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?

Two 1938 Dodgers: Fred Sington and Pete Coscarart

The 1938 Brooklyn Dodgers weren't particularly good, finishing 69-80, but they did have some interesting players.

Fred Sington was an outfielder on the team who had a gaudy .358 batting average and a near-.500 on-base percentage in just 68 plate appearances. His major league career started with the Senators in 1934 and ended with the Dodgers in 1939, a short career despite a very respectable .271 lifetime batting average and a near-.400 lifetime OBP mark. His Baseball-Reference page only lists the transactions that sent him from Washington to Brooklyn and an "assignment:" from Brooklyn to the Red Sox. But how did the Senators get him?

The Wilson Daily Times of Sep. 8, 1934 tells us:

"Fred Sington, slugging outfielder of the Albany Senators of the International League, has been sold to Washington of the American League for cash and three players, the club announced yesterday. The amount of cash was not disclosed."

Albany was an independent team at the time. And we find out more about the "assignment" to the Red Sox system from a 1939 post-season article in the Louisville Courier-Journal of Dec. 10, 1939:

"the only thing wrong with Fred Sington's batting last season was his average of .254. Homeliness in batting averages, as in looks, frequently is only skin deep; beneath the unattractive batting mark, as well as beneath the ugly mug, redeeming qualities frequently shine. That's why the Colonels have abandoned intentions of selling Big Fred if they had a chance of recouping all or most of the $10,000 they paid Brooklyn for him last season."

So that was a sale rather than just an "assignment."
Sington finished his career in Louisville in 1940. He was better known as a college football star for Alabama, and according to Wikipedia. had a song written about his football prowess.

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Pete Coscarart was just getting his major league career started in 1938, and the useful middle infielder would be traded to Pittsburgh for 1942 and would be out of the majors in early 1946. Quite likely that was due to his support for a baseball player's union at the time.

His Baseball-Reference page doesn't list the deal that sent him from the Pirates out west to independent PCL San Diego, but we found an interesting article from the June 2, 1946 Chicago Tribune:

"The Pittsburgh Pirates today (June 1) announced the sale of Pete Coscarart to San Diego of the Pacific Coast League..."

The article goes on to say that Coscarart was threatening to jump to the Mexican league rather than go to San Diego. The article says that Coscarart thought he could still play in the majors at age 30. Baseball-Reference has him at 33 at the time of the deal.

He DID go to the Padres, and then to Sacramento and Yakima before ending his career.

Sington from Getty Images, Coscarart from www.vintagecardprices.com

Play Mandy Brooks for Me, Then Trade Him

We are going to go back a bit further than normal for this post's subject.

Mandy Brooks was a half-season wonder for the Cubs in 1925. In 90 games, the outfielder had 46 XBH, 72 RBI and a .281 average as a rookie centerfielder. The Cubs acquired Hack Wilson for 1926 and Brooks was an afterthought. Aftger 57 PA and a sub-.200 BA he was gone from the majors, never to return.

Brooks' Baseball-Reference page lists NO transactions for Brooks, which is not surprising. Baseball worked in a different way back then, as teams frequently bought and sold and traded players from and to independent minor league teams. We were able to find a few for Brooks, though, including his entry and exit from the Cubs!

Brooks had joined the Cubs mid-season from the Columbus AA team, an independent squad. This deal was covered by the Courier-Journal from Louisville Kentucky of May 27, 1925:

 "John ("Mandy") Brooks, an outfielder with the Columbus American Association Club, has been sold to the Chicago Nationals for $33,009, an outfielder and a pitcher, it was announced here today. Brooks, who has been batting better than (??), will report to the Chicago team Friday. He came to Columbus from Peoria in the Three Eye League. Outfielder (??) will be one of the Chicago nlers who will come to Columbus."

The (??) mark indicates garbled text. We can certainly pull out from this that the Cubs sent cash and two players to Columbus for Brooks.

Brooks' Baseball-Reference page is not complete when it comes to his minor-league career. In 1926 the Cubs optioned him to Minneapolis, but that record is not represented. From Minneapolis, the Cubs sold him to Louisville for 1927. From the Courier-Journal from Louisville Nov. 18, 1926:

"Mandy Brooks will wear the uniform of a Louisville Colonel next season. He comes to the Louisville club from the Chicago Cubs in part payment for Earl Webb. Brooks finished the 1926 season with Minneapolis after starting the year with Joe McCarthy's team."

This transaction is not listed on Earl Webb's page, either.  

Brooks' Louisville career isn't covered on his page either, just a stop at Waterbury (perhaps on option from Louisville). He goes to Nashville early in 1927: from the July 12, 1927 Tennessean from Nashville:

"Mandy Brooks, who was bought a week ago today from Louisville, joined the club yesterday down in Memphis and It filled the Vol roster."

So that was a cash deal. We found one more Brooks transaction that involved a (then) future major league player. In 1928 Brooks goes to the PCL in a deal outlined in the San Bernardino Sun of June 13,1928:

"A mild housecleaning in the Oakland baseball club today swept one regular out, while a veteran and three youngsters swirled in on the back stroke of the broom. Al Bool, one of the catching mainstays of last year's pennant winning team, was the victim. , He and a chunk of cash (amount unknown) went to the Nashville club of the Southern association in a trade for John "Mandy" Brooks, husky outfielder. Brooks, a right-hander all around, was with the Chicago Nationals in 1925 and 1926. To date this season, he has hit nine home runs and batted .534 for Nashville. He will report at once."

So we were able to not only add some transactions to the Mandy Brooks file, but fill in a couple stops on his baseball resume!

Brooks from pinterest, Webb from comc.com and Bool from the great Trading Card Database site.

 

Jimmy Ripple Comes Back to the Majors

Jimmy Ripple was a pretty good outfielder for the Giants, Brooklyn and Cincinnati from the late thirties thru the mid-forties. His Baseball-Reference pages note that after a year-plus in the minors after his Reds stint, he reappears in the Majors for a short run with the Philadelphia A's...yet his transaction history stops well before then.

Ripple was sold to the Cardinals in 1941 and sent to their AAA Rochester team. From there he was traded to Toronto, independent at the time. I found a mention of the trade, possibly from  the Rochester Times-Union of July 13, 1942, on this scrapbook:

“TRADED TO TORONTO: Jimmy Ripple, veteran outfielder of major league and International League experience, last night was traded by Red Wings to Toronto for players Bill Beckman and Joe Mack.”

“Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman” by Lee Lowenfish has this selection on this deal:

“During the 1942 season MacPhail was serving as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, an International League team with out any Major League affiliation. In August Rickey phoned young MacPhail and offered him a Minor League first baseman at Rochester, Jimmy Ripple, who he said could help the Blue Jays make the playoffs. ‘We’ll have to make some kind of deal,” Rickey cooed to the unsuspecting MacPhail, suggesting that St. Louis receive a hurler in exchange. ‘I don’t know your staff, Rickey noted innocently, ‘What pitchers do you have?’ When MacPhail mentioned the name Bill Beckmann. Rickey said he would be acceptable.”

Ripple comes back to the majors in 1943 with the Athletics. This from the Montreal Gazette of Aug. 3, 1943...

“Philadelphia Athletics today traded Jim Tyack, 31-year-old outfielder, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Jimmy Ripple, former Cincinnati star, also an outfielder.”

The Athletics sent Ripple to Louisville (Boston Red Sox AAA team) in the offseason, This from the Spokane Daily Chronicle of Feb. 5, 1944:

“Jimmy Ripple, veteran outfielder for the Athletics, has been sold to Louisville of the American Association for an undisclosed price, the A’s announced last night.”

Ripple went from Louisville to Seattle in a deal I could not find, then was released and finished 1944, and his playing career, with San Francisco: Montreal Gazette of July 28, 1944:

“San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast Baseball League have signed Jimmy Ripple, 34, former Major League star outfielder, as a free agent, officials of the club announced today.”

“Ripple….recently was with Seattle Rainiers but was released,”

Another end-of-career journey chronicled!

Ripple and Tyack pics form pinterest.

Beckmann from COMC.com

Joe Mack from the Pecan Park Eagle blog at

https://bill37mccurdy.com/2014/06/30/once-upon-a-time-in-monessen/