Uncommon commons: In more than 30 years in
sportscards publishing I have thrown hundreds of notes into files about the
players – usually non-star players – who made up the majority of the baseball
and football cards I collected as a kid. Today, I keep adding to those files as
I peruse microfilms of The Sporting News from the 1880s through the
1960s. I found these tidbits brought some life to the player pictures on those
cards. I figure that if I enjoyed them, you might too.
Orioles 27-year-old rookie left-hander Don Ferrarese
suffered some hard luck to start the month of May, 1956.
In his first major league start on
May 5 he struck out 13 Cleveland
batters but Jim Hegan’s ninth inning double gave the Indians a 2-1 win.
A week later he beat the Yankees
1-0 for his first major league victory, but missed out on a no-hitter when Andy
Carey, batting eighth, led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a hard chop off home plate. While
Ferrarese backed up toward second and waited – and waited and waited – for the
ball to come down, Carey had crossed first base. Ferrarese then allowed a hit
to Hank Bauer, but closed out the Yankees and beat Bob Turley.
Across the river that afternoon, Carl Erskine was pitching a no-hitter for Brooklyn, beating the Giants 3-0 .
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