no. 106 - tom dukes

Who is the man: Tom Dukes was the leading relief pitcher for the second-year Padres in 1970, saving a team-high 10 games.

Can ya dig it: This is one of the '71 cards I acquired as a teenager in a trade for some late '70s Yankees. You can see the card is a little more worn than some of the others featured on the blog.

Right on: Dukes has a squinty-eyed look here that I don't trust.

You see this cat Dukes is a bad mother: Dukes set a record by recording five strikeouts in a minor league game in 1964. The record has since been tied, but 5 Ks in an inning? That had to be one bad-ass inning.

Shut your mouth: Dukes once appeared in nine straight games, which tied a major league record. The record is now 13 straight.

No one understands him but his woman: On the day of the famed "longest night game," a 1-0, 24-inning affair between the Mets and Astros on April 15, 1967, Dukes was called up to the big club by Houston. He was told to report the next day, so Dukes, who was in Nashville, Tenn., at the time, decided to start the drive and at least get to Dallas for the night. But as he was listening to the game and it went into extra innings, he kept driving to Houston, figuring the team might need him. He was 50 miles away from the Astrodome when Norm Miller crossed the plate on a ball that rolled through the legs of shortstop Al Weis for the game's only run in the 24th inning. Dukes wasn't needed after all.

(A word about the back): I wonder if the word "ace" is in quotation marks because Dukes saved just 10 games, went 1-6 and had a 4.04 ERA? Nah, I guess that's just me being sarcastic.