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Octavio Victor Rojas
Philadelphia Phillies
Infield-Outfield
Born: March 6, 1939, La Habana, Cuba
Signed: Signed by the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent before 1956 season
Major League Teams: Cincinnati Reds 1962; Philadelphia Phillies 1963-1969; St. Louis Cardinals 1970; Kansas City Royals 1970-1977
As a Manager: California Angels 1988; Florida Marlins 1996
A long-time utility player for the Phillies, I honestly never realized before researching this post that Cookie Rojas enjoyed the best years of his career as the starting second baseman for the Royals in the early 1970s. Rojas was a five time All-Star - once with the Phillies in 1965 and then four times with the Royals between 1971 and 1974. Blocked at second base by Tony Taylor (#296), Rojas moved around the field playing wherever needed for manager Gene Mauch (#489). He finished in the top 10 in singles in his respective league in 1965, 1966 and 1974. Rojas is second on the Royals' all-time games played at second base behind Frank White.
Rojas played for 16 seasons, accumulating a .263 average over 1,822 games. Following his playing career, Rojas stayed in the game serving as a coach for the Cubs between 1978 and 1981, and becoming the first Cuban born manager in major league history when he was at the helm for the Angels in 1988. (He succeeded his former manager Mauch as manager of the Angels.) He later served as a coach for the Marlins (1993-1996), Mets (1997-2000) and Blue Jays (2001-2002). He's been the Spanish-language color commentator on Marlins television broadcasts since 2003.
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| Rojas signing at the show |
December 7, 2019 from King of Prussia, PA - Card #7
This was one of five Phillies cards purchased from a dealer at the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show held inside the Valley Forge Casino on the bottom floor. I had told the dealer I was looking for a few hard to find Phillies high numbers from older Topps sets, and he helped me find the 1962 Topps Jack Hamilton Rookie Parade card and the 1972 Topps Tommy Hutton Rookie Stars card. Both those cards together totalled $50. I then waited for Doug to find his way over to me and I pointed out the dealer's binder of Topps Phillies cards from the 1960s. I told Doug to pick a few Phillies cards to mark the official start to our set, and we were off.
Doug picked this Rojas card along with cards for players he had heard of before - Taylor (#296), Dallas Green (#203), Rick Wise (#322) and Johnny Callison (#310). "How many cards do you guys need for your 1965 Topps set?" the dealer asked. I told him these would be the fist five cards added. "In that case," he said, "I'll take five dollars for those five cards and good luck with your set!" What was probably close to $20 or $25 in cards were ours for a $1 a piece.
I'm not sure how many times this will happen again, or if it will ever happen again, but Rojas was also an autograph guest at the show. Unfortunately, his visit was scheduled for much later in the day Saturday and were already home sorting our new cards when he started signing. The photo above is from the Facebook page for the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show.
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| 1969 Phillies Postcards |
I'm sure there are collectors out there who can already answer this question, but I'm curious to see if there are any other cards in the set with the "INF-OF" position designation. In 1964, Rojas' games in the field broke down like this - 54 in center field, 23 in left field, 20 at second base, 18 at shortstop, 1 at third base, 1 in right field and 1 at catcher. His sole catching appearance came in the second game of a double header against the Reds. Regular catcher Clay Dalrymple (#372) had been pinch-run for in the ninth and back-up catcher Gus Triandos (#248) was seemingly unavailable. Rojas would complete his trip around the diamond with a pitching appearance in 1967.
1965 Season
Rojas was named to his first All-Star team in 1965, joining his teammates Dick Allen (#460) and Callison. He appeared in 142 games, and saw more time at second base than usual due to a season long slump endured by regular second baseman Taylor. Rojas ended up playing 84 games at second base, 41 games in center field, 11 games in left field, 11 games at shortstop, five games in right field, two games at catcher, and a game at first base. He led the team with a .303 average, which was also placed him eighth in the league.
Phillies Career
The Phillies acquired Rojas from the Reds on November 27, 1962 for reliever Jim Owens (#451), and his Topps rookie card in the 1963 set shows him wearing a Reds uniform top. He played for seven seasons with the Phillies, appearing in at least 100 games every year except his first in 1963. His best season with the club was 1965 (see above) and the Phillies ultimately traded him in October 1969 to make room for the up and coming prospect Denny Doyle. Rojas was one of the players included in the blockbuster deal between the Phillies and Cardinals that shipped Allen and Jerry Johnson to St. Louis in exchange for Curt Flood (#415), Tim McCarver (#294), Byron Browne and Joe Hoerner. (Flood never reported to the Phillies, but that's a story for another post.)
Rojas played in 880 games for the Phillies - the exact amount of games he played in for the Royals.
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First Mainstream Card: 1963 Topps #221
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (16): 1963-1977, 1988
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2019 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-CR
85 - Rojas non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 12/13/19.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Phillies Room
SABR
The Trading Card Database
In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year. Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.
Prior Card: #473 Orioles Rookie Stars
Next Card: #475 Clete Boyer - New York Yankees
The Allen/Flood trade is very interesting in hindsight.
ReplyDeleteAllen only lasted 1 season with the Cards. Rojas and Johnson less than half a season.
Meanwhile, McCarver and Hoerner were an upgrade for the Phillies, and lasted several years. When Flood didn't report, the Phillies got Willie Montanez as compensation. Willie tallied 99 RBI as a rookie in 1971, and finished 2nd in the ROY voting. He also played several seasons, was a fan favorite, and netted Garry Maddox in a 1975 trade. You could say the Phils were better off with Montanez than they would have been with an aging Curt Flood.
Plus, the Phillies got Allen back in 1975.
So even with Flood spurning the Phillies, they got the better end of the deal.