Wednesday, December 5, 2012

1980 TCMA Clinton Giants Baseball, #5, Jerry Stovall (Stoval)

In 1980, Clinton (Iowa) kicked off their new SF Giants affiliation with this set of black-and-white cards familiar in design to those who've seen other TCMA entries. A tip of the hat to their photographer for creating one unforgettable, slack-jawed image.


I tried to find any other photo of Jerry in a uniform for comparison, since this is about as awkward as awkward gets, but Google turned up nothing. If you know of something, drop a line and I'll post it here.


Not sure if Jerry's switch-hitting gave him an edge, since pitchers can swing an empty stick if they throw well enough. I do know that 3 such multi-talented hurlers made it to Cooperstown, 2 of whom appeared on #5s.

1970 Sports Cards For Collectors Old-Timers Postcards, Early Wynn

1976 Motorola, Three Fingers Brown

(Robin Roberts was the third HOFer to hit from both sides, but without a known #5.)

TCMA printed 27 cards for Clinton, including future slugger Rob Deer and All-Star pitcher Scott Garrelts.
  1. Dave Wilhelmi
  2. Dennis Rathjen
  3. Jose Chue
  4. Ramon Bautista
  5. Jerry Stovall
  6. Chris Goodchild
  7. Ron Matrisciano
  8. Ken Schwab
  9. Tim Hagemann
  10. Scott Garrelts
  11. Art Maese
  12. Kevin Johnson
  13. David Fonseca
  14. Randy Kutcher
  15. Tim Painton
  16. Chris Brown
  17. Frank Thon
  18. Rafael Estepan
  19. Glen Moon
  20. Rob Deer
  21. Ron Perodin
  22. Stan Morton
  23. Richard Figueroa
  24. Bob Cummings
  25. Gilbert Albright
  26. Wayne Cato, Manager
  27. Yommy Jones

Trivia: Rob Deer's first season (1984) included 3 RBIs, all from his own homers. That's tied for most single-season RBIs by a batter who only knocked himself in, a "feat" accomplished by 7 guys all-time. (Most recently, J.R. House turned the trick over 19 games of work for Baltimore in 2007.)

UPDATE: Thanks to Jon Dunkle for scouring eBay and finding these shots of Jerry as a Clinton Giant and his dad as a running back. The open-mouth thing looks to be a Stovall trait.



Value: This #5 cost $2 at MinorLeagueSingles.com. Team sets with Rob Deer run a little above average at $20 and up.

Fakes / reprints: TCMA reprinted some of their team sets for "collectors kits" in the 1980s. Those cards have backs with black ink. Originals (as above) have blue.

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