1967 Topps NL Leading Firemen: Phil Regan, Billy McCool, Roy Face

Phil Regan made his one and only All Star game appearance in 1966.  He aso led the league in saves and won The Sporting News Fireman of the year Award. Another closer making his sole All Star appearance in 1966 was Billy McCool. Both McCool and Roy Face had 18 saves in 1966. McCool had an 8-8 record while Face was 6-6.

1967 Topps AL Leading Firemen: Jack Aker, Ron Kline, Larry Sherry

The 1967 Topps leaders cards are incredibly boring. Just 3 boxes and block lettering. It was the players that made these cards great. The subset was filled with Hall of Famers like Koufax, Aaron, Mays, Gibson, Kaline etc. This card is not. 

Jack Aker was the "Sporting News Fireman of the Year" in 1966 with 32 saves. It was a career year for the 25 year old reliever. He pitched for 6 different clubs during his MLB career, then manged in the Minors.

Ron Kline led the AL in saves in 1965 but did not receive the Fireman of the Year award. In 1966 he would finish 2nd in save with 23. Another well traveled player, Ron played on 9 different clubs in his 17 MLB seasons.

Larry Sherry was the 1959 World Series MVP with 2 wins and 2 saves. In 1966 Sherry had 20 saves with the Tigers.

1960 Topps Gail Cogdill

The NFL's 1960 Rookie of the Year was Gail Cogdill of the Detroit Lions.  Cogdill was drafted by the Lions in the 6th round of the 1960 draft. He made an immediate impact as Detroit's leading receiver with 642 yards. He was also selected to the Pro Bowl in 1960.

Meanwhile in 1960 the AFL the Rookie of the Year was Abner Haynes. Although, technically, all of the players in the newly founded league were rookies, Haynes was also voted the league's "Player of the Year". Haynes was selected in the 5th round of the 1960 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers but instead chose to play for the AFL's Dallas Texans. Coincidentally, the Texans also drafted the NFL's 1960 Rookie of the year Gail Godgill.

While Topps did not have a card of the NFL R.O.Y. Gail Cogdill, the Fleer company did produce a card of the AFL R.O.Y., Abner Haynes:

1973 Topps Tommy Davis

While doing a little research on 1973 designated hitters, I happened to notice that there wasn't a card for Tommy Davis in 1973.  My OCD would not allow me to let this go un-corrected. 

Like Orlando Cepeda, Davis played very little in 1971 and 1972 but his career was revived by the adoption of the designated hitter. In 1973 he played in 137 games, 128 as a DH. He batted .306 which was 3rd in the A.L. By contrast, Davis played a combined total of 120 games in 1971 and 1972.  

When you look at the top 5 DHs in 1973 you can see it was populated by stars who's careers may have been over had it not been adopted by the American League in 1973. With 142 games each at DH were Orlando Cepeda and Tony Oliva:

Tommy Davis was 3rd on the list with 128 games at DH followed by Fran Robinson at 127. As long as I was adding the "Designated Hitter" label to his 1973 Topps card, I figured I may as well take advantage of the opportunity to use a picture of him in the correct uniform:

Rounding out the top 5 was Gates Brown with 118 games at DH.  Brpwn was the relative youngster of the group at just 34 years old and in his 11th year in the Majors:

1966 Topps Football Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 25th Series

A bit of a tight squeeze getting all 25 cards into that small space. This series includes my Royals top-5, all 16 1980 Rookie of the Year candidates and the All Star Honorary Captains from 1978. 1979 and 1980. Unfortunately it also included 3 tributes: Don Zimmer, Chuck Noll, and Tony Gwynn. If you want to see all the cards from this series in one place click here.