Final Card: Fred Klages

Here is the final card for White Sox' pitcher Fred Klages (#229). He also appeared on a White Sox Rookie Stars card in the 1967 set.

Klages is from the sports hotbed of southwestern Pennsylvania, specifically Ambridge in Beaver County*, which is also the hometown of 1960s Detroit Lions middle linebacker Mike Lucci.

Fred was signed by the White Sox in 1962, and was a starting pitcher in their minor-league system for 8 seasons (1962-69), the last four in triple-A.

His brief major-league career started in September 1966, when he made 3 starts. In 1967, he made one start on June 14th, then another 10 appearances (mostly starts) from July 31st to the end of the season. His last major-league game came on September 11th - the one-year anniversary of his debut.

After 2 more seasons with the Sox' triple-A team, he played part of the 1969 season in the Mexican League.


* After clicking on the "Ambridge" link above, you can navigate to other sports stars from Beaver County, PA, including Joe Namath, Babe Parilli, Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Po James, Tito and Terry Francona, Doc Medich, Hal Woodeshick, Joe Verbanic, Pete Maravich, and Norm Van Lier.

Final Card: Eddie Stanky

This is Eddie Stanky's last card (#564). 1968 would be the last year in a 3-year gig as the Sox' manager.

Stanky was born in Philadelphia in 1915 (and became known as "The Brat from Kensington", later shortened to "The Brat"). Eddie played minor-league baseball from 1935-1942, and made his big-league debut in 1943 as the Cubs' regular 2nd baseman. He split the 1944 season between the Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers, then held down the starting 2nd base job for the Dodgers (1945-47), Boston Braves (1948-49), and New York Giants (1950-51).  In 1945 he led the National League in runs and walks.

After the '51 season, he was traded to the Cardinals, spending 2 seasons there as a player-manager before becoming the full-time manager in 1954 and 1955.

After leaving the Cards' manager post in 1955, he spent one season managing the Giants' AAA team in Minneapolis in 1956, then spent several years in a player-development role for the Cardinals. He resurfaced in 1965 as a minor-league manager for the Mets.

Stanky was hired by the White Sox before the 1966 season, and remained there until his firing after 79 games in 1968. The team finished in 4th place in his first 2 seasons, and were in 8th place (18 1/2 games back) at the time of his firing.  They should have kept him, as the team finished the season 36 games behind the Tigers.

After his firing, he coached college baseball in Alabama, then made a 1-game interim manager appearance for the Texas Rangers in 1977.

Final Card: Dick Kenworthy

This is the only Topps card for Dick Kenworthy. The back says that he was sent to the Mets in the off-season as the player to be named later in the Ken Boyer trade. Interesting. Baseball-Reference.com makes no mention of Kenworthy ever being sent to the Mets. In fact, it says the White Sox sent J. C. Martin to the Mets on 11/27/67 to complete the trade. Since this is card #63, it must have been printed sometime in late 1967, so maybe Topps was acting on some preliminary scuttlebutt regarding Kenworthy.



Kenworthy was signed by the White Sox in 1961, and played in their minor-league system for 10 seasons, before moving over to the Reds' farm system for 1971 and 1972. He was a 2nd baseman for his first two seasons before switching to 3rd base for the balance of his career.

Dick's major-league experience consisted of a few cups of coffee from 1962 to 1966. Then in 1967 and 1968, he played over 50 games each season with the White Sox, about half of them as the starting 3rd baseman.

Since he played for the White Sox in both '67 and '68, it looks like Baseball-Reference.com is right and Topps was wrong. Maybe a White Sox fan can clarify this.

Walt Williams (#172)

From the previous post, we move across Chicago to the White Sox and Walt "No Neck" Williams. This is the 2nd year in a row that a White Sox' outfielder was named to the Topps All-Rookie team. (Tommie Agee was named the previous year. I wonder if it was Williams' fine play that enabled the Sox to move Agee to the Mets after the 1967 season?)

In 1966, 1968, and 1969, Topps used the same color-coding for each team's cards. Each color was used for one AL and one NL team. Coincidently, both the White Sox and Cubs were orange.


Williams was signed by the Houston Colt .45s in 1963. After one season in their farm system, he was picked up by the Cardinals and played 3 seasons with their minor-league teams, until he was traded to the White Sox in December 1966 (along with pitcher Don Dennis) for catcher Johnny Romano.



Walt spent the next 6 years in the White Sox' outfield (although he was in the minors for a good part of the 1968 season). He was a backup in the corner outfield spots as a rookie, but after returning to full-time status in 1969, he became the regular right fielder.

In 1970, Walt shared the right field job with Bill Melton. (Melton had been the regular 3rd baseman before and after 1970, but divided his time between 3rd and left in 1970.)

The following year, it was Pat Kelly who kept Williams from playing full-time in right field, as they shared the position evenly. In 1972, Kelly's playing time in right field increased to about two-thirds, while Walt's decreased further.

After one season as the Indians' backup left fielder, Walt was traded to the Yankees prior to the 1974 season. Williams spent his final 2 seasons with the Yankees, but rarely played the outfield.