#211 Galen Cisco - Kansas City Royals

Galen Bernard Cisco
Kansas City Royals
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  200
Born:  March 7, 1936, St. Marys, OH
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1958 season
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1961-1962; New York Mets 1962-1965; Boston Red Sox 1967; Kansas City Royals 1969

Originally signed by the Red Sox, Galen Cisco found little success in Boston during his first two seasons in the majors, going 6-12 with a 6.28 ERA over 51 appearances.  He was selected off waivers by the Mets on September 7, 1962, and while his numbers aren't pretty, Cisco was arguably one of the Mets' best pitchers during the expansion team's early years.  He went 7-15 for the Mets in 1963 with a 4.34 ERA, making 17 starts and appearing in 51 games overall.  In 1964, he was arguably the staff "ace" for the 10th place team that lost 109 games.  Cisco appeared in 36 games, making a career-high 25 starts and was 6-19 with a respectable 3.62 ERA over 191 2/3 innings pitched.  He once again served as an innings-eater for the Mets in 1965 and then spent all of 1966 in the minors, first pitching for the Mets' top farm team in Jacksonville, but then being sold back to the Red Sox, where he pitched for their top farm team in Toronto.

1998 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Cisco would make it back to the majors with the Red Sox in 1967, appearing in 11 games for the Impossible Dreamers.  He'd pitch again briefly for the expansion Royals in 1969.  In 192 major league games, Cisco was 25-56 with a 4.56 ERA and 325 strikeouts.  Following his playing days, Cisco would begin a 28-year career as a pitching coach, working lengthy stints with the Royals (1971-1979), Expos (1980-1984), Padres (1985-1987), Blue Jays (1988-1995) and Phillies (1997-2000).  He'd win World Series rings with the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set / Card #216
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 139th 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 less than a dollar.

The Card / Royals Team Set / Accuracy Index -8

Cisco is wearing a Red Sox uniform here in a picture taken in the early 1960s or in 1967 at Yankee Stadium.  This is his final Topps flagship set appearance as a player.  Both the write-up and the cartoon on the back highlight Cisco's success while pitching in the minor leagues.

Accuracy Index:  As is the case with most early series cards from the expansion teams, Cisco scores a -8 for the old uniform (-5) and logoless hat (-3).

1969 Season
Cisco was the first big leaguer to join the expansion Royals, purchased from the Red Sox on August 14, 1968, nearly nine months before the franchise's first game.  He began the season with Triple-A Omaha, and was recalled in June to join the Royals' bullpen.  Cisco was used sparingly, appearing in 15 games over the final months of the season in his last big league action.  He was 1-1 with a 3.63 ERA in 22 1/3 innings pitched for Kansas City.  He'd rejoin Omaha in 1970 as a player-coach, and his lengthy big league pitching coach career began in 1971 with the Royals.

Phillies Career
Following the dismissal of Jim Fregosi (#365), the Phillies hired Terry Francona to manage the team in 1997.  Francona, in his first managerial job, assembled a staff of several coaching veterans, including Cisco as his pitching coach.  While with the club, Cisco helped guide young pitchers including Randy Wolf, Robert Person and Paul Byrd.  The Phillies, clearly going through a rebuilding phase, lost 94 games in 1997, had a few semi-respectable years in 1998 and 1999, and then lost 97 games in 2000.  Francona was dismissed following the 2000 season, with most of his coaching staff - Cisco, hitting coach Hal McRae, first base coach Brad Mills and bench coach Chuck Cottier (#252) - going with him.  Cisco appeared in four Phillies team-issued photo card sets during his tenure as the team's pitching coach.

1962 Topps #301

1964 Topps #202

1965 Topps #364

1967 Topps #596

1974 Topps #166

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1962 Topps #301
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (8):  1962-1965, 1967, 1969, 1973-1974
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1974 Topps #166
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  51 in the Beckett online database as of 1/11/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog / The Phillies Room

#210 Felix Millan - Atlanta Braves / #212 Tom Tresh - New York Yankees