1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre

At age 86 Joe Torre is among our eldest Hall of Famers. He was the catcher for the 1962 Topps Rookie Cup Team, which also featured fellow HOF Billy Williams - who celebrated birthday 88 this summer.

 

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre (image swiped from PSA)

Williams and Torre also ranked 1-2 in the NL ROY Voting:

While Torre led the two in WAR, Billy Williams clearly wins the traditional power numbers and that was good enough to earn him NL Rookie of the Year honors.  

Among position players Torre's 3.4 WAR led all 1961 rookies, although looking at those offensive numbers we must also note that a large chunk of that WAR is from defense. The ROY vote is interesting, in 1961 voters only got the opportunity to vote for a single player and close to a third of the ballots recognized the importance of the catching position. 

1961 Rookie Catchers

There were basically only two catchers in the running for the position on the 1961 All-Star Rookie Club, Torre & Red Sox backstop Joe Pagliaroni. 

Lots of catchers had over 100 plate appearances but Torre & Pagliaroni have 150 more than #3 Dick Bartell. Pagliano took two of the triple crown categories and had modern analytics been popular at the time it needs to be noted he also had a higher OBP than Torre. However Joe Torre had more extra base hits and although voters would not have known it at the time he also led in OPS+.  Based on those numbers I could see either player being chosen, my guess is that the 36 point batting average difference tipped the scales in favor of Torre.  

It is interesting that Torre finished 2nd in the NL RoY vote while Joe Pagliano did not get any votes on the AL side. This is likely due to Pagliano's battery mate Don Schwall winning the award and another teammate Chuck Schilling finishing 3rd in the voting.

Flip

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre (image swiped from eBay) 

I am not of fan of the realistic style of the 1962T comic but do appreciated that this one is devoted to Torre's Rookie Cup win and love that fine rendition of the trophy. Nice mention of Frank Torre in the back text.  

Hall of Fame

Joe Torre was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans committee in 2014. This was largely an acknowledgement of his 4 World Championships as Manager of the New York Yankees. However, I don't want this distinction to overshadow his accomplishments as a Player:

In addition to earning a 1961 Rookie Cup, Torre was the 1971 NL MVP and a NINE time all-star (at 3 different positions C/1B/3B). Joe Torre played with some good teams but never made the postseason. 

HOF Index 

This column will do double duty as an index to our Joe Torre columns

1965 Topps #200 (Braves v Cardinals SNB)

Source & Links

1962 Rookie Cup Index

Hall of Fame Index

Baseball-reference

PSA

ebay

Cup of Coffee: John Kennedy

Today our #CupOfCoffee Series features the Phillies first African-American player, John Kennedy, who debuted for the squad on April 22 1957.

Sketch of a 1957 Topps John Kennedy card on a disposable coffee cup

John Kennedy played five games for the 1957 Phillies. Since his Major League career was brief Topps never issued a card of Kennedy. 

We went with the 1957 Topps design which is minimalist - basically I just featured the player name across the bottom. I have chosen to omit the Phillies team name since they chose to ignore black players longer than any other NL team. I attempted to show John Kennedy glancing forward to the future. The hexagon background is a recurring theme in my work which I use to symbolize barriers that need broken. Kennedy's Barrier Breaking season is also noted by the broken coffee cup at the center top - with a coffee cup breaking in a lightning bolt pattern - the year 1957 written on the cup. 

The borders and text of the card are Orange & Green, the colors used on David Hammons African-American flag. 

Integration Pioneers

SABR has this page where you can find John Kennedy and the other Integration Pioneers with links to their biographies. There are a handful of other CupOfCoffee candidates here, hopefully we will get to makes cups for them in the future. 

Sources and Links

Cup of Coffee Index

John Kennedy SABR Bio - Michael Marsh

Baseball-reference

Cup of Coffee: Ralph Gagliano

Ralph Gagliano was the middle of three baseball playing brothers. The eldest, Phil, had a twelve year career which included a World Series Championship with the 1967 St Louis Cardinals. Younger Brother Paul went to Vanderbilt on a baseball scholarship and played for the Italian National team in several international competitions including the 1984 Olympics.   

At age 18 Ralph appeared in a single Major League game as a Pinch Runner for the 1965 Cleveland Indians. He entered the game with one out in the 9th inning and Cleveland trailing the Yankees by 5 runs. Unfortunately the ensuing batter, Richie Scheinblum, grounded into a force out at second and Ralph Gagliano's MLB career was over. A batter later New York recorded the final out and defeated Cleveland 9-4. 

Gagliano was sent to A ball in 1966, he had a mediocre season but that was not the biggest factor in ending his baseball Career. In August Gagliano received his Army draft notice. Ralph served three years in Germany rising to the rank of Lieutenant. 

Following his Service commitment Gagliano returned to the Indians organization for two seasons, but by then his baseball skills had eroded. 

Ralph Gagliano was out of pro ball at the age of 24.  

1965 Topps LT Ralph Gagliano on a disposable coffee cup

Ralph Gagliano is half of a 1965T High Number dual rookie card. The other subject of the diptych features fellow #CupOfCoffee alum Jim Rittwage whom we will cover at a later date. 

Below you can see the original card. A couple of minor modifications were made: 1) Added the Lieutenant title in front of Ralph Gagliano's name. 2) The team pennant was changed to the city name of Cleveland 3) Finally below the card we have the card we have the date of Gagliano's game 1965 September 21. 

The Original

1965 Topps #501 Ralph Gagliano & Jim Rittwage (image swiped from PSA)

The image of Ralph Gagliano is notable for having a completely white cap - likely an airbrush job to cover up a Minor League cap, possibly that of the 1964 Dubuque Packers. We made sure to keep the blank. 

Sources and Links

CupOfCoffee Index

Cleveland CupOfCoffee Index (cups inspired by SABR 54)

Once Around the Bases: Richard Tellis

Royals Review

Jim Rittwage Cup of Coffee

Phil Gagliano SABR Bio: Bill Nowlin 

Phil Gagliano BR bullpen

baseball-reference

PSA