#185 Tom Phoebus - Baltimore Orioles

Thomas Harold Phoebus
Baltimore Orioles
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'8"  Weight:  185
Born:  April 7, 1942, Baltimore, MD
Signed:  Signed by the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent, June 9, 1960
Major League Teams:  Baltimore Orioles 1966-1970; San Diego Padres 1971-1972; Chicago Cubs 1972

World Series Appearances:  Baltimore Orioles 1970
Died:  September 5, 2019, Palm City, FL (age 77)

Tom Phoebus pitched for seven seasons in the majors, and he's best remembered for his five years with his hometown Orioles.  A September call-up in 1966, Phoebus' first two starts were complete game shutouts.  He joined the Orioles' pitching rotation for good in 1967, going 14-9 with a 3.33 ERA and 179 strikeouts, and winning The Sporting News Rookie of the Year honors.  On April 27, 1968, Phoebus threw a no-hitter against the Red Sox, aided by the offense of Frank Robinson (#250) and defense of Brooks Robinson (#550).  He'd finish the season with a career-high 15 wins, and he was a 14-game winner for the Orioles in 1969.  In 1970, his final season with the Orioles, Phoebus was 5-5 with a 3.07 and he pitched a scoreless 1 2/3 innings in World Series Game 2, as Baltimore defeated the Reds in five games.

He'd pitch two more seasons with the Padres and Cubs before retiring.  Phoebus was 56-52 in 201 big league games, with a 3.33 ERA and 725 strikeouts over 1,030 innings pitched.

Building the Set / Card #199
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 122nd 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 me less than a dollar.

The Card / Orioles Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

The back of the card rightfully highlights his 1968 no-hitter, and his early success with the Orioles.  Phoebus is featured later in the set with Mike Cuellar (#453), Jim Hardin (#610) and Dave McNally (#340) on one of the four combo player cards (#532) in the set.

Accuracy Index:  Phoebus scores a +5 for the accurate depiction in an Orioles uniform.

1969 Season
Phoebus began his 1969 season the same way he started 1967, by pitching two complete game shutouts.  He'd go 14-7 overall with a 3.52 ERA in 35 games and 33 starts, throwing six complete games.  With Jim Palmer (#573) returning from injury and with Cuellar acquired from the Astros prior to the season, Phoebus slid to the back-end of the Orioles' rotation and his services weren't needed in either the ALCS or in the World Series against the Mets.

1967 Topps #204

1968 Topps #97

1970 Topps #717

1971 Topps #611

1972 Topps #477

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1967 Topps #204
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1967-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1972 Topps #477
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  41 in the Beckett online database as of 11/25/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database

#184 Roberto Pena - San Diego Padres / #186 John Edwards - Houston Astros

#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