April 1

1958 Topps #453 - Tom Qualters

On this day in 1935, pitcher Tom Qualters was born.

Despite not being purchased by the Chicago White Sox until April 30, 1958, from the Philadelphia Phillies, Tom managed to appear on a 1958 card wearing a White Sox uniform. Qualters was nicknamed "money bags" due to his status as a bonus baby in Philadelphia. The Phillies had to keep Tom on their roster for two seasons right after signing him. The Phillies signed Qualters on June 16, 1953. In the first two years that he was on the Philadelphia roster, Tom slipped into one game, on September 13, 1958 against the Cardinals in St. Louis. The Steve Bilko homered. Peanuts Lowrey walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Rip Repulski was hit by a pitch and Havey Haddix singled to load the bases. Solly Hemus singled and scored Lowrey. Red Schoendienst forced Hemus for the first out of the inning, scoring Repulski. Eddie Phillips pinch ran for Schoendienst. Stan Musial doubled scoring Haddix. Then Ted Kazanski made an error which scored Phillips. After all that, Qualters was finally lifted from his first MLB game, being replaced by Jim Konstanty. Tom didn't get into another game for the Phillies until 1957.

While Qualters spent parts of three years getting into games for the Phillies, he only appeared in eight games. Tom only spent part of one season with the Pale Hose and got into twenty-six games, mostly as a mop up pitcher. His numbers in Chicago were much better than in Philadelphia, but that couldn't secure him a roster spot on the 1959 team. He spent 1959 and part of 1960 in the White Sox minor league system before finally hanging it up in 1962. Tom's last MLB game was on September 25, 1958 with the White Sox against the Detroit Tigers in the ninth inning of a 7-1 loss. Qualters gave up a home run to Gail Harris, the first man he faced in that last inning. If Red Wilson didn't hit into a line drive double play, Tom's next batter would've been Coot Veal.



White Sox April 1st birthdays:

1912 - Jake Wade
1935 - Tom Qualters
1941 - Dick Kenworthy
1943 - Mike DeGerick
1956 - Mark Esser