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:
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| 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.
