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

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psa

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

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TASR: 1961 Topps #77 Dick Stigman

We are down to the PostSeason final 4 we are going to take this opportunity to look back on some cards representing the remaining contenders.

Today we lead off with the Cleveland Guardians (nee Indians) and 1961 Topps Dick Stigman.

1961 Topps #77 Dick Stigman

Dick Stigman at age 88 is one of the eldest of the TASR honorees. He had a remarkable career that is highlighted by being part of big baseball events but not getting a chance to participate. During his rookie campaign in 1960 (the Two ASG era) he was named to both All-Star Teams (despite a 5-11 record), but did not participate in either game. Stigman was also a member of the 1965 Twins Team who pushed the Sandy Koufax led LA Dodgers to 7 games in the World Series. He was a member of the postseason roster but did not get to pitch in the series. A disappointment for Stigman who was a local athlete from the small town of Nimrod Minnesota.

1961 Topps

Classic follow-thru pose of the young southpaw here. The Red and Yellow ID panels complement the old school original large form Rookie Cup Trophy. 

Dick Stigman's selection as a dual All-Star and All-Star Rookie cup member is pretty dubious. In addition to the aforementioned 5-11 record among LHP rookie pitchers in 1960 he ranked 8th in ERA (4.51) almost a run and a half behind the leader, Senators pitcher Jack Kralick (3.04). In fact Stigman was 8th in ERA for the subset (50+ip) which included the Phillies Chris Short (3.94). Among southpaws Stigman 5 wins ranked 7th (Steve Barber 10, Short 5). He did rank 2nd in Strikeouts with 104, a category again won by Steve Barber at 112. Pretty hard to justify a selection for a player that lost out in all 3 of the triple crown categories. The only thing that can point to Stigman is his combined Win+Save total of 14 eclipsed Barber by.... ONE (10 wins, 3 Saves)

30 Million Youngsters Can't be Wrong 

According to the TASR Team Announcement in the Sporting News 30 Million Youngsters voted for the team, who knew that Dick Stigman would be so popular?

The 1961 Topps Rookie All-Star Squad was only the 2nd one elected and during that era it was done by the "Youth of America". I don't want to group them in with the BBWAA, but their selection is suspect.

WAR Report

The Youth of America had no clue of what WAR was then, but I will  note that Dick Stigman did not do well here either, finishing with an abysmal -0.7. Jack Kralick's Southpaw leading ERA propelled him to the WAR crown with a 4.0 (Barber and Dick Ellsworth 2nd at 2.1 - Chris Short T5 1.1)

1961 All-Star Team(s)

4 Wins and 58 Career Strikeouts...

And 2 All-Star Teams 

That is where the Official Baseball Record stood for Dick Stigman on July 13 1960

That's Right, he had less than 60 Career Ks and the guy was already on his 2nd all-star team. 

How did this happen:

1) The biggest reason is this was during the two all-star games in one season era

2) 6 Saves. Coupled with his four wins this meant that Dick Stigman was involved in 10 of Clevelands 43 wins. Not sure where six saves ranked mid season, but chances are it was pretty high. For the season Stigman's teammate Johnny Klippstein led the league with 14. 

3) Possibly minor League Dominance - Stigman led his league in Ks twice while in the Minors. 

 

White Sox and 1960 AL All-Star Manager Al Lopez had seen Stigman a lot prior to the All-Star break,  those games were likely not helpful. In the week prior to the All-Star Break Stigman faced the White Sox 3 times, twice as a starter and once as a road finish. He pitched 8.2 innings and gave up 7 earned runs (7.27 ERA) including a start where he gave up 10 walks in 5.2 innings. 

All I can figure is Lopez was happy with the 3 Ws over Cleveland and selected Stigman - who knows. 

 

Flip

1961 Topps #77 Dick Stigman (b-side)

We have Couple of -Toons! 

In panel 1 we have the source for the aforementioned comment on Minor League Dominance. Panel 2 echoes the All-Star Rookie Trophy from the front side and in the finale we have an all-star reference with some dated artwork. 

Topps Subset Royalty

Dick Stigman's career may not have panned out but he ended up being in a number of Topps Subsets. Two years prior to being an All-Star Rookie he was one of 31 players in the 1959 Sporting News Rookie Stars Subset which was the first time that Topps had run a rookies subber of any kind. Stigman is one of three players from the set that is still living, Eddie Haas and Bob Lillis are the others.

In 1962 Stigman was on Cleveland's "Tribe Hill Trio" card with fellow hurlers Jim Perry and Barry Latham. Following a trade to his hometown Twins Dick Stigman made it into the League Leaders pantheon with 1964 Topps. He shares his 1963 Strikeout Card Podium with Hall of Famer Jim Bunning and fellow Twin Camilo Pascual

Pretty good for a guy that appeared on 7 base cards to appear in 4 different subsets: Rookie Stars, Rookie Cup, Team Multis and League Leaders. 

Dick Stigman Index

Placeholder for more Stigman

Sources Links

1961 TASR Index

SABR Bioproject (Tom Tomashek)

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Sporting News

1961 Topps #262 Tony Curry

Last night with Cubs featured on Sunday Night Baseball we featured a Rookie Cup card of Hall of Famer Ron Santo. Tonight we feature one of the Phillies representatives from the same Topps Rookie All-Star squad that featured Santo.

1961 Topps #262 Tony Curry

Tony Curry was the second player born in the Bahamas to reach the majors (following Andre Rodgers 1957). Curry had a decent debut with the Phillies batting .261 with 6 Home Runs in 95 games. Unfortunately those would be the only six Homers that Curry would hit in the major leagues.

Due to a contract dispute and personal issues Tony Curry would only play 15 games with the Phillies after his rookie season. Prior to the 1962 season he was traded to Cleveland and would only return to the majors one more time for a brief stint in 1966.


Toons

1961 Topps #262 Tony Curry (b-side)

A few notes on the cartoons. I want to start on the last panel first. As mentioned in our Ron Santo posting yesterday, of the 10 Rookie All-Star cards in the 1961 Topps set seven of them have cartoons that mention the Topps award. Next I want to go to the middle frame. I realize those were different times but "One of the fastest men in the Big Leagues" stole a grand total of ZERO bases in his major league career. Minor league records are spotty but baseball-reference lists Curry's single season minor league high as eleven stolen bases.


1960 Topps Rookie Cup All-Star Team
This column will serve as an Index of our postings related to the 1960 Topps All-Star Rookie Team. The players were honored with cards in the 1961 Topps Set. Here is a checklist of the 1960 hoorees

35	Ron Santo (HoF RC) - 3B
77	Dick Stigman - LHP
144	Jimmie Coker - C
148	Julian Javier - 2B
168	Tommy Davis - OF
240	Ron Hansen - SS
262	Tony Curry - OF
280	Frank Howard - OF
395	Chuck Estrada - RHP
559	Jim Gentile - 1B

Wookie Cup Series

1961 Topps #417 (RC & Wookie Cup Series)

1960 Rookie Of the Year Voting

1960 Top 20 Rookie WAR as Batters

1960 Top 20 Rookie WAR as Pitchers

Sources & Links
Topps All-Star Rookies Index
Baseball-Ref Bullpen
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SABR Bio - Rory Costello

Sunday Night Baseball: 1961 Topps #35 Ron Santo

With Cubs on national TV tonight prior to hosting the Phillies this week I felt it was a good time to honor Hall of Famer Ron Santo.

1961 Topps #35 Ron Santo (rc)

Due to Topps diligence (and traded sets) it is rare that a player of Santo's stature gets a Rookie Cup on his actual rookie card. I took a glance at the list and among Hall of Famers the only other rookie cup/ rookie card combos I found were Willie McCovey (1960) and Eddie Murray (1978).

There are three other players that qualify, however they won their Rookie All-Star awards in years when Topps chose not to adorn winners cards with the rookie cup icon: Ozzie Smith(1979), Ryne Sandberg(1983), and Kirby Puckett (1985).

Sy Berger on Topps and Santo

1961 February 22 The Sporting News (JT Spink)

In a 1961 interview in "The Sporting News" Topps executive Sy Berger addressed the omission of both Willie McCovey and Ron Santo from the 1959 and 1960 sets respectively.  Regardless both were properly honored with Rookie All-Star cards that also happen to be Hall of Fame Rookie Cards.

1961 Topps #35 Ron Santo (rc - bside)

The center panel of the cartoons mentions Santo's Topps All-Star rookie award. Of the 10 All-Star Rookie cards in the 1961 Topps Set, seven of them have cartoons mentioning their selection.

The text notes that there was a Vote by "Youngsters". As part of an outreach program to raise interest in trading cards Topps sent out ballots via various youth organizations including the Boy Scouts, Boys Clubs of America and the YMCA. The Results of the voting were the early All-Star Rookie teams.

The origins of the Topps Rookie All-Stars is worthy of it's own posting and we hope to elaborate on this at some point.

Phungo Ron Santo HoF Index
1966 Topps Year of the Dragon Birthday
Obituary/Retired Number (2010)

Sources and Links
1961 Topps All-Star Rookies Index
Cards that Never Were
BR Bullpen
The Sporting News (1961 02 22, 1959 07 15)
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