More "New" (But Old) Additions

Though I'm using this blog to spread information about sets and vintage cards, I'm still a collector. So from time to time I get to feature some "new" additions to my collection, such as these recent arrivals:

1965 Topps #399 -- Ray Herbert, Philadelphia Philles

For some reason, I've let many of the early 1960s Topps sets fall under the radar in my collection. It's not for any specific reason...In the long run, I'm more focused on 1950s material, while 1970s sets are more complete due to that being when I began collecting myself. However, those longer 1961-'65 wantlists make a tempting target for anybody who has the cards in their dupes boxes.

Ray Herbert had been playing in the majors since before Topps printed cards. He debuted in 1950 but missed a few years in the meantime: 1952 was spent in another uniform, as Uncle Sam drafted him during the Korean War, while he spent 1956 and '57 back in the minors before coming back up for the rest of his career. In 1965, he began with his fourth and final major league club (this is an airbrushed card which shows him as a member of the White Sox).

1965 Topps #455 -- Norm Siebern, Baltimore Orioles

Norm Siebern was even more well-traveled, appearing on six different major league teams in 12 years. Starting with the Yankees in the late 1950s, he was one of the players dealt to the A's for Roger Maris. He went to Baltimore before the 1964 season in a trade for Jim Gentile. His time there ended after the 1965 season, as he was dealt to California. After a year there, he went through short stints with San Francisco and Boston before retiring in 1968.

1965 Topps #503 -- Phil Gagliano, St. Louis Cardinals

1965 was the most productive year of Phil Gagliano's career, seeing him get into 122 games. He was a Memphis native (in fact, he and teammate Tim McCarver played together in high school) and earned two World Series rings before he was sent to the Cubs and them the Red Sox in 1970. He closed out his career with a stint with the Reds from 1973-74. Late in his career, Gagliano became a rather effective pinch-hitting specialist, hitting over .350 in that position for both of his last two teams.

1965 Topps #525 -- Eddie Bressoud, Boston Red Sox

Eddie Bressoud came up in 1956 with the New York Giants and moved with them to San Fancisco, In 1961, he went to the Red Sox and stayed there through 1965. Stints with the Mets in 1966 and the Cardinals the next year represented two very different levels of play, and he closed his career out with two games as a defensive replacement in the 1967 World Series. His name invited a nickname of "Steady Eddie" and his period as the regular shortstop for both the Giants and Red Sox might have invited the tag. He was a prototypical good field/no hit shortstop who never hit over .300 but usually hit over .250.  

There were also a couple of hits to the 1972 Topps set in the package. That set is special
to me since it's my birthyear set. However, the remaining cards I need are from the tough semi-hi series or the even tougher hi series. That makes every card added a real treat. So these two are awesome:

1972 Topps #651 -- John Strohmayer, Montreal Expos

Here's a player who's featured in my other blog (1973 Topps Photography) today. I really didn't plan that little bit of synergy, but will take any opportunity to give a plug to my other card-related pursuit.
There's not a lot of info about John Strohmayer, but here's an interesting bit: after retiring, he started a second career as an educator in California and spent 32 years shaping the minds of his students as a teacher, principal and superintendent. As he was set to retire, he and his co-workers hit the jackpot in the lottery. That's a pretty nice way to go out.

1972 Topps #751 -- Steve Carlton, Philadelphia Phillies

I was absolutlely floored when this one came out of the package. Not only is "Lefty" a Hall of Famer and one of the last significant cards needed in the set, 1972 was one of those "once in a lifetime" seasons that a select group of pitchers have. While winning 27 games was definitely a huge accomplishment, Carlton did it for a team that won only 59 for the entire year.

That was a really big hit to a set with fewer big "hits" left.

Another Practical Joke...

Today's card comes from the 1965 Topps set and shows a right-handed player posing as a left-handed batter. You can see that it's not a flipped negative, since his hat logo is correct:

Of course, Bob Uecker has become known as a wisecracker even among people who aren't baseball fans, thanks to a series of Miller Light commercials ("I must be in the front row") as well as a regular spot in the ABC-TV show Mr. Belvedere.

The same year this picture was taken, Uecker won his only World Series ring. He never got a chance to play in that Series, but that didn't stop him from getting noticed for his sense of humor. While shagging flies during a pre-game batting practice, Uecker noticed that a brass marching band was standing nearby. He grabbed a tuba and caught several balls with it.

Anyway, Uecker decided to pose for this card holding the bat incorrectly. As a backup catcher (and a lifetime .200 hitter), nobody noticed. However, the sly smile on his face lets on that he's up to no good.

Multi Multi-Player Rookie Cards

From 1962 through '82, Topps featured several multi-player rookie cards in its set. Sometimes the rookies were grouped by team or league, other times by position.  Sometimes, a rookie would take a little bit longer to develop and appeared on the "rookie" cards a couple of years in a row. For instance, Lou Piniella showed up on them in 1964, '68 and '69 (All with different teams). However, Piniella wasn't the record holder.

Meet Bill Davis.

1965 Topps #546

This late-series card came out near the end of the 1965 baseball season, which was when Davis got his first call to the bigs. He appeared at the plate ten times as a pinch-hitter and collected three hits. That .300 mark would be his best as a major league player.

1966 Topps #44

Unfortunately for Davis, the Indians already had a first baseman named Fred Whitfield, who -- though not a star-caliber player -- was performing solidly at that position for them, so Davis wasn't able to get a starting role. Rather than waste him as a part-timer, he was sent down to Portland where he could play regularly. Late in the season, he returned and won a game with a pinch homer.

Whitfield had struggled through injuries in '66, so Davis was in place to win a starting job for '67.

1967 Topps #253

Sadly, on January 21, 1967, Davis injured his Achilles tendon during a pick-up basketball game. He appeared in that year's Topps set, but sat on the DL for the season. That injury likely dropped him from the Indians' plans for the future.

1968 Topps #432

Davis did appear on a 1968 card as well (a more closely cropped version of his '67 picture). However, he spent the season in Portland. One short call-up as an emergency back-up on June 29th happened, but Davis never played in a game and was quickly sent back to the minors. When the rosters expanded in September, he never got called to the parent club. After the season, the Tribe traded him to the expansion Padres.

1969 Topps #304

As a member of an expansion team, Davis had the chance to prove himself. Originally slotted to platoon at first with Nate Colbert, he started slow and was soon relegated to pinch-hitting duty. That May, he was traded to St. Louis but never managed to play another big league game again.

After heading back down the minors, Davis was offered the chance to play in Japan but opted to keep his family stateside and went into the real estate business. Despite an overall .181 batting average, one home run and five RBIs in his career, Bill Davis is the all-time holder of the record for the most Topps multi-player rookie cards. He never appeared by himself on a card, though.

Recyling -- Topps Style

Last month, I showed how Topps used the same exact design for their football and hockey sets in 1966. There was no attempt to make a subtle change for the sake of collectors who pick up different types of cards so they could avoid getting Stan Mikita mixed up with Nick Buonticonti.

It turns out it wasn't the first time they did that.

That post I mentioned earlier got some feedback from a reader who goes by the handle 1967ers. Shortly after that post, he let me know about his blog, where he says he'll focus on hockey material. This post described the 1964-'65 Topps hockey set, which looked like this:

Card #3 -- Terry Harper, Montreal Canadiens

I immediately recognized the design because of another set:

Card #26 -- Wray Carlton, Buffalo Bills

(Image borrowed from the Virtual Card Collection)

It's the exact same design (and dimensions) Topps used for the 1965 football set. While the team name on the hockey cards are replaced by a city name, they still retain the curvature at the bottom. In addition, the corners are similarly rounded. While both of the cards shown above feature partial body shots and equipment, both sets feature an awful lot of head shots, which look really weird on such large-format cards.

There was a minor change to these cards. Here's the back of that hockey card:

Now look at the back of the football card:

A little more color was added to the cartoon on the back of the football card, a black bar was added to the area around the name, and the stats are in a different place. Oh yeah...the football card shows that it was made in the U.S.A. rather than in Canada. However, the formats are quite similar.

Player's Been Traded! The 1965 Topps Edition

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so here are some of the "turkeys" I have in my dupes box from 1965.

As I've written this blog, I've shared some of the cards that show the way kids in the 1950s and 60s dealt with things during the era of one card set per year. When a player was traded, or a new player arrived, those kids weren't about to let something like a monopoly baseball card company get in their way of having a complete team set. With a little American ingenuity and a ball point pen, anything was possible.

First, we have a guy who was traded:

Billy Cowan will be best known to baseball card collectors for the way he posed on his 1972 Topps card, with the halo of the old Angel sign over his head. However, before he posed for that card, he is shown here as a Cub. For whatever reason, he didn't get the "capless" treatment Topps usually gave players who had been traded. He actually began the 1965 season with the New York Mets (which aren't mentioned on this card)  and ended it with the Braves (who are). The card shows his updated status as he played for the Phillies (1967), Yankees (1969) and Angels (1969-'72).

As for Bob Tiefenauer, he would begin the '65 season in Milwaukee. Before the season was over, though, he'd be sent to both the Yankees and Indians. the Yankees are noted at the bottom of the card and the Tribe at the bottom of the pennant. He would finish his career in '68 with the Cubs, as indicated by the card.

Chris Cannizzaro actually lasted with his team the entire '65 season. Then, he was back in the minors for two years. In '68 he came back up with Pittsburgh, before becoming an original member of the San Diego Padres. While "Tigers" is shown on the card at the bottom of the pennant, Cannizzaro was with the organization during his minor league stint in '66-'67 but likely wasn't needed to back up Bill Freehan. He would go on to play with the Cubs in '71 and the Dodgers in '72, but those aren't reflected here. Looks like the kid had put away his collection sometime after 1969.

In the case where somebody came up to the majors before his card was printed, collectors needed to do something different. Here's an example:

George Culver began playing with the Reds in 1968. Jim O'Toole, on the other hand, was gone after '67. An easy adjustment.

Likewise, when a team trades away a veteran for a hot prospect, like the Reds did after the '67 season...it really helps if both players have the same first name. Bench didn't get his first card until '68 and didn't appear by himself on one until '69, but that wasn't a problem when this was a handy solution.

This last card, though, is a puzzler:

Bill Henry was with the Giants by the close of the '65 season, so I understand the idea of tossing him from the Reds' pile. However, Sandy Koufax was appearing in the Topps set on his own card. Since he appeared on card #300, perhaps it was necessary to "make" a Koufax card to play baseball card "games" with early in the season as a way of waiting until Sandy showed up in the gum packs. Aside from being left-handed and in the National League, there's not a lot of similarity between the two pitchers.

As I said earlier, all these cards are sitting in my dupes box. If you'd like one (even if you don't have anything to offer in trade), drop me a line.

More Foreign Flavor, Part 2

Keeping With the Japanese theme of this week's posts, here's another one of the "cards with character" that sits in my dupes box:

1964 Topps card #252, Ken Aspromonte

This would be the final Topps card for Ken Aspromonte until 1972, when he was the manager of the Cleveland Indians. After playing for the Cubs in 1963, he would play the 1964 season for the Chunichi Dragons.

The original owner of this card made the necessary notation that Aspromonte was no longer a Cub for 1964. He even misspelled "Japanese."

In my last post, I mentioned Hawaii-born Wally Yonamine as the first American-born player in the Japanese League (which is formally called Nippon Professional Baseball), when he went over there in 1951. However, as a player whose ancestry was Japanese, he was better accepted there than non-Asian Americans may have been that soon after the end of World War Two. By the end of the 1950s, a handful of foreign-born players -- known as gaijin, a term that is now sometimes considered disrespectful -- also made their way to Japan. At first, many were either Nisei (Americans of Japanese descent) or former Negro League players. In 1953, Leo Kiely would be the first former major league player there.

By the 1960s, enough American players had come over to force the NPB to limit the number of gaijin on any team to three. For many, the Japanese League was a way to keep playing after they could no longer make a big league club. Don Newcombe, Larry Doby and Aspromonte were among those players. Eventually, younger players would opt to go to Japan...and Japanese players would complete the circle. Though Japanese players weren't a constant presence in the majors for 30 years, the first would take the mound in 1964:

1965 Topps Card #282 -- Giants Rookie Stars

Masanori Murakami pitched for the Giants from 1964-'65 before returning to Japan, where he continued to pitch through 1982. His American playing days saw a contract dispute...not between him and the Giants, but between the Giants and his team in Japan that was so contentious commissioner Ford Frick had to settle it. In the end, Murakami went back, but not because of disputes or homesickness or anything having to do with America. He made a promise to the owner of his team in Japan that he would return, and it would not have been honorable to go back on his word.

Tipton Mint

There's a group out in cyberspace called Old Baseball Cards (OBC). I have been a member of that group since 2002 and have become well immersed over the years in the lingo used among members to describe cards. For example, 1970 Topps are called "Cool Greys," 1971 Topps are known as "Black Beauties" and 1972 Topps cards are called "Psychos." Likewise, "Woodies" are 1962 Topps cards and 1955 Bowman cards (which also have woodgrain borders) are called "TV sets." "Moof" is the distinctive musty smell of some old cardboard, and when an OBC member says something about "Dealer Scum" it's not an insult to card sellers but a method of explaining that they're selling a card rather than trading it.

Perhaps the most celebrated term is "Tipton" or "Tipton Mint." This is a tip of the hat to one of the earliest members of OBC Larry Tipton (still a member after nearly 20 years). Back in OBC's earlier days Larry made a name for himself for having some really worn-out cards and the term was coined.

Here's my own example of a Tipton from my collection. And this is a true Tipton, not because it fits the official OBC description...but because it was Larry himself who gave me this card:

Of course, there's a story behind this. Larry and I were attending a card show together and he found a Morgan RC at a really great price. Telling me that the Morgan he owned was one of the "really beat-up" cards in his collection, he thought about buying it. As he stood there deciding whether to take it, I was quietly holding the money in my pocket, ready to spring on it if he turned it down. Finally, he agreed to buy it. Later, I explained that I was ready to take the card if he didn't, so he just sent me his old one.

Whether you cringe at the sight of this card or not (and you may not, considering what some have said about Joe Morgan as an announcer lately), I think it's a keeper with a superb provenance.