NL Batting Leaders (#1, #3, #5)

A (long) while back, I posted the NL Pitching Leaders cards. Today we have the NL Batting Leaders. Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron each appear twice among these cards (backing up the voters’ choices in a recent poll).Roberto Clemente led the NL in bat…

Continue reading about NL Batting Leaders (#1, #3, #5) »

This Gary Sutherland’s first solo card. It’s also the first of his cards that I got (in 1968), since his rookie card was in the 1967 7th series (none of which I had until the mid 1980s).Sutherland was one of my favorite players on the 1967 Philadelphi…

Continue reading about Gary Sutherland (#98) »

For 6 straight seasons in the 1960s, the Cincinnati Reds had at least one of the 10 Topps All-Star Rookies:1963 – Pete Rose 2B, Tommy Harper OF1964 – Bill McCool P1965 – Tony Perez 1B1966 – Tommy Helms 3B1967 – Lee May 1B1968 – Johnny Bench C(What, no …

Continue reading about Lee May (#487) »

This is the only Topps baseball card for Bruce Von Hoff (#530). Like Ron Campbell in 1967, and Dave Watkins in 1970, his major-league career was over before his only card was issued.Bruce was signed by the Giants in 1964, and pitched in the minors for …

Continue reading about Final Card: Bruce Von Hoff »

This is the only Topps card for Dick Kenworthy. The back says that he was sent to the Mets in the off-season as the player to be named later in the Ken Boyer trade. Interesting. Baseball-Reference.com makes no mention of Kenworthy ever being sent to …

Continue reading about Final Card: Dick Kenworthy »

The 1960s’ Hall of Fame results are now on my 1960s Baseball blog.This is the 2nd and last Topps card for Senators’ pitcher Dick Lines (#291). His rookie card was in the 1967 set, a 1-player card showing Lines with the Senators.Lines’ career is somewha…

Continue reading about Final Card: Dick Lines »

This is the final card for Garry Roggenburk (#581). Garry was signed by the Twins in 1962 and was assigned to class-D Erie (PA) Sailors, where his teammates included future big-leaguers Jim Merritt, Joe Foy, and Ted Uhlaender. He started all 18 of his …

Continue reading about Final Card: Garry Roggenburk »

This is the 2nd of three Orioles Rookies cards in the 1968 set (#409). Topps also included three Orioles Rookies cards in the 1966 and 1967 set, whereas most teams got only one or two rookies cards. If you were an Orioles fan in the mid-1960s, you real…

Continue reading about Orioles Rookies – Frank Peters / Ron Stone »

Here is the final card for Mets’ 2nd baseman Jerry Buchek (#277). This was the first of three Buchek cards I acquired. Jerry’s 1967 card is in the high-numbered 7th series, so I didn’t get that until years later. By the time I jumped on the major-le…

Continue reading about Final card – Jerry Buchek »

This may or may not be the kickoff of a look at how Topps seeded their checklists in the 1960′s and early 70′s, in a manner I refer to as the Theory of Checklist Relativity.  Click that backlink if you haven’t been here for long to get a little mo…

Continue reading about Burlaps We’ll Meet Again »

Ok, we’re going to vote on who moves to the American League. Are there any suggestions? What? What? I can’t hear you. What? You’ll have to talk over the noise. Criminy, I just can’t hear anyone over the loud protesting by those damn fans. Can’t they…

Continue reading about The Genius that is Bud Selig »

John Boozer (#173) returns to the Topps set after missing out in 1967. John had a baseball card every year from 1963-69, except in the 1967 set. How ironic, since that was his only winning season (5-4).Boozer was signed by the Phillies in 1958, and spe…

Continue reading about Back on Topps’ Radar: John Boozer »

The 2nd Bubba for today is Wycliffe “Bubba” Morton, outfielder for the California Angels in the late 1960s.Morton was signed by the Tigers back in 1955, and spent 6 seasons in the minors before breaking in with the Tigers in April 1961. Bubba spent all…

Continue reading about Bubba Morton (#216) »

After a 5-year absence, Topps re-introduced All-Star cards in their 1968 set, featuring players selected as 1967 All-Stars by The Sporting News. These choices differed somewhat from the actual 1967 All-Star lineup (which was still voted on by the play…

Continue reading about All-Star Cards »

This is the second of four Joe Verbanic cards. Joe appeared on a Yankees Rookies card in 1967. He also had cards in ’68, ’69, and ’70, all with the Yankees, and all hatless (c’mon Topps!). This same photo below was also used for his 1969 card.Verbani…

Continue reading about Joe Verbanic (#29) »

Sammy Ellis had a 7-year career as a starting pitcher in the 1960s, mostly with the Reds. He was signed by Cincinnati in 1961, and although he appeared in 7 games for the Reds in 1962, he spent most of 1961-63 in the minors.In his rookie season of 1964…

Continue reading about Sammy Ellis (#453) »

Here are the rest of my 1969 baseball stamps (well, except for the Padres’ Larry Stahl, but he didn’t fit into one of the group rectangles!) I got all these in 1969, and they’ve been sitting in glassine envelopes ever since. I have no idea who I’m miss…

Continue reading about 1969 Baseball Stamps – All the Rest »

Ok, so these aren’t from 1968, but the photos were probably taken in 1968 (well, all but Don Lock. Apparently, Topps was unable to locate Don Lock after 1966!)I was just reading the latest post by Jim on his Phillies Room blog where he made a referenc…

Continue reading about 1969 Phillies Stamps »

Charles Andrew “Cap” Peterson had an 8-year career in the 1960s as an outfielder, primarily for the Giants and Senators (Topps’ two “green” teams, coincidently).Cap was signed by the Giants in 1960, and spent 4 seasons in their farm system, the first 3…

Continue reading about Cap Peterson (#188) »

I can still remember getting this card in 1968, and how I really liked it. Why? I wasn’t really a Bobby Wine fan. I think maybe it was the fact that the photo was so crisp, and because there were many hatless Phillies’ cards in 1he 1968 set, this one …

Continue reading about Bobby Wine (#396) »

Over the next few posts, I am going to be completing my series on players who retired in the late 1960s (specifically, those players who retired in 1968 or 1969, or whose last card was in 1968). This post was going to be about 8-year veteran Dick Rada…

Continue reading about Dick Tracewski (#488) »

Hooray! Tax season is over. I will now attempt to be more of a player here.Here is the final card for Indians’ pitcher Bob Allen (#176), who had a 5-year major-league career, all with the Indians. Allen was signed by Cleveland in 1956, and spent 5 ye…

Continue reading about Final Card – Bob Allen »

Today, I’m continuing to pick at the shortcomings my analysis of the 1968 set. As I posted earlier with the 1966 and 1967 sets, here is a list of some of the players who didn’t appear on a regular or rookie card in this set, along with the number of ga…

Continue reading about Who didn’t get a card, but shoulda… »

Yesterday, I revisited my earlier post about the lack of a Giants Rookies card.There were 25 cards for the Giants in 1968. However, in the 598 card set, the last Giant appears on card #545. This means that in the last 53 cards, there were no Giants. …

Continue reading about Distribution of teams within the 1968 set »

Jack Hamilton spent 8 years as a big-league pitcher, but unfortunately is most remembered for one grim event in 1967.Jack was signed by the Cardinals in 1957, and spent 4 seasons in the low minors before the Phillies selected him in the minor-league dr…

Continue reading about Jack Hamilton (#193) »

First, let me point out that the late-1960s cards of Don Lock are the most complete example of Topps’ photographical laziness that I have found. Lock was traded to the Phillies in November 1966. His 1967 card shows him in a hatless photo. Fine, no pr…

Continue reading about Don Lock (#59) »

Jim Ollom (#91) was signed by the Yankees in 1963. After one season in their organization, he was drafted by Minnesota, and spent the next 3 seasons as a starting pitcher in the Twins farm system, finally making his major-league debut in September 196…

Continue reading about Final Card: Jim Ollom »

Jerry Stephenson (#519) appeared on baseball cards in 1965 and 1966, but not in 1967. He returns to the Topps card set in 1968.Stephenson was signed by the Red Sox in 1961, and pitched 3 years (1962-64) as a starter in the minors before making the Red …

Continue reading about Back on Topps’ Radar: Jerry Stephenson »

Gary Kolb (#407) was primarily an outfielder, but also caught a dozen or so games (mostly late in his career). He first appeared on a Topps baseball card in 1964. After his 1965 card, he disappeared for 2 seasons before returning to the 1968 set, with …

Continue reading about Back on Topps’ Radar: Gary Kolb »

Here is the final card for Darrell Sutherland (#551). Darrell was signed by the Phillies in 1963, one year before they also signed his brother Gary. (This picture is 5 years old, as it shows him in a Phillies’ uniform from his days with the class-A Ba…

Continue reading about Final Card: Darrell Sutherland »

After reading about all the goings-on at Wrigley Wax Headquarters, I decided to offer up a little-known Cubs card.After first appearing in the 1964 set as a Dodger, Dick Calmus (#427) dropped off Topps’ radar for 3 years, but returned here for his fina…

Continue reading about Final Card: Dick Calmus »

Bob Kennedy was the first manager of the Oakland Athletics. In the A’s final season in Kansas City (1967), manager Alvin Dark was given the boot with 40 games remaining. He was replaced on an interim basis by Luke Appling, with Kennedy making a fresh …

Continue reading about Bob Kennedy (#183) »

Dave Duncan (#261) had his first baseball card in 1964 as half of an Athletics Rookie Stars card. He only played 25 games in 1964, then returned to the minors until resurfacing in 1967 for 34 games. Because of this, he was excluded from the 1965-67 se…

Continue reading about Back on Topps’ Radar: Dave Duncan »

Frank Quilici (#557) first appeared on a card in the 1966 set. After being left out of the 1967 set, he returns here, for the first of several consecutive seasons.Quilici was signed by the Twins in 1961. After 4 1/2 seasons in the minors, he made his…

Continue reading about Back on Topps Radar: Frank Quilici »

Continuing with the theme from yesterday’s post on my 1966 blog, here are the only 3 multi-player cards in the 1968 set. #530 Bird Belters – These 2 players appeared (along with manager Hank Bauer) on card #1 in the 1967 set, as members of the 1966 wor…

Continue reading about Multi-player Cards »