Sunday, January 13, 2013

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1967 Topps #604 Boston Red Sox Team Card

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, January 13, 2013:


  • Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1967 Topps #604.
  • Team: 1966 Boston Red Sox.
  • Last Line of Statistics: 1966 stats: Managers Billy Herman (64-82), and Pete Runnels (8-8); 72-90, .444 PCT., 26 GB, Ninth Place American League.
  • Commentary: There was a time when both the Yankees and Red Sox were not the best teams in the American League.  The year 1966 was one of those years.  The 1966 Red Sox finished ninth in the American League.  The Yankees?  Tenth.  But the card above is about the Red Sox, so let's talk about it.  How weird is it to see a team card that has the background cropped off it?  The card above looks like it would belong in the 1958 Topps set.  But the font used for the team name pretty much gives it away as a card from 1967.  The back of the card includes the batting leaders in four categories:  batting average (Carl Yastrzemski at .278) home runs (Tony Conigliaro, 28), RBI's (Conigliaro, 92) and his (Yastrzemski, 165).  There is also room for the pitching leaders in two categories:  ERA (Don McMahon, 2.67) and strikeouts (Jim Lonborg, 131).  The rest of the back of the card breaks down the records of the pitching staff against the other nine teams of the American League.  Back then, before divisional play, each team played each other 18 times during the season (9 home, 9 away).  This card shows that the Red Sox had the most success against the White Sox (11-7) and had the most trouble with Orioles and Twins (6-10).  The following year, the team, under new manager Dick Williams, saw a complete 20-game turnaround.  At 92-70, they won the AL Pennant and faced the Cardinals in the World Series.
  • Lo-Hi Beckett value: $60.00-$120.00.
In case you're actually wondering, I don't own this card, but was able to get a crystal clean copy of the image from the from the Baseball Card Cyber Museum. So thank you Joe McAnally and the folks at the BCCM.

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 1988 Topps Traded #108T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Come on back then to see what the Topps Card Randomizer gets us to look at then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm increasingly enjoying team cards. For the value alone...how many players and coaching staff can we fit in to one card?!

The color is rocking on that card.

Nice.

Jim from Downingtown said...

Almost every team card prior to 1968 had the team cropped and superimposed on a solid color background (usually yellow).