I’ll start with a confession. This is an article I started writing at the beginning of the year before deciding it might make an even more fun SABR 54 presentation. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the convention judges did not share my opinion, which is how it ended up back here on the SABR Baseball Cards blog, not to mention why much of it looks like a slide deck!
The inspiration for the topic came from the famous 1969 Topps Larry Haney reversed image error card that caused Haney to appear left-handed. One on hand (no pun intended) the error likely felt harmless to anyone who even noticed it at the time. But on the other hand, take a look at the American League West standings that year. Haney’s Pilots finished last, a full 33 games out of first place. Meanwhile, the team Haney last appeared with as a righty, the Baltimore Orioles, won 109 games and cruised to the American League pennant.
However ridiculous it may seem to blame Topps for Seattle’s miserable one-and-done season, there’s an awful lot of baseball history that says otherwise.
Benny DiStefano
The last lefty to catch in the majors was Benny DiStefano of the Pittsburgh Pirates who caught three games in 1989. The Pirates lost all three.
Mike Squires
Prior to DiStefano the last southpaw to don the tools of ignorance was Mike Squires of the White Sox, who appeared behind the plate twice in 1980. The Sox dropped both games.
Tom Chism
Backing up a year, lefty Tom Chism took on plate duties for Baltimore. It was one of the rare games the American League champs dropped that year.
So if you’re keeping score at home, that’s a six-game losing streak, still active by the way, for left-handed catchers. But wait, there’s more.
Chris Short
In what might at first seem like a typo, All-Star pitcher Chris Short was Philadelphia skipper Gene Mauch’s starting catcher in a game against San Francisco in 1961.
What’s more, Short wasn’t the only pitcher penciled in out of position that day. The starting lineup, for strategic reasons, featured a record four pitchers.
By now, I probably don’t even have to tell you the Phillies lost the game, also finishing the season in last place for good measure.
Dale Long
Prior to Short, appropriately enough, the last left-handed catcher was Dale Long of the Chicago Cubs, who caught two games in 1958. Try not to be shocked, but the Cubs lost them both.
Unique among the catch-as-catch-can backstops profiled thus far, Long actually managed a baseball card at the position, courtesy of the 1955 Topps Double Headers set.
The card image was unusual enough as to warrant an explanation on the back.
They were thinking of making a catcher out of lefthanded Dale—thus this rare picture of him. He’s a top prospect for the Buc First Base job this year.
The “they” in question was not just any “they” but the Mahatma himself, Branch Rickey!
As was the case with Larry Haney fourteen years later, Long logged no actual innings as a left-handed backstop in 1955. Still, his Topps card showed him as one, which meant only one thing. The Bucs, like the Pilots in 1969, finished dead last.
Olaf Henriksen
Long’s appearances behind the plate were preceded by a drought of nearly half a century. Still, even back in 1911 the result was the same as ever. With left-hander Olaf Henriksen behind the dish against Chicago, the Red Sox lost the game.
Homer Hillebrand
Six years before Henriksen, Homer Hillebrand lived up to his name, just not by hitting any homers. (His career total was zero.) Rather, it was by setting up behind home plate for three home games in Pittsburgh in 1905. Naturally, the Bucs went 0 and 3.
Joe Wall
Where the losing streak finally hit a wall was, appropriately enough, with Joe Wall. While with Brooklyn, the lefty somehow caught five games in three days, squeezing in a train ride from Pittsburgh to Chicago in between.
Brooklyn took two of the games even as Wall himself was of little help. His line in the two wins: 0 for 9 with four strikeouts and an error behind the dish. Wall also caught two games for the New York Giants the year before. The Giants dropped both.
The Streaks
Before moving on to the next left-handed catcher, it’s worth appreciating the streaks that began with the second game of an August 24, 1902, Brooklyn-Chicago doubleheader and remains active to this day. The first concerns the players themselves.
The second concerns only the cards. True, streak may be a stretch for something that’s only happened twice, but here are the century’s two left-handed catcher cards, each reflecting (if not causing) a last place finish and one ending a franchise.
In truth, six other baseball cards from the “Curse Era” show a left-handed catcher, just not as the main subject. Topps used what many collectors might have presumed a generic left-handed backstop for the “Foul Ball” cards in its 1951 Red Backs and Blue Backs sets. (Some super-sleuthing by Eric White sourced the wrong-handed receiver, or at least its reverse, to an old photograph of Bill Dickey.)
As neither Bill Dickey, by then a coach for the Yankees, nor any of the six players on the cards finished last in 1951, the most natural explanation is that the curse only applies when the left-handed catcher is a card’s primary subject. Either that, or there is no curse, but that’s preposterous.
Century Wrap-Up
The greatest left-handed catcher of baseball’s Modern Era was undoubtedly John Augustine “Jiggs” Donahue, who caught 45 games behind the dish between 1900 and 1902. In contrast with the other backstops thus far profiled, catcher was Donahue’s primary position during these years.
A bit of trivia surrounding Donahue is that he is the last left-handed catcher to homer in a major league contest. Even crazier, he is also the last left-handed catcher to collect an extra base hit. (Benny DiStefano doubled on May 14, 1989, but the hit came before his ninth-inning move to catcher.)
As a final note, Donahue’s T206 card may appear to show him as a catcher, though such a thing should be impossible given that his White Sox didn’t finish last. Sure enough, the card image depicts him as a first baseman, the position he switched to full-time after 1902. The same will be true for this next lefty.
The only other left-handed catcher of the modern era was Fred Tenney, who caught two games behind the plate for the Boston Nationals in 1901. Though both games went eleven innings, Tenney wasn’t simply a late-inning replacement. He started and finished both games, going 0 for 10 and committing an error.
Unlike the other players profiled thus far, Tenney’s career crossed over into the nineteenth century and included at least one more game at catcher, though not as the starter. In Boston’s final game of the season, for reasons that are likely interesting, Tenney moved from first base to catcher only to be replaced at first base by the pitcher!
The GOAT
While Jiggs Donahue was the best left-handed catcher of the Modern Era, the greatest of any era was without a doubt Jack Clements. Over a 17-year career in which catcher was his primary position, the nineteenth century star batted .289 with power. Over a three-year span from 1894 to 1896, Clement averaged .374 with an OPS of 1.009!
As far as playing era baseball cards are concerned, only his ultra-rare 1887 Kalamazoo Bats shows him as a left-handed thrower. (He is bare-handed in all other fielding poses.) While Clements’ Philadelphia squad had a strong year in 1887, finishing second and winning more than 60% of its games, the same could not be said for the Kalamazoo Bats set. Much like the Seattle Pilots in 1969, the Kalamazoo Bats was one-and-done.
Modern collectors may recognize that the Kalamazoo Bats image of Clements is the same image used more than a century later for his 2011 TriStar Obak baseball card. Not surprisingly then, 2011 marked the end of the line for TriStar Obak.
The Verdict
Left-handed catchers have nearly always spelled doom, both on the field and on cardboard. Put one in the lineup, and you’ll almost certainly lose. Put one in a pack, and the team or entire set is doomed. So what hope does an upstart expansion team in the Pacific Northwest have when Topps botches its catcher card and turns the guy lefty? Could the Pilots have been anything but cellar dwellers? Then again, taking a look at that Seattle roster, last place may have been inevitable with or without a curse.
Author’s Note: If you enjoy reading about left-handed catchers, here’s a terrific article on the subject from Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com.
