A Giant Project

My first project for 2021 is going to be assembling a complete set of 1964 Topps Giants cards.  I do not own a complete set from the 1960s, so this is something different for me.  It's a small checklist and the usual really expensive players in the set are not really all that expensive.  

I posted one card from the set last week.  

I have four more that have shown up in the mail during the first part of this week with several more on the way.  Here are the first four new cards.   

First up is a pair of Milwaukee Braves.  I bought these two cards together.  I viewed it as a good sign that I was able to find a Hall of Fame pitcher and great player from the era for $7.  Here is the Joe Torre.....

I wish I knew the 1960s stadiums a little better. Torre is wearing a road uniform, but I cannot figure out the stadium in the background.  I had thought that the square object behind him might be a blurred out Anheuser-Busch sign that was in left field at Sportsman Park in St. Louis, but I think the scoreboard was under the sign.  Not quite right.  

Back of the card.  

Next.  

The centering top to bottom is a little off here, but no complaints.  This was from the end of Spahn's career, definitely looking older here.  Love the hat brim. 

Next up is a St. Louis native.  

I have picked up a few Elston Howard cards over the years.  St. Louis produced a lot of baseball players during the 1950s and 1960s, kind of a fun to pick up their cards from time to time.  Elston Howard is not a Hall of Famer, but definitely a great from his era. 

Nice write-up on Elston Howard's 1963 American League MVP season on the back of the card.  

Last card for this post.  

I think Freehan was in the 1963 Topps set, but it had three other players on the card.  So, 1964 was the first year he had a stand alone card.  His regular Topps card is a really goofy posed shot where he is half squatting down, but half-heartedly.   This is a much better card.  

and the back.  

I know that it is not going to be too difficult to find the majority of the cards, but I am going to put this project at roughly 6 months.  There are short-printed cards in the set and there is also a budget here.  The wife is not going to be happy if I drop a couple hundred dollars on some high grade copy of the Mickey Mantle card.  Here is the checklist.  Cards I own are highlighted in red.  

1 Gary Peters
2 Ken Johnson
3 Sandy Koufax SP
4 Bob Bailey
5 Milt Pappas
6 Ron Hunt
7 Whitey Ford
8 Roy McMillan
9 Rocky Colavito
10 Jim Bunning
11 Roberto Clemente
12 Al Kaline
13 Nellie Fox
14 Tony Gonzalez
15 Jim Gentile
16 Dean Chance
17 Dick Ellsworth
18 Jim Fregosi
19 Dick Groat
20 Chuck Hinton
21 Elston Howard
22 Dick Farrell
23 Albie Pearson
24 Frank Howard
25 Mickey Mantle
26 Joe Torre
27 Ed Brinkman
28 Bob Friend SP
29 Frank Robinson
30 Bill Freehan
31 Warren Spahn
32 Camilo Pascual
33 Pete Ward
34 Jim Maloney
35 Dave Wickersham
36 Johnny Callison
37 Juan Marichal
38 Harmon Killebrew
39 Luis Aparicio
40 Dick Radatz
41 Bob Gibson
42 Dick Stuart SP
43 Tommy Davis
44 Tony Oliva
45 Wayne Causey SP
46 Max Alvis
47 Galen Cisco SP
48 Carl Yastrzemski
49 Hank Aaron
50 Brooks Robinson
51 Willie Mays SP
52 Billy Williams
53 Juan Pizarro
54 Leon Wagner
55 Orlando Cepeda
56 Vada Pinson
57 Ken Boyer
58 Ron Santo
59 Johnny Romano
60 Bill Skowron SP

The Second Best Yankees Catcher From St. Louis

If you polled a group of well informed baseball fans from the St. Louis area about some of the great amateur players to come out of the area many would quickly give you the name of Yogi Berra.  Pretty important player, and while he's not Babe Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, or Mantle, he is the best catcher in the history of the Yankees.

10 World Series Championships, 14 American League pennants, 3 MVPs, and a Hall of Famer.

There is another well known Yankees catcher from St. Louis besides Yogi Berra.  In fact, there careers intersected a bit.  By the late 1950s the Yankees actually played Yogi in the outfield.  I think few realize that the left fielder in the 7th Game of the 1960 World Series, the one that drifts back towards the wall on Bill Mazeroski's walk off home run, was Yogi Berra.

I will spare Yankees fans the video, but he's to the right of the scoreboard in this picture of Mazeroski's swing on the home run.

I'm sure that Yogi's knees were worn down or something.  The usual types of things that happen to catchers at the end of their career, but the Yankees had a legitimately talented replacement in the form of St. Louis native Elston Howard.

Beyond replacing Berra as the everyday catcher for the Yankees, which became official at the start of the 1960 season, Howard also broke the color barrier for the team.  The Yankees were actually one of the last teams in the Majors to place an African-American player on their roster.  The two National League New York franchises had both fielded integrated teams since the late 1940s.  Dodgers obviously starting in 1947 with Jackie Robinson and the Giants in 1948 with Monte Irvin.

Elston Howard had a pretty big impact early in his Yankee career, including a few big World Series home runs.

All tolled Howard helped the Yankees win four World Series.  He's not a Hall of Famer, but the Yankees did retire his number 32.  Seems like a pretty good player to add to the old baseball card collection.  For whatever reason, up until I picked up these two cards, I actually did not own any Elston Howard cards.  

Zero.  Pretty rare for me to be missing baseball cards of St. Louis players, whether they were Cardinals players or not.

First up is a 1959 Topps card.  I have seen this card before, always a little curious about the blue coloring on the frame around the card.  The cards in the set have all sorts of different coloring on frames, but the blues are all darker than this card.  I would not consider myself to be a 1959 Topps expert, so I am not sure if the Elston Howard card's border is different for a reason?  I know most of the other Yankees cards in the set have a red or orange border.  

This card did not cost me a ton for a name player in the 1959 Topps set.  The surface conditions on the card are nice, but the centering on the card is off both left to right and top to bottom.  I am not going to spend the money on a high grade card of a Yankees player, so I am good with nice condition over centering.  

Last one.  

This is a 1956 Topps.  It's Elston Howard's first Topps card, but Bowman made a card of him in 1955.  The television set.  I like the action photos on these cards and Howard's is no different.  Looks like an overthrow on a play at the plate against the Tigers...maybe?  The picture on the right kind of bothers me.  The lips, the hat, just so much that looks like it's artificially touched up.  

This is two vintage posts in a row.  Don't worry, I will go back modern on Monday.