Hal Richman's Odd American League Selections

1960 players who didn't play in either All-Star Game

Hal Richman's Odd Selections

When Hal Richman decided to create exactly 5 player cards for all 16 teams from the 1960 season, he obviously had to make some difficult choices.

The idea was apparently to create “All-Star” players. And this really shouldn’t have been all that difficult to do. After all, there were two All-Star Games in 1960, back during the brief experimental period where Major League Baseball decided to run the game twice each year.

However, there are a lot of players Richman created cards for that did not appear in either All-Star Game in 1960.

There are so many of these players that we’ll split this up into two posts. Today we’ll look at the American League.

The following American League players received a Strat-O-Matic card despite not playing in either All-Star Game in 1960:

• Gus Triandos, Baltimore Orioles

• Hoyt Wilhelm, Baltimore Orioles

• Frank Sullivan, Boston Red Sox

• Roy Sievers, Chicago White Sox

• Frank Baumann, Chicago White Sox

• Tito Francona, Cleveland Indians

• Woodie Held, Cleveland Indians

• Jim Perry, Cleveland Indians

• Norm Cash, Detroit Tigers

• Rocky Colavito, Detroit Tigers

• Jim Bunning, Detroit Tigers

• Jerry Lumpe, Kansas City Athletics

• Norm Siebern, Kansas City Athletics

• Dick Williams, Kansas City Athletics

• Ray Herbert, Kansas City Athletics

• Ralph Terry, New York Yankees

• Harmon Killebrew, Washington Senators

• Earl Battey, Washington Senators

• Pedro Ramos, Washington Senators

There were also a few notable snubs:

• First baseman Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles played in both All-Star Games and hit .292, but didn’t receive a card.

• Catcher Sherm Lollar of the Chicago White Sox was on both All-Star teams but did not receive a card. He hit only .252.

• Left Fielder Minnie Miñoso, also of the Chicago White Sox, hit .311 and was on both All-Star teams, but didn’t receive a card.

• White Sox Right Fielder Al Smith was on both All-Star teams and hit .315 without being carded.

• Gerry Staley, who was a relief pitcher for the White Sox, did not receive a card. Richman only made cards for starting pitchers. Staley appeared in both All-Star Games and ended the season with a 2.42 ERA.

• Vic Power, slugging first baseman for the Cleveland Indians, inexplicably did not receive a card. He also played in both All-Star Games and hit .288.

• Dick Stigman of the Indians, another relief pitcher, did not receive a card. He finished the season with a 4.51 ERA, which might have had something to do with it.

• Elston Howard, catcher for the New York Yankees didn’t make the cut, probably because Richman only gave cards to 3 Yankees position players. Howard hit .245.

• First baseman Bill Skowron of the Yankees also did not receive a card. Skowron hit .309 with 26 home runs, and was probably more deserving offensively than Berra — but, of course, Yogi Berra was a household name.

• Pitcher Jim Coates of the Yankees didn’t make the cut despite being selected for both All-Star Games. Coates had a 4.28 ERA, but managed a 13-3 record. The fact that he only started 18 of his 35 appearances might have had something to do with his snub.

Overall, it seems that Richman’s biggest puzzle was figuring out how to get 5 players from each club when the talent level in the American League was so skewed. His insistence on only choosing starting pitchers also made for a major complication.

We’ll look next time at the National League.