I have a pile of manilla envelopes piling up on my desk of cards that I’ve been meaning to write about. Some have come via trades, some have come from eBay, some have come from Sportlots. For one reason or another, there’s been more piling up than writing going on around here. Hopefully, that’ll change. Let’s start with this envelope. It happens to have come from Sportlots and contains a bunch of 1960 Topps cards along with some other random goodies. Today, we’ll focus on the 1960 cards, which have put 11 baby steps closer to my goal of completing a very Condition: Poor set of 1960 Topps Baseball.

#9 Faye Throneberry

You know, it’s sort of funny. A while back, I had written a post about Jim Perry and talked about how despite having a very good career, Jim always lived in the shadow of his bother Gaylord. He’s not the only guy in the Majors that that’s happened to. Frank Torre had a lifetime .273 batting average, which is pretty good, but when you hear the name Torre, I doubt Frank is the first guy to pop into your head. There’s 2 DiMaggio boys living under the shadow of just 1 brother. I guess in all three of those cases, it’s understandable since we’re talking about 2 Hall of Famers and a guy who will eventually end up there. I find it interesting that although Faye Throneberry never put up any kind of outstanding numbers in his 8 year career, he too lives in the shadow of his brother, Marvelous Marv. I guess even ineptitude can be overshadowed by even greater ineptitude.

#20 Roy Face

AS you may or may not know, Roy Face was a premier closer in an age before the concept of closers really existed. Considering some of the shenanigans perpetrated by some of todays more expressive late inning relievers, I always though it would be funny if Roy yelled “In your Face!” at every batter that he struck out to end a game.

#22 Rocky Bridges

Good Lord. Is that a wad of chaw in his cheek or did he eat a baseball? I feel bad for whoever he’s staring at. It looks like they’re about to get an eyeful of tobaccy juice.

#27 Dick Drott

Dick Drott made his debut for the Cubs in 1957 and came out swinging. He went 15-11 that year and was tied for 2nd most strikeouts in the N.L. behind Jack Sanford. He was 3rd in Rookie of the Year voting behind the aforementioned Sanford and Ed Bouchee. He also had the 21st most votes for the M.V.P. Award behind a bunch of future Hall of Famers. On May 26th of that year, he even struck out 15 Milwaukee Braves in one game, handing 3 of those K’s to the Great Hank Aaron. He must’ve used it all up that first year because he went 11-35 over the remaining 6 years of his career. By 1965, he was working for the Chicago Parks District. But he’ll always have 1957.

#39 Earl Averill

Hall of Famer Earl Averill spent 13 years in the Major Leagues, mostly with Cleveland. Keep in mind that he didn’t break into the Major’s until a month before his 27th birthday. He was a 6 time all star whose career numbers include a .318 average, 238 home runs and 1164 RBI’s. He complied over 2,000 hits in just over 1,600 games. That was this guys father.

#42 Hobie Landrith

Hobie Landrith went to Northwestern High School in Detroit where he was the catcher on the baseball team for 3 years. The catcher for 3 years before him was his brother Charles. The catcher for 3 years before that was his other brother Nuel. When Hobie graduated, that broke a string of 9 consecutive years that a Landrith was behind the plate for the Northwestern Colts. Future Major Leaguer and the only man in the history of the game to be traded for himself, Harry Chiti, was the first non-Landrith to don the Tools of Ignorance for them in almost a decade. He was also an original Met. He hit the first walk-off home run in franchise history, off of Warren Spahn of all people.

#62 Roger Craig

Speaking of future Original Mets, here’s the man who lost an astounding 42 games during his time in Flushing. What’s so astounding about 42 losses for one team? He was only there for 2 seasons. Not surprisingly, he led the league in losses in both 1962 and 1963.

#115 Fork & Knuckler

I think you could cut a pizza with those corners. At least it’s another Hall of Famer off the old checklist. By the way, have you tried saying the title of this card as fast as you can, over and over again? Fun.

These next 3 cards I was pretty pleased about. All 3 are from the high numbered 7th Series, and I was able to score all 3 for $0.98 a pop. Obviously, I’m not expecting them to be in spectacular shape, but at least they’re crossed off the want list for under a buck.

#525 Marv Breeding

Marv Breeding played in a little over 400 games in the Major Leagues over the course of 4 seasons. He has a life time average of exactly .250. He hit 7 balls over the wall over the course of those games and was responsible for allowing 92 men to cross home plate. Somehow, with all that, he has a World Series ring, even though he never played in the World Series (The Dodgers bought his contract from Baltimore in August of 1963). Good for you, Marv.

#527 Jose Valdivielso

I don’t know exactly what was going on over the photographer’s right shoulder, but both Big Jose and Little Jose look a little suspicious. Interesting fact: Jose was also a part of the only all-Cuban triple play in big league history. He recalled, “It was at Kansas City. Whitey Herzog was hitting with runners on first and second and Camilo Pascual was pitching. Herzog hit a line drive to Camilo (one out). Pascual threw to Julio Becquer at first base (two outs). Julio then threw to me at second base (three outs). A 1-3-6 triple play.” I never stop being amazed at the things they keep track of in baseball.

#542 Ken Hamlin

One thing I’ve been noticing lately about the scarcer 7th Series in the 1960 Topps set is that it’s curiously (and thankfully) pretty devoid of stars. Yeah, the final 20 cards of the series are the All-Star subset, so by their very nature are chock full of stars, but the remaining 46 high numbers are all guys like Ken Hamlin. Don’t believe me that Ken Hamlin isn’t a start player? Do a Google search on him and see how many hits you get back on Ken Hamlin, the baseball player. Maybe trying to kill off the high numbers in this set won’t be as bad as I initially thought, especially since I don’t mind buying cards that are in the condition this one is in.

There you have it, folks one step shy of a dozen closer to the end.

Tags: 1960 Topps, Dick Drott, Earl Averill, Faye Throneberry, Hobie Landrith, Hoyt Wilhelm, Jose Valdivielso, Ken Hamlin, Marv Breeding, Rocky Bridges, Roger Craig, Roy Face
Filed Under: Set Chase by slangon
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