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

Game Report 2015 0625 Dodgers 4 at Cubs 0

Throwing up a sort of quick posting with some pictures from a game Team Phungo attended as part of SABR 45 in Chicago. The Dodgers shutout the Cubs 4-0 in a game that had some odd events.

Howie Kendrick had a 2 RBI double in the first for LA which was all that the Dodgers needed. Cubs starter Jon Lester struggled to find the plate for most of his outing and was lifted after 4 innings. Carlos Frias started for the Dodgers and navigated his way through five innings. The Bullpen completed the shutout by pitching to one over the minimum over the final four innings.

Snapshots

Edwin Jackson vs Alex Guerrero 

The Cubs have honored Ernie Banks with his #14 behind Home Plate. You may also notice that the classic scoreboard is no longer the outfield feature. The two new scoreboards are not for everyone, but I found them to be well done and informative.

Anthony Rizzo

Anthony Rizzo was the Cubs lone bright spot for the day, going 3-4 with a pair of doubles.

Jimmy Rollins

Getting to see the Dodgers gave us a chance to see our old friend Jimmy Rollins. He had a bunt single which was something I don't recall him doing very often with the Phillies, he was also caught stealing - making the 3rd out at 3rd base. I probably saw Jimmy do that while he was in Philly.

Matt Sczczur

I was looking forward to seeing Kris Bryant while I was in Chicago. Unfortunately he left the game after one inning (flu like symptons). That did open the door for Matt Sczczur to get into the game. Sczczur played his collegiate baseball (and football) at Villanova which is located just down the road from Phungo HQ.

"Sweet Swinging" Billy Williams

There are a couple of statues outside of the entrances of Wrigley. This one of Billy Williams who we featured a few Sunday's ago is outside gate D.

Paddington and Clark

There were three first pitches for the game - none more fun then the one from Paddington the Bear. The throw was terribly off the mark. The Cubs new mascot, Clark, was the catcher for the pitch and ran over a cameraman in an effort to catch Paddington's errant throw.

In the photo above Clark is shown giving Paddington a gift, which was the ball to be used on the first pitch.

Sources and Links
SABR 45 Index
Chicago Travelblog
Baseball-ref

Sunday Night Baseball: Cubs HoF Billy Williams turns 77

With Sunday Night Baseball in Chicago we will take a look at the 1960s era Cubs Hall of Fame Left Fielder and Monday Birthday Boy Billy Williams

1965 Topps #220 Billy Williams

Pretty strong HoF Resume for Mr Williams: 426 Home Runs, 2711 hits, 1961 Rookie of the Year, 1972 Batting Champ, and 3 Time League Total Base Leader.

If it wouldn't be for Johnny Bench, Billy Williams would also have a pair of MVP awards on his mantle as well.

The only omission is his modest postseason contributions. Like all the big time Cubs of the era (or almost any era) Williams got shut out of the World Series until he moved onto another team. Williams finally got to experience the playoffs in 1975 at the age of 37 as a member of the Oakland A's.  Unfortunately his only playoff opportunity was brief as the A's were swept by the Boston Red Sox.

Flip

1965 Topps #220 Billy Williams (b-side)

Nice snap shot of Billy Williams number mid career. At 27 the man was established but still early in his career, He would hit 319 Homers after this card was produced. The cartoon is a nice nod to Williams Rookie of the Year award in 1961. He appears to be driving a VW Beetle, likely as nice a car as a rookie could afford in 1961 when Billy Williams pulled in an estimated $9500.


Post career Billy Williams returned to the Cubs as a coach but never got the chance to manage a club. In August 13th 1987 The Cubs retired Williams #26 just a few after his induction to the Hall of Fame. The Cubs drew 35,033 for the ceremony and the Fans got to see a W that day. 

Phun Phact
The trade that sent from Billy Williams to Oakland was for a package of players that included Manny Trillo - The second baseman for the 1980 World Champion Phillies.

Billy Williams HoF Index

1962 Topps #288 (rookie cup)
1965 Topps #220 (Year of the Tiger Birthday)
1965 Topps #4 (LL HR)

Statue at Wrigley Field

Sources and Links
Baseball-ref
SABR bio by Mark Armour
This Day in Chicago Cubs History

2014 Heritage the Originals - 1965 Topps #4 League Leaders Home Runs

The typical format of the 1965 Topps League Leaders has been referred to by Night Owl Cards as Olympic Podium style. The League Leader on the Top, with two smaller photos of the 2nd and 3rd  place finishers. Of course in many categories there are ties. Take the 1964 Home Run Leaders

1965 Topps #4 League Leaders Home Run

This LL card is packed full of players - It is kind of a cool one for Phillies Fans. You get Johnny Callison plus 3 Hall of Famers.  I am sure it is a must have for Giants fans as well, I mean how many LL cards have 3 players from the same team.

Willie Mays and Billy Williams sort of get equal billing, although Mays had 14 more Home Runs then Williams (47-33). Callison and the other folks on the bottom tier each tallied 31 dingers.  This can all be seen on the flip of the card:

 

1965 Topps #4 LL Home Runs (b-side)

Kind of interesting feature here, the HR hitters are listed down to 18 and then we are presented with a separate list of all the players that hit a Grand Slam. The latter list includes the only career grand slam hit by Pete Rose, which was off the Phillies and Dallas Green.  

Traditional 1965T Olympic Podium

1965 Topps #3 LL Home Runs (image swiped from baseball card database)

The AL counterpart to our titular card is a fine example of the 3 man LL card, with some stellar reps in Harmon Killewbrew, Boog Powell, and Mickey Mantle. 

MLB 2013 did feature some ties in the LL categories, it will be interesting to see how this is handled for Topps in 2014 Heritage.

More Banished Chris Short
A few weeks ago we discussed the omission of Phillies pitcher Chris Short from Topps cards prior to 1967. The fine creative folks over at Cards that Never Were figured out that this meant that Topps had to create an NL ERA LL card without Short, who placed 3rd in 1964. CTNW put together their own custom card that is pretty sweet.  Cards that Never Were is on a bit of Chris Short binge - their example of the 1965T Chris Short card is here. (hat tip to Chris Short fan Jim From Downingtown for pointing me to the CTNW LL posting)

1965 Topps/2014 Heritage Index   

Base - #534 John Herrnstein 

Rookie Cup - #460 Dick Allen 

Rookie Stars - #282 Dick Estelle & Masanori Murakami 

2010 Topps Vintage Collection - #VLC2 Johnny Mize

World Series - #139 The Cards Celebrate

More info on 1965 Topps
The entire 1965 Topps Series was covered by Kevin B of Orioles Card "O" the day on The Great 1965 Topps Project
Cardboard Connection
Sports Collectors Digest (TS O' Connell)
Golden Age of Baseball Cards
Dean's Cards
Beckett

PSA

Sources

Night Owl Cards 

Cards that Never Were

baseball card database

baseball-ref.com

2014 Topps 

Happy New Year - Year of the Tiger!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Year of the Tiger according to the Chinese Zodiac.

2010 is The Year of the Tiger as well as the past years 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950 ,1938 and beyond at 12 year intervals.

We at team Phungo will celebrate by posting a few cards of some Tigers.

1962 2009 Topps Allen & Ginters #68 Jamie Moyer

Hard to believe that Jamie is starting his 5th cycle of the zodiac and has a chance to be a pitcher this season. He has been a great player and member of the community and I hope he can return for one more season.

Looking ahead a year, if Moyer were to be issued a 2011 Topps Heritage card, he would probably be the first active player to have a Heritage card from his birth year. Not sure if Julio Franco hung on that long or not.

1938
1965 Topps #220 Billy Williams
1990 Donruss #716 Bart Giamatti

A Hall of Famer and a major league president that faced the task of disciplining a player that had a Hall of Fame career.

1950

1978 Topps #420 Greg Luzinski
2007 UD SPXcitement SPX-29 Julius Erving

Two Philadelphia Giants.


1974

2008 UD Nationals Baseball Card Day #UD10 Derek Jeter
2000 Topps #38 Bobby Abreu

A pair of former teammates. 4800 Hits, 480 Homers and 650 Stolen Bases between them. Alanis Morissette, who is featured on a 2010 Phungo Card is also a 1974 Tiger.

1986
2008 Topps Trading Card History #TCH75 Felix Hernandez
2009 UD Goudey #152 Lou Marson

Felix Hernandez is on a card featuring the design from his birth year, which is pretty cool. Not many players can say that - unless they are a member of the Chicago White Sox or perhaps next year Jamie Moyer.