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Thomas Victor Nicholas Satriano
Los Angeles Angels
Infield-Catcher
Born: August 28, 1940, Pittsburgh, PA
Signed: Signed by the Los Angeles Angels as an amateur free agent, July 22, 1961
Major League Teams: Los Angeles Angels 1961-1964; California Angels 1965-1969; Boston Red Sox 1969-1970
Tom Satriano, nicknamed Mr. Everything for his versatility on the field and his role as a super substitute player, was signed by the expansion Angels in July 1961 and immediately placed on the team's active roster. He had attended USC where a few months earlier he was a member of the Trojans' 1961 NCAA Tournament championship team. Originally an infielder, Satriano was converted to a catcher in 1963 and that would remain his primary position. A back-up for most of his 10 big league seasons, his best year came in 1968 when he appeared in 111 games for the Angels, batting .253 with career highs in both home runs (8) and RBIs (35). He spent two seasons as a back-up catcher with the Red Sox and played in 1971 with the Padres' top farm club in Hawaii before retiring as an active player.
July 8, 2020 from Los Angeles, CA - Card #109
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 Satriano 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
This is the second card I've added to our set with the rare position designation of Infield-Catcher, with Ossie Virgil (#571) being the first. Topps used a hatless photo from the same session as this for Satriano's 1966 Topps card. The hatless photo was necessitated as the Los Angeles Angels had become the California Angels at the end of the 1965 season and they had updated their hat logo for the name change.
Flipping to the back, Satriano went 0 for 7 to start his career before hitting a home run off the Indians' Mudcat Grant (#432) on August 12, 1961. His conversion to catcher and his exploits with the USC Trojans are also mentioned on the back.
Angels Team Set
1965 Season
Satriano suffered a shoulder injury in March and missed much of spring training. He started the season with the Seattle Angels where he hit just .173 over 41 games. The Angels, in need of a back-up catcher after selling Phil Roof (#537) to the Indians in June, recalled Satriano and he'd stick with the club throughout the rest of the season. Appearing in 47 games, he made 10 starts behind the plate, 5 starts at second base and 4 starts at third. While he provided solid defense, his offense still lagged as he hit .165 (13 for 79) with four extra base hits and 10 RBIs.
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First Mainstream Card: 1963 Topps #548
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9): 1963-1971
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1971 Topps #557
29 - Satriano non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/11/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Prior Card: #123 Frank Thomas - Philadelphia Phillies
Next Card: #125 Juan Pizarro - Chicago White Sox
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