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Fred Earl Gladding
Detroit Tigers
Pitcher
Born: June 28, 1936, Flat Rock, MI
Signed: Signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent before 1956 season
Major League Teams: Detroit Tigers 1961-1967; Houston Astros 1968-1973
Died: May 21, 2015, Columbia, SC (age 78)
Fred Gladding was a successful reliever, splitting his 13-year big league career almost equally between the Tigers (217 games) and the Astros (233 games). He had a career record of 48-34 with a 3.13 ERA and 109 saves. All but one of his 450 total appearances came in relief.
His best season came in 1967 for the Tigers when he went 6-4 over 42 games with a 1.99 ERA and 12 saves. His .703 winning percentage (26-11) with Detroit is the highest in franchise history for a pitcher appearing in at least 200 games. Gladding would return to the Tigers in 1976 to serve as manager Ralph Houk's pitching coach, and he held that role in 1976, 1977 and 1978.
With the Astros, Gladding led the N.L. in saves in 1969 with 29, the first year the statistic was officially tracked. His other claim to fame is owning the lowest non-zero batting average in major league history for his .016 (1 for 63) lifetime average. His one hit came on July 30, 1969 in a 16-3 drubbing of the Mets. He managed an RBI single off the Mets' Ron Taylor (#568) for his milestone hit.
January 25, 2020 from Los Angeles, CA - Card #43
Some January days are longer than others, and on a particularly long January day at work a few months ago, I decided I needed a few more 1965 Topps cards for our set. I've been familiar with Greg Morris Cards for a while now, as I've been using a lot of the images of old Topps cards scanned for their eBay auction listings in these posts and within the posts over at my 1956 Topps blog. The images are always centered and clear and for all the help Greg Morris has indirectly provided me, I thought I'd browse his eBay store.
Given the vast inventory available, I figured there had to be at least a few 1965 Topps cards up for auction, and I was correct. I stumbled upon a set break and I went about finding auctions with no current bidders and cards graded at least EX-MT. I bid on a total of 20 auctions, winning 10 of them, including this Gladding card. I was the first and sole bidder on the card with a winning bid of $0.79.
The Card
Is that a church steeple behind Gladding? It would appear as if the photo shoot for this card yielded the photos used for Gladding's 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969 Topps cards.
Turning to the back of the card, Gladding's 7 saves in 1964 were second on the team behind Larry Sherry (#408) who had 11. His no-hitter in 1958 came as a member of the Augusta Tigers in the South Atlantic League. The details given for his 1956 and 1957 seasons with the Valdosta Tigers can't be verified from his Baseball Reference page but the wins and innings pitched for each season check out.
Tigers Team Set
1965 Season
Gladding spent the entire 1965 season in the Tigers bullpen, appearing in a team-leading 46 games. He went 6-2 with a 2.83 ERA and his five saves tied him with Sherry, but put him behind Terry Fox (#576) and his 10 saves for the team lead.
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First Mainstream Card: 1964 Topps #312
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10): 1964-1973
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1978 TCMA The 1960s I #158
54 - Gladding non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 2/7/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
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: #36 Bobby Wine - Philadelphia Phillies
Next Card: #38 Jim King - Washington Senators
When only viewing the thumbnail photo, he looks like Denny McLain.
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