#251 Ron Herbel - San Francisco Giants

Ronald Samuel Herbel
San Francisco Giants
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  195
Born:  January 16, 1938, Denver, CO
Signed:  Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent before 1958 season
Major League Teams:  San Francisco Giants 1963-1969; San Diego Padres 1970; New York Mets 1970; Atlanta Braves 1971

Died:  January 20, 2000, Tacoma, WA (age 62)

A steady reliever and occasional starter over 9 big league seasons, Ron Herbel earned notoriety as quite possibily the worst hitting baseball player ever.  His career average of .029 (6 for 206) ranks worst all-time among batters with at least 100 plate appearances.  As a pitcher, he found more success, enjoying his best seasons in 1964 and 1965 with the Giants.  He led the league in appearances in 1970 with 76, starting the season with the Padres but then traded to the Mets in September.  In 331 career games (79 starts), Herbel went 42-37 with a 3.82 ERA and 16 saves.

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

Building the Set / Card #241
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

In mid-March last year, over a year ago at this point, 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 164th 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 $1.25.

The Card / Giants Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

Herbel's Topps baseball cards are all very similar, but this is the first and only card where Herbel is sporting the glasses and color sticking out the top of his jersey combination.  The write-up on the back is a fancy way of drawing attention to Herbel's 0-0 record in 28 appearances in 1968.

Accuracy Index:  Herbel's card scores the fairly standard +5.

1969 Season
In his final season with the Giants, Herbel appeared in 39 games, making four starts, and going 4-1 with a 4.02 ERA.  The 1969 Giants didn't have much use for their relievers as Gaylord Perry (#485), Juan Marichal (#370), Mike McCormick (#517) and four other pitchers combined to throw 71 complete games.  Only Herbel and closer Frank Linzy (#345) had more than 30 relief appearances.  Herbel was 0 for 17 at the plate with seven strikeouts.

On December 5th, the Giants traded Herbel, Bob Barton (#41) and Bobby Etheridge (#604) to the Padres for Frank Reberger (#637).

1963 Topps #208

1965 Topps #84

1967 Topps #156

1970 Topps #526

1972 Topps #469

Other Notable Baseball Cards
irst Mainstream Card:  1963 Topps #208
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10):  1963-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1972 Topps #469
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  33 in the Beckett online database as of 2/14/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#250 Frank Robinson - Baltimore Orioles / #252 Chuck Cottier - California Angels