1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: N.L. LEFT-HANDED PITCHER: SANDY KOUFAX

Today we come to my pick for the National League's left-handed pitcher of the 1960s, and honestly, who else would it be other than Dodger great Sandy Koufax:

Koufax and the "Left Arm of God" legend has only gotten bigger over time.

The years between 1961 and 1966 were amazing, but it was the 1963-1966 period in particular that was just unconscious, and what got him into Cooperstown.

Just look at the numbers, all in FOUR seasons of play:

A 97-27 record, with four E.R.A. crowns, three years of a sub-2.00 mark, 31 shutouts, 89 complete games and 1228 strikeouts, with three of those years topping 300+ K's!

He took home three Cy Young Awards, finished third in 1964, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1963, with two other second-place finishes in 1965 and 1966, his final two years of Major League ball.

In the postseason he was equally as brilliant, being voted MVP of the World Series in both 1963 and 1965, leading the Dodgers to championships.

He posted a 4-3 lifetime record with a 0.95 earned run average, two shutouts and 61 strikeouts in 57 innings of work.

In his three losses in postseason play, he gave up THREE earned runs! So it's not like he choked in those games either.

Sadly we all know how his career ended because of arm troubles, causing him to retire at the age of only 30.

Man how I wish we could have seen him pitch into the 1970's!

Would have been awesome to see him on those card-issues into the mid-decade, no?

That five year stretch was so awesome that he was elected in the Hall on his first try, being named to 86.9% of the ballot.

There are some out there that feel he didn't "perform" long enough to warrant a Hall selection, let alone a first-year induction.

And most of the time I'd agree.

However we are talking some rarified stuff here, so with Koufax it was indeed a no-brainer.

What do you all think? Anybody out there think Koufax didn't perform long enough for a Hall of Fame induction?

WTHBALLS GUM PACK CUSTOM SET: STEVE CARLTON

The next mini-card from my custom "Gum Pack" set released a few months back to get profiled here is that of the great lefty Steve Carlton, four-time Cy Young winner and Hall of Famer:

Carlton made his major League debut during the 1965 season, appearing in 15 games, with two of those starts, not factoring in a decision while pitching to a 2.52 earned run average as a 20-year-old.

In 1966 it would be more of the same, as he'd appear in only nine games, going 3-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 52 innings of work, striking out 25 while walking 18, also tossing the first shutout of his young Big League tenure.

1967 would see him begin his next level of play, as he'd go 14-9 with a 2.98 ERA over 30 appearances and 193 innings, with two shutouts and 168 strikeouts, helping the St. Louis Cardinals win it all, their second championship in three years.

For Carlton, all he did the rest of the way was take his game to an elite, astronomical level, as we see him top 300 wins, 4000 strikeouts, 50 shutouts and 700 starts in his 24 year career!

The first guy to take home four Cy Young Awards, he led his league in wins four times, strikeouts five times, E.R.A. once and was named to ten all-star teams.

Needless to say, by the time he was eligible for the Hall of Fame, he was in on his first try, getting named to 436 of 456 ballots.

Sure we already had "Lefty" Grove, and "Lefty" Gomez, but Carlton was more than worthy of the same nickname for all of his accomplishments.

One of the all-time greats, I'm so happy I got to see him pitch live during the 1980s!

NEWEST WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET: "THE WHOLE NINE: SERIES TWO" NOW AVAILABLE!

Good day all!

Happy to announce that the next WTHBALLS custom set, "The Whole Nine: Series Two" is now available for purchase:

 

Following the format and packaging of the first "Whole Nine" set, this set has 15 custom cards with FULL stat backs along with a bonus "missing" 1951 Topps Blue Back Joe DiMaggio card, as well as a Stan Musial sticker and a super special extra: an original sample prototype blank-backed 1973 Mike Schmidt "dedicated rookie" that was my test card to begin producing these sets way back when!

Each of the Schmidt samples is ink-stamped on back and numbered to 75, along with "Original Prototype #1" inscription. Thought it'd be fun for those of you who didn't grab one when I made them available in July of 2020.

All 17 cards plus sticker mentioned above come packaged in two-piece Ultra Pro hard-shell case with full-color wrap keeping it all together.

I picked a nice variety of "missing", "do-over" and "Career Capper" cards for this Series that I hope you all enjoy as much as I do!

And again, these cards come with FULL stat/bio backs like the first series!

The sets are $15 each along with the customary $4.50 postage, and as usual, no matter how many sets you buy postage stays at the one-time $4.50 price.

Usual paypal address: slogun23@gmail.com

Please note: this set was printed in somewhat more limited number as my usual sets, and while I don't expect them to sell-out overnight I do expect them to sell through quicker than the other WTHBALLS releases. Keep that in mind when thinking of ordering.

I thank you all for the continued interest and support, and I hope you find this set a wonderful addition to your WTHBALLS collection!

For those who don't mind a spoiler, check out the photos attached!

Take Care and be well my friend!

Gio/WTHBALLS

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1890 "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" BOBBY MATHEWS

The next 19th Century star from my early custom "19th Century Base Ball Stars" set to get the blog spotlight is pitcher Bobby Mathews, just about the most overlooked 297-game winner the game has:

Quick: before Roger Clemens came along who had the most professional wins as a pitcher and NOT be in the Hall of Fame?
The answer would be this guy right here.

Mathews finished a nice 15-year career spanning 1871 and 1887 with a 297 and 248 record, along with a 2.86 earned run average over 578 appearances and 4956 innings of work.
An oddity of his career is that of his 297 wins, he only collected 20 of them between the ages of 25 and 29, with two missed years in between as well.
So that means the guy collected 277 wins in only 11 seasons, his first of which was partial. Not bad!
I don’t know why he never got into the Hall since, based on his career, he must have been the all-time wins leader at some point before Cy Young came and blew everyone out of the water.
Guys like Keefe, Nichols and Galvin came after Mathews.
Go figure...

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: LUIS TIANT

The next player added to my future custom card set, "Classic Baseball" is "El Tiante" Luis Tiant, one of the great pitchers of his era and one of the great personalities in the history of the game, showing him early in his Hall of Fame worthy career as a member of the Cleveland Indians:

By the time he finished his career in 1982, 18 years later, he finished with a 229-172 record, with a 3.30 E.R.A., 49 shutouts and 2416 strikeouts, with two seasons of sub-2.00 E.R.A., four 20-win campaigns as well as three 200+ strikeout years.

1968 was especially a year to remember for the righty ace, as he gave the Cleveland Indians a 1-2 punch on the mound any team would envy, teaming up with flamethrower Sam McDowell.

All Tiant did that season for the Cleveland Indians was go 21-9 with nine shutouts over 32 starts, 19 of which he completed, and sport a sparkling 1.60 E.R.A. along with 264 strikeouts!

He also threw nine shutouts while tossing  while allowing only 5.3 hits per nine innings, with a stellar 0.871 WHIP.

Forget Cy Young Award, those are MVP numbers!

But as we all know, sadly for him this came the same season as some guy from Detroit named Denny McLain put together a 30-win season for a World Championship Tigers team.

Talk about your tough luck!

As a kid in Brooklyn, New York in the late 70's I remember him with the Yankees, and always thought he looked like some cool grampa who was always cracking jokes. In other words, I loved him!

After getting 30.9% support in his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1988, he never got close again to those numbers, topping out at 18.0% in his final year of eligibility in 2002.

Do I think he's a Hall of Fame pitcher? Tough call based on statistics alone. However I do feel that when you add in his personality, his long-lasting mark on the game in that time and place, he should be in.

MISSING ALL-STAR MANAGERS: 1974 DICK WILLIAMS

Continuing with my "Missing All-Star Managers" cards thread here on the blog, today we come to the 1974 set and the American League skipper for the 1973 game, Oakland A's manager Dick Williams:

Now, while Topps did return to having All-Star cards in their base set that year, instead of the multi-player (or manager in this case) format they utilized, I went with a base-card version as I did with the starting nine for each league a few years back.

The colors do just "pop" here don't they?

As manager of the Oakland A's, he arrived just in time as the team was just about to become the dynasty they'd turn out to be, winning the American League West in 1971 (losing to the Baltimore Orioles in the playoffs), but then winning the following two championships in 1972 and 1973 before Williams went on to manage the California Angels in 1974.

Over the course of his 21-year managerial career, Williams managed five first-place teams, reaching the playoffs with four of his teams: Red Sox, A's, Expos and Padres.

He guided three of THOSE teams to the World Series, and finished with 1571 wins, four pennants and two World Series wins.

All of that eventually led to Williams being inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 2008.

REVISIT: "HALL OF FAME LEADERS-1970 N.L. ERA" POST FROM 2013

Good day all.

Thought it'd be fun to revisit an old thread of mine here on the blog, "Hall of Fame League Leaders", spotlighting league leader cards from the 1970s that were entirely populated by future Hall of Famers, beginning with the 1970 National League E.R.A. card:

Now that is an elite threesome I'd build any team around!

Here's the write-up for that post as it was posted:

"I'm going to go ahead and start a new thread today called "Hall of Fame Leaders", which are league leader cards throughout the decade of the 1970's that featured ONLY Hall of Fame players.
When I got back into collecting vintage cards after a long absence in the mid-2000's, I really got into tracking down any of these cards for their "star power".
Luckily, the '70's were loaded with such cards.
Here we have Topps 1970 National league E.R.A. leader card (#67), which features no less that three top-notch Hall of Famers: Juan Marichal, Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton.
I like the fact that we have a sort of "passing the torch" with this card. Gibson and Marichal were at the latter half of their powerful careers, and Steve Carlton was just getting started.
We have two pitchers who dominated throughout the 1960's sandwiched around a guy who would star throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's.
Combined, we're looking at 823 wins and 9556 strikeouts in 57 years of Major League action.
Oddly enough, the three legends you see here each lead the N.L. in E.R.A. only once, and only a couple years apart: Gibson in his phenomenal 1968 season (how he lost nine games that year is STILL incredible!), Marichal in 1969, and Carlton in 1972.
Nevertheless, if there was ever a definition of "star power", this would be up there.
Bob Gibson would be the first to enter the Hall in 1981, with Marichal joining him just two years later in '83 and Carlton rounding out the party in 1994 after a 24 year career."

 

OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 CECIL COOPER

Up on the blog today, we have a look at the image variations for Cecil Cooper's 1977 Topps and OPC cards:

OPC version

Topps version

One of my favorite non-Yankee players as a kid at that time, Cooper found himself traded to the Milwaukee Brewers before the 1977 season, with OPC airbrushing him into a Brewer uniform for their set, while Topps still had him with the Boston Red Sox, the only team he'd suited up for during his career to that point in time.

Not bad an airbrushing job by the OPC folks to be honest, working with a photo that made it a little easier to transform.

Cooper was traded to the Brewers in December of 1976 for Bernie Carbo and George Scott, and immediately became a star, putting together seven straight seasons of a .300 batting average or higher, with a high of .352 in what is pretty much a forgotten incredible season in 1980 (thanks to George Brett), when he also led the American League in runs batted in with 122 while collecting 219 hits, 33 doubles and 25 homers.

The five-time all-star had three 200+ hit seasons, four 100+ RBI seasons, five 20+ homer seasons and even took home two Gold Gloves for his defensive work.

Between 1980-1983 he finished in the top-10 for Most Valuable Player, and also won three straight Silver Slugger Awards.

By the time he retired after the 1987 season, he finished with over 2000 hits, 1000 runs scored, 400 doubles, 240 homers and 1100 RBI's with just under a .300 batting average (.298).

What's astonishing to me is that when he became eligible for the Hall of Fame, he didn't get a single freaking vote! None! Yet guys like Bill Campbell, Andre Thornton and Davey Lopes got some support.

Just incredible to me…

1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: A.L. RIGHT-HANDED PITCHER: DEAN CHANCE

Our blog post today, my selection for the Right-handed American League pitcher of the 1960's, and I went with Cy Young Award winner Dean Chance:

First off, my kingdom for a nice portrait photo of the ace pitcher during his time pitching for the Los Angeles Angels!

I just could not find such a photo for this card, and hope to before I come to printing this set up later this year.

Anyway, I went with Dean Chance based on his two 20-win seasons, his sick 1964 Cy Young winning year, 11 shutouts in 1964, and five sub-3.00 E.R.A. campaigns by the time the '60's were in everyone's rear-view mirrors.

In 1962, his first full-year in the Majors, he finished third for Rookie of the Year, going 14-10 with a 2.96 E.R.A.

Throughout the rest of the decade it was more of the same, as he posted solid numbers year in and year out.

But it was his 1964 season that was far and away his best year in the Majors, as he finished with a 20-9 record with a sparkling 1.65 earned run average, 11 shutouts and 207 strikeouts, leading to a Cy Young win and a fifth-place finish in M.V.P. voting for the Los Angeles Angels.

He'd post another 20-win season in 1967, now as a member of the Minnesota Twins, going 20-14 with a 2.73 E.R.A., five shutouts and 220 strikeouts, and followed up in 1968 with a career high of 234 K's along with a 2.53 E.R.A., six shutouts and a mediocre 16-16 record.

Sadly for Chance this would be his last full season in the Majors, even though he was still only 27 years old.

1969 would see Chance make only 15 starts, going 5-4 with a 2.95 E.R.A. and 50 K's in only 88.1 innings before scraping together two more years playing for the Indians, Mets and Tigers.

He would be out of baseball for good by 1972, only 30 years old, but his solid seven years between 1962-1968 still makes him my pick as the righty pitcher on my A.L. All-Decade team for my 1970 sub-set.

 

WTHBALLS GUM PACK CUSTOM SET: WILLIE MAYS

Today on the blog I post up my special mini Willie Mays card, from my "Gum Pack" custom set released a few months ago on a whim, in fun gum pack packaging:

When adding Mays to the checklist for this set, I thought it'd be fun to have him as a New York Met for a change, and I'm glad I did, having the colors pop off this little gem of a card.

Mays capped off a tremendous career following the 1973 season, finishing up with the Mets in which he got to appear in his first World Series since 1962.
As a matter of fact, Mays actually did appear in the 1974 set, on card #473 which highlighted Game #2 of the series where the Mets won 10-7.
Anyway, not much to get into about arguably the best all-around player in baseball history. 3000+ hits, 660 homers, 1900+ R.B.I.'s., 1951 Rookie of the Year and N.L. M.V.P. in 1954 and 1965. But he was much more than just stats. He was the "Say Hey Kid".
By the time the 1970's hit, he was a walking legend of the sport, and being enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 was the cherry on top of it all.

Greatest living ballplayer by a country mile!

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 19TH CENTURY "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" BILLY HAMILTON

Up on the blog today, the next custom card from my early set, "19th Century Base Ball Champions", featuring the game's best players from the 1800's, this time giving the spotlight to Billy Hamilton, Hall of Fame outfielder:

If you're not familiar with this incredible player, do yourself a favor and check out his career and get ready to have your mind blown!

Over his 14-year Major League career, Hamilton hit a blistering .344 while scoring 1697 runs in 1594 games. You read that correctly! The man averaged more than a run per game over 14 years!

In 1894 he set what is STILL the Major League record for runs scored in a season when he made it home 198 times in only 132 games!

This was a season when he hit .403 for Philadelphia with an on-base-percentage of .521, with 100 stolen bases, 225 hits and 90 runs batted in.

A career that is heavily marked up in the "black ink", he stole over 100 bases four times, hit over .350 five times, won two batting titles, and scored 100+ runs in a season eleven times.

His numbers upon retirement in addition to those mentioned earlier: 2164 hits, 914 stolen bases and a .455 on-base-percentage.

Incredibly, in 1894 with the Phillies, he formed a .400-hitting outfield alongside Hall of Famers Ed Delahanty (.405) and Sam Thompson (.415), while even the UTILITY outfielder Tuck Turner hit .418 over 382 plate appearances!

Get this: as a TEAM, that Phillies team hit .350 that year. Absolutely insane.

In 1961 Hamilton was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans committee, and he also got renewed fame later in the 1970's when Lou Brock was chasing the all-time stolen base title.

A somewhat forgotten all-time great that helped set the game on its path as the sport we have today.

 

REVISITING A 10-YEAR-OLD POST: MISSING 1973 JERRY McNERTNEY

Revisiting a 10-year-old post today, that of my "missing" 1973 card for former catcher Jerry McNertney, which originally "aired" here on the blog in October of 2014:

Here's the write-up for the original post:

Here's a "missing" 1973 card for a guy who spent nine years on the Major League level, though in only two seasons did he really see "full time" action: catcher Jerry McNertney.

In actuality McNertney was closing out his career in 1973, appearing in only nine games with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

But in 1972 he did play in 39 games for St. Louis, mainly as a pinch-hitter and back-up to a young up and coming stud behind the plate, Ted Simmons.

McNertney's numbers for the 1972 season were: 10 hits in 48 at-bats (a .208 average), with three doubles and a triple among his "knocks".

So I figured why not give him a card in the 1973 set since I came across a nice photo of him in a Cardinals uniform, so here you go.

He came up rather late at the age of 27 in 1964 with the Chicago White Sox, appearing in 73 games, and stayed with the Sox until 1969 where he found himself suiting up for the Seattle Pilots in their only year of existence.

That season would have McNertney see the most playing time, appearing in 128 games, good for 449 plate appearances.

The following season, as the organization moved to Milwaukee and renamed the "Brewers", McNertney's playing time was diminished a bit, appearing in 111 games with 330 plate appearances.

The next two years saw him as a backup in St. Louis, playing in only 95 games combined before moving on to Pittsburgh, as I mentioned earlier, for his last hurrah in the big leagues.

MISSING ALL-STAR MANAGER: 1973 EARL WEAVER

Just as I had done years ago with the starting line-ups of the 1972 All-Star game, today I add American League manager for that game Earl Weaver to my "missing" All-Star cards, in this case completely creating a new card for the Hall of Fame skipper to get it done:

With the Baltimore Orioles pennant winning season of 1971 with Weaver at the helm, the 1972 Midsummer Classic saw the diminutive yet fiery manager lead the Junior Circuit to a chance to defend their 1971 All-Star game win against the N.L.

Well sadly, it was not to be, as the National League got back to "business as usual" with another win 4-3, something they would keep on doing all the way through to the 1983 game, much to THIS young A.L. fan through his elementary and Junior High School days!

I loved Earl Weaver as a kid, who paired up nicely with my favorite manager, Billy Martin: fiery, combative, and always ready to stick his neck out for his team.

By the time he retired after the 1986 season, Weaver finished with a record of 1480 wins against 1060 losses, for a very nice .583 winning percentage, with four Pennants and a World Championship in 1970, posting a winning season every year of his tenure except his very last, when he finished 73-89.

In 1996 he was voted into the Hall of Fame as a manager, celebrating one of the most colorful managers of the era, and rightly so!

WTHBALLS "BASEBALL ICONS" SPECIAL SET: MICKEY MANTLE

The next superstar who gets a custom "Icons" card in my future custom set is the "Commerce Comet" Mickey Mantle, New York Yankees legend, making for a fun "artsy" set based on home field background art from the Golden Era of baseball:

As I have stated before here on the blog, Mantle is one of those guys I really don't think we need to get into as far as his tenure on the baseball diamond. It'd be kind of a joke to start writing about his career since it would take up a book's worth.

But alas, 500+ homers, a bushel of World Championships, three Most Valuable Player Awards, and the hearts of more fans than we can even imagine to this day.

"The Mick" in all his glory, enshrined in his rightful place in Cooperstown, along with his longtime buddy Whitey Ford in the same HOF class.

One of the great icons of the sport over its 150+ year history.

Not too bad a Hollywood script...

I just wished I would have gotten to see him play!

Keep an eye out for this set when I release it!

 

OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 JOE FERGUSON

Up on the blog today, we take a closer look at the OPC and Topps image variation for Joe Ferguson's 1977 cards:

OPC version

Topps version

Whereas the Topps card has the catcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he suited up in 1976, the OPC card has him airbrushed into a Houston Astros uniform, reflecting his recent trade to the team.

After putting in half a season with the Cardinals in 1976, Ferguson was part of a multi-player trade that also saw former All-Star pitcher Larry Dierker head to St. Louis.

Ferguson would have a decent year for the Astros in 1977, hitting .257 over 132 games with 16 homers and 61 runs batted in.

He'd start 1978 with the Astros before finding himself where it all began, the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he started his career in 1970 and where he played up until 1976.

He had himself a nice 14-year Major League career, really acting as a back-up or platooning catcher, with only two seasons seeing him get as many as 500 plate appearances: 1973 with L.A. and 1977 with Houston.
His 1973 season with the Dodgers got him some MVP consideration, as he hit .263 with 25 homers and 88 runs batted in, along with 87 walks and 84 runs scored. Not bad at all!
For his career, he finished with a .240 average with 122 homers and 445 RBIs, with 719 hits over 3001 at-bats.

 

1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: N.L. RIGHT-HANDED PITCHER: JUAN MARICHAL

Hello all!

On the blog today, my pick for the "All-1960s" National League right-handed pitcher of the decade, and I went with an easy pick, San Francisco Giants legend Juam Marichal, the "Dominican Dandy":

I don't think many of you would argue with me on this pick!

The man was born to pitch.

Once called up to the big show in 1961, he would go 6-2 over his first 11 starts, with a 2.66 ERA and six complete games, including a shutout in his 1st MLB start.
As much as Marichal is celebrated as an all-time pitching legend, you still have to feel for the guy when you consider the timing of all his banner years in the big leagues.
In 1963 he has his breakout year, going 25-8 with a 2.41 E.R.A., but takes a back seat to another guy who has a breakout year, Sandy Koufax.
In 1966 he wins 25 games again, but again takes a backseat to a now dominating Koufax, who wins 27 along with a bunch of other eye-popping numbers.
In 1968 he sets a career high of 26 wins to go along with a 2.43 earned run average, but wait, a guy named Bob Gibson has a year for the ages, winning both the Cy Young Award and the M.V.P.
But when you look at the decade as a whole, there wasn't a better pitcher in the game from 1960-1969, as Marichal went on to win 191 games, winning 25 or more wins three times, post seven sub-3.00 E.R.A. seasons,  top 200+ strikeouts six times , and get selected as an all-star every year between 1962-1969.
What a BEAST on the mound!
Easily would have been the first 3-time Cy Young winner if not for Koufax and Gibson.
Ah well, I’m sure his spot in Cooperstown makes it a bit easier to take.

"Dominican Dandy" indeed!

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1890 "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" AMOS RUSIE

The next 19th Century baseball star from my early custom WTHBALLS set to get the spotlight here on the blog is the "Hoosier Thunderbolt" Amos Rusie:

This was a really fun set to create and release back in 2018, in special cigarette pack packaging with loads of goodies, along with a double-mounted cabinet postcard of the 1869 Cincinnati red Stockings.

Rusie was an anchor for the New York Giants at the end of the 19th Century, reeling off eight 20-win seasons (four of them 30+ seasons), while topping the National League in strikeouts five times and shutouts four times, with two ERA titles thrown in.
His final numbers of 246-174, with a 3.07 ERA and 1707 may not seem overwhelming, but if you can imagine, his career was over by the time he turned 30!
As a matter of fact he really pitched his last full season at the age of 27, with a three game appearance in 1901 with the Cincinnati Reds that encompassed only 22 innings of work.
So really those final numbers represent nine years of Major League ball!
And for those of you that may not know this, the trade that got him to Cincinnati for those scant three games in 1901 goes down as one of the all-time worst trades, sadly for the Reds, as they shipped to New York a young collegiate pitcher who’d go on to an even greater career than Rusie, none other than all-time great Christy Mathewson!

Ouch!

WTHBALLS "BASEBALL ICONS" SPECIAL SET: ROBERTO CLEMENTE

Up on the blog today, my special "Icons" custom card for "The Great One", Roberto Clemente, creating a set utilizing artwork of a players' home field as a background:

I have some pretty cool ideas of how this set will be released, and I hope you all find it just as interesting, with deluxe packaging and special inserts!

Anyway, as for the man himself, Clemente's career is the stuff of legend: His fiery play on the field, his good deeds, and his absolute adoration by teammates and fans alike.

On the field Clemente's numbers were incredible: four batting titles, five seasons batting over .340, four 200 hit seasons, 12 all-star nods, 12 Gold Gloves and a Most Valuable Player Award in 1966.

And a prime example of Clemente's importance to the game was his immediate induction into Cooperstown by special committee in 1973, waiving the standard five-year wait before a player joins the Hall ballot, as well as the establishment of the "Roberto Clemente Award", given every year to the player that exemplified "outstanding baseball playing skills who is personally involved in community work."

The man was truly something else, and I'm not even thinking of his baseball prowess.

Just special and truly one of a kind!

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: STAN MUSIAL

Up on the blog today, we add "Stan The Man" Musial to my custom "Classic Baseball" set, celebrating the great game that has brought me so much joy throughout my life for close to 50 years:

Just a fun, clean layout for this set, which I plan to release in five different series adding up to over 100 cards in what should be the largest set in the WTHBALLS card stable.

Regarding the great Stan 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.

Along with the great Frank Robinson I always felt Stan Musial was often overlooked in the decades since his playing days ended.

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.

Three Most Valuable Player Awards, FOUR second-place finishes, including three in a row between 1949-1951, and twenty consecutive all-star appearances, Musial definitely is a member of that rarified stratosphere of baseball royalty along with the likes of Ruth, Cobb, Mays and Wagner, among others.

WTHBALLS GUM PACK CUSTOM SET: FRED LYNN

On the blog today, my Fred Lynn mini custom card from my "Gum Pack" set released a few months back:

Fun little set to get out there in the world in Gum Pack packaging, using a velvety smooth card stock for the mini-cards themselves.

As for Mr. Lynn, after a wonderful college career at USC, Lynn became an instant star in 1975 when he led the Boston Red Sox to the World Series after copping both the Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player Awards. The first player ever to do so, and still only one of two (Ichiro Suzuki joined him in 2001).
He’d go on to win four Gold Gloves, get named to nine all-star teams, and hit the only Grand Slam in All-Star game history, a memorable shot off of Atlee Hammaker in the 1983 classic that gave the American League it’s first win over the National League since 1971.
Hampered by injuries throughout his 17-year career, he still finished with a very solid MLB resume: 306 homers, 1111 RBI’s, 1063 runs scored and a .283 batting average, with 10 seasons of 20+ homers over 1969 games.

REVISITING A 10-YEAR OLD POST: MISSING IN ACTION JEFF TORBORG

Today on the blog we revisit a 10-year old post featuring an early "missing in action" card, this one of catcher Jeff Torborg of the California Angels:

Here's the original write-up for that post:

"You know, California Angels catchers of the early to mid 1970's got "dissed" left and right by Topps.

My last "Missing in Action" subject was Angels' backstop Art Kusnyer, and today's player is another California signal-caller, Jeff Torborg, who should have had a card in the 1974 set.

You think a guy who caught no-hitters by BOTH Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax in his career would get a little love, especially since he did actually play in 102 games in 1973!

In those 102 games played he had 284 plate appearances and started more than half the Angels games that year with 95.

Then take into account that Topps instead went ahead and gave a card in their 1974 set to both Charlie Sands and Rick Stelmaszek, who appeared in only 17 and 22 games respectively as the Angels fourth and fifth string catchers the previous year!

How does that compute?

If you're keeping track, I've only named four catchers here, yet I stated Sands and Stelmaszek as the fourth and fifth string.

Turns out (and thank you to reader "ecloy" for the heads up) Topps also omitted ANOTHER Angels catcher that year by leaving out their second-most active back-stop in 1973, catcher John Stephenson, who appeared in 60 games, good for 132 plate appearances.

???

So Topps leaves out the three most active Angels catchers of 1973 and gives cards to two guys who totaled 39 games between them!?

I just can't figure it out.

Nevertheless, with the missing 1973 Kusnyer card, this 1974 Torborg card, and in the near future the missing Stephenson cards (yes, there were multiple missing cards for this player in the decade), I hope to fill in all the blanks for Angels catchers of the 1970's.

I'll also be writing about Charlie Sands and his TWO inexplicable cards during the '70's as well.

Keep an eye out for all of them here…

As for Torborg, after a very successful college career playing for Rutgers University in New Jersey in the early 60's Torborg was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1963.

He made it to the Majors in 1964 and went on to play seven years for L.A. as a back-up catcher before being purchased by the California Angels in March of 1971, where he went on to play for another three seasons.

After the 1973 season, as the Angels primary catcher among a slew of guys behind the plate that year, Torborg was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher John Andrews.

Turns out both players never appeared in another Major League game again.

Torborg was out of the game as a player for good, but he almost immediately made a go of it as a Major League manager, landing the job of Cleveland Indians skipper during the 1977 season (remember his card as manager in that awesome manager sub-set in the 1978 Topps set?).

This lead to an on-again/off-again eleven year managerial career between 1977 and 2003 managing five teams: the Indians, White Sox, Mets, Expos and Marlins.

Some of you may also remember that Torborg was the Marlins manager at the beginning of what was to be their World Championship season in 2003 before being replaced by Jack McKeon after a rough 16 and 22 start.

As a player Torborg never really became a full-time player, but man was he lucky with the opportunity to catch some memorable games for some memorable pitchers!

On September 9th, 1965 while with the Dodgers he was behind the plate for Sandy Koufax's perfect game against the Chicago Cubs.

Then on July 20th, 1970 he caught Bill Singer's no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies (funny enough he'd also be a teammate of Singer over in California).

But if that wasn't enough, Torborg ended up catching Nolan Ryan's first of a record seven Major League no-hitters when he was behind the plate for Ryan's masterpiece on May 15th, 1973 against the Kansas City Royals.

Not a bad string of historical experience for a part-time catcher in ten years!

As for Angels' catchers, next week I should have a card (or two) designed for yet another missing player, John Stephenson, who really got shafted multiple times by Topps.

Keep an eye out for it.."

MISSING ALL-STAR MANAGER: 1973 DANNY MURTAUGH

Good day all.

Up on the blog today we have a "missing" 1973 Danny Murtaugh All-Star manager card, in the case of the 1973 set a complete fabrication by yours truly since Topps didn't have all-star cards in this set:

Murtaugh was given the honors as the National League skipper for the 1972 game based on his leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a World Series win over the favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1971 Fall Classic.

He began his managerial career in 1957, and would go on to lead the Pirates through 1976 with gaps in 1965-1966, 1968-1969, and 1972.

Overall he led the team to five first place finishes, with two championships, the first in 1960 when the Pirates stunned the favored New York Yankees, capped off by Bill Mazeroski's Game Seven ninth-inning walk-off, and the second when they beat the defending champion Baltimore Orioles.

His final numbers as a manager, he finished with a record of 1115 and 950, good for a .540 winning percentage.

Battling ailments including heart issues throughout his managerial career, he sadly suffered a stroke and passed away at the age of only 59, just two months after retiring.

1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: A.L. OUTFIELDER AL KALINE

Good day all!

On the blog today we come to my third outfielder for my "All-Decade 1960s" American League squad, and I went with Detroit Tigers legend Al kaline, a player who often gets overlooked even though he had one heck of a career:

What a quiet legend Kaline was. Buried under names like Aaron, Mays, Mantle, etc, he just went about his business year in and year out and paved the way for his eventual induction into Cooperstown's hallowed halls in 1980.

The 1960's saw Kaline make eight All-Star teams, win seven Gold Gloves, and receive solid M.V.P. support seven of ten years, finishing as high as second in 1963.

Though he only led the league in a primary offensive category only once (doubles in 1961) in the 1960s, Kaline's consistency was his strength, as he topped .300 four times, 20 homers five times, and a .500 slugging percentage five times.

The 15-time all-star topped 3000 hits, 1600 runs, 1500 runs batted in and came one home run short of 400 over his stellar career, which also included 10 Gold Gloves for his defensive prowess.
An easy Hall of Fame pick, he was inducted in his first year of eligibility in 1980 with 88.3% of the ballots cast.
“Mr. Tiger” indeed!

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 19TH CENTURY "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" AL SPALDING

Today on the blog, a fun thread to start after many years, a spotlight of one of my first custom sets to be produced, my 1890 "Baseball Champions" set celebrating the greats of the game before the turn of the Century, beginning with legend Al Spalding:

This set was definitely a "labor of love", putting in a ton of work with elaborate packaging, having the player cards come in cigarette box with authentic 19th Century Tobacco Tax stamp along with 100+ year old "Nations of the World" pin and bonus 1869 Cincinnati Red Stocking cabinet card.

The cards themselves came on textured card stock in familiar 19th century card size, somewhat resembling one of my all-time favorite card sets, the 1894 Mayo Plug set.

Al Spalding was the premier pitcher with the Boston club in the National Association before helping form the Major Leagues in 1876 and heading the Chicago team.
Ever since I got my first Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia around 1980 I became obsessed with these 19th Century players, and Spalding was one of THE reasons.
Just look at his ridiculous stats between 1871 and 1876!
All he did was put together a 251-65 record as a pitcher, with a .795 winning percentage and a 2.13 earned run average.
Sure the game was not nearly what it evolved to be years later, but those numbers are hilarious, almost a joke, so for a young kid like me seeing these for the first time I was amazed.
Oddly, since then I have read pretty much every book on 19th-Century baseball and cannot seem to remember why Spalding decided to stop playing the game at the age of 26 and really put his efforts into administration, organization and equipment manufacture.
I mean, yes he was immensely successful with all three, but it would have been awesome to see what he ended up with stat-wise.
As it was, he finished with a 252-65 record, leading his league in wins every single season he played except for his abbreviated 4-game season of 1877.
In 1875 he posted a phenomenal 54-5 record with a 1.59 ERA, seven shutouts and nine saves over 72 games, 62 of which were starts.

After his playing days he would become one of the most important figures in the game's progression to that of the "National Pastime", though by both boosting the game's appeal world wide, and by lying to help create the Nelson Doubleday myth of the game's origin.

Nevertheless the man was a business stalwart, creating the "Spalding" equipment empire, or as we in the Brooklyn area in the late-1970s called it, "Spaldeen", a brand still producing goods to this day!

Amazing life

REVISITING A BLOG POST FROM 2013: "MISSING IN ACTION" 1971 TONY LaRUSSA

On the blog today we revisit an old blog post from November of 2013, my "missing" 1971 card for future Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa:

Here's the write-up for the post as originally written way back when:

As we all know, Tony LaRussa the "manager" is one of the all-time greats.

Between 1979 and 2011, a span of 33 years, he managed three teams (White Sox, A's and Cardinals) to 2728 victories, six pennants, three world championships, and 12 first place finishes.

You can easily make an argument for LaRussa as the best modern era manager in baseball.

Now, Tony LaRussa the "player". Well…

Let's just say that he never really fulfilled the promise on THAT end of his career.

He came up in 1963 for a brief cup of coffee with the Kansas City Athletics, but wouldn't make it back up to the big leagues again until 1968, when he appeared in only five games, good for three at-bats.

Actually, in his six year playing career, he never really got a chunk of playing time in any one season.

However, ironically enough, the MOST action he ever saw was during the 1970 season while still playing for the A's, when he got into 52 games at second base, good for 106 at-bats.

He didn't make much of the opportunity, batting .198 with 21 hits and six runs batted in.

However, if there was EVER a year where Topps should have given the guy a baseball card you think it would be the only year he scraped together more than 100+ plate appearances, no?

Yet Topps didn't have a LaRussa card in their 1971 set, even though he WAS included in their sets in 1964, 1968 and 1972.

Go figure…

Well, today I post up a "missing" design for a 1971 Tony LaRussa card.

Even though his playing days left a lot to be desired, he was well on his way to the Hall of Fame once he got the hold of managing a squad in 1979.