Brave Faces

[batmagadanleadoff]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

July 27, 1983. Braves 6, Mets 3. That's Ron Hodges back there. Yes?

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1983/B07270NYN1983.htm

[Edgy MD]

Did Tom Paciorek ever not look old?

Did Roy McMillan ever not look like a coach?

Did Gary Kolb ever not look like a sadistic terrorist from a Soviet bloc nation?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Alex Trevino's only day game as a Brave at Shea Stadium, July 1, 1984. But would a photo taken so late in a year make it to a 1984 series card? Doesn't seem right.

[seawolf17]

Yes, because that's a Topps Traded card. His regular series card pictured him as a Red.

Yes to the Paciorek question, though. And I really wish Octavio Dotel wasn't a Tiger again this year. I want him to be with a different franchise every year, to make that record totally unbreakable.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Yes, because that's a Topps Traded card. His regular series card pictured him as a Red. Yes to the Paciorek question, though. And I really wish Octavio Dotel wasn't a Tiger again this year. I want him to be with a different franchise every year, to make that record totally unbreakable.

Beat me to it.

Topps 1984 card #242:


Topps 1984 Traded Set card # 120T

[batmagadanleadoff]

It's Indian week. So bump.

[Edgy MD]

I've made much of Gary Kolb, but Frank Lary is another guy who, if you punched him square across the jaw, you'd just be wasting your time hurting your fist.

[MFS62]

I guess back in Boston, they didn't know that Spahn would make the HOF one day. If they had, they might have actually taken his picture instead of using an artist's drawing.

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

More Brave Faces, from the Topps Archives, including finally, Gary Kolb in a baseball uniform. With logos and all. And a very young Felix Millan.



Identify the Brave Faces in the first five pictures (all 5 Braves in one post) and you can win this cyber photo of a Chief Wahoo bobblehead.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The first Brave Face belongs to Miracle Met Don Cardwell, photographed at Shea Stadium by the Topps' photographer in mid August, 1970. He was purchased by the Braves right before the All Star break, same year, and pitched just 23 innings the rest of the way. Cardwell was released in December of that year and called it a career. His 1970 Met card was his last.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Dennis Ribant is, technically, not a Brave Face, as he never appeared in a game for the Braves. Ribant was initially acquired by the Milwaukee Braves as a free agent, as were all amateurs entering the pros back then: there was no amateur draft. Ribant was traded to the Mets for Frank Lary in 1964, and appeared on his first Topps card the following season.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ernie Bowman is even less of a Brave Face than Dennis Ribant. Although Bowman, at one time or other, belonged to both the Mets and the Braves, he never appeared in a game for either team. He did appear in Topps' 1966 set as a Met, capless and in a Braves uniform.

Before 1956 Season: Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent. January 8, 1964: the San Francisco Giants sent Ernie Bowman to the Milwaukee Braves to complete an earlier deal made on December 3, 1963. December 3, 1963: The San Francisco Giants sent a player to be named later, Felipe Alou, Ed Bailey and Billy Hoeft to the Milwaukee Braves for Del Crandall, Bob Hendley and Bob Shaw. September 25, 1965: the Milwaukee Braves sent Ernie Bowman and Lou Klimchock to the New York Mets to complete an earlier deal made on August 5, 1965. August 5, 1965: The Milwaukee Braves sent players to be named later to the New York Mets for Billy Cowan. (Date given is approximate. Exact date is uncertain.) October 12, 1966: Traded by the New York Mets with Lou Klimchock to the Cleveland Indians for Floyd Weaver.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bowmaer01.shtml

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Hello, Felix Millan!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Bob "Hawk" Taylor was a Milwaukee Brave for seven seasons and appeared in many Topps sets as a Brave. I unintentionally left Taylor out of the oringinal post: apparently a COMC search for Hawk Taylor does not turn up his Braves cards. But Bob Taylor does. The OP was amended.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[Edgy MD]

Man, cards (or 1969 yearbooks) with disembodied heads just creep me out. Give the guy the dignity of a neck and perhaps some shoulders.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I wonder, do the Chicago Cubs still do their team photos as a set of floating heads?

[Edgy MD]

Photos 2 and 4 --- the dignity of necks.

[batmagadanleadoff]

MFS62 wrote: I guess back in Boston, they didn't know that Spahn would make the HOF one day. If they had, they might have actually taken his picture instead of using an artist's drawing.

Spahn wasn't singled out. The entire 1953 Topps set was illustrated.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ernie Bowman is even less of a Brave Face than Dennis Ribant. Although Bowman, at one time or other, belonged to both the Mets and the Braves, he never appeared in a game for either team. He did appear in Topps' 1966 set as a Met, capless and in a Braves uniform. Before 1956 Season: Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent. January 8, 1964: the San Francisco Giants sent Ernie Bowman to the Milwaukee Braves to complete an earlier deal made on December 3, 1963. December 3, 1963: The San Francisco Giants sent a player to be named later, Felipe Alou, Ed Bailey and Billy Hoeft to the Milwaukee Braves for Del Crandall, Bob Hendley and Bob Shaw. September 25, 1965: the Milwaukee Braves sent Ernie Bowman and Lou Klimchock to the New York Mets to complete an earlier deal made on August 5, 1965. August 5, 1965: The Milwaukee Braves sent players to be named later to the New York Mets for Billy Cowan. (Date given is approximate. Exact date is uncertain.) October 12, 1966: Traded by the New York Mets with Lou Klimchock to the Cleveland Indians for Floyd Weaver. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bowmaer01.shtml

Ernie Bowman in a Mets uniform; photography by Topps.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[smg58]

Edgy MD wrote: I've made much of Gary Kolb, but Frank Lary is another guy who, if you punched him square across the jaw, you'd just be wasting your time hurting your fist.

When men were MEN. And any red-blooded American man would be proud to have a silly Indian face as a team logo.

[Edgy MD]

I feel like a tougher guy just for having looked into Gary Kolb's face and walked away.

[MFS62]

You really should have posted a parental warning.
That picture of Torre at the top of the thread could scare young children.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

UMDB memory of Gary Kolb:

I was at a game at Forbes Field when he played for the Pirates. I was looking into the dugout and commented that one of the players was smoking. Gary Kolb yelled at me and told me if was in the stands where I belonged I wouldn't see them smoking. After that, I never liked him.

Below from Sports Illustrated in 1969:
Gary Kolb of the Pittsburgh Pirates, explaining how it is to be 25th man on a 25-man team:

"I dreamed the Pirate plane crashed and I was the only survivor. Then you know what happened? They called up the entire Columbus club and I still didn't play."

[Edgy MD]

Meanwhile, give Joe Nolan a microphone and book him for a week at The Laff Factory, amirite?