'56 of the month: Al Aber

"It's amazing what you can find on the internet" is an often-repeated line that has some truth to it, especially for us folks who remember what it was like to spend not even a second of a day staring at a computer screen.

But as a card blogger who has conducted countless hours of research to the blogs I've written, it's also pretty frustrating how little you can find on the internet.

For as much as people like to talk up the wealth of information online, there is a shocking lack of it when it comes to some baseball players.

A few days ago, Don Larsen died. There is no shortage of information on Larsen. He pitched for the Yankees, he threw a perfect game in the World Series, he put together a long major league career. You can find bios and tributes and "look at all the cards I have of Don Larsen" everywhere online.

But let's go to another pitcher that can be found in the high numbers of the 1956 Topps set, in fact, just 25 cards away from No. 332 Don Larsen.

Al Aber's 1956 Topps card has the honor of being the last card I purchased in 2019. It was filched from my COMC cart just prior to making my Black Friday purchase, so I ordered up another one a few weeks later.

Once I received it, I could find almost no information on Aber online. At first.

I uncovered the very basics: his stats, a couple of game logs from appearances he made and his transactions. That's it.

I couldn't find any anecdotes, no colorful stories, no amazing feats, just a 24-25 career record and 4.18 ERA for six years of playing in the major leagues, mostly as a relief pitcher.

I attributed that to a couple of things. First, Aber never pitched for the Yankees. He spent his career mostly with the Tigers, as well as with the Indians and briefly with the Kansas City A's. Secondly, and probably most importantly, Aber died in 1993.

That means his death came long before fans and historians could connect with former major leaguers the way that they do now. He also passed away before memorabilia shows became big business. Today ex-big leaguers have plenty of ways to remain in the public eye, whether it's signing at a show or making appearances with ex-teammates at a team function or fantasy camps or signing through the mail or whatever. All of this is much more prevalent than it was in the early '90s.

Almost all of what I could find about Aber was already on his 1956 Topps baseball card.

Fortunately, baseball cards are online, too, and you can read the back of all of Aber's baseball cards at your favorite cardboard-showing site.

From those cards I found out a little more information:

Aber served in the Army in 1951 and 1952 after making his major league debut in 1950. That conflicts with what wikipedia says, it claims that Aber spent 1951 and 1952 in the minor leagues, which is not true.

Aber says his most memorable game was a 1-0, 16-inning loss to Jack Harshman and the White Sox in 1954. It happened on Aug. 13, 1954. Both Aber and Harshman pitched 15-plus innings. Both allowed nine hits. The White Sox won on Minnie Minoso's triple that scored Nellie Fox.

That information on the backs of his baseball cards inspired me to look around online a little more. I did find out that Aber gave up a home run to the Senators' Roy Sievers in 1957, which set what was then an American League record for consecutive games with a home run, which was six at the time.

Then -- the motherload -- I discovered a family remembrance on a PDF document.

It gives his family's entire history, how his parents emigrated from Transylvania in Romania, how his mom was just 16 when she was married, how he was the youngest of five children, how one sister died from measles before he was born, how one brother was killed in World War II by a Japanese suicide plane, how he worked as a Military Police officer in the Army, how he had four children, and how it appears that the first one, Michael, was named after his brother who died in the war.

It also says that when Aber pitched in the majors, his parents, John and Katharina went to as many games as they could and listened to the rest on the radio.

It mentions that Aber helped prevent Al Rosen from winning the Triple Crown on the final day of the 1953 season, although that's giving Aber a little more credit than he deserved. Aber did win the game, a 7-3 victory for the Tigers against the Indians, out-pitching Bob Feller. But Rosen, who went 3-for-5 in that game, could have won the Triple Crown if he had not missed first base on a ground ball to third in his final at-bat. Rosen appeared to beat the throw but admitted that the umpire was correct, he missed stepping on first.

Aber let his family know whether he won or lost a game by collect calls back home. If he lost, he would call collect and ask for his father, John. If he won, he'd call collect and ask for his sister, Marie. The collect calls weren't accepted by the family but they knew, by who Aber asked for, whether he won or lost.

So ...

It's amazing what you can find on the internet.

And on baseball cards.

P.S.: I completed another page!