Saturday, July 13, 2013

All-Star Cards

Here are the All-Star cards... those players selected as All-Stars in 1968 by The Sporting News. As with the All-Star cards in the 1968 set, the players getting the cards were not necessarily the starters.

In the actual game, the NL had Don Drysdale, Jerry Grote, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron starting at P, C, CF, and RF respectively. The AL lineup included Luis Tiant, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Fregosi, and Frank Howard starting at P, 1B, SS, and RF. Otherwise, the starters were those you see in the 2 large blocks of cards below.

For the NL, Curt Flood started out of position in left field. Pete Rose and Bob Gibson were on the team, but did not play. (I assume they may have been injured.) Johnny Bench only played the 9th inning, so maybe he was banged up as well. Jerry Koosman pitched the final 1/3 inning of the game.

For the AL, Carl Yastrzemski started in center field, while Ken Harrelson, Bert Campaneris, and Tony Oliva all played later in the game. Denny McLain pitched the 5th and 6th innings, and Sam McDowell pitched the 7th.




The Sporting News selected a lefty and a righty in each league. Here are the lefthanders, who didn't fit into the Brady-Bunch-style collage above.


The backs of these 20 cards formed 2 photos - Pete Rose and Carl Yastrzemski (Yaz also made the puzzle in the '68 set.) Contrary to what I would have thought, the 2 puzzles were not made exclusively from the player cards from Rose's or Yaz' own league. (My scanner bed is not large enough to hold all 10 cards, hence the cut-off tops.)



RECAP:
3 Cardinals
3 Reds
3 Tigers
2 Cubs
2 Red Sox
2 Twins
1 each from Giants, Mets, Athletics, Orioles, Indians
.

2 comments:

Douglas said...

I think Don Wert should have got an all-star card for two reasons.
First he got in the game despite hitting a .200 for the season (although he was on fire @ .220 around that time during the season). Secondly and oddly he was only one 3 A.L. players to get a hit in the game.

Jim from Downingtown said...

I hope old Don enjoyed the high point of his season. In the '68 World Series, he hit .118, which would have been dead last if not for Bill Freehan's .083 average. Even pitcher Mickey Lolich (3-for-12, .250, 1 HR) hit better!