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Albert Wilfred Stanek
San Francisco Giants
Pitcher
Born: December 24, 1943, Springfield, MA
Signed: Signed by the San Francisco Giants as an amateur free agent before 1962 season
Major League Teams: San Francisco Giants 1963
Died: May 8, 2018, Springfield, MA (age 74)
Signed as a bonus baby by the Giants in 1962 after graduating from Chicopee High School in Sprinfield, Massachusetts, Al Stanek had to be kept on the club's roster for the entire 1963 season. As a 19-year-old, he made 11 appearances for the Giants, pitching 13 1/3 innings. Stanek had no record and a 4.73 ERA, and he was a bit wild during his brief time in the majors with 12 walks to five strikeouts. He pitched a third of an inning of mop-up relief duty during an 8-3 loss to the Pirates on September 27, 1963, in what would be his final action in the big leagues. Stanek spent the next four seasons pitching in the Giants' minor league system, hanging up his spikes following the 1967 campaign at the age of 23. In five minor league seasons, he went 29-37 over 130 games with a 4.20 ERA.
June 19, 2021 from Moorestown Mall Baseball Card Show - Card #336
Following our youngest son Ben's flawless performance of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy at his piano recital, our family headed to the Moorestown Mall in New Jersey to browse a real live baseball card show. Traditionally, I only venture into malls for baseball card shows and I can't honestly remember the last time, pre-pandemic, I had stepped foot into a mall. The show was small, hosted by S&B Sports Promotions, with about a dozen tables and not much vintage to offer, but it was a sight for sore eyes. It took us only about 15 minutes to scout the whole place out and I was lucky enough to find a friendly dealer with 1960s and 1970s Topps cards in great shape, in order and (best of all) reasonably priced. I took my time going through his 1965 Topps commons, settling on 29 cards we needed and adding a card from the star pile to give us 30 new cards total. I spent an even $100 (after a generous dealer discount) and this Stanek card was about $3.25.
The Card / Giants Team Set
Topps deemed Stanek worthy enough for inclusion in its set even though he hadn't pitched with the Giants at all in 1964. Topps would bring him back again for the 1966 set. The back of the card notes his control problems and highlights his league leading 220 strikeouts while pitching for the Tacoma Giants in the Pacific Coast League. Wilbur Wood (#478), pitching for the Red Sox top farm team, the Seattle Rainiers, was a distant second in the league with 197 strikeouts.
1965 Season
Stanek spent the entire seasons back in Tacoma, going 8-10 with a 3.94 ERA in 32 total appearances. In 144 innings, he struck out 83 but walked 71 batters.
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First Mainstream Card: 1964 Topps #99
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3): 1964-1966
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2015 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-AST
7 - Stanek non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/10/21.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
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