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

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre

At age 86 Joe Torre is among our eldest Hall of Famers. He was the catcher for the 1962 Topps Rookie Cup Team, which also featured fellow HOF Billy Williams - who celebrated birthday 88 this summer.

 

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre (image swiped from PSA)

Williams and Torre also ranked 1-2 in the NL ROY Voting:

While Torre led the two in WAR, Billy Williams clearly wins the traditional power numbers and that was good enough to earn him NL Rookie of the Year honors.  

Among position players Torre's 3.4 WAR led all 1961 rookies, although looking at those offensive numbers we must also note that a large chunk of that WAR is from defense. The ROY vote is interesting, in 1961 voters only got the opportunity to vote for a single player and close to a third of the ballots recognized the importance of the catching position. 

1961 Rookie Catchers

There were basically only two catchers in the running for the position on the 1961 All-Star Rookie Club, Torre & Red Sox backstop Joe Pagliaroni. 

Lots of catchers had over 100 plate appearances but Torre & Pagliaroni have 150 more than #3 Dick Bartell. Pagliano took two of the triple crown categories and had modern analytics been popular at the time it needs to be noted he also had a higher OBP than Torre. However Joe Torre had more extra base hits and although voters would not have known it at the time he also led in OPS+.  Based on those numbers I could see either player being chosen, my guess is that the 36 point batting average difference tipped the scales in favor of Torre.  

It is interesting that Torre finished 2nd in the NL RoY vote while Joe Pagliano did not get any votes on the AL side. This is likely due to Pagliano's battery mate Don Schwall winning the award and another teammate Chuck Schilling finishing 3rd in the voting.

Flip

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre (image swiped from eBay) 

I am not of fan of the realistic style of the 1962T comic but do appreciated that this one is devoted to Torre's Rookie Cup win and love that fine rendition of the trophy. Nice mention of Frank Torre in the back text.  

Hall of Fame

Joe Torre was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans committee in 2014. This was largely an acknowledgement of his 4 World Championships as Manager of the New York Yankees. However, I don't want this distinction to overshadow his accomplishments as a Player:

In addition to earning a 1961 Rookie Cup, Torre was the 1971 NL MVP and a NINE time all-star (at 3 different positions C/1B/3B). Joe Torre played with some good teams but never made the postseason. 

HOF Index 

This column will do double duty as an index to our Joe Torre columns

1965 Topps #200 (Braves v Cardinals SNB)

Source & Links

1962 Rookie Cup Index

Hall of Fame Index

Baseball-reference

PSA

ebay

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams

Today's All-Star Rookie Cup posting brings us to Hall of Famer Billy Williams who is the oldest living Hall of Famer to have also won a Rookie Cup. 

The recent passing of Willie Mays has pushed the 86 year old Williams into 8th place among the eldest surviving Hall of Famers - and 6th among players. 

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams (image lifted from tcdb)

1962 Topps is one of my favorite designs - the novelty of the wood grain only used here and in 1987 keeps the idea fresh. I also like how the rolled up photo illusion slides our eyes into the full size Rookie Cup trophy.

Williams is captured here in follow through of his "Sweet Swinging" form - the rollup flows with the swing here as well. All this adds up to a really great early card of a Future Hall of Famer. 

Rookie of the Year

Billy Williams earned NL Rookie of the Year honors by leading the 1961 freshman class with 25 Home Run 86 RBI and 256 Total Bases.  However...

Even in the pre-analytics days Voters recognized the importance of the catching position with just under of a third of the ballots favoring future HOF Joe Torre. Saving deeper analysis for a future aWARds column, but for today's discussion it's enough to say that Billy Williams led NL rookies in 2 of the 3 Triple Crown categories and it is really hard to argue against those criteria in the Rookie of the Year voting. 

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams (flip)

 

Little hard to make out but here we see the rest of Billy Williams numbers for his ROY campaign. The 146 games is noteworthy as that his a high number for a rookie by today's standards and the phrase "played everyday" definitely applied to Williams. For a decade from 1962-1971 averaged 161 games and was just below superlative threshold numbers (29 HR /98 RBI/.298 AVG)

 

I also want to point out in the demographics section that specifies Williams' Home as "Whislter, Ala." Which is of course the tail end of his nickname "Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler"

Always a fan of cards with comics. The presentation on 1962T is a bit different - it is more of an illustration than a comic. A lot of the rookie cup cards in the early era of the subset have comics focused on the cup. This one is ok - cup is a bit distant and I cannot tell which character is giving or receiving the award. 

Note that the card makes no mention of Williams Rookie of the Year award.

 

More Rookie Iconogaphy

 

1962 Topps is not the only time that a Billy Williams card features rookie related iconography 

 

1961 Topps #141 Billy Williams

 

In just 1961 and 1962 Topps added a Star Icon to a few of the rookies in the set. Other notables from 1961 were Carl Yastrzemski and Phillies Catcher Clarence Coleman. Hall of Famer Juan Marichal's rookie card is in 1961T but did not get a Rookie Star Icon.

Sources and Links

1962 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset Index

Billy Williams HOF Index

Baseball-Ref

NBC Bay Area

1961 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Team (1962 Topps Set)

This is an index to postings related to the 1961 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which was honored with cards in the 1962 Topps set. The Set includes Hall of Famers Billy Williams and Joe Torre. No Phillies on the roster but there is Lee Thomas, architect of the 1993 Phillies NL Championship squad. 

1962 Topps #154 Lee Thomas

91	J.C. MARTIN	White Sox	1B
427	JAKE WOOD	Tigers	2B
283	CHARLEY (CHARLIE) SMITH	White Sox / Phillies / Dodgers	3B
13	Dick Howser no cup	A's	SS
154	LEE THOMAS	Angels	OF
288	BILLY WILLIAMS HOF	Cubs	OF
454	FLOYD ROBINSON	White Sox	OF
218	JOE TORRE RC	Braves	C
372	JACK CURTIS	Cubs	LHP
35	DON SCHWALL	Red Sox	RHP

Sources and Links

All-Star Rookie Index

Baseball-Ref