#116 - Ed Farmer

Ed Farmer

Ed Farmer was a so-so reliever through the early 70's. He made it up with the Indians in 1971 and pitched middle relief. He stayed in the same role through 1974. He had a mid 4.00's ERA and had as many walks as strikeouts. I'm surprised he made it in the big leagues that long.

When he went to the minors, he spent 1974, 1975 and 1977 in the starting rotation. He didn't do any better, but must have gotten hurt in 1975. He had a 7.00+ ERA in 13 starts in 1975 and didn't pitch in 1976. However, in 1978 the Brewers put him in the bullpen in AAA Spokane. He still had an ERA of 6.00, but he got a shot in the big leagues and did well.

In 1979, however, he was traded to the White Sox in mid-season and everything finally clicked. I don't know if he made a deal with Louis Cypher or not (like Sully said about Brad Lidge in a great post) but he started doing the job when put into "game" situations. He sure went into the right place because his competition for the closer's role with the White Sox was Mike Proly and Randy Scarbery.

In 1980, Ed made the All-Star team. He came into a pressure situation in the 6th. The NL had just tied the score 2-2 and Dave Winfield is standing at the plate with runners on 1st and 3rd with only 1 out. He got Winfield to hit a grounder to 2nd (potential double play?), but Willie Randolph made an error and the go-ahead run scored. Keith Hernandez then beat out a dribbler near the mound before Farmer got Pete Rose to ground into an inning-ending double play.

He came into the All-Star break with a 6-3 record, 17 saves in 21 chances and a 3.00 ERA. After the break he was 1-6 with 13 saves in 20 chances and a 3.80 ERA. Not quite the same. His 1981 season looked like his early 70's seasons and he signed with the Phillies as a free agent after the season. He didn't do anything good with the Phillies or A's and was done in 1983.

Farmer is most known now for being the play-by-play voice of the White Sox. Before that, he was known for a feud with Al Cowens. On May 8, 1979, he started a game for the Rangers against the Royals. He hit leadoff hitter Frank White and broke his hand. In the 4th, he hit Al Cowens in the jaw. Each missed at least 30 games, which may have something to do with why the Royals didn't win the Western Division that year. Al Cowens had a long memory. In June of 1980, He faced Farmer in Chicago, hit a grounder and ran it out.....right to the mound and sucker punched Farmer from behind. Farmer decided to press charges and Cowens had to get the heck out of Dodge. They later buried the hatchet. Al Cowens wasn't someone you'd want to have looking to get even with you.

1972 Feature

The Game of the Day is going to be in Oakland. Bobby Grich hit a leadoff homer in the top of the 10th off Catfish Hunter to give the Orioles a 2-1 win. Dave McNally and Hunter both pitched complete games in this one. You don't see pitchers going 10 innings anymore and here's 2 that did. Earl Weaver didn't feel the need to bring Eddie Watt in to pitch the 10th; he figured McNally was pitching well so he left him in.

What's also remarkable about this game was that it was finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes. That gets you into the 6th inning now. It's not like there weren't baserunners, either. The Orioles had 6 hits and the A's had 4. Hunter had the only 3 walks of the game (imagine a pitcher going 1o innings now without walking someone). There were 5 hours in the game. Still, they finished the game in just over 2 hours. What a concept......

#84 -- Vince Colbert

Vince Colbert





Nice Spring Training shot of Vince with the Arizona mountains in the background. Vince was not related to Nate Colbert of the Padres. He'd cracked the rotation in 1971 as a spot starter at least and did reasonably well, even though he had a high walk rate. Vince was with the Indians part of 1972, but when he was 1-7 by the end of July, the Indians handed him a ticket to Portland, where he went 1-6. Ouch. He got 3 games in September and that was it for his big league career.

As the late Paul Harvey would say, there's a rest of the story that might explain why he plummeted so fast. Ken Aspromonte took over as the manager in 1972. According to an exceprt about Vince in the book "More Tales From the Tribe Dugout," Aspromonte wanted Vince to pitch at 190 pounds. He'd been around 215 to 220. He had to crash diet to lose 30 pounds, but he also lost the steam on his fastball, which was no longer in the low 90's. He looked so good at 190, he got tested for anemia. He was just never the same and the Indians gave up on him.

After the season the Indians sent him to the Rangers and in Spring Training of 1973 the Rangers sent him back (for Alex Johnson). He pitched at AA in San Antonio most of 1973, doing well with an 8-1 record and 3 saves. But when you're 27, spent most of the last 3 years in the big leagues and you can't crack the AA rotation on a regular basis, some guys decide to pack it in. Vince made it up to the AAA team for a time, but wasn't pitching regularly or terribly well, and that was a career.

I'd like to know more about Vince's basketball career. The cardback says he scored 29 in a half once. OK. What were the circumstances? Was this a state championship game or was it against weaker competition. I did see that Vince, a Washington DC native, was inducted into the College of Eastern Utah Hall of Fame in 1995. He was first team all-conference in baseball and basketball and won trophies in track. He was also the first black player recruited to East Carolina and is 2nd to former Pittsburgh Pirate reliever Bob Patterson in major league wins by ECU Pirate alums.

Vince did well against Hall of Famers. Brooks Robinson was 1/12 and Hall of Fame position players as a whole only hit .200 against Vince. The best batting average by a Hall of Famer was Jim Palmer going 2/3. Although he isn't a Hall of Famer, Frank Howard was an imposing figure at that time, but he went 0/16 against Vince.

Check out this link to his high school yearbook picture. It shows he's married with a son and 2 grandchildren and is a detective in security at Cleveland State. I did find a photo where he was recognized as a baseball/basketball letter winner at ECU and a recent photo from his Hall of Fame induction in Eastern Utah. He still looks like he's got a competitive edge, doesn't he?




I didn't know much about Vince when I started researching this post (at 2:30 AM), but I've learned a lot and glad I did. So, in honor of Vince's favorite song, according to his high school yearbook, this goes to Mrs. Colbert for her big leaguer:

#59 -- Fred Stanley

Fred Stanley









This is not a good airbrush job on Fred's hat. The coloring just isn't right. The only thing I'll give the artist credit for is they made the hat on the guy in the background match the Indians' dark hats of the time. The rock in the back tells me this is an Arizona spring training site, which both the Indians (Tucson) and the Brewers (Tempe) had at the time. I'm going to say Fred's got a Milwaukee Brewer hat on because the Indians acquired him in late March 1971, so he would have spent most of 1971 in Brewers' camp. This raises an interesting question: could the guy in the background have truly an Indian in a Spring Training game between the Tribe and the Crew?



Fred was not the best "Frederick Stanley" that ever played. However, I've got to play a trick to make that statement. The best was Frederick Stanley McGriff. However, Chicken had a long and interesting career. He was a Pilot (so he goes on that checklist). In 1972 he was sent from the Indians after only 6 games to the Padres for the rest of the year. The Yankees picked him up for the 1973 season and he stayed with them through the 1980 season. He then finished up with a couple of years in Oakland.

Fred was never a regular. He got his most playing time in 1975, but only got into 117 games and had 252 at bats. In 1976 he started 87 games at short, the most games started in his career. He didn't have any real production, but the Yankees made the playoffs anyway (their appearance in the World Series was tainted by Chris Chambliss' failure to touch home plate in Game 5 of the ALCS). The next year they picked up Bucky Dent and Fred was back to the bench.

Fred only hit 10 homers, but 2 of them were grand slams (1973 off Kevin Kobel, 1978 off Mike Torrez). Fred was one of the worst "sluggers" of modern times. In 1976 he had 260 at bats and 5 extra base hits. He had a lifetime batting average of .216, slugged .263 and a career OPS of .564. That's not very good.

"Chicken" is now the director of player development for the Giants. He had a lot of years to sit on teh bench and continue working his butt off to be ready. Guys like Fred may not have been the kind of ballplayer that you'd build a team around, but every team that wins has a guy like Fred that's versatile and ready to step in and get the job done.

#24 -- Ted Ford

Ted Ford

Imagine being a Cardinal fan (like I am) and hearing that prospects Colby Rasmus and Bryan Anderson are going to be in Iraq. Indian fans find out Matt LaPorta is being deployed as are David Price of the Rays, etc. It wasn't until more recently that the story of Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals became unusual. Athletes don't serve in the military any longer. Ted Williams did. Twice. Ted Ford not only served our country in Vietnam, he was in a troop that saw real action (according to B-R Bullpen). It sounds like it wasn't one of those assignments where he was the captain of the Army baseball team. Tip of the hat, Ted.

This is another of the large number of Yankee Stadium photos, as seen by the façade in the outfield foul area down the left field line. I also like Ted’s pose with the bat as if he’s swinging and he’s got his eye on the imaginary ball getting ready to rocket off his bat. 1972 was the only year Ted didn’t play for the Indians. The Rangers gave up Roy Foster and Tommy McCraw to get Ted. Ted had the best year of his career, hitting 14 homers. But he only hit .235, so the Rangers sent him back to Cleveland, where he didn’t play much.

I also got interested about the note on the back of his card about brother Lambert Ford (sounds like a car dealership). Lambert was a 1st round pick of the Indians in 1968, but didn't sign. He eventually was drafted and signed with the Astros. He didn't make the big leagues, but was described in a book about a Williamsport minor league team he was on as a speedy centerfielder. It looked like he was also taken to play in the Mexican League at Jalisco.