An odd find in a dig of The Sporting News archives photos

It's been a busy day on The Buzz for headlines in the here and now of today -- you know, modern cardboard and sports business -stuff -- so I'll work from left field on this quick and simple vintage item with a story.

Call it a Buzz Buys (it is), call it afternoon/evening filler (yeah, it is), call it whatever you want depending on your collecting tastes ... I like to call this one interesting.

I recently found this old, semi-mangled print from the archives of The Sporting News from a dealer of other non-card materials and the simplicity of that clean pose got me to stop and look. Why? Well, a lot of photos just don't look like that from back then -- where, for example, you can see plenty of details on the fabric of Bill Connelly's Philadelphia Athletics jersey. (Yes, Philadelphia ... that's the Oakland A's two cities ago where they made plenty of MLB history from 1901 to 1954, winning five World Series and nine American League pennants.) This one just felt really different, though. That just felt like a superstar kind of pose, or at least somebody of note who needed a portrait taken by a major publication, and yet ... I didn't know his name.

Who's in the background? I dunno. When's it from? Based on what's scribbled on the back of this one -- a patchwork of handwriting from a few uses over the years -- I'm not that sure. So that's when I headed over to Baseball Reference to learn more and that's where this one got interesting to me. I learned plenty more.

Connelly made his MLB debut on Aug. 22, 1945, as a 20-year-old for the A's -- an inning pitched in a start against the Tigers ... two hits, three walks, three earned runs, no strikeouts and a big fat L in the stats to go with it from Tiger Stadium in Detroit. It looks like he gave up a two-run homer to Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg and that was basically that for that random Wednesday in MLB. His second game a couple weeks later at home at Shibe Park was much better -- seven innings pitched in relief with a win -- with five hits, one earned run and five walks ... but no strikeouts. Go figure.

The crazy part? This right-hander didn't pitch in another MLB game until five years later -- April 1950 -- and that year, with the Chicago White Sox, he had two early appearances and then two more in August after he moved to ... the Tigers. No wins, but he finally got himself a single strikeout in the record books. One. How about 1951? Nope, nothing in the majors. In 1952 he had a career year of sorts with a 5-0 record and 22 Ks in 31 innings pitched for the New York Giants ... but also 25 walks and an ERA of 4.55. The cool part there, though? All of that was from Aug. 21 forward -- 11 games, including appearances in a pair of games on his first day according to the archives.

That big finish got him his first official big-league baseball card -- a double-printed Rookie Card in 1953 Topps with two versions if you know the quirks of that set -- almost a decade after that Sporting News portrait. He's No. 126 right between Dick Williams, who did a few things in MLB, and Clint Courtney who played more than a decade. Meanwhile, this was Connelly's only baseball card made during his career and it got a reprint as part of the 1991 Topps Archives set. That's it for official stuff. Beyond those cards, he has a pair of appearances from TCMA and, from what I see out there, nothing else.

The rest of Connelly's career -- 13 seasons as a pro ball player in all -- was spent in the minors. He compiled a 76-90 record with his other totals a bit incomplete as they've been lost to time, but here's where "Wild Bill" and his story get interesting. That nickname? All about his walks ... but, no, he's not the model of Bull Durham's Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh -- that's this guy. Connelly's minor league register shows nothing for MiLB stats in 1945 ... that means his start against the Tigers apparently was his first game as a pro player? Yep, it sure looks like it -- no wonder he got smacked around by Greenberg and company, but apparently his manager, Connie Mack, was a believer.

I'm pretty sure that Connelly's name had never crossed my mind -- ever -- before stopping to look at an old photo that cost me about $6. Yep, that's it ... but The Sporting News just happened to be there at some point during his couple weeks with the A's in 1945. Perhaps it was because he debuted without any time in the minors? That's still kind of a big deal today ... but that mystery and that moment are now in my collection.

Along with every single one of his baseball cards.

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