Yes Virgina, There Are Horizontal Player Topps Cards Between 1960 and 1991

I blame the fact that it was late at night when I wrote that last post. But I am not afraid to admit when I'm wrong.

So on my previous post, I said:

I love seeing images like this because it gives us an idea of what many of the cards are going to look like. For example, the 1991 card of Paul Skenes looks amazing. It reminds me that 1991 was the first year that featured horizontal cards of players that were not team cards, rookie combo cards, or any other since at least 1960. 

Since coming back, I have been pretty sure that nobody is reading what I'm writing on this humble, little blog. Apparently, people are reading.

Thank you to friend of the blog John Bateman of the Donruss 1982 blog, for mentioning:in a comment:

1973 and 1974 - Topps had a few player horizontal cards 

Now, it's embarassing enough that as a Topps collector and as someone who thinks he's an expert on Topps' catalog that I'd say something totally off-base. But the fact that a guy who writes a blog about a set from the competition had to point this out to me really makes me want to crawl into a hole and hide again.

So, I went in to look and sure enough...

Starting with 1973, here is Tommie Agee:

And Bobby Bonds:

And Boots Day (really...)

From 1974, here's Mike Epstein:

And Carlton Fisk:

Then I remembered that there were horizontal cards in 1971:

Thurmon Munson for example:

Just a reminder, my main collection doesn't start until 1976. So when I think of horizontal player cards prior to 1976, obviously I'm thinking 1955, 1956, 1960. I'm not thinking anything in the early 1970's.

And again...it was late. I wasn't thinking straight at that point.

To think, I was going to post about the two Topps Archives sets that I do have that for some reason I forgot to add to the TCDB as part of my collection tonight. 

But this was more important to mention. So thanks again John for setting me straight. Thank you to the Card Cyber Museum for images (I certainly don't have any of these cards, so this is the best place to get images). 

Mea Culpa.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1973 Topps #621 Joe Ferguson

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, June 9, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1973 Topps #621.
• Player Name, position, team: Joe Ferguson, catcher, Los Angeles Dodgers.
• Major League Debut: September 12, 1970.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1972 stats (Dodgers): 24 AB, 7 H, 3 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, .292 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Dodgers #8th, June 1968. Bats: right. Throws: right..
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 12. This is his second Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "On July 18, 1971 Joe hit a 9th inning Homer vs. Bucs to spoil Luke Walker's bid to become the first Pirate pitcher ever to hurl a no-hitter in Pittsburgh. Hit .400 in 10 games with Dodgers team in 1971 Arizona Instructional League."
• Commentary: I love the silhouette that appears on the player cards in 1973 Topps. It's really the only design element used by Topps that year. After four full seasons in the minors plus three very brief cups of coffee with the Dodgers, Joseph Vance Ferguson (the player's full name appears on the back of the cards), made it onto the Dodgers' Opening Day roster as the everyday catcher for the 1973 season. When Steve Yeager was inserted into their lineup, Ferguson would play either of the corner outfield positions. By the end of the year, Joe appeared in 136 games, hit for a .263 average, hit what would eventually be a career high 25 home runs, drive in a career high 88 rbi's, and have an OPS of .839. He finished 21st in the MVP voting. He also committed 3 errors in 817 chances (.996 fielding percentage) that year as well, which should have put him in consideration for the Gold Glove award as well. By 1974, Yeager became LA's everyday backstop, and Ferguson would become his back-up. Although he was no longer the everyday catcher, Ferguson still contributed to the Dodgers cause, helping them get to the World Series in 1974 (and hitting a two-run homer in Game 2, which would be the only game LA would win that year against the Oakland A's.) In June of 1976, Ferguson and Bob Detherage were traded to Cardinals in the deal that sent Reggie Smith. After half a season in St. Louis, both Ferguson and Detherage were traded to Houston. When Joe was traded by the Astros to LA in 1978, he would spend the rest of his career in SoCal. After three plus seasons with the Dodgers, he signed with the Angels, finishing his career with the Halos in 1983. In 14 years in the majors, Joe would hit for a cumulative .240 average with 122 homers, 445 rbi's, 22 stolen bases, and an OPS of .767. On the back of his 1973 Topps card, there is a cartoon of a catcher (Ferguson) catching a basketball, with the caption "Joe once scored 40 points in a college basketball game."
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $2.00-$5.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 8.

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: 1977 Topps #653. 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: 1973 Topps #78 Richie Scheinblum

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, May 19, 2013:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1973 Topps #78.
• Player Name, position, team: Richie Scheinblum, outfielder, Kansas City Royals.
• Major League Debut: September 1, 1965.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1972 stats (Royals): 450 AB, 135 H, 21 2B, 4 3B, 8 HR, 67 RBI, .300 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Indians as a Free Agent before the 1964 season. Contract purchased by the Royals 10/21/1971. Bats: both. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his seventh Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Richie enjoyed his finest season in majors in 1972. Acquired by Royals after leading Amer. Assn. in Avg; Rbi's, Triples & Total Bases in 1971, he led AL in Batting much of the year."
• Commentary: The 1973 Topps set may have white borders on the front of the card, but its the back of the cards, thanks to its primarily black borders, that makes it one of the harder sets to find in excellent to near mint condition. And after perusing the cards in the BCCM, it looks like centering is a major league issue (see what I did there...) as the back of the sample card of Richard Alan Scheinblum (yes, they put his full name on the back, something I think should be done with today's cards) is so off-center there is no right border whatsoever. Now Schienblum wasn't a Royal heading into the 1973 season. But during his first stint with KC (he would experience the best season of his MLB career. Put it this way, if he was part of the 2002 Topps Archives set (the Best Years one), his 1972 card would appropriately be the one they'd include. On the strength of a .324 average, 7 homers and 43 rbi's, Scheinblum was named to his first (and eventually only) All-Star team. Anyway, after the 1972 season ended, the Royals traded him and pitcher Roger Nelson to the Reds for future Royals megastar Hal McRae and Wayne Simpson. However, Scheinblum's career with the Reds lasted only 29 games as he was traded off to the California Angels for players to be named later. He finished the year with a combined average of .307 with 4 homers and 29 rbi's. He was traded back to the Royals in 1974, but after 36 games and a .181 average, Scheinblum's contract was sold to the cross-state Cardinals. Although the six games he appeared for the Cards were to be his last in a major league uniform, Scheinblum continued his career in Japan, playing for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp for two seasons.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.20-$0.50.
• 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: 2006 Topps #100. 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: 1973 Topps #389 New York Mets Team Card

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, October 28, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1973 Topps #389.
• Team: 1972 New York Mets.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1972 stats: Manager Yogi Berra, 83-73, .532 PCT., 13.5 GB, Third Place NL East.
• Commentary: Hey, the Randomizer has picked another team card.  Maybe with the addition of the retail team sets, it's trying to find more of these to highlight.  It's always nice to have these team cards included in the base set only because a handful of the players who show up on team picture day won't get a card in the eponymous set.  The Mets had won the World Series in 1969, and since then had won exactly 83 games in the following three seasons (they must have cancelled six games because they played a grand total of 156 in '72).  The back of the card shows all-time team season leaders for a wide variety of statistics, with players like Tommie Agee, Cleon Jones, Donn Clendenon, Tommy Davis, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, Roger Craig holding down team records.  The bottom of the card shows the yearly standings of the Mets, including names of all five managers, of the NY NL franchise: Casey Stengel, Wes Westrum, Salty Parker, Gil Hodges, and Berra.  How would the team do in 1973?  The team won the NL East Division title with a 82-79 record, and then go on to beat a very powerful Cincinnati Reds team in the five-game NLCS.  They lost to the Oakland A's in a seven-game World Series.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $1.50-$4.00.

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: 1979 Topps #582. 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

Topps 60 Best Cards...#60!

So Topps' countdown of their greatest cards of all-time as voted on by the collecting public is being revealed today.

Card #60 is...

(drumroll please)

1973 Topps #615 Rookie Third Basemen Ron Cey/John Hilton/Mike Schmidt.

Thoughts: Good card to kickoff the countdown. Although it is a combo card, even John Hilton's mother will acknowledge that this card belongs to the gentleman on the far right of the card...Michael Jack Schmidt!!! (This isn't a slight on Ron Cey...he had an astounding career as well...but this card is recognized more for Schmidt's appearance than anything else.)

Beckett has this listed between $75-$150.00.

Card #59 on the countdown will be announced tomorrow.

UPDATE: December 24, 2011: If you haven't noticed yet, Topps has not updated their "Vote Topps" site since the first card was announced. Topps Social Media guy is on vacation until next year so nothing has been mentioned on either facebook or twitter. As of now, we're all in the dark as to the next card on the countdown. When they do, I'll post card #59 then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1973 Topps #412 Manny Mota

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, May 30, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1973 Topps #412.
• Player Name, position, team: Manny Mota, outfielder, Los Angeles Dodgers.
• Major League Debut: April 16, 1962.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1972 stats (Dodgers): 371 AB, 120 H, 16 2B, 5 3B, 5 HR, 48 RBI, .323 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed by the Giants as a Free Agent before the 1957 season. Traded by the Expos to the Giants 06/11/1969. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Mota's eleventh regular Topps card (his rookie card). The 1973 Topps set continued the use of action photos in their base cards. The design was clean and included a silhouette player based on his position. Mota was named to the All-Star team in 1973, but it was in 1972 that he saw him in the running for MVP consideration (helps that he had a .375 batting average). In fact, according to the cartoon caption on the back of the card, "Manny has had a BA of better than .300 for the last 7 out of 8 years." Towards the end of his career, he was used primarily as a pinch hitter/defensive replacement. And by the time he ended his career in 1982, he finished with a batting average of .304.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.75-$2.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 8 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.

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 1993 Topps Traded #47T. 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