Backing Up the Truck: Ken Rudolph

Not even the backup catcher from the '69 Cubs was immune to the purge after the 1973 season.  Ken Rudolph played in a career high 64 games for the 1973 Cubs.  He was a decent defensive catcher but had a noodle for a bat.  He hit just .206 for the Cubs that season.

  

He was traded to the Giants during spring training, on March 19, 1974.  The Tribune article on the trade mentions that Rudolph was one of the last remaining '69 Cubs.  In return the Cubs got lefty Willie Prall, who spent the 1973 season in AA ball.  Prall's big league career would consist of just three games in 1975. Rudolph would play for another four years as a back-up catcher.

The Prall card is a homemade job.  His three game career netted him nothing on Topps cardboard.