THE WHOLE NINE: SERIES 2- 1958 CAREER-CAPPER ROY CAMPANELLA

On the blog today, my 1958 "Career-Capper" for all-time great Roy Campanella, from my recent "Whole Nine: Series 2" set released a few months back:

Fun custom set to produce!

The tragic story of how Roy Campanella's career ended so quickly is burned into all our baseball drenched minds, suffering a paralyzing car accident during the off-season before the 1958 season began.

Once Campanella began his Major League career after a brilliant run in the Negro Leagues that started when he was a teenager, he would certainly NOT disappoint the Brooklyn Dodger faithful: three times he was M.V.P. (1951, 1953, 1955) and an important part of the strong Dodger teams of the decade along with Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, and Gil Hodges.

Though unable to play Major League ball until the age of 26 because of segregation, he still managed to hit 242 lifetime homers, with a high of 41 in 1953, as well as drive in 856 runs in his short ten-year career.

During his second M.V.P. season, Campy led the Brooklyn offense by driving in a league-leading 142 runs while hitting .312 and scoring 103 runs. One of the top-offensive catcher seasons in baseball history.

Tragically, as he was getting prepared to move to Los Angeles with the rest of the Dodgers over the Winter of 1957-58, Campanella was driving home to Long Island and hit a patch of ice near his home, flipping his car over and breaking his neck in the process, rendering him paralyzed from the shoulders down.

The L.A. Fans would never get to see the future Hall of Famer play in Chavez Ravine.

In my opinion, considering his delayed MLB action, "Campy" would be my pick as the greatest catcher in MLB history, even in front of Johnny Bench, though Josh Gibson would top them all.

 

TURN BACK THE CLOCK: 1978- 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF WEST COAST MAJOR LEAGUE BALL

Today on the blog I thought it’d be fun (yet still painful for many here in the NYC area) to create a 1978 “Turn Back the Clock” card celebrating the debut of West Coast baseball in the Major Leagues, with the sudden departure of both the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers from the New York metropolitan area over the off-season:

 

  

As we all know by know, after failed negotiations with the city and state for new and improved “modern” ballparks, the owners of both much-loved New York City National League teams agreed to take the organizations West, the Giants to San Francisco and the Dodgers to Los Angeles, leaving a HUGE hole in the hearts of many.

Both teams did flourish in their new digs, becoming powerhouses with stars like Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax, Willie McCovey et. Al, lending the aura of the West Coast an even larger presence in American culture through the early-70’s.

On April 15^th, 1958, the Dodgers squared off against the Giants, with San Francisco winning the game 8-0 on a Ruben Gomez shutout, in the very first game played on the West Coast in Major League history, played at Seal’s Stadium in San Francisco.

I can’t even imagine what this must have been like for Dodger and Giant fans here on the East Coast, crushed by the reality of their teams now located over 3000 miles away.

CUSTOM SPOTLIGHT- "MISSING IN ACTION" 1958 STAN MUSIAL

Today's blog post has me beginning a thread over the next couple of months spotlighting cards from my "Whole Nine Yards" custom set released a few months back, focusing on cards from the 1950's through the 1980's that I normally wouldn't create for the blog, beginning with a 1958 Topps base card for St. Louis Cardinals legend Stan Musial:

 

Of course we all know the story by now as to Musial not having a Topps card through the 1950's (a tragedy for us collectors!), finally getting his first card in the 1958 set, but NOT a base card but rather an All-Star card, before getting that first base card the following year in 1959.

For Musial, his MLB numbers are just absurd: Seven batting titles, two R.B.I. titles, five triples titles and eight doubles titles, with career numbers of 475 home runs, 1951 runs batted in and a .331 career average. Throw in his 725 doubles, 177 triples and 3630 hits along with 1949 runs scored and the numbers are staggering. 

And don't forget that Musial also lost a year to military duty, easily putting him over 500 homers, close to 3900 hits and around 2100 runs batted in if he played in 1945.

Funny thing is I always felt Stan Musial was often overlooked in the decades since his playing days ended after the 1963 season.

When talk of "Greatest Living Player" came up it was always Williams, DiMaggio, Mays or even Aaron that would come up. But Stan Musial would always kind of be that after-thought.

Criminal.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- HOYT WILHELM NO-HITS THE NEW YORK YANKEES

Here’s a card celebrating Hoyt Wilhelm and his no-hitter against the eventual World Champion New York Yankees on September 20th, 1958:

The 1-0 no-hitter would end up being the only win he’d post for the Baltimore Orioles after coming over from the Cleveland Indians on waivers.
And it would end up being the last time the Yankees were no-hit in a complete game by a pitcher (the Houston Astros combined for a no-hitter against the Yanks in 2003).
As a kid growing up a Yankee fan during the 1970’s and 1980’s, we’d always be reminded of the “last time the Yanks were no-hit” every time a starter was getting close (Moose Haas, Nolan Ryan, etc).
Before I ever even knew of the incredible career of Wilhelm, I knew of him just for this one fact.
It wasn’t the most memorable of seasons for the future Hall of Famer by any means, as he’d post a combined 3-10 record, though he’d pair that with a great 2.34 ERA, but certainly had one heck of a memorable moment.
Wilhelm would end up pitching 21 seasons in the big leagues, and keep in mind he didn’t start playing until he was 29 years old!
He finished his brilliant career with a 143-122 record with a sparkling 2.52 ERA over 1070 games, the first pitcher to reach 1000 appearances, before retiring after the 1972 season at the ripe old age of 49.
Between 1964 and 1968 the HIGHEST ERA he’d post was 1.99 in ‘64. That’s five straight seasons of a sub-2.00 ERA, all while with the Chicago White Sox.
I also always found it amusing that during his 21-year career he only pitched enough innings in any one season to qualify for the ERA crown twice, in 1952 and 1959, and he led the league in that department both times.
Awesome....

1975 "CY YOUNG AWARD" SUB-SET: WHAT IF? 1958

We're up to 1958 on my thread imagining a 1975 Topps sub-set featuring all Cy Young Award winners since the company's inception in 1951, just like their sub-set during the same year of Most Valuable Players.

Two of the fun aspects of doing this thread are: designing cards for players that originally were not issued by Topps that year, and "awarding" the Cy to pitchers from the league that didn't have a winner between 1956 and 1966 based on a old SABR article in 1993.

So with that, take a look at my 1975 "1958 Cy Young Award" card design:

For the American League we have the "gimmie", as New York Yankee hurler Bob Turley actually did win the award in 1958.

That season it all came together for Turley, who was in his seventh season in the big leagues.

In his fourth season pitching for the Yanks after three with St. Louis/Baltimore, Turley handed in his finest performance in the Majors, going 21-7 with a 2.97 earned run average and 168 strikeouts, leading the Yankees to the World Series and avenging a loss the previous year to the Milwaukee Braves.

For good measure Turley would also end up second in Most Valuable Player voting behind Jackie Jensen, leading the league in wins, winning percentage, complete games and hits-per-nine-innings.

Sadly for Turley he'd never come close to that performance again, as he'd never again reach double-digits in wins through the next five years of his career before hanging them up after the 1963 season split between the Angels and Red Sox.

Over in the National League, we could have had the first pitcher to win three Cy Young Awards had today's selection practice been in place back then, as the guys at SABR selected Warren Spahn, the previous year's winner of the award, as their N.L. recipient.

Spahn was actually just edged out by Turley in the 1958 voting, losing the award by one vote, 5-4.

So needless to say he easily would have won his third Cy Young Award (1953 and 1957 being the others) beating out Sandy Koufax by about ten years as the first to rake in three such trophies.

The 1958 season for Spahn was more of the same for the lefty, as he posted a 22-11 record with a 3.07 earned run average and 150 strikeouts. 

He'd lead the N.L. in wins, winning percentage, complete games, innings pitched, and WHIP, getting named to his 10th All-Star game.

The guy was 37 years old this year, and he STILL had another four 20-win seasons left in that amazing arm of his.

Next up, 1959, with the actual winner Early Wynn for the "Go-Go" Chicago White Sox, and SABR's pick in the National League: Sam Jones of the San Francisco Giants.