Tag: Pete Rose

Looking at 1975 World Series Through Red Sox and Reds 1975 Topps Set

The 1975 Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds team sets are absolute musts for 1970s baseball card collectors.  Not only did the two teams engage in one of the most memorable World Series to date, but the sets include some of the top players from the ‘70s — including Hall of Famers, the all-time hits leader, and two of the top rookies in Red Sox history.

After raising the price of baseball card packs from 10 cents to 15 cents, Topps was looking for a way to turn heads.  Collectors had been complaining for years that Topps baseball cards were becoming boring and monotonous. After featuring plain white borders in consecutive years, Topps broke out the rainbow for the 1975 series. Bright two-color borders with bold lettering turned out to be a one-year wonder. But the unique series stood the test of time, remaining one of the most memorable sets ever produced with some help from the  Red Sox and Reds.

Thirty-four-year-old Luis Tiant twisted and turned his way to a 6-0 victory in Game 1 of the 1975 World Series.  With his best days believed to be in the past, Tiant transformed from a power pitcher to a craftsman, offering an assortment of breaking balls and off-speed pitches that kept hitters off balance. With the DH shelved for the series, Tiant also picked up his first hit since 1972. His 1975 Topps card (#430) is a quick sell locally for $3.

Sparky Anderson’s Reds took three of the next four games to set the stage for Game 6, arguably the most dramatic game in World Series history.  The Red Sox took a 3-0 lead in the first inning when Fred Lynn homered into the Fenway bleachers following two-out singles to Hall of Famers Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk.  Graded versions of the ‘75 Topps Yaz (#280) and Fisk (#80) cards sell in the $25-30 range.

After batting .331-21-105, Lynn became the first Major League player to capture MVP and Rookie of the Year honors in the same season.  His ‘75 Topps rookie (#662) now sells for $6 in mint condition. Teammate and fellow rookie Jim Rice slugged .309-22-102 before taking an errant Vern Ruhle fastball off the wrist, ending the left fielder’s season in early August.  Elected to the Hall of Fame in his last year of eligibility in 2009, Rice continues to be a local favorite. His ‘75 Topps rookie (#616) sells for $9.

Ken Griffey Sr.’s two-run triple and HOF catcher Johnny Bench’s RBI single in the  fifth inning tied Game 6. Griffey’s ‘75 Topps card (#284) — often packaged on eBay  with Ken Griffey Jr.’s cards — sells for $3 as a stand alone. The Bench card sells for $25 in mint condition. The Reds took a 6-3 lead in the eighth following a home run  by Cesar Geronimo whose ‘75 Topps card can be found in the commons bin.  With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Bernie Carbo drilled a Rawly Eastwick pitch into the centerfield bleachers to tie the game at six. Carbo has a bit of a cult-like following locally, inflating his ‘75 Topps card (#379) slightly above common status.

In the 11th inning with one out and fleet-footed Griffey on first, Cincinnati All-Star second baseman Joe Morgan slashed a sinking liner toward the right field ple. The  ball seemed destined to drop into the corner for an extra base hit that would have scored Griffey. With an instinctive over-the-head stab of the glove, Dwight Evans plucked the ball out of the Boston night.  He stumbled backward, regained his balance and threw to the infield to double up Griffey at first base.

With the tie preserved and the tension building, America was introduced to one of baseball’s greatest right fielders.  His ‘75 Topps card (#255) is a great buy for $2. Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan accumulated two World Series rings and two MVP awards during a 22-year career. His ‘75 Topps sells for $4.

In the bottom of the 12th, Fisk sent a blast to left field.  The question: fair or foul? The ball ricocheted off the foul pole for the perhaps the most dramatic moment in Red Sox history.  The Reds would go on to win Game 7 to win the World Series, but the series — Game 6 in particular — will long be recounted by generations of Red Sox fans.  The Red Sox 1975 Topps team set sells for $50 in decent condition, while the Reds team set, which includes Pete Rose (#320), goes for $75.

Celebrating Joe DiMaggio and “The Hit Streak”

During the summer of 1941, Joe DiMaggio established the benchmark for hitting streaks when he achieved the most treasured – and, arguably, unreachable – record in baseball history.  The same year that Ted Williams hit .406 for the Red Sox, DiMaggio compiled a 56-game hitting streak for the Yankees, shattering Wee Willie Keeler’s record of 44 games in 1897.  DiMaggio became a national hero, the successor to Babe Ruth in  the minds of Yankee fans.

From May 15 – July 17, DiMaggio batted .408, blasted 15 homers and drove in 55 runs.  On July 19, the day after Indians pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby Jr. held DiMaggio hitless, the Yankee Clipper started a 16-game hitting streak.  All told, DiMaggio hit safely in an unfathomable 72 of 73 games.

How remarkable was DiMaggio’s hitting prowess? In the past 70 years, only three players – Pete Rose (44 games), Paul Molitor (39) and Jimmy Rollins (38) – have come within 20 games of DiMaggio’s seemingly untouchable record.  There isn’t an active player in baseball whose two longest streaks, over an entire career, add up to 56 games

DiMaggio’s reputation and hitting exploits were established well before the magical 1941 season.   In 1933, the 19-year-old DiMaggio, in his first season with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific League, established the minor league record with a 61-game hitting streak, shattering the previous mark of 49 set by Jack Ness in 1914.  DiMaggio  finished his first professional season with the  Seals batting .340 with 28 homers and a staggering 169 RBI.  DiMaggio’s older brother Vice and younger brother Dominic also played for the Seals.

Like his hitting streaks, DiMaggio’s baseball cards are in a class of their own.  The first set to feature DiMaggio as a professional was the 1933-36 Zeenut Baseball Series.  Short on fact checkers and editors, the candy manufactures spelled the DiMaggio brothers surname as “De Maggio”  as did most West Coast newspapers chronicling Joe’s teenage exploits.

JD

The Zeenut Series sports two DiMaggio action photos, one batting and the other throwing.  The originals measure just 1 ¾” x 3 ½” with perforated coupons at the bottom.  The expiration dated on the coupons help determine the approximate year the series was released since no information was included on the cards.  Cards with the coupon are extremely rare.  A fully intact Dimaggio 1933-1936 Zeenut Baseball card graded PSA EX-5 has sold in excess of $33,000.

Another rare and highly coveted DiMaggio card is the 1937 V300 O-Pee-Chee, the key card from an extremely limited Canadian set distributed only in Canada. With our neighbors north of the border focused on hockey, few collectors or sports fans bothered to preserve the DiMaggio card and other cards from the series.  The black and white photo card is one of a few featuring DiMaggio’s early seasons with the Yankees.

High-graded cards from this set are extremely difficult to find.  Only three examples have been graded EX-MT 6 by PSA, the last one selling for over $5,200.  PSA NM-MT 8 versions have sold for as much as $15,000.  The O-Pee-Chee card is designed with a die-cut background that can be punched out and folded back, allowing each card to stand up.  Because of this unique design, most V300 cards are found in poor condition, often with the die-cut backgrounds entirely missing.

Printed in both English and French, the card back – boasting sharp, bold legible text – informs baseball fans that DiMaggio “will make up for some of the color lost when Babe Ruth retired.”

The Joy Of Collecting 1970s Hostess Baseball Cards

Drab, ordinary, jurassic are terms that come to mind when describing the Hostess Baseball Cards of the the mid-late ‘70s.  The sets were nothing more than marketing ploys to sell more Twinkies, HoHos, Suzy-Q’s and King Dons (Ding Dons if you lived on the West Coast).  Big on errors and small on creativity, the Hostess  sets featured  the game’s biggest stars with simple head shots displayed against uninspired spring training backdrops and white borders.   

Yes, the Hostess sets were dull, almost cheerless, but just about every 40-something to 50-something baseball fan/collector (like the guy I see in the mirror every morning) has fond memories of Hostess’s lame attempt at manufacturing baseball cards.  After all, this is the set that we assembled piece by piece while Mom rummaged through the produce isle at the local grocery store.  This is also the set that got us hooked on The Sporting News, which played a huge role in the development of our baseball fandom.

Back in the day, Topps dominated the baseball card hobby.  If the single Topps set — there were no premium, platinum or chrome releases — didn’t satisfy your collecting needs, the Hostess sets produced from 1975-1979 gave you another option.  Dealers and collectors couldn’t buy Hostess cards directly from the company.  Everyone they had to work and spend to complete these sets.

Beginning in 1975 Hostess cards were produced in three-card panels on  the back of each multi-pack Hostess box.  The best part of this new wave of collecting was seeing what you  were buying, which encouraged set building.  Hostess panels — complete with an offer for a free issue of The Sporting News — kept in tact are more valuable and coveted today that cards cut from the box.  Some cards were printed on not-so-tasty products and are more difficult to find today.  Cards printed on the back of the smaller HoHos multi-pack boxes are often creased at the corners from haozzi_smith_hostess-panelndling.

Proofreading, editing and reading the  daily box scores were not priorities for Hostess baseball card editors.  The initial set was loaded with mistakes.  Slugger Bill Madlock was listed as a pitcher, Rangers catcher Jim Sandberg was named Mike and outfielder George Hendrick became George Hendricks.  Robin Yount, a teenage phenom at the time, is one  of the more popular players in the set.  Unfortunately, Hostess did not include a rookie card of future Hall of Famer George Brett.

Despite the quality-control issues, the debut Hostess set remains popular today with over 3,000 listings, including a handful of graded panels, currently on eBay.  The 1975 panel set is worth  as much as $400 depending on the  condition.  The value of single card sets vary widely because of stain issues — creamy cake fillings sometimes seeped through the packages — and cards being miscut.

Celebratingyaz_hostess the  nation’s bicentennial, the Hostess 1976 set includes red, white and blue stripes surrounding the  player’s name, team and position.  Collectors familiar with the 1976 Topps set will recognize some of the same photos in the Hostess series.  The set is loaded with stars, including Brett, Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose, a Dennis Eckersley rookie and one of Hank Aaron’s final cards.

The 1977 Hostess set includes Hall-of-Famers-to-be Joe Morgan, Reggie Jackson, Carl Yastrzemski, Thurman Munson and Johnny Bench.  By this time, collectors learned to save the cards as complete panels.  The complete panel sets are valued as much as $300 with the single set selling for nearly three times as much due to scarcity.

Although Eddie Murray was considered just another player at the time, his rookie card in the 1978 Hostess sets remains highly coveted.  For the first time, a few action shots were used to liven up the product.  Unfortunately the cost of producing baseball cards out-weighed the marketing advantages.  As a result, the 1979 edition was the final Hostess set.  Hostess went out with a bang, featuring an Ozzie Smith rookie card on  the same panel as Nolan Ryan as well as Willie Montanez.

 

Joe DiMaggio’s Unbreakable Hitting Streak

The first of a semi-regular series on “Baseball’s Most Unbreakable Records”.

During the summer of 1941, Joe DiMaggio established the measuring stick for hitting streaks when he achieved the most treasured – and, arguably, unreachable – record in baseball history. The same year that Ted Williams hit .406 for the Red Sox, DiMaggio compiled a 56-game hitting streak for the Yankees, shattering Wee Willie Keeler’s record of 44 games in 1897.

From May 15 – July 17, DiMaggio batted .408, blasted 15 homers and drove in 55 runs. On July 19, the day after Indians pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby Jr. held DiMaggio hitless, the Yankee Clipper started a 16-game hitting streak. All told, DiMaggio hit safely in an unfathomable 72 of 73 games.

JD
Joe DiMaggio’s extremely rare 1937 V300 O-Pee-Chee baseball card.

How remarkable was DiMaggio’s hitting prowess? In the past 70 years, only three players – Pete Rose (44 games), Paul Molitor (39) and Jimmy Rollins (38) – have come within 20 games of DiMaggio’s seemingly untouchable record. There isn’t an active player in baseball whose two longest streaks, over an entire career, add up to 56 games

DiMaggio’s reputation and hitting exploits were established well before the magical 1941 season. In 1933, the 19-year-old DiMaggio, in his first season with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific League, established the minor league record with a 61-game hitting streak, shattering the previous mark of 49 set by Jack Ness in 1914.

Like his hitting streaks, DiMaggio’s baseball cards are in a class of their own. One of the rarest and most coveted  DiMaggio cards is the 1937 V300 O-Pee-Chee, the key card from an extremely limited Canadian set distributed only in Canada. With our neighbors north of the border focused on hockey, few collectors or sports fans bothered to preserve the DiMaggio card and other cards from the series. The black and white photo card is one of a few featuring DiMaggio’s early seasons with the Yankees.

High-graded cards from this set are extremely difficult to find. Only three examples have been graded EX-MT 6 by PSA, the last one selling for over $5,200. PSA NM-MT 8 versions have sold for as much as $15,000. The O-Pee-Chee card is designed with a die-cut background that can be punched out and folded back, allowing each card to stand up. Because of this unique design, most V300 cards are found in poor condition, often with the die-cut backgrounds entirely missing.

Printed in both English and French, the card back – boasting sharp, bold legible text – informs baseball fans that DiMaggio “will make up for some of the color lost when Babe Ruth retired.”