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Angel Luis Alcaraz
Kansas City Royals
Second Base
Born: June 20, 1941, Humacao, Puerto Rico
Signed: Signed by the Milwaukee Braves as an amateur free agent before 1959 season
Major League Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers 1967-68; Kansas City Royals 1969-70
Major League Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers 1967-68; Kansas City Royals 1969-70
Originally signed by the Braves in 1959, Luis Alcaraz would find himself in the Dodgers organization in 1960, via what Baseball Reference describes as an "unknown transaction." He worked his way up through the Dodgers' system, playing eight minor league seasons before earning a September call-up in 1967. Alcaraz struggled at the plate with the Dodgers, batting .181 in a back-up infielder role with the club over the last month of the 1967 season and throughout the early part of the 1968 season. He was sold to the expansion Royals in October 1968, spending almost the entire 1969 season with Triple-A Omaha before a September try-out. In 57 games with the Royals in 1969 and 1970, he batted .201 and was the player to be named later in a trade with the White Sox in early 1971.
Alcaraz played two more seasons in the minor league systems of the White Sox, Braves and Pirates before moving on to the Mexican League for parts of 10 more seasons. He last played professionally in 1981 with the Petroleros de Poza Rica, a team he also managed. Alcaraz batted .192 in his 115 big league games, with 70 hits, four home runs and 29 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 95th of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost less than a dollar.
The Card / Royals Team Set / Accuracy Index -8
Alcaraz is wearing a Dodgers' road uniform here, and had Topps cropped the photo a little tighter, the top of the Los Angeles word mark on his jersey would have disappeared. This is the first and last mainstream baseball card for the infielder. The back of the card displays his long list of minor league statistics, highlights his 1967 batting title and his fielding skills, and mentions the Royals had already shipped him to Omaha on March 24th.
Accuracy Index: Alcaraz receives the fairly standard -8 for the Dodgers' uniform (-5) and logo-less hat (-3).
1969 Season
With the Omaha Royals, Alcaraz batted .301 in 131 games with 13 home runs and 79 RBIs. He was a September call-up by Kansas City, appearing in 22 games over the final month of the season, and batting .253 with a home run and seven RBIs. He was the club's most used second baseman at the end of the season, taking over for regular Jerry Adair (#159).
First Mainstream Card: 1969 Topps #437
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (1): 1969
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1969 Topps #437
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 4 in the Beckett online database as of 10/28/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
#436 Gene Alley - Pittsburgh Pirates / #438 Gary Waslewski - St. Louis Cardinals
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