Of my six remaining signed photos left, I would rank Charley Smith as the fifth most difficult more me to find.Several factors lead to this. First, he played in only two games with the Cubs at the very end of the 1969 season and then he retired. There weren't many opportunities for him to even be photographed as a Cubs. Luckily photographer George Brace ensured that every player who came to Wrigley Field got a shot of them saved for posterity. That's where this great shot came from. Charley also died in 1994 adding to the difficulty.
The only hope I hold out is that Charley was a popular player for the Yankees and signed often because of it. My only hope is that somewhere along the line someone tossed a Cubs picture in front of him alongside all of the other six teams he played for. In the meantime his place is marked in my collection with the unsigned 8x10 and a signed index card. I do have a signed black and white photo of Charley as a Yankee. But to paraphrase Charlie from Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer's Land Of Misfit Toys "Nobody wants a Charley in a Bronx"
6 comments:
I am interested in communicating with Mark Fricke about the 1969 cubs project. Please contact email: dvdcintron@yahoo.com
Thank you
His two games were in the beginning of the season not the end, he can be seen as one of the players greeting Willie Smith at home plate on opening day after his game winning homer, Charlie Smith was # 19
His two games were in the beginning of the season not the end, he can be seen as one of the players greeting Willie Smith at home plate on opening day after his game winning homer, Charlie Smith was # 19
You can tell by the photo you have posted he was with the team at the beginning of the year. If you look at the shoulder patch you'll see it's a 1968 Illinois Centennial patch.
Oh, by the way. Charley Smith is one half of the answer to a trivia question. That question? There are only two players to have ever played for both Chicago teams and both New York teams. Who are they?
Congratulations, you have a very impressive collection, go 1969 Chicago Cubs.
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