Topps All-Star Misses: 1969 AL Infield

 Topps 1969 American League All Star Infield was another head scratcher.  At second Topps had Rod Carew who was the 1968 All Star starter and a 1969 Sporting News All Star selection.  Similarly, third base was Brooks Robinson.  He was the 1968 ASG starter and a 1969 Sporting News All Star. There if falls apart.  

Topps had Bert Campaneris at shortstop. The actual 1969 Sporting News All Star was Luis Aparicio. The 1968 MLB All Star Game Starter was Jim Fregosi.

At first it gets really strange.  Topps had Ken Harrelson who had been used primarily as an outfielder since being dealt to the Red Sox in 1967.  In fact, he was named to The Sporting News All Star team in 1969 as an outfielder, not a first baseman. He also appears to be in his A's uniform despite being traded in 1967.  The actual 1969 Sporting News All Star in 1969 was Boog Powell and the starting first baseman in the 1968 All Star Game was Harmon Killebrew.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1969 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Bert Campaneris:

We'll give Topps a pass for Hawk Harrelson because he was a Sporting News Selection in 1969, although in the OF not 1B.  But Campy made his first ASG appearance in 1968 as a reserve and wouldn't be named to The Sporting News team until 1973. Additionally, the pinstriped uniform in the picture hasn't been worn by the A's in the regular season since 1961. How old is this picture? 

MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 3

A's v Rays and Orioles v Astros

These "games" have already been played, you can check the results here. I got a chance to watch a bit of these yesterday.  I was disappointed.  The graphics were almost non existent.  I was hoping for something more like the White Sox are doing with NBCSN and "MLB The Show". 

The "greatest" player selection was made by "Twitch" or "Out of the Park" or "Draft Kings" or whoever.  I can't say I totally agree. Also there were no players "disqualified". That mean they included "Shoeless"  Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, etc.  In fact, there seems to be a plethora of steroids-era players.

These games are going on right now. As I type many American Leagues have already been eliminated. So I'm doubling up today. Just want to get as many cards out while they are still relevant. I'm still making 4 for each team, 1 pitcher and 3 position players. Once again, the card design is based on a rejected Topps design from the late sixties.

For the A's, I made cards of Eddie Plank, Jimmie Foxx, Bert Campaneris, and Rickey Henderson.  On the Rays there is David Price, Fred McGriff, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria,

In the Orioles-Astros match up, we have Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken. For the Astros it's JR Richard, Cesar Cedeno, Brad Ausmus and Carlos Correa.

1976 Alt-Topps Requests

A few quick requests before the end of the year. 

Buzz likes a challenge. He requested a few veterans that were playing out the twilight of their careers on different teams. 

He also requested a couple West-Coast favorites. Billy Buck and Rick Monday.  The photo used is somewhat a cheat. Monday performed his famous flag rescue on May 4, 1976. This photo was obviously taken some time after that. He was dealt to the Dodgers for Buckner (in a five player deal) after the 1976 season.  Again, the colors used in the base cards reflect he colors Topps used for these teams in the real 1976 set. 

Deogolf requested more World Series cards so here are Games 1 & 7.

Bill wanted some All Stars so for good measure I added a couple stolen base experts. In truth, I just needed an excuse to use a photo that incorporated the little used football-styled helmet the Cards used in 1975.

1971 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Bert Campaneris, Tommy Harper, Sandy Alomar

Bert Campaneris's stolen base production dropped from 62 in 1969 to 42 in 1970. Yet he went from second place to league leader. The reason is that 1969 stolen base leader, Tommy Harper saw his numbers drop even more significantly. He went from 73 in 1969 to only 38 in 1970. By contrast Harper's home run production skyrocketed. He went from 9 in 1969 for the Seattle Pilots to a career high 31 with the Brewers. He was also the first Brewer selected to the All Star game in 1970. He was brought in as a pinch-runner and was thrown out by Johnny Bench trying to steal second. 

Sandy Alomar will always have a close place in my heart. Not because of his meaningless All Star at-bat in 1970, nor because of his 3rd place stolen base performance in 1970. Instead it was because of his kindness to my son at his first baseball game ever. It was the 2001 season and we had seats on the 3rd base line.  Right behind the Cubs bullpen. My  5 year old son was chatting with every player that came his way.  Including bullpen coach Sandy Alomar. And Sandy not only chatted with him but gave him a ball mid-game,  He also autographed it for him after the game. My son is away at college now but that autographed ball is still in his abandoned bedroom. He may have trouble remembering it because he was only 5 years old, but I will remember it forever.

Thank You Sandy. 

1970 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Tommy Harper, Bert Campaneris, Cesar Tovar

The 1969 Seattle Pilots didn't have much to celebrate. The team had an old stadium with poor attendance and an older team. With an average age of over 28 years, they were older than most established MLB teams and considerably older than the other 1969 expansion teams.  But Tommy Harper provided Seattle fans with a reason to cheer. The lead-off hitter got the Pilots first hit ever and also scored their first run. Harper also led the Majors with 73 stolen bases.

After leading the AL in stolen bases for 4 consecutive years, Bert Campaneris fell to 2nd place. His 62 swipes still matched his career high from the 1968 season. Additionally he was only caught 8 times compared to 22 in 1968.

Cesar Tovar stole 52 bases in the regular season and 1 in the NLCS for the Minnesota Twins. 

1969 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Bert Campaneris, Jose Cardenal, Cesar Tovar

Bert Campaneris led the league in stolen bases for the 4th consecutive time in 1968. He also earned himself his first All Star Game appearance. He had a career high 62 stolen bases. 

Jose Cardenal was traded from the Angels to the Indians after the 1967 season. The Angels got Chuck Hinton, who had been a threat on the basepaths. But Hinton was 34 and clearly on the downward side of his career. At 24 year, Cardenal stole a career high 40 bases for the the Indians in 1968.

Cesar Tovar had 35 stolen bases in 1968. But that was not his most impressive feat that year. He mimicked Bert Campaneris's 1965 act by playing all 9 positions in one game. On September 22nd, with the Twins 26 games out, He played all nine positions against Campaneris and the Oakland A's. He actually was the starting pitcher for the Twins and didn't surrender a hit or a run. In fact, nobody hit a ball in play. He got Campy to foul out, then struck out Reggie Jackson! Next he issued a walk to Danny Cater then balked to send him to second. Finally he got Sal Bando to pop out in foul territory. He then moved to catcher in the second, then 1st, 2nd, SS, 3rd, LF, CF and RF all for 1 inning each.  At the plate he walked, singled, stole a base and scored a run in 4 plate appearances. In a game with 3 fielding errors, none went to Tovar. 

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Update:

My last version had a shot of Luis Tiant instead of Jose Cardenal. Fortunately, it was caught by one of the readers. Thanks Greg!

1968 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Bert Campaneris, Don Buford, Tommie Agee

This is nearly a reprint of the 1966 A.L. Stolen Base Leader card I made a while back:

Exact same players, for the exact same teams in the exact same order. And once again The A's and White Sox teams led the AL in steals. 132 for the A's and 124 for the Sox. The next closest were the Bosox with 68.

Campy led the league for the 3rd straight year with 55. Buford was 2nd with 34 but led the league in  getting caught with 21. Tommie Agee was in 3rd with 28 but was the only one to play in the 1967 All Star game. In the bottom of the 8th he came to pinch run for Don Mincher.  He advanced to 2nd on a sacrifice bunt. Unfortunately he was stranded there and never took the field. The AL lost 2-1 in 15 innings.

1967 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Bert Campaneris, Don Buford, Tommie Agee

The two teams featured on this card, The Kansas City A's and the Chicago White Sox were the top two teams in stolen bases and also the bottom 2 teams in home runs in the A.L. The White Sox were also dead last in batting average while the A's were last in on base percentage. 

The A's had the leagues top base-runner in Bert Campaneris and the top closer in Jack Aker but were sub par in nearly every other category. They finished 7th in the AL.

The White Sox made up for this power shortage with pitching and speed. They had the lowest ERA in the league with 2.68 compared to the league average of 3.44. The next closest was Minnesota with a 3.13 ERA. The Sox also led the league in sacrifice bunts and stolen bases. Don Buford had a career high 51 stolen bases and led the league in sacrifice bunts. Tommie Agee was th AL Rookie of the Year. He had 41 stolen bases and earned a gold glove in center field.This managed to keep above .500 finishing 4th in the AL.

1966 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Campaneris, Cardenal, Versalles

1965 was a big year for Bert Campaneris. In addition to leading the league with 51 stolen bases he was caught stealing more than any other player in the AL. He also led in triples and hit-by-pitch. On September 8, 1965 Campy played all 9 positions (click here) even pitching left-handed to Albie Pearson. One of the players who faced a right-hand pitching Campaneris was Jose Cardenal who was 2nd in the AL with 37 stolen bases. Campy got Jose to pop out to 2nd. The 1965 AL MVP, Zoilo Versalles was 3rd in stolen bases with 27.

1965 Topps Bert Campaneris

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In 1965 Topps put out this card listing Bert Campaneris as a Shortstop and an Outfielder. But on September  8th 1965 Campaneris played not only shortstop and every position in the outfield but every other position on the field as well. To commemorate the feat I have created cards for the other positions he played.

Campy was the first Major Leaguer to play all 9 positions in a single game. Since then 3 others have joined him: Cesar Tovar of the Twins in 1968, Scott Sheldon of the Rangers in September 2000, and most recently Shane Halter of the Tigers in October 2000.