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1958 Topps Von McDaniel (#65) - Card of the Day
The history of major league baseball is built partly on the stories of young prospects who had to choose. At least eventually.
Because, like actors who can sing and singers who can act, many of baseball’s top prodigies come up through the amateur ranks both raking at the plate and dominating from the mound.
Of course, these days, we’re witness to Shohei Ohtani doing his best to travel two Hall of Fame treks at the same time, picking up the two-way stardom that Babe Ruth laid down in favor of the swat when he moved to the New York Yankees more than a century ago.
And a generation ago, we witnessed Rick Ankiel burst onto the scene as the most exciting young arm since the original Steve Austin…only to get injured and drop out of the game…only to come back as a power hitter a few seasons later.
Would Ankiel have taken the same two-way street that Ohtani is traveling now had times been different or teams more willing to experiment?
Hard to say, but what’s for certain is that Ankiel wasn’t the first of his kind.
Take Von McDaniel, for instance.
Signed as a bonus baby right out of high school by the St. Louis Cardinals back in 1957, McDaniel debuted with four scoreless relief innings against the Phillies on June 13 that year.
Manager Fred Hutchinson kept that young arm warm by finding about one spot per week for McDaniel through September, mostly as a starter. Overall, the rookie made 13 starts among his 17 appearances, posting a 7-5 record with a 3.22 ERA.
Things were looking up for the Cards and their new hurler, who teamed up with older brother Lindy McDaniel in a revamped rotation that would soon enough include Bob Gibson, too.
Apparently enthused in their own right, Topps saw fit to include Von McDaniel’s rookie card in the first series of their 1958 set.
But almost as soon as kids got their hands on that new cardboard, things turned south for the younger McDaniel. Two appearances (one start) into the 1958 season, he had pitched just two innings but yielded three runs on five hits and five walks.
The kid just couldn’t seem to find the strike zone. With no discernible injury to explain the alarming about-face, the Cards sent McDaniel to the minors to get things straightened out.
But things remained crooked.
McDaniel’s 1959 numbers would have looked OK in the majors, but 13-5, 3.49 at Class-D Daytona inspired no confidence among the higher-ups, and he was promoted only to Double-A Tulsa in 1960.
With an 7.59 ERA in 12 games for the Oilers, McDaniel and the organization decided to try another approach — a move to third base.
That change accomplished what the Cards were looking for, namely unleashing McDaniel’s powerful bat. He hit ten home runs in 1960 and another 15 in 1961.
He never got the call even to Triple A, though, and by 1962, he was trying his luck with the expansion Houston Colt .45s.
Although he continued to hit for power and did make the climb to the Triple-A Oklahoma City 89ers, McDaniel had a hard time keeping his batting average above .240, turning in a couple seasons in the .210s. Not enough for the majors to come calling.
By 1965, the Colts were the Astros, and both of them were done with McDaniel. He spent 1965 and 1966 with the Cubs’ Double-A affiliate, the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs before hanging up his spikes at age 27.
McDaniel never did make it back to the majors, but he helped build the model that gave players like Ankiel a second chance and Ohtani a chance to be all he can be.
That seems worth celebrating today, which would have been McDaniel’s 85th birthday, don’t you think?
This Musial Stuck Its Neck Out
Even at age 36, Stan Musial was the best player on that 1957 Cardinals team and finished a close second to Hank Aaron in voting for the National League MVP Award.
And, even though he never hit 20 homers in a season again after that summer, Stand the Man kept chugging along at a high level right on through 1963, when he turned 42.
Topps stayed on the Musial bandwagon ‘til the end, too, even including him in their “floating heads” 1963 Peel-Offs set. Read all about it (that card and more Musial “it”) right here.
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Like that Musial card/sticker/doohickey up there, this week doesn’t have legs to stand on, or at least not very long ones.
Hope you have/had a great Thursday full of, among other good stuff, plenty of baseball memories, old and new.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam