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Ronald Samuel Herbel
San Francisco Giants
Pitcher
Born: January 16, 1938, Denver, CO
Signed: Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent before 1958 season
Major League Teams: San Francisco Giants 1963-1969; San Diego Padres 1970; New York Mets 1970; Atlanta Braves 1971
Died: January 20, 2000, Tacoma, WA (age 62)
A steady reliever and occasional starter over 9 big league seasons, Ron Herbel earned notoriety as quite possibily the worst hitting baseball player ever. His career average of .029 (6 for 206) ranks worst all-time among batters with at least 100 plate appearances.
As a pitcher, he found more success, enjoying his best seasons in 1964 and 1965 with the Giants. He led the league in appearances in 1970 with 76, starting the season with the Padres but then traded to the Mets in September. In 331 career games (79 starts), Herbel went 42-37 with a 3.82 ERA and 16 saves.
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| August 22, 2020 - My Mom with her grandkids |
August 21, 2020 from Charleston, SC - Card #146
In my largest (by volume) purchase to date, I spent an enjoyable hour or so in mid-August browsing the eBay store of seller mantlerulz and clicking Add to Cart on 30 different cards. We had previously added 29 cards to our set back in February from the Philly Show. The 30 cards, all commons, cost me $52 total (before shipping and taxes) with the cards ranging in prices from $1 to $6. I love this haul and I found the seller's store by accident when I was browsing eBay in an attempt to add a few more cheap cards from the set's first series. With the exception of the cards for Dick Howser (#92) and manager Birdie Tebbets (#301), along with the few former Phillies in the lot, most of the players featured on these cards are unknown to me. In the coming weeks, I'll go through each of these new cards for our set in detail, and we've now passed the quarter mark for completion of the complete set. We still have a long way to go, and quite a few pricey cards to add but any day I can add 30 commons in excellent shape and at a low prices is a great day. This Herbel card was $1.
The Card / Giants Team Set
Herbel had previously appeared in the last two years' Topps sets, sharing those cards with other rookies on Rookie Stars cards. This is his first solo card. The back of the card points out Herbel's two top winning seasons (15-4 in 1960, 16-5 in 1961) in the minor leagues and his one losingest season (13-18 in 1963).
1965 Season
The Giants finished as runners up in the National League behind the pennant winning Dodgers, and Herbel was one of four pitchers to start at least 20 games for the club. Serving as the occasional fourth starter behind Juan Marichal (#50), Bob Shaw (#428) and Gaylord Perry (#193), Herbel made 21 starts and appeared in 47 games overall. He went 12-9 with a 3.85 ERA with 1 save and 1 complete game, and the 12 wins would be a career high. His complete game came on May 21st, which is also the game in which he collected his first big league hit against Astros pitcher Don Nottebart (#469).
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First Mainstream Card: 1963 Topps #208
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10): 1963-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1972 Topps #469
33 - Herbel non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/29/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #83 George Thomas - Detroit Tigers
Next Card: #85 Willie Smith - Los Angeles Angels
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