 |
 |
James Henry Landis
Kansas City Athletics
Outfield
Born: March 9, 1934, Fresno, CA
Signed: Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent before 1952 season
Major League Teams: Chicago White Sox 1957-1964; Kansas City Athletics 1965; Cleveland Indians 1966; Houston Astros 1967; Detroit Tigers 1967; Boston Red Sox 1967
Died: October 7, 2017, Napa, CA (age 83)
Jim Landis played 11 years in the major leagues, winning Gold Gloves in five consecutive seasons between 1960 and 1964. Landis came up with the White Sox and was the club's regular center fielder during their 1959 American League Championship season. As one of the team's most productive hitters and given his stellar defense in the outfield, Landis finished seventh that season in the league's MVP voting. The White Sox fell to the Dodgers in six games in the World Series, but Landis batted .292 (7 for 24). He began his streak of Gold Glove wins in 1960, and had his best power season in 1961 with 22 home runs and 85 RBIs. Landis was named to both All-Star teams in 1962.
Included as part of the massive eight-player, three-team trade in January 1965 with the White Sox, Indians and Athletics, Landis headed to Kansas City where he'd play for just one season. He would play two more seasons in the majors with four different teams, serving as a reserve outfielder and pinch-hitter. Landis collected 1,061 hits, was a career .247 batter and had 93 home runs with 467 RBIs. His .989 career fielding percentage in the outfield is currently 57th all-time. In 2000, he was named to the Chicago White Sox All-Century Team, along with 26 other former White Sox players.
Building the Set
December 4, 2021 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards, Babylon, NY) - Card #429
You'll be seeing this particular passage on my 1965 Topps blog for quite some time as we added a whopping 97 cards to our set during the December Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show. If I'm ambitious and compose posts for five cards a week, I should be completely caught up by the end of May. If I'm not as ambitious, I might still be going through this stack by the time we hit July. Either way, I'll enjoy the process and I'm looking forward to taking my time. I've posted a complete summary of this fantastic show over at The Phillies Room.
The Card / Athletics Team Set
Landis is shown hatless and wearing a White Sox jersey. The back of the card highlights his World Series batting average, mentions his acquisition by Kansas City in the offseason and his Gold Glove wins between 1960 and 1963. Interestingly, his Gold Glove win for 1964 isn't mentioned, leading me to believe the write-up here was drafted prior to the awards being handed out, and then Topps forgot to update it.
1965 Season
Landis was the opening day center fielder for an Athletics team that would go on to lose 103 games. He made 101 starts in center, but lost playing time towards the end of the season to Jose Tartabull. In 118 games overall, Landis batted .239 with three home runs and 36 RBIs. On December 1st, he was on the move again, traded with Jim Rittwage (#501) to the Indians for Phil Roof (#537) and Joe Rudi.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1957 Topps #375
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11): 1957-1967
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2016 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-JL
74 - Landis non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 1/28/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
December 4, 2021 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards, Babylon, NY) - Card #429
You'll be seeing this particular passage on my 1965 Topps blog for quite some time as we added a whopping 97 cards to our set during the December Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show. If I'm ambitious and compose posts for five cards a week, I should be completely caught up by the end of May. If I'm not as ambitious, I might still be going through this stack by the time we hit July. Either way, I'll enjoy the process and I'm looking forward to taking my time. I've posted a complete summary of this fantastic show over at The Phillies Room.
After securing Doug's Jim Thome autograph, I returned to Uncle Dick's and their neon green shirts, pulled up a chair, and settled in. Over the course of 45 minutes or so, I found 79 cards needed for our set, including this Landis card which was a little less than $4 after the dealer discount. I was surrounded by six or seven other seated collectors, all who looked similar to me, with a touch of gray, focused on their individual quests. I wiped out Uncle Dick's two 1965 Topps commons binders, paid for my haul and then retreated to a table with Doug to update our checklist.
Landis is shown hatless and wearing a White Sox jersey. The back of the card highlights his World Series batting average, mentions his acquisition by Kansas City in the offseason and his Gold Glove wins between 1960 and 1963. Interestingly, his Gold Glove win for 1964 isn't mentioned, leading me to believe the write-up here was drafted prior to the awards being handed out, and then Topps forgot to update it.
1965 Season
Landis was the opening day center fielder for an Athletics team that would go on to lose 103 games. He made 101 starts in center, but lost playing time towards the end of the season to Jose Tartabull. In 118 games overall, Landis batted .239 with three home runs and 36 RBIs. On December 1st, he was on the move again, traded with Jim Rittwage (#501) to the Indians for Phil Roof (#537) and Joe Rudi.
|
|
|
|
|
First Mainstream Card: 1957 Topps #375
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11): 1957-1967
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2016 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-JL
74 - Landis non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 1/28/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #375 Dave Wickersham - Detroit Tigers
Previous Card: #375 Dave Wickersham - Detroit Tigers
Next Card: #377 Willie Stargell - Pittsburgh Pirates
No comments:
Post a Comment