Today on
the blog, we take a look at the unreleased 1971 Topps Rookie All-Star
card for Billy Conigliaro, younger brother of Tony:
As
stated earlier, Topps proposed a sub-set designed as you see here
featuring the 1970 Rookie All-Star team, but never went on to produce
the cards.
Originally larger poster board mock ups, some got out and made it to the open market years ago.
As for younger brother Billy, after a promising rookie year in 1970
that saw him slam 18 home runs while batting .271 in only 114 games, he
could never quite match that production again, finding himself with the
Milwaukee Brewers in 1972 and the Oakland A’s in 1973, playing a total
of 100 games combined those two seasons before finding himself out of
baseball for good.
He
put in parts of five seasons in the Majors, hitting .256 over 347
games, with 40 homers and 128 runs batted in, scoring 142 runs between
1969 and 1973.