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Beginning in 1956 and going all the way through to 1981, with a one year absence in 1969, Topps included team cards in its flagship sets.
Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #574
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #574
This is the 90th 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 Braves team 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 / Braves Team Set
There's a few fairly odd things about this team card. First, Topps decided to go with a black border for the card, despite all Braves cards in the set having a green border. Second, the photo used by Topps would have been six years old at the time this card was coming out, and it would mark the sixth time the photo was used on a Braves team card. That's pretty bad, and I can imagine how annoyed I would have been as a young Braves fan in 1965 finding that Topps had once again recycled an old team photo. With the team moving to Atlanta in 1966, Topps finally used an updated photo in its 1966 Topps set.
This is the last Braves card needed to complete our Braves team set, and we're down to needing just two more team cards in the set, for the Indians and the Yankees.
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1965 Season
This was to be the 13th and final season of the Braves playing in Milwaukee, as they'd relocate to Atlanta Stadium in Georgia for the 1966 season. Manager Bobby Bragan (#346) guided the club to an 86-76 record as they finished in fifth place, 11 games behind the Dodgers. Right fielder Henry Aaron (#170) continued to star for the team, batting .318 with 32 home runs and 89 RBIs, along with a league leading 40 doubles. Third baseman Eddie Matthews (#500) led the team with 95 RBIs. Six Braves players hit at least 20 home runs, led by Matthews, then Aaron and followed by Mack Jones (#241), Joe Torre (#200), Felipe Alou (#383) and Gene Oliver (#106). Aaron and Torre both started for the National League in the All-Star Game.
Tony Cloninger (#520) was the staff ace, going 24-11 with a 3.29 ERA and 16 complete games in 38 starts. Billy O'Dell (#476) was the Braves' top fireman, pitching to a 2.18 ERA in 62 appearances with 19 saves.
For each team card featured, I'll be building a checklist of cards that could have been included in a 1965 Topps update set. I'm trying to come up with six potential cards for each team, and I couldn't quite get there with the Braves given how well-represented they are in the set. They picked up a bunch of players throughout the season who appear in the set on other teams, but most of those players appeared in just a handful of games with Milwaukee. I came up with five possibilities below.
- Sandy Alomar (ss) - Sandy Alomar shares a Rookie Stars card in the set (#82) with pitching prospect John Braun, and I'd give the young infielder his own dedicated card.
- Ken Johnson (rhp) - Ken Johnson (#359) has a card in the set with the Astros, and he'd appear in 29 games for the Braves, making 26 starts, following a trade in late May.
- Phil Niekro (rhp) - Future Hall of Famer Phil Niekro shares a Rookie Stars card (#461) with Clay Carroll in the set.
- Ron Reed (rhp) - The Braves signed Reed, then playing in the NBA with the Detroit Pistons, to a contract on June 17th. He'd not appear with the team until 1966, but a 1965 Topps card would have been cool.
- Team Card - Why not update the team card while we're at it? Topps could use a photo from earlier in the 1965 season or from 1964.
Baseball Reference
Wikipedia
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