Tuesday, October 22, 2024

#415 Ray Washburn - St. Louis Cardinals


Ray Clark Washburn
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  205
Born:  May 31, 1938, Pasco, WA
Signed:  Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as an amateur free agent before 1960 season
Major League Teams:  St. Louis Cardinals 1961-69; Cincinnati Reds 1970
World Series Appearances:  St. Louis Cardinals 1967-68; Cincinnati Reds 1970

Ray Washburn pitched for a decade in the majors, enjoying his best season in 1968, the Year of the Pitcher.  Washburn joined the Cardinals' starting rotation in 1962, going 12-9 with a 4.10 ERA in 25 starts and 34 games overall.  A shoulder injury in 1963 would cost him the better part of two seasons, and he'd return to the Cardinals' starting pitching rotation in 1966, winning 11 games.  He won 10 games in 1967, pitching 2 1/3 scoreless innings in that year's World Series as his team downed the Red Sox in seven games.  In 1968, Washburn was 14-8 with a 2.26 ERA and 124 strikeouts in a career-high 215 1/3 innings pitched.  On September 18th that season, he no-hit the Giants at Candlestick Park, becoming the first Cardinals pitcher to accomplish the feat since Lon Warneke in 1941.  Giants' pitcher Gaylord Perry (#485) had no-hit the Cardinals the day before.

Dealt to Cincinnati for George Culver (#635) in November 1969, Washburn played one final season in the majors, appearing in 35 games for the Reds mostly as a reliever.  His final career appearance came in Game 5 of the 1970 World Series in a losing effort against the Orioles.  Washburn was 72-64 for his career, with a 3.53 ERA in 239 games pitched.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set / 
Card #376
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 84th 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 / Cardinals Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
Photos for Washburn's 1968 and 1969 Topps cards were taken at the same time during a batting practice session at Busch Stadium.  The cartoon on the back of the card highlights his 1968 no-hitter, and I believe the write-up includes an uncorrected error.  Washburn pitched two shutouts in 1968, and not four.

Accuracy Index:  I would expect the +5 score to become more prevalent as we move into the higher series of the set.

1969 Season
Washburn pitched well in 1969, but couldn't match his success from the prior season.  He was 3-8 with a 3.06 ERA in 28 games overall, and 16 starts.  He threw 132 1/3 innings, with a pair of complete games and a 2 1/3 inning save against the Phillies in a 11-3 blow-out win on July 17th.  On November 5th, the Cardinals sent him to Cincinnati in exchange for reliever Culver.

1962 Topps #19
1964 Topps #332
1967 Topps #92
1968 Topps #388
1970 Topps #22

Other Notable Baseball Cards

First Mainstream Card:  1962 Topps #19
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1962-70
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2019 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RW
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  36 in the Beckett online database as of 10/3/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#414 Duke Sims - Cleveland Indians / #416 Willie McCovey AS - San Francisco Giants

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