Friday, March 20, 2015

Baseball Fathers and Sons: Part II, Finding the cards

Fathers and Sons Baseball Card Collecting.  Part II:  Finding the cards

To add cards to my collection of baseball fathers and sons, I use different methods to gather information about debuts of major league sons.  Like last year, while watching an A's game, I found out that Cameron Bedrosian, son of Steve, had made his major league debut during the previous week.  I added a copy of the 2011 Bowman Chrome Prospect card of Cameron Bedrosian to my set.

 
Steve Bedrosian 1991 Stadium Club #531 & Cameron Bedrosian 2011 Bowman Chrome Prospect #BCP159

I also periodically review the Baseball Almanac's Family Tree website that lists baseball fathers and sons.
 
Sometimes I am not aware when a son makes his debut and only find out on the Baseball Almanac's website. 

It wasn't until during the 2014 season that I found that Jim Adduci, son of Jim, made his major league debut in September 2013.  I was able to find a 2014 Topps Heritage card for son, Jim Adduci.

 
Jim Adduci 1988 Fleer #176 & Rangers Rookie Stars 2014 Topps Heritage #104 with Jim Adduci

When I first started to put this collection together I used the Baseball Almanac to identify sets of fathers and sons.  Some were more obvious like the Bonds and the Boones, but others were unknown to me, like Fred (father) and Gary (son) Green and Dave (father) and Mike (son) Stenhouse.

 
Fred Green 1960 Topps #272 & Gary Green 1991 Stadium Club #323

 
Dave Stenhouse Topps 1963 #263 & Mike Stenhouse 1985 Fleer #411
 
To begin the search for the cards of these father and son pairs, I looked to see if I had their cards in my collection.  If the player's card was in a set from sometime after 1960, I reviewed my collection to see if I had the card.  If I had the father's card, from a 60s or 70s set, then I probably also had a card of the son from a 80s, 90s, or 00s set.  Examples would be Tito (father) and Terry (son) Francona and Clyde (father) and Jaret (son) Wright.

 
Tito Francona Topps 1964 #583 & Terry Francona Topps 1986 Traded #38T 
 
 
Clyde Wright Topps 1971 #240 & Jaret Wright 2007 Upper Deck First Edition #125

Here is a link to the Baseball Almanac website.
 
 
When trying to find cards of players who played in the 20s, 30s, or 40s, I was able to find some cards in the Conlon Collection sets.  If I hadn't found these cards in a Conlon set, I might not have been able to add these fathers for my set.  I found Conlon Collection cards for Fred Brickell, father of Fritz, and for Dick Siebert, father of Paul.

 
Fred Bricknell 1993 Conlon Collection #808 & Fritz Brickell Topps 1961 #333

 
Dick Siebert 1993 Conlon Collection #926 & Topps 1975 Rookie Pitchers #614 with Paul Siebert

Some of the players had very short major league careers and the only player card that could be found for them was from a 1977 - 83 Ted Fritsch "One Year Winner" set. 
 
I found Ross Grimsley Senior's card, father of Ross Grimsley, Junior, in one of these sets.   Ross Sr. appear in seven games for the White Sox in 1951. 

 
Ross Grimsley Sr. 1977 Ted Fritsch "One Year Winner" #4 & Ross Grimsley Jr.  1972 Topps #99

Also, I found a card for Ron Stillwell, father of Kurt, in a "One Year Winner" set.  Ron appeared in 14 games for the Senators during 1961 and 1962. 

 
Ron Stillwell 1983 Ted Fritsch "One Year Winner" #114 & Kurt Stillwell 1992 Bowman #135

These are the only cards that I could find of Ross Grimsley, Sr. and Ron Stillwell.
 
For the father and son set of the Troskeys, I found a 1961 Fleer Baseball Great card of Hal Troskey Sr., a first baseman for the Indians in the 30s, and his son, Hal, Jr., whose only card was in a Ted Fritsch "One Year Winner" set.  Hal Jr. appeared in two games in 1958 for the White Sox.
 
 
Hal Troskey Sr. 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats #145 & Hal Troskey Jr. 1977 Ted Fritsch "One Year Winner" #15

For some players, the only card that I was able to find was a minor league player card.  One of these minor league player card was for the Mardie Cornejos, father of Nate.  The only card for Mardie that I could find was a 1978 TCMA International League Tidewater Tides card.   Mardie pitched in 25 games for the Mets in 1978 as Nate pitched in 56 games for the Tigers between 2001 and 2004.

 
Mardie Cornejo 1978 TCMA International League & Nate Cornejo 1999 Topps Traded #60 

Current Dodgers prospect, Joc Pederson's father, Stu appeared in 8 games for the Dodgers in 1985.  Stu had a card issued in the 1991 Line Drive Pre-Rookie set.  
 
 
Stu Pederson  1991 Line Drive AAA #512 and Joc Pederson 2015 Topps #192  

Some of these cards were purchased on ebay as they were not a part of my collection.  In a future post, I'll share some of the deals that I made to acquire other cards for my father and son set.
 

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