I Will Just Make Up My Own Set

There was no Minor League Baseball season this year, which means there was no post on this year's Durham Bulls team set.  It's an annual rite of fall.  Lining the cards up as straight as possible on scanner, hoping that they don't all shift when I close the lid.  I need to start running those posts with a five year delay.  They are actually more fun to look at now then at the time the cards were produced.  

Look at this group from 2014.  

You've got the reigning National League leader in saves, a guy with three gold gloves, and the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.  I think Enny Romero might have been the highest rated prospect in this group in 2014 and he's not even playing anymore.  

Crazy stuff.  

With no Durham Bulls team set coming out in 2020, I decided I would just work on putting together another team set from a different year.  After checking out what was available on Ebay, I decided that was actually not much of a challenge.  So, I am making up my own Durham Bulls set to collect.  

Something I don't already own.  

Something with interesting players.  

Something with a decent quantity of cards.  

Something that will require me to work harder than placing one Ebay or COMC order.  

After a lot of thought, I am putting together a 1975 Topps Mini Set of the Durham Bulls.  There were a ton of Durham Bulls players who were in the Majors at the time.  The cards are fun to collect.  While they are easy to find, it's such an odd combination of players that I cannot just click a few Ebay listings and have all the cards. 

In fact, I am still making the checklist.  I think the answer is between 15 and 20 cards.  I will let you know for sure with the next post.  So, for tonight, I have my first group of cards fresh out of the mailbox.  

Scans are jumbo, cards are minis.  

#476 - Ed Figueroa - 1968 Raleigh-Durham Mets 

It makes me cringe when I see the "Raleigh-Durham" one the back of a baseball card sometimes.  What person thought it was a good idea to change the name of the Durham Bulls?  Obviously someone in the Mets front office, but the Phillies kept it later on.  Figueroa was on the Raleigh-Durham Mets.  He's a player I learned about after moving to North Carolina.  Ed had two Top 10 Cy Young finishes and pitched for two World Series winners with the Yankees.  

He actually hurt his arm while pitching here, hence the 7 games, and quit baseball to join the Marines.  After a stint in Vietnam, he ended up in the Minors with the Giants, but was traded to the Angels.  Ed Figueroa made his Major League debut pitching in long relief for Nolan Ryan who had given up 3 runs in the first inning and had walked the bases loaded in the second.

 

#245 - Mickey Lolich - 1959-1961 Durham Bulls 

Lolich is best know for winning Game 7 of the 1968 World Series.  He also retired as the all-time left-handed strikeout leader before being passed by Steve Carlton.  Randy Johnson and C.C. Sabathia have also passed him, making him fourth.  Lolich ranks 20th overall, roughly 150 strikeouts away from 3,000.  I don't think Mickey is a Hall of Famer, but he's better than Jack Morris.  Maybe he is? 

#351 - Bob Boone - 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies 

Another Raleigh-Durham card.  Bob Boone played 19 years for the Phillies, Angels, and Royals.  He also managed the Royals and Reds for awhile in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Boone was on the 1980 Phillies World Series winner.  He didn't win the MVP in that series, but he did hit .412.  While Boone did not win the World Series MVP, he did win 7 Gold Gloves.  

Is the jacket he is wearing under his uniform from an Army surplus store?  

#630 - Greg Luzinski - 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies 

I am a little disappointed that Luzinski's Minor League stats were not included on the back of his card considering that he and Boone were in Durham the same season.  Luzinski was shuffled between the Minors and Majors several times during his first few seasons, so maybe with the multiple teams over multiple seasons it would not have fit on the card.  He hit 31 home runs that season with the Raleigh-Durham Phillies, which would look nice on a baseball card.  

Luzinski was an old guy on the White Sox by the time I started watching baseball.  "The Bull" is not a Hall of Famer, more a great of his era.  He and Schmidt were a pretty scary tandem in the middle of the Phillies lineup.  

Last night.  

#44 Pat Dobson - 1960 Durham Bulls 

This card was made near the end of Dobson's career.  He played with the Durham Bulls while he was coming through the Minors with the Tigers.  The 1960 Bulls were 20 games under .500 and had a starting rotation with both Pat Dobson and Mickey Lolich, who were both on the 1968 Tigers World Series team.  Dobson also pitched for the 1971 Orioles, who made it to the World Series, but lost to the Pirates.  

More 1975 Topps Minis and a checklist next week.  

Another Raleigh-Durham Post

I am not going to rehash the whole story in this post, but in the late 1960s the Durham Bulls bought and merged with the Carolina League franchise that played in Raleigh.  Long story short, we ended up with a few years of Raleigh-Durham teams rather than the Durham Bulls.  There was the Raleigh-Durham Mets, Raleigh-Durham Phillies, and the Raleigh-Durham Triangles.

Raleigh and Durham are two different cities.  They are roughly half an hour away from each other depending on traffic and which roads you take.  While the Bulls were playing as a "Raleigh-Durham" franchise, they were really playing in both cities, splitting their home game in between the Durham Athletic Park and Deveraux Meadows.

Not ideal, but the teams were actually pretty good during this time.

The Raleigh-Durham Mets finished first in the Carolina League in 1968, the Phillies came in second in 1969, and the Triangles also came in second in 1970.

There were some good players on these teams too.  I have posted a few on here over the past few years.  Last week I was fortunate enough to pick up three new cards of  two different players from the 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies.

Two pretty impactful players to say the least considering both were on the 1980 Phillies teams that brought the franchise their first ever World Series title.

So, I will go first with the catcher from the last out in the video.  

Bob Boone was a long time catcher for the Phillies, as well as several other teams during a long Major League career.  He is also the father of Bret and Aaron Boone.  I like the design and appearance of this card, but Topps really mangled this from the original.

If you are not familiar with the 2001 Topps Archives set, the players were featured in the set on a minimum of two cards.  Their first card in the set was their rookie, with the second card being their last appearance on a Topps card.  They took some liberties with the rookie cards that originally had multiple players on the front.

The original Bob Boone rookie featured......

Skip Jutze and Mike Ivie.  A Mike Ivie autograph would be alright.  Skip Jutze?  Sure.  

This Luzinski autographed card comes from the same set.  I had another Luzinski autograph prior to owning this card.  The black border looks nice on the base card from the Archives set, but I don't like it when they are given to players to sign.  Luzinski has a nice autograph and it is a bit of shame that the signature dips into the black border area.

Still an excellent card that is a welcome addition to the collection.

Similar to the Boone card above, this card was modified from it's original two player format to feature just Luzinski.

Last card.  My favorite of the three new cards in this post.  

Luzinski has been in several Topps products as a signer over the past number of years, but this Archives autograph out of the Fan Favorites products has to be one of his toughest signatures to track down.  I have seen several over the years, but price has been somewhat of a factor in the past.  Not sure if this card was officially ever declared a short print, not shown that way on most of the checklist sites, but they are usually listed that way on Ebay and COMC.

Pretty sure that the last Luzinski autograph is going to close me out on the whole Raleigh-Durham card scene for awhile unless someone actually makes cards with the Raleigh-Durham Mets, Phillies, or Triangles in their uniforms.

Project Durham Bulls #9: Bob Boone

1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies 

Background- 

Back in the day, the late 1960s, there was a Minor League team in Raleigh and a Minor League team in Durham.  The team in Raleigh was in some financial difficulty, so someone came up with the great idea of having the Durham Bulls split their time between Durham and Raleigh.  The idea actually started out in 1968 when the New York Mets renamed their Carolina League team the Raleigh-Durham Mets.  A year later the franchise changed affiliations, changed team names, but kept up the half-Raleigh and half-Durham schedule.  

The Durham games were played in the Durham Athletic Park which is now home to the North Carolina Central University's baseball team.....

also where the Bull Durham movie was filmed.  The Raleigh games were played at Devereux Meadows which is now just a concrete wall with fixtures hanging out of it and a parking lot for the city of Raleigh.  

The long time Major League catcher Bob Boone appeared on the 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies.  The team ended up finishing second in their half of the Carolina League, but had some outstanding players on the roster including Boone and Greg Luzinksi.  Boone lasted 80 games in the Tar Heel State and posted a .300/.341/.400 slash line with 5 home runs, 13 doubles, and 46 RBIs.  He was promoted to Double A Reading in the Eastern League and was with the Phillies by the end of the 1972 season.  Boone would go on to enjoy a 19 year career in Major League Baseball with the Phillies, Angels, and Royals.  

Card- 

There have been way too many Archives products lately.  I had no real intentions of buying any more of them until I ran across these photo looking cards for cheap.  I was already buying one of them, but I like to save on shipping, so I got two of them instead.  Really, at this point I am walking around with a list of players who were on the Durham Bulls and trying to track down an autograph of as many as possible.  The older members of the team are challenging, but their cards are still out there waiting to be found.  Boone is the first non-Rays/Devil Rays member of the Bulls to be included in this project.