New York Yankees

Date of birth: December 22, 1953 Kokomo, IN

Date of death: November 22, 2010 (56)

High School: Kokomo High School, Kokomo, IN

Location: On the mound in mid delivery.

First Impression; With no regard as to who the player was, and in that time other than this photo I didn’t know this person existed, I probably thought this was a cool card because it was in action. It wasn’t a guy tousling his hair with a sheepish grin.

Career stats: Tom was more well traveled than his brother and had a career that lasted 11 seasons in all for the Phillies, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Yankees, Oakland and Orioles. Thats a new franchise about every other year. His best years were with Philly (28-20) and Oakland (22-15). His not so great years were with Toronto where he was 15-30. Overall he missed .550 by one ending at career record of 87-86.

All time stat: Was 5-7 in complete games in 1979, he won his last 3 CG to rally from a 2-7 start.

Fun fact: Not all of these are going to be prom king stories. The 1976 Phillies made it to the post season. The Reds beat the Phillies in the first two games, but the Phillies were holding onto a 6–4 lead when the Reds came to bat in the bottom of the ninth. George Foster and Johnny Bench led off the inning with back-to-back home runs to tie the game. Dave Concepción singled, bringing Underwood into the game. Underwood walked the first batter he faced, Cesar Geronimo; Ed Armbrister successfully bunted the runners over. Underwood intentionally walked Pete Rose to face Ken Griffey with the bases loaded. He singled to send the Reds to the 1976 World Series.*

Ever a Future Star?  He was a 1975 “Rookie Pitcher” on a 4 panel card (along with Dennis Leonard)

Rookie or final card? No.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? N/A

Links to stories including Tom Underwood.

*Wikipedia’s gentle assistance