don hoak, i did not know you

i received this don hoak card in a trade about 30 years ago. there was a friend of mine who lived about a block over that collected cards, and i would trade with him often. one day he told me about a guy across the street from him who had some old cards. i very naively knocked on his door and asked his wife if he wanted to trade some cards. he was a giants fan, and claimed to be curious about what the current cards looked like, so he took some of my 1979 topps giants (darrell evans and johnnie lemaster, i am sure of, plus some more i would guess) for a 1955 bowman don hoak. by the way, that darrell evans card is the reverse of the 1979 topps steve garvey card, but that's for another post.

i did not know who don hoak was, just that he was a dodger at one point. probably around the time that television was really catching on. my dad didn't really know who don hoak was either, although he knew that he had also played for the pirates.

well, it turns out that hoak was a member of two world championship teams: the 1955 brooklyn dodgers and the 1960 pittsburgh pirates, both of whom beat the yankees in 7 games. hoak, in fact, was at 3rd base in 1955's game 7 when johnny podres shut out the yankees. he also made the last out in the bottom of the 8th in the 1960 game 7, setting the stage for bill mazeroski's leadoff walkoff home run in the bottom of the 9th. he even finished 2nd to teammate dick groat in the nl mvp voting that year, ahead of willie mays, ernie banks and another teammate named roberto clemente!

but maybe the coolest thing i have learned about don hoak is the story of his wife, jill corey. check it out.