On the blog today, a "missing" 1970 All-Star manager card, even
though Topps didn't have base-card All-Star designations, but I did a
while back, so I added to that thread with such a card for former
Detroit Tigers skipper Mayo Smith, who led the A.L. in the 1969 game:
Thanks
to his World Championship season of 1968 at the helm of the Detroit
Tigers, Smith was the manager for the A.L. in the 1969 "Midsummer
Classic", a game that saw the National League prevail 9-3.
The
Tigers marched to a championship with a memorable 1968 year that saw
them win 103 games before stunning the reigning champion St. Louis
Cardinals and taking home the title.
Smith was manager of the
Tigers from 1967 to 1970, posting three 90+ win seasons and two second
place finishes in addition to the first place finish of 1968.
His
other managerial jobs were as skipper of the Philadelphia Phillies
between 1955 and 1958, and a part of the 1959 season with the Cincinnati
reds in 1959, with his greatest success in those tenures two .500
seasons with Philly when he finished 77-77 in both 1955 and 1957.
As
a player, he put in only 73 games during the 1945 season with the
Philadelphia Athletics as an outfielder, hitting .212 with 18 runs
scored and 11 runs batted in.
