Topps 1960 Managers Subset... AL Edition

The American League managers in the '60 Topps set have some interesting photos and back-stories. 

Casey Stengel needs no words from me. He's Casey. Paul Richards (his middle name is 'Rapier'... how cool is that?) was a baseball 'lifer' who managed the White Sox and Orioles among the numerous jobs he held in the game. He was the Tigers' regular catcher during the mid-40s and helped them win the 1945 World Series. BTW.. his 1933 Goudy is IMHO among the best baseball cards ever produced:

I like the fact that Memorial Stadium is visible on Richards' managers card.  

Al Lopez played in the majors for 19 years and managed for another 17 winning pennants with the Indians and White Sox. After a 22 year playing career Jimmy Dykes managed six different clubs in the majors, mostly with the White Sox. He never won a pennant.

I love the Nats uniform worn by Cookie Lavagetto on his card. The 'reverse drop-shadow' "W" and pinstripes and not features I usually associate with that team. Billy Jurges never managed a full season. He was hired during the '59 campaign by Boston and fired during May of 1960. He was a three time NL All Star middle infielder.

Joe Gordon's card shows Municipal Stadium in the background. A nice touch. Joe Gordon played for 11 seasons with the Yankees. He made nine All Star squads and was the 1942 AL MVP. His managing record isn't nearly that good but he is a Hall of Famer. 

Bob Elliott is shown in his only year as a big league manager. His playing career covered 15 seasons. He hit .289 and he was selected to multiple All Star squads and was the 1947 NL MVP with the Boston Braves. His nickname was "Mr. Team". And while his card makes him look like everyone's favorite goofy uncle he is not to be confused with the Bob Elliott who made up one half of the radio comedy duo of Bob and Ray. Look 'em up, kids.

Here is a look at the backs of a few of these. I've included the Jimmy Dykes card because it's about as pristine a 1960 card as I've seen outside a grading slab. The back is even whiter than the scan shows. The backs of the '60 set cards tend to brown over time as shown in the Gordon and Alston cards. Jimmy Dykes has escaped that fate for whatever reason. Sharp corners as well. 

Topps 1960 Managers Subset.... NL Edition

I thought that since I had posted the '58 All Star subset I'd go ahead and post another of my completed projects of a similar size. I've been sorely tempted over the last few months to jump into the 1960 Topps set full time. I've mentioned before that it's the first set I clearly remember collecting with a purpose as a kid.

I'd seen a friend's 58's and I had received some '59s but the 1960 set was the one I bought by the pack. Truth be told it was my folks that bought them, with much begging from me. I remember the hanging cello packs they had at Korvettes stores around my part of New Jersey. Sometimes my Dad would bring home a pack he had bought with his newspaper for the commute home. So this set has a lot of nostalgic value to me. Not to mention that I love the look of it and I think the backs are among the best Topps has produced.

I don't feel up to tackling another vintage set (and blog) right now. But maybe sometime in 2015 I'll get the urge and jump in. Meanwhile I've put together the managers 16 card subset. I love everything about these. These guys just look like 1960 era baseball managers, don't they? Bill Rigney leans on a wooden(!) railing. Did Seals Stadium have a wooden railing in front of the dugout? Maybe that's a spring training shot. Either way, it's pretty neat.

Solly Hemus was in his second year as manager in St. Louis and he looks pretty comfy in the job. In 1959 he began as player/manager but in June he hung up his glove. Interesting that he is listed as being 'released' by the Cards that month. I guess technically he was. Walt Alston and Chuck Dressen had almost 40 years on big league managing between them. Alston won four titles with the Dodgers.

Fred Hutchinson managed three teams but was best known as skipper of the Reds. He died tragically of cancer soon after the 1964 season. Here are a couple of interesting facts from his baseball Reference bio:

The Hutch Award has been awarded since 1965 to a player who exemplifies the courage and desire of Fred Hutchinson. The first recipient was Mickey Mantle. Bill Hutchinson, who diagnosed his brother's condition, later founded the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in 1975; it has become one of the world's leading research institution in the field of oncology.

On December 24, 1999, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer named Hutchinson Seattle's athlete of the 20th Century, ahead of Ken Griffey, Jr.

Charlie Grimm hit .290 in a 20 year career as a player and he won three pennants in his first go-round as the Cubs' manager. He managed the Braves for five season in the fifties, was out of the dugout for four years and returned to Chicago in 1960. He lasted 17 games and was out of the job months before this card was issued.

Eddie Sawyer managed the Phils for nearly a decade including the Whiz Kids club of 1950 but in 1960 he was gone even faster than Grimm was from Chicago. He managed ONE game before quitting with a famous good bye quote: “I am 49 years old and want to live to be 50.” Two games later the Gene Mauch era began in Philly.

All-in-all it's a pretty cool subset I think. The pennant would reappear as the dominant feature of the classic 1965 Topps set. And the fact that these are so different from the 'base' cards in the 1960 set makes them stand out. As I recall all these National League managers cards came dirt cheap. Only the Stengel out of the complete set of 16 cost enough to even give the price a second thought.

I'll post the American League managers in a day or so.

1960 Topps Managers: Fred Hutchinson and Chuck Dressen

It's been awhile since I posted any of my 1960 Topps managers cards. I had this one in the draft folder and had forgotten that it was never published. It really had never even been started except for the scans. This post features two revered and accomplished managers. Let's start with Fred Hutchinson.

"Hutch" as he was called began his baseball life as a sensational 19 year old pitcher with the PCL Raniers in his hometown of Seattle. He won 25 games that first season and was named as Minor League Player of the Year by the Sporting News. After that his contract was purchased by the Detroit Tigers and Hutch got a pair of brief looks at the majors and he had another fine minor league season in 1941. But the Uncle Sam called and he spent four full years in the U.S. Navy.

Once back in civilian life in 1946  Hutch ran off a string of major league seasons with the Tigers that saw him rank near the top of several pitching categories. He went 87-57 between 1946 and 1951. He faded quickly as an effective pitcher but not as a leader and the Tigers named him manager in mid 1952 and he continued as a playing manager through '53. He managed another season before he was let go and he returned to Seattle to manage the Raniers to a 95 win season.

He was hired to manage the Cardinals and held that spot through 1958. He again managed the Raniers for a season before the Reds hired him to finish out the 1959 season. In 1961 he led the Reds to the national League pennant and a World Series match-up against the Yankees. The Yanks won it in five games. Hutch remained at the helm of the Reds until 1964. It was during that season the he was diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to his head and neck. He left the club in July, returned for a week or so and then left for good, too ill to work. He died that winter.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was founded by his brother Dr. Bill Hutchinson and is now one of the top facilities of it's kind. You can read more about Hutch on these two pages on the facilities' excellent site..... this page is an excellent bio of the late manager and this page discusses the Hutch Award given each year by MLB..

Chuck Dressen left Decatur, Illinois to play third base for the Reds through the mid-1920s. But those playing days came after his three season career as a back with the Decatur Staleys and Racine Legion in the NFL between 1920 and 1923.

Once he switched to baseball he remained in the game until his death in 1966. Once his playing days were over, at age 39, Dressen was selected to manage the Reds in 1934. He spent 16 of the next 32 years managing five different clubs. His most success came in 1952/'53 when he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers to the World Series. His major league managerial record was 1008-973. Dressen passed away following his last season as manager of the Tigers in 1966. His final two years were hindered by ill health. 

While managing his Dodger clubs Dressen would often tell his team, "Just hold them, boys, until I think of something." He was also credited with bold predictions while managing some talent starved Washington clubs. Lots of good info and stories on his Wikipedia page.

Here is a selection from a September 1952 showing of the TV game show 'What's My Line' featuring Dressen on the eve of the 1952 Series in which he managed the Dodgers versus the Yanks. Interestingly he gets into an exchange with one of the panelists, newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen  over something she had previously written about his managing. 

2009 Topps Heritage Dave Trembley

I love how these managers cards are based on the 1960 Topps managers cards, one of my favorite subsets ever.

Dave Trembley managed 20 years in the minors for the Pirates, Padres, Cubs and Orioles systems. He spent almost four seasons managing the Orioles themselves. He coached junior college baseball. He is now the third base coach for the Houston Astros.

My conclusion. He's scene waaaay more than one guy should of crappy baseball, up close and personal. Trembley seems like a very nice man. The Houston Chronicle recently ran a lengthy feature story on him and how he coped with his firing in Baltimore and has tried to help keep the struggling Astros upbeat through the long losing season. Unfortunately the story is behind the pay wall on the Chronicle's actual newspaper site and I can't get to it online.

Three Crafty NL Managers from the 1960 Topps set

Three more from the 1960 Managers subset. First up this time we see the Dodgers longtime skipper, Walt Alston. 

Alston has one at bat in the majors. One. On September 27th of 1936, as a member of the Cardinals,  Alston entered the game at first base after Frankie Frisch pinch hit for the ejected Johnny Mize. He came up to bat later and fanned. Made and error at first as well. Never saw the field in a major league game again, as a player at least.

 That didn't deter him from having a standout Hall of Fame career in the Dodgers' dugouts in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. He took over the Dodgers from Charlie Dressen in 1954 and held the job for 23 seasons. His clubs won for World Series' titles and seven NL pennants. he managed 3658 games and won 2040 for a '558 winning percentage. Only four times out of those 23 seasons did the Dodgers finish in the second division of the NL.

The serious and studious looking Alston never signed more than a one year contract as manager of the Dodgers. As always he appears on his card looking like your favorite old uncle. 

Danny Murtaugh on the other hand played in the big leagues for nine seasons as an infielder for the Phils and Pirates and, for a handful of games, the Braves. He took two years to serve his country during WWII. He played almost half those seasons as a regular with his best year being 1948. He led the league in several defensive categories as a 2nd baseman and hit .290 with 71 RBI.

He managed in the Pirates chain after his playing days, coached with the big club and then took over the helm in Pittsburgh in the middle of 1957. Through the years Murtaugh had four separate terms as Pirate skipper totaling 15 years. He won the World series in 1060 (thanks to Bill Mazeroski's dramatic homer) and in 1971 when Roberto Clemente and friends knocked off the Orioles.

In just over 2000 games Murtaugh's Pirate clubs won at a .544 clip.

Danny looks pretty managerial on his card. He's posing as if giving the home plate ump the 'what for' over balls and strikes. Note the batting helmet he's wearing. As I understand it Branch Rickey wanted every member of the team to wear a helmet at all times during a game. Even the pitchers. That's why you frequently see Pirate cards that show someone like Ron Kline wearing a helmet.

Here is the late, great Chuck Thompson's call of the Maz homer.

Now Bill Rigney really looks like a manager. Arms crossed and leaning on the dugout (wood???) rail. Mouth clenched, eyes hard. I bet he's hacked because when he asked his star Willie Mays to sign a ball for his grandkid Mays never looked up and then rolled the signed ball across the table at him. Hey, it's possible likely.

Rigney played all around the infield for the New York Giants from 1946 to 1953, four of those years as a regular. He made the '48 All Star game and drew a walk after subbing in for Red Schoendienst. He began managing with the Giants in New York in 1956 and was a fixture in dugouts in both leagues right through 1976 when he returned after four years as an exec to manage the Giants a second time. 

In addition to his six seasons with the Giants he managed the Angels for nine and the Twins for three. His 1970 Twins team won the AL West title but fell to the Orioles in the playoffs. After managing he served in the front office of the A's and was a broadcaster.

Getting 'Banned' by Facebook

I'd always sworn that I'd be the last person on Earth to get a Facebook account. And I was holding to that despite the urging of my extended family and many friends who extolled the virtues of 'keeping up' with everyone. And I was tired of missing out on pictures posted of my nieces and nephews and friends' kids and things like that. Still I wavered.

Then someone told me that Facebook was the perfect way to stalk my high school girlfriend. So I took the plunge about a month ago. Then, once I'd signed up, I remembered that I never had a high school girlfriend! Oh well, too late to turn back as I'd become friends with my aunt in Pennsylvania, some dude I had no memories of who claimed he was a childhood pal, and Joe Namath (yes, the actual Broadway Joe 'friended' me, I don't know why).

So I decided to have fun with it. I joined a couple of groups that revolved around sports and political memorabilia, put up a picture of the incredible Jennifer Beals to celebrate every win by the New York Rangers, tracked down some college buddies I used to drink with and posted pictures that my wife said she would have rather forgotten. 

And I used a tool that posted notices whenever I made a blog entry on this site or my '59 Topps blog. I think that was my undoing. I'm not sure it's visible to others besides me but there is a little 'widget' over in the right column that says 'Share this on Facebook' and 'Tweet this'. After about two weeks of using that widget I got a notice from Facebook that I was a spammer and they were suspending 'some site features' in my account for some unspecified amount of time. For real? WTH?

OK, I found that I couldn't 'like' anything or, even worse, post a comment to anyone else's entries or comments. Well, if I can't heap praise on every reference to the President just to piss of my very conservative brother-in-law, what fun is it?

I've seen full blown internet 'retirements' on a couple of forums I frequent. It always strikes me as silly and overly dramatic when some clown takes an insult too seriously says he's taking his ball and going home. So I merely posted it had been a fun few weeks and that I was semi-suspended. Anyone that wanted to could keep in touch by email. 

Now what does this have to do with my collection? Well nothing I suppose, other than I was seeing a few more views on my blogs when I posted the links on FB. And what does this have to do with the 1960 Topps Cookie Lavagetto card at the top? Again, nothing.

But since it's there I gotta say that the drop-shadow "W" on the Senators' unis of that era sure was unique. And Cookie himself was the centerpiece of a great World Series moment when his walk-off two out double in Game Four of the '47 Series between the Yanks and Brooklyn Dodgers sent Flatbush into a frenzy. In that game the Yanks' Bill Bevins was one out from a 2-1 NO HIT win when Burt Shotten sent Lavagetto up to hit with two men on and the Bums down a run. To hear Red Barber's great call of that moment go here and listen to the audio. Or watch the newsreel footage from YouTube.

That '47 Series marked the end of Lavagetto's playing career. He went on to manage the Senators/Twins from 1957 to 1961, never reaching the .500 mark.

Great card though.

1960 Topps Managers, Solly Hemus and Jimmie Dykes

The one quality every manager's card should always have is a picture showing them doing something managerial. Unfortunately managers don't actually do much. They lean on the dugout railing, talk to the pitching coach, scratch out names on the line-up card posted on the wall, make phone calls to the bullpen and lean over and spit. That's pretty much it.

But Topps did a good job of making Solly Hemus and Jimmy Dykes look like managers. Solly was in the second of three years (2.5 actually) as Cardinals' manager. A long time Cardinal, he had returned to St. Louis from a stint with the Phils and gave the role of player/manager a shot in 1959. He didn't play much, just getting 26 at bats, but after finishing in 7th place he came back in 1960 solely as the skipper. His team finished third. He was let go as manager mid-way through 1961 with the Cards in fifth.

In his 1960 card he props himself on the railing and gazes off into the middle distance. He's probably hoping Stan Musial will play a few more years.

I know for sure what Jimmie/Jimmy Dykes is doing. He's composing a letter asking Topps to at least spell his name the same way on both sides of his cards.

Jimmy/Jimmie managed for twenty one years in the big leagues, mostly with the White Sox. He was a player/manager for his first six seasons in Chicago. He later had stints with the Athletics, Reds, Orioles, Tigers and Indians. His three year run with the A's was the longest of any with those clubs. He averaged a fifth place finish in his long managerial career and three 3rd place finishes with the ChiSox were the best he could muster.

He had 21 seasons as a player and hit .280 for his career. He played in three World Series and won two of them. All that time in a dugout certainly helped him perfect the 'foot up on the dugout looking thoughtful' step thing.

Dos tarjetas de directivos del béisbol

OK, according to Babelfish the title of this post is a translation of  "Two Cards of Baseball Managers". My wife, a Spanish speaker said "No, it's not, really". Well, it's a stupid idea for a post title but I thought it up because I had two cards of managers who were bilingual. Al Lopez, son of Spanish natives whose family immigrated here by way of Cuba spoke fluent Spanish. Casey Stengel, a native of Kansas City, spoke fluent... hell, I don't know. But whatever it was was usually pretty entertaining.

Here is something remarkable about Al Lopez as a manager. Between 1951 and 1965 his clubs, first the Indians, then the White Sox, only finished lower than second in the American League three times. That's 12 second place finishes in 15 seasons with the outliers being a third, a fourth and a fifth coming in consecutive seasons, '60 thru '62. That's only one season finishing in the second division*.

He won a pennant with each of the franchises he managed and was a pretty darn good ballplayer during his playing days as well. In 19 seasons as a catcher he made a couple of All Star squads.

He looks particularly managerial on the 1960 Topps card, doesn't he?

Casey Stengel was really one-of-a-kind. His record as manager of the Yankees speaks for itself. In 13 seasons with the Dodgers, Braves and Mets he never finished higher than 5th. Make of that what you will.
Casey, who had aspired to the field of dentistry growing up (think about that for a minute), was a good outfielder with several NL clubs and, as the card notes, he hit well in his three World Series appearances.

Here is my odd Casey fact...  "The Old Perfessor" coached the 1914 Ole Miss baseball team while just in his third year as a major league player. Read a lot more about Casey here or here or here.

Both Al Lopez and Casey Stengel at members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

*="2nd Division" is how each league's bottom half finishers were refered to back when each league had eight or ten teams. You remember those days, don'tcha?

1960 Topps Managers, Billy Jurges and Bob Elliot

I'm edging ever closer to finishing my 1960 Topps manager subset. These are really fun cards from a set that is the first that I ever really collected and have vivid memories of. I really like the gold/mustard color used on the backs. 

Billy Jurges only managed 122 games for the Red Sox in 1959/1960. He had a record of 59-63. But he did get to pose in Fenway Park leaning on the batting cage in dapper style with a glove on his hand for a Topps card. That has to count for something. But he was a three time All Star for the Cubs and Giants during a solid 17 year playing career.

Bob Elliott only managed one season, 1960 for the Athletics, and his club finished eighth, but he had a long and successful playing career. He was seven time All Star third baseman while playing primarily for the Pirates and Boston Braves. He was the NL MVP in 1947 with a stat line of 22/113/.317 and he garnered top ten MVP placement twice more. Plus, he looks like my Uncle Gerald.

I'm down to needing five of the 16 managers cards out of the '60 Topps set. I may also try and nab the coaches cards. I remember how big of a kick me and my friends got out of the 'old guys' floating heads on that subset.

I'm just afraid I might be tempted to complete the whole Topps set. Hey, I love projects, but I'm not up to another full vintage set at the moment.