CURT FLOOD - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED BASEBALL CO-SIGNED BY: TONY OLIVA, BOB GIBSON, HECTOR TORRES, MIKE TORREZ, DICK "MULE" DIETZ, BILL VIRDON, LOU BROCK, BOB "WARRIOR" FRIEND, BROOKS ROBINSON, SMOKY BURGESS, ROY HOWELL, BOBBY THOMSON, FRANK BOLLING, ROBIN ROBERTS, RALPH GARR, JOHNNY "DOUBLE NO-HIT" VANDER MEER - HFSID 297447

CURT FLOOD, ROBIN ROBERTS, LOU BROCK, BOB GIBSON, BROOKS ROBINSON, BOBBY THOMSON, TONY OLIVA and OTHERS
Toronto Blue Jays baseball signed by 22 players active from the 1940s to the 1980s. Includes 4 members of the Hall of Fame (Roberts, Brock, Robinson and Gibson).
Baseball signed: "Hector Torres", "Curt Flood", "Mike Torrez", "Tony Olivia", "Johnny Vander Meer", "Lou Brock", "Bob Gibson", "Dick Dietz", "Robin Roberts", "Smoky Burgess", "Bobby Thomson", "Bob Friend", "Brooks Robinson", "Ralph Garr", "Roy Howell", "Bill Virdon", "Frank Bolling" and five unidentified signatures. HECTOR TORRES (born in 1945 in Mexico) was a slick fielding shortstop who spent a decade in the Major Leagues (1968-1977), mostly with the Houston Astros but also with the Cubs, Expos, Padres and Blue Jays. Despite his fine glove work, Torres' weak hitting relegated him to a backup utility role in his later seasons. CURT FLOOD (1938-1997), who roamed the St Louis Cardinals outfield from 1956 to 1969, was one of the best defensive center fieldersof all time, once playing 223 consecutive games without an error. A 3-time All-Star and 7-time Gold Glove winner, he played in all seven games of three World Series for the Cardinals. His challenge to the "reserve clause" was unsuccessful, by a 5-4 vote in the US Supreme Court, but helped pave the way to free agency five years later. MIKE TORREZ (b. 1946) won more than 15 games six seasons in a row (1974-79) for five different teams. The 6'5" Kansan first achieved consistency with the Expos in 1972, winning 16 games. In 1975 with Baltimore, he went 20-9 with a league-leading .690 winning percentage. He was sent to Oakland in the 1976 seven-player trade that brought Reggie Jackson to the Orioles. Torrez won 16 that year (including three straight shutouts) and 17 in 1977 for the A's and Yankees. He helped New York to a pennant with seven straight wins in July and August. He threw two complete-game victories in the '77 World Series against the Dodgers. TONY OLIVA (b. 1938), who played 15 seasons (1962-1976) with the Minnesota Twins, retired with 1,917 hits and a .304 career average. An 8-time All-Star, Oliva the only player to win batting titles in his first two seasons, and led the league in hits five times. Oliva was the 1964 American League Rookie of the Year. Arm and knee injuries hobbled Oliva in the latter half of his career, shortening what would probably have been a Hall of Fame career. JOHNNY VANDERMEER (1914-1997) threw back-to-back no-hitters for the Cincinnati Reds in 1938, the only Major Leaguer ever to accomplish this feat. He pitched an unequaled 21 consecutive hitless innings. A four-time All-Star, Vander Meer was a fastball/sinkerball pitcher who led the National League in strikeouts three consecutive years (1941-1943). Outfielder LOU BROCK (1939-2020) spent 20 years in the Majors, the last 16 with the St Louis Cardinals. (The transaction that sent him from the Chicago Cubs to the arch-rival Cardinals in 1964 makes most lists of all-time one-sided trades.) A 7-time All-Star, Brock was baseball's all-time leader in stolen bases from 1974 until1982, with 938. (He remains the all-time National League leader.) He set a major league record by stealing over 50 bases 12 times and a N.L. record with 118 steals in 1974. Brock led the N.L. in stolen bases 8 times. He collected 3,023 hits during his 19-year career and holds the World Series record with a .391 batting average in 21 post-season games for the Cardinals. Only 27 players in baseball history of reached 3,000 Major League hits. Brock entered the Hall of Fame in 1985. BOB GIBSON (1935-2020) holds the major league record for lowest single-season ERA of 1.12 in 1968, the year he was the National League's Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner. He also won the Cy Young Award in 1970. In his 17-year career, all with the St. Louis Cardinals, Gibson won 251 games including 56 shutouts. He was the first pitcher to strike out at least 200 batters in nine seasons and, in 1974, became the second pitcher in major league history to strike out at least 3,000 batters in a career (he joined Walter Johnson, who first notched 3,000 Ks way back in 1923!). Gibson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981, his first year of eligibility. DICK DIETZ (1941-2004) caught in the National League for eight seasons (1966-1973), mostly for the San Francisco Giants. His best season was 1970, when he hit .300 with 22 homers and 107 RBIs and homered in the ninth inning of the All-Star game. Dietz was involved in one of baseball's most controversial calls in 1968. With the bases loaded, Dietz was apparently hit by a pitch from Don Drysdale, which would have denied Drysdale a fifth straight shutout, tying a record set in 1904. The umpire ruled, however, that Dietz had not tried to get out of the way of the pitch. ROBIN ROBERTS (1926-2010) ranks as the winningest right hander in Phillies history. In his first full season, Roberts won 15 games. In 1950, he helped pitch the Phillies to their first pennant in 35 years, going 20-11. When he won his 20th on the final day of the season at Brooklyn, in a pennant-deciding, 10-inning game, he became the Phillies' first 20-game-winner since Grover Alexander in 1917. He was an All Star 1950-1956 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976. A 6-time All-Star, Forest "SMOKY" BURGESS (1927-1991) caught for six Major League teams (1949-1967). Always a fine hitter, the stocky Burgess became primarily a pinch hitter late in his career, accumulating the second highest total of career pinch hits (145) in Major League history. BOBBY THOMSON (1923-2010) hit what is perhaps the most famous home run in baseball history. His dramatic "shot heard 'round the world" on October 3, 1951, a three-run, ninth-inning homer off Brooklyn pitcher Ralph Branca, capped the Giants' historic comeback to win the NL pennant. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, the Staten Island Scot hit 24 or more homers six times in his seven full seasons with the Giants. Thomson had a comeback season for the Cubs in 1958, when he hit 21 homers and collected 82 RBI while batting .283. BOB FRIEND (1930-2019) played from 1951-1965 for the Pittsburgh Pirates before splitting the 1966 season with the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. In his 15 seasons with Pittsburgh, Friend pitched on five last-place teams and is the only pitcher to have lost more than 200 games (230) while winning fewer than 200 (197). He lost games two and six in the dramatic Yankee-Pirate World Series in 1960, but shares the NL record with two All-Star Game victories (1956, 1960) and tied Warren Spahn for the NL lead with 22 wins in 1958. BROOKS ROBINSON (b. 1939) played 23 seasons for the Orioles (1955-1977), setting major league career records for games, putouts, assists, chances, double plays and fielding percentage. A clutch hitter as well as the best defensive third sacker in the game's history, Robinson hit 268 career home runs, at one time an American League record for the position. Robinson earned the league's MVP Award in 1964 and the World Series MVP in 1970, when he hit .429 and made a variety of sparkling plays in the field. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983. Outfielder RALPH GARR (b. 1945) played 13 seasons for the Braves (1968-1975), White Sox (1976-1979) and Angels (1979-1980). In 1974, Garr led the National League in batting (.353), hits (214) and triples (17) and made the All-Star team. A free-swinging leadoff hitter who enlivened clubhouses with his antics, Garr was nicknamed "the Road Runner" for his base running skill, stealing over 25 bases four times. ROY HOWELL (b. 1953) was a Major League third baseman for 11 seasons (1974-1984), breaking in with the Texas Rangers and finishing his career with the Milwaukee Brewers. He played for the Blue Jays from 1978 to 1980 and was an All-Star in the first of those years. In 2011, he was named manager of the Road Warriors of the Atlantic League, a team that plays exclusively on the road. BILL VIRDON (1931-2021) played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1955-1956) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1956-1965, 1968). He was Rookie of the Year in 1955 when he hit 17 home runs with 68 RBIs (both career highs) and batted .281. Virdon managed the Pittsburgh Pirates (1972-1973), New York Yankees (1974-1975), Houston Astros (1975-1982) and Montreal Expos (1983-1984), winning the NL East in 1972 and the NL West in 1980 and 1981 (second half). He is the only modern manager of the New York Yankees never to win a game in Yankee Stadium; they played at Shea Stadium in 1974 and 1975 while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. FRANK BOLLING (1931-2020) played six seasons each with the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1954-1966). A fine defensive second baseman, Bolling won a Gold Glove in 1958 and was an All-Star in 1961 and 1962. When his brother Milt joined the Tigers in 1957, Frank became one of only four pairs of brothers to play middle infield together. (Since then, only Cal and Billy Ripken have done it.) Bolling hit a grand slam homer off Sandy Koufax in 1965. Overall, fine condition.