The Quest for the 1960 Topps Set, Part IX

The Quest for the 1960 Topps Set, Part IX
July 19th, 2010 by slangon

It’s been a spell since I updated my progress with the 1960 set. It hasn’t been for lack of progress though. I’ve been plugging away. I just haven’t gotten around to writing about it. I guess I’ve been a little preoccupied with Gint-A-Cuffs, watching the Mets do their best to pull off yet another collapse and doing some design tweaks on the old blog.

This particular batch is a handful of semi-high numbered cards that I got a while back off of Sportlots.

I had mentioned this a while back, but like all of Topps earlier sets, the 1960 set was released over the course of the year in several separate issues. Those issues were:

Series 1: 1-88
Series 2: 89-176
Series 3: 177-264
Series 4: 265-352
Series 5: 353-429
Series 6: 430-495
Series 7: 496-572

Not that it matters all that much, but I would be kind of curious to know what the breakdown was as to when those different issues were released and how long there was between them. Was Series 1 put out in January or was it in April to coincide with the start of the season? Were the other series issued 1 per month? I wish I could track down a resource for that sort of useless trivia.

Anyway, of this particular batch of cards 2 were from Series 6 and 3 were from Series 7. Actually, while we’re on that subject, I’m a little confused as to what actually constitutes a high number as compared to a semi-high number. Are the Series 6 cards considered semi-high whereas Series 7 are high numbers? Or is there some other breakdown?

When I did an eBay search for “1960 Topps semi high” pretty much all the results fell into the Series 6 range, but there were a few that were from Series 7. On the other hand, looking quickly at the book values posted on Check Out My Cards, all of the 1960 commons up to #440 or so are listed at $4.00. Then from #442 through #506 are $8.00 and from #507 up they’re $15.00. That would kind of lead me to believe that semi-high numbered cards are from 440-506 and high numbered are from 507 on up to 572. Who knows for sure?

Anyway, on to the cards.

#486 Bobby Del Greco

Bobby Del Greco was a center fielder who played for 9 seasons in the Majors. He bounced around quite a bit, playing for 6 teams during those 9 seasons. He did play on the A.L. Championship Yankees of 1957 and 1958. It seems that the Yankees mainly acquired him as a late inning defensive replacement for one Mickey Charles Mantle. The year that this card came out was Bobby’s big power year. He swatted 10 of his career 42 home runs that year.

#492 Larry Jackson

Larry Jackson pitched in the Majors for 14 seasons, mostly as a starting pitcher. He spent the majority of his career with the Cardinals, but also threw for the Cubs and the Phillies. He had a pretty good career, winning 194 games, posting a 3.40 ERA and striking out 1,709 batters. He was named to the All-Star team 4 times and finished 2nd in Cy Young voting in 1964, when he went 24-11 with a 3.14 ERA and 148 K’s. By the way, getting back to my favorite game of Name That Stadium, I think considering that at the point in his career that this card came out, Larry had only played for the Cardinals and those stands in the background are pretty unmistakable, I’d say this picture was shot at Sportman’s Park in St. Louis.

#497 John Tsitouris

Geez. Just when you learn how to spell Yastrzemski, along comes Tsitouris. John bounced around the Majors foe 11 seasons, both starting and relieving for Detroit, Kansas City and Cincinnati, where he spent the majority of his career. He seems to have been a pretty mediocre middle reliever and spot starter. The one interesting bit of trivia in his career seems to be that on September 21, 1964, he pitched a complete game, 6 hit shutout against the Phillies that started them on a 10 game losing streak that capped off the biggest collapse in the history of the Majors, until some other team that I can’t remember the name of right now pulled off their own major collapse in 2007.

#498 Al Pilarcik

Al Pilarcik had a relatively short Major League career, playing for 6 seasons. He spent time with the A’s, the O’s and the White Sox, although most of his career was spent in Baltimore. Like John Tsitouris, he seems to have been a pretty mediocre, non-desrcript type player. Also like John Tsitouris he has one slightly interesting fact about his career. Most people know that September 28, 1960 was the last Major League game played by Ted Williams. Most people also know that in the Splendid Splinters last at bat as a Major Leaguer he hit a 440 foot home run over the bullpens in right field at Fenway Park. What most people don’t know is that the Orioles right fielder who helplessly watched that ball sail over his head that day was the same feller pictured on this baseball card.

#504 Seth Morehead

As short as Al Pilarcik’s career was, Seth Morehead has him beat by one year. Seth spent 5 years in the Majors, split between the Phillies, the Cubbies and the Milwaukee Braves. He was mainly a LOOGY, before that term existed. Some fun trivia about Mr. Morehead: he is the last pitcher faced by Roy Campanella, as well as the last person to pitch against the Brooklyn Dodgers before the team moved to Los Angeles. I like those weird water towers in the background. They’re very 1960’s space age.