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Jackie Delane Acker
Seattle Pilots
Pitcher
Born: July 13, 1940, Tulare, CA
Signed: Signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur free agent, June 9, 1959
Major League Teams: Kansas City Athletics 1964-67; Oakland Athletics 1968; Seattle Pilots 1969; New York Yankees 1969-72; Chicago Cubs 1972-73; Atlanta Braves 1974; New York Mets 1974
Nicknamed "Chief," given his Potawatomi ancestry, Jack Aker spent parts of 11 seasons in the majors, pitching solely in relief and primarily with the Athletics and Yankees. Aker established himself early as an effective back-end of the bullpen fireman, using his side-armed sinker ball to lead the league in saves in 1966 with 32. That was to be his career year, as he was 8-4 with a 1.99 ERA in 66 appearances and 113 innings pitched for the seventh place Athletics. Aker was arguably that club's MVP. Left unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft, Aker was selected by the Pilots as the 24th pick overall. The reliever had fallen out of favor with Athletics' owner Charles O. Finley in recent years, leading to his availability in the draft.
Aker was only with the Pilots a month and a half before being dealt to the Yankees. He was a steady presence in the Yankees bullpen in 1969 and the early 1970s, leading the club in saves in 1969 (11) and 1971 (4). Aker was traded to the Cubs in early 1972, and he'd pitch the last three seasons of his big league career with the Cubs, Braves and Mets before retiring in 1974. In 495 games, Aker was 47-45 with a 3.28 ERA and 124 career saves. He began his minor league managerial career in 1975, managing in the Mets (1975-82) and Indians (1984-85) organizations. Aker was the big league pitching coach for the Indians between 1985 and 1987.
Building the Set / Card #582
September 21, 2025 from The Philly Show (America's Pastime)
On Sunday morning, September 21st, I made the hour-long drive to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania for the latest installment of the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show, known to its friends as The Philly Show. The show has a legitimate official sponsor (eBay) and the advertisement for the event notes the show is in its 50th year. I hadn't attended a baseball card show since the last Philly Show in December, and I was flying solo to this one as our oldest son is in his first month of college at Villanova. I posted a full summary of the show over at The Phillies Room.
I made stops at six tables at the show, all yielding needed cards for our 1969 Topps set, and I left the show with just 16 more cards to go for my version of a complete set. The first place I stopped was a table with well-organized and well-marked binders of commons and semi-stars with 20% Off notes across the front of each binder.
I took my time and found 32 commons and semi-stars needed before asking to see the dealer's star cards from the set. It turned out this first purchase was also my biggest, as I spent over half my allotted budget here, America's Pastime from Fair Lawn, New Jersey, before moving on to my second stop. This was the 23rd of 36 total cards bought from America's Pastime, and the 23rd of 91 cards for set added overall on the day, and it cost a little over $4 after the dealer discount.
The Card / Pilots Team Set / Accuracy Index +10
Maybe the best Pilots card in the set? And Aker was only with the club for 15 games (see below) and was terrible before being shipped to the Bronx. The back of the card highlights his American League Fireman of the Year honors from 1966, as determined by The Sporting News.
Accuracy Index: Aker's card earns a +10 high score for the accurate depiction in the new Pilots' uniform.
1969 Season
Aker earned the save in the Pilots' inaugural game on April 8th. He struggled in 15 games with the Pilots, going 0-2 with a 7.56 ERA in 16 2/3 innings pitched. On May 20th, he was traded to the Yankees for Fred Talbot (#332), and he'd quickly turn his season around. Aker strung together 33 straight scoreless innings in relief over 18 appearances. As mentioned above, he led the Yankees' staff with 11 saves and had an impressive 2.06 ERA in 65 2/3 innings pitched.
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First Mainstream Card: 1966 Topps #287
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10): 1966-74, 1987
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1988 ProCards #1134
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 54 in the Beckett online database as of 10/20/25.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
#611 Braves Rookie Stars / #613 Jim Beauchamp - Cincinnati Reds
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