Final Card: Jerry Adair

Here is the final card for Jerry Adair (#525), not counting his appearance as a coach on Athletics’ manager Dick Williams’ card in 1973. Adair had his own card every year from 1961 through 1970.

Adair was a 2nd baseman for the Orioles, White Sox, Red Sox, and Royals from 1961 through 1969. He had a few cups of coffee from 1958-60, and played a few games in his final season of 1970 before getting his release in early May.

Jerry was signed by the Orioles in September 1958 out of Oklahoma State University, and with the minor league season already completed, he played 11 games with the Orioles that month.

In ’59 and ’60 he played 1 season in AA and AAA (respectively), mostly as his team’s regular shortstop. Coincidentally, he made 638 minor-league plate appearances each season, and played a few games with the O’s each year.

Adair made the Orioles' squad at the start of the 1961 season, and started 96 games at 2nd base, to Marv Breeding’s 62 starts. (Breeding had been the incumbent for the previous season, starting 151 of the team’s 154 games.)

In 1962 he slid over to shortstop, starting 103 games there because Ron Hansen missed much of the season due to military service. Jerry still managed 29 starts at 2B.

The Orioles acquired shortstop Luis Aparicio from the White Sox prior to the 1963 season, so Adair was back to his 2nd base home for 100 starts, with Bob Johnson (newly-acquired from the Senators) starting 45 times.

Jerry started almost every game for Baltimore in 1964 and 1965. In 1966, rookie Dave Johnson won the 2nd base job out of spring training, and Adair (having only played 17 games so far) was shipped out to the White Sox in mid-June for pitcher Eddie Fisher. With regular shortstop (and former Orioles’ teammate) Ron Hansen missing the 2nd half of ’66 with a back injury, Adair once again filled in for Hansen.

In June 1967 he was traded to the Red Sox for reliever Don McMahon, and helped Boston get to the World Series, filling in for shortstop Rico Petrocelli, 3rd baseman Joe Foy, and 2nd baseman Mike Andrews. Jerry started 78 games over the 2nd half of the season, and started the first 4 games of the World Series.

Adair played all of 1968 with the Red Sox, but in a utility infield role. His only extended string of starts came in August, filling in for Petrocelli for several weeks. After the season, he was left unprotected for the expansion draft and was selected by the Royals.

He was the primary 2nd baseman for the upstart Royals in 1969, starting 105 games from day 1 until mid-September, when ex-Dodger Luis Alcaraz (who had spent most of the season in AAA) took over.

Jerry missed much of spring training 1970 with family issues, so the Royals began the season with Alcaraz at 2nd base. Adair started a few games in late April but was soon released, ending his 13-year career.

He played in Japan in 1971, then coached for the Athletics and Angels from 1972-75.

Adair passed away from cancer in 1987, at age 50.

Tony Taylor (#324)

"Tony Taylor at the bat rack". I always liked this card, a very unusual shot for back in the day. Tony may spend a lot of time browsing the bat rack, but he didn't spend much time at the helmet rack. He was one of the few players of that time that wore the inside-the-cap protector, rather than a batting helmet.

This was also around the time when Taylor was morphing from a regular 2nd baseman to a utility infielder.

Tony was signed by the New York Giants in 1954. After 4 seasons on their farm, he was selected by the Cubs in the Rule 5 draft following the 1957 season. Taylor became the Cubs' regular 2nd baseman from the beginning of the 1958 season, starting 128 games there as a rookie, and 148 games in 1959.

After starting the first 19 games in 1960, he was traded to the Phillies for pitcher Don Cardwell and 1st baseman Ed Bouchee. For the next 5 years (5/13/60 - 5/31/65) Taylor started most of the games at 2nd base for Philadelphia. While the other 3 infield positions were revolving doors during that time, 2nd-sacker Tony started at least 140 games each season (except for missing much of the 2nd half of 1961).

In June 1965, Cookie Rojas transitioned from jack-of-all-trades to starting 2nd baseman, and they each finished with 78 starts. Even with losing his 2nd base job, Taylor still played as much as any regular.

In 1966, 3rd baseman Richie Allen missed most of May, and upon his return spent 6 weeks playing in left field, with Taylor starting 42 games at 3rd base during this time. He also started 63 games at 2nd, spelling Rojas.

The following season, 1st baseman Bill White missed all of April and May with an off-season injury. Tony started 43 games at 1st base that season, without ever having played the position previously. When Allen went down with a hand injury in late August, Taylor started the final 40 games at 3rd base.

Allen returned to the Phillies in 1968, but with the hand injury on top of his already-suspect defense, he played that season as the regular left fielder, with Taylor at the 3rd base spot for 137 games.

In 1969 the Phillies added 3B/LF Deron Johnson, subtracted Bill White, and moved Richie Allen to 1st base. This left Taylor as a swing man between 2B (when Rojas got time off) and 3B (when Johnson was playing left field).

Tony continued as the backup 2B-3B in 1970, although he got much less playing time than the previous season, now that the starters were youthful upstarts Denny Doyle and Don Money. He was traded to the Tigers in mid-1971, and played 2 1/2 seasons there as Dick McAuliffe's backup at 2nd base.

After he was released by the Tigers, the Phillies brought him back for the 1974 - 76 seasons as their pinch-hitter extraordinaire. His old pal Dick Allen even rejoined the team for the '75 and '76 seasons.

After his playing career was over, Taylor coached for the Phillies for many seasons.



Taylor's late-1960s baseball cards showed his hometown as Yeadon, PA. That was next to the town I grew up in, and whenever we drove through Yeadon, we always hoped to see Tony walking down the street somewhere, but it never did happen (surprisingly enough!)

Back on Topps Radar: Howie Reed

Howie Reed returns to the Topps set (#548) after a 3-year absence. After a stint with the Dodgers in 1964-65, he returned to the major leagues with the expansion Montreal Expos in 1969.

Reed was signed by the Kansas City Athletics in 1958, and spent at least part of every season in the minors through the 1972 season, except for 1965, 1970, and 1971. He made his debut with the Athletics in September '58, but didn't see extended action in the majors until he was part of the Dodgers' bullpen during the 1964 and 1965 seasons.




In early 1966, Howie was traded to the Angels for pitcher Dick Egan, and pitched in 19 games for them for the remainder of the season. After only 4 games with the Astros in 1967, it was back to the bush leagues until Montreal came knocking in 1969.

Reed was a fulltime member of the Expos' bullpen for the franchise's first 3 seasons, behind lefty Dan McGinn and their top righthander (which changed each season from Gary Waslewski to Claude Raymond to Mike Marshall).

Reed spent the 1972 season pitching for the Expos' triple-A team, before retiring.

Curt Flood (#360)

Curt Flood. He was one of the best defensive outfielders of the 1960s, won 7 straight gold gloves from 1963-69, compiled a career .293 batting average, and played in 3 World Series during his 12-year stint as the Cardinals' starting center fielder. But he is probably best remembered now for his career-shortening legal challenge to baseball's reserve system.

Flood was signed by the Cincinnati Reds in 1956, and spent 2 full seasons in the low minors, along with a token call-up at the end of each season.

In December 1957, he was traded to the Cardinals for 3 guys I've never heard of (Marty Kutyna, Willard Schmidt and Ted Wieand). He played 15 games with triple-A Omaha, but on May 3rd, he made his first start in center field for the Cardinals, and held onto that job for the next 12 seasons. Curt was also the Cardinals' leadoff batter from late 1961 until midway through the 1965 season. (Lou Brock, who came to the Cardinals prior the 1964 season, took over as their leadoff batter midway through 1965.)



Following the 1969 season, Flood was traded to the Phillies (along with catcher Tim McCarver, southpaw relief ace Joe Hoerner, and reserve outfielder Byron Browne) for 1st baseman Dick Allen, 2nd baseman Cookie Rojas, and pitcher Jerry Johnson.

OF COURSE he didn't report! In the late 1960s/early 1970s, Phillies' fans knew better than to expect such good fortune to occur! (Oh yeah, there was something about challenging baseball's reserve system too.) After sitting out the 1970 season, the Phillies traded his rights to the Washington Senators, where he played 13 games in 1971 before retiring.

Also check out Flood's 1969 card.



Everyone knows the Curt Flood story by now, but something occurred to me recently. For all the hoopla and notoriety bestowed on Curt Flood for his refusal to report, another player did the same thing a year earlier, but not much was made of that:

Donn Clendenon had been the Pirates' regular 1st baseman for several years, but was left exposed in the expansion draft. He was selected by the Montreal Expos, and subsequently traded to "Houston" (known outside the walls of Topps Inc. as the "Houston Astros") in a package that included Rusty Staub going to Montreal. Clendenon refused to report to the Astros, and the deal was modified, with the Expos keeping Staub. Advantage Clendenon! Later that season, he was traded to the Mets and was their starting 1st baseman in the 1969 World Series.



The backs of these cards have slightly different text, along with the last letter in Clendenon's name. The Expos version has part of the last N missing. This seems to have been drawn in on the Astros version (although it looks like the letter is backwards).