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Larry Floyd Stahl
San Diego Padres
Outfield
Born: June 29, 1941, Belleville, IL
Signed: Signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur free agent before 1960 season
Major League Teams: Kansas City Athletics 1964-1966; New York Mets 1967-1968; San Diego Padres 1969-1972; Cincinnati Reds 1973
Larry Stahl was an original Padre, spending four of his 10 big league seasons as back-up outfielder and pinch-hitter for San Diego. He came up with the Athletics, appearing in a career-high 119 games in 1966 as one of the club's regular corner outfielders. Stahl spent two seasons with the Mets and was left unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft. Selected by the Padres, Stahl was the first left fielder in team history, starting the new team's first three games at the position. His best season statistically came in 1971 when he batted .253 in 114 games, collecting career high totals in home runs (eight) and RBIs (36).
On September 2, 1972, Stahl was the final out needed by Cubs pitcher Milt Pappas (#79) for Pappas to secure a perfect game. Home plate umpire Bruce Froemming called two close pitches balls, giving Stahl a walk and ending the perfect game bid. Pappas retired the next batter to complete the no-hitter, but to date, it's the only perfect game attempt to end when the 27th batter drew a walk. Stahl's last appearances in the majors came during the 1973 NLCS with the Reds, where he went 2 for 4 as a pinch-hitter. For his career, Stahl batted .232 with exactly 400 hits, 36 home runs and 163 RBIs.
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 175th 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 a little over $2.
The Card / Padres Team Set / Accuracy Index -8
Stahl is wearing a Mets jersey and hat in this photo, and this is his first appearance in a Topps set since he appeared on a Rookie Stars card in 1966 with Ron Tompkins. His early career successes are highlighted on the back of the card, including a 503 foot home run he (allegedly?) hit as a member of the Athletics. I say allegedly as distance records weren't as accurate then as they are now, and given his lack of power throughout his career, the distance seems surprising to me.
Accuracy Index: Stahl scores a -8. I've gone back and forth about changing my scoring system to take more points off for the blank hat than for a hatless photo, as technically that would be less "accurate." For now, I'm leaving the scoring system the same, giving the same -8 score to each card with a former team's uniform and either the logo-less hat or no hat at all.
1969 Season
As mentioned above, Stahl was the opening day left fielder for the Padres, starting the team's first three games, before Tony Gonzalez (#501) took the position over. Gonzalez had started the first three games in center field, with Cito Gaston (#304) holding regular center field duties for the rest of the season. Stahl made 20 starts in left field, nine starts at first base, three starts in center field and a pair of starts in right field. He batted .198 in 95 games.
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First Mainstream Card: 1966 Topps #107
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7): 1966, 1969-1974
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1974 Topps #507
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 26 in the Beckett online database as of 3/3/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
#270 Mickey Lolich - Detroit Tigers / #272 Ed Stroud - Washington Senators
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