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Vernon Gordon Fuller
Cleveland Indians
Second Base
Born: March 1, 1944, Menomonee, WI
Signed: Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1963 season
Major League Teams: Cleveland Indians 1964, 1966-1970
Signed by the Indians in 1963, Vern Fuller made his big league debut in September 1964, appearing in a pair of games as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner. He'd spend all of 1965 back in the minors, coming up to Cleveland for stints in 1966 and 1967. Fuller was the opening day second baseman for the Indians in 1968, ultimately making 51 starts at second base and 19 starts at third base, while batting .242. He'd be back for another full season in 1969, playing in a career-high 108 games and batting .236. In 1970, Eddie Leon took over the regular second base duties for the Indians, with Fuller appearing in just 29 games and batting .182. He'd play in his final big league game on October 1, 1970, retiring at the age of 26. In 325 games with the Indians, Fuller batted .232 with 14 home runs and 65 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 190th 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 / Indians Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
This is only one of three appearances in Topps flagship sets for Fuller, and the photo is from the same session as the photo used for his 1968 Topps card. The back of the card explains Fuller was injured most of the 1964 season, and his two games in September for the Indians were his only two games all year.
Accuracy Index: Fuller comes away with a solid +5.
1969 Season
Fuller was the opening day second baseman for the Indians for the second year in a row. He was either injured or manager Al Dark (#91) wasn't settled on Fuller throughout the season, as he made only 72 starts at second with Zoilo Versalles (#38) and Dave Nelson (#579) both starting over 30 games each at the position. Fuller batted .236 as mentioned above, with four home runs and a career-high 22 RBIs.
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First Mainstream Card: 1968 Topps #71
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3): 1968-1970
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2019 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-VF
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 13 in the Beckett online database as of 3/23/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
#290 Jim Kaat - Minnesota Twins / #292 Al Downing - New York Yankees
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