My friend Don Smith has been conducting a little Illowa APBA League “spring training” for his Molly Putts Marauders before our regular season starts. I’ve seen some of his writeups on Facebook. Quite enjoyable.
Don told me that in his quest in finding teams to play Molly, he ran across this 1974 Phil Gagliano card from the Reds. Now Phil was in his last year of his career and didn’t hit much. However for some reason, he managed to draw a fair amount of walks in his short playing time. He went 2 for 31 for a dismal .065 average but still walked 15 times!
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 Totals | 46 | 0 | 46 | 31 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 7 | .065 | .370 | .065 |
Hitting-wise, Phil’s card is pretty much like your standard American League pitcher’s card (7-8-9). Then you get to the 14s. He has a total of 12 of them.
I guess if you absolutely, positively need that runner on base, right?
I told Don that I was familiar with Gagliano. He plays for the Cardinals in my 1966 replay. Gagliano was never a full-time star but 1965-1967 was as close as he would come to being a big part of the team. APBA-wise, his 1966 card is pretty tame compared to this one. He has 0-0-7-7 plus a 15-10. Oh and he only has three 14s.
I happened to notice that Phil Gagliano passed away just a month and a half ago on December 19, 2016. I happened to notice it on Baseball Reference’s front page recognizing recent deaths. While I had no previous connection with him, I felt a twinge since he no longer was around only because of my 1966 replay.
thanks, Don!
He rots on the bench for my ’69 Cards. What a useless player. Not an especially good fielder–and terrible on this ’74 card–slow, and no power. I suppose he’s a warm body if someone gets injured.