Random Topps Card of the Day: 1969 Topps #316 Hal Lanier

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, November 3, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1969 Topps #316.
• Player Name, position, team: Hal Lanier, shortstop, San Francisco Giants.
• Major League Debut: June 18, 1964.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1968 stats (Giants): 151 G, 486 AB, 37 R, 100 H, 14 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 27 RBI, .206 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Giants as a Free Agent before the 1961 season. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 14. This is his fifth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "One of the better glove men in the majors, Hal is equally at home at shortstop or at 2nd base. In 1962, he led the California League in putouts and fielding. The following year, Hal turned the same trick in the Eastern League."
• Commentary: One look at his hitting numbers in the majors, and the blurb on the back of the card and you would think that Harold Clifton Lanier was just a "Good fielder, terrible hitter" who managed to get every day playing time because of his stellar defense. And yes, you'd be correct. In ten major league seasons, Lanier hit for a .228 average but had a fielding percentage of .975 covering all four spots in the infield. But his minor league numbers will tell you a different story. The cartoon on the back of the card will tell you that Hal "led the Eastern League with 163 hits in 1963." In Fresno, the Giants' California League team during the 1962 season, Lanier hit .312 with 173 hits. So he showed he could hit as well as field. After his first season in the majors, Hal was named to Topps' All-Star Rookie Team as the second baseman. In 1969, Lanier hit .228 with 35 rbi's, 101 hits, scored 33 runs, and had percentages of .265/.279/.543. Defensively, he committed 25 errors in 807 chances for a .969 percentage. He was part of 98 double plays and assisted in 530 putouts (he had 252 of his own). After 8 years in San Francisco, Lanier spent parts of two seasons with the Yankees before retiring as a player. He went back to the minors as a manager and became a coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. He would go on to manage the Houston Astros, winning the NL Manager of the Year award in 1986, his first year at the helm. He would finish his MLB managerial career with a 254-232 record, but has continued managing in the independent leagues all the way through the 2013 season.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $1.00-$2.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 4.

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: 1991 Topps #259. 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

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1969 Topps #181 Mel Nelson

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, May 26, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1969 Topps #181.
• Player Name, position, team: Mel Nelson, pitcher, St. Louis Cardinals.
• Major League Debut: September 27, 1960.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1968 stats (Cardinals): 18 G, 53 IP, 2-1, .667 PCT, 16 SO, 9 BB, 2.89 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Cardinals as a Free Agent before the 1956 season. Contract purchased by the Cardinals from the Twins 11/29/1967. Bats: right. Throws: left.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 5. This is his fifth and final Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "An experienced and well-traveled hurler, Mel pitched himself onto the St. Louis staff on the strength of his fine 10-3 record at Denver in 1967. He was used as a starter and reliever and posted a respectable 2.67 earned run average. Last season, Mel got his first starting assignment on June 23 and he responded by beating the Atlanta Braves 3-1."
• Commentary: What color would you use to describe the back of the 1969 Topps set? Salmon? Pink? It certainly wasn't red. But whatever you call it, it sure made it really easy to read the text on the back of the card. Melvin Frederick Nelson bounced between the majors and the minors throughout his playing career. But even though he had left the Cardinals' organization a handful of times, it seemed that he was always welcomed back with open arms. Case in point, after signing with the Cardinals in 1956, he traveled through the organization's minor league system, making stops in Rochester, NY; Billings, MT; York, PA; Houston, TX; Tulsa, OK; and Omaha, NE. By 1960, he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and spent the year with their AAA team in Spokane with a 13-7 record and 3.69 ERA in 32 games. But he somehow was sent back to St. Louis, where he finally made his major league debut. It would be another three years before he would return to the bigs, spending his time once again in the Cards' farms system (Portland, OR, and Atlanta, GA). His contract was purchased by another LA team, this time the Angels. This time, he spent most of his season with the Halos, before being demoted to the Angels' AAA team in Hawaii (yes, Hawaii was an actual minor league stop...the travel must have been brutal) around the All-Star break before making his return to the majors in September. Nelson was traded to the Twins during the 1964 season. In 1965, Nelson not only made the team out of spring training, but he managed to stay in the majors for a full year for the first and only time in his career. After two seasons with the Twins' AAA affiliate in Denver, his contract was purchased by the Cardinals' organization again. It would be his third and final stint with St. Louis. In 1969, he spent time between the majors and Tulsa. He would appear in only 8 games for the Cards that year, finishing with an 0-1 record and an ERA of 11.81. It would also be his final season in the majors. He finished with a career 4-10 record, 4.40 ERA, and 98 strikeouts in 173.2 innings of work. The back of Nelson's 1969 card also has a cartoon sketch mentioning that Mel had won 13 games with Spokane in 1960. The player is holding up a sign with the number 13 and saying, "That's my lucky number."
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.60-$1.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 0.

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: 1982 Topps Traded #13T. 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

The Answer for This Week's Trivia Question, October 6, 2008

Okay, so I don't have the 1968 Topps cards of each guy. Will reprints do???
I knew this question would be way too easy for you guys. As soon as I posted it, both Ryan Cracknell (Trader Crack's Card Blog) and the Night Owl (Night Owl Cards) both left the correct answer within minutes of each other.

Now, I think that you all understood what I meant when I asked the question, but maybe I should have been more specific (my fault, I'm sorry). When I asked "what year or years did all five players appear in the same set at the same time," I meant as "active" players. Of course there are many sets that would have all five players together, but most are from long after their playing days were over. Case in point, a thank you goes out to Don for pointing out that all five would have appeared in the 1975 set, only because Mantle, Mays, and Clemente were part of the MVP subset while Ryan and Aaron were still active players.

So as active players, all five (Mantle, Mays, Clemente, Ryan, and Aaron) appeared together in both the 1968 and 1969 Topps sets.

And the 1969 Topps Reprints. Gee, Hank hasn't changed a bit between 1968 and 1969. Why is that?
Mickey Mantle's final two Topps cards as an active player, as pointed out by Night Owl, were the '68 and '69 Topps cards. At the same time, those two years introduced the world to a young Nolan Ryan.

So there you have it. With the question being too easy, and with the answers coming so quickly, I had not yet determined a prize for this week. I'm sure if I can come up with a harder question, I'll add a prize for the first correct answer. Thanks for playing.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. Friend of the blog tlindgren commented "...You could even say 1970 if you include Mickey Mantle's Topps Wal-Mart card from 2006." I always wondered what would have happened if Mantle was able to play in 1969, thus getting a card included in 1970 Topps? Hmmmmm...

What do you think???

jba