THEN & NOW: 1979 DON KESSINGER

Up on the blog today, we have a 1979 “Then & Now” Super Veteran card for former Chicago Cubs All-Star Don Kessinger, who wrapped up a nice Major League career as player-manager with the cross-town White Sox:

 

  

Originally up to the Majors in 1964 as a 21-year-old, he would play the first 12 years of his career on Chicago's North Side with the Cubbies, before moving on to the St. Louis Cardinals for a season and a half, then the Chicago White Sox for the last two and a half years of his 16-year career.

Kessinger was really a great player who gets lost over the years, making six all-star teams over his career, along with two Gold Gloves for such a great Cubs team at the time.

In 1969 Kessinger had perhaps his best season in the Big Leagues, collecting a career-best 181 hits, 38 doubles, 53 runs batted in and 109 runs scored.

In 1979, his last season of his career, he was also named manager of the White Sox before handing over the reigns to a young up and coming field general, a guy named Tony LaRussa.

For Kessinger, he would finish his career with 1931 hits, 899 runs, 100 stolen bases and a .252 batting average over 7651 at-bats and 2078 games played.

As a manager however, he didn't have the same result, lasting only 106 games into the 1979 season before getting let go, leading the team to a record of 46-60.

His replacement, Tony LaRussa, incredibly is STILL managing to this day, which boggles my mind.

AN ANOMALY IN TOPPS CARDS- 1979 DON KESSINGER

On the blog today, we spotlight a rare and fun situation for Topps cards, regardless of the era: the fact that Don Kessinger had a solo card as a player in Topps 1979 set, as well as being profiled on the team card as their manager:

 

The longtime All-Star shortstop for the Chicago CUBS found himself on the Southside of town, traded for a Minor Leaguer in August of 1977.

Before the 1979 season, he was tabbed as the new manager of the White Sox, enough time for Topps to have him in the small manager inset on the team card, while still having him on a solo card as well.

I remember as a kid thinking this was so cool, and that they should have done the same for New York Mets Joe Torre the previous season.

Kessinger was really a great player who gets lost over the years, making six all-star teams over his career, along with two Gold Gloves for such a great Cubs team at the time.

Originally up to the Majors in 1964 as a 21-year-old, he would play the first 12 years of his career on Chicago's North Side with the Cubbies, before moving on to the St. Louis Cardinals for a season and a half, then the Chicago White Sox for the last two and a half years of his 16-year career.

In 1979, his last season of his career, he was also named manager of the White Sox before handing over the reigns to a young up and coming field general, a guy named Tony LaRussa.

For Kessinger, he would finish his career with 1931 hits, 899 runs, 100 stolen bases and a .252 batting average over 7651 at-bats and 2078 games played.

As a manager however, he didn't have the same result, lasting only 106 games into the 1979 season before getting let go, leading the team to a record of 46-60.

His replacement, Tony LaRussa, who incredibly is STILL managing to this day, which boggles my mind.

ON-CARD ALL-STARS: 1970 DON KESSINGER

Next up on the "On-Card" All-Star train is the starting shortstop for the National League in 1969, Chicago Cub Don Kessinger, who made his second straight all-star team that season:

  

Kessinger was really a great player who gets lost over the years, making six all-star teams over his career, along with two Gold Gloves for such a great Cubs team at the time.

In 1969 Kessinger had perhaps his best season in the Big Leagues, collecting a career-best 181 hits, 38 doubles, 53 runs batted in and 109 runs scored.

Originally up to the Majors in 1964 as a 21-year-old, he would play the first 12 years of his career on Chicago's North Side with the Cubbies, before moving on to the St. Louis Cardinals for a season and a half, then the Chicago White Sox for the last two and a half years of his 16-year career.

In 1979, his last season of his career, he was also named manager of the White Sox before handing over the reigns to a young up and coming field general, a guy named Tony LaRussa.

For Kessinger, he would finish his career with 1931 hits, 899 runs, 100 stolen bases and a .252 batting average over 7651 at-bats and 2078 games played.

1976 PROJECT- DON KESSINGER

Here’s a thread that hasn’t been visited in a while, the ongoing “1976 Project” for reader Jim and his pursuit of the complete 1975 representation of players and who they played for.
So today we spotlight former Chicago Cubs all-star shortstop Don Kessinger, who actually appeared in the 1976 Topps set as a St. Louis Cardinal player with a classic airbrush job since he was was traded to them in October of 1975:

Jim had me create a Cubs version for Kessinger since he played the entire ‘75 season with them, his last of 12 campaigns that saw him get named to six all-star teams along with two Gold Gloves.
Though still a relatively young 33 years old by the time 1976 opened up, Kessinger’s days as a player were winding down, seeing him play a season and a half in St. Louis before moving back to Chicago, this time for the South Side White Sox, where he would become player manager in 1979.
It wasn’t exactly a successful tenure, as the Pale Hose went 46-60 under his reign before the organization gave the job to a guy who would see some success as a Major League manager: Tony LaRussa.
As for Kessinger, he retired with a very nice Major League resume that sported a 16-year career with the aforementioned all-star nods and Gold Gloves, batting .252 with 1931 hits over 7651 at-bats in 2078 games.

THE MISSING ALL STAR CARDS: 1973 TOPPS: NATIONAL LEAGUE

Here we have the final installment in my series of "missing all star cards" between 1971 and 1973. This time, for the '73 all stars from the National League, I gave them a red stripe running across the bottom, following the design introduced on my American League cards yesterday.
Of note is the fact that Willie Stargell is portrayed as a first baseman, with an action shot of him obviously manning that position. Yet for the second year in a row he was voted in as an outfielder.
One other noteworthy thing to mention is the fact that Roberto Clemente's card was a bit of a "memorial" card, as by the time it was released, he already died in a plane crash while on an aid mission to help victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua in December of 1972.
Well, this wraps up the "missing all stars" thread, and it was definitely fun to work on. I've been contemplating recreating all star cards from 1970 and 1974 where the "all star" designation is on the players' regular issue card instead of an all star sub set. If time allows I'll get that posted up sooner rather than later.

THE MISSING ALL-STAR CARDS: 1971 TOPPS: NATIONAL LEAGUE

Today we have the 1971 Topps National League all stars "that never were".

For the N.L. players who were elected starters in 1970, I used a yellow border and star to designate "all star" status, as opposed to the red I used on the A.L. guys.

A couple of items of note: Rich (Dick) Allen is shown on his card as an outfielder even though he was voted in as the starting 1st Baseman. Also, as I profiled before: this is the first Topps baseball card showing a player with a mustache. Ever. Incredible after 20 years of producing cards at that time.

For Tom Seaver this would have been his only all star card until 1982, when he was on Cincinnati. Pretty amazing when you think about it. For all his domination in the 1970's, it was guys like Dock Ellis, Randy Jones, Andy Messersmith and Jerry Reuss that got all star starts over him.

Chicago was well represented with their middle infielders: Glenn Beckert and Don Kessinger. Of course, this was before the "Big Red Machine" dominated all star voting pretty much the rest of the decade.

Rico Carty was voted in for the 1970 game due to his white-hot hitting, ending the season as the N.L. batting champ with a super .366 batting average to go along with 25 homers and 101 R.B.I.'s.

Tomorrow I'll have the A.L. starting nine depicted on the 1972 Topps set, followed by the N.L. team on Thursday.