The Mysterious Strangers

As I mentioned previously, 1967 was my first year of collecting baseball cards. Other than Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Harmon Killebrew, I had no idea of any MLB players, so those 1967 cards were my introduction. Since the 1967 high-number cards were not sold in my area, players in that 7th series remained unknown to me until I bought their 1968 cards.

Below are the 12 players and 2 managers whose final cards were in that 1967 7th series. As such, (except for John Sullivan, who played for the Phillies in 1968) I had no idea who they were until years later. To me, they existed only as mysterious names on the 7th-series checklist (issued as part of the 6th series) until I acquired their cards in the 1980s.


I have already posted all of these cards individually on this blog. You can follow their labels below to each post.

Click here to see all the players whose final card was in the 1967 set.

Final Card: Andre Rodgers

This is the final card for Andre Rodgers (#554), an infielder who played 11 years for 3 teams. This was a high-numbered card that I didn't get until many years later. Until then, to me he was only an unknown name on the 1967 7th series checklist card.

Rodgers began in the New York Giants' system in 1954. He played there for several years until his major-league debut with New York in 1957.

Rodgers was back in the minors for most of 1958, but played a few dozen games with San Francisco. 1959 was the opposite - a brief time in the minors but most of the season in the majors. Rodgers was primarily the backup shortstop during his time with the Giants.



After the 1960 season, Rodgers was traded to the Milwaukee Braves for third baseman Alvin Dark, but in the spring training 1961 he was traded to the Cubs for pitcher Moe Drabowsky. Andre played 4 seasons with the Cubs, the last 3 as their everyday shortstop. He replaced Ernie Banks, who had moved over to first base.

He was traded to the Pirates for infielder Roberto Pena after the 1964 season. During his three seasons with Pittsburgh, he was used mostly as a pinch-hitter and utility infielder. Each year saw his playing time decreased more and more, as in 1966 and 1967, he played less than 20 games in the field. His final game was on September 16, 1967.

He played for the Pirates' triple-A team in 1968 before retiring. Rodgers, who was born in Nassau Bahamas, died there as well, 11 days after his 70th birthday in 2004.