Random Topps Card of the Day: 1970 Topps #263 Duane Josephson

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, November 10, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1970 Topps #263.
• Player Name, position, team: Duane Josephson, catcher, Chicago White Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 15, 1965.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1969 stats (White Sox): 52 G, 162 AB, 19 R, 39 H, 6 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 20 RBI, .241 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the White Sox as a Free Agent before the 1964 season. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 6. This is his fourth Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Duane missed much of 1969 due to injuries. Led PCL backstops in Putouts, Assists, and DP's in 1966 and was named league's MVP. Duane led AL catchers in Assists and DP's in 1968 and appeared in the All-Star game."
• Commentary: The comic on the back of the card says that Duane Charles Josephson "is good at handling knucklers (knuckleball pitchers). To his credit, it's good that he was or learned really fast to be good at it because two of the pitchers he had to handle when with the White Sox were Hoyt Wilhelm and Wilbur Wood (late 60's). His best year in the majors was in 1968, when he appeared in a career high 128 games, hit .247 with 6 home runs, 45 rbi's, committed a low 7 errors in 734 total chances, a 40% caught stealing ratio, along with a spot on the AL All-Star team. In 1970, both Josephson and fellow catcher Ed Hermann shared catching duties for the Pale Hose. Josephson, for his part, had the better offensive year, hitting a career high .316, adding 4 home runs and 41 rbi's to his Sox numbers. It would also be his final year with the team. During the offseason, he was traded off to the Red Sox with Danny Murphy for Tony Muser and Vicente Romo. Josephson's career numbers during his six year tenure with the White Sox included a .261 average, 12 homers, 118 rbi's, offensive percentages of .303/.358/.361, 34.5% caught stealing percentage, a and a .989 fielding percentage. Pericarditis (an inflammation of the membranes that surround the heart) had always affected Josephson during his career, and it caused him to miss a good portion of the 1972 season. After two solid seasons with Boston, in which he endeared himself not only with the pitching staff, but with some of the hitters (Carl Yastrzemski especially), when trainers were concerned that Duane was diagnosed with heart disease, Josephson announced his retirement from the game as an active player. Upon retirement, Josephson ran a sporting goods store in Iowa, affectionately named "Josie's." Duane Josephson passed away on January 27, 1997, due to a heart attack caused by the pericarditis. He was only 54 years old. Josephson's biography can be found as part of the SABR's BioProject.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.40-$1.00.
• 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: 2008 Topps #109. 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: 1970 Topps #254 Camilo Pascual

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, November 25, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1970 Topps #254.
• Player Name, position, team: Camilo Pascual, pitcher, Cincinnati Reds.
• Major League Debut: April 15, 1954.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1969 stats (Reds): 5 G, 7 IP, 0-0, .000 PCT, 3 SO, 4 BB, 9.00 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Senators as a Free Agent before the 1952 season. Contract purchased by the Reds 07/07/1969. Bats: right. Throws: left.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 16 (not counting the 1959 Topps Ralph Lumenti #316 card that actually pictures Pascual). This is his sixteenth and final Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Camilo tied major mark for hurlers with 3 sacrifices, 05/27/1956."
• Commentary: The grey-bordered 1970 Topps set, I found out, uses a whiter card stock than what we were accustomed to seeing throughout the 70's and 80's (up until 1991).  Unfortunately, many of the cards that I've also seen are miscut (like the card above), so finding cards with decent centering is a challenge to say the least.  There was a stretch during the early years of Camilo's career with the Senators (then Twins...he moved with the team) that he was one of Major League Baseball's best pitchers.  From 1959 through 1964, he was a five-time All-Star, a three-time MVP candidate, and had a combined record of 100-66 with a 3.04 ERA, 1170 strikeouts, and a WHIP of 1.195.  He started 185 of the 194 games he appeared in and completed 90 of them, 26 were shutouts.  On the heels of a dominating 21-9 record with 18 complete games in 1963 (ironically, the only year in this six season stretch in which he did NOT make the All- Star Team), Topps assigned card #500 to him for their 1964 Topps set, the first pitcher bestowed with the milestone card number.  In 1967, he returned to Washington, DC, to pitch for the second incarnation of the Senators.  He was still an effective starter, although not as dominant as he had been just a few years ago.  He was released by the Senators after going 2-5 with a 7.04 ERA and had his contract purchased by the Reds.  In 1970, Pascual signed on with the Dodgers, but was released after appearing in 10 games.  He finished his major league career with the Indians in 1971.  He was named the pitching coach for the Twins in 1978 (job lasted through the 1980 season), and has sinced worked as an international scout for a number of teams.  He is credited for signing (and perhaps unleashing to the world) Jose Canseco when he was a scout for the Athletics.  Camilo Pascual is also a Hall of Famer.  Although he failed to be enshrined into Cooperstown (two attempts with only 4 votes of support combined), he was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame (1983), the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame (2010, inaugural class), and in 2012, was the 24th player to be inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame.  His cards have been used in Topps Heritage Buyback programs since 2008.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.40-$1.00.
• 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: 2000 Topps #42. 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: 1970 Topps #280 Donn Clendenon

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, March 21, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1970 Topps #280.
• Player Name, position, team: Donn Clendenon, first baseman, New York Mets.
• Major League Debut: September 22, 1961.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1969 stats (Expos-Mets): 110 G, 331 AB, 45 R, 82 H, 11 2B, 1 3B, 16 HR, 51 RBI, .277 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed by Pirates as a Free Agent before 1957 season. Traded by the Expos to the Mets 06/15/1969. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Clendenon's ninth regular Topps card (total does not include any combo cards, or the 1969 Topps Expos variation). The famous gray bordered set from 1970. Very hard to find centered cards from this set (and the picture used here is no exception). The backs were bright (did they not use the normal gray stock for these cards????) with blue and yellow colors on the backs for easy reading. A few things about the back of Donn's card: there is no transaction information in the vital information (the one that includes height, weight, bats, throws, etc), which I didn't know wasn't included on here at the time. Also, his minor league stats are still on the card, even though he played more than seven seasons with the Pirates before taken in the expansion draft by the Expos. And instead of separating his stats with les Expos and the Mets, they combined the stats for a yearly total. Did you know that he was originally traded to the Astros in exchange for Rusty Staub, but refused to report? You mean this guy WANTED TO STAY in Montréal??? Maybe there was something that's not being reported (was he not going to get playing time with the Astros if he joined the club?) It is just as well. The Expos eventually traded him to the New York Mets in 1969, just in time by the way, as these Mets somehow overtook a certain NORTHSIDE TEAM FROM CHICAGO for first place in the NL East, and by some "miracle," beat the Braves in the first ever NLCS, and won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles!!! Did you know who won the MVP for the World Series? That's right...Mr. Clendenon. Back to the card though. The font used for the player's name appears 24 years later in the 1994 Topps set. The gray borders do stand out on this design better than the gray borders in the 2000 set (probably a brighter shade of gray in 1970). The blurb on the back of the card, above the stats, mentions that as "MVP of 1969 Series, Donn set a mark with 3 Homers in 5 games." What mark that would be I'm not sure as it seems that if it was a record, it's been broken countless times since.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.60-$1.50.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 0 cards.

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. (You have to stop by and visit them now. They just announced that they are allowing more people to enter the museum at one time.)

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 1978 Topps #546. 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