#52 Mike Andrews - Boston Red Sox

Michael Jay Andrews
Boston Red Sox
Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  195
Born:  July 9, 1943, Los Angeles, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent, December 1, 1961
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1966-1970; Chicago White Sox 1971-1973; Oakland Athletics 1973

World Series Appearances:  Boston Red Sox 1967; Oakland Athletics 1973

Mike Andrews was the everyday second baseman for the 1967 Red Sox team, the "Impossible Dreamers," that improbably made it to the World Series after nearly finishing in last place in 1966.  He enjoyed the best years of his eight-year big league career with the Red Sox in the late 1960s.  Andrews led the league with 18 sacrifices in 1967 and batted .308 (4 for 13) in the 1967 World Series, lost in seven games to the Cardinals.  His best season came in 1969 when he was an All-Star and attained career marks for batting (.293), home runs (15) and RBIs (59).  He was dealt to the White Sox in December 1970 with Luis Alvarado for future Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio (#75).  Not known for his glove work, Andrews led all second baseman in errors for three straight years between 1970 and 1972.

After a few seasons in Chicago, Andrews reunited with his former Boston manager, Dick Williams (#349), now managing in Oakland.  The A's signed Andrews in late July 1973, and he'd serve in a bench role as the team won its American League pennant.  In the 1973 World Series, Andrews infamously committed two costly errors in Game 2, leading to a 10-7 win by the Mets.  Owner Charlie Finley forced the benching of Andrews, but Williams as his A's teammates came to his defense.  Fortunately, Oakland would prevail in the series, beating the Mets in seven games.  Andrews spent the 1975 season playing in Japan for the Kintetsu Buffaloes before retiring.  For his career, he batted .258 with 66 home runs and 316 RBIs, and one hard-earned World Series ring.  Andrews would later serve as chairman of The Jimmy Fund, a cancer treatment fundraising organization, for more than 25 years.  His younger brother Rob Andrews played for five seasons with the Astros (1975-1976) and Giants (1977-1979).

Building the Set / Card #105
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 28th 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 / Red Sox Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

This is another example of a "good" card from the 1969 Topps set.  The photo and cropping work well with the design and nothing seems smooshed to the side because of the name/position circle.  Andrews is posing on the sidelines of Yankee Stadium, holding the bat of teammate Dalton Jones (#457).  Jones wore #3 with the club, and you can see his uniform number marked on the knob.

The cartoon highlights his high average during the 1967 World Series and the write-up credits Williams with moving Andrews from shortstop to second base.  The two Red Sox batters ahead of Andrews in batting average in 1968 were batting champ Carl Yastrzemski (#130) at .301 and Ken Harrelson (#240) at .275.  Andrew batted .271.

Accuracy Index:  Clean card, no notes, solid 5.

1969 Season
This was to be Andrews' All-Star season.  The opening day second baseman for the Red Sox, Andrews would make 120 starts overall at the position.  He'd miss over a month of playing time during the summer after being hit on the hand by a pitch from Twins' pitcher Dave Boswell (#459) during the May 30th game.  Andrews would develop a serious blood clot, requiring the lengthy absence.  He replaced the Orioles' Davey Johnson (#203) on the All-Star roster when Johnson couldn't go because of a back injury.  Andrews took over for Rod Carew (#510) in the sixth, grounding out in his only at-bat against Mets' pitcher Jerry Koosman (#90).

1967 Topps #314

1968 Topps #502

1970 Topps #406

1972 Topps #361

1973 Topps #42

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1967 Topps #314
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7):  1967-1973
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1981 TCMA The 1960s II #417
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  42 in the Beckett online database as of 6/2/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database

#51 Woody Fryman - Philadelphia Phillies / #53 Sonny Jackson - Atlanta Braves