#531 Chuck Hiller - San Francisco Giants

Charles Joseph Hiller
San Francisco Giants
Second Base

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  170
Born:  October 1, 1934, Johnsburg, IL
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1957 season
Major League Teams:  San Francisco Giants 1961-1965; New York Mets 1965-1967; Philadelphia Phillies 1967; Pittsburgh Pirates 1968
Died:  October 20, 2004, St. Pete Beach, FL (age 70)

Chuck Hiller played in parts of eight seasons in the National League, and he's perhaps best known for being the first player from the league to hit a grand slam in the World Series.  Hiller spent four seasons in the minors before winning the Giants' starting job at second base coming out of spring training in 1961.  A low batting average sent him back to the minors in July, but he'd come back to stay that September.  Hiller enjoyed a career year in 1962, appearing in 161 games and batting .276 while driving in a career-high 48 runs.  In that year's World Series, the Giants faced off against the Yankees with Hiller playing second base for every inning of all seven games.  His historic grand slam came in Game 4 off Yankees' reliever Marshall Bridges in the seventh inning, breaking a 2-2 tie.  The Yankees would prevail in Game 7 on the strength of Ralph Terry's (#406) complete game shutout.

1963 Topps #145

Hiller would never play in as many games as he did in 1962, coming closest with 108 games for the 1966 Mets, with 50 of those appearances as a pinch-hitter.  That season was his last year of sustained success in the majors, as he batted .280 overall and .348 (16 for 46) as a pinch-hitter.  He'd appear briefly with the Mets, Phillies and Pirates in 1967 and 1968 before retiring as a player.  He batted .243 in 704 career games with 516 hits.  Hiller would return to the majors as a coach with the Rangers (1973), Royals (1976-1979), Cardinals (1981-1983), Giants (1985) and Mets (1990), spending the bulk of his coaching career serving under manager Whitey Herzog with the Rangers, Royals and Cardinals.  Between coaching stints, Hiller served as a minor league infield instructor with the Mets and Cardinals.

Building the Set
December 4, 2021 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards, Babylon, NY) - Card #468
You'll be seeing this particular passage on my 1965 Topps blog for quite some time as we added a whopping 97 cards to our set during the December Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show.  If I'm ambitious and compose posts for five cards a week, I should be completely caught up by the end of May.  If I'm not as ambitious, I might still be going through this stack by the time we hit July.  Either way, I'll enjoy the process and I'm looking forward to taking my time.  I've posted a complete summary of this fantastic show over at The Phillies Room.

After securing Doug's Jim Thome autograph, I returned to Uncle Dick's and their neon green shirts, pulled up a chair, and settled in.  Over the course of 45 minutes or so, I found 79 cards needed for our set, including this Hiller card which was less than $4 after the dealer discount.  I was surrounded by six or seven other seated collectors, all who looked similar to me, with a touch of gray, focused on their individual quests.  I wiped out Uncle Dick's two 1965 Topps commons binders, paid for my haul and then retreated to a table with Doug to update our checklist.

The Card / Giants Team Set
I'd imagine the highlight Topps used on all Hiller's cards after 1962 was his World Series grand slam.  It took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on in the cartoon, but Hiller is shown as a literal giant for his huge grand slam.  There's an uncorrected error in the narrative on the back as Hiller was sold to the Mets (see below) and not the Nats, which was the nickname Topps occasionally used for the Senators.

1965 Season
Hiller began the season with the Giants, but was sold to the Mets on May 11th when the Mets lost their All-Star second baseman Ron Hunt (#285) to a shoulder injury.  Hiller played in 100 games for the Mets, batting .238 with five home runs and 21 RBIs.  He struggled defensively, at one point committing errors in three consecutive games, but he provided marginally better offense than the other second base option, the light-hitting Bobby Klaus (#227).

Phillies Career
The Phillies acquired Hiller on July 11, 1967 from the Mets for infielder Phil Linz (#369), with the trade seemingly orchestrated by Mets' coach Yogi Berra (#470) in order for Berra to be reunited with his former Yankees teammate.  Cookie Rojas (#474) and Tony Taylor (#296) already provided an effective platoon at second base, and Hiller received minimal playing time.  Of his 31 appearances with the Phillies between mid-July and the end of the season, 27 of them were for pinch-hitting duties.  He made only four starts for the Phillies at second base.  Still, Hiller had a decent average of .302 (13 for 43) but the fifth place team just didn't have a place for him on their roster.  He was assigned to the minors following the season and selected by the Pirates on November 28, 1967 in the annual rule 5 draft.

1961 Topps #538

1962 Topps #188

1966 Topps #154

1968 Topps #461

1973 Topps #549

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1961 Topps #538
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1961-1968, 1973
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1980 Fleer Team Stickers (1962 World Series on back)

43 - Hiller non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/3/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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