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Roland Frank Sheldon
Seattle Pilots
Pitcher
Born: December 17, 1936, Putnam, CT
Signed: Signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent before 1960 season
Major League Teams: New York Yankees 1961-62, 1964-65; Kansas City Athletics 1965-66; Boston Red Sox 1966
World Series Appearances: New York Yankees 1964
A swing man between the starting pitching rotation and the bullpen for much of his career, Rollie Sheldon appeared in at least 34 games in four different seasons, making at least 16 starts in each of those years. Sheldon pitched on Yankees teams that would advance to the World Series four seasons in a row between 1961 and 1964, but he wouldn't pitch in a World Series until Game 1 of the 1964 contest against the Cardinals. In Game 1 and Game 7 of that series, he pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing a pair of unearned runs. Sheldon had his best season in 1965 after a trade sent him to the Athletics. Inserted into their starting pitching rotation, he went 10-8 with a 3.95 ERA in 29 starts, throwing 193 innings and striking out 112. He'd close out his big league career by splitting the 1966 season between the Athletics and Red Sox.
A swing man between the starting pitching rotation and the bullpen for much of his career, Rollie Sheldon appeared in at least 34 games in four different seasons, making at least 16 starts in each of those years. Sheldon pitched on Yankees teams that would advance to the World Series four seasons in a row between 1961 and 1964, but he wouldn't pitch in a World Series until Game 1 of the 1964 contest against the Cardinals. In Game 1 and Game 7 of that series, he pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing a pair of unearned runs. Sheldon had his best season in 1965 after a trade sent him to the Athletics. Inserted into their starting pitching rotation, he went 10-8 with a 3.95 ERA in 29 starts, throwing 193 innings and striking out 112. He'd close out his big league career by splitting the 1966 season between the Athletics and Red Sox.
A trade in December 1966 sent him to the Reds, and he'd spend the next four seasons bouncing among seven different organizations, trying to make it back to the majors. Sheldon spent time within the Reds, Angels, Pilots, Tigers, Expos, White Sox and Padres organizations before retiring following the 1970 season. In 160 career big league games, including 101 starts, Sheldon was 38-36 with a 4.09 ERA.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
Building the Set / Card #374
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
The Card / Pilots Team Set / Accuracy Index -16
1969 Season
Sheldon hadn't pitched in the majors since 1966, but Topps was confident he'd break camp with the Pilots in 1969. He did not, and Sheldon was apparently set free by the Pilots rather than sent to their top farm team. His 1969 minor league statistics are incomplete, but Sheldon pitched in at least 25 games for the Triple-A teams of the Tigers (Toledo), Expos (Vancouver) and White Sox (Tucson), never earning the call back to the majors. He'd spend time in Triple-A with the White Sox and Padres top farm teams in 1970 before retiring.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1961 Topps #541
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6): 1961-63, 1965-66, 1969
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1969 Topps #413
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 23 in the Beckett online database as of 9/30/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times. I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.
Similar to my strategy from March, I wanted to focus on accumulating commons and having found success with Uncle Dick's Cards before, I didn't mess around and headed right for the neon green binders. I pulled 145 cards from the binder containing cards 301 to the end of the set, stopping when I reached 500. This card was the 82nd of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost me a little over a dollar.
The Card / Pilots Team Set / Accuracy Index -16
Sheldon is wearing a Yankees uniform here, in a photo that dates back to at least 1965. The cartoon highlights his high school soccer skills. The write-up mentions his back-to-back shutouts in 1961. Those starts came on July 5th and 9th against the Red Sox and White Sox. Sheldon allowed a combined nine hits in the two starts, striking out 11.
Accuracy Index: Sheldon didn't play for the Pilots in 1969 (-2) or ever (-6). He's wearing a Yankees jersey (-5) and a blanked-out hat (-3).
1969 Season
Sheldon hadn't pitched in the majors since 1966, but Topps was confident he'd break camp with the Pilots in 1969. He did not, and Sheldon was apparently set free by the Pilots rather than sent to their top farm team. His 1969 minor league statistics are incomplete, but Sheldon pitched in at least 25 games for the Triple-A teams of the Tigers (Toledo), Expos (Vancouver) and White Sox (Tucson), never earning the call back to the majors. He'd spend time in Triple-A with the White Sox and Padres top farm teams in 1970 before retiring.
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First Mainstream Card: 1961 Topps #541
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6): 1961-63, 1965-66, 1969
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1969 Topps #413
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 23 in the Beckett online database as of 9/30/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog
1965 Topps Blog
#412 5th Series Checklist 426-512 / #414 Duke Sims - Cleveland Indians
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