#275 Dick Groat - St. Louis Cardinals

Richard Morrow Groat
St. Louis Cardinals
Shortstop

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  180
Born:  November 4, 1930, Wilkinsburg, PA
Signed:  Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent, June 16, 1952
Major League Teams:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1952, 1955-1962; St. Louis Cardinals 1963-1965; Philadelphia Phillies 1966-1967; San Francisco Giants 1967

Dick Groat was an eight-time All-Star and the National League MVP in 1960, enjoying an extended period of success in the early 1960s.  Groat made his debut with the Pirates in 1952, spending no time in the minor leagues.  He missed two seasons while serving in the military and he also briefly played in the NBA in 1953 for the Fort Wayne Pistons.  In his MVP season, Groat won the batting title with a .325 average, collecting 186 hits with 26 doubles, while leading his Pirates team to the 1960 World Series.  He didn't find much success in the postseason, but he won rings with the Pirates in 1960 and later with the Cardinals in 1964.  Statistically, his 1963 season was better than his MVP year, as he batted .319 with a career-high 201 hits and 73 RBIs, while leading the league with 43 doubles.  Groat finished second in MVP voting that season behind Sandy Koufax (#300).  Dealt to the Phillies following the 1965 season, Groat would appear in two more seasons with the Phillies and Giants before retiring.

Groat collected 2,138 hits over his 14-year big league career, finishing with a .286 average.  He's not been inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame (yet), but Groat was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 for his All-American career at Duke University.

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

Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #550

This is the 66th 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 commons, semi-stars and team cards needed for our set, including this Groat card, with the average price per card working out to around $6 a piece.  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 / Cardinals Team Set
When collecting this set, I found several semi-stars from the lower series releases more difficult to find than others.  This Groat card certainly fits that description, as it was one of the final common or semi-star cards needed to complete the set's fourth series.  The back of this card highlights his MVP honors from the 1960 season.

1965 Season
In his final season with the Cardinals, Groat was the club's opening day shortstop and he'd make 144 starts at the position throughout the season.  His average fell to .254 and he collected 149 hits overall with 52 RBIs.

Phillies Career
Groat was traded to the Phillies from the Cardinals on October 27, 1965 with catcher Bob Uecker (#519) and first baseman Bill White (#190) for pitcher Art Mahaffey (#446), outfielder Alex Johnson (#352) and catcher Pat Corrales (#107). The starting shortstop for the Phillies in 1966, Groat appeared in 155 games and hit a respectable .260 with 53 RBIs.  On May 18, 1966, Groat collected his 2,000th career hit off former teammate Bob Gibson (#320).

Groat appears on a few oddball issues with the Phillies (1966 Sports Service Phillies, 1967 Dexter Press Phillies, 1992 Action Packed ASG) but his only mainstream Phillies baseball card can be found within the 1967 Topps set.  That card is reprinted within the 2001 Topps Archives set.

Groat's 1967 season would be the last of his 14-year career.  Limited to only 10 games with the Phillies due to an ankle infection, he was sold to the Giants on June 22nd.  He appeared in 34 games for the Giants, hitting .171 and retiring following the season.

1952 Topps #369

1957 Topps #12

1960 Topps #258

1964 Topps #40

1967 Topps #205

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1952 Topps #369
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (17):  1952-1967, 1975
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2013 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-DG

197 - Groat non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/6/22.

Sources:  
1956 Topps Blog

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

Wikipedia

Previous Card:  #274 Lum Harris MG - Houston Astros

Next Card:  #276 Hoyt Wilhelm - Chicago White Sox

#136 World Series Game 5 - 10th Inning Triumph

The 1964 World Series opened in St. Louis on October 7th and it ended 8 days later back in St. Louis with the Cardinals winning the decisive Game 7.

It was the fifth time these two teams had faced each other in the World Series, with the Yankees winning in 1928 and 1943 and the Cardinals prevailing in 1926 and 1942.  This also marked the end of an era for the Yankees, as the club had appeared in 14 of 16 fall classics since 1949 and they wouldn't appear again until 1976.  Former Yankee catcher Yogi Berra (#470) was in his first year as the team's manager, and he'd be unceremoniously fired following the series loss and replaced with (ironically enough) the Cardinals' manager, Johnny Keane (#131).  Keane would only last with the Yankees until 20 games into the 1966 season.

World Series cards were a key subset in Topps offerings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with a card highlighting each game along with a series capping "Celebration" card.

Building the Set
April 3, 2021 from Roaring Spring, PA - Card #251
It's a strange time.  Spring has arrived, we finally attended a Phillies game in person and it seems as if with the arrival of the vaccine the pandemic could soon be behind us.  But I still find myself anxious, occasionally having trouble sleeping at night, and I know many of my friends and family feel the same way.  I went the entire month of March without adding to our 1965 Topps set, and as the month came to a close I decided to start off April with the purchase of a group of commons.  In search specifically for series two cards, I veered into the higher series when I found sellers on eBay auctioning off batches of cards from recent set breaks.  Over the course of a few days, I ended up winning 16 cards for $48 for an average of $3 per card.  

This World Series card came from eBay seller Mom and Pop Card Shop from Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania for a winning bid of $4.99.  With the weather getting warmer, having enjoyed a beer at a few Phillies games and 16 new cards in our collection, the month is starting off on the right foot.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set / Yankees Team Set

The series was tied at two wins a piece when the teams faced off for Game 5.  Starting pitchers Bob Gibson (#320) and Mel Stottlemyre (#550) were locked in a pitching duel until the top of the fifth inning when the Cardinals scored a pair of runs.  Gibson singled to center off Stottlemyre and then Curt Flood (#415)  reached on a costly error by Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson (#115).  Lou Brock (#540) singled home Gibson with Flood advancing to third.  Flood then scored when Bill White (#190) grounded out to second.

Both pitchers then cruised through eight innings with the Cardinals holding their 2-0 lead heading to the bottom of the ninth.  Mickey Mantle (#350) led off and reached when shortstop Dick Groat (#275) couldn't cleanly field his ground ball.  Gibson then retired Elston Howard (#450) and Joe Peptione (#245).  With two outs, Tom Tresh (#440) homered to deep center, dramatically tying the game.  Pedro Gonzalez (#97) popped out to end the inning, and the game went into extras.

With Pete Mikkelsen (#177) now on the mound for the Yankees, White walked to begin the 10th and advanced to second on a Ken Boyer (#100) bunt base hit.  White stole third and Boyer was forced at second on a fielder's choice ground out by Groat.  With runners on the corners, Tim McCarver (#294) launched a home run to right field over the head of Mantle, giving the Cardinals a 5-2 lead.  Gibson came out in the bottom of the inning and retired the Yankees to give St. Louis a 3-2 lead overall in the Series.  

In the video embedded below, you can see the exact moment the photo used for this card was taken at the 0:27 mark.  Colorizing the black and white photo, Topps got the Cardinals' helmet color right but they're actually wearing red sleeves and not blue.  That's Shannon, White, Groat and McCarver from left to right.

Sources:
Baseball Reference

Prior Card:  #135 World Series Game 4

Next Card:  #137 World Series Game 6