#96 Sonny Siebert - Cleveland Indians

Wilfred Charles Siebert
Cleveland Indians
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  190
Born:  January 14, 1937, St. Mary, MO
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1958 season
Major League Teams: Cleveland Indians 1964-1969; Boston Red Sox 1969-1973; Texas Rangers 1973; St. Louis Cardinals 1974; San Diego Padres 1975; Oakland Athletics 1975

Drafted by both the Indians and the St. Louis Hawks of the NBA, Sonny Siebert opted for a baseball career and spent 12 years in the majors as a successful starting pitcher.  He had been drafted as an outfielder, and after two seasons in the Indians minor league system he convinced the club to let him switch to pitching.  The move paid off as Siebert went 61-48 for the Indians with a 2.76 ERA between 1964 and 1969.  He threw a no-hitter against the Senators on June 10, 1966, and he was an A.L. All-Star that season as well.  He'd return to the All-Star Game in 1971 with the Red Sox.  Siebert finished in the top ten in A.L. ERA in four different seasons (1965, 1966, 1967 and 1971) and was a 16-game winner three times.

Siebert owned a career record of 140-114 and a 3.21 ERA with 1,512 strikeouts.  He's the last A.L. pitcher to hit two home runs in one game, accomplishing the feat on September 2, 1971.  He had a career batting average of .173 with 12 home runs.  Siebert was a pitching coach at various levels in the Padres and Rockies organizations between 1985 and 1998, serving as the pitching coach for the Padres in 1994 and 1995.

Building the Set
February 29, 2020 from King of Prussia, PA - Card #64
Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show held on the bottom floor of the Valley Forge Casino on the final day of February.  This was our first baseball card show of 2020 and the fourth show we've attended in Valley Forge since March 2019.  I did a post over at The Phillies Room with a few pictures of Doug taken with some of the show's autograph guests.  We ended up adding 23 cards to our set.

This Siebert card was from an initial batch of 17 commons and semi-stars purchased from John's Sports Cards within the first hour of our arrival.  I didn't track each individual price of the cards purchased, but this card was from a half-price binder and the 17-card lot cost me $50 total.  John's table has been located in the back right of the showroom floor for as long as we've been going to these shows, and I know I've bought a bunch of vintage Topps cards from him in the past including cards needed for my 1971 Topps set.  He's one of those dealers who you can't help but remember, probably because he genuinely seems happy and to be enjoying what he's doing.  Doug and I would come back to him later in the show for a few major purchases for our set, and I'll eventually feature all cards added in upcoming posts.

The Card
Looking closely at the card, it looks to me as if Topps cut around the trees behind Siebert and added a solid blue matte to the background.  It's really strange up close.  Also strange to me is that Topps continued to use an Indians logo first introduced by the team in 1949, to celebrate their 1948 World Series victory, and that hadn't been used as an alternate logo since 1955.  The crowned Indian had been phased out by the club ten years prior to the issuance of this card, yet that's the logo appearing on all 1965 Topps Indians cards.

The game referenced on the top back of the card happened on May 10, 1964 in Cleveland Stadium.  Siebert was the fourth pitcher used by the Indians as starter Dick Donovan had been knocked out after just 1/3 of an inning.  Among his 11 strikeout victims were three players he struck out twice - Tom Tresh (#440), Elston Howard (#450) and Mickey Mantle (#350).

Indians Team Set

1965 Season
Siebert appeared in 39 games and made 27 starts, going 16-8 with a 2.43 ERA.  He and Sam McDowell (#76) were fairly dominant atop the Indians rotation, as McDowell was 17-11 with a 2.18 ERA, but then things fell apart after that pair pitched.  Siebert was third on the team in innings pitched with 188 2/3, behind McDowell's 273 and Luis Tiant's (#145) 196 1/3 innings.

1964 Topps #552

1966 Topps #197

1969 Topps #455

1971 Topps #710

1975 Topps #328

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1964 Topps #552
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (12):  1964-1975
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1976 SSPC #484

81 - Siebert non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/7/20.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
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:  #95 Bill Mazeroski - Pittsburgh Pirates

Next Card:  #97 Pedro Gonzalez - New York Yankees