Sunday, March 15, 2015

Fleer Autograph Project - Part 39

Checking the mailbox yesterday (Saturday), I found the third of the four TTM requests I sent out less than two weeks ago was returned to me.  This one was from Jerry Kindall, who was primarily an utility infielder during his 9 year major league career with the Cubs, Indians and Twins. He was the starting second baseman for Cleveland in 1962 and Minnesota in 1965.


You can find his career statistics here and SABR has a well written biography of him here.  So, what was it about his career that caught my attention?

One game.  May 31, 1960 to be exact. On that day he went 2 for 3 with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs to help the Cubs to a 9-1 victory over a San Francisco Giants team that featured HOFers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda batting consecutively in the third through fifth spots in the order.  Those doubles were a 1 RBI two bagger in the top of the second and a 2 RBI hit in the top of the fourth.  Those three RBIs gave Chicago a 4-1 lead, at that point, with the other run scored on a solo home run by Ernie Banks.  What was noteworthy about thsi performance was that Kindall had both those hits off of Johnny Antonelli, a player of particular interest to me.  As some of you know, I hail from Rochester, NY where Antonelli was born and still lives and I have a modest Antonelli player collection.

At this point, I only have one TTM request still out.  This one has to travel to Washington State, so I don't expect it back as quickly.   I have identified three more, high probability TTM requests to send out. I will try to do my career research during the week and send them off next weekend.

1 comment: