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Kenneth Raymond Suarez
Cleveland Indians
Catcher
Born: April 12, 1943, Tampa, FL
Signed: Signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur free agent before 1965 season
Major League Teams: Kansas City Athletics 1966-1967; Cleveland Indians 1968-1969, 1971; Texas Rangers 1972-1973
Died: July 28, 2023, Fort Worth, TX (age 80)
Ken Suarez played in parts of seven big league seasons, but his greatest success in baseball came during his years playing for Florida State University. Named a First Team All-American in 1964, Suarez also represented the United States that year at the Tokyo Summer Olympics as baseball was then a demonstration sport. He was back-up catcher in the majors, finding some success with the Indians in 1969 when he batted .294 and with the Rangers in 1973 when he appeared in a career-high 93 games and batted .248. Suarez was dealt by the Rangers to the Indians in February 1974 after a salary dispute, and rather than report back to the Indians, Suarez opted to retire.
In 295 big league games, Suarez batted .227 with 150 hits, five home runs and 60 RBIs.
September 23, 2023 from The Philly Show (Ed's Old Baseball Cards)
Given the massive haul of 193 cards acquired for our 1969 Topps set at the March Philly Show, I held off on adding more cards throughout the summer of 2023. We weren't even going to go to the Philly Show last September, but our oldest son's baseball tournament was rained out, and we found ourselves with a free weekend. I wrote about the show originally over at The Phillies Room.
I added just 15 cards to our set build at this show, all from the same dealer, Ed's Old Baseball Cards out of the Buffalo area. Technically, the cards I bought were from Ed's associate, Gary, who explained he was along for the ride and brought a bunch of his vintage cards for sale. I picked four needed star cards first, and Gary gave us a nice discount on the purchase, so we went back after securing a few autographs. I picked 11 more commons and semi-stars from his modest selection of 1960s Topps cards for sale, including this Suarez card. Posting for these 15 cards should take me a lot less longer than what it took to get through the box of cards brought home from the March 2023 Philly Show.
The Card / Indians Team Set / Accuracy Index -8
Suarez is wearing an Athletics uniform in this photo and given what appear to be palm trees in the background, the photo was taken during spring training. The write-up on the back of the card is a bit off as 1969 turned out to not be Suarez's year - see below.
Accuracy Index: Suarez loses points for being hatless (-3) and not being in an Indians uniform (-5).
1969 Season
Suarez split the season between the Indians and their top farm team, the Portland Beavers. With the Beavers, he played in 49 games, batting .239 with a pair of home runs. He'd be promoted to the Indians in mid-June, ultimately appearing in 36 games, making 29 starts behind the plate. Suarez batted .294 with a home run and nine RBIs, and despite the modest success he'd spend the entire 1970 season back in the minors.
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First Mainstream Card: 1966 Topps #588
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7): 1966, 1968-1972, 1974
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1974 Topps #39
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 26 in the Beckett online database as of 4/14/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
#18 Dick Schofield - St. Louis Cardinals / #20 Ernie Banks - Chicago Cubs
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