With my vacation over, I’ve been turning my eye towards my 1966 replay lately. After playing a week or two early this spring, work got busy so it was put on hiatus. Now with more time, I’m thinking of picking it back up again. Two nights ago, I spent some time browsing my current stats and cleaning up my spreadsheets. Last night, I got my ‘66 APBA cards back in order. Now all I got to do is roll dem bones.
While I was looking through the cards last night, I ran across Pittsburgh Pirates rookie infielder Gene Michael. His nickname was ‘Stick’ presumably because of his bodily frame (he was 6’2” and 185 lbs) and not for his hitting threat.
In his rookie year in 1966, Michael went 5 for 33 with two doubles and a triple. He did rack up 9 runs scored thanks to numerous pinch running appearances.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 Totals | 30 | 4 | 33 | 33 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | .152 | .152 | .273 |
Michael has an interesting APBA card. He has three power numbers with 2-6-6 followed by single numbers of 8-8-9-9. However, he has no speed numbers and has no 14s so he goes from a 15-9 to a 25-18 and a 51-13.
Later in his career, Gene Michael honed his skills in the field (legend has it that he pulled the hidden ball trick five times in his career). In his rookie year, at least according to APBA, he was still learning the trade with ratings of SS-7, 2B-6 and 3B-3.
Like our TCT pick two weeks ago, Chuck Dressen, Gene Michael may be more well known for his post-playing career in baseball. He managed the Yankees and the Cubs in the 1980s (including a first place finish in the first half of the strike-shortened 1981 season). He went on to an extended career in the Yankees’ front office.
Wow, that’s a truly awful card. Is the error number really at 25 for the 66 set, or was it a reflection of a really bad hitter?
Scott, to be more fair, it’s reflective of a bad season by a player who wasn’t known to be a great hitter.
The 1966 season is full of cards for players who didn’t play much at all.
And no, the error number isn’t at 25 (thank goodness). Michael’s is the first I’ve seen.
The Dodgers must have liked him. They traded Maury Wills to the Pirates for Bob Bailey and Micheal. I think they dumped Wills for skipping out on the post season Japanese tour. 1967 Micheal was hitting .295, in my replay, before getting injured on May 23. He’s now hitting .252. He’s a SS-8. Tom, good luck with ’66. Hope it’s a good one.
Mel, good piece of info about Wills. I didn’t catch that. Didn’t know about him skipping the Japanese tour either.
i was lucky enough to meet Gene Michael back in 1970. My Dad ran the local little league and Gene attended our post season award ceremony. We paid him $20- yes $20- to attend. I had him sign his APBA card and explained to him what all the symbols meant. The card had him as an ‘F’ runner which he chuckled over. He also said ‘oh, this is the game Peterson and Kekich play in the back of the plane’ which was interesting in light of later events involving those two. But a super nice guy!
Tom, I am going through the 66 set issued in 1993 and Micheals card has his birth year as 1939 and his hometown as Akron. He has 25-13 and 53-21.