Brewers also optioned outfielder Hank Allen to Baltimore's Triple-A Rochester team on some sort of loan deal.

1971 Topps

David LaFrance May was born in New Castle, Delaware, on December 23, 1943. His parents had nine children in total, and Dave was the fourth. May signed two contracts to play major league baseball -- one with San Francisco and one with Philadelphia. He became a Giant because the Giants were the first to get their contract to MLB. He did not stay in the Giants system for long because the Orioles snapped him up in the old "first-year draft," which allowed teams to draft minor leaguers away from other teams after just one season -- a 249 plate appearance season in the Appalachian League where he hit .379/.457/.561.

1971 Dell Today's Team Stamp

May moved up in the Orioles system fairly quickly thanks to his hitting ability, and he made his major league debut in 1967 at the age of 23. The problem for May was that he was with a team that had the outfield covered quite well already with 23-year-olds Curt Blefary and Paul Blair in left and center and future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson in right. As a result, in 1967 and 1968, May was on the Rochester/Baltimore shuttle, splitting time both years between Triple-A and the majors. 

1972 Topps

May's offense suffered, though, as an Oriole. He was not getting to start many games in the field and was used mainly as a pinch-hitter. As May said in The Sporting News when talking about his trade to Milwaukee, "It was tough playing for the Orioles because when you weren't in there every day, it was hard to get into a groove." Indeed, in the first two-and-a-half months of 1970 before his trade, May had started only two games of his 25 appearances.

1973 Topps

Freed from the Orioles at the age of 26, May was inserted immediately into the Brewers' starting lineup in centerfield. In Milwaukee, May was at home in many respects. He was an All-Star in 1973, which was his best season by far -- he led the American League in total bases and Win Probability Added. Part of that season left its imprint on the Brewers team record book as he hit safely in 24 consecutive games. That streak stayed on the books as the Brewers best until Paul Molitor's 39-game hitting streak in 1987.

1974 Topps

May struggled in 1974. He had the flu in spring training and may not have been right the whole year. It didn't help that Del Crandall decided to move May to right field, ostensibly to help May out after losing weight thanks to the flu. But he never broke out of the season-long funk. As a result, the team decided to trade him away, and May became the answer to a trivia question: Who was the player that the Atlanta Braves received when they traded Hank Aaron to the Milwaukee Brewers?

1974 Kellogg's

May later was traded two years later by the Braves to the Texas Rangers. The Braves sent May, Adrian Devine, Ken Henderson, Roger Moret, Carl Morton, and $250,000 to the Rangers for 25-year-old Jeff Burroughs. Dave spent one year and a month in Texas before he came back to the Brewers in May of 1978. May was nothing more than a bench player behind Larry Hisle, Ben Oglivie, Sixto Lezcano, Jim Wohlford, and Dick Davis -- yes, the team carried six outfielders then -- and ended up having his contract sold to the Pirates in September of that year.

1974 Topps Stamp

By that point, though, May had left his mark on the team record book for the first decade of its existence. Just look at this "team top 10" list from the 1980 Media Guide:

May was 4th in games, 4th in at bats, 4th in runs, 5th in hits, 6th in doubles, 6th in homers, 6th in RBI, 7th in extra base hits, 5th in total bases, and 5th in stolen bases. Yet, in the popularity contest that was the selection process for the 2000 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Brewers All Decades Team for the 1970s, May was overlooked in favor of Larry Hisle, Sixto Lezcano, Gorman Thomas, Hank Aaron, and Tommy Harper. Of those, Aaron was more of a sentimental choice than one actually based on production for the team, and Hisle probably made the team solely due to his being the first big-name free agent to sign with Milwaukee. May deserved better.

1994 Miller Commemorative Set

Dave passed away in October of 2012 at the age of 68. He suffered from diabetes for the last decade of his life after he moved back home to Delaware. May's son Derrick also played in the major leagues in the 1990s, spending 32 games with the club in 1995. 

Just before Father's Day in 2014, Derrick and his older brother David Jr. talked with each other in the form of a wonderful blog post about growing up with dad being a major leaguer on a website called Instream Sports. Derrick and David Jr. were a little more than a year apart in age, so they were partners in crime often. They played catch with the ball that Dave had gotten signed by the entire 1973 AL All-Star Team -- scuffing it up and getting grass stains on it. 

Derrick laughed about riding his bike to the White Hen Pantry and buying Bazooka and Topps baseball cards before going to the games with their dad in Milwaukee. Derrick also recalled one of their early neighbors in an apartment complex in Milwaukee where a lot of pro athletes lived. Their neighbor Lew was a little younger than Dave was, but Dave and Lew became fast friends. Then one day, the boys were told that Lew was no longer Lew -- that he had changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Dave May has 18 cards in the Trading Card Database showing him as a Milwaukee Brewer. I have the 8 shown here. I do not have the two Brewers picture packs from 1970 and 1971, any of his three O-Pee-Chee cards, the 1972 Topps Venezuelan Stamp, the 1973 Jewel Foods photo card, the 1973-74 Linnett Portrait, the 1974 Topps Deckle Edge, or his 1986 TCMA All-Time Milwaukee Brewers card.

Meet the Brewers #30: Roberto Peña

As GM Marvin Milkes began shuffling the cards he was dealt in 1970, one of the casualties was John Donaldson, who spent most of 1969 with the Seattle Pilots after coming over to the Pilots in a trade for Larry Haney, a catcher who came back to the organization in 1977 to play briefly and then stayed for well over a decade as a coach. Donaldson came to the Pilots from Oakland, and it was back to Oakland in 1970 for him in exchange for Brewer #30, Roberto Peña. 

To Oakland, Peña became expendable once Bert Campaneris got back into the lineup starting around May 1 and, at the same time, got his bat back -- in the 14-game stretch bookending Peña's last two appearances with Oakland, Campaneris pushed his numbers from .184/.212/.265 to .252/.302/.402. 

Dell Today's 1971 Milwaukee Brewers

Peña was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 1960 at the age of 23 years old by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. It would appear that the Pirates thought that Peña was actually 20 years old, and that is the age he claimed at that time. This is based off the fact that, when looking at news stories from later in his career, Peña is credited as being 30 years old when he joined the Brewers when, in reality, he was 33. 

Peña moved up the chain slowly, spending a full season in Class D, a season and a half in Class B, nearly two full seasons in Class AA before spending parts of three seasons in Triple-A.  He did not reach the major leagues until 1965 at the age of 28, meaning that he literally was always older than the average age of players in the leagues in which he was playing.

The Cubs gave Peña his chance in 1965 in what amounted to a challenge trade for Andre Rodgers. Neither team really won the challenge as neither man really did much for their new teams. The one notable event that did occur, though, was that Peña hit homers in his first two major league games, something that did not happen again until 1980. Peña ended up getting set down to the minors early in the 1966 season, and it did not look good for him having a major league career.

1971 Topps

And yet, he stuck with it and, after the 1966 season, he was drafted out of the Cubs organization by the Philadelphia Phillies and handed the starting shortstop job. He had a superficially acceptable season at the plate -- .260 batting average, but with only a .307 OBP and a .300 SLG -- though he was second in the National League in errors committed with 32.

All that was not enough to convince Philadelphia to protect the Dominican from the expansion draft. This was especially true because Philadelphia had a hotshot young prospect that they believed was ready to play -- a guy by the name of Don Money.

The Padres decided to pluck Peña off the Phillies expansion list as the 48th pick of the National League expansion draft. Once again Peña was a regular, but once again Peña's performance led his employer to think, "you know what, we need to upgrade at shortstop." That is why Peña was in Oakland -- having been traded there in spring training in 1970.

Milwaukee plugged the now 33-year-old into its lineup nearly immediately on his arrival. Over two seasons with the club, Peña didn't hit all that well -- .238/.281/.316, an OPS+ of 67 -- but he did fill in at a number of different positions. To tell you how awful those early Brewer teams really were, Peña actually played 52 of his 113 games (only 62 starts total, mind you, but still...) at first base. Yes, a 5'8" first baseman who hit anemically for a shortstop.

1994 Miller Brewing Commemorative

1971 proved to be the end of the line in terms of Peña's major league baseball career. After the Brewers cut bait on him, no one else in the major leagues decided to see if there was anything left in his tank. Peña decided to keep playing, though, and signed on for two seasons with Tampico in the Mexican League followed by one final season with Yucatán in 1974.

I can't find much of anything about Peña after his playing career ended. All I can say, though, is that he died very young -- at the age of just 45 years old -- on July 23, 1982 in Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. I also don't know how accurate this website is, seeing as it is only available through the Wayback Machine on Archive.org, but according to Aguiluchos.com, Peña died due to alcohol poisoning.

Peña appeared as a Brewer -- or, rather, was featured as a member of the Brewers -- on just five cards or items. These include the three I've shown here that I own. In addition, I do not have Peña's 1971 O-Pee-Chee card, nor do I have the black-and-white photo that the Brewers recycled above for the Miller set that they also used in 1971 for their team picture pack.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Meet the Brewers #29: Gus Gil

As it became clear during the 1970 season, Marvin Milkes seemed to confuse activity with progress. One of the moves that seems to underscore this was when 24-year-old Greg Goossen -- whose talent of getting on base likely was not as appreciated in the early 1970s as it would be now -- was sent down to Triple-A in mid-May along with infielder John Kennedy to make room for two light hitting middle infielders in their early-to-mid 30s in age. Those two middle infielders were 33-year-old Roberto Pena (who is Brewer #30) and 31-year-old Gus Gil.

Tomas Gustavo (Guillen) Gil was signed in 1959 at the age of 19 by the then-named Cincinnati Redlegs as an amateur free agent. In the minors, Gil had a couple of decent couple of seasons in the minors -- one at age 21 in Class C Missoula in 1960 and one at age 25 in 1964 in Triple-A San Diego. Still, Cincinnati never saw the need to add him to the major league roster. 

Gil's break came after the 1966 season. The Cleveland Indians finished 81-81, and Cleveland Manager and Off Hiatus PC Joe Adcock determined that Cleveland's big problem was bad defense. The pitching staff at the time consisted of Sam McDowell -- hyperbolically called "the next Sandy Koufax" -- along with Gary Bell, Steve Hargan, Sonny Siebert, and "El Tiante," Luis Tiant. So, for better or for worse, Adcock announced that Gil would be his second baseman in the early part of Spring Training in his quest for improved defense. That lasted through the first 19 games of the season, at the end of which Gil was "hitting" .154/.225/.215.

1994 Miller Brewing Commemorative

Though Gil stayed with the team the whole year, he only came to the plate another 36 times all season after May 6. It didn't help -- in those 36 plate appearances, Gil was even worse -- 1 single, 4 walks, and a sacrifice to slash at .032/.143/.032. Seriously.

Gil ended up with the Brewers thanks to his contract being purchased by the Seattle Pilots in 1969. That year was Gil's best big league season -- .222/.272/.253 is what qualified as "best," so it is not like we are talking about a budding superstar.

Gil's time in Milwaukee lasted a total of 78 games and 190 plate appearances. His work in the 1970 season did not merit him a baseball card and, in fact, the 1994 Miller Brewing set is his only appearance on a card as a Milwaukee Brewer.

After his playing career ended, Gil stayed relatively active in the Venezuelan Winter Leagues and even managed for four years in the American minor leagues as well. After leaving baseball, Gil worked as a draftsman and, later, with the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. Gil settled in Phoenix after his playing career, and that is where he passed away at the age of 76 on December 8, 2015.

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 #22: Gene Brabender

I haven't done a "Meet the Brewers" post in a while, and who better to get me off the schneid than Black Earth, Wisconsin's own Gene Brabender (pronounced "brah-bender," as if you're bending a woman's undergarment). Brabender was the third starter in the Brewers opening rotation, and he was the first Wisconsin native to play for the team. 

There have been a few Wisconsin-born players to play for the team -- Jim Gantner, Jerry Augustine, Damian Miller, Bob Wickman, and Paul Wagner, for example (while current manager Craig Counsell went to high school in Whitefish Bay, he was born in South Bend, Indiana). For a while, the Brewers chased Wisconsin-raised players like the Expos chased Canadians. But big Gene Brabender was the first -- starting the third game of the season in front of just 1,036 fans for a Friday afternoon game against the Chicago White Sox. Keep in mind -- no one in Milwaukee really knew that they would have a major league team just a week earlier, so perhaps that attendance is somewhat understandable.

1970 McDonald's Milwaukee Brewers

Brabender was born in Madison and raised near tiny Black Earth -- about twenty miles west of Madison -- on a farm with 6 other brothers and sisters. When Brabender was growing up in the 1940s and 1950s, the village had between 531 and 784 residents -- the kind of place where everyone pretty much knows everyone. 

As his incredibly detailed and well-researched SABR biography notes (and that is my source for most of this information), Brabender growing up on a farm meant that he helped milk cows -- humping the huge milk cans by hand from the barn milking area to the cooler for pickup -- and he helped clear trees. Along the way, Gene would find timber rattlers nesting in the groves and, since they were not a protected species, Gene would dispatch the snakes -- which, when grown, average between three and five feet long -- by grabbing them by the tail, swinging them like a lasso, and then breaking them up with a whip-crack to kill them. 

All that hard work on the farm led him to be a big, strong kid, filling out his 6'5" frame. He excelled at baseball and was a very hard thrower. That got him noticed, and he signed initially with the Los Angeles Dodgers midway through his freshman year of college. He had started school at what is now the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with plans to become a teacher, but baseball and a $10,000 signing bonus beckoned. 

Brabender's career was sidetracked for two years in the mid-1960s by him getting drafted. During that time, he was drafted in the Rule V draft by the Orioles in 1965 -- freeing him from being behind Koufax and Drysdale. His first year in the majors was 1966, and he was a member of the World Series-winning Orioles that year -- though he never got the opportunity to face his former club in the Series.

Brabender achieved notoriety by being a member of the 1969 Seattle Pilots. In many respects, outside of Jim Bouton, Brabender was really the star of the book Ball Four. Whether it was his jokes in nailing Bouton's shoes to the floor and ruining a new pair of spikes or throwing a shutout against Kansas City while pounding a beer in the clubhouse after each inning, he came away as being both the gentle giant and the man you did not want to cross.

1994 Miller Commemorative Set

Brabender came with the club to Milwaukee, but results for the big man were not good -- 6-15 record, 6.02 ERA (though with a 4.26 FIP), with 127 hits, 79 walks, and 76 strikeouts in 128-2/3 innings. He hurt his leg early in the year and, perhaps, that helped add to the sore shoulder he fought through 1970. He was traded after the 1970 season to the Angels, but he never was the same player and 1970 ended up being his last season in the major leagues.

But, it did allow him to live out his childhood dream and promise. He grew up a Milwaukee Braves fan, and on one visit he told his father, "I'll play here someday." Unlike most kids who make that promise, Brabender got to live it out.

He went through hard times after his career ended. He had significant financial problems, got divorced, and even had to pledge his 1966 World Series ring for a loan. He worked in small-time construction jobs for years as well. Then, at the age of just 55, he collapsed outside his home from a brain aneurysm. Passers by found him thanks to the dome light in his truck being on, and he was rushed to the hospital. It was too late. On December 27, 1996, he passed away.

Brabender has appeared on a total of 18 cards on Trading Card Database, which includes the 2014 foil stamp of his 1967 card. So, with the McDonald's card above that isn't listed on TCDB, that's 19 total. Of those, four -- the two here, a 1970 Mike Andersen Postcard, and the 1971 Dell Today's Team Stamps -- show him as a Milwaukee Brewers player.

He is buried today in the St. Barnabas Cemetery in Mazomanie, Wisconsin.

Meet the Brewers #18: Greg Goossen

I haven't done one of these Meet the Brewers in a while, but who better to bring it back than one of the more intriguing characters in 1960s/1970s baseball?

Greg Goossen pinch hit in the second game of the year for Mike Hegan, drawing a walk off Tom Murphy of the Angels in the bottom of the seventh inning. He left the game for a defensive replacement in the top of the eighth inning. 

Unfortunately for Goossen, his stint with Milwaukee lasted only until May 18, 1970, when the Brewers sent him down to Portland. His contract was purchased by the Washington Senators in July, and then he was traded to the Phillies as part of the exchange for the famous hold out, Curt Flood.

1970 McDonald's Brewers

Goossen is a guy who would have benefited from being in baseball about 35 years after his playing days. His major league career was nothing special -- 193 games, 514 plate appearances, .241/.316/.383 slash line, 13 HR, 44 RBI, and coming in right at the league average in OPS+. Still, you feel like he could have been more. 

Why is that? Well, he spent parts of 6 years in the major leagues between the ages of 19 and 24 years old. The only time he spent in any league where he was older than the average player was in 1969, when he hit 151 times in a rookie league as a part of the Pilots organization. Even then, at the age of 23, he was only 2.4 years older than the average in that league -- and again, that was the year he spent part of his fifth season in the majors. 

His minor league stat line promises much more than his major league performances did: in 8 seasons, he slashed .275/.361/.500 with 130 HR and 454 RBI in 705 games. Why didn't he get more of a chance? It's almost certainly because he started as a catcher and he was not known for his defense; as SI described it:

A scout once observed, "Goossen's a hell of a hitter." 

"Yeah," said another scout. "But what kind of catcher is he?" 

"He's a hell of a hitter."

Perhaps it was Goossen's introduction to major league baseball.  Goossen was signed as a six-figure bonus baby in 1964 by the Los Angeles Dodgers after turning down a football scholarship to the University of Southern California.  Yet, just 9 months later, he was placed on waivers and claimed by the Mets for the low price of $8,000.  Famously, Goossen is the player about whom Casey Stengel said, "This is Greg Goossen. He's 19 years old, and in 10 years he's got a chance to be 29."  His other Mets claim to fame was serving as Nolan Ryan's first ever major league catcher.

Goossen was traded to the Pilots in exchange for a player to be named later in February of 1969. Once again, the humor outweighed the player.  The story from Ball Four was as follows: Jim Bouton remembered playing in a minor league game against Goossen. One of Bouton's teammates bunted, and, as a catcher is supposed to do, Goossen was yelling out to the pitcher what base the throw should go to. Goossen was screaming, "First base, first base, first base!" 

The pitcher threw the ball to second base, and everyone was safe. Goossen was pissed off as he headed back behind the plate. Bouton saw this and yelled, "Goose, he had to consider the source!" On seeing Bouton in spring training in 1969, Goossen said to Bouton, "Consider the source, huh?"

Goossen is also famous for saying that he played best slightly hungover. 

1994 Miller Milwaukee Brewers

Goossen left baseball after spending the 1972 season with Union Laguna in the Mexican League. He was only 26 years old at that point -- about the time players tend to come into their own, actually.  

Instead, he started helping around the family businesses. First, he helped out his father at his dad's private investigation firm. Then, he helped out his brothers Dan and Joe with their business -- training boxers. It was in that location that he made the friendship that paid his bills for the rest of his life: he became pals with Gene Hackman.

Hackman was learning how to box for a forgettable/forgotten film called Split Decisions. Hackman and Goossen became fast friends. From that point forward, Hackman put it into his acting contracts that Goossen had to serve as Hackman's stand-in to allow for lights to get set up during films. As a result, Goossen has an IMDB page that includes a number of impressive -- and some really awful -- movies: The Royal Tennenbaums, The Replacements, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Get Shorty, Wyatt Earp, Mr. Baseball, Unforgiven, and one of the worst movies I've ever watched, Waterworld (as "Sawzall Smoker").

Goossen died on March 1, 2011, at the young age of 65 years old.

Meet the Brewers #4: Mike Hegan

Some of you may be wondering why I'm writing so many of these "Meet the Brewers" posts at this point in time. The truth is that it is my own fault. I've been self-absorbed with getting my want lists put together. I haven't bought any new cards lately. And, I really haven't sent out many packages lately either.  Finally, I changed jobs again. A firm sought me out to have them join me -- I wasn't looking -- but this opportunity was too good to pass up at this point of my career. So, the more things stay the same, the more they change and all that. But it's been a busy few weeks here at Hiatus Central.

That said, my next post will feature cards I received in the mail! Hooray!  

This post, though, is another history post. In the Brewers first game in Milwaukee on April 7, 1970, the first out the team recorded was a ground ball out, 4-3 on the putout. Leadoff hitter Tommy Harper was the second baseman, and catching the ball at first base for the out was the third hitter in the lineup: Mike Hegan.

1971 Topps

Hegan was a second-generation baseball player; dad Jim Hegan was a five-time All-Star who played seventeen seasons in the major leagues and was the catcher on the last Cleveland Indians World Series Champion in 1949. Jim missed three seasons due to World War II, but lucky for him that Mike was born in the summer of 1942 -- the year before Jim joined the service. 

Mike was raised partly in Lynn, Massachusetts, before the family moved to Cleveland in 1954 so that Jim could focus in his offseason on his appliance store that he started with Browns great Otto Graham. When it came time for post-high-school plans, as his SABR biography mentions, Mike decided to go back east to Worcester, Massachusetts to attend The College of the Holy Cross. 

1971 Topps Coin

He spent one season there (hitting .510...but don't get too excited; they played just 16 games) before signing a contract with the New York Yankees in August of 1961.  He got a brief taste of the majors in 1964, and he was considered to be a fairly good prospect in the minor leagues. The problem, though, was that he played first base and corner outfield. That meant he was behind Joe Pepitone, Roy White, Roger Maris, sometimes Mickey Mantle, and Tom Tresh, among others.  It was not a good situation for him.  

When the Yankees sold Hegan's contract to the Seattle Pilots on June 14, 1968, Hegan -- then in Triple-A Syracuse -- became the first official player under contract for Seattle. He had to stay in Syracuse for 1968, but for Hegan it was light at the end of the tunnel -- he'd finally have the opportunity to play regularly in the major leagues.  Hegan was named as the Pilots representative to the All-Star game in 1969 on the back of a first half in which he hit .293/.426/.463. But, he got hurt in the second half of the season and started in just 9 games.

As a result, Hegan's only full season as a major league starter was 1970. He played in 148 games and hit .244/.336/.366 -- not exactly the kind of production you'd expect from a first baseman, but Hegan was always known more for his glove than for his hitting prowess. Indeed, he set a major league record (since broken) of 178 straight errorless games at first base, starting on September 24, 1970.

1977 Topps

By mid-1971, the Brewers had decided that Hegan was not the answer at first for them. To be fair, the team traded and acquired players during these early years in Milwaukee as if they were the drunk guy at your fantasy baseball draft. 

So it's not entirely on Hegan that his contract was sold to the Oakland A's in 1971. There, he was a backup to the Superjew, Mike Epstein, essentially providing late-inning defense and a lefty pinch hitter off the bench (Career in Oakland: 238 games, 230 plate appearances over 2-1/2 seasons). In 1972, he then claimed another first: he became the first second-generation World Series Champion thanks to his role with Oakland. 

1970 McDonald's Milwaukee Brewers

Before he'd left Milwaukee, Hegan had identified what he wanted to do with his life after baseball. At the age of just 26, he was already working as an offseason announcer and sports commentator in Milwaukee for WTMJ Radio and WTMJ TV Channel 4. Thus, in 1973, it wasn't a surprise when Hegan was penciled into the starting lineup for the first three innings for the Oakland A's radio team when then-announcer Jim Woods wasn't feeling well. 

Soon thereafter, in August of 1973, Oakland sold Hegan's contract back to the New York Yankees. His father, Jim, had been working as the team's bullpen coach from 1962 onward and was still there when Mike came back to New York. While there, Hegan provided even more trivia: he was the last batter in the "House that Ruth Built" before it was completely rebuilt during the 1974 season.  

In 1974, Hegan was platooning with Bill Sudakis for the first several weeks of the season. Then, however, the Yankees picked up Chris Chambliss from Cleveland -- putting Hegan out of a job. So, Hegan asked the Yankees to trade him one of three places: Milwaukee (where he lived in the offseason), Boston (where his wife's family lived), or Detroit (where his father had gone after the 1973 season with Ralph Houk). The Brewers bit, and back to the City of Festivals went Hegan.

1975 Topps

Hegan closed out his career in Milwaukee, backing up George Scott and getting playing time at DH and in the outfield. On September 3, 1976, Hegan provided more Brewers trivia. He became the first Brewer ever to hit for the cycle -- hitting a double, triple, and home run off Mark Fidrych followed by a single off Bill Laxton.  

At the age of 34 in 1977, however, Hegan started to feel as though Manager Alex Grammas really didn't want him to be on the team. Hegan was quoted in an AP story as saying that, "Grammas is a nice guy, but as a manager, he makes a good third-base coach." I'm guessing that was not meant as a compliment. He fulfilled his duties at the All-Star break as the team's player representative, then stepped aside and stepped away from playing.

But his tenure in Milwaukee as a sportscaster continued. He immediately joined the Brewers broadcast team in 1977 and stayed with the club in that role until 1988. It is as the TV Color Commentator -- and as the namesake for Mike Hegan's Grand Slam USA (now Mike Hegan's Field of Dreams) -- that I remember him. 

Yet, he is not remembered now as the Brewers Announcer. After the 1988 season, the Brewers changed their TV affiliation from one UHF station to another. The new broadcaster (then a Fox affiliate, now "My 24") retained the play-by-play announcer, Jim Paschke, but pushed Mike Hegan out in favor of former Cy Young Award winner (and more recently a former Brewer) Pete Vuckovich. 

(A side note: that story about Hegan getting pushed out from Milwaukee quotes Super NFL Draft Genius Mel Kiper saying that Tony Mandarich was "the best offensive lineman I've ever graded." Thanks, Mel!)

1994 Milwaukee Brewers 25th Anniversary Commemorative Set

In many respects, it was a blessing in disguise for Hegan. The Cleveland native went back home to Cleveland. This was brought about by the fact that the general manager for a TV station in Cleveland had left Milwaukee's prior Brewers affiliate for Cleveland. Hegan had his choice from the Yankees, the Indians, the Expos, and the Padres, but Cleveland was an easy choice for him. 

He stayed with the Indians from 1989 until the end of the 2011 season. He left the broadcast booth at the age of 69, saying he wanted to coach his grandson's baseball team. He was also suffering from some health issues. For his work with the Indians and his high school exploits at St. Ignatius High School, he was inducted into the Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

Unfortunately, on Christmas Day, 2013, Hegan could fight an untreatable heart condition no longer. He passed away at his home on Hilton Head, South Carolina, at the age of 71.

You can see in this post the 6 cards of Mike Hegan that I could find reasonably quickly that I own.