Wednesday, November 25, 2020

#307 Barry Latman - Los Angeles Angels


Arnold Barry Latman
Los Angeles Angels
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  210
Born:  May 21, 1936, Los Angeles, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent before 1955 season
Major League Teams:  Chicago White Sox 1957-1959; Cleveland Indians 1960-1963; Los Angeles Angels 1964; California Angels 1965; Houston Astros 1966-1967
Died:  April 28, 2019, Richmond, TX (age 82)

Barry Latman found moderate success as a swingman between starting and relieving over his 11-year big league career.  He went to the All-Star Game with the Indians in 1961, the year he set his career high with 13 wins.  Latman earned a career record of 59-68 over 344 games with a 3.91 ERA.  He made 134 starts, throwing 28 complete games and 10 shutouts.  He struck out 829 over his career while walking 489.

Interestingly enough, Latman's SABR biography notes he was a penpal with Ty Cobb throughout the 1950s and Cobb at some point came to Los Angeles to watch Latman pitch in person.

Building the Set

August 21, 2020 from Charleston, SC - Card #160
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 this purchase, we've now passed the quarter mark for completion of the 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 very low prices is a great day.  This Latman card was only $1.50.

For some context, a month has passed since I last composed one of these posts, writing about the Birdie Tebbets (#301) card in mid-September.  For a solid month, every time I sat down to my home computer at night, Latman's card would be staring up at me, wondering when he'd eventually get studied, scanned and finally placed into our 1965 Topps binder.  Mid-September through mid-October is a crazy busy time for me with my chosen profession and there was no time for writing about old baseball cards.  My wife Jenna is back to school, in front of her class with everyone masked up, while our boys are attending 5th and 8th grades virtually.  I'm their homeroom teacher and lunch lady as I try every day to make sure their Zoom meetings go off without a hitch all while trying to keep my head above water with work.  It's been a challenge.

Our dog Chewbacca has no idea why we all stopped going places beginning in mid-March as our new schedules are clearly interrupting his daily nap time.

The Card / Angels Team Set
That's an impressive amount of chew in Latman's cheek, and that would appear to be a regular occurrence as he's pictured with a bulged cheek on his 1964, 1966 and 1967 Topps cards as well.  The back of the card references the perfect game Latman threw for Fairfax High School in Los Angeles in 1954.  He was heavily scouted at the time, but opted to attend college at the University of Southern California.

1965 Season
Nagged by a sore arm, Latman appeared in only 18 games for the Angels, the first season he hadn't appeared in at least 30 games since 1958.  Used entirely as a reliever, Latman went 1-1 with a 2.84 ERA over 31 2/3 innings pitched.  He was sent down to the Seattle Angels in the Pacific Coast League in June, where he'd appear in 18 games, making 13 starts.  He went 7-6 with a 3.09 ERA for Seattle and when he returned to the majors in September Latman requested a trade.  The Angels accommodated his request, trading Latman to the Astros on December 15th for Ed Pacheco and cash.

1959 Topps #477
1961 Topps #560
1963 Topps #426
1964 Topps #227
1967 Topps #28
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1959 Topps #477
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1959-1967
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2016 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-BL

48 - Latman non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/16/20.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Previous Card:  #306 Bubba Phillips - Detroit Tigers
Next Card:  #308 Mets Rookie Stars

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