Kansas City Athletics CTNW Favorites #2
By 1967 there were signs of things to come for the A's. Charlie Finley bought the team in 1960 after Arnold Johnson's death. He immediately swore off trades with the Yankees and in the midst of several marketing gimmicks he began rebuilding the team.
When the amateur draft began in 1965 the A's drafted Rick Monday. In 1966 they drafted Reggie Jackson and in 1967 Vida Blue. The '67 team had several young players who would be part of the championship teams of '72, '73 and '74. They had a 25 year old Bert Campaneris, a 23 year old Sal Bando, a 22 year old Blue Moon Odom, a 21 year old Catfish Hunter, a 21 year old Dave Duncan, and a 20 year old Joe Rudi.
They also had 2 players making their major league debut in Reggie Jackson and switch-hitting utilityman Ted Kubiak. Jackson would not have a Topps card until 1969. Although I have seen plenty of very good 1968 Topps Reggie Jackson Cards That Never Were, I haven't seen a 1967 version. He was the #2 overall pick in the 1966 draft. He hit 23 homers in just 68 games while averaging just under .300 as a minor leaguer in 1966. Evidently this wasn't enough to convince Topps to include him on a 1967 card.
Very nicely done. Even Topps tried to make one of those '68 Reggie Jackson cards in one of their Fan Favorites sets ('03-'05 can't remember which one)
ReplyDeleteJohn, what a great card of Jax.
ReplyDelete(Two other rookie stars that were snubbed by Topps in 1967 were Gary Nolan and Don Wilson.)