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Duane B. Sims
Cleveland Indians
Catcher
Born: June 5, 1941, Salt Lake City, UT
Signed: Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1959 season
Major League Teams: Cleveland Indians 1964-70; Los Angeles Dodgers 1971-72; Detroit Tigers 1972-73; New York Yankees 1973-74; Texas Rangers 1974
Duke Sims was a catcher for 11 big league seasons, spending the most time behind the plate with the Indians. A back-up early in his career to Joe Azcue (#176), he'd enter into a platoon with Azcue in the late 1960s before ultimately winning the everyday job. He steadily improved in 1968 and 1969, with perhaps his best season coming in 1970 when he batted a career-best .264 while also reaching career highs in home runs (23) and RBIs (56). Sims showed his value with starts in left field, right field, first base and at catcher that season. The Indians dealt him to the Dodgers before the 1971 season and Sims would spend the next four years with four different teams. He played in only nine games for the Yankees in 1974 and 1975, but Sims holds the distinction of being the last Yankee starting catcher in old Yankee Stadium in 1973. He also hit the last home run at old Yankee Stadium, a solo shot off the Tigers' Fred Holdsworth on September 30, 1973.
He retired after the 1974 season, in which he served as the back-up to Rangers' catcher Jim Sundberg. In 843 games, he batted .239 with 580 hits, exactly 100 home runs and 310 RBIs.
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 83rd of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost me less than a dollar.
The Card / Indians Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
The #9 Sims wore with the Indians between 1965 and 1970 is peaking through on the front of his jersey. The Topps photographer snapped Sims between batting practice swings at Yankee Stadium, and as mentioned above, Sims would later make some history in that ballpark. The back of the card explains Sims' long journey to the majors and highlights his high batting marks throughout his minor league journey.
Accuracy Index: It's a solid +5 for Sims' card.
1969 Season
One of Sims' best seasons, and his strongest season given his career-high 3.2 bWAR, Sims gradually won more playing time competing primarily with Ray Fosse (#244) and Ken Suarez (#19). Sims batted .236 in 114 games, with 18 home runs and 45 RBIs. Both those power numbers were his career highs until he surpassed them in 1970.
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First Mainstream Card: 1966 Topps #169
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9): 1966-74
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1989 Swell Baseball Greats #128
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 41 in the Beckett online database as of 10/3/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
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