The Other Guy on the Card

1965 Topps Cleon Jones/Tom Parsons

Cleon Jones is best known for his 2 super crazy catches in the '69, but we're not here to talk about him. We're here to talk about Tom Parsons. Usually, it's not too bad finding info about the "other guys" so let's get started.

This is his Wikipedia page, in its entirety...

"Thomas Anthony Parsons (born September 13, 1939 in Lakeville, Connecticut) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1963) and New York Mets (1964–65)."


Shit. This might be harder than I thought.

He was signed by the Pirates in '57 as an amateur free agent and made his Major League debut in '63. Appearing in only 1 game with the Bucs he gave up 6 runs (4 earned) 2 walks, 2 K's and posted a 8.31 ERA. An auspicious start, but who cares.

He spent the next 2 years with the Mets, but this is where I get confused. In June of 1964, Parsons was traded from the Pirates to the Astros. But then, in September of 1964, he was sold to the Mets from... the Pirates. Huh? It was a simple 1 for 1 trade, but both players returned to their original teams. The only thing I could think of was that someone didn't pass the physical and the trade was voided.

Well, however that may have gone down he found his way to the Mets and in '64 found his way to his first big league win. Hurling in 4 games, starting 2, he went 1-2 with 10 K's and cut his previous ERA in half with a 4.19 mark.

'65 saw Parsons more opportunities, unfortunately not improved success. Posting 1-10 win/loss mark, he really had no chance. I mentioned on one of my very early posts that not a single Mets pitcher had a winning record in 1964. Well, '65 wasn't too much better. Three pitchers for the Mets had a winning record (we're talking like, 2-1 here) so there was improvement, but not much. Anyway, he appeared in 35 games, starting 11, complete with a shutout and a save. He reached his career high in K's (58) and ended the year with a 4.67 ERA.

After the '65 season, Parson was traded to the Astros, for real this time. He was dealt as the "player to be named later" after the Mets RECEIVED Jerry Grote. (get it? Received? He was a catcher?) 1965 also proved to be the last season for Parsons in the Major Leagues.

Final Verdict:
Obviously, Parsons career didn't pan out the way most people would envision theirs to. There's this one guy though, Willie McCovey, he struck him out a couple times. And another Willie Stargell, 0-3 against Parsons. There was this one time (this afternoon) when I was playing with Shea (the dog) throwing smoke (a tennis ball against a wall outside). It was a high pressure situation (around 100 degrees) and I reached back and painted the corner (missed by about 7 ft). So based on that, I'll give it to Parsons.

The "Other Guy"- 5
Joe- 0

(...Joe)