1964 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Aparicio, Hinton, Wood, Snyder

In his 1st season in an Orioles uniform, Luis Aparicio continued his dominance on the base paths. For the 8th consecutive year Aparicio led the AL in stolen bases. His 40 swipes were 15 more than the second place finisher.

Chuck Hinton was an outfielder by trade but was used in every defensive position except pitcher during his career. What he lacked in the field he made up for at the plate and on the base paths. In 1963 he had 15 homers and 25 stolen bases.

Jake Wood and Russ Snyder tied for 3rd with 18 stolen bases each. For Russ Snyder, it was a career high, For Jake Wood it was his lowest total yet in his 3 years in the Majors.

1963 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Aparicio, Hinton, Wood, Charles, Howser

 In the spirit of full-disclosure, this card shows the top 4 SB leaders and 1 of the 3 players tied for 5th place. There were a couple leader cards in the 1963 set that had a 3rd player on the bottom row but none with 4 players. I just thought it wouldn't look right so I kept to a 5 player limit.

The average number of stolen bases for an American League team in 1962 was 56. The only 4 teams with more than 56 stolen bases are represented on this card.

The Chicago White Sox had 76 stolen bases led by Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio with 31. Jim Landis (who is not pictured on this card) was tied for 5th in the AL with 19 stolen bases.

The "new" Washington Senators led AL teams with 99 stolen bases. They were led by outfielder Chuck Hinton and had a total of 16 players with at least 1 stolen base.

The Detroit Tigers had a total of 69 stolen bases. 24 of them belonged to second baseman, Jake Wood.

The Kansas City Athletics stole 76 bases and had 3 players in the top 5 list. Third baseman, Ed Charles was #4 in the AL with 20. Shortstop, Dick Howser and rookie outfielder Jose Tartabull (not pictured) were in a three-way tie for 5th with Jim Landis

1962 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Aparicio, Howser, Wood

Luis Aparicio led the AL in stolen bases again in 1961. He led the Al every year from his rookie season in 1956 until 1964. Dick Howser and Jake Wood were both rookies in 1961. 

While Aparicio's Hall of Fame career was in full stride in 1961. Both Howser and Wood arguably had the best season of their playing careers as rookies. They had career highs in most offensive categories including stolen bases. 

Dick Howser is more often remembered as the manager of the World Champion 1985 Kansas City Royals. His number 10 was retired by the Royals in 1987. 

Jake Wood was the first African American player to come up through the Tigers farm system to make it to the Majors. The Tigers were the second to last team to break the color barrier. The first non-white on the Tigers was Ozzie Virgil. Ozzie was a Dominican and had played played a few seasons on the Giants before coming to Detroit. The first non-Hispanic Black player on the Tigers was Larry Doby in 1959 a full 12 years after his debut in 1947. 

Follow this link and this link for more on Jake Wood and the reluctant integration of the Detroit Tigers