1960 Topps #324 Jim Perry

This is an entry in our effort to Chronicle the entirety of the Topps All-Star Rookie Cup canon. 

As of the spring of 2024 Jim Perry is the last living member of the original Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Team. The first class of ten members was awarded in 1959 and honored on cards #315-325 of 1960 Topps.

The penultimate card of that subset is Jim Perry

1960 Topps #324 Jim Perry

If you click here you can scroll down and see the Topps All-Star Rookie Cup awards banquet photo. Perry is the rightmost player present.  

Flip

1960 Topps #324 Jim Perry (b-side)

One of the things I love about 1960 Topps is the season timeline, thankfully this base set feature is also present on the rookie cup cards. Six of Perry's performances are listed on the card plus the October 29th rookie cup selection. 

The first game on May 12th is cited as a seminal moment in Perry's career in his SABR Bio authored by Joseph Wancho.  What the card doesn't mention is that among those 4 strikeouts are 3 HOF, Enos Slaughter, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle. The fourth was the formidable Elston Howard. 

I also want to note the creativity in the comic which imagines a baseball bat as a military rifle and baseballs as shell casings. 

By the Numbers

Perry posted a 12-10, 2.65 ERA, 79 K season in 153 innings, which would have been an inning shy of the 154 IP League leader standards of the era. He led the 7 rookies with 100 innings in ERA by a margin of over 2 (Jerry Casale 4.31 in 179.2 IP).  Larry Sherry's 2.19 in 94 innings leads if we reduce the requirement a smidge. 

Perry's 12 Wins were 2nd only to Red Sox rookie Jerry Casale who had 13 of his 17 careeer Ws as a rookie. Perry finished 4th in Ks which was led by Ernie Broglio. 

Larry Sherry was the only RHP that finished with a better WAR than Perry, 3.6 v 2.4. While both players had successful careers, Perry had the most significant of the two longevity wise. 

However... 

The big name among RHP to debut in 1959 was Bob Gibson who had a much briefer MLB season than his Rookie cohort but did well (3-5, 3.33 ERA, 48 K, 75.2 IP, 1.5 WAR). 

Career numbers for the 1959 Rookie Class are of course led by Gibby: 251 Wins, 2.91 ERA, 3117 K, 81.7 WAR. Perry is 2nd in Wins (215) Strikeouts (1576) and WAR 38.4. His 3.45 Career ERA trails Gibson and 3 time World Champion Bob Miller (3.37)

Verdict

Overall the Youth of America got this one right when voting for the first All-Star Rookie Cup Team in 1959. Jim Perry's Win Total is comparable to Casale's with an ERA that is far above any of the competition. Larry Sherry's pre-analytics WAR is impressive but the innings matter. Bob Gibson lags behind the group. 

ROY

Jim Perry received 5 votes for the AL Rookie of the Year Award finishing 2nd to Senators Slugger Bob Allison. 

Baseball Card Pioneer

Topps All-Star Rookies is not the only subset in which Jim Perry participates in the debut series. A year later the Right Hander would find himself on the first Topps League Leader to honor AL Pitching (Wins). During his sophomore season Perry posted 18 Wins which tied him with the Orioles Chuck Estrada. 

The original LL cards are just crammed with faces so Perry and Estrada do not appear much more significant than the anyone else in the top 6 wins on the 1961 Topps LL card, however they do appear on the top line

1961 Topps #48 American League Pitching Leaders 

Jim Perry would return to League Leaders a full decade later in the 1971T LL set where on this podium card he appears to have finished 3rd in Wins 

1971 Topps #69 American League Pitching Leaders 

However all 3 pitchers Cuellar, McNally and Perry won an identical 24 games. If you want to read more about this card check out Night Owl Cards Topps 1971 column here. 

Not a Rookie Card

This is not Jim Perry's rookie card. He originally appeared in 1959 Topps High number series

1959 Topps #542 Jim Perry

If you want to read more about this card check out Topps 1959. 

Big League Brother

Jim is the older brother of Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry. Gaylord's debut was not nearly as successful as his brothers and he was bested by the Phillies Ray Culp for RHP rookie cup honors in 1964. As of press time we do not have much in our HOF file on Gaylord Perry, but an index to any future postings we have can be found here.

Sources and Links

1960 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset Index

1971 Topps Blog

1959 Topps Blog

Baseball-Ref

SABR Bio by Joseph Wancho

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda - and a BIG cartoon

Last month Orlando Cepeda had to be rushed to the hospital to be treated for a "cardiac incident". Thankfully, according to a SF Gate article the Hall of Fame first baseman has made significant progress towards recovery. 

The scary news got me to check and I realized that I had not yet dedicated a column to Cepeda. Tonight we rectify this issue. 

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda

In 1959 Orlando Cepeda made the first of eleven All-Star teams that he would be part of during his 17 year career. 1959 began a four year run that featured two all-star games. Cepeda made all 8 of those teams. Cepeda only appeared in the first of the two 1959 games, with the NL winning the contest 5-4 despite the fact that Cepeda went 0-4.

In addition to the 11 ASG Orlando Cepeda's accolades include a World Champion, four postseason appearances,  an MVP (1967) award and a Rookie of the Year (1958).

And oh yeah that Hall of Fame plaque awarded by the Veterans Committee in 1999.  

The 1959 Topps All-Star cards close the set and were the last to be released for the year. The nice thing about this is that it allows Topps to put out an All-Star set representing the current years game, unfortunately they made some dubious choices in selection.

Orlando Cepeda would appear on two other All-Star cards, 1962 and 1968. In addition to being included in the 1968 ASG set Cepeda was also the subject of that years NL All-Star puzzle.

Flip

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda (b-side)

I like the backs of the 1959 Topps All-Stars, The full-size cartoon and fun-fact are nicely done. I also like the Bazooka ad at the bottom.

BIG Cartoon
1959 Topps #535 Orlando Cepeda also happens to be a landmark card. I believe 1959 Topps All-Stars are the first subset to include the full-size cartoon. There are actually 2 cards that precede Cepeda in the 1959 ASG Subset, but those are both managers, The first of which is Fred Haney who is the first oversized cartoon back. However since he is not a player, and neither is #534 Casey Stengel that makes today's featured guest Orlando Cepeda the first player to have an oversized cartoon back - PIONEER! Thanks to Fuji for getting my wheels rolling in this direction.

Other Voices
CommishBob covers this over at his 1959 Topps Blog

Orlando Cepeda Index
1975 Topps  #205 1967 MVP  (with Carl Yastrzemski)


Sources and Links
1959 Topps All-Stars Index 
1968 Topps Blog
1959 Topps 1 f/g card at a time
SF Gate
baseball-ref

Updates
2018 0321 - Added Big Cartoon Paragraph, Thanks Fuji

Sparky Anderson HoF Index

This is an index of our postings related to Hall of Fame Manager Sparky Anderson

1978 Topps #401 Sparky Anderson

The best HoF Bio among our postings is probably the 1978 Topps Card which discusses Anderson as part of our series on the 1976 All-Star Game.

1959 Topps #338 (rc) (For The Collector / Purchase History)
1959 Topps #338 (rc) (Memorial 1934-2010)
1978 Topps (1976 All-Star Manager - Hall of Fame Resume)

I guess I am rooting for the Dodgers this year (sigh)

Gonna miss these guys

2008 Topps Heritage #408 Keystone Combo Utley-Rollins

My least favorite team as a Kid was the Dodgers, this year I am pretty sure I will be pulling for them though.

This is the first card I thought of when it became evident that the 2008 Middle Infield would be reunited on the West Coast. 

2008 Topps Heritage #408 Keystone Combo Utley-Rollins (b-side)

I like the card because it lives in the spot that was originally inhabited by a White Sox card that featured Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio. Both of those middle infielders went on to the Hall of Fame. A Dodgers 2015 World Series triumph would certainly help both Utley and Rollins HoF resumes.

 I plan on visiting the original Fox-Aparicio card in the future until then you can check this out:

2008 Topps Heritage #408 Keystone Combo Utley-Rollins 
1959 Topps #408 Keystone Combo Fox-Aparicio

Sources and Links
2015 Playoff Contenders Index
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index 
2011 Topps Heritage #72 Rollins Utley

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

Ernie Banks 1931-2015

Late Friday Night we got the news that Ernie Banks passed away a week shy of his 84th birthday.

2008 07 13 - Ernie Banks

I never got a chance to see Ernie Banks play, He retired when I was four, but I did get to see him at the 2008 Futures Game in New York.

It isn't the same as seeing the man play but there is something cool about seeing a legend take the field honored by an ovation and waving his cap. That is what Ernie Banks did that day, he was the honorary captain for the National League. This pix was taken before I really started using the zoom a lot and working on camera angles. That didn't stop me from putting Banks on a Phungo Card

1959 NL MVP

1975 Topps #197 1959 MVPs Fox & Banks

In 1959 Ernie Banks won his 2nd consecutive MVP award. The season was honored as part of the 1975 Topps MVP subset. The flip of the 1975T card snapshots sums up a few Banks accomplishments in the 1959 season. 

1975 Topps #197 (b-side edit)

Modern analytics agree with the MVP votes of 1959 voters. Banks had a 10.2 WAR in 1959, it was the highest of his career and led the National League.

The 1975T Selfie is of a card originally from 1959

1959 Topps #350 Ernie Banks

This is a nice base card of Banks, most of the 1959T cards are straight up head shots. I like seeing the glove in the shot and it appears that Mr Cub was captured at his playing home, Wrigley Field. Once again we flip the card and see that Banks 1959 card summarizes the accomplishments that earned hims the 1958 MVP.

1959 Topps #350 Ernie Banks (b-side)

Ernie Banks Tributes
 Dick Allen
Wrigley Wax (397 Banks Cards!)

Waiting til Next Year (tribute including Wrigley Field Sign)
The Phillies Room (2008 Topps Heritage Then Now w/ Ryan Howard)
Night Owl Cards (1971 Topps)
20th Century Topps (1971T,  1960T,  1955T)
The Five Tool Collector (1959 Topps 3 Cards - includes 1959T #350 above)
Drews Cards (Banks Personal Appearance)
Chronicles of Fuji (various autos)
The Lost Collector (Hillshire Farms Auto)
Card Buzz (1954T reprint TTM auto)
Cardboard Connection (several modern retro cards)
Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius (2009 Sighting)
Cardboard Icons (1954 Topps RC)
bdj610 (2011 Topps Variation)
Cardboard Connection (14 Cards showing Banks love of the game)
Rectangle Men (1998 Cubs Convention)
Mint Condition (1954T Reprint)
Life and Baseball Cards (Sketch Card Originals)
Cards that Never Were (Fleer custom)
Lifetime Topps Project (Topps Archives 1972T)
Starting Nine (various retros)
My life in the Sports Card Hobby (photos)


Other Voices - Cards from this post that are examined at other sites

1959 Topps one f/g card at a time
1975 Topps (Night Owl Cards)

Sources and Links
Phungo Ernie Banks Hall of Fame 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

2015 HoF Ballot Gary Sheffield 1989 Baseball Cards Magazine #14

With Sunday Night Football in Nearby Green Bay We will take a look at a Milwaukee Brewer Alum that is on the 2015 HoF Ballot. 

1989 Baseball Cards Magazine #14 Gary Sheffield

The Brew Crew took Sheffield out of high school with the 6th overall pick in the 1986 draft. Two years and a few months later He was with the big club. It was the beginning of a 22 year career that saw the nine time all-star Win a World Series (1997 Marlins), and post 509 Home Runs (25th all time) , 1676 RBI (26th), and score 1636 Runs (38th) all on the way to five Silver Slugger Awards. He never won an MVP award, but he did finish 2nd or 3rd three times. Sheffield finished 2nd in oWar twice, both times he was bested by Barry Bonds.

Hall of Fame
We have established that Gary Sheffield accumulated ridiculously good numbers during an offense heavy era of tbe game. What does it all mean? Well the good folks at fangraphs and baseball-ref have designed the WAR stat to be independent of era. According to BR Sheffield Ranks 18th in career WAR for the position, Jay Jaffe's JAWS rating which combines WAR with Peak War ranks Sheff 23rd.  RF is also the most populated position in the hall with a lot of candidates similar to Sheffield lurking (Ichiro, Vlad, Bobby Abreu, and the surprisingly strong candidate Larry Walker) 

My Verdict is a YES. His numbers are on the good side of the borderline, He has a World Series Ring, but No MVPS - however he was on a bunch of All-Star teams and has a couple of silver slugger bats laying around. If ti wasn't for Barry Bonds he would have 2 oWAR titles and he may have won an MVP.

1989  Baseball Cards Magazine
30 years after the initial release of 1959 Topps, Baseball Cards Magazine homaged the set with a set of their own. The set was issued as 6 card sheets inserted into the magazine throughout the year. They were even thorough enough to create a template for the 1959T Rookie Stars subset.

The card isn't in error on Sheffield's position, he came up as a shortstop. His career didn't really take off until 1992 when he was traded to San Diego where he became a third baseman. The following season he was moved to the Marlins where he finally found his home in the outfield - which is where most of us place Gary Sheffield.

Sources & Links
2015 HoF Candidates
Baseball-ref

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

National Football Museum Manchester UK

Soccer err Football is all the rage these days and the US has a big outing in the "knockout" stage on Tuesday. Today team Phungo is getting into the spirit by publishing a few photos from a visit we made to the UK National Football Museum located in Manchester.

Click any Photo to enlarge

I don't really follow soccer, and I am not sure if the athletic shoe is the architectural design iinspiration, but to me this looks more like a basketball shoe than a soccer cleat. The museum reminded me of the Rock n Roll HoF in Cleveland with larger lower levels for fixed/permanent exhibits while the smaller upper levels are more apt for rotating exhibits.

The Museum is called the National Football Museum, but it has plenty of international flair. While the history of the game from the British perspective is at the center of the museum's vision, There are several exhibits and items that deal with the World Cup and other international competitions.

The museum is free to visit and has plenty of interactive and pop culture items, thus there is an appeal to novice fans as myself.  

 1959 Style Football Cards

One of the first notable items I saw were Soccer Cards in the style of 1959 Topps. From what I understand it was common practice for the Football cards of the Fall/Winter of a year to use the design of the previous summers Topps Series - I think these cards are from the 1959-1960 season.


Chix Bubble Gum Cards from 1951 and a program from the 2011 Women's World Cup.

Churchman Cigarettes Cards (1930) and  WD & HO Willis Cigarette Card Album (1935-36)

\Original FA Cup 

Actually the original cup was apparently stolen in the 19th century. This matching cup was created to replace the original. This 2nd Original cup was in use from 1896-1910. 

Stanley Matthews Exhibit

Stanley Matthews was one of a handful of players honored with their own exhibit box. In the 1959 cards near the top of this post his card is the leftmost of the center trio.

George Best European Footballer of the Year Trophy (1968) 

Willie Cunningham Knee Ligament

One of the more gruesome exhibits was this one of Willie Cunningham's Knee Ligament. The related text notes that the recover time for Cunning was six months. Today a player that goes through the same surgery would be back on the field in four weeks.

Wallace and Gromit 

 As I mentioned above there were a number of pop culture items in the museum. Team Phungo was delighted to see a Wallace and Gromit item that was from a production we were previously unaware. The Soccermatic is an invention from the Wallace & Gromit Cracking Contraptions Collection. I have been a fan of W&G for a long time. It is great for fans of stop motion animation and clever writing. 

Raquel Welch showing off her Soccer Skills in 1972



Sources
The FA
National Football Museum
Imdb

Sunday Night Baseball: Yogi Berra 1959 Topps #180

The Yankees and Red Sox are featured one again on Sunday Night Baseball this week. Despite the Red Sox being the reigning World Champs, the rivalry just hasn't had as much juice the last couple of years. The Yankees are in the mix, but the BoSox are  currently way off the pace.

1959 Topps #180 Yogi Berra

Tonight we are building up some inventory in our HoF index by adding the quotable catcher. Berra and Johnny Bench are probably the two most written about catchers in the history of the game so I bother trying to add to that canon.

Instead I would like to mention a couple of things Berra related that folks might not know about. First off is that there is a Museum dedicated to Yogi Berra. I have never been there, but it is located in North Jersey just two hours from Philadelphia. If I am ever in the area I would like to try and visit. Card Collectors may be interested in one of their gift shop item - a Card Set representing the different eras of Yankees baseball. The set runs for $5 and contains 25 cards.

Secondly I wanted to mention baseball reporter and Yogi's grand-daughter Lindsay Berra who has a pretty interesting twitter account. Lindsay's unique perspective is enhanced by some terrific vintage photos of Yogi and other players from his era.

For the Collector
About a week ago I was asking Night Owl about cards that are shot from below subject with clouds in the background. He referred to it as the Hero Pose or Hero Shot, which I think I had heard of before but hadn't bothered to process the term.  This one of Yogi is pretty much a prototype. Solid batting stance, slight up angle, great set of clouds on a clear blue sky.

Among recent auctions the low sell was $8.50 for an off condition card. Ten different auctions ended for $12 or under. A PSA 3 VG card went for $22. $25 bumps one up to PSA 4 VG-EX. The card top ended at $1,317 for MINT.

The specimen above was picked up for $9 a while back. It is nice front, corners a bit soft. Unfortunately, the back has some issue - there is paper loss on the back, likely due to being taped to a binder, and somebody wrote $45 faintly on the card edge. 

Other Voices
1959 Topps one f/g card at a time

Phungo Yogi Berra HoF Index
1961 Topps #471 3 Time MVP 1951-54-55, (90th Birthday Posting)
2008 UD Yankee Stadium Legacy #1869 Yogi Berra
2009 Goodwin Champions Black Border Mini Gypsy Queen Back #62 Yogi Berra 

Sources Baseball-ref
twitter
ebay

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

1950 Bowman #84 Richie Ashburn image swiped by Ballpark Gum

Last week we featured Richie Ashburn's 1950 Bowman Card. Today we are taking a look at a bubble gum tin.

Ballpark Gum

Ballpark Gum is a novelty gum featuring ballgame related flavors Hot Dogs, Peanuts, and Beer.  That sounds a bit odd to me, if it's your thing check in at Perpetual Kid. I am not a gum guy and have never had Ballpark Gum and the taste of the stuff is not really why we are here today. 

I am concerned about the artwork. At first I thought it was lifted from 1959 Topps packaging.  
 

1959 Topps Wrapper (image swiped from Cardboard Connection)

It's close but I will let you decide that, as I examined the picture a bit more I realized why it looked familiar:

Ballpark Gum artwork (reversed) with 1950 Bowman #48 Richie Ashburn
 
I took the image on the tin and reversed it, Eureka! - The Ballpark Gum Tin artwork doesn't look very original at all. Look at the uniform number on the back the position of Ashburn's hands, The shadows on his face. The tin may be elongated a tad, but unless Ballpark Gum paid Bowman/Topps, I am thinking that image is plagiarized.


Sources 
Cardboard Connection
 

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

Reading the Competition: 1959 Topps #514 Bob Gibson (RC)

The Phillies are on the road visiting the St Louis Cardinals this week and I thought it would be a good time to revisit a favorite card.

1959 Topps #514 Bob Gibson (RC)

We have discussed Bob Gibson Hall of Fame credentials previously and I will just re-mention here that he won 251 games, 2 World Series Rings, and a league MVP (1968). 

FTC
The 2009 posting link above is one of the first where I did an e-bay check to look at pricing on a card. Today we re-examine those numbers.

Bob Gibson RC Low Prices for Ungraded Card

Date	$$$
2009-06-xx	$61
2009-12-07	$30
2009-12-xx	$35
2013-07-xx	$48
2013-07-xx	$58
2013-07-xx	$59

Back when I first looked at this card in 2009 it had a low auction of $61.  This was during the season which may have buoyed the price. Also back then the eBay recent auctions function may not have spun back as far as it does currently.  When I ran a similar check in December of that year the low auction was $35.  The green $30 price was for the card pictured, which was picked up at a show in Valley Forge.

Today the lowest finsher is $48, I included the three lowest auctions for comparison.

Bob Gibson RC Auction Population for Ungraded Cards (2013 07 21) 

Price Range	Auctions
< $59	3
$67-73	5
$79-90	9
$95-107	5

 
The three auctions under $59 are the three mentioned in the first table.  I sort of broke the table out into ranges that cards fell together.  Pretty much one can assume the Bob Gibson RC can be found ungraded for under $75 if your willing to look aound for it.  Below $50 would be quite good.

Bob Gibson RC Graded

Graded	$$$	Date
BGS 7 VG+	$140	2009 - 06 -xx
PSA 8 NM	$925	2009 - 06 -xx
Graded ???	$1,384	2009 -11 -22
SGC 5.5 (EX+)	$152	2013 - 07 - xx
PSA 6 (EX-MT)	$203	2013 - 07 - xx
PSA 7 (NM)	$435	2013 - 06 - 09
PSA 8 (NN-MT)	$843	2013 - 05 - 19

Finally the above chart tells us what the card is going for in various grades. For the $1,384 card I didn't bother recording the condition, but I certainly hope it was MT.      

Other Voices
'59 Topps: one f/g card at a time - a loving tribute to the Bob Gibson RC

Phungo Bob Gibson HoF Index
1964 Topps #460
1969 Topps #162 (Record 17Ks in 1968 World Series Game 1)
1970 Topps #530 (HoF Profile)
1975 Topps #3 (3000 Ks)

sources
baseball-ref.com
ebay.com