Who is the man: Mel Queen was back in the majors in 1970 after spending most of 1969 in the minors with the Reds. The Angels purchased him in late October, 1969.
Can ya dig it: A rare full-body nonaction shot from 1971. Nice.
Right on: I don't know what I did to deserve such a sharp specimen of a high-numbered 1971.
You see that cat Queen is a bad mother: Queen is one of those fascinating major leaguers who played in the big leagues as both a pitcher and a position player. He can be found on cards early in his career listed as an outfielder. But the best one is his 1967 Topps card in which his position is listed as "P-OF".
Shut your mouth: Queen later became a very well-known pitching coach, development coach and farm coordinator in the Blue Jays organization during their heyday in the 1990s. Queen is credited with developing several notable Jays, the last of which was Roy Halladay. "There's no one I made that drastic a change to and verbally abused the way I did Doc," Queen once said after Halladay won his first Cy Young Award in 2003.
No one understands him but his woman: Queen was married to the sister of pitcher Jim Lonborg.
(A word about the back): Queen's game-winning hit in the final game of the 1970 season came after the White Sox had gone ahead in the top of the 13th on a home run by Bill Melton. Queen was pinch-hitting for catcher Joe Azcue.
My childhood team, the Pirates, had a radio/tv broadcast team of Bob Prince and Nellie King; I had thought, why doesn't Mel Queen retire and join that group so we'd have King, Queen, and Prince in the booth.
ReplyDeleteThe whole position player/pitcher will be revisited this year by the signing of Ohtani. Interesting to see how it will turn out.
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