#300 Sandy Koufax - Los Angeles Dodgers

Sanford Koufax
Los Angeles Dodgers
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  210
Born:  December 30, 1935, Brooklyn, NY
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent, December 14, 1954
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1955-1957; Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-1966
Hall of Fame Induction:  1972

On Sandy Koufax's biography page on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website, the first quote about the all-time great lefty comes from former Phillies great Richie Ashburn:  "Either he throws the fastest ball I've ever seen, or I'm going blind."

In a 12-year career shortened by arthritis in his left arm and Koufax's desire to retire at the top of his game, the Hall of Famer won the N.L. Cy Young Award in 1963, 1965 and in his final season, 1966.  He also won N.L. MVP honors in 1963, a season in which he went 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA, 20 complete games, 11 shutouts and led the league with 306 strikeouts.  Koufax was a six-time All-Star and helped the Dodgers to three World Series titles in 1959, 1963 and 1965.

October 14, 1965 - World Series Game 7

He threw four no-hitters including a perfect game on September 9, 1965.  Despite a relatively short career, his 2,396 strikeouts at the time of his retirement ranked seventh all-time, second only to Warren Spahn's (#205) 2,583 among left-handers.  One of the top Jewish athletes in American sports, Koufax's decision to not pitch in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series on Yom Kippur brought attention to the conflict between the sport and his personal religious beliefs.

Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972, his first year of eligibility, Koufax became the youngest player enshrined at the age of 36.  His #32 was retired by the Dodgers that same year.  Following his playing days, Koufax continued to work for the Dodgers as a minor league coach, a pitching instructor and an overall goodwill ambassador for the game.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1956 Topps blog.

Building the Set
October 17, 2022 from Tomball, TX - Card #594
I'm composing this post on a cloudy day in mid-November, appreciating that for the first time since March, I'm about to be completely caught up with posting cards we've added to our 1965 Topps set.  We had added 102 cards at The Philly Show in early March, and creating posts for each of those cards had taken me until mid-October.  There were eight more cards added piecemeal between April and September, reducing the number of cards needed for our complete set down to five.

In early October, with the Phillies improbably in the postseason and about to go on a month-long journey that would culminate with a trip to the World Series, I received an e-mail announcing a sale in the online store for The Battersbox, located in Tomball, Texas.  I had had my eye on this Koufax card for quite some time, and I had assumed this would be the second to last card added to our set, with just the Mickey Mantle (#350) card remaining.  Riding the high of the good vibes brought on by the Phillies, and realizing it had been over a month since I had added any vintage cards, I happily added this card to my cart along with two cards to be added to my not-yet-collecting 1969 Topps set.

I had intended for this Koufax card to be a Christmas present to myself from my family.  But impatience won here, and rather than see this card sit by itself on my project table for the next month, it's entering the collection and its spot in the set's binder a little over a month sooner.  In early December, Doug and I will attend the next Philly Show, and I'll be laser focused on the final four cards needed - Mantle, the Tony Perez rookie card (#581), Orlando Cepeda (#360) and the surprise of the quartet, Gordy Coleman (#289).

The Card / Dodgers Team Set
All of Koufax's Topps flagship cards are iconic, including this one.  This is his second appearance in the set, as he shares a 1964 National League ERA Leaders card (#8) with Don Drysdale (#260).  The card has been reproduced a few times, first within the 1990 Topps set (see below) as part of the Turn Back the Clock subset.

1965 Season
In his penultimate season, at the age of just 29, Koufax enjoyed one of his three best seasons to go along with his Cy Young/MVP winning season of 1963 and his final season of 1966.  Koufax was 26-8 with a 2.04 ERA in 43 appearances, leading the league in wins, ERA, complete games (27), innings pitched (335 2/3) and strikeouts (382).  He won his second of three Cy Young awards and finished second in the MVP voting behind Willie Mays.

His 382 strikeouts blew past the modern-era record of 349, held by Rube Waddell since 1904, and Koufax's mark would be broken in 1973 by Nolan Ryan (383).  As mentioned above, Koufax threw a perfect game on September 9th against the Cubs, striking out 14 batters.  It was the eighth perfect game in major league history, and Koufax's fourth no-hitter.  He famously declined to pitch Game 1 of the World Series in order to observe the Jewish religious holiday of Yom Kippur.  Pitching in Games 2, 5 and 7, Koufax threw two complete game shutouts as his Dodgers won the Series, and Koufax would take World Series MVP honors.

1955 Topps #123

1959 Topps #163

1963 Topps #210

1966 Topps #100

1990 Topps #665

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #123
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15):  1955-1967, 1975, 1990
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2022 Panini Diamond Kings #71

1,735 - Koufax non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 11/13/22.

Sources:  
1956 Topps Blog

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
National Baseball Hall of Fame
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Previous Card:  #299 Jerry Zimmerman - Minnesota Twins

Next Card:  #301 Birdie Tebbetts MG - Cleveland Indians

#402 Joe Amalfitano - Chicago Cubs

John Joseph Amalfitano
Chicago Cubs
Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  175
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.

Following his final game as a player on June 27, 1967, Amalfitano immediately stepped into a coaching role with the Cubs.  He'd spend 31 seasons coaching in the majors with the Cubs (1967-1971, 1978-1980), Giants (1972-1975), Padres (1976-1977), Reds (1982) and finally the Dodgers (1983-1998), where he'd win a World Series ring with the club in 1988.  Amalfitano had two different brief stints as the Cubs manager between 1979 and 1981, leading the team to a 66-116 record during a few of the team's leaner years.

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.

1955 Bowman #269

1961 Topps #87

1962 Topps #456

1974 Topps #78

1981 Topps #676

Other Notable Baseball Cards
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

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #401 Carl Willey - New York Mets

Next Card:  #403 Boston Red Sox Team Card

#400 Harmon Killebrew - Minnesota Twins

Harmon Clayton Killebrew
Minnesota Twins
Outfield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  195
Born:  June 29, 1936, Payette, ID
Signed:  Signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent, June 19, 1954
Major League Teams:  Washington Senators 1954-1960; Minnesota Twins 1961-1974; Kansas City Royals 1975
Died:  May 17, 2011, Scottsdale, AZ (age 74)
Hall of Fame Induction:  1984

Harmon Killebrew was one of the most prolific sluggers of his era, and upon his retirement he was fourth on the major league all-time home run list and second to Babe Ruth in the American League.  Killebrew led the league six times in home runs and three times in RBIs.  He was a 13-time All-Star and received MVP votes in 11 different seasons.  He helped lead the Twins to the their first pennant in 1965, and while he hit .286 in the World Series, the Dodgers prevailed in seven games.  In 1967, he hit the longest home run ever recorded at Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium at 520 feet.  Killebrew attained career highs in home runs (49) and RBIs (140) in 1969 and won the league's MVP honors that season.  He wrapped up his 22-year big league career with a final season with the Royals, serving as the team's designated hitter.  When the Royals visited Minnesota in early May 1975, the Twins held a pre-game ceremony to retire Killebrew's #3.  He was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1984, and was in the inaugural class of the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in 2000.  In 2,435 games, Killebrew accumulated 2,086 hits while batting .256.  He hit 573 career home runs to go along with 1,584 RBIs.

After retiring as a player, Killebrew served as a broadcaster for the Twins, Athletics and Angels between 1976 and 1988.  He also briefly served as a hitting instructor with the Athletics.  Nicknamed "Killer" on the field, by all accounts Killebrew was one of the kindest and most well-respected men to ever play the game.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1956 Topps blog.

Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards - Babylon, NY) - Card #547

This is the 63rd 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.  Having wandered aimlessly among the dealer tables looking for binders with vintage commons, I decided to check to see if Uncle Dick's had refreshed their inventory following the December show, during which I had wiped out both their 1965 Topps binders.  Much to my pleasant surprise, they had.

I found 49 commons and semi-stars we needed for our set in the two neon green binders of 1965 Topps cards at Uncle Dick's.  Having reached the end of the binders, I asked if there were any star cards from the set available for my perusal, and of course there were.  I found this Killebrew card along with the Mel Stottlemyre (#550) in a modest stack of star cards, and I offered a bundled price for the two, less than the original combined price, and the dealer accepted.  Having once again wiped out Uncle Dick's stock of needed 1965 Topps cards, we wandered the show room floor a little longer before I settled in for the next bulk purchase of commons.

The Card / Twins Team Set
This is Killebrew's third appearance in the set, as he appeared on the A.L. home run (#3) and RBI league leaders (#5) cards back in series one.  The cartoon on the back celebrates his third straight home run title in 1964.  I've seen this card in magazines, books and at baseball card shows over the past 40 years and it's been one of those iconic baseball cards in my mind that perfectly represents the era.  I was surprised to find the card has only ever been reprinted once, as part of the 2015 Topps Cardboard Icons 5 x 7 series that reprinted all of Killebrew's Topps flagship cards.

1965 Season
Ranked by Baseball Reference WAR, this was Killebrew's seventh best season, but his numbers were still impressive.  He was the opening day first baseman for the Twins and voted as the starting first baseman for the American League All-Stars, making his seventh All-Star Game appearance.  Killebrew homered in the game off Jim Maloney (#530) in front of his hometown crowd at Metropolitan Stadium.

He was batting .278 with 22 home runs and 70 RBIs when he suffered a gruesome arm injury on August 2nd.  In a game agains the Orioles, Russ Snyder (#204) bunted down the third base line and ran into Killebrew's outstretched right arm as he crossed first base.  Killebrew had dislocated his elbow and he missed seven weeks of crucial playing time.  Still, the Twins stayed in the race and Killebrew returned to the line-up on September 21st.  He played in 113 games overall, batting .269 during the regular season with 25 home runs and 75 RBIs.  Despite the injury, he still finished 15th in the league's MVP voting.  Killebrew was one of the Twins' top hitters in the World Series, collecting six hits including a Game 4 home run.

1955 Topps #124

1962 Topps #70

1966 Topps #120

1969 Topps #375

1975 Topps #640

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #124
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (20):  1955-1956, 1958-1975
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2022 Topps Opening Day Bomb Squad #BS-2

1,858 - Killebrew non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/1/22.

Sources:  
1956 Topps Blog

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
National Baseball Hall of Fame
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #399 Ray Herbert - Philadelphia Phillies

Next Card:  #401 Carl Willey - New York Mets

#492 Gene Freese - Pittsburgh Pirates

Eugene Lewis Freese
Pittsburgh Pirates
Third Base-Outfield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  175
Born:  January 8, 1934, Wheeling, WV
Signed:  Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent, March 25, 1953
Major League Teams:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1955-1958; St. Louis Cardinals 1958; Philadelphia Phillies 1959; Chicago White Sox 1960; Cincinnati Reds 1961-1963; Pittsburgh Pirates 1964-1965; Chicago White Sox 1965-1966; Houston Astros 1966
Died:  June 19, 2013, New Orleans, LA (age 79)

Gene Freese was a journeyman infielder who played in parts of 12 big league seasons with six different teams, including two separate stints with the Pirates and White Sox.  He tallied a .254 average over 1,115 career games and was the primary starting third baseman for the 1959 Phillies, 1960 White Sox and 1961 Reds.  His 1961 season with the Reds was his best, as he helped the Reds win the N.L. pennant with career highs in home runs (26) and RBIs (87).

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1956 Topps blog.

Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards - Babylon, NY) - Card #518

This is the 34th 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.  Having wandered aimlessly among the dealer tables looking for binders with vintage commons, I decided to check to see if Uncle Dick's had refreshed their inventory following the December show, during which I had wiped out both their 1965 Topps binders.  Much to my pleasant surprise, they had.  This Freese card was $4 and was one of 49 commons purchased in my triumphant return to Uncle Dick's and his replenished neon green binders.

Depending on my ability to compose five posts a week on the cards acquired at this show, I should be completely caught up on this blog by mid-October.  It's entirely feasible we complete our 1965 Topps set by the end of 2022, although nine of the remaining 12 cards needed are fairly expensive.

The Card / Pirates Team Set
Freese appears in 11 Topps flagship sets overall, and he's shown with the Pirates on five of those sets.  This is the only appearance of his from his second stint with the club in which he's actually wearing a Pirates uniform.  The back of the card highlights the four pinch-hit home runs he hit in 1959 (see below) as well as his career year in 1961 with the pennant-winning Reds.

1965 Season
Freese began the season with the Pirates, appearing in 43 games and batting .263 with four doubles and eight RBIs.  He made 17 starts at third base for the Pirates and was used as a pinch-hitter 26 times.  On August 23rd, Freese was sold to the White Sox and he'd appear in 17 games for Chicago, batting .281 with a home run and four RBIs.  The White Sox were within striking distance of the first place Twins when they acquired Freese to hopefully provide a strong bat off the bench.  He batted .400 (12 for 30) overall as a pinch-hitter with a pair of doubles and four RBIs.

Phillies Career
At the end of the 1958 season, the Cardinals traded Freese to the Phillies for Solly Hemus.  The regular third baseman for the 1959 Phillies, Freese would lead the team in home runs (23) and finished third in RBIs (70) behind Wally Post and Ed Bouchee who had 94 and 74 respectively.  His claim to fame while with the Phillies were the five pinch-hit home runs he hit between April 18th and May 31st, falling one short of the record of six pinch-hit home runs set by Johnny Frederick in 1932.  His pinch-hitting days ended when the Phillies traded Willie Jones to the Indians on June 6th and Freese took over the everyday third baseman's job.

Freese led the Majors with three grand slams during the 1959 season.  His Phillies tenure was over after the 1959 season, as he was traded to the White Sox on December 9th for Johnny Callison (#310).  The Phillies would use 7 different third baseman in 1960 in an attempt to replace Freese, but Callison would go on to become a three-time All-Star for the Phillies and a fan favorite.  Freese has two Phillies baseball cards - his 1959 Topps card and a 1979 Diamond Greats oddball issue.

1955 Topps #205

1958 Topps #293

1959 Topps #472

1962 Topps #205

1966 Topps #319

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #205
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11):  1955-1956, 1958-1966
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1981 TCMA The 1960s II #304

58 - Freese non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/22/22.

Sources:  
1956 Topps Blog

Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Phillies Room
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #491 Tracy Stallard - St. Louis Cardinals

Next Card:  #493 Tigers Rookie Stars

#315 Frank Malzone - Boston Red Sox

Frank James Malzone
Boston Red Sox
Third Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'10"  Weight:  180
Born:  February 28, 1930, Bronx, NY
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1947 season
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1955-1965; California Angels 1966
Died:  December 29, 2015, Needham, MA (age 85)

Frank Malzone manned the hot corner for the Red Sox for over a decade, and in total spent nearly six decades in various roles with the club.  Malzone first got the chance to play regularly in 1957, and he'd reward manager Pinky Higgins with the first of eight All-Star Game selections and by finishing second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting to the Yankees' Tony Kubek (#65).  Malzone also won the first of his three Gold Gloves that season and drove in a career-high 103 runs.  On the way to that first Gold Glove, he became the first player to lead the American League in every defensive category (games, putouts, assists, double plays turned, fielding percentage) as well as errors.  Dependable at the plate, Malzone hit .276 with the Red Sox over 11 seasons.  He left the club briefly following the 1965 season, finishing up his playing career with the Angels.

For his career, Malzone batted .274 with 1,486 hits, 133 home runs and 728 RBIs.  He re-joined the Red Sox as a scout in 1966 and he'd serve as a scout and instructor until the early 1990s when he joined the team's front office.  He was among the inaugural class of inductees into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995.

Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards - Babylon, NY) - Card #501

This is the 17th 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.  Having wandered aimlessly among the dealer tables looking for binders with vintage commons, I decided to check to see if Uncle Dick's had refreshed their inventory following the December show, during which I had wiped out both their 1965 Topps binders.  Much to my pleasant surprise, they had.  This Malzone card was $3 and was one of 49 commons purchased in my triumphant return to Uncle Dick's and his replenished neon green binders.

Depending on my ability to compose five posts a week on the cards acquired at this show, I should be completely caught up on this blog by mid-October.  It's entirely feasible we complete our 1965 Topps set by the end of 2022, although nine of the remaining 12 cards needed are fairly expensive.

The Card / Red Sox Team Set
Malzone appears to be posing during spring training as there's a few Red Sox teammates mulling about in the background.  His home run in the 1959 All-Star Game receives the cartoon highlight treatment.  This would have been one of the years there were two All-Star Games, and Malzone started at third base in the second game.  He played the entire game, going 1 for 4 with a solo home run coming off Don Drysdale (#260) in the second inning.

1965 Season
Malzone appeared in 106 games for a Red Sox team that would lose 100 times.  He made 85 starts at third base, and as the season progressed he steadily lost playing time to the younger Dalton Jones (#178).  Malzone batted .239 with just three home runs and 34 RBIs in his final season in Boston, and the club released him following the season.

1955 Bowman #302

1958 Topps #260

1959 Topps #558

1962 Topps #225

1966 Topps #152

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Bowman #302
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11):  1956-1966
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2015 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-FM

95 - Malzone non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 4/30/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #314 Sterling Slaughter - Chicago Cubs

Next Card:  #316 Cincinnati Reds Team Card

#591 Bob Skinner - St. Louis Cardinals

Robert Ralph Skinner
St. Louis Cardinals
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'4"  Weight:  190
Born:  October 3, 1931, La Jolla, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent before 1951 season
Major League Teams:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1954, 1956-1963; Cincinnati Reds 1963-1964; St. Louis Cardinals 1964-1966
As a Manager:  Philadelphia Phillies 1968-1969; San Diego Padres 1977

Bob Skinner spent over 50 years in baseball as a player, manager, coach and scout.  Most of his playing career was spent with the Pirates where he was an All-Star in 1958 and for both games in 1960.  As the regular left fielder for the Pirates, Skinner had his best season in 1958 when he batted .321 with 13 home runs and 70 RBIs, finishing in the top ten in the National League in most major offensive categories and earning MVP votes.  In 1960, Skinner was second on the club with 86 RBIs, behind only Roberto Clemente (#160) for the team lead, helping the Pirates clinch the pennant and eventually win the World Series in seven games over the Yankees.  After a few seasons with the Reds, Skinner ended his playing career as a pinch-hitter and back-up outfielder for the Cardinals.  He had four pinch-hitting appearances in the 1964 World Series, going 2 for 3 as St. Louis prevailed over the Yankees.  In 1,381 career games, Skinner batted .277 with 103 home runs and 531 RBIs.

1968-1969 Phillies Photo Cards

Skinner began his managerial career in 1967 with the San Diego Padres, then the top minor league affiliate for the Phillies.  He won Minor League Manager of the Year honors after leading the Padres to an 85-63 record and winning the 1967 Pacific Coast League Championship.  On June 16, 1968, Skinner was named as the new manager of the Phillies after Gene Mauch (#489) was fired.  Skinner's time as manager of the Phillies would last a little over a year before he'd resign from the position.  Skinner would coach in the majors with the Padres (1970-1973, 1977), Pirates (1974-1976, 1979-1985), Angels (1978) and Braves (1986-1988), and he earned his third World Series ring as the hitting coach for the Pirates in 1979.  He'd work in the Astros organization as a special assignment scout until 2009.  Skinner's son Joel played nine seasons in the majors with the White Sox, Yankees and Indians.  Joel Skinner briefly managed the Indians in the second half of the 2002 season.

Building the Set
December 4, 2021 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards, Babylon, NY) - Card #481
You'll be seeing this particular passage on my 1965 Topps blog for a little bit longer as we added a whopping 97 cards to our set during the December Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show.  I was fairly ambitious documenting these purchases and I was able to compose posts for five cards a week, meaning I'll be completely caught up by the end of May.  The ongoing MLB owner's lockout and the lack of any spring training games has given me a little more spare time than usual in February and March.  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 Skinner card which was a little over $5 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.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set
The cartoon highlight on the back pays tribute to the two home runs Skinner hit while with the Pirates that completely cleared the roof of Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.  His All-Star Game appearances are also mentioned, but Topps slighted Skinner by a game, as he appeared in three All-Star contests.  Skinner was the starting left fielder for the National League in the 1958 contest.  He went 1 for 3, scoring Willie Mays (#250) in the second inning with a single off American League pitcher Bob Turley.  Skinner was the starting left fielder again in the first and second 1960 All-Star Games, again scoring Mays with an RBI single in the first game and going 1 for 3 with a single off Whitey Ford (#330) in the second game.

1965 Season
Skinner appeared in 80 games for the Cardinals, making only 28 starts all season in either left or right field.  In 50 pinch-hitting appearances, he batted an impressive .319 (15 for 47) with a pair of pinch-hit home runs.  Overall, he batted .309 with five home runs and 26 RBIs for the seventh place Cardinals.

Phillies Career
Skinner's managerial career with the Phillies did not go well, which was somewhat surprising at the time given his success with the Triple-A Padres.  In 1968, Skinner inherited a team from Mauch in fifth place, but only 5 1/2 games out of first place.  The 1968 Phillies finished the season with 86 losses overall and 21 games out of first place.  In 1969, Skinner continued to clash with star Dick Allen (#460).  When Allen skipped a double header in New York on June 24th, he was suspended and missed the next 26 games.  With the Phillies front office seemingly negotiating with Allen behind Skinner's back, the manager abruptly resigned in early August.  The story from the Phillies was that Skinner resigned because the team wouldn't extend his contract beyond the 1969 season, but Skinner maintained the reason for his departure was the constant clashing with Allen.  Third base coach George Myatt managed the team for the remainder of the season.  Skinner was 92-123 overall for the Phillies, in a managerial tenure that lasted a little over one year.

1955 Topps #88

1958 Topps #94

1961 Topps #204

1969 Topps #369

1985 Topps #139

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1955 Topps #88
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (16):  1955-1966, 1969, 1973-1974, 1985
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1992 Fleer ProCards #503

97 - Skinner non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/12/22.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Phillies Room
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

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