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.

AL Pitching Leaders (#8, #10, #12)

Here are the 1968 cards showing the previous season's American League pitching leaders in ERA, victories, and strikeouts. Like many of the mid-1960s' AL pitching leader cards, the Indians and White Sox are well represented.


Joel Horlen and Gary Peters (both frequent guests on the AL ERA leaders cards) gave the Chisox a great 1-2 punch.  Their teammate Tommy John just missed being included on this card by a 0.10 margin!  The Indians' Sonny Siebert rounds out the top three, which he also did two years earlier.

The ERA leaders cards also include a "more than 75 innings" category (primarily for relievers). Leading that group was 44-year-old Hoyt Wilhelm, with a miniscule 1.31 ERA.

Having his career year in 1967, Jim Lonborg topped AL pitchers with 22 victories. Actually, Jim shared the lead with Tigers' pitcher (and former Red Sox teammate) Earl Wilson. Wilson was traded to the Tigers during the 1966 season, and finished among the top 3 that season.

It seems like if they had kept Wilson, he could have made the difference in the 1967 World Series, which Boston lost in 7 games. The only other 20-game winner in the AL in '67 was Dean Chance, in his first season with the Twins.

Here's Lonborg again, edging out Sam McDowell by only 10 strikeouts. McDowell led the AL in strikeouts in '65, '66, '68, '69, and '70. Dean Chance finished 3rd here also, with Topps using the same photo as above. Rounding out the 200+ strikeout club were two more Twins, an Indian, and the White Sox' Peters.

Click on the "league leaders" label below to see all the other cards for this year.

AL Batting Leaders (#2, 4, 6)

NL Pitching Leaders? Check! NL Batting Leaders? Check! Now it's time for the AL Batting Leaders. After several seasons buried in the 3rd series, the League Leaders cards are front and center (#1 - #12) in the 1968 (and 1969) set.

1967 was the season of the Yaz. Like Frank Robinson one year earlier, Yastrzemski won the triple crown and led his team to the World Series. Unlike Robby, Yaz' team didn't win, nor did he finish ahead of all others in home runs. Lost in the hype is the fact that Harmon Killebrew was tied for the lead in homers.


Four AL players finished with a .300 or better average.  That doesn't sound like a lot, but the following season, only Yastrzemski would accomplish that, with a .301 average.   Following that, the mound was lowered, 40 minor-league pitchers were given major-league jobs (expansion), and Bob Gibson was asked to go easy on the batters.

 

As usual, the same 5 or 6 players seem to fill the 9 spots on these leader cards.

 

Yaz was one-and-done in the late-1960s' home run derby, while Killebrew and Frank Howard would make multiple appearances on these cards.

NL Batting Leaders (#1, #3, #5)

A (long) while back, I posted the NL Pitching Leaders cards. Today we have the NL Batting Leaders. Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron each appear twice among these cards (backing up the voters' choices in a recent poll).


Roberto Clemente led the NL in batting for the 4th and final time (also in '61, '64, and '65). Tony Gonzalez began the 1967 season as a platoon player, but stepped up midway through, and batted .339 overall. Matty Alou picked up where he left off the previous season.

Orlando Cepeda powered the Cardinals to the 1967 World Series. "Bob" Clemente makes his 2nd appearance here, along with Hammerin' Hank.

Hank Aaron continued his assault on Babe Ruth's record, winning his 4th and final NL home run crown with 39 homers. (His other three titles were all won with 44 home runs.) Only Harmon Killebrew hit more home runs in the 1960s. Next we have Jim Wynn (now playing for "Houston"), followed by Ron Santo and Willie McCovey tied for 3rd place.

NL Pitching Leaders (#7, #9, #11)

With Sandy Koufax retiring following the 1966 season, and Bob Gibson missing almost 2 months with a broken leg, this opened up some space at the top of the National League pitching charts in 1967. The Phillies' Jim Bunning took particular advantage:






Had the Phillies not foolishly traded Fergie Jenkins to the Cubs in early 1966, the Phillies may have had a stranglehold on these cards!