REVISIT: OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 DAVE ROBERTS

On the blog today, and interesting OPC image variation to spotlight, that the 1977 cards of former #1 overall pick Dave Roberts:

OPC Version

Topps Version

I covered the craziness of the Topps Blue Jays edition way back in 2013, explaining how Roberts never actually ended up playing for the them at all!

Funny story with that actually.
Roberts, who was the #1 overall draft pick by the San Diego Padres in 1972 out of the University of Oregon, never really panned out as the star infielder San Diego was hoping for.
In all fairness, that 1972 draft wasn't exactly teeming with stars. You have to go all the way to the third round to find a legitimate "star", those being Dennis Eckersley and Gary Carter. But you DID have Chet Lemon go late in the first round. Oh well...
Regardless, Roberts did manage to stick around with the Padres on the Major League level for four years, but in 1976 he spent the entire year in the minors, not really showing enough to be promoted before the year was up.
In October of 1976 San Diego sold Roberts, along with Dave Hilton and John Scott to the Toronto Blue Jays, seemingly giving up on their failed future star.
With that, Topps went ahead and airbrushed Roberts (along with Hilton, who I profiled earlier on this blog) in a Blue Jays uniform in anticipation of his new team for the upcoming season.
Only problem is Toronto then managed to turn right around and trade Roberts BACK to San Diego for pitcher Jerry Johnson in February of 1977, immediately making this an outdated card before it even came out!
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Topps must have been scratching their heads with this one.
Check out the airbrushed Blue Jay logo on Roberts' cap...a bit on the small side don't you think?

As for OPC, they had him in the correct uniform, that of the San Diego Padres, for whom he'd go on to play another two seasons before putting in two years with the Texas Rangers, followed by a year with the Houston Astros and one final MLB season with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1982.

All told, the former top pick finished his 10-year career with a .239 average, with 483 hits over 2017 at-bats in 709 games, with 194 runs scored and 208 RBIs, putting in time out in the field at every position except for pitcher.

 

REVISIT: MISSING IN ACTION- 1971 HAWK TAYLOR

On the blog today, we revisit a 10-year-old post featuring a "missing" 1971 card for Hawk Taylor of the Kansas City Royals:

Taylor put in an 11-year career between 1957 and 1970, even though the most action he ever saw in a season was back in 1964 as a member of the New York Mets when he appeared in 92 games.
Other than that he mainly got to play in about a few dozen games every year of his career, playing for the Milwaukee Braves (1957-1963), Mets (1964-1967), California Angels (1967) and Kansas City Royals (1969-1970).
For the 1970 season Taylor appeared in 57 games, batting .164 with nine hits over 55 official at-bats while splitting time behind the plate and first base.
For his career, Hawk batted .218, with 158 hits over 724 at-bats spread out over 394 games, just about 38 games a year.

 

NOT REALY MISSING IN ACTION: 1970 RICK BLADT

Good day all!

Up on the blog today, we have a "not so missing" 1970 card for former outfielder Rick Bladt, who made his MLB debut in 1969 with the Chicago Cubs:

Bladt appeared in 10 games for Chicago that season, hitting .154 with two hits over 13 at-bats, driving in and scoring a run.

He'd be stuck in the Minors until 1975, when he found himself a member of the New York Yankees, as he appeared in 52 games, good for 133 plate appearances and a .222 batting average.

He also chipped in 13 runs, 11 runs batted in and 5 extra-base hits, all while manning center field.

That would be it for his Big League tenure.

He did put in a solid 12 years in the Minors, spanning 1966 to 1977 with the Cubs, Yanks and Orioles organizations.

After playing for Rochester of the International League in '77 he was out of baseball for good.

As a side note: he did appear on another card, a Topps 1974 multi-player rookie card (#601) which also features Bake McBride, Brian Downing and Ed Armbrister, three players who went on to have decent careers, especially the former two.

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: GEORGE SCOTT

Time to add "Boomer", George Scott to my long-running "Classic Baseball" custom WTHBALLS set, celebrating the great game that has kept me entertained my entire life:

He put together an excellent career playing for the Red Sox, Brewers, Royals and Yankees between 1966 and 1979, slamming 271 home runs with 1051 RBI's, 1992 hits and a .268 batting average.

Defensively all he managed to do was take home eight Gold Gloves for his work at first base, and though he was only named to three all-star games, he garnered MVP attention in seven seasons, or half his career!

Not too shabby to say the least...

 

AVAILABLE NOW! WTHBALLS "1963 FLEER SECOND EXTENSION SET"

Good day all!

Happy to announce the latest WTHBALLS custom set, 1963 Fleer "Extension Series 3" is now available!

 

The second WTHBALLS "extension"series for the classic 1963 baseball card set has another 20 player cards that were NOT in the original issue, plus a bonus "In-Action" card of the great Mickey Mantle, and finally another checklist card. 22 cards total with full-stat backs with bio.

As with my my first Fleer extension set, this one comes with repro 1963 Fleer baseball wax wrapper.

This time I am NOT trying to include a cookie, as that experiment failed miserably the first time because of cookie oils. Luckily I tested it first on a couple packs before making up the rest!

They are $17 each with postage at $6.00 1st Class w/tracking. As usual, the postage stays the same no matter how many sets you buy. Sorry about the bump of $0.50 in postage. USPS just raised shipping another 8% in April.

Same paypal email: slogun23@gmail.com or if you prefer Venmo my ID is: @Giovanni-Balistreri-1

Another fun set of cards to add to the WTHBALLS checklist!

If anyone has any questions please feel free to reach out!

Take care and thank you for the continued interest and support!

Gio/wthballs

1963 FLEER EXTENSION MISSING IN ACTION: FELIPE ALOU

Today on the blog we have a "missing" 1963 Fleer card for baseball lifer Felipe Alou, which also happens to be part of my latest WTHBALLS custom set:

During his career he'd top the National League in hits twice, runs once and total bases once.

His finest year would have to be 1966, when he led the N.L. in runs with 122, hits with 218, at-bats with 666, total bases with 355, while hitting 31 home runs, driving in 74 and batting a cool .327.

He'd end up fifth in MVP voting, and was named to his third all-star team.

After his playing days were over he'd coach and eventually manage in the Major Leagues, leading both the Expos and Giants to first place finishes (1994 and 2003 respectively) during his 14 years as a skipper.

Of course it's also worth mentioning that Alou comes from an incredible baseball family, as brothers Jesus and Matty, son Moises, cousin Jose Sosa and nephew Mel Rojas all got to play in the Big Leagues as well.

As a matter of fact, Felipe got to play with both his brothers, AND even go on to manage his son and nephew later on.

Pretty cool…

 

MISSING IN ACTION: 1957 BILL WHITE

Really fun card to create for today's blog post: a "missing" 1957 card for All-Star first baseman and true baseball "lifer" Bill White:

Sorry for the watermark!

For the life of me I can't figure out why White was left out of the 1957 set considering he had a "Rookie of the Year"-worthy 1956 campaign with the New York Giants.

In 138 games that season, White hit .256 with 22 homers and 56 runs batted in, with 63 runs scored.

He would put in military time for the entire 1957 season and part of the 1958 campaign, but I'm still surprised Topps didn't include him in their 1957 set.

Growing up with watching the Yankees on T.V., I was very familiar with White, being that he was a longtime announcer on channel 11 here in the NYC area for games along with Phil Rizzuto.

As a matter of fact White would end up being a sort of fall-guy for all of Rizzuto's hilarious antics, which made for some really funny moments during the game.

White closed out a brilliant, if not shortened 13-year career in 1969, returning to the Cardinals, for whom he played between 1959 and 1965 and put together his best years as a big-league player.

In '69, he appeared in 49 games, hitting .211 with 12 hits over 57 official at-bats.

But when you take a good look at what he did over the eleven seasons that he played full-time, you see an excellent, consistent player who also played his position superbly.

At the plate White put together four 100-RBI seasons, reached 200 hits once (with two other 190+ hit years thrown in), clubbed 20+ homers seven times, topped .300 four times and scored 100+ runs once.

Defensively, all White did was take home seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards between 1960 to 1966, leading his league in fielding twice along the way as well.

Admittedly I didn't know any of this as a young kid watching Yankee games at first.

Wasn't until I was bestowed with my first MacMillan Encyclopedia around 1979 that I was able to soak it all in.

I just remember him as a somewhat reserved guy who'd crack a joke here and there while Rizzuto was running wild at the mouth with all of his anecdotes.