1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #461 Mickey Mantle

Today we close out our year long look at the 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Subset.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #461 Mickey Mantle

This may be our last column on the subset but it is the first card from the series and it is dedicated to one of the greatest players of the era or any era, Mickey Mantle.

While some of the 1959 BT subset cards honor events that date back several seasons, the Mantle reflects directly back to 1958. For the 3rd time in four years Mantle led the AL in Home Runs. The Card back goes into some detail on Mantles 1950s HR titles.

Mantle's 42nd Homer alluded to on the card was hit off of Tom Brewer, a Right-Handed Pitcher.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #461 Mickey Mantle (b-side)

In 1958 the Mick was challenged by Rocky Colavito who we profiled in an earlier BT column.  With a week remaining in the Season Mantle was leading the Home Run Race 41-38. Colavito hit knocked out three dingers in his final four games but it wasn't enough as Mantle had already hit #42 on September 24th

The 1959 Baseball Thrills Card represents a Home Run that Mantle hit off of Tom Brewer, a Right Handed Pitcher. According to baseball-ref, every AB Mantle took versus righties in 1958, was as a Left Handed Batter. Therefore the image depicted here cannot be the AB upon wihch Mantle hit Homer #42.

That as far as I took my research before once again checking with the 1959 Topps blog. CommishBob found that the photo the card pix was from the 1958 World Series.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills
I hope you enjoyed our first Subset Series. We have another fun subset scheduedl for 2015, that series will commence soon.

Sources & Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills
1959 Topps one f/g card at a time
baseball-ref

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #468 Duke Snider

We return to our 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills series in the hopes of finishing the set prior to the start of the 2015 season. Today we look at Dodgers Hall of Fame Center Fielder Duke Snider.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #468 Duke Snider

Duke Snider never won an MVP award but he led the NL in Offensive WAR three times, Position Player WAR twice, and Overall WAR once. He was a member of Dodgers clubs that won World Series in both Brooklyn (1955) and LA (1959). The eight time all-star was an early member of the 400 HR club, but had to wait until his 10th ballot to get into the Hall of Fame (1980).

Snider's career WAR numbers are consistent with Hall of Fame Center Fielders. The Hall has inducted 18 players at the position and Snider is top 10 in WAR, WAR7 and JAWS - of course Kenny Lofton is top 12 in those 3 categories and he has been scratched from the ballot.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #468 Duke Snider (b-side)

The 1959T Baseball Thrills card that features Snider is one of 3 fielding cards in the set and the reverse of the card documents Snider's defensive prowess. Unfortunately the numbers don't share that opinion. dWAR is even at best for Snider, and was a negative for his career. The conventional stats like putouts showed Snider hovered around 5th place in an 8 team league.


Sources and Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Index
Baseball-ref

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #462 Rocky Colavito

Knocking out another one of the 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills tonight.

1959 Topps #462 Rocky Colavito

Despite Colavito's status as a loved Hall of Very Good player, this is one of the weaker cards in the Baseball Thrills subset. While the pix on the front does demonstrate some action especially with the young fan going for the ball, overall I find it a somewhat dull. Beyond my issues with the photo on the front the flip side goes into a lot of detail regarding the catch while giving it absolutely no frame of reference.

1959 Topps #462 Rocky Colavito (b-side)

All we find out is that the game was versus the Yankees and the go ahead run was on base. No mention of the pitcher or batter involved nor is the date or park cited.

I did some minor research on the photo in an effort to figure out what game this is from on my own. I came up empty. fortunately CommishBob had gone through some diligent effort which is summarized in this post. The game is from May 10 1956, The play occurred in the 6th inning, on a ball hit by Gil McDougald. Turns out that the game account on the card is almost a total fabrication. At the time of the AB, the game wasn't really close (4-0 Indians),  the bases were clear, and Lemon certainly wasn't tiring - He threw complete game.

1956 Rookie of the Year
The card captures Colavito during his rookie campaign. He finished 2nd in the 1956 RoY voting behind future Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio. Not sure what the voters were thinking here - Colavito batted 10 points higher than Aparicio and also won the Home Run Battle 21-3. Aparicio had a similar edge in stolen bases 21-0.

The big factors likely were Aparicio played a full season while Colavito played only 101 games, and the fielding postion edge - Aparicio was a shortstop while Colavito played right.

Colavito spent the bulk of his 14 year career with the Indians. He made 9 all-star teams across 6 seasons, but never made it to the World Series. Rocky placed in the top 10 of the MVP vote four times, the best of which was 3rd in 1958 When he led the league in slugging. The following season he led the league in homers (42) and Total Bases (301). In 1965 Colavito paced the AL in RBIs (108) and Walks (93)

Retired Rocky
Today Rocky is 81 and according to some TTM sites he lives outside of Reading PA in a town about an hour from Phungo HQs.

Sources & Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills
1959 Topps one f/g card at a time
SABR Bio by Joseph Wancho
Baseball-ref

1959 Baseball Thrills #465 Roy Sievers

The team Phungo advanced procrastination skills made it possible for us to drag out the 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills feature which surveys a measly 10 cards for over a year.

After a bit of a Hiatus we bring you the #465 card from that subset. 

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #465 Roy Sievers

Chances are the catpion "Sievers Sets Homer Mark" isn't one you expected to see on a baseball card from an era that included names like Mays, Aaron,  Musial, and Mantle.

Part of the reason for that is the record referred to here is a team record. The accomplishment is further described on the flip of the card. The synopsis mentions that the vast dimensions of the Senators Griffith stadium are an issue for Right Handed Pull hitters like Sievers.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #465 Roy Sievers (b-side)

Regardless Roy Sievers did top the eras best sluggers to win the 1957 Title, had 1958 Topps had League Leader cards he would have shared the podium with Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams. Very nice company - Sievers finished 3rd in the MVP voting that season, behind Mantle and Williams.

As a member of the St Louis Browns, Sievers collected the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1949 (16 HR, 91 RBI,  .306/.398/.475, 125 OPS+, 2.0 WAR). The five time all-star collected 318 Home Runs and 1147 RBI in a 17 year career in which he never got a chance to play in the postseason.

Sources and Links
1959 Baseball Thrills Index
baseball-ref

Al Kaline 80th Birthday

On Friday December 19th Al Kaline will celebrate his milestone 80th Birthday.

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline 

60 years ago on this date Al Kaline turned 20, the following year he would pace the American League with 200 hits and a .340 batting average. The above 1959T card celebrates Kaline's batting title.  Kaline finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season, the award went to Yankee catcher Yogi Berra.

We have already featured this card in July of 2013, but I wanted to put up a fun card for Kaline's birthday, additionally this is one of the 1959 Topps BT cards that we have yet to cover in our subset series.

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline (b-side)

The flip side of the card goes into some more detail on the first few seasons of Kaline's Hall of Fame career. 

In 1955 Al Kaline was the youngest Batting Champ and I believe he remains the player with that distinction today almost 60 years later. That season he collected 200 of his 3007 hits.

The 15 time all star played his entire 22 year career with the Tigers, Winning a World Series Title in 1968. His career 92.5 WAR ranks 7th all time among Right Fielders.

Happy 80th birthday to one of the all-time greats

1959 Topps
This card is examined in more detail over at the Commish Bob's Site 1959 Topps one f/g card at a time

Al Kaline HoF Index
1954 Topps #201 (rc)
1959 Topps #463 (RTC posting from 2013 July)
1965 Topps Embossed #13
2008 Donruss Threads #23
Kaline's SABR bio can be found here


Sources and Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills
Phungo HoF Index
baseball-ref

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #466 Billy Pierce

The 2015 Verteran's Committee, er umm Golden Era Committee has been given their Hall of Fame Ballot for 2015. Among the ten nominees on the ballot is Southpaw Billy Pierce.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #466 Billy Pierce

During his career Billy Pierce pitched 18 years in the majors 13 of which were with Chicago White Sox. The seven time All-Star was a member of two pennant winners - the '59 White Sox, and the '62 Giants. Additional personal accomplishments include 211 career victories, ERA (1.97 in 1955), strikeout (186 in 1953)  and victory (20 in 1957).

Slightly less than half of Pierce's career occurred prior to the creation of the Cy Young Award. In two of those pre-CY seasons Pierce led the league in pitching WAR. That DOES NOT necessarily automatically translate into Cy Young Awards. In neither of the two seasons (1953, 1955) did Pierce Lead pitchers in MVP voting. Oddly in the 1956 season when he finished 4th in pitching WAR, He led all AL pitchers in the MVP voting. There was only 1 MVP award at the time (shared by both leagues) curiously Pierce did not get any Cy Young Votes - However Another AL pitcher whom Pierce finished in front of in the MVP vote did get CY votes - Hall of Famer Whitey Ford. 

Baseball Thrills

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #466 Billy Pierce (b-side)

Billy Pierce was awarded a BT card based on his All-Star Game prowess - some additional notes on those 3 starts here: 

1953 - He matched up equally with Phillies HoF pitcher Robin Roberts 3 IP, 1 single, no walks. The HoF batters he retired that day included PeeWee Reese(twice), Red Schoendienst, Roy Campanella, Eddie Mathews, Enos Slaughter, Ralph Kiner (Strikeout).

1955 - 3ip, 1 hit erased on CS, faced minimum 9 batters. HoFs retired Duke Snider(K), Eddie Mathews, Ernie Banks(K)

1956 - 3ip, 2 singles, 1 run, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, One HoF retired Frank Robinson but he got in twice both times on strikeouts.

The Card doesn't mention Billy Pierce's 1957 appearance where he got knocked around a bit.

There is a modest discussion of this card at the 1959 Topps blog here. 

Phungo HoF Verdict
Even assuming 2 or possibly 3 Cy Young Awards for Billy Pierce, I don't think it is enough to put him in the Hall of Fame. His career WAR of 53.2 ranks 90th all-time - among contemporary pitchers that ranks between CC Sabathia and Johan Santana and just below David Wells(88th) and Dwight Gooden(89th). Both Wells & Gooden are great pitchers that rank above Pierce in Career WAR and both (unlike Pierce) have World Series Rings. However Wells & Gooden are not Hall of Famers and neither is Billy Pierce.

For more info on Pierce's career credentials check this Jay Jaffe article which is in agreement with our Hall of Very Good summation.

Sources & Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills
2015 Hall of Fame Candidates
AP/Philadelphia Inquirer
baseball-ref
jay jaffe- SI

60th Anniversary of the Catch: 1959 Topps #464 Willie Mays

Today marks the 60th Anniversary of one of the most iconic moments in Baseball History. Willie Mays' play which is now simply known as "The Catch"

1959 Topps #464 Baseball Highlights Willie Mays

The Catch helped the Giants maintain an 8th inning tie in Game one of the 1954 World Series. The Giants won the game in the 10th on a Walk off Home Run by Dusty Rhodes. 

Five years later Topps honored the moment as part of their 1959 Baseball Thrills Subset. The story of the catch is recounted on the cards b-side. 
 

1959 Topps #464 Baseball Highlights Willie Mays (b-side)

Original Artwork

The Original Artwork for this card was posted on Twitter by Baseball by BSmile.


For more information on this card as well as the other four Willie Mays cards in 1959 Topps check out our 2011 Willie Mays Quartet posting here.   

 

Sources and Links

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Index

1959 Topps Willie Mays Quartet 
Baseball by BSmile (Twitter)
Baseball-ref




Willie Mays Index

Thanks to many outlets on Twitter that reminded me of today's Anniversary.   

Update
2018 01 08 - Added Original Artwork section 

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Index

This is an Index of our series on the 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Subset - The original postings ran in 2014. 

 

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #464 Willie Mays 

#461 Mickey Mantle

#462 Rocky Colavito

#463 Al Kaline
#464 Willie Mays
#465 Roy Sievers
#466 Billy Pierce
#467 Hank Aaron  
#468 Duke Snider

#469 Ernie Banks

 #470 Stan Musial

Happy Anniversary Stan Musial 1959 Topps #470

Today we return to our Baseball Thrills series after a bit of a hiatus

1959 Topps #470 Baseball Thrills Stan Musial

Fifty Years ago Stan Musial recorded his 3000th base hit. The hit came in a pinch hitting apperance on May 13 1958 at Historic Wrigley Field. Musial batted with with a man on base and the Cardinals down by a pair of runs to the Cubs. He doubled, recording an RBI that pulled the Cards within 1. Musial was removed for a pinch runner Frank Barnes who eventually scored the tying run. The Cardinals scored two more runs that inning and took home a W.

The Catcher in the Photo is Cubs Rookie Sammy Taylor, a journeyman who spent six years in the majors with the Cubs, Mets, Reds, and Indians.

The flipside of the card fills in a few additional details about Musials historic hit and his reception upon returning home to St Louis.

1959 Topps #470 Baseball Thrills Stan Musial (b-side)

Over at the one 59 Topps f/g card at a time commishbob has a post which includs a set of b/w photos the Musial Hits. He also links to a nice retrospective article from the St Louis Post dispatch.

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Series
#467 Hank Aaron
#469 Ernie Banks
#470 Stan Musial

Phungo Stan Musial HoF Profile 
1958 Topps #476 (All-Star)

Sources
Baseball-Ref
topps 1959 one f/g card at a time

Hank Aaron 80th Birthday 1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #467

Today Hank Aaron turns 80, which gives us this excellent opportunity to return to our Baseball Thrills series. 

 

1959 Topps #467 Baseball Thrills Hank Aaron

The Hank Aaron Baseball Thrills card honors his game 4 Home Run in the 1957 World Series. 

Click that box score link - this was an amazing game!

The Braves were hosting the Yankees down a 2-1 in the Series, and 1-0 in the game when Aaron hit his lead changing blast. Later that inning future Phillie Frank Torre tacked on an additional Home Run giving the Braves a 4-1 lead with Warren Spahn on the mound. Spahn held the Yankees to that single run until the 9th inning. Unfortunately for the Braves with 2 outs and 2 men on Elston Howard came to the plate and tied the game. The Yankees would go on to take the lead in the 10th, but lose it in the 11th on a Home Run by HoF Eddie Mathews. 

   

1959 Topps #467 Baseball Thrills Hank Aaron (b-side)

The flip side of Aaron's BT card chronicles game 4 a bit and also mentions that Hammerin Hank had 3 HRs in the series. He did not, however, get the MVP award. That went to Lew Burdette who went 3-0 in the Series tossing 2 shutouts. 

The Braves and Aaron made it back to Series in 1958 losing to the Yankees. Those were Hank Aaron's only two trips to the World Series. The Braves would return to the playoffs in 1969, losing the NLCS to New York's newer team the Miracle Mets despite 3 Home Runs from Aaron. 

Home Run 715

arhive.org has a audio of HR calls for Aaron's record breaking HR here.

Phungo Talks Aaron

1974 Topps #1 Hank Aaron

1964 Topps #11 NL LL RBI Aaron, Ken Boyer, Bill White

Other Voices

59 topps: one f/g card at a time - Once again we turn to the 59 topps blog to do the heavy lifting of researching the photo on this card. Turns out that the photo the pix is based upon isn't from Aaron's HR nor is it from the 1957 World Series. Click the previous link to find out the story - The Catch in the pix is Yogi Berra, so yes this card features two Hall of Famers.    

 

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Series

#467 Hank Aaron

#469 Ernie Banks

Sources

Baseball-Ref

59 Topps: one f/g card at a time

archive.org 

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #469 Ernie Banks

New series time - I have always wanted to do a series based on a subset or insert set. I will open this with the old "I don't know if I will ever finish this" caveat.  

1959 Topps Baseball Thrills #469 Ernie Banks

My first angle for a post on this card was find the original photo and figure out what game this picture is from, Forutunately CommishBob of the "topps 1959 one f/g card at a time blog"  has already done the research for us. Turns out Banks was safe and it was a big run, the go ahead run in an extra inning game versus the Braves.    

1958 MVP Award
Ernie Banks won the 1958 MVP award by taking 2/3 of the 24 first place votes. He led the NL in both Home Runs (47) and RBI (129) with a very respectable .313 batting average. The oddity in Banks 1958 election is that the Cubs finished 5th in the 8 team National League - 10 games under .500.

By today's metrics the WAR winner for 1958 was Willie Mays with a 10.2 over Banks' 9.5. The two were closer when using only offensive WAR, with Mays winning again 8.8 - 8.6. The '58 Giants did not win the NL title either, finishing 3rd, 12 games behind the pennant winning Braves.

The top Braves player in the MVP voting was Hank Aaron who finished 3rd. He was also 3rd in WAR. So kudos to the BBWAA of 1958, who basically got it right. While Mays won the WAR, it certainly be argued that Banks HR and RBI crowns were more significant. Hank Aaron was in the mix about where he should of been, although his vote total may have been split with teammate Warren Spahn.

Biggest MVP snub as far as WAR is concerned was the Cardinals Ken Boyer (WAR-4th / MVP-13th ) , special mention to Phillies Richie Ashburn (WAR-4/MVP-7). Most MVP Overrated were a couple of Pirates Frank Thomas (WAR-17/MVP-4) and Bob Friend (WAR-20/MVP-6).   

Phungo Ernie Banks HoF Index
1959 Topps #350 (Memorial Posting)
1959 Topps #469 Baseball Thrills
1964 Topps #55
1966 Topps #110
2009 Phungo #14

Sources n Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills Index

Cardboard Connection
Baseball-ref
topps 59 one f/g card at a time

Reading the Competition: 1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline

With the Phillies making a rare trip out to Detroit today we take a look at a great subset card of Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline.

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline

I have a particular fondness for this Topps Subset.  I believe it is the first subset of cards other than All-Star cards featured in 1958 and rookies in 1959. There are a couple of other Futures HoFs in the set including Mantle, Mays, and Ernie Banks.

Curiously the Baseball Thrills go back further than the previous season.  This one goes back 4 years to the 1955 campaign in which Al Kaline won the batting title at age 20. This is documented on the back of the card in a psuedo-newspaper format which I am a sucker for.  

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline (b-side - click to enlarge)

I think this might be the first baseball card set to ever echo the newspaper theme. not sure.  probably should verify with Night Owl. 

Al Kaline won a batting title at age 20, but then never accomplished the feat again. It isn't that he was a one year wonder, he just didn't repeat the feat.  We have covered his career numbers a bit more in depth here. 

FTC - Baseball Thrills

The Baseball Thrills Subset of 1959 Topps consists of 9 cards that run from #461-470. Al Kaline is the 3rd card of the set at #463.  The card shown above was picked up for $3.50 at a card show in 2011. It has the pencil mark on the back but in otherwise good shape. Current Lobay auction for #463 finished at $2.49 shipped.  

I am too busy to add the graded card pricing at this time, but may return to that at some point. 

Sources & Links

Phungo Al Kaline HoF Index

baseball-ref.com

baseball card database

ebay.com