Monday, June 29, 2015

Don Taussig in 1959 - Not So Simple

Don Taussig was an outfielder in the Majors for the Giants, Cardinals and Colt .45s in the late 50's and early 60's.

How he got from the Giants to the Cardinals is described thusly on his Baseball Reference page...

Which seems fine on the surface, but does not explain his run in 1959, which has him starting in Fort Worth, AAA for the Cubs, and finishing in Charleston for the Tigers' AAA.

We did some looking and found this from the Panama American of Apr. 28, 1959...



“The San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs exchanged farmhands Sunday with the Giants sending outfielder Don Taussig to Fort Worth in the American Association and the Cubs sending pitcher Marcelino Solis to Phoenix of the Pacific Coast League”

No mention of this deal on either Taussig or Solis' pages. So how did Taussig get to Charleston? Can't find that yet. I DID find this odd note in the July 5, 1959 Sunday Gazette-Mail (Charleston WV)... 

"Don Taussig had been traded to Corpus Christy (sp) for Outfielder Jim Miller and Miller hadn't reported.”

Talking about why Charleston had been short-handed. Taussig stayed with Charleston so that deal must have been voided, Miller never went to Charleston and stayed in the minors for awhile.

Corpus Christi WAS a Giants AA team at the time. Somehow, Taussig gets back to the Giants at the end of the season:  the Spokane Daily Chronicle of Oct 28, 1959 has him being outrighted to Tacoma by the Giants.

The Cardinals then purchase him from Tacoma as per the Eugene Register-Guard of April 12, 1960.

So there are a few tangles to unknot. I did see that Alex Cosmidis also played for both Charleston and Fort Worth in 1959, maybe they were dealt for each other....

Taussig from www.sportsmemorabilia.com


Solis (in Ft. Worth gear no less!) from the great blog 59toppsblog.blogspot.com

 




 

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