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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. There are 19 team cards in the set, and this is the final one we needed. Only the Houston Astros, in flux because of their name change from the Colt .45s, did not receive a team card in the set.
Building the Set
August 15, 2022 from Houston, TX - Card #592
August 15, 2022 from Houston, TX - Card #592
From a collecting perspective, I spent a lot of the summer avoiding the urge to buy the seven remaining cards needed for our set from eBay or online dealers. It would have been easy enough to simply click a few buttons, enter my credit card information, and wait for the envelopes to arrive in the mail. (I still think the Mickey Mantle (#350) will be the final card added to our set, simply due to its high price tag.) But I was mostly successful in resisting the urge to click our way to completing this set, wanting to finish the set in person at a baseball card show. I failed a few times, including when I purchased this Yankees team card in early August from eBay seller txsurf, located in Houston, Texas.
I couldn't resist the price of this card, especially since Yankees cards continue to carry a premium in the northeast. I also added a Bobby Murcer card from the 1969 Topps set, and I'll be starting with that set's blog soon. After adding this team card, we were down to needing just six more cards for a complete set, and (spoiler alert) I ended up splurging and adding the Carl Yastrzemski (#385) and Sandy Koufax (#300) cards in September and October, respectively. After nearly three years of collecting, the final four are now Mantle, the Tony Perez (#581) rookie card, Orlando Cepeda (#360) and for some strange reason, Gordy Coleman (#289).
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The Card / Yankees Team Set
I couldn't find an exact match for the source photo Topps used for this card, but I easily found a photo taken from the same shoot but from straight ahead and not from the right. The angle of the photo used for the Topps team card is unusual, with all players and coaches shifting their view sideways. The 1964 Yankees had minimal transactions during the season, so there's no way to determine at what point during the year this photo was taken.
Former Yankees manager Yogi Berra (#470) is seated in the front row, to the left of the team logo, and he'd be unceremoniously fired following the World Series loss to the Cardinals in 1964. Berra would spend the 1965 season as a player-coach for the crosstown Mets.
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1965 Season
This was the first of what would be a decade-plus of seasons in which the Yankees would bid farewell to a number of aging veterans and attempt a rebuild process. They'd finish in sixth place in 1965 and drop all the way into last place in 1966. Under new manager Johnny Keane (#131), who had just defeated them in the World Series as manager of the Cardinals, the team was 77-85, enduring their first losing season since 1925! The club played the first exhibition game in Houston's Astrodome on April 9, 1965, with Mantle hitting the first home run in the history of the new domed ballpark. Not one Yankees player crossed the 100-RBI threshold, with center fielder Tom Tresh (#440) winning the team's triple crown with a .279 average, 26 home runs and 74 RBIs. Mantle was limited to 122 games and batted only .255 with 19 home runs.
On the mound, Mel Stottlemyre (#550) was a 20-game winner, with Whitey Ford (#330) winning 16 games. Pedro Ramos (#13) was the team's top reliever, saving 18 games. Shortstop Murcer made his major league debut on September 8th, and he'd be one of the team's few bright spots throughout the early 1970s.
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 easily got to that total for the Yankees. As is the case with teams going through rebuilds, there were quite a few candidates to pick from here and I narrowed it down to those players with the most games without a card or those players who would have an impact on the club in the coming years. Of the six players listed below, only Edwards wouldn't appear with the Yankees in the 1966 Topps set.
- Bobby Murcer (ss) - As mentioned above, Murcer made his big league debut as a September call-up. He'd be a four-time All-Star with the Yankees and win a Gold Glove in center field in 1972.
- Roger Repoz (of) - Repoz appeared in 79 games, batting just .220 as the team's fourth outfielder.
- Ray Barker (1b) - Barker came over the Yankees on May 10th with Pedro Gonzalez (#97) going to the Indians. Barker, who appears with the Indians on a Rookie Stars (#546) card, played in 98 games for New York.
- Horace Clarke (3b) - Clarke saw action in 51 games. He'd spend 10 seasons with the Yankees, and was their every day second baseman between 1967 and 1973.
- Doc Edwards (c) - The back-up catcher is in the set with the Athletics (#239), but he appeared in 45 games for the Yankees after a trade on May 3rd.
- Roy White (of) - White made his debut a day before Murcer and he'd be the regular Yankees left fielder between 1968 and 1977, making two All-Star Game appearances.
Baseball Reference
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #512 Cap Peterson - San Francisco Giants
Next Card: #514 Joe Azcue - Cleveland Indians
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