The surname Blaylock is not a common one by most standards. Derived from the Anglo-Saxon and meaning one with dark hair ("black lock"), its frequency among the general U.S. population and among baseball players is consistently around one one-hundredth of one percent. Unless you know a whole family of Blaylocks, knowing one or two is the most any of us will do in a lifetime.

   Surprisingly, minor league baseball fans of forty and fifty years ago knew of one, two, or even three. And, despite the fact that all in question came from the Southern half of our country, they were apparently unrelated.

   Their time in the majors was brief, and their minor league careers were only moderately successful, but the fact that there were enough of them to draw our attention makes them worth a second look.

   In addition to the three Blaylocks we will look at in this account, there were others. Arnold played briefly with Beckley in 1938; Jack was a catcher during the late 1940's and even spent a season with the Dodgers as their bullpen catcher; Bill was a pitcher in 1950; Jim hit .354 in the Mountain States League in 1951 and was never heard from again; Russ spent a couple of years in the Gulf Coast League; and Gary, Jr., was a first baseman in the mid-1970's for a number of teams.

   But the best of the Blaylocks - Marv, Gary, and Bob - frequented box scores from 1947 to 1966 and, from 1953 to 1959, they all played at the same time and occasionally in the same place.

   The first and most successful was Marv, a left-handed first baseman and outfielder. His twelve-year career included two stints in the majors - a pinch-hitting appearance with Giants in 1950 and a stint of two-seasons-plus-change with the Phillies in the mid-1950's. Altogether, his major league record shows a .237 batting average, fifteen home runs, and 78 RBI. A high rate of strikeouts and the presence of the more promising prospects made Marv a temporary answer to a permanent question, and most of his career was spent in the minors.

   A native of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Marv attended Fort Smith Junior College briefly before turning pro in at seventeen. A quick climb up the Giants' organization resulted in his one-game appearance in 1950, and in 1953 he was traded to the Phillies for shortstop Claude Corbitt. A successful season with Syracuse in 1954 (.303, 22-76), gave him his longer shot at major league status. When that ended early in the 1957 season he was sent to the Phillies' International League affiliate in Miami. A .300-season at Nashville in 1959 ended Marv's career. Following his baseball days, Marv was a salesman in the music business in the Little Rock area, and he died in Conway, AR, in 1993.

   The second member of the trio, Gary Nelson Blaylock, was a hard-throwing, hard-swinging right-handed pitcher who split his career between the Cardinals' and Yankees' organizations. Born in 1931 in the Missouri Boot Heel town of Clarkton, Gary signed with Cardinals at eighteen. Before his twentieth birthday he had led the Appalachian League with 248 strikeouts and twenty-three wins. His rise through the organization continued as he improved his control, and a temporary peak was reached as he spent the 1953-1958 seasons with the Cardinals' various AAA teams in Columbus, Rochester, and Omaha.

   Finally, the majors beckoned as he turned twenty-eight and the 1959 season was split between St. Louis and the Yankees. For the season, a 4-6 record resulted along with an ERA of 4.80, and life as a big-league player was over. After three more seasons at AAA with the Yankees' Richmond team, Gary returned to the lower minors in part-time coach and part-time player roles, and he eventually hung up his glove and became a minor league manager. Later he worked as a major league pitching coach with the Royals.

   Gary Blaylock was, in the end, a good triple-A pitcher who was denied major league talent by an eyelash. As a pitcher, his minor league record was 128-111, with a 3.72 ERA. As a hitter, his sub-.200 batting average was enhanced by fourteen minor league home runs and two more in the majors. Those who watched him play remember a hard-throwing, red-faced pitcher and an occasional long-ball hitter who gave his best every game.

   The most talented, and perhaps the most enigmatic, of this group was Robert Edward Blaylock. Born on June 28, 1935, in Chattanooga, Bob's professional career lasted for nine seasons, including two partial seasons in the majors.

   Like Marv and Gary, Bob signed a professional contract during his late teens. Like Gary, he was a hard-throwing right-hander who found control difficult to achieve in his early seasons. Additional similarities made differentiating Bob and Gary difficult for anyone but the most knowledgeable fan. Between 1953 and 1959 they both belonged to the Cardinal organization, and in 1956, 1957, and 1958 they were teammates in Rochester.

   Bob's career escalated more rapidly than Gary's, and stardom beckoned midway through the 1956 season as he led Rochester's Red Wings with a 9-4 record and 1.67 ERA after fifteen starts. A major shuffle occurred as Cardinal G.M. Frank Lane sensed a pennant in his future and gambled for it by trading Red Scheondienst and three others to the Giants in exchange for four players, including shortstop Alvin Dark. At the same time, it was decided that the twenty-year old Blaylock was ready for not only major league baseball but a start against the mighty Dodgers. The start, the trade, and the season fell apart as the Dodgers mauled Blaylock and the Cardinals' threat quickly faded into a fourth place finish. Blaylock never recovered from his first game and ended the season with a 1-6 record and a 6.37 ERA.

   Returning to Rochester for recovery in 1957, Bob's success was only occasional and his brief three-game return to St. Louis in 1959 was unremarkable. Three more minor league seasons saw him descend from Triple-A to Double-A in the typical fashion of a player who has lost either skills or confidence or both. In the end, Bob Blaylock retired before his twenty-eighth birthday with a record of one major league victory and seventy-six more in the minors.

   For the three Blaylocks, early promises of stardom were denied as the hope for Hall of Fame plaques, all-star recognition, and record-setting performances were beyond the realm of reality. They were minor leaguers who had only a few moments in the spotlight. On the whole, though, they were the kind of guys minor league fans like to remember fifty years after their time.