Larry Jaster (#356)

Larry Jaster pitched for the Cardinals from 1965 to 1968, before finishing up his career with the Expos and Braves.

He was signed by St. Louis in 1962 and pitched for 4 seasons in the Cards' farm system, then made his major-league debut in September 1965. (The back of this card says "the young lefthander’s debut in the majors last season…", so Topps was off by 1 year.)

After struggling early-on in 1966, he spent most of May and June back in the minors before returning in late-June. Larry started his last 15 games, and ended up with a nice 11-5 record, led the league with 5 shutouts (all against the NL champion Dodgers), and finished 4th in the Rookie of the Year voting. The team’s rotation was led by Bob Gibson, then the other three (all with similar production) were Jaster, Al Jackson, and Ray Washburn. Jaster's edge was his age – 6 to 8 years younger than the other 2 guys.

Jaster looked to be a fixture in the rotation for years to come, but Steve Carlton (who made 9 starts in the last 2 months of 1966) and Dick Hughes (the 29-year-old rookie who seemingly came out of nowhere) soon passed him. Larry only started 23 of his 34 games (and was probably helped by the fact that Gibson missed 6 weeks with a broken leg) and by Labor Day (with Gibson's return) he was out of the rotation altogether.

With Jackson traded and Hughes in the bullpen, Larry was the #5 starter in 1968.  That didn’t save him from the expansion draft, where he was selected by the Expos. He had a dismal 1-6 record for an obviously bad expansion team, and was traded to the Braves in the off-season for pitcher Jim Britton.

Jaster began the 1970 season with Atlanta, but by late-June was sent down to AAA, where he played for the rest of 1970 and all of 1971-74 - his only further big-league time was 5 games with the Braves in September 1972.

After his playing career he was a minor-league pitching coach for the Braves and Orioles.

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There were 490 single-player cards in the 1967 set. With Jaster's post, I have now featured all but 11 of those players on one of my blogs. The players from the 1967 set yet to be blogged are:

Sandy Alomar - 2B, Mets
Bob Barton - C, Giants
Jim Beauchamp - OF, Braves
Rob Gardner - P, Mets
Jim Gosger - OF, Athletics
Orlando Martinez - INF, Braves
Aurelio Monteagudo - P, Reds
Chico Salmon - INF, Indians
Carroll Sembera - P, Astros
Jim Stewart - INF-OF, Cubs
Chris Zachary - P, Astros

10 Years Already? / Joe Moeller

Today marks the 10th anniversary of this 1967 blog (my first of many). I found Blogger a day earlier when I happened across this post on the 1969 set blog (which was run by someone else at the time). I made a non-anonymous comment there, but didn't actually have a blogger account at that time.

The next day I thought, "Hey, this is something I could really get into!" and signed up. Within a few days I had set up 3 blogs: this one, the 1968 set blog, and a 1960s Baseball blog.  The next month, a 1966 set blog soon followed, and a year later my 1963 and 1970 blogs launched. I was hooked!

I took ownership of the 1969 set blog from the previous owner in January 2012, after it had been idle for a few years.

Yes, it's a lot of blogs, but I have an interest in all the sets (well, not enough in the 1963 set, as you've probably noticed). At the 5-year mark I took a 12 month break, although at the time of my 5-year post, I wasn't sure if I would be returning.

A few months ago I was considering whether to take another break at this 10-year mark, but there's still a few projects I want to complete (1969 Final Cards, the remaining 5 team reviews, the '69 and '70 League Leaders) before I go on hiatus again. I have been slacking off this past summer, so what I thought I could finish by this week hasn't happened.

Although there's 160 unposted players and managers listed in my blog index, I am only planning on blogging around 100 of them. After that, who knows?

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So who's the high-profile player I saved for my 10th anniversary post? (Oops!) Ok, Joe Moeller will have to do.

Joe Moeller was signed by the Dodgers in 1960. He had an 8-year career (1962-71), all with the Dodgers. He was primarily a relief pitcher, except in '62, '64, and '70.

Although he spent most of 1962 and all of 1964 with Los Angeles, he was back in the minors for all of 1963 and 1965. Joe returned to the Dodgers for all of 1966, but continuing the trend, he spent parts of '67 and '68 in the minors. Along the way, the Astros selected him in the Rule 5 draft after 1967 (hence his 1968 "Houston" card) but returned him to the Dodgers the following Spring.

Joe managed to stay with the Dodgers for all of 1969-71, but those were his final big-league days.

He pitched in the minors for the Padres and Phillies in 1972 and 1973, before retiring.


 I also have Joe's 1968 card:

and this "variation" that was the first post on my 1968 blog.

Going Outside the Lines

I found these 2 cards at my friendly neighborhood antique store/card store a few weeks ago. I normally don't have an interest in off-center cards, but these were so bad that I thought it would be fun to find out who was on the neighboring cards.

I have previously posted Phil Linz' 1968 card and Jim Barbieri's 1967 card. (Jim was one of the few players to have played in the Little League World Series AND the MLB World Series.)

Anyhoo, after perusing all the cards in my 1967 binder, I determined that the Linz card was connected to the Red Sox' Jose Tartabull, and Barbieri was connected to the Tigers' Joe Sparma. (The Linz card shows the very bottom of the "Red Sox" team name, although it was  cut off in my scan.)

I also previously posted about these cards.

Pete Mikkelsen can't focus on the task at hand

Four years ago,  I posted Pete Mikkelsen's 1968 card on my '68 blog (which I thought is where I referred to having this odd 1967 card below). Thanks to the 'Search my Blogs' function, I found my comment was in this 1967 Pirates Team post. Anyway, I unearthed this card a few weeks ago. This was my first Mikkelsen card, acquired midway-through the summer of 1967.

Not only are there printing errors and about 47 creases, but at some point the card appears to have gotten wet, so it has a general mottled appearance.

Here he is after taking some muscle relaxers:

Hmm.. Pete "was the Bucs' number one stopper last season", but midway through the '67 season he was selected off waivers by the Cubs!  What have you done for me lately?

Here are 2 other oddball cards I have from back in the day.

Tom Kelley (#214)

Tom Kelley was a somewhat obscure pitcher for the Indians (mid-1960s) and Braves (early 1970s). One of the errors in the 1967 set is that on earlier versions of the 3rd series checklist, his card is listed as "Dick Kelley" (a Braves' pitcher also in the 1967 set).

Kelley was signed by the Indians in 1963, and was a starting pitcher in their minor-league system for 3 seasons, while also playing a few games with the Indians in '64 and '65. Tom was with Cleveland for the entire 1966 season, appearing in 31 games (7 as a starter). That was good enough to score a card in the '67 set:

Kelley was back in the minors for all but 1 game in 1967. In fact, he spent the rest of the decade with the Indians' double-A and single-A teams. (He must have had an injury. Does anybody get busted all the way down to single-A on merit?) In any case, Topps dropped him after 1967, and I thought I saw the last of him, until he resurfaced in the 1972 set.

The Indians released him after the 1969 season, and he was signed by the Braves in May 1970. After another season in the minors. Kelley was in the Atlanta's starting rotation for the 1971 and 1972 seasons. A 5-7 record in 1972 sent him back to the minors the following season. He pitched for the Braves' AAA club for 3 seasons, and wrapped up his career in 1976 playing for the Mets' AAA Tidewater team.

Final Card: Dwight Siebler

Here is the last card for Dwight Siebler (#164). My card has a severely stubbed top right corner, a casualty found on many of my 1st and 2nd series 1967 cards. I didn't start buying cards until May or June of that year, so the early cards were acquired through the time-honored "tossing cards" method. I didn't start "taking care" of my cards until about the 5th series!

Siebler was signed by the Phillies in 1958, and pitched for 5 seasons (1959-63) in their farm system, the last 3 in triple-A. He was purchased by the Twins in late August 1963, and 2 days later made his big-league debut. Dwight remained with Minnesota to the end of the season, but he spent most of 1964 and 1965 pitching in triple-A, while playing less than 10 games with the Twins in each season.



Siebler was back with the Twins for the entire 1966 season, which would be his only full season in the majors. Dwight started off the 1967 season with the Twins, but after only 2 appearances in late April, he was back in AAA, compiling a 4-10 record primarily as a starter, before retiring after the season.

White Sox Team (#573)

The White Sox Team was one of the final 3 team cards (along with the Indians and the Red Sox) released in 1967, all in the 7th series. These three and the Cardinals Team were the final 4 team cards that I needed.

In 1966, the White Sox had finished in 4th place with an 83-79 record, 15 games behind the Orioles. In 1967, they improved their record by 6 wins, but still finished in 4th place, 3 games behind the Red Sox.


Now for the latest entry in the "You learn something new every day" file:
Yesterday I flipped this card over to see whether Gary Peters or Joe Horlen had the best record in 1966. I never found out, because there's no Peters, no Horlen, not even a John Buzhardt listed here! Despite the "CHICAGO WHITE SOX - 1966" heading on the back, all of these stats belong to the Cleveland Indians.


The back of the Indians' card? Nope, Indians' stats there also.

Final Card: Charley Lau

Charley Lau (#329) began his career in the Tigers' farm system in 1952. He missed the 1953 and 1954 seasons due to military service, but mostly toiled in the minor leagues for the remainder of the 1950s. (He had brief appearances with the Tigers in '56, '58, and '59.)

After the 1959 season, he was traded to the Milwaukee Braves, and was the Braves' #2 catcher for 2 seasons. In mid-August 1961, Lau was sold to Baltimore, where he started 13 of the final 33 games for the Orioles.


[Lau's name is spelled differently on the front and back of the card. His signature is of no help, since he signed "Charles Lau". Baseball Reference and Wikipedia both list him as "Charley Lau".]

From 1962 to 1965, Lau was used primarily as a pinch-hitter and backup catcher for the Orioles and Athletics. (He spent the 2nd half of 1963, and the 1st half of 1964 with the Athletics, before returning to the Orioles.) Because both teams carried 3 catchers, the backups were used frequently as pinch-hitters.

1965 was the last time Lau played defense. In his final 2 seasons he was strictly a pinch-hitter, making only 18 appearances in 1966, and 63 appearances in 1967. Most of his 1967 action came after being sold to the Braves on May 31st.

Charley was released after the 1967 season, and went on to a 2nd career has a hitting coach for five major league teams.


More on Charley Lau

Final Card: Johnny Klippstein

I started collecting baseball cards in 1967. This set was my original source of all major league baseball player knowledge. Aside from a few players like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, and Johnny Callison, I didn't know who any of the players were prior to 1967.

Since the high-number 7th series was not sold in my neighborhood that year, most of the players in that series remained a mystery to me. When the 1968 cards came out, I got my first look at the likes of Rocky Colavito, Juan Pizarro, Mickey Stanley, etc, but names like Johnny Klippstein, Jack Sanford, Jim Owens, Jimmy Piersall, and Don Demeter (all whose last card was in 1967) remained unknown to me for almost two decades, until I completed most of that series.



Here we have the final card for Johnny Klippstein (#588), who began his minor-league career before the end of World War 2!

After five years in the Cardinals organization and one with the Brooklyn Dodgers' double-A Mobile team, he made his big-league debut in 1950 with the Cubs. Johnny was a swingman early in his career, but beginning in 1958, he became almost exclusively a reliever.

Along the way, he played for the Cubs, Reds (twice), Dodgers, Indians, Senators, Phillies, Twins, and Tigers. He pitched in two World Series: 1 game for the Dodgers in 1959, and two games for the Twins in 1965 (which I recently saw on the MLB Network).

The Tigers signed him the day before the season opener in 1967, and after 5 appearances (6 innings) released him on June 2nd, ending his 18-year career.

(Notice that the wrong heading was used for his pitching statistics!)

Final Card: Lou Burdette

(Now that the World Series is over, I'm putting away my Yankees and Phillies cards, and will focus on players' final cards for awhile.)

Is it "Lou" or "Lew" Burdette? Baseball-Reference.com says "Lew", but this card says "Lou" in 5 places, including his autograph.

This is the last card for 18-year veteran Lou Burdette (#265). His big-league debut came in 1950, where he appeared in 2 games for the Yankees (for a total of 1.1 innings). In August 1951, the Yankees traded him to the Boston Braves for pitcher Johnny Sain. (This appears to be a regrettable move for the Yankees.)

In 1952, Burdette appeared in 45 games for the Braves (mostly in relief, and notched 7 saves. He also made 9 starts. He was the team's closer in 1953 as well, but in 1954 he joined the starting rotation, teaming up with lefty Warren Spahn. In 1955 Bob Buhl would join them, to make an excellent trio of starters through the 1962 season.


(When there was more than one team in a city, Topps usually put (A) or (N) next to the city in the stats, if it isn't otherwise stated on the card. They forgot here.)


Burdette began to slip in 1963, and was traded to the Cardinals in mid-season. This began 3 consecutive years of mid-season trades for Burdette, first to the Cardinals, then the Cubs, and finally to the Phillies in mid-1965.

The Phillies released him after the season, and he was quickly signed by the Angels, where he played the last 2 years of his career, before being released a week before the 1967 season ended.

As with many long-time veterans, Topps omitted his minor league statistics, which can be found here.

Who didn't get a card, but shoulda...

It's curious that these players didn't have a card in 1967:

Lenny Green
Lenny had been in the major leagues since 1957, and was a regular outfielder for the Twins and Red Sox from 1961 to 1965. In 1966, he played in 85 games for the Red Sox, then was released October 1966. The Tigers signed him before the 1967 season, and he played in 58 games for them that year. Still, Topps did not have a card for him in the later series (yet they found room for a Bruce Brubaker card!)

Tony Horton
Tony was a backup 1B-OF for the Red Sox between 1965 and early 1967. In mid-1967, he was traded to the Indians for pitcher Gary Bell. He immediately became the Indians' starting first baseman for several years, yet there was no card for him until 1970 EVER. There also was no card for any other Indians' first baseman in 1968 and 1969.

Jay Ritchie
Jay Ritchie was a reliever for the Atlanta Braves in 1967. After playing in the minors from 1956 to 1964, Ritchie finally reached the majors in 1964 with the Red Sox. He was traded to the Braves prior to the 1966 season, and played for the Braves in 1966 and 1967, before moving on to the Reds for 1968. Although he was in the majors from 1964 to 1968, his only full seasons were 1965 and 1967. He most likely doesn't have a 1967 card because most of his 1966 season was spent at triple-A Richmond. However, in 1967 he appeared in 52 games for the Braves (all in relief), the earliest appearance being April 22nd.

Astros Team
Every team but the Astros had a team card in the 1967 set. The Astros were further maligned by Topps in 1968 and 1969.


Related article: here
.

Topps forgets their own team color scheme

In 1967, Topps departed from the team color scheme they used in 1966 (and would repeat in 1968 and 1969). In 1967, the new scheme included green for the Twins and Giants, purple for the Pirates and White Sox, and orange for the Cubs and Red Sox. However, for some unexplained reason, three cards deviate from that color scheme:

Harmon Killebrew was Minnesota's own Sultan of Swat. According to his card, he spent 2 years with the old (pre-1961) Washington Senators before ever playing MINOR league ball. (Cynics would say "How could you tell the difference?"). After clouting 29 homers for Chattanooga in his 4th pro season, it still took him 2 years to reach the majors to stay. Although I didn't follow MLB until 1967, I was aware of the Twins and Harmon Killebrew in particular, because in the early '60s, my next-door neighbor's grandchildren (Lori & Todd) would visit from Minnesota every summer. Guess who their favorite player was?



Hmm... Here's the THIRD color used for a Twins card. Maybe there was some extra purple ink laying around, since it wouldn't be used for the third card below:




Orange was the color used for all Red Sox cards, while purple was used for the White Sox cards. Maybe Topps forgot which "Sox" were on this card, as there was no multi-player card for the Red Sox in 1967.

Another point to make on this card is, one typically thinks of power hitters when a card is labeled "Sockers". Here, Pete Ward and Don Buford are pictured, along with tales of how Ward hit 22 and 23 home runs 3 to 4 years ago. For Buford, the narration focuses on his batting average and stolen base stats. Not exactly in the same category as Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison!

#60 - Luis Aparicio ("Infield"?)

Back in 1967, as my brother and I were busting open packs of cards, anytime we found a player designated as "INFIELD" (or worse yet, "INF-OF"), we immediately sized him up as a stiff. There appears to be one exception:



Here, Topps' use of "INFIELD" doesn’t make any sense, since Aparicio was a perennial all-star shortstop with the Orioles (and White Sox). To add to the confusion, the back of his card stated his position as ‘Shortstop’. (The same situation occurs on Ron Hansen’s card, but he wasn’t at the same level as Aparicio.)

I wonder if Luis' teammates ribbed him for being a "utility infielder"?

Tigers Rookies - (15 minutes for George Korince)

In the first series, Topps issued a Detroit Tigers rookies card #72. This appears to include pitcher George Korince and infielder John “Tom” Matchick. However, this card has another player incorrectly pictured as George Korince.



For the second Tigers rookie card (#526), Topps chose to correct this error by using one half of the card to correctly picture George Korince, with an explanation on the back.



I’ve had 3 questions about this decision to "waste" a slot on this correction:

1. Was the Tigers farm system so bereft of prospects that they had nobody else to feature on this 2nd card?

2. Was George Korince such a top-notch prospect that it was imperative to set the record straight on him? The back of card #72 says that he’s "a can’t miss prospect", but a quick check of his career stats shows that this was a bit overstated. The previous year (1966) he had 3 IP, 2 K, and 1 HBP. In 1967, his stats include 9 G, 14 IP, 11 K, 11 BB, and a 5.14 ERA!

3. Why did Topps make sure to correct this error, but in the previous year, they didn’t bother to correct the Dick Ellsworth card, which actually showed a photo of the late Ken Hubbs – Ellsworth’s teammate who died TWO YEARS EARLIER!


Guess who's on the 1968 Tigers Rookie Stars card?