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Garrabrant Ryerson Alyea
Washington Senators
Outfield
Born: December 8, 1940, Passaic, NJ
Signed: Signed by the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent before 1962 season
Major League Teams: Washington Senators 1965, 1968-1969; Minnesota Twins 1970-1971; Oakland Athletics 1972; St. Louis Cardinals 1972
Brant Alyea played in parts of six big league seasons, staring his major league career by hitting a home run off the very first pitch he saw. On September 12, 1965, in front of 840 fans at D.C. Stadium, Alyea was sent to pinch-hit for Don Blasingame in the bottom of the sixth. He hit a home run to deep left field off the Angels' Rudy May, becoming the ninth player at the time to homer off the first pitch thrown to him in the majors. He'd hit 37 more home runs after that, finding his most success with the Twins in 1970. Alyea batted .291 that season with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs - all marks serving as his career bests. He had two games in 1970 in which he drove in seven runs - opening day against the White Sox and September 7th against the Brewers. Alyea spent his last year in the majors with the Athletics, in two different stints, batting .194 largely in a pinch-hitting role for the eventual World Champions.
In 371 games, Alyea batted .247 with 38 home runs and 148 doubles. He also found success in the offseason in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, leading the league in home runs in 1968 and 1971 with 17 and 12, respectively.
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
In mid-March, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set. That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon. I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.
This is the 26th of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York. My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside. After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far. With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298. The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards, with this card costing me less than a dollar. If I stick to composing posts five times a week, and I'm already slipping off that pace a little, I should go through the stack and be caught up by the week of January 22, 2024!
The Card / Senators Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
Alyea's rookie card appears in the 1966 Topps set, and this is his first solo Topps card. There's an excellent chance the photo shown here dates back to 1965. Coach Eddie Yost makes a cameo appearance behind Alyea. Yost wore #42 as a Senators' coach between 1963 and 1967. By the time this card was released, Yost was in his second year as a coach for Gil Hodges (#564) and the Mets.
The back of the card touts Alyea's minor league home run prowess. In nine minor league seasons, over 924 games, he hit 162 home runs. Alyea hit over 20 minor league home runs in 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1968.
Accuracy Index: It's an old photo, but it's accurate, so Alyea's card scores a +5.
1969 Season
Spending all season with the Senators, Alyea made 32 starts in right field, 24 starts in left field and appeared in 104 games overall. He batted .249 for Ted Williams' (#650) club, with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs.
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First Mainstream Card: 1966 Topps #11
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (5): 1966, 1969-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1972 Topps #383
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 20 in the Beckett online database as of 6/2/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
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