Rookie Cup: 1965 Topps #340 Tony Oliva

Today our Rookie Cup Series takes a look at 1964 AL Rookie of the Year Tony Oliva who is one of only six Cuban born players in the Hall of Fame.

1965 Topps #340 Tony Oliva

Check out this Off-Center HOF beauty! 

1965T is one of my favorite card designs. I am a sucker for pennants.  Between the Pennant, Oliva's Twins Cap and the Cup trophy we have a fine combination of complimentary colors here.

Oliva earned Rookie of the Year honors by leading not just rookies but all of MLB in hitting with a .323 average. It was the first of 3 batting titles for Tony. 

The Numbers

1964 MLB Rookie WAR Leaders

Tony Oliva is listed 2nd here because his NL Rookie of the Year peer, Dick Allen had a Higher WAR, but you can still see all of his black ink. In addition to leading the league in Batting Average the young Cuban also ranked #1 in Runs, Hits (first of 5 times), Doubles (1st of 4), and Total Bases. Oliva's 374 Total Bases tied the Rookie record set by Hal Trotsky Sr in 1939. 60+ years later Tony Oliva still holds the record for Total Bases by a rookie, Nomar Garciaparra's 365 in 1997 has been the closest challenger. 

And how often do two rookies lead their respective leagues in Total Bases. Amazing Rookie class. 

Those numbers were good enough to place Oliva fourth in AL MVP vote which was won by Baltimore 3rd baseman Brooks Robinson (8.1 WAR, .317/28/118 LL)

ROY

Robinson's Orioles teammate Wally Bunker kept Oliva from a unanimous Rookie of the Year victory. Hard to compare Hitting & Pitching numbers. In 1964 the BBWAA members were not familiar with WAR, we simply note that Oliva's 6.8 is superlative while Bunker's is average. Looking at Bunker's triple crown numbers he ranked 3rd in Wins (FIRST in PCT) and 6th in ERA. During his 9 year career Bunker never finished top 10 in Ks. Oliva's 32 HR was 6th in the AL with the 94 RBI ranking 9th. That gives Tony Oliva finishes of 1,6,9 vs 3,6,11+ for Wally Bunker. I can see the one voter giving it to Bunker on the W-L Pct, but I offer Oliva's record setting LL Total Bases as a push, minimum. 

flip

1965 Topps #340 Tony Oliva (b-side)

All the superlatives that we just went over and what is in the comic on Tony Oliva's first solo card?  For some reason Topps goes with the numbers Oliva put up in Short Seson D-League 3 years prior. I don't get it. Topps text does cover Oliva's Batting Championship, Hits Crown and ROY win in the text. Check out that batting average at Whytheville, it is not one of the crowns alluded to in the comic, but .410 in 249 ABs - that is solid at any professional level. 

GridLock

I have been playing Immaculate Grid with majority All-Star Rookie Cup Players. Today we are introducing a sub-feature dubbed GridLock where we will take a look at the Grid Possibilities of the players we cover. 

For Tony Oliva some good Grid Luck categories are: 

-Only 1 Team

-Born outside the US

-Rookie of the Year / ASG / GG

-Played all 3 OF positions. 

-Single Season 3xCrown Categories: .300 AVG, 30 HR, 100 RBI and 100 Runs

-6+ WAR season

-Career .300 hitter

Tony Oliva HOF Index

1965 Topps #340 (ROY - this posting) 

1970 Topps #510

Sources and Links
1965 All-Star Rookie Cup

phungo HOF Index

baseball-ref

SABR Bio - Peter C Bjarkman

Wookie Cup: 1961 Topps #417 Juan Marichal

Yes, Wookie Cup 

That is not a spelling error or typo, this is a new Rookie Cup adjacent feature where we will analyze notable players or players who had notable rookie seasons that did not win Rookie Cup honors.

I see this as a series that will cover things like Rookie of the Year whom did not win a Rookie Cup and players who beat out HOFs for Rookie Cups. Today's column is on the latter. One way to look at it is the Wookie Cup is the sidekick to the Han Solo that is the Topps All-Star Rookie Cup. 

Wookie Cup: 1961 Topps #417 Juan Marichal (rc - image swiped from psa)

The 1961 Topps Rookie Cup Card for RHP went to Chuck Estrada for good reasons, which we discussed last week. There were a handful of good pitchers that debuted in 1960 of which was elected to the Hall of Fame, Juan Marichal. 

1961 Topps is a minimalist design that gets awfully text busy at the bottom with the player, position, and complete team name all squeezed in a quarter inch. Great smile from Juan here, he is also wearing a warm up jacket which is consistent with many of the other Giants in the 1961 set. 

1960 Juan Marichal vs Chuck Estrada

The first thing that jumps out at us is Topps Champ Chuck Estrada played a full season. Simply put several of the categories won by Marichal here may have gone if the 154 IP minimum was reached - most notably ERA and W-L Pct. 

While Juan Marichal's stats are excellent, His 2.66 ERA would have led both leagues had he qualified (Frank Baumann CHW 2.67) same for H/9 (Ernie Broglio STL 6.84), we cannot with any accuracy scale up these numbers to compare with Estrada's full season of data. 

It's simple just to think of Chuck Estrada as the present in 1960 while Juan Marichal was a Wookie Cup who was soon to be part of baseball's future.  

b-side 

Wookie Cup: 1961 Topps #417 Juan Marichal (flip - image swiped from psa)

As noted in the card text above Juan Marichal's MLB Debut was a dazzler, a 2-0 shutout. Clay Dalrymple's pinch single with 2 out in the 8th was the only thing that stood between Marichal and a no-hitter. He pitched to 3 over the minimum (Single, BB, E6). Three years later on June 15 1963 Juan Marichal would become the first Latin American pitcher to throw an NL/AL no-hitter. 

Dropping down to the comic section, Juan was proud of his control and led the league four times in BB/9 and ranks 60th all-time in the category. 

Sources and Links

Juan Marichal HoF Index

1961 Rookie Cup Index

baseball-ref
psa

1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall vs WILT CHAMBERLAIN ?!?!!

Today our journey through the Rookie Cups takes us to the 1961 AL Rookie of the Year and 1962 Topps RHP Rookie Cup representative Don Schwall

1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall (RC)

A fine card with the familiar 1962T wood panel design that I have always liked and the old school Rookie Cup tophat. I have place Schwall on a page from Robby Incmikoski and Kyle Fager coffee table book "Sacred Grounds". The time has a bunch of large full page photos of stadia that should make for good card backdrops. 

But things get real interesting on the back...

flip

1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall (b-side)

First off I want to briefly cover that we have Don's Rookie of the Year Award mentioned in the comic.

Schwall earned the award by posting a 15-7 record with a fine 3.22 ERA (129 ERA+!!). The righthander's 15 Ws led all rookies while his W-L Pct and ERA both ranked 2nd. The most marginal number was Don's 92 strikeouts (5th). Perhaps Ken McBride has a complaint about Schwall's selection but that will need to be left to another column.  

Hoop

Now, lets move onto the juicy first line of the text:

"A former basketball star in college where he once OUTSCORED WILT CHAMBERLAIN" 

Yes, prior to signing a MLB contract with the Boston Red Sox Don Schwall was a lauded collegiate basketball player.

As a forward for the 1956-57 Oklahoma Sooners Schwall led the team in free throws while finishing 2nd in scoring overall. During Schwall's only full season with Oklahoma they faced the Kansas Jayhawks, who were led by future NBA HOF legend Wilt Chamberlain, three times.   

1961 Fleer #47 Wilt Chamberlain (IA/rc - image stolen from psa)

Wilt and the Jayhawks (24-3, AP #2 Overall) won all three contests, but the Sooners held their own. Specifically Don Schwall did quite well vs Kansas and outplayed Wilt in the season series: 

Above we have comparisons between the three meetings with the totals in the final column. at the Bottom right of Schwall's data we have enlarged Don Schwall's point total for the 3 games 73 which eclipsed Wilt by 4 points. By coincidence the two players had the exact same Foul Shooting numbers. 

Boxes

Thanks to the Des Moines Register  we have Columns & Box Scores from the three games:

Newspaper clippings from Des Mones Register (1957 Feb 19 via Proquest)

These first two clippings are from the February 18 1957 game where Don Schwall scored 30 points, Wilt Chamberlain fouled out with 11. It's blurry Oklahoma is the away team listed first, Schwall the fourth name "Schw'l". His line stands out with the 11 field goals as the only one in double digits. On the Kansas side we see Wilt listed 5th with the 5 fouls in the final column. 

 

 Newspaper clippings from Des Mones Register (1956 Dec 29 & 1957 Feb 19 via Proquest)

These are clippings also from the Des Moines Register for the other two games. Fortunately both of these boxes are clearer. 

1957+

Schwall returned to Oklahoma in the fall of 1957 but only played 3 basketball games before...

Newspaper photo and caption from New York Daily News (1957 Dec 12 via Proquest)

On December 10th Don Schwall withdrew from Oklahoma after signing a professional contract with the Boston Red Sox. The 50k listed in the above caption is $595000+ in 2026 dollars.  

Within four years Don Schwall would be pitching for the Red Sox. The following spring he appeared on his first baseball card - a Rookie Cup Card!

Sources & Links
1962 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index
Wilt Chamberlain HOF Index

ProQuest: Des Moines Register 

ProQuest: New York Daily News

SABR Bio - Curt Smith

BallNine

baseball-reference

Sacred Grounds - Incmikoski & Fager

psa

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Inflation Calculator

Rookie Cup Series: 1961 Topps #395 Chuck Estrada

Chuck Estrada earned the RHP Rookie Cup award for 1960 by leading not just rookies but all of MLB in Wins with 18. At the time Estrada was the only rookie to ever lead the AL in wins and the first since 1932 (Larry Cheney) to lead either the NL or AL. He also led rookie pitchers in Strikeouts and Innings Pitched. His 7.0 Hits/9IP led all pitchers. 

Despite these superlative pitching numbers he did not win rookie of the year. He finished runner-up to Orioles teammate Ron Hansen (22/86/.255) 

1961 Topps #395 Chuck Estrada 

These seem like obvious qualifications to win the Rookie Cup, leading two of the triple crown categories and finishing 5th in Rookie ERA. However, modern stats may have swayed the vote. Estrada ranked 3rd in WAR among RHP behind Art Mahaffey (Phillies) and Don Lee (Senators). Estrada finished behind the pair in ERA & ERA+. Mahaffey bested the trio in Winning percentage. Mahaffey finished 3rd in the NL ROY voting. Lee did not receive any vote in the AL bracket

Flip

1961 Topps #395 Chuck Estrada (b-side) 

the third panel of the panel is kind of ironic as Chuck's attitude was mentioned in his SABR Bio as part of the reason he had trouble sticking in the majors after his incredible debut season. 

1961+ 

Unfortunately for Estrada his career peaked in 1960. He struggled with injuries the next few seasons and never regained his form. A 7 year career ended in 1967 with the struggling New York Mets. 

Chuck Estrada did make a career out of baseball serving as a pitching coach in several organizations. Among his mentees were Buzz Capra, Nino Espinosa, Craig Swan and fellow rookie cup winner Randy Jones

Subset Star

The 1961 Rookie Cup is not Chuck Estrada's Rookie Card. His RC is part of the 1960 Sport Magazine Rookie Stars subset from the previous years. Estrada's 18 Ws also earned him a spot on the very first AL Pitching (Wins) League Leader Card.

1961 Topps #48 LL Pitching (Wins) Chuck Estrada, Jim Perry, Bud Daley, Art Ditmar, Frank Lary

Estrada shared the 1960 Wins Title with Jim Perry who at the time was the only other RHP Rookie Cup winner. Jim Perry's Rookie Cup profile can be found here. 

Sources & Links 

1961 Rookie Cup 

SABR BioProject - David E Skelton

Trading Card Data Base

Baseball_ref