Today on the blog, we "tweak" Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst's 1970 Topps card to reflect his status as the All-Star Manager from the 1969 All-Star game for the National league, based on his 1968 Pennant-winning season with the St. Louis Cardinals:
As
I did many years ago on the blog for the starting nine for each league
in the 1969 Midsummer Classic, I added the "All-Star" banner across the
bottom of Schoendienst's card to mark his All-Star status of the
previous season.
I've
always been an on-card" All-Star fan, as Topps did between 1975 and
1981, and never preferred the "extra" All-Star cards of other
sets/years.
Something about the All-Star call out on the player's base-card that made it so special in my humble opinion.
Schoendienst first put together a 19-year Hall of Fame career between
1945 and 1963, winning a championship with the Cards as well as the
Milwaukee Braves in 1957, before coaching and then managing St. Louis
from 1965 to 1976, winning yet another championship in 1967, with a spot
managing gig in 1980 and then 1990 all while coaching the team in
between, including the 1982 season, giving him a FIFTH championship in
his illustrious career.
He put in 2216 games as a player, then went on to manage 1999 games,
winning 1041 of them for a .522 winning percentage, while coaching at
LEAST another couple thousand games on top of that!A true baseball "lifer"!