Canada Day - TASR: 1970 OPC #238 Jose Laboy

Happy Canada Day folks. To honor the occasion we are featuring the first All-Star Rookie Cup awarded to the Montreal Expos. 

1970 OPC #238 Jose Laboy (image stolen from tcdb)

Jose "Coco" Laboy had a shared Rookie card in 1969, The 1970 shown here is his first solo. I have always wanted to cover this card - There is just something cool about bat rack cards.  This one is particularly interesting as Laboy is in motion, he is picking out a bat trying to find the one that with a Hit in it no doubt.  None of the bats have numbered knobs, but we can clearly see Laboy's #39 on his jersey. 

In addition to Rookie Cup honors Laboy was also named the Sporting News NL Rookie Player of the Year. This is a different award than the more widely recognized BBWAA ROY which went to the Dodgers Ted Sizemore. The BBWAA vote was not even that close. Sizemore tallied 14 of the 24 votes, while Laboy garned only 3. This is despite the fact that Laboy, a third baseman hit 18 HR and a rookie leading 83 RBI while second baseman Sizemore's hit a more pedestrian 4 HR and 46 RBI. Ted Sizemore did lead rookies with a 4.2 WAR - of course this was unknown to 1969 era scribes, but apparently he passed the eye test. 

1970+

Coco Laboy played four additional seasons in the majors but never matched the success of his Rookie campaign. He retired as a career Expo with 420 games played 28 home runs and a -0.9 WAR. 

His decline may have been due to his advanced age for a MLB rookie, he was well past his 28th birthday. Laboy's Minor League career was spent in the Giants and Cardinals organization where he racked up 138 Home Runs and a career .294 average in well over a 1000 games. Despite these impressive numbers he never got a Major League opportunity until...

 

Bat Rack Connection

1970 OPC #324 Tony Taylor (tcdb)

In 1969 Coco Laboy was selected in the expansion draft by the Montreal Expos. Manager Gene Mauch picked Laboy largely due to the recommendation of Puerto Rican League teammate Tony Taylor (who played for Mauch with the Phillies) 

In a trading card coincidence Tony Taylor is also a member of the 1970 Topps/OPC bat rack club. 

Flip

Noticed since this is a Canada column we are using an OPC card - or course since it's 1970 we won't see much difference from Topps until we flip the card over. 

1970 OPC #238 Jose Laboy (flip/tcdb)

Checking the text of the card we quickly spot the French language translations that are present on OPC. We also see Coco's long minor League career which dates back to the 1950s including a couple of 20 Home Run seasons. 

Comic: Unfortunately we were unable to find any record of Laboy pitching for Springfield in Baseball-Ref.

Topps

1970 Topps #238 Jose Laboy (flip/tcdb)

Here is the standard Topps card. Beyond the language difference we can also see that the text on Topps is completely contained in the blue box, while OPC put this below the demographics section. 

Peanut Gallery

For more on this card check Jim's column over at 1970 Topps Baseball. 

Sources and Links

1970 TASR Index

Coco Laboy SABR Bio (Brian Joseph)

retrosimba (Mark Tomasik)

1970 Topps Baseball

tcdb

baseball-ref

Purple

Inspired by Night Owl Cards Prince Memorial last week we have a few Phillies Purple Cards.

1975 Topps # 574 Tony Taylor

In deference to NOC we open with a 1975T card that has a Purple top. The Phillies had purple cards in Flagship even in years when it was not one of the base colors.

Several times over the years Purple has served as a secondary color for Phillies cards. The 1990T Bob Dernier is a favorite - Green and Purple are particularly good complimentary colors.

Purple Chrome

Purple Parallels have shown up the last couple of years commonly found in Toys R Us sets, but I think the 2013 Heritage may have been regular retail.

Fleer stole the 1954T design for this set. Lots of Purple on the Ron Gant card.

Continuing with Fleer with a minimalist retro inspired design from 2006. Kind of like the look of this set.

The Purple continues through to the b-side.

 HoF Mike Schmidt go the Purple Honors on his 1988 Score card.

Once again the Purple continues through to the back, although more subtle then on the Rollins 06 Fleer Tradition Card.

Finally from 1982T, in addition to the titles the signature hockey sticks are also in Princely Purple.

Finally we close with Prince Himself

Purple Rain 45 RPM on Purple Vinyl

And the packaging...

I supposed colored vinyl is the Parallel of Records.

Sources and Links
Prince Memorial / Prince R&R HoF Index

Swag from Night Owl Cards

Recently I received a nice package of cards from Night Owl Cards, Here are some of the Highlights:

1972 Topps #453 Barry Lersch
1970 Topps #324 Tony Taylor

NOC was able to knock a couple of cards off my vintage checker. I don't really have a current list posted but I do have a checklist that I do take to shows. Both of these early 70s cards are in great condition and are welcome additions to the collection.

Night Owl recently his best vintage discover of 2015 was the Bat Rack photos scattered throughout 1970 Topps. The Tony Taylor card is one of four cards that NOC featured in this post - you have to scroll down pretty far to get to the relevant text, but as always the remainder of the column is pretty interesting.

2011 Topps #219 Carlos Ruiz (Cognac Parallel)

There was a team bag full of cards which consisted of many recent Phillies, however so many players have been traded recently many of those players are no longer with the club. Among the players remaining on the current roster Chooch and Ryan Howard were the biggest names.

In 2011 Topps celebrated their Diamond Anniversary (60th) and had a couple of Diamond Parallels. The Cognacs are a variation on the Diamonds, they sort of look like they took a Diamond card and dipped it in Coca Cola. 

2010 Topps #MTOG Tales of the Game Roy Halladay

This card notes a series where the Phillies at Blue Jays series was moved to Philadelphia. Roy Halladay pitched game 1 of the series. I love cards that can be tied to specific games and we may take a longer look at this one in the future.

Chase

2009 UD O-Pee-Chee #OPC-10 Chase Utley

Yes I have a Chase Utley Player Collection. I have no formal "Have/Need" list for the collection - I am guessing it is less than a hundred cards.  This UD 1975 Topps knock off is a fine addition to the collection.

2015 Topps Stadium Club #99 Chase Utley


The more I see of 2015 Stadium Club the more I am impressed. Love this shot and glad to add it to the Phungo Collection.

Sources and Links
Night Owl Cards

Baseball-ref

1964 Phillies @ 50: Tony Taylor 1976 Topps #624

Tonight we move on to our second installment on the 1964 Phillies with a look at second baseman Tony Taylor.

1976 Topps #624 Tony Taylor 

For Tony Taylor 1964 was a perfectly average season in what one would have to consider a very average (albeit lengthy career). In ‘64 He batted .251 (career .261) with 4 Home Runs and 64 RBIs. He’s lack  of power was evident in his final numbers that reflected a higher OBP (.320) than SLG (.316) His 81 OPS+ was a tad below his career number of 88. Clearly Tony Taylor got to play everyday because of his glovework in the middle infield. Throughout  the early 1960s Taylor was a steady defensively and finished near the top of the league in a myriad of different statistical categories. For the 1964 season Taylor finished 3rd in the league in Assists, Putouts and Double Plays. 

That defensive play would be what would keep Taylor in the big leagues for 19 years (15 with the Phillies) – He never batted above .284 in a qualifying season, his career High in RBI was 55 in 1970.  The most home runs he hit in a season was 9, yet he stuck around long enough to hit 72 of them. He did play long enough to accumulate enough Putouts, Assists, and Double Plays at second to rank him in among the top 60 players all-time for each category. 

Tony Taylor retired in 1976 and 27 years later he remains the Phillies franchise leader in games played by a player who primarily played second base. Taylor was inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame in 2002. The 78 year old Taylor still regularly makes his return to the Phillies Alumni weekend.   


1976 Topps 
Tony Taylor was 28 when he played for the 1964 Phillies, which made him the 2nd oldest everyday player on the team, Yet he was still around in 1976. According to my limited research Taylor and DIck Allen were the last two players from the 1964 team to be issued a Topps Card  in a Phillies uniform.   

One other note on 1976 Topps - It would only take a dime or maybe even a nickel to upgrade this card.


1964 Philies Series 
Johnny Callison

Sources
Baseball-ref
Baseball Card Database
Phillies.com