#453 Mike Cuellar - Baltimore Orioles

Miguel Angel Cuellar
Baltimore Orioles
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  165
Born:  May 8, 1937, Las Villas, Cuba
Signed:  Signed by the Cincinnati Redlegs as an amateur free agent before 1957 season
Major League Teams:  Cincinnati Reds 1959; St. Louis Cardinals 1964; Houston Astros 1965-68; Baltimore Orioles 1969-76; California Angels 1977

World Series Appearances:  Baltimore Orioles 1969-71
Died:  April 2, 2010, Orlando, FL (age 72)

Lefty Mike Cuellar began his career with the Reds, Cardinals and Astros, but he's best known for his dominant string of seasons with the Orioles, including Baltimore's World Championship season of 1970.  Cuellar was used mainly in relief early in his career, appearing in 32 games for the eventual World Champion Cardinals in 1964.  He won 16 games with the Astros in 1967, making his first of four All-Star teams, in a sign of good things to come.  Cuellar was dealt to the Orioles in December 1968, and over the next several years he was a key member of a powerhouse starting pitching rotation that included Jim Palmer (#573), Dave McNally (#340) and Pat Dobson (#231).  His first of four 20-win seasons came in 1969 when Cuellar was 23-11 with a 2.38 ERA on his way to co-Cy Young honors with Denny McLain (#150).  Cuellar was 24-8 in 1970, pitching in a career high 297 2/3 innings and leading the league with 21 complete games.  His team downed the Reds in five games in the World Series, with Cuellar winning the decisive Game 5.

His last All-Star season came in 1974 when he was 22-10 with a 3.11 ERA in 38 starts.  For his career, Cuellar was 185-130 with a 3.14 ERA, 172 complete games and 36 shutouts.  He struck out 1,632 batters.  Inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame in 1982, Cuellar still ranks high among that franchise's all-time pitching greats. 

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

Building the Set / Card #400
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

Milestone card #400!  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 108th of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost a little less than $2.

The Card / Orioles Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

This card features a very recent photo, taken during spring training in 1969.  The back of the card highlights his 16 wins with the Astros in 1967, foreshadowing the success still to come.  The write-up mentions his second place finish to Sandy Koufax in the 1966 ERA race.  Cuellar finished with a 2.22 mark to Koufax's 1.73 ERA.  He'd appear again in the set on one of the four combo player cards in the set, along with his other Bird Hill Aces (#532).

Topps reprinted this card in its 2002 Topps Archives set.

Accuracy Index:  Cuellar's card impressively scores a +5.

1969 Season
In what would prove to become a lopsided deal, Cuellar, Enzo Hernandez and minor leaguer Elijah Johnson were dealt from the Astros to the Orioles on December 4, 1968 for Curt Blefary (#458) and minor leaguer John Mason.  Cuellar finished the season second in wins (23), fifth in strikeouts (182), third in complete games (18) and third in shutouts (five).  In hindsight, McLain likely should have been the unanimous choice for Cy Young, as his bWAR of 8.1 led the league with Cuellar's bWAR of 4.4 not even in the top ten.  Cuellar and McLain both received ten first place votes, with the Twins' Jim Perry (#146) receiving three first place votes and Cuellar's teammate McNally receiving the remaining first place vote.

1959 Topps #518

1967 Topps #97

1971 Topps #332

1974 Topps #560

1977 Topps #162

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1959 Topps #518
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15):  1959-60, 1965-77
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2005 Topps Retired Signature Edition #84
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  143 in the Beckett online database as of 11/17/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#452 Al Ferrara - San Diego Padres / #454 Phillies Rookie Stars

#532 Bird Hill Aces - Phoebus / Hardin / McNally / Cuellar CPC

In the set's sixth series, Topps made the decision to include four (and only four) combo cards featuring members of the Orioles, Senators, Athletics and Giants.  A staple throughout the prior decade-plus of Topps sets, the combo cards would make a brief, final appearance with these four cards and then disappear again.  Various checklists also denote these as "CPC" for combo player cards.

Building the Set / Card #72
February 13, 2023 from Wenonah, NJ (Gar Miller Cards)
Given my chosen profession, I sit through an inordinate amount of work meetings, which are now almost all virtual in this post-pandemic world.  On some occasions, these meetings are admittedly a combination of boring, unneeded, too lengthy or some combination of all three.  During a recent early February virtual work meeting, and after it became apparent the meeting had derailed into matters unimportant to me personally, I bought a bunch of old baseball cards.  Gar Miller is a noted hobby luminary, and he still sells vintage baseball cards via his online store, Gar Miller Cards.  I navigated over to his website, picking up a small stack of cards from this 1969 Topps set build and a few bonus cards for our not yet officially collecting 1955 Bowman and 1959 Topps sets.  For those watching me on screen during the virtual work meeting, I had the appearance of someone smiling, nodding appreciatively and following along attentively.  But in reality, I was adding baseball cards to my online cart, including this Bird Hill Aces card which was $10.

October 9, 1969 - Cuellar, Palmer and McNally

The Card / Orioles Team Set

Collectors and baseball fans will most likely immediately recognize there's a key person missing in this photo, as it only features four of the five most regularly used starting pitchers by the pennant-winning 1969 Orioles team.  Dave McNally (#340) was the team's opening day pitcher, followed by Mike Cuellar (#453) and Jim Hardin (#610).  But then future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer (#573) slotted in as the fourth starter with Tom Phoebus (#185) rounding out the quintet.  Cuellar is the newcomer to the group, as he had been acquired from the Astros on December 4, 1968.  

It's likely this photo was taken during spring training in 1969, on the same day Cuellar was having his picture taken for his solo Topps card in the set.  The back of the card summarizes the accolades of each pitcher, starting with Phoebus and Hardin.  Palmer would throw his only career no-hitter on August 13, 1969, driving home his unfortunate omission from a card labelled "Bird Hill Aces."

1969 Season
McNally was one of six Orioles to head to the All-Star Game in 1969, and the only pitcher from the club.  Cuellar would lead the pitching staff with a 23-11 record, a 2.38 ERA, 18 complete games and five shutouts.  McNally was 20-7 with a 3.22 ERA.  Palmer, despite only making 26 appearances and 23 starts, would top all Orioles pitchers with a 4.2 bWAR.  He was 16-4 with a 2.34 ERA, 11 complete games and a team-leading six shutouts.  He'd strike out 123 in 181 innings.  Phoebus was 14-7 with a 3.52 ERA and Hardin finished with a 6-7 record to go with a 3.60 ERA at the back end of the rotation.

McNally threw an 11-inning complete game shutout against the Twins in Game 2 of the ALDS, striking out 11.  Palmer clinched the series with a complete game of his own in Game 3.  In the 1969 World Series,  Cuellar won Game 1 with a complete game victory, allowing just a run.  Jerry Koosman (#90) out dueled McNally in Game 2 to tie the series at 1-1.  Game 3 saw Palmer get roughed up, allowing four runs over six innings and Game 4 belonged to Tom Seaver (#480) who outmatched Cuellar in another low-scoring extra inning game.  In the decisive Game 5, McNally took the mound again, with he and Eddie Watt (#652) faltering in the late innings as the Mets amazingly took the World Series.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia

#531 Dick Farrell - Philadelphia Phillies / #533 Nolan Ryan - New York Mets