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John Joseph Podres
Los Angeles Dodgers
Pitcher
Born: September 30, 1932, Witherbee, NY
Signed: Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1951 season
Major League Teams: Brooklyn Dodgers 1953-1955, 1957; Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-1966; Detroit Tigers 1966-1967; San Diego Padres 1969
Died: January 13, 2008, Glens Falls, NY (age 75)
Johnny Podres forever joined the ranks of Dodger greats when the lefty won 1955 World Series MVP honors for his two fantastic starts against the Yankees in the Fall Classic. Podres started Game 3, pitching a complete game in the Dodgers' win, and then started the decisive Game 7, pitching a complete game shutout to give the team their first and only World Series title while in Brooklyn. Podres settled in as a reliable starter for Brooklyn and then Los Angeles, winning at least 12 games over the next seven seasons and making four All-Star teams. He led the league with six shutouts in 1957 while winning the ERA title with a 2.66 mark. Podres attained a career-high 18 wins in 1961, and he'd win two more World Series rings with the Dodgers in 1959 and 1963. He retired as a player following a half-season with the expansion Padres in 1969. Podres was 148-116 over 440 career games, pitching 77 complete games and 24 shutouts. He struck out 1,435 over his 15-year big league career, currently 249th on the all-time leader's list. Podres' 136 career wins with the Dodgers currently ranks 10th all-time for the franchise.
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| 1996 Phillies Photo Cards #46 |
Building the Set
October 12, 2021 from Valley Cottage, NY - Card #375
This Podres card along with three other cards needed for our set were bonus additions to a large purchase I made from OLDBBCards Vintage Sports Cards from Valley Cottage, New York on my birthday. The bubble envelope containing the cards arrived a little over a week later. I'm also slowly collecting the 1934-36 Diamond Stars set, and I took advantage of the seller's 20% off sale being offered in their eBay store to add the Earl Averill card, the most expensive card I've purchased for that set to date. Before checking out, I browsed the seller's other cards for sale and found four reasonably priced cards needed for our 1965 Topps set. Podres was a little over $10 after applying the discount.
I spent a relatively low-key birthday watching our oldest son Doug help his team win a travel baseball game in the morning, receiving the Pete Rose (#207) card for our set, and then walking over to my sister's house for a cook-out with family that afternoon. It was a wonderful day!
The Card / Dodgers Team Set
The back of the card references Podres' four World Series wins - two in 1955, one in 1959 and a final win in 1963.
1965 Season
Podres underwent elbow surgery in 1964 and appeared in only two games. After strengthening his repaired arm in the offseason in the Arizona Fall League, Podres rejoined the Dodgers and appeared in 27 games throughout the season, making 22 starts as the team's most regularly used fourth starter behind Sandy Koufax (#300), Don Drysdale (#260) and Claude Osteen (#570). The former World Series star didn't appear in any games during the 1965 World Series, in which the Dodgers defeated the Twins in seven games.
Podres was hired as the Phillies pitching coach on October 31, 1990, after spending the prior five seasons as a minor league coach with the Dodgers. He joined manager Nick Leyva's coaching staff as the replacement for Darold Knowles (#577), who had departed after two seasons at the post. Podres stuck around following Leyva's dismissal 13 games into the 1991 season, and he was a key member of new manager Jim Fregosi's (#210) coaching staff throughout the early 1990s. Podres is credited with helping Curt Schilling, Tommy Greene, Ben Rivera, and other young Phillies pitchers find early success in their careers. He went to his final World Series with the club in 1993, with the Phillies falling in six games to Joe Carter and the Blue Jays. Podres left the team during the 1996 season to deal with health issues and was replaced on an interim basis by Jim Wright. Following the 1996 season, and in connection with the hiring of new manager Terry Francona, Podres was replaced by Galen Cisco (#364) as the team's full-time pitching coach.
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Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1953 Topps #263
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (17): 1953-1967, 1969, 1973
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2015 Topps Stepping Up #SU-4
367 - Podres non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 11/3/21.
Sources:
1956 Topps Blog
First Mainstream Card: 1953 Topps #263
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (17): 1953-1967, 1969, 1973
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2015 Topps Stepping Up #SU-4
367 - Podres non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 11/3/21.
Sources:
1956 Topps Blog
1991 Phillies Media Guide
Previous Card: #386 Cubs Rookie Stars
Next Card: #388 John Blanchard - New York Yankees
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