TCMA The 60s Set Series II (Pt 1)

The weird and wonderful TCMA Stars of the 50s and 60s sets ended with the 1981 issue of a Series II for the 60's set. It picked up the numbering at #294 with nine minor league players (including a Sparky Anderson card) and ran through #482.

The 'Big Leaguers' begin with this Maris/Mantle beauty at #303.

There is no card numbered #319 but there were two #399s so the speculation is that one of those was mis-numbered. Makes sense. Here are the two cards involved:

The numbers on the backs are tough to read. Be forewarned of that if you have to sort these. LOL My 64 year old eyes were not happy!

Here is a better look. 

The 'set' I bought was minus the minor league cards. The eBay listing only mentioned that there were nine cards missing without further explanation. When it arrived and I saw what I needed I was afraid that the minor leaguers would be some sort of scarce short prints that would cost me dearly. Turns out only the Sparky Anderson card carried a premium. The rest were available for under a buck for the most part. A quick trip to COMC and SportsLots garnered me the nine I was lacking and that was that. 

The first of the minor leaguers that arrived at my door (the only ones so far) are these two guys from the Buffalo Bison, a Mets farm club in the 60s. Scanning them I noticed that the backs are printed upside down. Just another bit of quirkiness. 

This is infielder Cliff Cook. He played in parts of five seasons for the Reds and Mets.

Craig Anderson was an original Met who was picked up from the Cardinals in the expansion draft. He pitched in 50 games in 1962 for New York. He worked mainly out of the bullpen but did make 14 starts. Here's a weird fact. Out of the bullpen Anderson won both ends of a doubleheader against the Braves on May 12. He had won another game as a reliever six days earlier over the Phils. Those three wins in the span of less than a week were his only wins of the season. He lost 17 others as well as recording 6 blown saves.

The rest of the set is chocked full of the same type of goodies that the previous TCMA sets contained. There are however more action and multi-player cards then were seen in Series I of the 60s set. 

The multi-players cards come with one caveat, two actually. All except one feature photos of either the Yankees or Mets.

Fairly easy to name the players without looking at the back. Here is the outfield that the 1969 Series made famous... Jones, Agee and Swoboda. Bleep 'em all.

This next one is id'd as being from spring training of 1962. It features the Bombers from the 1961 team: Maris, Berra, Mantle, Howard, Skowron and Blanchard.

And they were not all 'players'. We get the photos of the two NY clubs that include the staffs. This Met's pic is actually a Dodgers reunion shot with Casey, Gil Hodges, Charlie Neal, etc. All of whom were one time Brooklyn Bums.

The Yankees coaching staff smiled for the camera. Well some of them did.

And the guys on these cards were not all star players either. Look kids, it's Ron Taylor and Don Shaw!

The oddball of the group is this one of the Cardinals brain trust. 

I'm a bit disappointed that the back makes no mention of what appears to be a t-shirt cannon prototype but is undoubtedly a ball launcher.

Also sneaking into the mix are some actual game action cards. 

This one of Roger Maris greeted at home plate has game details on the reverse. Here is an expanded view for easier reading. Does this remind anyone of a current phenomenon? Let's label this one as a TCMA Now card.  And note the pencil check marks. Some of the cards with more than one person shown have these marks. My guess is that someone tried to guess who was pictured and was checking their work.

Here's another TCMA Now card...Gil Hodges and Ed Vargo...

...with the action annotated...

Most of the 'in action' cards were simply regular cards without the gory details. The Hammer got an action photo as a regular card in the set....

As did Steve Whitaker....

Ditto for Cardinal Ray Washburn. He once told my then 9 and 11 year old younger brothers to "Go to hell!" as he jogged on the warning track pregame in the Astrodome. All they had done was call his name asking for an autograph. If I hadn't been there to witness it I wouldn't have believed it. He was an ass but he knew how to wear a uni. Nice stirrups.

And there are others which seem to be cards taken during spring practice or game warm-ups as well as a few that are hard to classify...

The Yankees' Stan Bahnsen

Senator pitcher Barry Moore. He was one of those 'his card was in every damn pack!' guys in the late 60s.

The Astros' Hector Torres got a spring training photo on his card. Torres couldn't hit a lick (career .216 average) but he used his fielding skills to carve out a nine year career in the majors. He's a baseball lifer and his current job is the hitting(!) coach of the Bowling Green Hot Rods. They are the Class 'A' Tampa farm club.

Casey Stengel got his own card. There are quite a few managers and coaches in this series. Below is Danny Murtaugh enjoying spring training life.

and Ed Lopat in the gold and green.

I have a lot more interesting cards scanned but I'll save those for the next installment. I'll end this one with one of my favorites in the set. 

This shot of Ted Savage would look perfectly at home on a 1957 Topps card wouldn't it? Great posed photo in front of an empty Polo Grounds third base grandstand.

RIP Connie Hawkins

One of my favorite hoops guys and one of the most compelling to watch was Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins. I just read that he passed away at age 75 yesterday.

His online obits will list his accomplishments and detail his issues but let me just say that he was as much fun to watch on the court as any player I've ever seen.

I have a fairly extensive Hawk collection and pieces of it have been posted here before. I'll repost a few today. Several of these came from the always generous Mark Hoyle.

What an amazing player he was. RIP indeed.

The video below features some Hawk highlights and classic Marvin Gaye music, Inner City Blues. 

More TCMA Stars of the 60s

One of the best things about the TCMA sets is that co-founder Mike Aronstein was able to tap into a big stash of pictures taken by free lance photographers. So many of the cards have unique photos. If you are tired of Topps' overuse of the same couple of Jackie Robinson pics you understand the attraction of these cards.

For example here we have Roberto Clemente. Have you ever seen this picture? Neither have I, until I found this set. I believe it was taken at the Polo Grounds but I'd listen to arguments.

Jim Bouton at Yankee Stadium. As a kid going to games there I was always interested in the flags that flew above the roof. They were displayed in the order of the current standings. Like stirrups they are a detail of the game that I miss.

Whenever a set has a card of Vic Power I'll scan and post it because I just like typing the name Vic Power.

Mooooose!

Sandy Koufax at the Polo Grounds. Again, a different pic than we usually see on cards.

Milt Pappas wearing my favorite Orioles jersey. In fact that whole early 60s uniform set for the Birds was sweet.

Speaking of sweet unis here is Eddie Kasko wearing the classic Colt 45s outfit in a photo that just reeks of Arizona spring training.

I'm a sucker for nice pics of players in Milwaukee Braves unis and for pics of players posing in the Polo Grounds. Denny Lemaster hits on both.

Tony Horton just looks too young to be a major leaguer in this shot. At first glance I was certain that Horton was posing in Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The seating area certainly resembles the upper stands at the old place but the light standards are wrong. But in any case Horton is one of the most fascinating characters in the game's history. And he wasn't seen on a ton of cards.

I love this card of Bobby Richardson. He was one of my father's favorites and despite the fact that he played for the Yankees I always gave him a lot of respect. From all accounts he's a prince of a guy still.

Here is what may be the most TCMA-ish card in the set. Larry Jackson lounges against a brick wall.

Stu Miller won 23 games out of the bullpen for the Orioles in 1965/66. Over those two seasons he had an ERA of about 2.00 and a WHIP of under 1.0 and was 7th in MVP voting in '65. He won a Series ring in '66 and never even had to warm up.

Mudcat Grant. Do yourself a favor. Watch this video of him singing at the memorial service for Harmon Killebrew in 2011. He's accompanied on guitar by Tony Oliva's son.

You're welcome.

One of the more under appreciated players I saw as a kid was Vada Pinson. I casually collect his cards. I'm glad to have this one.

Johnny Podres at the Polo Grounds. Just a nice card.

Hoyt Wilhelm. Not a whole lot of pitchers make All Star teams 17 seasons apart.

'Hector's Pup' is what my father called Hector Lopez. I guess it came from the expression that went along the lines of "I haven't _____ since Hector was a pup!" meaning a long time ago. Why my father called him that I don't know. I never asked.

Don Larsen in another 1965 Astros spring training photo. We know it's '65 since that was the only year he spent the spring with Houston. He was 35 years old but seemed older than that.

Hank Aaron at Shea Stadium. The Braves, like the Orioles, didn't have their city on their road unis for quite some time.

And finally Chuck Hinton, my old Start-O-Matic hero, in his Cleveland garb at Yankee Stadium. He played six seasons for the Indians but stuck a season (1968) with the Angels right in the middle of them.

I had forgotten until I looked him up on Baseball Reference that he was originally signed by the Orioles who lost him to the Washington Senators in the 1960 expansion draft. He made the 1964 AL All Star team as a Senator and got to play a couple of innings in left field at Shea in relief of Harmon Killebrew.

Last night I won an auction for a nearly complete Series II piece of this set. It lacks nine cards which will give me something to chase. When I looked at the checklist I discovered that Series II contains the multi-player cards that were lacking in this 291 card Series I. It arrives next week. At that point I'm calling a hobby 'timeout' and will organize and page/binder the entire TCMA run of sets I've picked up.

Gonna be a good time.