Sunday, January 22, 2012

Final Card: Dick Kenworthy

This is the only Topps card for Dick Kenworthy. The back says that he was sent to the Mets in the off-season as the player to be named later in the Ken Boyer trade. Interesting. Baseball-Reference.com makes no mention of Kenworthy ever being sent to the Mets. In fact, it says the White Sox sent J. C. Martin to the Mets on 11/27/67 to complete the trade. Since this is card #63, it must have been printed sometime in late 1967, so maybe Topps was acting on some preliminary scuttlebutt regarding Kenworthy.



Kenworthy was signed by the White Sox in 1961, and played in their minor-league system for 10 seasons, before moving over to the Reds' farm system for 1971 and 1972. He was a 2nd baseman for his first two seasons before switching to 3rd base for the balance of his career.

Dick's major-league experience consisted of a few cups of coffee from 1962 to 1966. Then in 1967 and 1968, he played over 50 games each season with the White Sox, about half of them as the starting 3rd baseman.

Since he played for the White Sox in both '67 and '68, it looks like Baseball-Reference.com is right and Topps was wrong. Maybe a White Sox fan can clarify this.

2 comments:

Eric C. Loy said...

Jim, I looked this up for baseball-reference and I will post it here when I find it again.

Eric C. Loy said...

Boston Globe of Oct 19, 1967 has an article: "Mets Buy Kenworthy" The article says the purchase was form the Indianapolis club.

Milwaukee Journal of Mar. 22, 1968 on the Mets: "..Kenworthy, bought conditionally from the White Sox, is getting a shot at third base."

New York Times of May 28, 1968 article: "White Sox Buy Kenworthy" Evidently he had been returned to Hawaii.