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Charles William Bradford
Chicago White Sox
Outfield
Born: July 25, 1944, Mobile, AL
Signed: Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent before 1962 season
Major League Teams: Chicago White Sox 1966-1970; Cleveland Indians 1970-1971; Cincinnati Reds 1971; Chicago White Sox 1972-1975; St. Louis Cardinals 1975; Chicago White Sox 1976
Outfielder Buddy Bradford played in parts of 11 seasons in the majors, mostly with the White Sox in three separate stints. Primarily a back-up throughout his career, 1969 was likely his best season as Bradford batted .256 with a career-high 11 home runs while making 73 starts in the outfield. He'd drive in a career-best 31 runs in 1970, splitting the season between the White Sox and Indians. Bradford had 122 pinch-hit appearances, batting .179 for his career in that role, and 77 career pinch-running appearances. He owned a career .226 average with 52 home runs, 175 RBIs and 36 stolen bases. His final professional season came in Japan as a member of the Kinetsu Buffaloes in 1977, where he batted .192 before retiring.
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 62nd 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.
The Card / White Sox Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
Bradford is shown in a photo from 1966, as that's the only season he wore uniform #53. He'd switch to #32 for the 1967 and 1968 seasons, and then to #19 for the 1969 and 1970 seasons with the White Sox. The note on the back about stolen bases is a reach, as Bradford only had eight stolen bases in 1968. Ahead of him for the team lead was Sandy Alomar (#283) with 21, Tommy McCraw (#388) with 20 and Luis Aparicio (#75) with 17.
Accuracy Index: Despite the photo being being three years old, Bradford's card scores a +5 for the accurate uniform.
1969 Season
In the strongest season of his career, Bradford was the opening day right fielder for the White Sox and he'd end up making 34 starts in right and 39 starts in center. The outfielders ahead of him in the White Sox depth chart were Carlos May (#654), Ken Berry (#494) and Walt Williams (#309).
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First Mainstream Card: 1968 Topps #142
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7): 1968-1971, 1974-1976
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1976 Topps #451
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 32 in the Beckett online database as of 10/1/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
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