 |
 |
Stephen David Barber
Baltimore Orioles
Pitcher
Born: February 22, 1938, Takoma Park, MD
Signed: Signed by the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent before 1957 season
Major League Teams: Baltimore Orioles 1960-1967; New York Yankees 1967-1968; Seattle Pilots 1969; Chicago Cubs 1970; Atlanta Braves 1970-1972; California Angels 1972-1973; San Francisco Giants 1974
Died: February 4, 2007, Henderson, NV (age 68)
A two-time All-Star and starting pitcher for the early part of his career, Steve Barber pivoted to a reliable but often injured reliever towards the latter end of his 15-year big league run. Barber led the American League in shutouts with 8 in 1961 and was a 20-game winner for the Orioles in 1963, the first pitcher in Orioles' history to reach that plateau. His two All-Star Game appearances came in 1963 (20-13, 2.75 ERA in 36 starts) and 1966 (10-5, 2.30 ERA in 25 games). He finished in the league's top 10 for ERA in 1960, 1963 and 1965.
Barber was traded to the Yankees on July 4, 1967, missing the Orioles run at the top of the league beginning in 1969 and lasting until the the mid-1970s. His move to the Yankees began a six-team odyssey over eight seasons, including a stop with the Seattle Pilots during the club's only year of existence. With the Pilots, and hampered by elbow injuries, Barber was depicted in Jim Bouton's (#30) Ball Four "as a man who wouldn't lead, follow, or get out of the way" according to his SABR biography. Now a seldomly used left-handed reliever, Barber was the losing pitcher in the Pilots' final game.
He retired following the 1974 season having pitched in 466 games, with a record of 121-106 and a 3.36 ERA.
July 8, 2020 from Los Angeles, CA - Card #106
In need of some cardboard therapy as we approached the four month anniversary of the start of our social distancing, I went on a mini eBay binge the first week of July. We had a vacation planned for the last week of June, first week of July, and that vacation had been unceremoniously cancelled at some point in April. Major League Baseball was showing signs of coming back, the Black Lives Matter movement was finally gaining momentum, the pandemic showed no signs of going away any time soon and a complete lack of intelligent national leadership wasn't helping anything or anybody. I needed some old baseball cards.
17 cards arrived on July 8th, including this Barber card won from Greg Morris Cards with a winning bid of $2.25. I bid on 15 cards from Greg Morris Cards' eBay auctions, winning 7 of them. A batch of 10 more cards entered my eBay cart from Dean's Cards on the same day. Over the next several weeks, I'll review each of the 17 cards acquired, putting us just over the 20% mark for completion of our 1965 Topps set.
The Card
For the 7 cards coming from Greg Morris Cards, I specifically bid on cards of players I knew little to nothing about, and Barber fits that bill. I enjoy learning about players from before my time, and spending some quality time with each card before it's slid into its pocket on a page within our 1965 Topps binder.
On the back of the card, Barber's league leading 8 shutouts are mentioned. The 1964 Orioles finished in third place behind the White Sox and the pennant-winning Yankees. Barber's 118 strikeouts were second only to Milt Pappas' (#270) 157 on the Orioles' pitching staff.
Orioles Team Set
1965 Season
The 1965 Orioles again finished the season in third place with Pappas, Barber, Dave McNally (#249) and Wally Bunker (#290) serving as their top four starting pitchers. Barber made 32 starts and went 15-10 with a 2.69 ERA. His SABR biography mentions he was frustrated to be removed from most of his starts by manager Hank Bauer (#323), as he had only 7 complete games.
|
|
|
|
|
First Mainstream Card: 1960 Topps #514
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (14): 1960-1970, 1972-1974
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1983 Galasso 1969 Seattle Pilots #26
Barber's final Topps card shows him with the Brewers, a team for which he never pitched. The Angels shipped Barber to the Brewers on October 22, 1973 and his new team released him on March 27, 1974.
91 - Barber non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/9/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Prior Card: #112 Derrell Griffith - Los Angeles Dodgers
Next Card: #114 Jim Hickman - New York Mets
Essentially, in 1967 Barber took Whitey Ford's spot in the Yankees' rotation.
ReplyDeleteFord had retired on Memorial Day that year (22 years before Mike Schmidt!), and the Yankees made-do until Barber arrived in early July.