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Miguel Angel Cuellar
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitcher
Born: May 8, 1937, Las Villas, Cuba
Signed: Signed by the Cincinnati Redlegs as an amateur free agent before 1957 season
Major League Teams: Cincinnati Reds 1959; St. Louis Cardinals 1964; Houston Astros 1965-1968; Baltimore Orioles 1969-1976; California Angels 1977
Died: April 2, 2010, Orlando, FL (age 72)
Lefty Mike Cuellar began his career with the Reds, Cardinals and Astros, but he's best known for his dominant string of seasons with the Orioles, including Baltimore's World Championship season of 1970. Cuellar was used mainly in relief early in his career, appearing in 32 games for the eventual World Champion Cardinals in 1964. He won 16 games with the Astros in 1967, making his first of four All-Star teams, in a sign of good things to come. Cuellar was dealt to the Orioles in December 1968, and over the next several years he was a key member of a powerhouse starting pitching rotation that included Jim Palmer, Dave McNally (#249) and Pat Dobson. His first of four 20-win seasons came in 1969 when Cuellar was 23-11 with a 2.38 ERA on his way to co-Cy Young honors with Denny McLain (#236). Cuellar was 24-8 in 1970, pitching in a career high 297 2/3 innings and leading the league with 21 complete games. His team downed the Reds in five games in the World Series, with Cuellar winning the decisive Game 5.
Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #558
This is the 74th of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March. We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room. After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices. I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.
Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6. The lot, including this Cuellar card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards. After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.
The Card / Cardinals Team Set
Cuellar would appear in the 1959 and 1960 Topps sets, then not appear again until this card in the 1965 set. The back of the card is dominated by his lengthy professional statistics to date, and all that work eventually paid off as Cuellar would last pitch in the minors in early 1965 (see below) before staying in the majors for good.
1965 Season
Cuellar didn't make the Cardinals' starting pitching rotation out of spring training, and started the season with the Triple-A Jacksonville Suns, where he shined - 9-1, 2.51 ERA in 15 appearances. On June 15th, the Cardinals traded Cuellar and Ron Taylor (#568) to the Astros for Chuck Taylor and Hal Woodeshick (#179). Cuellar would immediately join Houston's pitching staff and he'd appear in 25 games for the club, making four starts. He finished the season with a 1-4 record and a 3.54 ERA in 56 innings pitched.
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First Mainstream Card: 1959 Topps #518
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15): 1959-1960, 1965-1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2005 Topps Retired Signature Edition #84
142 - Cuellar non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/13/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #336 Woody Held - Washington Senators
Previous Card: #336 Woody Held - Washington Senators
Next Card: #338 Philadelphia Phillies Team Card
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