#496 Larry Jaster - Montreal Expos

Larry Edward Jaster
Montreal Expos
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  190
Born:  January 13, 1944, Midland, MI
Signed:  Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as an amateur free agent before 1962 season
Major League Teams:  St. Louis Cardinals 1965-68; Montreal Expos 1969; Atlanta Braves 1970, 1972

World Series Appearances:  St. Louis Cardinals 1967-68

Signed originally by the Cardinals, Larry Jaster spent parts of seven seasons in the majors, and was an original Montreal Expo.  Jaster appeared in four games as a September call-up in 1965, and he'd earn a spot in the Cardinals' rotation to start the 1966 season.  He was 11-5 with a 3.26 ERA in 26 games overall including 21 starts, showing flashes of brilliance as he'd throw six complete games and lead the league with five shutouts.  He was a nine-game winner in both 1967 and 1968.  Jaster pitched a third of an inning in the 1967 World Series, earning a ring when the Cardinals defeated the Red Sox.  He gave up a Game 6 (#167) grand slam to the Tigers' Jim Northrup (#580) in the 1968 World Series, as the Cardinals fell to Detroit in seven games.

Jaster finished his career with the Expos and Braves, and he holds the distinction of being the first pitcher to throw a pitch in a major league regular season game in Canada on April 14, 1969.  Following his retirement as a player, Jaster worked as a minor league pitching coordinator and coach in the Braves and Orioles organizations.  He was 35-33 lifetime, with a 3.65 ERA in 138 games pitched.  Jaster struck out 313 batters over 597 1/3 innings.

Building the Set / Card #434
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 142nd of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost a little over a dollar.

The Card / Expos Team Set / Accuracy Index +10

The glorious Expos uniform is on full display here, with Jaster's #21 in blue on the front of his jersey.  I thought the five shutouts in 1966 was impressive, but I learned from the back of this card that all those shutouts came against the Dodgers!  That's a crazy statistic.  Jaster was 5-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 45 innings pitched against the Dodgers, allowing 24 hits and striking out 31.  Against every other team that season, he was 6-5 with a 4.64 ERA in 106 2/3 innings, allowing 100 hits and striking out 61.

Accuracy Index:  Jaster's card, one of the more aesthetically pleasing cards in the set, in my opinion, earns a high score of +10.

1969 Season
Left unprotected by the Cardinals following the World Series, Jaster was selected by the Expos as the 47th pick in the 1968 expansion draft.  He was the starting pitcher for the Expos' inaugural home opener against the Cardinals on April 14th, lasting just 3 2/3 innings and allowing seven runs (two earned) on nine hits, including a pair of home runs.  He had more success out of the bullpen were he had a 4.15 ERA in 13 appearances and 26 innings pitched.  Overall, Jaster was 1-6 with a 5.49 ERA for the season.

On December 2nd, he was traded to the Braves for Jim Britton and minor leaguer Donald Johnson.

1967 Topps #356

1968 Topps #117

1970 Topps #124

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1967 Topps #356
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1967-70
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Fleer ProCards #2225
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  48 in the Beckett online database as of 12/1/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database

#495 Bert Campaneris - Oakland Athletics / #497 Julian Javier - St. Louis Cardinals

#167 1968 World Series Game 6 - Tiger 10-Run Inning Ties Mark

The 1968 World series marked the last time two teams faced off in the Fall Classic without having to first advance via a playoff series.  With Major League Baseball expanding to 24 teams in 1969, the two leagues were split into four divisions and a League Championship Series would determine the World Series opponents between 1969 and 1993.

The Cardinals and Tigers were powerhouses in their respective leagues, easily advancing to the World Series.  This was a rematch of the 1934 World Series, when the Gashouse Gang of the Cardinals had bested the Tigers in seven games.  The Tigers would prevail this time, winning their first title since 1945, and their third World Series title overall as the Cardinals couldn't repeat after winning in 1967 against the Red Sox.

World Series cards were a key subset in Topps flagship sets throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with a card highlighting each game along with a series capping "Celebration" card.  Topps designed its World Series cards in its 1969 set to have the appearance of the front page of a newspaper, with The Sporting News getting some free publicity as the paper's banner.

Building the Set / Card #189
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

In mid-March, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set.  That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon.  I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.

This is the 112th of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York.  My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside.  After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far.  With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298.  The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards, with this card costing a little over $3.

The Card / Tigers Team Set / Cardinals Team Set  

The Cardinals returned home to Busch Stadium for Game 6, on Wednesday, October 9th, needing one more win to repeat as World Series Champions.  Denny McLain (#150) was starting for the Tigers, facing off against Ray Washburn (#415) for the Cardinals.  Washburn had been the Game 3 winner for the Cardinals, but he had endured a shaky outing on the way to a 7-3 win.  McLain had already lost two World Series games, Game 1 and Game 4, and was back on short rest to try to keep the Tigers' season alive.  The 31-game winner and the eventual Cy Young and MVP winner for 1968 would pitch a complete game for the Tigers, allowing a run while striking out seven.

Washburn did not fare nearly as well, getting knocked out in the third inning with his team already trailing and the bases loaded.  Al Kaline's (#410) single chased Washburn and gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead.  Larry Jaster (#496) replaced Washburn and threw fuel onto the fire.  Norm Cash (#80) singled home Mickey Stanley (#13), putting runners at the corners and giving the Tigers a 4-0 lead.  Jaster walked Willie Horton (#180) to load the bases, and Jim Northrup (#580), who had already hit four regular season grand slams, launched a home run to deep right field, giving the Tigers a 8-0 advantage.  Three more runs would score and the game went to the bottom of the the third with the Tigers holding a commanding 12-0 lead.

The Tigers would eventually win the game, 13-1, forcing a Game 7.

Sources:

Baseball Reference / Wikipedia

#166 1968 World Series Game 5 / #168 1968 World Series Game 7