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John Anthony Romano
Cleveland Indians
Catcher
Born: August 23, 1934, Hoboken, NJ
Signed: Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent before 1954 season
Major League Teams: Chicago White Sox 1958-1959; Cleveland Indians 1960-1964; Chicago White Sox 1965-1966; St. Louis Cardinals 1967
Died: February 24, 2019, Naples, FL (age 84)
The every day catcher for the Indians throughout the early 1960s, Johnny Romano was an All-Star in 1961 and 1962, his two best seasons. Romano hit .299 with 21 home runs and 80 RBIs in 1961 only to follow that up in 1962 by hitting .261 with career highs in both home runs (25) and RBIs (81). He was a fine defensive catcher too, finishing in the top ten in runners caught stealing four times and leading the league with 31 base runners caught in 1961. Originally drafted by the White Sox, Romano was traded back to his original team following the 1964 season. After two seasons as the regular catcher for the White Sox, he was traded to the Cardinals where he served as Tim McCarver's (#294) back-up during the 1967 season. He won a ring with the World Champion Cardinals, although he had been left off the club's postseason roster.
In 905 career games, Romano hit .255 with 129 home runs and 417 RBIs. In 2001, he was one of seven catchers named to the Top 100 Indians list to celebrate the team's 100th anniversary. His 91 home runs were the most ever by an Indians catcher until Sandy Alomar broke his record with his 92nd home run in 2000.
July 8, 2020 from Cincinnati, OH - Card #113
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 Romano card purchased from Dean's Cards for $1.75. I browsed the Dean's Cards eBay store, setting a reasonable budget and determined to click Buy It Now on 10 cards. Another group of 7 cards were won in eBay auctions from Greg Morris Cards on the same day. The 17 cards added put us just over the 20% completion point for our 1965 Topps set.
The Card / Indians Team Set
Two of the 17 cards added from this mini haul caught Doug's attention. The Joe Torre (#200) card and this Romano card, with Doug giggling a little and asking, "What's this guy looking at?" I've detailed the big Indians-White Sox-Athletics trade below, and of the eight players exchanged, players in the first and second series, including Romano, were featured on cards with their former teams.
The back of the card celebrates Romano winning the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League home run title in 1955 when he hit 38 home runs for the Waterloo White Hawks. No one else was even close to Romano with Robert Sagers finishing in second place with 18 home runs.
Of interest to probably only me, Romano had base cards within nine Topps flagship sets. Johnny outnumbers John within those nine sets, 7-2. Romano, at card #10, is one of 72 players featured within the 1965 Topps Embossed insert set and one of five Indians in the set.
1965 Season
On January 20, 1965, Romano was part of an eight-player, three-team trade that saw him depart the Indians for the White Sox. Romano, Tommie Agee (#166) and Tommy John (#208) went from the Indians to the White Sox, Cam Carreon (#578) went from the White Sox to the Indians, Mike Hershberger (#89), Jim Landis (#376) and Fred Talbot (#58) went from the White Sox to the Athletics and finally Rocky Colavito (#380) went from the Athletics to the Indians.
With the White Sox, Romano appeared in 122 games, hitting .242 with 18 home runs and 48 RBIs. His home run tally tied for the team lead with Bill Skowron (#70). Romano was happy to be back with his original team and manager Al Lopez (#414), but his return stay lasted only two seasons.
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First Mainstream Card: 1959 Topps #138
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9): 1959-1967
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1981 TCMA 1959 White Sox #13
69 - Romano non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/13/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Prior Card: #16 Astros Rookie Stars
Next Card: #18 Bill McCool - Cincinnati Reds
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