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John Joseph Amalfitano
Chicago Cubs
Second Base
Born: January 23, 1934, San Pedro, CA
Signed: Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent (bonus baby), February 2, 1954
Major League Teams: New York Giants 1954-1955; San Francisco Giants 1960-1961; Houson Colt .45s 1962; San Francisco Giants 1963; Chicago Cubs 1964-1967
As a Manager: Chicago Cubs 1979-1981
Signed as a bonus baby by the Giants shortly after his 20th birthday, Joey Amalfitano spent two seasons on the Giants' active roster, rarely seeing playing time. He appeared in nine regular season games with the Giants team that won the 1954 World Series, but he didn't appear in the postseason. After filling his bonus baby requirements, Amalfitano spent four full seasons in the minors and returned to the Giants in 1960 as a back-up infielder. His first full season was also his best as he batted .277 with 27 RBIs. As the first ever and then regular second baseman for the Colt .45s in 1962, he appeared in a career-high 117 games. Amalfitano would finish out his playing days with the Cubs, spending four seasons as a back-up infielder and pinch-hitter, retiring with a .244 average and 418 hits.
Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #566
This is the 82nd of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March. We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room. After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices. I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.
Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6. The lot, including this Amalfitano card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards. After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.
The Card / Cubs Team Set
This is Amalfitano's final Topps flagship appearance as a player, and he'd appear in three more sets as a coach or manager. The cartoon on the back celebrates his first grand slam home run, hit off the Pirates' Roy Face (#347) on June 12, 1964 at Wrigley Field. The three runners in front of him, represented here in cartoon Cub form, were Billy Williams (#220), Ron Santo (#110) and Ernie Banks (#510). That's an impressive trio of Cubs!
1965 Season
Amalfitano was with the Cubs all season, appearing in 67 games overall and batting .271 with nary a home run and eight RBIs. Settling into his pinch-hitting role, he'd make just 12 starts and appear as a pinch-hitter 43 times. He batted .211 (8 for 38) as a pinch-hitter during the season, with three RBIs.
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First Mainstream Card: 1955 Bowman #269
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10): 1955, 1960-1965, 1973-1974, 1981
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1981 Topps #676
70 - Amalfitano non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/19/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database
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