Cardboard Gods: Celebrating Baseball Cards and Baseball History

A gifted athlete, Gary Geiger never
was able to stay healthy enough to
enjoy a potential productive major
league career.

Signed by the Cardinals out of high
school, Geiger took to the mound
posting a 30-16 record in three
seasons that saw the right-hander in
Triple-A by the age of 19. However,
with pitching aplenty in the St. Louis
farm system, Geiger took to the
outfield, where would find himself in
the big leagues with the Indians in
1958 by age 21 after being obtained
through the Rule V Draft.

Geiger would be traded prior to the
’59 season to the Red Sox where he
would man center field when healthy,
combining a little speed (57 stolen
bases) with some pop (71 home runs)
during seven seasons. Yet injuries
chipped away at his abilities and
playing time as Geiger would bounce
from the Red Sox to the Braves and
finally with the Astros where we find
him in a Braves uniform with a
airbrushed hat.

The lefty swinger doesn’t look happy
in his ’69 cardboard, but who can
blame Geiger as a once promising
career was slowing coming to a close.

Editor’s Note: Geiger would play in
2,970 big league games spread out
over 12 years, hitting .246 with 77
long balls. He did take the mound in
one game for the Indians during his
rookie season, allowing two runs on
two hits in two innings of work in a 7-4
loss to the Orioles on June 11, 1958.
He would strike out Baltimore second
baseman Billy Gardner and outfielder
Jim Busby along the way. And he did
not invent the "geiger counter" in case
you were wondering.

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