1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda - and a BIG cartoon

Last month Orlando Cepeda had to be rushed to the hospital to be treated for a "cardiac incident". Thankfully, according to a SF Gate article the Hall of Fame first baseman has made significant progress towards recovery. 

The scary news got me to check and I realized that I had not yet dedicated a column to Cepeda. Tonight we rectify this issue. 

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda

In 1959 Orlando Cepeda made the first of eleven All-Star teams that he would be part of during his 17 year career. 1959 began a four year run that featured two all-star games. Cepeda made all 8 of those teams. Cepeda only appeared in the first of the two 1959 games, with the NL winning the contest 5-4 despite the fact that Cepeda went 0-4.

In addition to the 11 ASG Orlando Cepeda's accolades include a World Champion, four postseason appearances,  an MVP (1967) award and a Rookie of the Year (1958).

And oh yeah that Hall of Fame plaque awarded by the Veterans Committee in 1999.  

The 1959 Topps All-Star cards close the set and were the last to be released for the year. The nice thing about this is that it allows Topps to put out an All-Star set representing the current years game, unfortunately they made some dubious choices in selection.

Orlando Cepeda would appear on two other All-Star cards, 1962 and 1968. In addition to being included in the 1968 ASG set Cepeda was also the subject of that years NL All-Star puzzle.

Flip

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda (b-side)

I like the backs of the 1959 Topps All-Stars, The full-size cartoon and fun-fact are nicely done. I also like the Bazooka ad at the bottom.

BIG Cartoon
1959 Topps #535 Orlando Cepeda also happens to be a landmark card. I believe 1959 Topps All-Stars are the first subset to include the full-size cartoon. There are actually 2 cards that precede Cepeda in the 1959 ASG Subset, but those are both managers, The first of which is Fred Haney who is the first oversized cartoon back. However since he is not a player, and neither is #534 Casey Stengel that makes today's featured guest Orlando Cepeda the first player to have an oversized cartoon back - PIONEER! Thanks to Fuji for getting my wheels rolling in this direction.

Other Voices
CommishBob covers this over at his 1959 Topps Blog

Orlando Cepeda Index
1975 Topps  #205 1967 MVP  (with Carl Yastrzemski)


Sources and Links
1959 Topps All-Stars Index 
1968 Topps Blog
1959 Topps 1 f/g card at a time
SF Gate
baseball-ref

Updates
2018 0321 - Added Big Cartoon Paragraph, Thanks Fuji

Blaster Break 2015 Topps Stadium Club

Some highlights from a recent Blaster purchase of 2015T Stadium Club. I think I may have picked up a single loosey as well, can't remember.

The Sole Phillie in the 40 card bounty was or retired centerfielder - convicted criminal Lenny Dykstra.

As with most Stadium Club cards we have a nice shot - full bleed. The TSC design is minimal - showing of the photo more, but unremarkable. Dykstra is bundled up here, wonder if this is from a road opener somewhere. I am a fan of the Liberty Bell flair whenever it shows up on Phillies attire on a card - you can see it here on Dykstra's turtleneck.

Blaster All-Stars

I like to post Breaks in the form of an all-star team of the cards drawn. Sometimes it is the best players, but often it is the most interesting photo or card design/shot combo

Battery

David Cone
Tim Hudson
Hisashi Iwakuma
Ivan Rodriguez

I think we were pitching light which is how Iwakuma got the nod, but the rest of these shots are great.  I may return to the Cone card as part of our Year of the No-Hitter Series. The Pudge card needs to rank among the best in the set - I want this shot on a Carlos Ruiz card.


Infield

Chipper Jones
Orlado Cepeda
Hanley Ramirez
Bip Roberts

I like the Ramirez card as it is a nice nod to both his changing teams and changing positions. It is a card that pays off on the viewers baseball knowledge. Note I moved Hanley back to Shortstop for this posting as the position was left vacant by our 40 card blaster.

Including a handful of Black n White hots is a nice touch in the set. The entirety of Orlando Cepeda's career was probably in the color photography era, but it is nice to see the B/W shot here.



 Outfield

Bo Jackson
Joe DiMaggio
Deion Sanders
Dusty Baker

Lots of stuff going on here, The Bo Jackson card gives us an interesting candid shot -
Something that is hard to capture. I typically dislike any shot from behind the player but the Deion Sanders card is ok, there is action and it is with one of the premier basestealers of the era. Dusty Baker is getting a lead from 2nd or 3rd, which you don't see on many cards - also it is hard to pick up but this is a Gold insert.

The Joe DiMaggio B/W is apparently noting his reach 45 games in his hit streak. At the time this tied Wee Willie Keeler for the major league record - this is another card I would like to return to at some point.


The Bench (Inserts)

Ken Griffey/Ken Griffey Jr
Contact Sheet Miguel Cabrera
Luminous Trumvirate Starling Marte

The Griffeys card is a fun one, will probably see this one a lot in the next year especially come Father's day. Here I have presented the base and Gold for side/side comparison.

The two bottom cards are inserts that I don't understand.

Sources and Links
Baseball-ref
Baseball Almanac
Ken Griffey Jr HoF Index
Orlando Cepeda HoF Index
Joe DiMaggio HoF Index
Ivan Rodriguez HoF Index

2014 Topps A&G: Quick Hits and Thoughts

Yeah I am way behind on this quick hit review but I am going to publish it anyway.

Picked up a Rack Pack and a single of 2014 Topps A&G a few weeks back. These are the Highlights.

 

2014 Topps A&G #307 Cliff Lee 

Decent Design, still says Ginter but it just different enough form other sets to keep it interesting. 

The Team Name dwarfing the player name is a bit jarring. This is a departure from prior A&G designs.  For most part past A&G designs have not featured team names. In 2011 a square team logo was displayed on each card.

Lee was the only Phillies player I got in the bounty. 

2014 Topps A&G Heritage #223 Tony Gwynn

I don't remember how many cars I picked up in the packs. I am thinking 24. Close to half of them were Hall of Famers. This is probably my favorite out of those - Pulling a card of the recently deceased Tony Gwynn brought a pang of sadness to me. 

2014 Topps A&G 129 Hank Aaron

2014 Topps A&G 228 Orlando Cepeda

2014 Topps A&G 215 Johnny Bench

I have a pretty solid HoF cards collection and these are nice additions. I like the classic Braves uni on Hammerin' Hanks card. 

2014 Topps A&G Minis

Minis are always a highlight of AnG. The Carew and Wacha cards are both members of the 3 card special border pack that comes inside rack packs. Massaccio was a painter, the image Topps used is directly from wikipedia - glad I spent $3 on that pack.

2014 Topps A&G Pastimes #PP-MT Mike Trout #PP-NR Nolan Ryan

I think this is the 2014 A&G common insert. The B-sides lists the players hobbies - Trout collects baseball cards, Nolan runs a baseball team. 

#100 Queen Victoria @#119 Felicia Day

Some of the non-baseball cards in this year's set. Here we have the one time Queen of England and an actress from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

 

At the outset A&G inserts were always minis, not so much anymore. Neither of these do anything for me, maybe if I see some of these other members of these sets I will change my mind, but both of these are losers.

 

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 

2013 WS Game 1: 1975 Topps #205 MVPs Yastrzemski & Cepeda

I wanted to find a card that combined the BoSox and Cardinals and was very happy to find this beauty.

1975 Topps #205 1967 MVPs Yastrzemski & Cepeda (image swiped from baseball card database)


The 75T MVPs is one of the most fun subsets in the Topps canon. It marks both the 25th anniversary of Topps and the MVPs of each of those seasons.  In 1967 the MVPs were Yaz and Orlando Cepeda pictured here on the minimalist 67T Design.

Recent MVP discussion appear to come down to discussion of various traditional stats vs the single WAR stat.  Tonight I would like to examine the WAR numbers for these two future HoF players during their 67 MVP seasons - which was the only MVP for each. 

Yaz
Working from Left to Right we start with Yastrzemski.  He won the AL Triple Crown in 1967 and collected an astounding WAR of 12.41.  The 12.41 WAR is the highest single season number for anyone in the history of the game that is not named Babe Ruth. Yes Yaz won the Triple Crown and he had the 4th highest WAR in history, but he didn't get voted MVP unanimously.  Cesar Tovar received a single #1 vote for his 2.44 WAR season - I have no idea.    

Orlando Cepeda
Of course in a year when Carl Yastrzemski puts together one of the greatest seasons in history and doesn't get a unanimous MVP, Orlando Cepeda collected all 20 MVP first place votes in the NL Balloting. Cepeda had a very good year, but not historic. His 6.80 WAR was 5th among vote getters - Ron Santo led the league at 9.77. Cepada led the league in RBI (111) and finished 3rd in OBP (.399)

MLB 1967
Finally it should be noted that in 1967 the Cardinals and Red Sox met in the World Series. Yaz hit 3 Homers and batted .400 in the Series.  Cepeda collected 3 hits total and batted .103.  But baseball is a cruel game Yaz and the Red Sox lost to the Cardinals - Bob Gibson won 3 complete games giving up 3 ER across those starts.   

Other Voices
Night Owl Cards - 2010 posting from the NOC 75 Topps retrospective. Contains some interesting observation on 67T and notes that Orlando Cepeda's MVP season was his first with the Cardinals.   

2013 PostSeason Cardinals
Matt Adams
Lance Lynn
Michael Wacha 


2013 PostSeason Red Sox
Clay Buchholz
David Ortiz
Dustin Pedroia 
Shane Victorino
Jose Iglesias (Now with Tigers)

Sources
Phungo HOF Orlando Cepeda Index
Phungo HOF Carl Yastrzemski Index 
baseball Card Database
baseball-ref.com 

Card Show Report 2011 11 11 - Oaks PA - CSA Show

Sorry not enough time to commit to a thorough write-up so I am just going to post a few snapshots and pricing when I remember the $$ - These are some of the Vintage cards I picked up at the show. Later in the week I will feature the dime box specials.  


Phillies Great Richie Ashburn

1955 Bowman #130 Richie Ashburn $2



Home Run King Hank Aaron

1975 Topps Mini #1 Hank Aaron '74 Highlights $2.00
1974 Topps #2 Hank Aaron Special (1958-61) $1.00

More HoFs

1960 Topps #450 Orlando Cepeda ($1)
1962 Topps Warren Spahn All-Star ($1)
1953 Topps Dick Williams ($2.00)
1959 Topps #147 Cubs Clubbers ($1 - w/ Ernie Banks)

The weekend of the Oaks Show was a busy one for me an dI dint' get to spend as much time there as I would have liked, but I did well for the brief time I was there.   The Bowman Ashburn was a steal at the  price of $2.  I already had the Cubs Clubber card, but this one was a definite upgrade.

$2 for the Hank Aaron mini was a pretty good deal as well - One of the projects that is dancing in the back of my head is building a set of the HoF 75 Minis.  There are quite a few of them in that set and they are basically the biggest names from my childhood.
T