Bob Stephenson is Another PTBNL for Schoendienst

Bob Stephenson had just one year in the majors, spending 1955 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He played mostly shortstop, with a little second base and third, and hit .243 in 118 at-bats over 63 games.

He had come up in the Cardinals system, spending 1950, 1951 and 1954 there (with time off for military service evidently) and headed back to the minors for his last pro season, 1956. He started in Omaha for the Cards and finished the season for Minneapolis for the Giants. His Baseball-Reference page does not list a trade for this move, but we have found that it was an add to a well-known trade featuring a Hall-of-Famer!

The Lawton (OK) Constitution of June 18, 1956 tells us:

“The Omaha Cardinals sold infielder Bob Stephenson to Minneapolis for an unannounced price. Stephenson played college ball at Oklahoma. Cardinal General Manager Bill Bergesch said the Sunday sale was in connection with the St. Louis- New York trade in the National League last week. The parent Cardinals traded Jack Brandt, Red Schoendienst, Bill Sarni and Dick Littlefield for Al Dark, Whitey Lockman, Ray Katt and Don Liddle.”

Jackie Brandt's Baseball-Reference page lists that deal as:

 June 14, 1956: Traded by the St. Louis Cardinals with a player to be named later, Dick Littlefield, Bill Sarni and Red Schoendienst to the New York Giants for Al Dark, Ray Katt, Don Liddle and Whitey Lockman. The St. Louis Cardinals sent Gordon Jones (October 1, 1956) to the New York Giants to complete the trade. 

Which we now know is incomplete. Perhaps a better rewrite:

June 14, 1956: Traded by the St. Louis Cardinals with players to be named later, Dick Littlefield, Bill Sarni and Red Schoendienst to the New York Giants for Al Dark, Ray Katt, Don Liddle and Whitey Lockman. The St. Louis Cardinals sent Bob Stephenson (June 17, 1956) and Gordon Jones (October 1, 1956) to the New York Giants to complete the trade. 

Bob Stephenson photo glommed from Baseball-Reference.com

Mystery of 1969 Topps Fred Newman Solved! (Mostly)

This picture of the 1969 Topps Fred Newman card is taken from the great blog Jim from Downingtown has at http://1969topps.blogspot.com/2013/10/final-card-fred-newman.html.

In that particular post, he gives a nice rundown of Newman's career, from being a good young Angels hurler to a sore-armed minor leaguer, and also he muses as to how Newman would have gotten a card for this set. Newman never played for the Red Sox or for their Louisville minor league team, as is hinted by the obverse of the card:

My best guess would fall to the shortage of usable player photos that Topps had for the 1969 set, so they were grasping at straws to fill 664 places. HOWEVER, despite the fact that his Baseball-Reference page has no listing of a deal, I have been able to uncover what this card was alluding to.




From the Friday, March 14, 1969 edition of the Cumberland News:



"Fred Newman, former pitching standout for the California Angels who has been bothered by arm trouble for several seasons, Thursday was sent to the Boston Red Sox for an undisclosed amount of cash and a player to be named later."

Another article mentions Newman in a preseason game for the Louisville club, but I could not find why he never played for them. Maybe you can?