The Johnny Callison - Dale Murphy Connection

Strange confluence of events led to this post.

Last night I was bindering some cards, one of which was this Dale Murphy card.

1983 Topps #401 Dale Murphy All-Star

The flip side of each 1983T AS card has the summary of an all-star game. Dale Murphy's card features the 1964 All-Star Game

1983 Topps #401 Dale Murphy All-Star (b-side)

There is a lot of copy here - The 1964 All Star Game will always be the Johnny Callison Game to me. Topps does finally get around to mentioning the Phillies Outfielder in the third sentence. Regardless I am happy to see the game noted in the 1983T All-Star set.

This morning @MallonDan noted via twtter that Johnny Callison was born on this date in 1939 and mentioned the 1964 All-Star game. I noted this and thought, "I just read about that game on a Baseball Card last night"

Later in the day Andy at @HighHeatStats mentioned it that the all-time leader for Home Runs among players born on March 12 was Dale Murphy.

That's when I thought Hey I was just looking at the card that connects both of these players that share a birth date.

etc
I am adding this post to our 1964 Phillies series.

Sources and Links
@MallonDan
@HighHeatStats
1964 Phillies @ 50
Baseball-ref

ReWind: 1964 All-Star Game - 1965 Topps #310 Johnny Callison

The Last time the All-Star Game was hosted by the Mets was at old Shea Stadium in 1964.  The game was a big one for one Phillies Rep.   

1965 Topps #310 Johnny Callison

With the scored tied in 2 outs in the 9th Johnny Callison hit a 3 run homer to give the NL a 7-4 walk off victory.

The moment noted on the reverse of Callison's 1965 Topps card: 

1965 Topps #310 Johnny Callison(B-side)

1965 Topps

Commons from the much loved 65T set can often be found in the 3/Buck bin.  A semi-star like Callison would likely fetch somewhere between 50 cents adn a dollar. Commons from the set run from #1-370. The High Numbers start at 371 and run to the end of the set, 598. Non-stars among High Numbers go for around a dollar.

Other Voices

ESPN recently ran a full length piece on Callison and his famous Homer here.

1967 Topps #85 Johnny Callison

Sources

Baseball-ref.com

ESPN.com