Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Cards That Never Were #35

1975 Topps - Barry Lersch

Barry was denied a card representing his short time with the Cardinals. Lersch is probably best remembered for his time with the Phillies, a team he spent all but one game with in the majors.

At the end of the 1973 season, Barry was part of a trade that sent him to the Braves and sent Ron Schueler to Philadelphia. He had a Topps Traded card in 1974, listing him on the Braves, a team he would never play for in the majors. When the Braves traded for Lersch, they thought they were getting left-hander Randy Lerch.

After toiling in the Braves minor league system for a few months, Barry was traded to the Cardinals, where he pitched 1.1 innings on September 21, 1974. He entered the game in St. Louis with the Cubs up 7-0 in the top of the sixth. Barry would give up five runs in the sixth to make it a twelve run deficit for the Cardinals.

Barry was back out for the seventh inning. He faced four Chicago batters, gave up one more run and recorded and out before he was pulled in favor of Sonny Siebert. Lersch left with a 40.50 ERA and never played in the majors again.

2 comments:

Johngy said...

Great card. Any idea as to who is the other Cardinal behind him?

Steve Gierman said...

If I'm not mistaken, that should be left-handed pitcher Claude Osteen (number 34 with the Cardinals in 1974).

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