1967 Topps #290 Bill White

This is a companion posting to the column earlier this week on AL league president Bobby Brown.

1967 Topps #290 Bill White

Like Bobby Brown, Bill White was a former player who became a league President. White led the NL from 1989-1994. 

His playing career was 13 years 3 of which were spent with the Phillies. We ran a more thorough profile last year on the occasion of White's 80th birthday - click here to read the more.  The 80th Birthday Column also contains a 1966T card of White for those of you that are interested in 2015 Heritage Originals.

John Hancock

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary #1014 Subway Series/Interleague Play  

The 1967T card at the top of the post has a facsimile signature that clearly reads "Bill White", a more familiar and less formal monicker than the "William D White" which appears on the NL Baseball above.

Contrast this with Bobby Brown who we featured on Wednesday. Brown stuck with Bobby rather than sign as Robert on the AL Baseball 

Pencil
When grading cards or commenting on their condition, there are several words or phrases that come up: Creasing, Rounded Corners, Faded, Tape, Gum Residue etc. One of those terms is Pencil or Ink for whenever there is writing on the card. At some point someone had scrawled the number 10 on Bill White's Chest. This was his uniform number while with the Phillies. Noteworthy Phillies to where the number were Larry Bowa and Darren Daulton, Michael Young was the most recent active player to don #10, which has now been returned to Bowa in his current role as Bench Coach. 

Sources and Links
SABR Bio Bill White by Warren Corbett
New York Times
Baseball-ref

#tbt Official Major League Baseball from the past

During the off-season Bud Selig retired from the position as Commissioner of Major League Baseball. 

Official Major League Baseball

That means that as of this week Major League baseballs will no longer contain the "Allan H Selig" signature.

Thus we have a "Throw Back Thursday" item - dubbed #tbt in the Social Media Realm. Yes The Bud Selig baseball is now an artifact, albeit from the relatively recent past - Regardless, it is part of a world that no longer exists.

I have about a dozen MLB baseballs in the Phungo Collection, most or possibly all of which came from foraging after Batting Practice Homers. The above ball is likely one of these. Every single MLB Ball I have is of the Bud Selig variety.

Hopefully during the new season we will be adding one with the Rob Manfred signature to the collection. 

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary #1014 Subway Series/Interleague Play 

Baseball didn't always carry Selig's signature. Prior to the interleague play and the homogenizing of the leagues the AL and NL had different baseballs. The above card from the massive UD 20th Anniversary set shows the NL ball signed by one time Phillies player and NL President Bill White along with it's AL counterpart carrying the autograph of Bobby Brown. 

Sources and Links
SABR Bio Bobby Brown by Mike Huber
SABR Bio Bill White by Warren Corbett

1966 Topps #397 Bill White Happy 80th Birthday!

To mark the 80th birthday of Bill White we are putting together a quick posting. Those of you expecting 2014 Topps will just have to wait a bit.

1966 Topps #397 Bill White

White is known as a Cardinal, but he did spend a few years (1966-68) at the end of his career with the Phillies. He was a member of the Cardinals squad that overtook the 64 Phillies team we have been highlighting recently. Those Cardinals went on to beat the Yankees in the 1964 World Series. Other highlights of the First Baseman’s distinguished career include making 8 all-star teams (over 5 seasons), posting four .300 seasons and a like number of 100 RBI seasons and collection 7 Gold Gloves.

His best season with the Phillies was 1966 when he posted 103 RBIs on 22 HR with a .276 BA. He won the last of his Gold Gloves that season, all good enough for a very solid 5.3 WAR. Among contemporary players he compares most similarly to Aubrey Huff.

Post Playing Career
White went into broadcasting even before his career was over, hosting a radio program while with the Cardinals. This helped him land post career gigs behind the mic with the Phillies and Yankees. White spent 18 years with the Yankees and has specifically mentioned enjoying the opportunity to work with Phil Rizzuto. In 1989 While was elected to the Office of NL President, a post he held until 1994. In 2011 White published his autobiography “Uppity: My Untold Story About the Games People Play” covering his live in baseball including his playing days and stint as commissioner.

According to his Wikipedia entry Bill White still lives in the Philadelphia area. 

1966 Topps
At card number #397 Bill White falls in a mid Number series for 1966 Topps. Cards 371-446 are the lowest and most common of the sets 3 mid/high series. Typically I look for a price point of $1-$1.50 for cards in this # range, for comparison I would expect the 66 commons (low numbers) to be found in the a 3 fer a buck bin. Those prices would be for an off condition card similar to the one pictured - soft corners, possibly light creasing.

Sources
Stan Hochman - philly.com
Mike Morsch - Montgomery Media 
Wikipedia
Baseball-ref.com

2013 Topps Heritage the Originals - 1964 Topps League Leaders Cards

There are a couple of subsets in 1964 Topps, the first of which numerically are the League Leaders cards.

1964 Topps #11 NL League Leaders RBI

Last year Night Owl Cards put together bit of analysis of the league leaders card. To me this olympic podium design is the best. Decent size picture of the overall leader followed by two smaller pix of the runner up and third place finishers.

The LL cards in 1964 fit the overall design well. The two fonts on the card title are similar to the rookie cards and the player name plates carry over the feel of the base cards.

There are 12 League Leader cards in 1964 Topps. 1 card per league for each of 6 categories ERA, Pitching (Wins), Strikeouts,  Batting (avg), HR,  and RBI

For the Collector

The above LL card was picked up at a card show last year for $2. It is in ok condition, not bad for the price of a 2013 retail pack you get a vintage card with Hank Aaron in the lead spot! - that is like stealing. Low recent ebay auction closed at $1.54 shipped. A graded PSA 9 card was the Hi end at $308.00.

Prior 1964 Topps the Originals Postings 

1964 Topps Design (Ray Culp, Lou Brock, Gus Triandos) 

1964 Topps Rookie Cards (Dick Allen)

More info on 1964 Topps

The full series is in the process of being covered at the 1964 Topps Blog 

The Phillies Room has a posting on the 1964 Topps Phillies as part of the ongoing Topps Phillies Series.

Dean's Cards

Beckett

Other Sources
Bob Lemke's Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards 
eBay
Surf Baseball Card Collectiblies, Philadelphia Phillies 

Philly Card Show Report - Splurge the 1959s

1959 Topps #514 Bob Gibson

If you are building a vintage set you at some point have to decide how you are going to handle the star cards, special cards, short prints and Hall of Famers. Because of the laws of supply and demand, these cards are typically both harder to locate and more expen$ive.

For the most part my 59 set is made up of cards I would describe as in good condition. I avoid cards that are written on, torn cut up etc. Dinged Corners and surface wear don't bother me to much.

That brings us to 1959 Topps #514 Bob Gibson. This is THE rookie card of the 1959 Topps Set. It is also part of the somewhat scarcer high number series of 59 Topps. I already have all three Mantle cards from the Set and the Mays base card, so I was well aware that this was likely the next big fish from the set.

This card has some minor creasing, surface wear and soft edges. If I were a Cardinals fan and wanted a Gibson Rookie to be the center of my collection, I would probably have passed on this card.

But as a good card of a big name Hall of Fame player that I need to build a 50 year old vintage set - This card is perfectly fine.
For the Collector

This particular card went for $30. On ebay a card in similar condition just sold for $34.99 shipped. A noticeably better conditioned card went for $39.98 which appears to be a pretty good deal to me. Beyond that there are several auctions that finished in the $85-$100 range. A really crisp graded card top ended at $1384.00 on November 22nd.



1959 Topps #317 NL Hitting Kings Ashburn and Mays

I believer there are three cards featuring Willie Mays in the 1959 Topps set, this one also features Phillies Hall of Famer and fan favorite Richie Ashburn. This went for a reasonable $4.50. I also picked up the #20 Duke Snider card for $2.50, but it is in really poor condition, and looking back I probably should have bypassed that card.
Commons



1959 Topps #517 Joe Koppe
1959 Topps #440 "Lou" Burdette
1959 Topps #206 Carl Furillo
1959 Topps #359 Bill White

The Koppe card is really not a common, it is part of the High Numbered Series which start at #507. The "Lou" Burdette card is notable for the misspelling of his first name LEW short for Lewis. This card "inspired" the much derided 2007 Topps Heritage super-scarce parallel "Jon" Smoltz card. What is Carl Furillo doing in the bargain bin??. And finally Bill White, who was one of the first black players in the Majors and as the President of the National League (1989-94) was the first African-American to hold such an office for a Major Sports League.

The Joe Koppe card as well as 7 other hi numbers went for $1.75. The regular set commons of which I picked up about 30 went for 35 cents each.

If you would like to contribute to the Phungo 1959 Topps Set Building challenge please let me know, I have lots of common duplicates to trade. My 1959 Topps Want List is chronicled here.

Speaking of 1959 Topps and 2007 Topps Heritage

Yep this was Team Phungo's last splurge of the 2009 Collecting Year. I finally broke down and decided to build the Topps 1959 Homage set - 2007 Topps Heritage. The two boxes went for a reasonable 90.00 combined and I got the dealer to toss in some new hobby packs 09 Heritage High Numbers at a discount.