Packing Up This Blog (fittingly, into a burlap sack)

As I mentioned in my 1967 blog post today, I am discontinuing my blogs. (Many would say "I thought you did already.")   When it becomes a chore rather than fun, it's time to leave.

I was nearing the end anyway, having only three other 1968 cards that I planned to post (Ramon Hernandez, Greg Goossen, and Jim Campanis), but I don't think anyone will miss them. 

This 1968 box photo reminds me of when I was collecting cards by-the-pack back in 1967-69.  I would band the cards for each team together, and have an "NL box" and an "AL box".  (Checklists and leaders would fit in wherever there was room.) 

Our local corner store would let us take empty boxes home if we bought the last pack(s) in it.

In 1968, I remember having so many duplicates that a 3rd box held 3 stacks of doubles.  Then in a 4th box were my stacks of triples, 4's, and 5's. I actually had a 5th box for 6's, etc, (which as I recall was mostly just Bud Harrelson cards).

Not all boxes had the playing cards pictured on the front panel, but I don't remember which series they were inserted in (I want to say 2nd thru 4th).

 

If you haven't seen it already, please scroll down to the end of the sidebar to read comments about the set that I wrote, and posted on Zistle some years ago.

George Culver (#319)

George Culver pitched for 6 teams over 9 seasons. In that time, he appeared in 335 games, mostly as a reliever. He was only a full-time starting pitcher during his first season with the Reds (1968), and once he left the Cardinals in June 1970, he never started another game.

He was originally signed by the Yankees in May 1963 (I did not know that). After that season the Indians claimed him in the first-year draft. 

Culver made his major-league debut in September 1966, pitching 5 games (9 innings). He led the Indians’ staff with 53 appearances during his rookie year in 1967, but was traded away to the Reds for outfielder Tommy Harper after the season. 

As mentioned, he was a starting pitcher in 1968, and posted career highs in wins (11), innings (226), and strikeouts (114). He also pitched a no-hitter against the Phillies that summer. The following year he moved to the bullpen, but also started 10 consecutive games in June and July. 

After the 1969 season he was on the move again, this time to the Cardinals for veteran pitcher Ray Washburn. He hardly had time to unpack when he was shipped off to the Astros in June for Jim Beauchamp and Leon McFadden. George found a home in the Astros’ bullpen for the next 2 ½ seasons, as a setup man for closer Fred Gladding. 

The Dodgers purchased his contract during spring training in 1973, but by August they put him on waivers, where he was claimed by the Phillies. 

Culver finished out his career pitching for Philadelphia for the last 2 months of ’73 and the first half of 1974. He was released at the end of June. 

He pitched the remainder of ’74 and part of ’75 for the Phillies’ AAA team, then finished up 1975 in Japan. George also made a few appearances for Phillies’ minor league teams in ’81, ’82, and ’85, but that was as a temporarily re-activated pitching coach. 

He spent 30 years as a minor-league manager and coach in the Phillies’ and Dodgers’ organizations.

 

Rookie Parade

A few weeks ago, I posted all the 1967 rookie stars cards. Today we have all the 1968 rookie stars cards. 

 

Comparison of the 2 sets: 

 

1967 set 

Total cards - 43 

Teams with 3 cards - 5 

Teams with 2 cards - 9 

Teams with 1 card - 6 

Mixed teams - 4 cards 

 

1968 set 

Total cards - 30 

Teams with 3 cards - Orioles 

Teams with 2 cards - 6 

Teams with 1 card - 12 

Teams with 0 cards - Giants 

Mixed teams - 3 cards 

 

There were 13 fewer rookie cards in the 1968 set, and no Giants card. What? Was Topps unaware of the phenom named Bobby Bonds? They whiffed on the Senators' Del Unser too. 

 

Of the 60 players pictured on these cards, only 3 were immediate stars (Johnny Bench, Jerry Koosman, and Stan Bahnsen). Bench and Bahnsen were the 1968 Rookies of the Year. Of course, Nolan Ryan would eventually join Bench as one of the only 2 superstars among these 60. 

 

Lou Piniella was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1969, and eventually Bob Moose, Bob Robertson, Hal McRae, Ron Reed, Mike Torrez, Jack Billingham, and Larry Hisle made significant contributions over their careers. But that's 12 out of 60 - not a very good percentage. (It may be typical though, because I remember a lot of stiffs among the 1967 rookie cards.) 

 

The Orioles must have curried favor with Topps, because they have 3 rookie cards for the 2nd consecutive year. (They also had two multi-player cards in 1967, while 9 teams had none.)   Sure, they were an exciting and successful team in the late-1960s, but these 6 players were nothing to write home about. 

 

The coveted Johnny Bench rookie card - but this is not the top rookie card in the set (see below). Lou Piniella and Bill Davis appeared on 4 and 5 rookie stars cards respectively. Eventually, Piniella made it big. Davis did not. 

 

The Tigers' George Korince is back again, after appearing on TWO rookie cards in the 1967 set.  Topps, please!

 

There it is - the Jerry Koosman/Nolan Ryan rookie card.  This may be the mother of all rookie stars cards, ever.

 

Except for ROY Stan Bahnsen (who also appeared on a 1967 Yankees Rookies card) this block is a whole lot of mediocre. I know specifically that the 2 Phillies shown each pitched 1 career MLB game.

The mixed-bag cards in the 7th series. Why didn't Topps just pair Ivan Murrell and Jim Ray on a Houston Astros Rookies card?

 

 

Topps, here's what the Giants Rookies card should have looked like:

http://whitesoxcards.blogspot.com/2011/02/cards-that-never-were-42.html 

 

Bill Dillman (#466)

Bill Dillman had cards in each Topps set from 1967-70. His rookie card was the only 1967 Rookie Stars card with red borders. (All the other 42 Rookie Stars cards had yellow borders.) In addition to having Orioles' cards in the '68 and '69 sets, his final card in the 1970 set shows him with the Cardinals.

I was all ready to write about Dillman being part of the 1967-69 wave of Orioles' pitchers (along with Tom Phoebus, Jim Hardin, and Dave Leonhard) that followed the 1964-66 wave of Dave McNally, Wally Bunker, and Jim Palmer, but when I looked him up in Baseball-Reference.com today, I was surprised to see that he only pitched 32 games for the O's, all in 1967 (when their "main" pitchers were all out with sore arms). 

 

The oddball "red rookie card" in the 1967 set:

In 1968, McNally rebounded to win 22 games, while Hardin and Phoebus won 18 and 15 respectively. With rookie Dave Leonhard joining the team that year, and Bunker sharing the #5 starter job with Gene Brabender, there was no room on the roster for Dillman, so he spent the next 2 seasons pitching for their AAA Rochester club. (It's surprising then that he had a card in the 1969 set.)

 

After the 1969 season he was purchased by the Cardinals, so Topps gave him one more chance. However, early in the 1970 season (having not played for the Cardinals) he was traded to the Expos for Carroll Sembera, and pitched in 18 games for Montreal from May to July, then it was back to triple-A for the rest of that season and all of 1971. 

 

Dillman finished out his career in 1972 with the Mets’ AAA team. 

 

Mike Hegan (#402)

This is Mike Hegan’s first solo card. He previously appeared on a late-1967 Yankees Rookies card. 

 

Hegan was the son of long-time Indians' catcher and Yankees' coach Jim Hegan. Mike was signed by the Yankees in 1961 and made his major-league debut in September 1964.

He was back in the minors for all of 1965 and most of 1966, but made the Yankees' squad in 1967. That was the year Mickey Mantle moved from center field to 1st base, so Hegan got into 68 games, mostly as a late-inning replacement for Mantle. 

 

Hegan spent all of 1968 back in triple-A (his job as Mantle’s caddie taken by the newly-acquired Andy Kosco). In mid-June he was sold to the Seattle Pilots' organization, but as they did not have any teams in place yet, he remained with the Yankees’ Syracuse team through the end of the season. 

 

He played for the Pilots in 1969, and was their primary right fielder. He also made the All-Star team that year (so the often-repeated statement that Don Mincher was the Pilots’ only All-Star is not correct). 

 

Hegan played for the Brewers until mid-June 1971, and 3 years to the day he was acquired, the team traded him to the Athletics. Mike was sold back to the Yankees in late-1974, and (appearing to re-trace his career steps) he was acquired by the Brewers in early-1975, where he remained as a bench player until he was released in July 1977. 

 

After his playing career, he was a commentator for the Brewers for 12 seasons, and then for the Indians for another 23 seasons. 

 

Hegan passed away in 2013 at age 71.

My Favorite 1968 Cards

1968 was the second year I collected baseball cards.

It seemed like the first series had a lot of players who were in the not-to-be-found 1967 high-numbered series. (Tom Seaver, Rod Carew, Brooks Robinson, Vada Pinson, Rocky Colavito, Al Ferrara, Cookie Rojas, and Juan Pizarro to name a few.) So I quickly had cards for those missing players. 

These were my favorite cards from that set.

Bobby Wine - I always liked this photo, but I'm not sure why.  Although I was a Phillies fan, I was not particularly a Bobby Wine fan, nor was he one of the team's top dozen or so players.

Gary Sutherland - I do know why I liked this card.  His rookie card in 1967 was in the high-numbered series, so I didn't get that until years later.  Plus, here's a kid only a few years older than my pre-teen self at the time, and he was IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES! Surely he would be the Phillies' "shortstop of the future", with only the aging Dick Groat and weak-hitting Bobby Wine to contend with.

NL ERA Leaders - Two Phillies among the league's top three!

Super Stars / Manager's Dream - These 2 cards were in the 6th or 7th series, and were 2 of the 3 multi-player cards in the 1968 set.  The players were from a mix of teams, which was a departure from Topps' usual multi-player cards.

NL Batting Leaders - In 1967, Tony Gonzalez had worked his way up from platoon left-fielder to every-day center-fielder, and finished with a .339 batting average. (In the late-60s, Phillies' fans had to find positives anywhere we could!)

Tom Seaver - I still don't have Tom Seaver's 1967 rookie card, so this was my first Seaver card. ROY, shiny trophy, what's not to like?

Denny McLain - I admit, I jumped on the Tigers' bandwagon sometime during the 1968 season, and followed McLain's trek to 30 wins and the World Championship.

Mickey Mantle - A favorite card of mine and 99.99% of all the other kids.

Don Shaw (#521)

Don Shaw pitched briefly for the Mets, Expos, and Cardinals from 1967-72. 

 

He was signed by the Mets in 1965, and made his major-league debut in April 1967. Don appeared in 40 games (all in relief) in his rookie season, and was the only lefthander in the bullpen.

Shaw spent most of 1968 in triple-A, with 5 of his 7 MLB games coming in September. 

 

He was selected by the Expos in the expansion draft, and pitched 34 games in relief, 1 start, and 7 games in triple-A. 

 

Don was in the minors for all of 1970, moving to the Cardinals’ organization in May. He returned to the majors in 1971, pitching 45 games out of the Cardinals’ bullpen. 

 

Shaw made 8 appearances for St Louis in 1972, then was traded to the Athletics in mid-May. After 3 games with the A’s, he was sent down for the remainder of the season. 

 

The following spring he was traded to the Tigers, but played all of 1973 in the minors before retiring. 

 

Ken Suarez (#218)

Ken Suarez was a backup catcher for the Athletics, Indians, and Rangers from 1966-73.

Suarez was signed by the Kansas City Athletics in 1965 and made his major-league debut in April 1966. He started 26 games as a rookie, behind regular backstop Phil Roof.

He made 22 starts in 1967 (still playing behind Roof) but had to compete with Dave Duncan (3 years younger than Suarez) for the #2 spot.

After the ’67 season he was selected by the Indians in the Rule 5 draft, and spend the next 2 seasons as the Tribe’s 3rd-string catcher.

In 1968 he was with the team for the whole season, but only played 17 games (1 start), with Joe Azcue and Duke Sims doing most of the catching. In ’69, he was behind Sims and rookie Ray Fosse, and spent part of the season in the minors.

After languishing in the minors in 1970, he returned to Cleveland in 1971 and saw his most action to date (50 games, 39 starts, 123 at-bats). Still, he was stuck behind All-Star and Gold Glove winner Fosse.

Ken was part of an 8-player trade with the Rangers after the 1971 season. He backed up Dick Billings in 1972 but started 88 games in 1973 (to Billings’ 67 starts). Unfortunately that was his last hurrah.

In 1974 the Rangers were going to go with rookie Jim Sundberg behind the plate, and after Suarez filed for arbitration he was traded back to the Indians for Chico Cardenas. He ended up sitting out the season due to contract issues, but in mid-September the Indians traded him to the Angels for Frank Robinson. (So in a year where he did not play, he was traded twice for ex-Reds’ All-Stars!)