1977 TCMA Spartanburg Phillies Baseball #5, Jarrell Whalley (Whaley)

Spartanburg (SC) played 16 seasons in the erstwhile Western Carolinas League, its only franchise to maintain an unchanged city and affiliation throughout (1963-1979). The league itself varied from 4-8 teams, fielding single-A talent for teams around the majors.

Richard Jarrell Whaley cut his pitching career short at age 19, possibly to pursue college or take up a non-sports profession. He also gave up 44 hits over 22 innings in 1977, so the Phils might've dropped Jarrell after failing to fool enough A-league batters.

TCMA sometimes printed the team schedule on one card per set. Three promotional highlights (click through for the full list):

May 21: "Mini-clinic," likely a throwing, fielding, and batting practice session for kids, run by team coaches. Do any teams still do this, at least in the low minors?

June 17: Bob Feller Night! It's been less than a year since the HOFer passed away and I was happy to find several classic Feller photos online.

July 1: Convenience store chain Mr. Zip got their own night as team co-sponsor and employer of many local residents. They built a corporate HQ in Spartanburg the following year. Can't find much on the web about them today, so Mr. Zip might've been absorbed into yet another chain and adopted its name.

This TCMA set includes 22 players, manager Mike Compton, and coach Tony Gonzalez.

1. Pablo Minier
2. Tom Brunswick
3. Marty Bystrom
4. Jim Nickerson
5. Jarrell Whalley [sic]
6. Wally Nunn
7. Henry Mack
8. Jim Lasek
9. Joe Jones
10. Nick Popovich
11. Ricky Burdette
12. Armand Abreu
13. Ronnie Mattson
14. Glenn Ballard
15. Tony Gonzalez CO
16. Brian Watts
17. Elijah Bonaparte
18. Jeff Kraus
19. Mike Compton MGR
20. Bob Roman
21. Ozzie Virgil
22. Barry Janney
23. Sam Welborn
24. Ken Berger

Value: Jarrell cost $2.50 at MinorLeagueSingles.com. Marty Bystrom and Ozzie Virgil made the bigs, but don't think they're well-known enough to command a premium.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace.