1969 Topps Baseball

Clay Dalrymple (#151)

2012-01-24T20:28:00.015-06:00

Clay Dalrymple had two cards in the 1969 set - both #151. Unlike Donn Clendenon, who also had 2 cards in 1969, Dalrymple's cards used different photographs.

Clay began playing minor-league ball in 1956. He played 4 seasons in the minors, mostly with the unaffiliated Sacramento Solons in the Pacific Coast League. In 1959, Sacramento became part of the Milwaukee Braves farm system. After the 1959 season, the Phillies selected him in the Rule 5 draft.

As a Rule 5 pick, he remained on the roster for the entire 1960 season as the 3rd-string catcher behind fellow rookie Jimmie Coker and journeyman Cal Neeman.

Clay took over the starting job from day 1 of the 1961 season, making 107 starts behind the plate (88 more than the #2 catcher). He also started 107 games in 1962, and increased his playing time in 1963 (135 starts). Clay's best offensive seasons were 1962 and 1963. After that, his playing time and production would begin to taper off, then plummet in his last 2 seasons in Philadelphia.

The Phillies acquired veteran catcher Gus Triandos in the Jim Bunning trade prior to the 1964 season. Triandos had been the Orioles' regular catcher from 1955-61, and started 1/3 of the Phillies games in 1964, leaving 2/3 of the starts to Dalrymple.

Clay lost more playing time in 1965, as rookie catcher Pat Corrales joined the team as the #2 catcher. Eventually, Dalrymple was platooned, with Bob Uecker in 1966 and part of 1967, with Gene Oliver for the 2nd half of 1967, and with the newly-acquired Mike Ryan in 1968. Ryan was a great defensive catcher who barely hit .200, but by that time Dalrymple's average had dropped to the Mendoza line as well.

In January 1969, Clay was traded to the Orioles for rookie outfield prospect Ron Stone. He would play for 3 seasons as Baltimore's 3rd-string catcher, and went 2-for-2 in the 1969 World Series. He retired after the 1971 season.

Bobby Murcer (#657)

2012-01-18T22:02:00.001-06:00

This is the first full card for Bobby Murcer. He previously appeared on Yankees Rookies cards in the 1966 and 1967 sets. Bobby was signed by the Yankees in 1964, and played 3 full seasons in the minors (with some late-season cups of coffee in '65 and '66) before losing the '67 and '68 seasons while in the Army.

The back of this card says that Mickey Mantle was Bobby's idol, and that both came from Oklahoma. Another similarity is that they both began their minor-league careers as shortstops. Murcer played only shortstop in the minors, while Mantle switched to outfield for his last season on the farm.

[An aside about Mickey Mantle and Oklahoma: In the summer of 2009, my son and I were driving from Pennsylvania to Arizona. While in Missouri and Oklahoma, we would occasionally get off the interstate and check out some sights on old Route 66. As we entered the extreme northeast corner of Oklahoma, we decided to get off the interstate and drive the half-mile up into Kansas (just to say we were in Kansas). When we picked up Route 66 and drove back into Oklahoma, the first town we entered was Commerce. Driving down the main street, they have banners hanging from the street lights proclaiming it as the hometown of Mickey Mantle. What an unexpected treat, and completely by accident!]

After the army, Murcer rejoined the Yankees for the 1969 season. He began the season as the everyday 3rd baseman. (The Yankees had been trying to patch the 3B hole ever since Clete Boyer was traded after the '66 season. They experimented with converting Roy White to a 3rd baseman in early 1967, then moved on to Charlie Smith, Jerry Kenney and Bobby Cox, before settling on Murcer in 1969.) In mid-May he moved out to right field, and on August 29th, he made his first start at his dream job: Mickey Mantle's heir to the Yankees' centerfield job.

Bobby remained as the Yankees' centerfielder until late-May 1974, when he moved over to right field for the remainder of that season. After 6 full seasons in New York, he was traded to the Giants for Bobby Bonds. After 2 seasons as the Giants' rightfielder, it was on to the Cubs in February 1977.

In June 1979, Bobby was traded back to the Yankees, where he played as a part-time outfielder and DH until the Yankees released him in late-June 1983.

The final similarity between Mantle and Murcer is that they both passed away in their early 60s. Murcer's family was on-field for the closing ceremonies at old Yankee Stadium.

Final Card: Johnny Podres

2012-01-14T11:39:00.013-06:00

Podres on the Padres? That beats Jose Cardenal on the Cardinals!

This is Johnny Podres' final card (#659). After a long career with the Dodgers, and 2 years with the Tigers, he retired after the 1967 season. Now he's back for 1 last season with the expansion Padres. Whatever for?

Podres was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951, and spent 2 seasons in the minors as a starter, the last with the triple-A Montreal Royals, where his teammates included future luminaries such as Jim Gilliam, Don Hoak, Tommy Lasorda, and Ed Roebuck.

Johnny made the Dodgers in 1953, and was in Brooklyn's rotation from 1953-57, except for missing the 1956 season for military service. Podres pitched in the 1953 World Series as a rookie, but he is probably best remembered for shutting out the Yankees in game 7 of the 1955 World Series, giving Brooklyn their only world championship, while he picked up the World Series MVP award.

After the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958, Pods continued as one of the Dodgers top starters from 1958-63, and 1965 along with Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and "the other guy" (which at various times was Stan Williams, Bob Miller, or Claude Osteen). In May 1966, the Dodgers dealt him to the Tigers, where he pitched until the end of the 1967 season. He retired after the season, but came back with the expansion Padres in 1969. His final game for the Padres was on June 21st of that year.

After retirement, Johnny was a pitching coach for several teams through the '70s, '80s, and '90s, finishing up with the Phillies during Jim Fregosi's tenure as manager.

Ted Williams (#650)

2012-01-07T16:05:00.004-06:00

Today we have Ted Williams' rookie card (as a manager). This is the 2nd Senators' manager card in the 1969 set. Jim Lemon's card appeared earlier in the set, but he had been fired before the start of the season, after a 10th place finish in 1968, his only season as a manager. (Topps had also issued 2 manager cards for the Houston Astros in 1966.)

After a long career with the Red Sox (1939-1960), Teddy Ballgame had been out of baseball for several years. (I seem to recall he was a spokesman for fishing gear - maybe for Sears.) In 1969, the Senators came calling, and Williams spent 4 seasons as their manager, including the team's first season as the Texas Rangers. The team finished in 4th, 5th, and 6th during his tenure, an improvement over 1968's 10th-place finish.

Williams is also credited with imparting his hitting knowledge to his players, most notably to perennial weak-hitting shortstop Ed Brinkman. Brinkman routinely batted below the Mendoza line during his career up through 1968. In his 2 seasons under Williams' guidance, he batted above .260. After Ed was traded to the Tigers in 1971, he reverted back to his previous lackluster batting averages for the remainder of his career.

Williams was replaced for 1973 by Whitey Herzog, who didn't make it to the end of the season.

Bobby Bonds (#630)

2012-01-03T23:10:00.006-06:00

Welcome to the re-booted 1969 Topps Baseball Card blog! This blog was started by Pack Addict back on 3/13/2009, but has been inactive for quite some time. Today, he turned it over to me, so I will be posting some of my 1969 cards that have been burning a hole in their binder for all these years. I will be starting with several stars from the hard-to-find 7th series' high numbers.

Thanks, Pack Addict! Yours is the first blog I found in Google Blogger, about a week before I jumped aboard in late September 2009.

This is Bobby Bonds' rookie card. Although Bonds had been tearing up the minor leagues for several seasons, Topps somehow forgot to include him in the 1968 set. In fact, they forgot a Giants Rookies card altogether. Thankfully, Steve at WhiteSoxCards has rectified that problem.

Bonds began his career in 1965 with the Giants' class-A team at Lexington, NC, and made his major-league debut on June 25, 1968. He took over the Giants' right field job immediately, and also made 23 starts in center field when Willie Mays was given a day off. This RF/CF arrangement continued until May 1972, when Mays was traded to the Mets and Garry Maddox took over the center field job.

Bobby played for the Giants for his first 7 seasons. After the 1974 season he was traded to the Yankees for outfielder Bobby Murcer. The last 7 seasons of his 14-year career were spent playing for 7 different teams. By the time he played his last game on October 4, 1981, he had amassed 332 homeruns, 1024 RBI, and 461 stolen bases.

Bonds played in several dozen triple-A games in 1981 and 1982 before hanging up his glove.

Deckle #31 Willie McCovey

2010-02-23T11:05:00.000-06:00

I recently picked up a small lot of deckles on eBay last week to bring my deckle set completion over 50%. I found a nice surprise on the back...

..a McCovey decal had been applied. Little did I know that they used the same photo for the deckle and the decal, which are different from the base card!

#010 Juan Marichal / Bob Gibson / Fergie Jenkins 1968 NL Pitching Leaders

2010-02-08T01:00:00.000-06:00

3 iconic Hall of Famers on one 41 year-old card! This is one of my favorite cards of the set.

These 3 all had a 20+ win season, Juan with a stunning 26! It was Bob's year though with winning the MVP trophy and his first of 2 Cy Youngs. You just can't ignore his 1968 stats like an ERA of 1.12, 268 K's, 13 shutouts, 28 complete games out of 35 games started, another of his 9 Gold Gloves and of course his 22-9 record. Incredible!

#388 Tom McCraw

2009-12-25T05:10:00.000-06:00

The White Sox started wearing powder blue road unis in 1964 with the arrival of color television. The idea caught on well enough that seven more teams were wearing them by 1974.

Tommy moved on from Chicago to Washington for the final season of the Senators franchise in 1971 and was even their final offensive out when he was caught stealing on September 30th.

Merry Christmas to all in blogland today!

Poking Fun at '69 Topps

2009-12-15T20:20:00.000-06:00

Over at the Dinged Corner blog, I spotted this amusing post poking fun at the little name circles on the front of the cards.Thought is was worth passing along.

Check it out here!

#389 Dan Coombs

2009-12-09T04:09:00.001-06:00

Danny Coombs was a pitcher for the Colt .45s and Astros from 1963 to 1969 and for the Padres from 1970 to 1971. He had a career ERA of 4.08 and a record of 19-27 with 249 strikeouts. He was also a basketball star at Seton Hall measuring at 6 feet 5 inches.

Perhaps one of the most interesting moments in Danny's career was his MLB debut for the Colt. 45s during their sophomore year, two days before the end of the season and desperate for ticket sales. The Colts tried something that had never been done in the major leagues and has not been done since. They fielded the first all-rookie team with an average age of 19. Danny came in at the bottom of the 3rd and gave up 3 singles before closing the inning with a ground-out. For more on this day, follow this link for some great baseball history.

#436 Gene Alley

2009-09-30T01:09:00.000-05:00

Gene Alley played his entire career for the Bucs from 1963 to 1973, helping beat out the Orioles in 1971 for the championship. Lingering shoulder and knee problems forced him into an early retirement in 1973 at the age of 33. Gene was best known for his 2 time Gold Glove winning fielding abilities, teaming up with Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski to create on of the best infield duos ever. The two set a MLB record for 161 double plays in a season in 1966 which still stands, also setting the Pirates up for a NL record with 215 double plays as a team. At one point in 1969 starting on August 13, Gene started a 21 game hitting streak during which he went 30 for 82 (.366) with 8 home runs, 21 RBI and 15 runs scored. He raised his batting average from .218 to .266 after that stretch.

Here's Gene wearing the number 22, not his normal number of 14 which I believe he wore every year except for 1968.

#419 Rod Carew Sporting News All -Star

2009-09-22T00:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a young Sir Rodney on his Sporting News All-Star card #419. Only in his third season, he was on his way to win his first of 7 AL batting titles with an average of .332 that year! This was his 3rd All-Star selection in his, count em', 18 consecutive All-Star selections! He also stole home 9 times that year. Wow.

According to Beckett.com, there were 20 All-Star cards, all with puzzle pieces on the back. The first ten, including this one, featured a Carl Yaztremski puzzle. The other ten featured Pete Rose.

This card, along with another dozen, were sent over from Dean at Dean's Cards just because of his love for the 1969 Topps Baseball set! After Dean contacted me, I checked out his store and was really impressed by the sheer volume of singles listed, and the quality of the layout. They've pretty much got the last 100 years of sports trading cards covered, along with a large amount of non-sports cards, mostly from the 1930's through the 1960's. In most cases, you'll have a choice of which grade you want. This card, for instance, shows 5 EX/MT, 15 EX and 4 VG cards in stock! Check 'em out.

Here's the other cards sent over from Dean that will be shown on this blog in the near future:

# 1 AL Batting Leaders -Yaz / Cater / Oliva
# 120 Pete Rose
# 136 Cardinals Rookies - Huntz / Torrez
# 139 Andy Kosco
# 158 Joe Gibbon
# 334 Phil Roof
# 388 Tom McCraw
# 389 Dan Coombs
# 391 Ray Culp
# 436 Gene Alley
# 445 Bobby Knoop
# 553 Ron Davis

#556 A's Stars

2009-08-24T02:40:00.001-05:00

The first thing that comes to mind when I look at this card is, why did Topps choose these 3 for this card? With my limited knowledge of A's stars and 1969 baseball, I would have gone with Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers. But, looking back at the timeline in all these player's careers helped me see better, for myself, the answer to my question.

Sal was the up-and-comer who had established himself well the year before and really hit his stride in 1969. He was selected to his first All-Star Game, hit 31 home runs and batted .281. Bert was an obvious choice. He was just scary on the base path, swiping 62 that year. His previous year he led the majors with another 62 steals, was 11th in MVP voting and was selected to his first All-Star Game. Danny finished 2nd to Yaz in the AL batting titled in 1968, "The Year of the Pitcher", hitting .290 to Yaz's .301.

As for Reggie, Vida and Rollie, they were all still fresh outta the minors from Iowa and Vancouver! And along with Catfish, they would go on to become legends a little later winning 3 championships in a row for Oakland.

I picked up this card on eBay last week for 25 cents, along with 5 more commons all for a quarter or two each. This was the first time I had seen the team stars format for this set, since I mostly only have lower numbered cards. I really love this card and can't wait to find more like it for the other teams!

Deckles at "The Topps Archives" blog

2009-08-20T00:24:00.000-05:00

I found a couple of interesting blog posts about the deckle edge insert set over at The Topps Archives today. The first post highlights the details of the set and the second post clears up the confusion over the whys and hows on the variations found.

Be-deckled

The Deckle is in the Details

#392 Bob Burda

2009-08-10T02:16:00.000-05:00

Mark over at Stats on the Back gave away free cards to about 60 fellow collectors last month with his Giveaway #2. I mentioned that I collected '69 Topps along with other wants, and I didn't really expect to see any, but Mark did throw one in with the rest of the goodies, which I'll post soon on my other blog.

I've never heard of Bob Burda, but this at least puts another check mark on the higher numbered needs on my list, but, of course, is an awesome addition to this collection. Bob spent his career excelling in the minors and coming up to the show regularly when needed. Ironically, the "stats on the back" of this card might be some of the most dismal I've ever seen on a baseball card. Bob ended up being a career .224 hitter with 13 home runs and 78 RBIs in 388 games played.

PunkRockPaint's LOST... The Retro Baseball Set

2009-08-08T23:52:00.000-05:00

PunkRockPaint's blog features some of the best home made cards on the 'net.. and one of his latest creations happens to be based on the '69 Topps set! PunkRockPaint has been making a set featuring characters and moments from the ABC TV series "Lost" and this one is #46 in the series.

Check it out..

#401 Jake Gibbs

2009-07-27T00:47:00.000-05:00

Jake "Dead-Eye" Gibbs more than likely is remembered more for his college football days rather than his days with the Yankees. Jake was an All-American quarter back for a 10-0-1 Ole Miss team which was named national champions by the Dunkel Index. In 1995 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Despite being drafted by both the Browns and the Oilers, the Yankees persuaded him to join their team with a large sum of money. (Typical Yankees huh? lol)

-------------------------------------------------------------

On a side note, please check out my other blog where I'm giving away a Reggie Jackson and a Mike Piazza card for my 100th post!

#108 Tony Taylor

2009-07-02T03:23:00.000-05:00

Tony was a fan favorite in Philly during the 60's and 70's. He racked up just over 2,000 hits and still holds the Phillies records for most games played (1,003) at second base! He was only voted to the All-Star game once, in 1960. That's when he batted and incredible 1 for 1 with a single as you can see with the little cartoon on the back of the card.

1990 Baseball Cards Magazine Cards

2009-05-02T01:31:00.000-05:00

A few days ago my Dad brought over the other half of his collection that he wanted to give me. No more '69 Topps except for a couple of commons I already had. I did come across something that really surprised me though...

1.3%!!

2009-04-25T18:23:00.000-05:00

I awoke this morning with high hopes of getting a couple hours to myself at the Jantzen Beach card show today, but after getting there and quickly realizing there was no such card show this weekend, I almost shed one. I should have paid more attention to what I was reading on craigslist at 3 in the morning and maybe I would have realized it was not until next week. No worries, I already had some me-time backup plans and I headed down to Hoopla Sports Card Outlet with all my monies. Immediately I started searching through the boxes of vintage bargain cards on the counter and I found 9 more cards for my wantlist.

#11 Sam McDowell / Denny McLain / Luis Tiant SO Leaders (25¢)
#52 Mike Andrews (25¢)
#107 Bob Gibson checklist (25¢)
#111 Johnny Morris (25¢)
#154 Jim Britton (25¢)
#155 Pete Ward (25¢)
#174 Grant Jackson (25¢)
#189 Joe LaHoud / John Thibdeau RC (50¢)
#575 Bill Singer (25¢)

Most of these were in pretty bad shape, but that doesn't concern me. The rookie card was in great shape and it cost me all of 50 cents! Also, I found my first high numbered card with the Bill Singer! So that gives me another 1.3% and I am now looking at 37.2% complete.

#356 Frank Quilici

2009-03-17T21:55:00.000-05:00

As I promised, here are some better scans of my newly acquired addition! It was shipped in a top loader, but without a penny sleeve and no tape to hold it in. It was sticking a good inch out of the top loader when I pulled it out of the envelope, I'm surprised it didn't arrive damaged.
Frank was a utility infielder for the Twins from 1965, 1967 to 1970. His career average was only .214 but in '69 he only managed a .174 avg. out of 144 at bats. After his short career, he went on to coach, manage and even radio broadcast for the Twins throughout the 70's and 80's.

#260 Reggie Jackson

2009-03-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

Here we have Mr. October's rookie card. Lucky for me this one is already in my collection, so I don't have to go out and buy one. It's a little beat up and there's a stain in the top right corner, but I'm happy to have it!

When I was a kid, my Dad sent me into a couple of card shops around Portland to try and sell these cards, including this one. My Dad was thinking he could get half of top book value for this card or, about $150, and of course, the most we were offered was something like $30. I think we even tried selling it on eBay with a ridiculous reserve and didn't get any bids. Ha! Now we know better about real card values.

Reggie's 1969 season was explosive and arguably his best regular season of his career. He set career high marks in many areas including 123 runs, 47 home runs, 118 RBI's, 115 BB's and a .608 SLG percentage! He was ahead of Roger Maris' home run record pace for a bit and the press even started claiming he was dating a lady named "Ruth Maris". In the end he ended up getting beat out for the year by the Twins' Harmon Killebrew who had 49. The Twins also beat out the A's that year for a shot at the A.L. pennant. Reggie got voted into his first All Star game and he also got into the top 5 votes for MVP.

Later, in the off season, Reggie bargained for an increase in his salary, but A's owner Charlie Finley threatened to send Reggie back to the minors!

eBay Find: #356 Frank Quilici

2009-03-14T00:15:00.000-05:00

Today I made my first purchase to start my journey to completing this set!

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing through eBay at some random cards to see if anything caught my eye, but what did catch my eye was that eBay had, out of the blue, given me a $2 coupon to use toward any purchase! Sweet! I figured I'd just find myself a $2 card with free shipping and come away with something for nothing.

After sorting through about a dozen 1969 Topps cards on my want list, I decided on this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200318829807&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&viewitem=&salenotsupported#ebayphotohosting

Here's the seller's scan:

It had great centering and a clean face with fast shipping, so I went with it. A better 2 sided scan to be posted when it arrives...

Welcome

2009-03-14T00:12:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my 1969 Topps blog! This blog will feature informative posts and hi-res scans featuring my current and future cards of this 40 year old star filled set! This should be a lot of fun!