Has card but never played
 

I was wondering if we might compile a list of players that had a baseball card in any Major League set that never played even one game in the majors. I know that the 1953 and 1955 Topps sets might have some but I don't know of any off hand. Does anyone know of any?

I have seen articles on players who played a fair amount and never had a card, and on players who appeared on cards with teams they never played on, but not on this. I seem to recall there are some in the Topps 52 set when Topps was scrambling to find anyone not exclusively signed to Bowman to put on their cards.

There are a bunch of those umpires in the 55 Bowman set when they were on the way out and looking for anyone to fill out their last set

Good topic

I would bet with modern sets trying to put as many baseball draft picks and pre-rookies, there are probably quite a few out there who never made the majors.

My favorite is Jack Parks, he had a 1955 Topps base card AND a 1955 Topps Double-Header card but never appeared in a major league game.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/TKYAA...M6o/s-l500.jpg

http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/...36/36-23Bk.jpg

Angel Scull in the 54 Topps Set comes to mind. Many players in the 2/3 or more rookie cards never played in the majors

My personal favorite is the 1964 Topps Archie Skeen (#423 or so IIRC) card with this biographical nugget: Archie has retired to become a school teacher. Thus ended the Archie Skeen investment club

Rich

This website

http://www.jaytysver.com/bb-cards.html?

has a list a players who played in the major leagues and a separate list with players with cards. If you compare these in a database program you will get some information.

I this was updated in 2015

I think the author is board member.

This file is a work of art

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....1L9m4RETRL.jpg

Chris Haas has a 1996 Topps rookie card with Scott Rolen. He was drafted by the Cardinals but never played. I mention him because he lives about 10 or 15 minutes from me. I work for the electric company and I had to replace his electric meter back a couple of months ago. He wasn't home, but I talked to his wife. She thought it was really cool that I had his baseball card.

My alltime favorite:

http://caimages.collectors.com/psace...7_949x1597.jpg

That's the Angels bat-boy Leonard Garcia...

Steve Dalkowski is another interesting one, he is on a 1963 Topps high number that has a premium because of him even though he never played a major league game. The legend is that he could throw a baseball in excess of 110 mph, estimated because there were no radar guns back then. He was virtually unhittable, but he was so wild that he gave up just as many walks as strikeouts. The Orioles were going to bring him up to the big leagues for the beginning of the 1963 season but he blew his arm out in a preseason exhibition game against the Yankees. He was never the same after that and lingered in the minors for a few more years before giving up professional baseball.

On top of the legendary status of Dalkowski, the card is a bit tougher as well as semi-high numbered card and I don't think is printed in the same quantity as some other players in that series.

Thanks, didn't know about Archie.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....1E8BOdpvTL.jpg

Sadly, it seems he recently left us: http://www.myers-mortuary.com/obitua...ity-UT/1732213
RIP Mr. Skeen.

Head scratchers
 

Georj - Even more puzzling, how about cards of guys in the Baseball HOF who never played a game?:confused:

Brien Taylor!

Well, he did have a relatively short MMA career that interrupted his journey to the majors. Finished with a career 0-1 record on the mat.

I just learned of the things Alexander Cartwright gave to baseball when I watched part of the first installment of Ken Burns' Baseball yesterday. Very fascinating learning about the early history of the game and how it came about. Now I want to sit and watch more of that episode and the rest of the series.

.

There's probably quite a few!
 

Here's another: 1951 Hage's Dairy Al Olsen. The card shows him as a Cleveland Indian. He spent most of his time in the PCL, and never had a regular season major league at bat with the Tribe.

Image is not my card!

Theres a San Diego Chicken card.....

Michael Jordan..

Here's my Dalkowski:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4534/...a6cbef7c55.jpg

Matt Bush would have been a good answer, except that in 2016, 12 years after he was the #1 overall draft pick, he finally made his debut.

Just for kicks, I thought I would post the other Bat-Boy stand-in card (at least, the only other one known to me):

Attachment 296047

Hi,

There are 3 players in the 1968 Topps set that never played in the Majors:

Mickey Abarbanel - White Sox Rookies card with Cisco Carlos
Moe Ogier - Twins Rookies card with Ron Clark
Frank Peters - Orioles Rookies card with Ron Stone

There are others, especially on multi-player rookie cards over the years such as George Pena '73 Indians & George Woodson '69 Indians to name a couple.

Have to agree with the last 20 to 25 years must have produced many times the amount of cards by major companies for guys who never played a lick of MLB.
When I was in college in Oneonta in 2006-2007 and bounced at a bar I was friends with Jon Connolly who was named the Tigers Minor League Pitcher of the year in 2003. When I went over to one of the bar tender’s house he had one of Jon’s Topps cards hanging on his fridge. Jon made it as high as AAA but never played in the majors. The only way he probably could have made it is as a lefty specialist out the pen. He wound up with a dead arm and needed surgery about a year after he was named the Tigers minor league pitcher of the year in 2003 and from what I remember his fastball was only 85 and he lived off his off speed pitch ala Chris Hammond.
Jon wound up having a few cards by Topps and Bowman including things like Refractos. Since this is the Vintage forum here is one of his cards in the 55 Bowman style.

How many bars do they have in Oneonta?

Not as many as there used to be. Long before I went there were a ton. I think the drinking age going from 18 to 21 killed off the numbers. In the 10 years since I graduated most of the bars I knew closed or closed and reopened with new names. The vast majority of the bars still open are not open during the summer when college is out.

How about some of the Olympic cards in 1985 Topps?

Sid Akins (played til 89 in minors)
Flavio Alfaro (one year of A ball, hit .193)
Bob Caffrey (few years in Expos system)

IMHO:

I think this breaks down into 2 sections:

Pre-1989

1989-Present

The reason I break this down in 1989 is because Bowman returned in 1989 as the prospect laden set. From the very beginning, there were cards in those sets of people who never played in the majors

One example of 1989 Bowman is Johnny Ard whose name always stayed with me. In doing some internet research -- he, as is my wife, is going through dialysis so not all these stories have happy endings. But I bet there are 10-15 players at the very least in 1989 who never played in the majors from Bowman and we'll go from there

Rich