Birdie Tebbetts, Birthday Cards, and Big Milestones

Meet Birdie Tebbetts.

 

 

I came across Mr. Tebbetts while doing some research (which I'll get to in a bit), and it turns out he's quite an interesting guy. 

• An excellent catcher, Tebbetts led the league in assists and runners caught stealing 3 years straight years (1939-1941)
• He played on 4 All-Star teams, twice representing the American League as the starting catcher.
• Once was charged with assault and battery during a game in Cleveland when a basket of tomatoes was dropped on him by a Cleveland fan. He ran up and struck the guy, but the charges were later dismissed.
• Like many players during that time, he spent 3 years in the military. He was a recruiter stationed in Texas, and acted as a player-manager for the Waco Army Flying School's baseball team.
• Once called some of his teammates, who were making critical remarks about their manager, "a couple of juvenile delinquents and moronic malcontents." The resulting team friction led to his contract getting sold two months later.
• Despite spending only 4 years with the Red Sox, he was voted by fans in 1969 as the team's all-time best catcher.
• Played his final game in 1952 at the age of 38, but later admitted he subtracted 5 years when he left college and was actually 43. (Although according to Baseball-Reference, he would have turned 40 in 1952...)
• A few years later, he was named manager of the Cincinati Redlegs, winning the 1956 Manager of the Year award. Frank Robinson gave him a lot of credit for his development as a hitter.
• After managing in Cincinati, Milwaukee, and Cleveland, he became a highly regarded scout. Reggie Jackson said it was Tebbetts' scouting reports that helped him hit 3 home runs during Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.
• He retired in 1997 after spending over 60 years in professional baseball.
• He finished his MLB career with exactly 1,000 hits.

It's that last bit of trivia that led me to Mr. Tebbetts. You see, what you are reading right now is the 1,000th post here on Diamond Jesters. 1,000 posts! granted, 300 of them are just whimsical little haiku poems, but still. That's quite a milestone for me. 

Anyways, as I was approaching the big 1K, I started to think about what I wanted this post to be about. I correlated this milestone with the equivalent of a hitter reaching 1,000 hits. I decided to research and see if any Major League baseball players finished their careers with exactly 1,000 hits. As luck would have it, Birdie was one of a small handful to achieve this distinction. 

So here we have a former Red Sox All-Star, the perfect subject of my momentous post. Go figure, I didn't have any cards of him. According to the TCDB, he only has 81 cards, only 13 of which are with him on the Red Sox. (Ironically, the same number of cards he has as a manager, not including buybacks). The above card, from the 2001 Fleer Boston Red Sox 100th Anniversary set, was a natural choice to remedy that problem. So I placed an order at Sportlots.

Of course, I couldn't just order one card, could I? As luck would have it, Mr. Tebbetts and most of the cards I ordered arrived on my birthday, with the rest coming in a few days later.

 

 

Among the cards in my Sportlots order were these 1987 Fleer insert cards chronicling the 1986 World Series. Despite the outcome, it was an important moment in Red Sox history, and now I have the complete set!  

 

 

Speaking of completing sets, I decided it was time to complete another one. After a previous trade left me with needing just 6 more cards for the 1978 Topps set, I took advantage of some good deals to pick up 5 more of the cards. The last card I need, Andre Dawson, was a little pricier than I wanted to spend, but that's OK. I'm sure I'll find a nice copy in my price range in no time!

 

 

In addition to Birdie Tebbetts, I picked up a few more cards from that Red Sox specific set. I really should make it a priority to complete this set, and chances are someday I'll just buy the complete set. The Clemens card is from the 1996 Fleer team set. He was the second to last card I needed for that little set, leaving only Jose Canseco. Oh, in case you were curious, the Tebbetts card in this group is not the same one as the one in the first photo. Yep, I bought two - one for me and one for..

...a contest prize! 

Yep, 1000 posts seems like a good reason to have a small giveaway. Comment on this post to be entered, and I'll leave the contest open for a week. A randomly selected winner will get not just one of the Birdie Tebbetts, but a pack of 2023 Topps as well (From a hanger box, so I can guarantee you'll get at least the Team Logo Commemorative Patch that come one per box!) If time and motivation permits, maybe I'll dig up some other goodies as well.

Thanks to everyone who's read any of these many, many posts of mine! I have my sights set for 2,000 now!