A few months back I got a surprise package from reader Deron in Atlanta. He had written me asking if I had any 2008 Topps. Hell yeah I did. I went crazy with 50% off blasters of that, but never tried to put a set together. I had about 100 cards he needed and shipped them right away. Since I didn't really care about '08 Topps I was just happy to find a good home for the cards and I wasn't expecting anything in return. Well, I did get something in return. Within a week I got the aforementioned surprise package from the ATL. It was a nice envelope full of 1965 Topps baseball, plus a few other bonuses. He had a note saying that he couldn't find my wantlist, but he knew I was working on the set. For anyone concerned, my wantlist for
'65 Topps is HERE. I am collecting cards 1-272 right now. As I get closer with those I will extend my list and add more pages to the binder. After having the Steve Carlton rookie stolen within a week of buying it soured me on chasing the whole set, so I am taking baby steps getting back into. Anyway, for someone who couldn't find my list he did pretty darn well. He sent 8 1965's and I needed 6 of them, plus one that wasn't on my list turned out to be a nice UPGRAYDE. I will focus on 2 of the cards he sent, cards I have dubbed '65 Topps Traded. The first one is an excellant example of a horrible airbrushing disaster. It is card #404 of pitcher
Stan Williams. People ask me what makes a card or a player Nitty Gritty.
There are a lot of different things that get you that status, being an aggressive rough and tumble player, playing down and dirty, being a certified bad-ass, being a catcher in full gear or having a vintage action shot or just being cool. Having a cool name or nickname can sneak you in, too.
Stanley Williams was also none as Big Daddy. I don't know where he picked the name up, but he was a big righthanded pitcher, he stood 6'5" and weighed 230 pounds, thats a big daddy! He was a part of the Dodgers World Championship team in 1959 (also Nitty Gritty) and from 1960-'62 he won 14 games or more for the Dodgers. He was 14-10 with 175 Ks in 1960 and made both NL All Star Teams that year. In '61 he topped 200 Ks for the Dodgers before being traded to the Yankees for Moose (also Nitty Gritty) Skowron after the 1962 season.
He was the 5th starter on the '63 Yankees team that won the AL Crown and repeated with them in '64, but had moved down the rotation to a spot starter and reliever. He became expendable in New York and was sold to the Cleveland Indians in spring of '65, right before this card came out. They mention him being dealt on the back of the card, but were not able to take a photo of him on the Tribe, so this is his '65 Topps card. He is clearly wearing Yankees pinstripes, Topps didn't bother hiding the NY on his jersey or taking out the other Yankees behind him in this pic that was taken in the spring of '64. They did black over the NY on his cap, but it still shows through. He is labeled as an Indian on the card. Big Daddy spent 4 years with the Tribe. He won 25 games and saved 22 more splitting time between the rotation and the closer role. He won 13 for them in '68, but was traded again after the 1969 season. He and Luis Tiant went to Minnesota in exchange for Dean Chance. At 33 years of age Big Daddy had one of his top years on the mound for the Twins. He pitched in 68 games, all in relief and posted an amazing 10-1 mark over 113 innings. He had a 1.99 ERA and saved 15 games for Minnesota. They lost to the Orioles in the ALCS that year, but Big Daddy was dominant. He appeared in relief in 2 games and pitched 6 scoreless innings
It was his final postseason, but over his career he never allowed a run in the playoffs or World Series. He totaled 11 innings, allowed 4 hits and no runs. Not too shabby. After the Twins he made stops in St. Louis and Boston before calling it a career in 1972. He posted a career mark of 109-94 with a 3.48 ERA, 1305 strikeouts, 11 shutouts and 43 saves. He won a ring with the Dodgers in '59 and played against them in a losing effort with the Yanks in '63. He was also a part of the Yanks team that lost to the Cards in the WS in '64. After retiring as a player he spent many years as a coach in the big leagues, most recently with the Mariners up till 1999. It all started with me being fascinated by a lame airbrush effort from Topps, but opened up a story of a very interesting big league career.
The other card I am going to show off today wasn't one on my
wantlist. I had this card, but I really appreciate the upgrade. It is card #162 of Boston's backup catcher
Russ Nixon. After 3 years with the Bo Sox Nixon was traded to the Minnesota Twins, too. He went from backing up Bob Tillman to relieving Earl Battey. The original owner of my card had updated Nixon's team name to the Twins after he was sent to Minnesota in the spring of '66 in the deal that got the Sox Dick Stigman.
Nixon spent 2 years as a Twin before returning to Boston in 1968 where he ended his big league career. Nixon spent 12 years in the Majors and played every inning behind the plate, catching for 5506 innings. That's alot of squatting! Nixon spent most of the 1970s managing in the minor leagues before he took over the job of being the Reds skipper in 1982. He would then replace Chuck Tanner as the Atlanta Braves manager before Atlanta ushered in the Bobby Cox era which began in June of 1990. Wow, this post went far longer than expected... Just think, I only posted about 10% of what Deron sent me! A huge thanks to Deron and to everyone who has helped me in my quest (again) for 1965 Topps!
You can find my
wantlist here, I am slowly chipping away and have several completed pages to show off. This is my favorite set of all time and I hope to have a binder full of it again! If you are collecting this set too, get in touch, I have a couple of dupes and I love to trade! I love this game, I love it's history and I LOVE THIS HOBBY!!! Thanks for reading, I hope to always keep it Nitty and Gritty. 45 years LATER!!!
McBean was at the peak of his career when this card came out. In 1964 he was 8-3 with a 1.90 ERA and 22 saves. He was named the Sporting News National League Relief Pitcher of the Year, an Honor that was awarded from 1960-2004. The year prior he was 13-3 in relief and pitched a streak of 22 straight scorless innings. 1963 was his first season in the bullpen-in '62 he was a part of t
he Pirates rotation and posted a 15-10 mark as a starter. McBean was born in the Virgin Islands and one of the first big league players from there. In fact, 50 years after his debut he is still the ONLY big league pitcher to hail from the Virgin Islands and is one of only 11 players from the Islands to make it to the Majors. At 5'11" and 165 pounds he looked more like an infielder than a pitcher and although he never played the position as a professional in the US, he was quite a shortstop and fielded that position during batting practice to the delight of everyone looking on. I love this game, I love it's history and I love all the stories behind every character to play the game and appear on a card in the hobby I love. 45 years LATER!
Those are very respectable numbers for a pitcher, but if you compare him to his teammates in '65 his homerun total equaled the total of Dick Groat, Julian Javier and Mike Shannon. Those 3 combined for 1181 plate appearances and totalleed 5 homers betweeen them. Gibby hit 5 in just 119. Thats just awesome. More Gibby to come. I love this game, I love this hobby! 45 years LATER!
Rollins spent the next few years as a part time player in Minnesota before being drafted by the Seattle Pilots in the expansion draft. They also picked up Tommy Harper who played third base as well, so Rollins played second fiddle again. He signed with the Brewers for the start of the 1970 season and made a final stop in Cleveland for 42 games before playing his final game on 9-26-1970. He ended his career at 32 with a .269 batting average, 20 triples, 77 homers and 399 RBI. I love this game and ALL of its many stars. I love this hobby and I love ’65 Topps! 45 years LATER!
Willie Mays blasted 47 to pace the league, but seems to be taking a nap in the photo. Running the bases can be exhausting. 
I love this game, I love this hobby!
I am really drawn to “custom” cards of yesteryear. Mainly I want to know what inspired collectors back then to customize. Did this person just really not like Joe Morgan? Maybe he or she really liked Sonny Jackson and felt he should be solo on the card. I don’t think this is a Traded or update card because Jackson was traded to the Braves long before Morgan was traded to the Reds. Maybe the card owner was a big fan of Morgan and a friend or older sibling did this to the card to get back at them for something. Perhaps this person treasured this card for years and then vandalized it because they dislike Morgan as a sportscaster… Who knows, that is what makes this card fun and interesting to me. The story is most likely that a kid did it out of boredom, outgrew the cards and gave it to someone who passed it along to someone who eventually sold it to someone who sold it to me… 
I would guess that this cards original owner is in their 50s. I wonder if they remember doing it. I wonder if they followed baseball. I can almost this person using this card as dinner party conversation. “When I was a kid I had Joe Morgan’s rookie card and I blacked his face out with marker. It must be worth a fortune now. If only I still had it and hadn’t marred it”. I can totally imagine it. Either way, it is one of my favorite cards now, I love it! I have never done this to a card myself, but I imagine that it takes balls to do it. I wanted to try and see what kind of a rush I got. I dug around and found this rookie card of one of Morgan’s teammates on the Big Red Machine. 
I flipped it over and went to town with a black sharpie… Wow, that was a rush. 
Well, it would have been if I took the card out its top loader but I didn’t because I am not an idiot… Maybe I will try this experiment with a different card down the road. Back to Sonny Jackson. I keep on adding the middle name Man to his name when I think of it in my head, I don’t know why. 
Anyway, Jackson’s career got off to a quicker start than Joe Morgan’s did. In 1966 Jackson finished second in the Rookie of the Year vote. That was the year that Tommie’s swept the Award. Jackson batted .292 with 49 steals as the 45s shortstop. Morgan batted .285 that year with 11 steals, but made the All Star team. All things considered this card tells a story. Since I don’t know it, I guess I get to make it up. That is fun for me. Plus its pretty neat to have a blacked out rookie card of a Hall of Famer… I love this hobby! 45 years LATER
Virdon is one of the great career baseball guys out there. I have met him many times around Pirate City where he still coaches the young outfielders in the organization. Virdon spent 11 years as a player with the Bucs and led the NL in triples and won a Gold Glove in centerfield with them in 1962, in 1960 he was a part of the World Championship team. 1965 was his final full year as a player. 
He came back to the Bucs as a coach and manager and also managed the Yankees, Astros and Expos. He was named the Manager of the Year twice and also won 2 divisional titles as a skipper. I love this game, I love this hobby! 45 years LATER!
Those are littered with stars and Hall of Famers and Marichal makes his first appearance in the set this way. He led the NL in complete games, placed 2nd in wins, 4th in ERA and 7th in strikeouts. Between card #13 and #50 there are 3 Hall of Famer cards and each one is a pitcher, Marichal being the 3rd. You can view the entire '65 Topps checklist
Facing Warren Spahn and the Braves in a true Ace versus Ace matchup Marichal and Spahn dueled and each shut down the opposition to a mind-boggling degree. The game lasted 16 innings before the first run crossed the plate. Marichal took the hard earned win after Willie Mays hit a game ending solo homer in the 16th inning to give the Giants a 1-0 victory. Facing Marichal Hank Aaron was 0-6 on the day. The 15,000+ fans at Candlestick Park REALLY got their money’s worth that day. Until the next card, 45 years LATER. 
The back of the card has a cartoon wearing a mask, so that helps. The cartoon celebrates Cannizzarro being an American Association All Star in 1959. 10 years later he was a National League All Star (but didn’t play) for the San Diego Padres in 1969. Cannizzaro led the ’64 Mets with a .311 batting average in 60 games. From 1962 to 1965 with the Mets he only allowed 61 stolen bases (in 249 games) gunning down 56% of would be stealers. He spent the entire seasons of 1966-1967 in AAA, but returned to the majors with the Pirates in 1968. He was traded to the expansion San Diego Padres before the 1969 season and represented them as an All Star. 
The Padres only won 52 games and didn’t have many bright spots, CC was a veteran leader who knew all about being on a horrible expansion team. He caught the majority of their games and handled a pitching staff of future stars like Joe Niekro and aging veterans like Johnny Podres. From there he spent time as a part time catcher with the Cubs and the Dodgers, but returned to San Diego for his final season in the big leagues in 1974. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to vote for the greatest catcher of ALL TIME. 45 years LATER.
He retired after the 1972 season, one year after winning a second World Series with the Bucs. Don’t forget, there is just one more day to vote for my new player collection. That also means just one more day till the big CT Contest Giveaway! Thanks for reading! 45 years LATER!
I am not going to go into a full history of Perry’s career like I normally do. We all know that he won the Cy Young Award in both leagues, he won 15 games or more in 13 consecutive seasons, he won over 300 games and he is deservedly in the Hall of Fame. I picked this card because it came out before he became that guy. He was just a young guy fighting for a spot in the rotation. He would win over 20 games the next year, 1966, and he and Juan Marichal would be a one-two punch that rivaled Koufax and Drysdale, but in 1965 he was just Jim Perry’s little brother. 
45 years, LATER!
