2016 Heritage the Originals - 1967 Topps

For this years Heritage release Topps will be revisiting their 1967 release. Up until  recently I found this set bland. Upon further review I think of it as a minimalist design that helps highlight the player photo.

Bear with me as I open the 2016 Heritage/1967 Topps discussion by posting the #395 Chris Short card which we have featured at length in our 1964 Phillies Retrospective.

1967 Topps #395 Chris Short

This isn't just one of my favorite cards of the 1967 set it is one of my favorite cards of all-time.

Everything comes together, A Semi-Star player, The bright red windbreaker, and the clear blue sky. The whole image says spring training baseball. The whole card is discussed beautifully over at the 1967 Topps Blog which I am sure I will cite frequently throughout this years discussion of Heritage.

The layout of 1967T is a solid foundation for a great card. The Bold but non-intrusive team name is the anchor for the design. Above the name we have the facsimile signature, which is quite clear on the Chris Short card, Player and position at that top with the photo extending all the way to the borders. This make 1967 Topps the fullest photo since 1957 Topps which similarly ran photos to the border with player name, team and other info overlaying the photo.

Flip

 1967 Topps #395 Chris Short

The Lime Green back side was a bit jarring when I first saw it as a kid. However, as I get older I appreciate the color more. It forms a good contrast to the text portion of the card. Some of the middle 70s dark greens are tough to read.

 

I look forward to seeing the 2 panel cartoons on 2016 Heritage. Check out the 2nd -toon mentions that Short had 16 shutouts, and this was only half way through his career. This artwork will NOT be on any Heritage card - Bartolo Colon is the active career leader in Shutouts at 13.

Another nice feature is full minor and major league stats. Although if one runs a comparison with 1966 Topps, we see that the profile format of the b-sides forces a couple of columns to be dropped. For pitcher cards these fields are league, Games and IP. For position players league, games and runs scored were eliminated. 1967 is the first Topps release to run the backs in profile rather than landscape format.  

1967 Topps came in at 609 cards which was the companies largest release at the time. 2016 Heritage will come in at a mere 425 cards, which will minimize the opportunities for Topps create number matches including both key rookies: #569 Rod Carew, #581 Tom Seaver and Chris Short's banishment partner #570 Maury Wills.

Over the coming weeks we plan on hitting a few topics in 2016 Heritage/1967 Topps, that statement comes with the regular Phungo disclaimer attached to our serialized features: We reserve the right to blow off the rest of the series at any time. If we stick with it some of the topics are indexed below.

1967 Topps/2016 Heritage Index
Manager Cards
Rookie Stars
Rookie Cups
Duos
League Leaders
World Series
Checkers
PinUps
Heritage High Number SPs (#426-500)

BuyBacks
Retros - Hank Aaron
Retros - 1975 Topps MVP
Retros - David Ortiz 
Phillies Checker Comparison
2016 Heritage First Pack
Banished #570 Maury Wills

1967T Hall of Fame Cards
#215 Ernie Banks
#315 Billy Williams
#333 Ferguson Jenkins
#422 Hoyt Wilhelm
#460 Harmon Killebrew
#500 Juan Marichal
#510 Bill Mazeroski
#480 Willie McCovey


Sources and Links
1967 Topps Blog
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards - Bob Lemke
Cardboard Connection 

50th Anniversary: Chris Short's 18 Strikeout Game

On October 2nd 1965 Chris Short set the National League Record for Strikeouts in a game.

1969 Topps #395 Chris Short

In the 2nd game of a double-header versus the Mets Short struck out 18 batters tying the modern National League record for Ks in a game. Short's 18 punch outs came over 15 shutout innings rather than the standard 9 and is not typically recognized in lists of high strikeout games.

The reason Short pitched 15 innings despite not allowing a run is that the Phillies were unable to score versus the Mets Rookie Pitcher Rod Gardner. In only his 5th career major league appearance Gardner also tossed 15 shutout innings, more than doubling his career total at the time.

In the end neither team scored and the game was suspended after 18 innings.

Gardner was Short's number one victim with 4 Strikeouts, Danny Napoleon took home a golden sombrero - even though he did not start. Joe Christopher struck out 3 times as well, but one of the Ks was versus Phillies reliever Jack Baldschun.

1969 Topps

1969 Topps #395 Chris Short (b-side)

This is the 3rd Topps Card issued for Short who debuted in 1959 but did not get signed by Topps until 1967.

Chris Short added 4 more shutouts to the team record mentioned in the -toon. His record 24 career Shutouts for the Phillies was eventually eclipsed by Hall of Famer Steve Carlton (39). The franchise shutout record is held by Grover Cleveland (Pete) Alexander (61) 

The Box for the All-Star game referenced in the text can be found here. Among the 7 batters Short faced were future Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew (popout) and Carl Yastrzemski (Walk). The final batter Short faced was hometown Angels All-Star Rep and future Phillies Manager Jim Fregosi who struckout.

Jim from Downingtown has an interesting post on the 67 All-Star game here, it includes vintage newspaper photos from the era. One of the pix is of Dick (Richie) Allen with Hall of Famer Tony Perez.  

Sources and Links
Phungo Chris Short Index (1964 Phillies Retrospective)
1960s Baseball - Jim from Downingtown

Retrosheet
Baseball-ref
1960s Baseball
Astros Daily
Phillies
2015 1003 - Added link to Jim from Downingtown's 1967 ASG posting.  
 

1964 Phillies @ 50: Chris Short 1967 Topps #395

This is Chris Short's first Topps Card.

1967 Topps #395 Chris Short

The Boxscore from Short's first game is here.

Yes Chris Short pitched in a game 8 years before he had a baseball card.For most of the 1960s Chris Short, like Matt Wieters who we featured yesterday, was not seen on a Topps Card. I poked around a bit to try and find out exactly what Short's objection was and why that changed. There is the well documented case of Maury Wills not appearing in Topps until 1967 - Apparently Topps didn't view Wills as a prospect and then he got contracted to Fleer (which only made one release). I didn't see any evidence that Short went unsigned for the same reason. One theory I have are that Short was the son of a lawyer and perhaps he saw the Topps contract as unfairly cheap, Chris Short's SABR biographer Andy Sturgill proposed that Short was strictly focussed on baseball and may not have wanted to bother with outside issues.    


1964 
It is well documented how during the closing weeks of the 1964 season Gene Mauch used/misused Chris Short and future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning. Between September 22 and October 2 1964 Short started 4 games. Prior to that he had pitched on 2 days rest a couple of times he accumulated 10 starts between August 30th and 10/2.

The Phillies collapse cannot erase what was otherwise a very good campaign by Short. The then 26 year old lefty put together a 17-9 record with a 2.20 ERA (3rd in the NL) and 6.2 WAR(4th). This was all good enough to put Short on the first of his 2 all-star squads and pick up a couple of MVP votes.

Chris Short spent almost his entire career with the Phillies winning 132 games over 14 seasons ranking him 2nd behind only Hall of Famer Steve Carlton among the clubs southpaws. 

Banished
Banished is a term that Night Owl Cards came up with to describe a player that isn't on the Topps Checker for contractual or other reasons. NOC was basically talking about the above mentioned Maury Wills situation, but also discussed Matt Wieters and others. Between his column and Comments especially several by Jim from Downingtown of the late 1960s Topps blogs this is a pretty good list of the Banished.  
.     
Maury Wills - No Topps pre-1967
Chris Short - No Topps pre-1967
Rusty Staub - 
Dick Hall 64-66, 69
Joe Adcock 64-66
Tony Horton 66-70
Lenny Green 67-68
Vinegar Bend Mizell - No Cards after 1958

Kevin McReynolds (1985-86)
Danny Jackson (1985-86)


Matt Wieters - No Topps cards period 
Barry Bonds - 2004
Jason Varitek
Alex Rodriquez
Ichiro - 2013 

Pete Rose - No one speaketh his name on 2013 Topps backs and several other recent Topps sets.   

Other Voices
For a fine description of the beauty of this card and some additional information please check out Jim From Downingtown and his 1967 Topps Blog

Chris Short Index
1967 Topps #395 (1967 Topps/2016 Heritage feature)
1969 Topps #395 (18 K game 50th Anniversary)

Sources
1964 Phillies Series Index
The Year of the Blue Snow: The 1964 Phillies
Baseball-ref.com
Night Owl Cards