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?