Card Corner Plus: 1975 Topps: The Aging of Chuck Dobson

A young Chuck Dobson was one of the better looking ballplayers of his era. As evidenced by his 1968 Topps card, he had chiseled facial features, complete with a “boy next door” aura, and a head full of thick, lustrous hair. But by 1975, when his last Topps card was released, complete with an airbrushed uniform and cap of the California Angels, Dobson was starting to show the inevitable signs of age. As we see here, his hair looks unkempt and out of place, his skin tone appears pale, and his face is beginning to exhibit a few lines. That’s nothing to be ashamed about; it happens to all of us. Does it ever.

In the case of Dobson, he may have done more than his fair share of aging given what he had to endure during an eventful major league career. Few pitchers have experienced more injury problems than Dobson, derailing a career that once seemed as promising as that of his more famous teammate, Jim “Catfish” Hunter. A relentless series of injuries prevented him from collecting a succession of World Series rings that instead went to his healthier teammates. He also became embroiled in one of the game’s first amphetamines scandals, long before the dawning of the so-called “Steroid Era.”

In the years since he played, Chuck Dobson has become the forgotten Dobson. Most fans who recall the era of the ’60s and ’70s remember Pat Dobson, who had a more substantial and lasting career. First, Pat Dobson became an important part of the bullpen that helped the Detroit Tigers win the world championship in 1968. By 1971, he was a prominent member of the Baltimore Orioles, one of four O’s to win 20 games in the same season. He later pitched effectively for the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians. With the Indians, he was teammates with a young Dennis Eckersley. Serving as something of a father figure to Eckersley, Dobson taught his younger teammate many of the catch phrases and slang words (like “walkoff piece”) that have made “The Eck” a pop culture icon.

Even after his pitching days, Pat Dobson remained prominent in the game, first as a pitching coach and then as a respected advance scout. He gained some notoriety a few years back when he cooperated with USA Today Baseball Weekly on a fascinating feature story about scouts, giving the magazine some refreshingly honest assessments of some ballplayers and their weaknesses. In perhaps his most scathing indictment, Dobson offered this assessment of Ruben Rivera’s chances of finding stardom with the San Diego Padres. “Slim and bleeping none. He can’t hit. He has no clue on a breaking ball. And he can’t hit a fastball.” Not surprisingly, the Padres were not amused. The story resulted in Dobson receiving a slap on the wrist from his employer, the San Francisco Giants, who chided him for allowing himself to be quoted with such brutal honesty, rather than offering a not-for-attribution quote.

A colorful character through and through, Pat Dobson left us too soon, a victim of leukemia in 2006. So what of Chuck Dobson, whose career has become forgotten by time? Chuck bears no relation to Pat. They were never teammates. They did not look alike; in fact they could be considered almost opposites in physical appearance. (The young Pat Dobson had darker features and bushy hair.) About all they had in common was the fact that they were both right-handed pitchers who had achieved some level of success.

Chuck Dobson’s athletic prowess should have made him a two-sport star at the University of Kansas, but a back injury forced him to give up football and concentrate on baseball. At 6-foot-4 and nearly 200 pounds, Dobson had the kind of body that was suitable to pitch or play the gridiron, but it was his right arm that drew the attention of several teams, including the Kansas City Athletics.

Whitey Herzog, working for the A’s as a scout, saw Dobson pitch at Kansas and came away impressed with the liveliness of his fastball and the rotation on his curveball. Herzog signed Dobson during the summer of 1965 and predicted the young right-hander, whom he regarded as a polished prospect, might make the major leagues by 1966.

Herzog turned out to be right. The A’s included Dobson on their Opening Day roster in 1966. He made 14 starts and posted a 4.06 ERA, a mediocre performance. Most troubling was a streak of wildness, which resulted in 50 walks in 83 innings. But that wasn’t the biggest concern. Dobson injured his shoulder in June, mandating a stint on the disabled list that lasted until September. When he returned, his arm felt fine, but manager Alvin Dark opted not to pitch him for the rest of the season.

After a winter of rest, Dobson showed improvement in 1967. Making 29 starts, he emerged as Kansas City’s No. 3 starter, behind Hunter and Jumbo Jim Nash. Dobson lowered his ERA to 3.69, split 20 decisions, and struck out 110 batters in 197 innings. At 23, Dobson was on his way.

In 1968, Dobson and the rest of the A’s moved with the franchise from Kansas City to Oakland. Enjoying the benefits of an expansive Oakland Coliseum, not to mention the conditions that created the “Year of the Pitcher,” Dobson lowered his ERA to an even 3.00 and logged 225 innings. With 168 strikeouts, he established himself as a power pitcher, but continued to struggle with his control, as evidenced by 80 walks. He also suffered a small fracture of his left ankle in his final scheduled start of the season. Dobson used the winter to recover, but the injury would affect the way that he landed on the mound after delivering his pitches.

That 1968 season also saw a bit of quiet history-making take place on the side. At the start of the year, Dobson had roomed with Jim Gosger, a reserve outfielder. On three occasions, Dobson slept late and missed the team bus, resulting in a succession of fines. He complained out loud that he needed a roommate who could wake him up. Reggie Jackson, who happened to be walking by at that moment, volunteered for the duty.

In becoming roommates, Dobson and Jackson broke a baseball tradition that had always paired players with teammates of the same skin color. Dobson and Jackson thus became the first regularly paired interracial roommates in the history of the major leagues.

Both Dobson and Jackson claimed that they were not attempting to make a civil rights statement. Instead, it was more a matter of convenience. “I’m not saying it’s any great thing,” Jackson told The Sporting News. “It’s not a civil rights thing. We get along. We converse.” Nonetheless, the teammates made history, and did so with complete approval from manager Bob Kennedy and owner Charlie Finley.

Meanwhile, Dobson took his place on the field as an Oakland mainstay. Over the next two seasons, he filled a role as a workhorse, accumulating a total of 502 innings and winning a combined 31 games. His ERA rose, as it did for most pitchers after baseball lowered the pitcher’s mound, but Dobson was clearly emerging as a solid mid-rotation starter and a budding part of an improving young team in Oakland.

After the 1970 season, though, Dobson made a stunning revelation. He told Bay Area reporters that he had pitched the entire summer with a sore elbow. In spite of the pain, caused by a calcium deposit, he hadn’t missed a single start.

In addition to toughness, Dobson was also establishing a reputation for being open and honest with the media. After the 1970 season, the USO invited him to visit American troops stationed in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Dobson, who had been deemed unfit for military service because of the condition of his back, readily accepted the offer. But he also made clear what he thought about the war. “I’m not really high on the war,” he told The Sporting News. “It was a terrible mistake to get involved in the first place. But when we got in, I don’t know what else we could do.”

Visiting Vietnam as part of a group that included Hall of Famer Bob Feller and his former A’s teammate Jim Nash, Dobson noticed a disturbing trend. “In some places, morale was bad, especially in Cam Rahn Bay. The camp was racially segregated. We walked in and there were blacks on one side and the whites on the other.” For Dobson, a player who had been only too willing to room with a black teammate, the idea of a segregated military camp was appalling.

Still, Dobson did his best to lift the spirits of soldiers, often talking with the troops till three or four in the morning. He noticed that the soldiers liked to do a lot of talking, so he reacted by giving them a large dose of listening.

Dobson’s visit to Vietnam drew some minor headlines, but the level of attention paled in comparison to a news story that developed during spring training. That’s when Dobson publicly admitted that he had used amphetamines, otherwise known as “greenies” or “pep pills.” Already known for being frank and talkative, Dobson had become a little too honest in a recent interview with Bay Area writer Ron Bergman. Dobson told Bergman that he had used amphetamines not just once but on several occasions during his career.

This was a relatively new topic in baseball. It was only one year earlier that the first public disclosures of greenies had been made in Jim Bouton’s book, Ball Four. While Bouton used humor in referencing greenies, Dobson spoke matter-of-factly about a subject that had previously been considered taboo.

“I don’t see anything wrong in it,” Dobson told Bergman. “A lot of guys use them, and I’ve used them.” As Dobson explained to Bergman, amphetamines helped players overcome problems with fatigue, enabling them to play with more energy when they otherwise might be inclined to sit out games and rest. “Sometimes it makes you feel like you have more stuff than you really do.”

Dobson’s declaration did not shock players, who already knew all about greenies and their effects. Yet, it did upset Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who was planning a drug abuse seminar in which he would warn all major league players about the importance of following both federal and state laws when it came to drug use. Although greenies were not considered illegal in the same way as a drug like cocaine, they were supposed to be obtained through prescription only. Any other usage constituted breaking the law.

When asked about the impending drug seminar, Dobson again pulled no punches. “If the commissioner says we can’t use them anymore, then the next time someone asks me whether I use them, I’ll say no, go around the corner and pop,” Dobson told The Sporting News. Once again, that was not what Kuhn or the rest of the baseball establishment wanted to hear.

The subject of greenies took on more urgency after the publication of the April issue of Baseball Digest, which quoted two team doctors. They expressed concern over the use of amphetamines and their potentially lethal effects. Dr. Joseph Finegold of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Dr. Jacob Suker of the Chicago Cubs both suggested that it was possible for a player to have a heart attack on the field after taking greenies. The doctors added that greenies could be especially damaging to older, overweight players who played only occasionally as backups.

By early March, Dobson was ready to amend his statement regarding the use of amphetamines. On March 9, Dobson issued the following public statement: “My recent statement in regard to taking a greenie was misunderstood and completely blown out of proportion. These are the facts: Yes, I did take a greenie last year prior to pitching a game after I’d had a bout with the flu. At that time, I was of the opinion it had been of help to me. Since it has been brought to my attention by medical authorities the harmful effects that greenies or any other drugs can have on an athlete, I want it known that I am strongly against anyone using drugs in any form.”

Shortly thereafter, Kuhn held a private meeting with Dobson to discuss his use of amphetamines. Kuhn accepted Dobson’s revised story that he had used amphetamines only once. The commissioner opted not to discipline Dobson in any way.

Unfortunately, Dobson would soon face other problems. Coming off an American League high 40 starts in 1970, Dobson started to see the effects of wear and tear on his arm. Bothered by a sore shoulder, he started the 1971 eason on the disabled list before finally being activated in May. When he returned, he pitched well, winning 10 of 11 decisions before cooling off. For the first time since 1967, Dobson failed to reach 200 innings. He made only 30 starts, an acceptable number in today’s game, but a figure that was well below Dobson’s threshold of recent years.

In finishing the regular season, Dobson felt pain in his right arm, knocking him out of what would have been his first appearance in the American League playoffs. “All the muscles around the elbow stiffened,” Dobson told The Sporting News. “The whole joint felt like it couldn’t function. It felt like there was no grease at all in there, just bone on bone.” An examination revealed a piece of bone protruding from his elbow. As a result, Dobson’s doctor prescribed surgery at the Mayo Clinic, where a surgeon removed the one-quarter inch of bone. The operation—“It was brutal,” in Dobson’s words—forced him to start the 1972 season on the disabled list.

The A’s hoped that Dobson would be able to return in midseason, but his recovery did not go well. The A’s asked him to start throwing only six weeks after the surgery, a decision they would come to regret. When he tried to warm up in the spring, he experienced immediate stiffness. Later assigned to Double-A Birmingham after he cleared waivers, Dobson pitched poorly in five appearances and then left the club, discouraged by the condition of his elbow. Clearly not ready to return to the major leagues, Dobson did not pitch in a single game for the A’s in 1972.

Dobson’s arm strength did not improve much in 1973. The A’s assigned Dobson to Triple-A Tucson, where he made 28 starts but posted an ERA above 5.00. His explosive fastball and crisp curveball had become things of the past. In spite of the poor performance, the A’s recalled him in September and gave him a late-season start against Minnesota. It did not go well. He lasted only two and a third innings, shelled for six hits and four runs (two earned). It would prove to be his last appearance in an Oakland uniform.

Even with signs pointing downward, the A’s decided to bring Dobson back for spring training in 1974. Alvin Dark, who had only recently replaced Dick Williams as manager, saw enough promise to want Dobson at Triple-A Tucson, where he could serve as pitching insurance for the A’s. But Finley thought otherwise. Not wanting to pay Dobson his full-season salary of $28,000, Finley ignored Dark’s request and released the veteran pitcher in late March, just before the start of the new season.

Dobson placed a call to the Padres, but they wouldn’t offer him a contract, so he settled for a job with the Mexico City Lions of the Mexican League. He pitched well enough to attract the California Angels, who purchased his contract later that summer and assigned him to Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League. A respectable performance in the PCL resulted in a call-up to California, and a reunion with Williams, his former manager in Oakland. Williams praised Dobson for his guts and his competiveness, but the veteran right-hander floundered, allowing 30 hits and 13 walks in 28 innings.

The Angels asked Dobson to return to the organization as a minor league pitcher and coach. He agreed to the arrangement, finishing out his pitching days at Salt Lake City in 1976. Now 32 years old, Dobson was done, his career cut short by arm problems in an era before Tommy John surgery had become successful and widespread.

By the time his 1975 Topps card hit the shelves of drug stories and candy shops, Dobson had already pitched his final major league game. His final Topps card shows us that players, as much as we think of them as superhuman because of their athletic abilities, do show the classic signs of aging, even in their early 30s. The game is not free of stress, as Chuck Dobson can tell us all too well.

References & Resources

• Bruce Markusen, A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s
• Chuck Dobson’s player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library
• The Sporting News