One and Done: 1958-1959

This is the tenth part of my running theme, unimaginatively dubbed 'One and Done'. Here, I focus on cards of Reds players who, whether it be their only year in the bigs or their only year with the club, found themselves on the Cincinnati roster for only one season, yet long enough to sneak onto a card donning the Cincinnati red. That was a very convoluted sentence that I am choosing not to edit.

Today we're looking at 1958-1959. These two years saw a massive 22 one-and-doners (12 and 10, respectively) in these two years, building up to their World Series appearance in 1961. I have a solid 12 of these in my collection.

Harvey "The Kitten" Haddix. 14 year career with 5 teams, 3x All Star, 3x Gold Glove, winning pitcher in Bill Mazeroski's walk-off World Series home run game, pitched 12 perfect innings in a game that would be lost in the 13th.

With the Reds: 1958, 184 IP in 29 games including 26 starts, 110 K's, 3.62 ERA, 8-7 record, Gold Glove.

Bill "Lefty" Wight. 12 year career with 8 teams, 2x league leader in HR/9.

With the Reds: 1958, 6.2 IP in 7 relief appearances, 5 K's, 4.05 ERA, 0-1 record.

Dee Fondy. 8 year career with 3 teams, Last player to bat at Ebbets Field, traded to the Reds for Ted Kluszewski, straight up.

With the Reds: 1958, 131 PA in 89 games, 1 HR, 11 RBI, .218 BA in his final major league year.

Steve Bilko. 10 year career with 6 teams, namesake of Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko.

With the Reds: 1958, 100 PA in 31 games, 4 HR, 17 RBI, .264 BA.

Eddie Miksis. 14 year career with 5 teams, debuted in the majors at 17.

With the Reds: 1958, 59 PA in 69 games (plus pinch-running duties), 4 RBI, .140 BA.

Chuck Coles. 1 year in the majores, with the Reds, 1959.

Career stat line: 13 PA in 5 games, 1 single, 1 double, 2 RBI, .182 BA.

Frank "The Big Donkey" Thomas. 16 year career with 7 teams, 3x All Star, SI Cover in 1958.

With the Reds: 1959, 412 PA in 108 games, 12 HR, 47 RBI, .225 BA.

John Powers. 6 year career with 4 teams, 298 minor league home runs.

With the Reds: 1959, 47 PA in 43 games, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .256 BA.

Bob Mabe. 3 year career with 3 teams. Totally not high.

With the Reds: 1959, 29.2 IP in 18 games including 1 start, 8 K's, 5.46 ERA, 4-2 record.

Buddy Gilbert. 1 year in the majors, with the Reds, 1959.

Career Stat line: 23 PA in 7 games, 2 HR, 2 RBI, .150 BA.

Del Ennis. 14 year career with 4 teams, 3x All Star, 1x league leader in RBI, 2nd to only Stan Musial in RBI during Ennis' prime years.

With the Reds: 1959, 14 PA in 5 games, 4 hits, 1 RBI, .333 BA.

Mike Cuellar. 15 year career with 5 teams. co-Cy Young Award winner with Denny McLain in 1969, 4x All Star, league leader in wins, starts, and complete games in 1970.

With the Reds: Debut year of 1959, 4 IP in 2 relief appearances, 5 K's, 0-0 record.
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Missing from the collection:

1958
Jim Fridley
Fred Hatfield
Lefty Hayden
Alex Kellner
Turk Lown
Danny Morejon

1959
Luis Arroyo
Jim Bailey
Jim Pendleton
Don Rudolph

Go Reds.