Fred Cambria, Now Leading Off for Pirates Rookies
Twice...but only after he Jets in from the minors
Imagine it’s late August of 1970, and you are the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Your team is locked in a three-way battle for the National League East title with the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets.
You hold a three game lead in the standings, but you’re still in the early stages of a grueling 11-game road trip, mostly on the west coast but finishing in Montreal.
Worse yet, Dock Ellis, author of the LSD no-hitter that June, turned up with a sore arm a week or so ago and will be out of action until deep into September.
What do you do?
Well, if you were general manager Joe Brown, you’d call up 22-year-old righthander Fred Cambria, who was 12-7 with a 4.13 ERA with the Triple-A Columbus Jets.
That after a more sterling 11-3, 2.56 ERA debut across two stops in the Bucs’ system in 1969 after they grabbed him in the third round of the June draft that year.
And if you were manager Danny Murtaugh, you’d find a way to get Cambria five starts over the next month. And on the last day of the season, with the crown already in your pocket but trying to preserve a win over the Cardinals, you’d bring Cambria in to pitch the seventh and eighth innings.
Maybe you’d wonder if it was all too much for a youngster with fewer than 50 total pro appearances. But then you’d look at his 1-2 record and 3.51 ERA and think was coping just fine.
Meanwhile, if you were Topps, you had to scramble a bit, because Cambria hadn’t been on your radar as a Pirates Future Star or a Pirates Rookie Star or Pirates Prospect.
And so you rectified the situation in 1971, batting Cambria leadoff in front of Gene Clines on card #27:
And even when Cambria, thanks to an arm injury, made only seven appearances in 1971, all in Triple A, you thought you’d better hedge your bets and paired him with Richie Zisk in 1972 (#392):
After that, if you were any of them, you sort of forgot about Cambria as he closed out his career with two forgettable seasons in the minors.
But you’re not any of those people (probably), so you still get to enjoy Cambria’s two rookie cards, which is double the number of big league wins he racked up.
And you can marvel at those cards as you celebrate his 76th birthday today.
Cambria from Cambria Heads West
Cambria, who interestingly hails from Cambria Heights in Queens, was stationed at Double-A York after the Bucs drafted him in 1969. His strong showing there (and in the Fall Instructional League that fall) landed him his gig with the Jets in 1970.
And that assignment left some artifacts, which you can find on eBay today.
First up is the team picture, where smiley Cambria leads off the back row:
You can see a full shot in the eBay list here (not mine).
And then there is the Jets “sketch book”:
Now, as far as I can tell, this one doesn’t actual show or mention Cambria. But it was definitely his home turf before he landed in Pittsburgh, and it’s a good-looking piece.
Here is the full eBay listing (again, not mine).
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And that’s about all I have on Fred Cambria for today. Now, I gotta Jet.
Yeah, I said it.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam