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Victor Pellot Power
Los Angeles Angels
First Base-Infield
Born: November 1, 1927, Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Acquired: Purchased by the New York Yankees from Drummondville (Provincial) before 1951 season
Major League Teams: Philadelphia Athletics 1954; Kansas City Athletics 1955-1958; Cleveland Indians 1958-1961; Minnesota Twins 1962-1964; Los Angeles Angels 1964; Philadelphia Phillies 1964; California Angels 1965
Died: November 29, 2005, Bayamon, Puerto Rico (age 78)
Vic Power, who assumed that name for American baseball but used his actual name of Vic Pellot when playing in Puerto Rico, played for 12 years in the Majors, making the All-Star team in four seasons and winning seven consecutive Gold Gloves for his defense at first base. Traded by the Yankees to the Philadelphia A's in December 1953, he was the first player of Puerto Rican descent to play for the club. Despite the rampant racial discrimination he experienced during his early playing days, Power became a star with the A's and later the Indians, second only to Roberto Clemente (#160) in popularity back in his native Puerto Rico.
Power accumulated 126 career home runs and 658 RBIs while hitting .284, finishing in the top ten for hits in the American League in five different seasons. Power never played in the postseason, getting closest to winning pennants with the 1959 Indians, the 1962 Twins and the 1964 Phillies, all teams that finished in second place. He retired at the age of 37 following the 1965 season in which he hit .259 over 124 games for the Angels.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1956 Topps blog.
Building the Set
July 8, 2020 from Cincinnati, OH - Card #119
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 Power card purchased from Dean's Cards for $7.50. 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 / Angels Team Set
As noted below, Power spent the final month of the 1964 season with the Phillies. He was well traveled that year, starting the season with the Twins, getting traded to the Angels in June and then traded again to the Phillies in September. The photo used for this card would have been taken between mid-June and early September, his short time with the Angels. On November 30, 1964, the Phillies sold Power back to the Angels and Topps was able to use the photos from his Angels photo shoot after all.
On the back, the game referenced happened on August 14, 1958 when Power was with the Indians. He stole home in the 8th and again in the 10th to give the Indians a 10-9 win over the Tigers. The Tigers catcher victimized both times was Charlie Lau (#94), and for the season Power had only three stolen bases total.
1965 Season
Power was 37 at the start of the 1965 season and he was back with the Angels. He and Jim Piersall (#172) provided a veteran bench presence for the relatively young team. Power appeared in 124 games, but made only 37 starts - 30 at first base, 5 at second base and 2 at third base. Used primarily as a pinch-hitter or a late inning defensive replacement at first base for regular first baseman Joe Adcock, Power hit .259 with a home run and 20 RBIs. He was released by the Angels on April 1, 1966, ending his professional playing career.
On September 9, 1964, the Phillies acquired Power from the Angels for a player to be named later and cash. The Phillies would send pitcher Marcelino Lopez (#537) to the Angels a month later to complete the deal. The Phillies' regular first baseman, Frank Thomas (#123), had broken his thumb and Power was seen as a right-handed hitting compliment at the position to the left-handed hitting John Herrnstein (#534).
Power became the second player in Phillies franchise history to wear #62, as the number had been worn earlier in the season by rookie pitcher Rick Wise (#322). Relief pitchers Ken Roberts and Patrick Schuster wore the number for the Phillies in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Power's month with the Phillies allowed him to witness one of the worst collapses in professional sports history as the team had a 6 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals on September 20th, but ended up finishing the season in second place. Power hit .208 (10 for 48) over 18 games with four doubles and three RBIs, starting 11 of those games at first base. Following the season, the Phillies sold Power back to the Angels.
He has one Phillies "baseball card" to his name, having appeared within the 1964 Philadelphia Bulletin Phillies Album series.
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First Mainstream Card: 1954 Topps #52
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (13): 1954-1966
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1994 Topps Archives 1954 #52
77 - Power non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/15/20.
Sources:
1956 Topps
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Phillies Room
The Trading Card Database
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ReplyDeleteJust like his 1966 card, this 1965 card shows his position as "1B-INF". That seems redundant on Topps' part.
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