In the 350-card set from 2013, there are 260 current players and 90 retired players.

In the 300-card set from 2012, there are 246 current players and 54 retired players.

In the 350-card set from 2011, there are 297 current players and 45 retired players, plus 8 players who have a second card showing them in a different uniform.

Of those retired players, 21 are in all three sets.

Of the remaining 69 retired players in 2013 Gypsy Queen, 5 had cards in the 2011 set and 25 cards in the 2012 set.  That leaves 39 retired players who are new to the Gypsy Queen set in 2013.  I’m scanning their cards here.

Cecil Fielder, Bert Blyleven, Bill Buckner, Enos Slaughter, George Kell, Billy Williams, Joe Morgan, John Kruk, Monte Irvin, Phil Niekro, Rickey Henderson, Early Wynn, Hal Newhouser, Vida Blue, Don Mattingly, Whitey Ford, Bruce Sutter, Will Clark, Don Sutton, Tony Perez, Al Lopez, Goose Gossage, Fergie Jenkins, Rick Ferrell, George Brett, Harmon Killebrew, Hoyt Wilhelm, Jim Abbott, Jim Rice, Jim Bunning, Bobby Doerr, Lou Boudreau, Bob Lemon, Paul O’Neill, Robin Roberts, Robin Ventura, Ted Williams, Bill Mazeroski, Phil Rizzuto.

I don’t have every single one of these yet, because some of them are SP’s.  But I’ll scan the ones I do have.  The Ted Williams card is probably the most notable.  Jim Abbott is also a very cool inclusion.

I have no clue why this interests me, but it does for whatever reason.  I think it’s the auditor in me that needs to reconcile this somehow.  If you’re curious about other “combinations”, there are 14 retired players with cards only in the 2011 set.  There are 3 retired players with cards only in the 2012 set.

2011 has 45 retired players (14 only in 2011 + 21 in all years + 5 in 2011 & 2012 + 5 in 2011 & 2013)

2012 has 54 retired players (3 only in 2012 + 21 in all years + 5 in 2011 & 2012 + 25 in 2012 & 2013)

2013 has 90 retired players (39 only in 2013 + 21 in all years + 5 in 2011 & 2013 + 25 in 2012 & 2013)

OK, on to show some posts of actual Gypsy Queen base cards.  Gypsy Queen, like some of Topps’ other offerings, combines current players with retired players.  I decided I’d take a look at the retired players in this set.

In the 350-card set from 2013, there are 260 current players and 90 retired players.

In the 300-card set from 2012, there are 246 current players and 54 retired players.

In the 350-card set from 2011, there are 297 current players and 45 retired players, plus 8 players who have a second card showing them in a different uniform.

Of those retired players, 21 are in all three sets.  Most of those are on the same team for all three years, but Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan and Frank Robinson are shown on different teams in one of the three years.

Andre Dawson

Gary Carter – and the same picture in back to back years.  D’oh!

Reggie Jackson

Nolan Ryan

Frank Robinson – by the way, the picture used in 2013 is actually the same picture as Robinson’s second card in the 2011 set – he is one of the 8 players with cards from 2 teams.

The other 17 players are all shown on the same team each year.  And as you’ll see, sometimes the same photo.  Those players are: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Tom Seaver, Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Ryne Sandberg, Frank Thomas, Al Kaline, Sandy Koufax, Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Johnny Bench, Lou Gehrig, and Tony Gwynn.

Ruth – Ruth also has a card in the 2011 set where he’s pictured with Boston.  I think the Ruth cards are some of the best in the whole Gypsy Queen product.

Cobb – Cobb also has a second card in the 2011 set.  He’s pictured with the Philadelphia A’s, who he finished his career with in 1927 and 1928.

Ripken

Seaver – oh, Topps.  For shame!  Same photo 3 years in a row.

Brooks Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Snider

Sandberg – fielding, running and hitting in the 3 years!

Thomas

Kaline

Koufax

Musial

Gibson

Bench

Gehrig

Gwynn

So a few duplicate pictures, with the Seaver being a pretty egregious error on Topps part.

Other than that, I do like the three cards compared next to each other.  Gwynn has two from his later years, and the Thomas cards next to each other are pretty neat.

In my next post, I’ll show the cards of retired players that are new to Gypsy Queen in 2013.

First up, here are the variation minis I got from the mini box.

And here’s some of the rarer minis I pulled in actual packs.

An old Red, a new Red, and my favorite non-Red player ever.  Pretty good selection!

Here’s the inserts.  I didn’t get any doubles from my earlier box, so I’ve got to be happy with that!

Here is the blue parallel I got in the box.  Coco Crisp in a pretty interesting pose.

And here’s the two relics.  To be honest, I don’t know if I could really do much worse from my own perspective.  An outcast steroid cheat who necessitated the rules to determine a batting champion changed midseason in 2012, and whose own team didn’t even want him back on their road to the World Series.  And then there’s Adam Dunn – the holder of the lowest season batting average in history!  My fantasy baseball team name used to be “trade Dunn for Coneys”.

And here’s the autographs.  Two pretty good pitchers.  I pulled a Jordan Zimmerman auto last year – he’s turning out to be one of the best in the game!

My base set collation between the two boxes was as good as I could ask.  I didn’t get any doubles from the SP’s, and I’ve completed the non-SP portion of the set.

I’ll deviate a little there.  Why?  Because this wasn’t easy to figure out.  Topps decided to mix SP cards throughout the set.  This is confusing to the collector / consumer.  And it means you can’t really collect just the non-SP cards.  I would collect them anyways, but not everyone is the same.  I think this probably hurts people wanting to buy the product – not sure why they do it.  Anyways, that’ my rant.

I’ll note one other thing I pointed out each of the last 2 years – PUT IN SOME KIND OF TRIBUTE TO THE ORIGINAL SET   I really think it would do well for the product!!!!  It can’t be that expensive to get some of the player rights from the original set and I bet some reproduction would do well.

Collecting the Gypsy Queen set in 1887

I do this every year, but it’s fun to look at.  Collecting 1887 Gypsy Queen would have been particularly challenging!  First, you’d need to buy a lot of cigarette packs!  I don’t smoke, so I guess I’d just be doing this for the cards.  I have a coworker who smokes a pack a day, so maybe I would have cut her some kind of deal.  I’m not sure where Gypsy Queen was distributed, but I’m sure the east coast was a safe bet.  It doesn’t appear that they created any type of checklist – and card collecting was in its infancy.  As most of the Gypsy Queen cards were the same photos as Goodwin & Co’s much larger “Old Judge” set - it’s tough to know now if their even was a way to know which cards were printed as Gypsy Queen cards.

“Suffice it to say” #1 - it would have been very difficult to collect the Gypsy Queen!  There were probably more cards produced than the world today knows of.

“Suffice it to say” #2 – I do think it could have been done – what’s more likely is that card collecting was in its infancy and people just thought having a card of John Montgomery Ward was cool – they didn’t think – I should really collect the 149 others!  “Suffice it to say” #3 – if anyone had done so, their descendant could make a killing today!

Back to my 2nd 2012 Gypsy Queen Box

Below are the “stats” for the box.

24 packs per box * 10 cards per pack + 10 card mini-pack – 1 card because of one of the relics = 249 cards

182 of the 300 card base set (61% set completion)

6 Photo Variations

19 Minis (10 regular, 7 photo variation, 2 SP)

15 Minis Parallels (4 Gypsy Queen back, 4 Straight Cut Back, 2 Black Border, 1 Green Border, 1 Sepia Tone, 3 Mini Inserts)

2 Framed Paper Blue

8 Sliding Stars, 8 Moon Shots, 4 Glove Stories

1 Gypsy King

1 Relic – (Longoria), 1 Framed Mini Relic (Rivera)

2 Autographs (Cano Redemption, Zimmerman)

Including the first box:

261 / 300 of the base cards (87%)

**For comparison purposes, I only had 235 / 300 last year!

I pre-ordered two boxes of Gypsy Queen and they came in about a month ago.  I haven’t gotten to it on the blog yet – partly because I was finishing up Heritage, partly because I was sick and also because I’m just busy.

I’ve liked this product in the past, but to be honest, I don’t know if I’m overly excited about it this year.  It’s kind of jumped the shark.  I probably should have waited to just buy Topps Archives when it comes out.  But, I made the plunge, and here’s what I got.

The box itself is again pretty nice.  You get 24 packs and a mini box with 10 mini cards.  I didn’t do particularly well with either of my 2 boxes – maybe that’s why I’m not as excited about the product.  After some great luck in Heritage retail, maybe I’m just spoiled .  I did get one very rare relic – and a Red no less – so I guess I can’t complain.  This is a jumbo swatch of Mesoraco, numbered out of 25.  These are pretty cool in person.

I only got one auto in this box.  That’s one less than you’re supposed to.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned – I’ve been busy and I’m too lazy to go through the hassle of sending in packs to Topps.  Plus I’d likely spend $2 shipping to get a $5 auto.  At least this one was Vida Blue, which is actually one that had caught my eye when I saw some of these on the blogosphere.

I also got one mini framed relic.  I like the regular Gypsy Queen relics better.  Mini relics seems like and Allen & Ginter thing.

I didn’t get anything of the currency parallels – those seem kind of cool, but are super rare. I got no dupes, always good.  I still like this product, though I liked the first year the best when it was truly based on the original design.  I likes last year that there were no SP’s for the set, though they went back to SP’s this year – and they mixed them throughout as opposed to just doing them at the end.  I think this will likely make some set collectors go away from this product, because you can’t really collect just the regularly produced cards.  I just don’t like that they do that – it’s hard to know when you’ve got regular cards or SP’s!

Here’s the Mini cards I got from the 10 card mini box.  These are all photo variations, of which I think there are about 100.  Unlike the photo variations from the regular sized set, these aren’t all that rare since in theory you could get them all in 10 boxes.

Here are some of the parallel minis I got.  I’m not going to scan all the minis, just the black parallels, which are numbered this year (/199):

and any other parallels.  I just got a green one here (#/99).

One neat thing about Gypsy Queen – they get a few interesting retired players in there.  Hal Newhouser is a cool addition.  The only pitcher to win back to back MVP’s for you history buffs!

Here are the the inserts.  First is no-hitters, probably my second favorite insert set this year.  I say this quite frequently – but I prefer it when a set has a legitimate definition for including players.  Not just “the Great Ones”.

For instance, “Dealing Aces” is the next insert set.  Less defined.  Some definition – pitchers.  But basically, they’ll just put good pitchers in here.  I do like the design on these cards, however.

Next up is the one I’d call my favorite – Collisions at the Plate.  Now there’s some serious criteria necessary for this set!  And Play at the Plate loves these, too, as I’d expect!

Two inserts are back from last year – Sliding Stars, which I also really like.

And Glove Stories, which I’m ambivalent on.  I do like how these show a specific the Blanco card – it’s cool they captured his catch that saved Matt Cain’s perfect game!  However, it looks like they doubled up on a Bryce Harper photo – that’s the same one from his out of bounds variation in series 1.  They do this with a couple others as well.

Last is the blue framed paper card.

I like the framed paper cards, but this is one area I wish they had kept as is.  The framed paper cards keep getting lower (999 to 599 to 499).  I like these cards, they’re really nice.  The retail ones are white, and look really nice.  I’ll have more on that when I post about my retail purchases.

Below are the “stats” for the box.

24 packs per box * 10 cards per pack + 10 card mini-pack = 250 cards

189 of the 350 card base set (54% set completion) – 6 of which are SP’s

31 Minis (21 regular, 10 photo variation)

3 Mini Parallels (2 Black #/199, 1 Green #/99)

1 Framed Paper Blue

6 Dealing Aces, 6 No-Hitters, 4 Sliding Stars, 4 Glove Stories, 3 Collision at the Plate

1 Jumbo Relic, 1 Framed Mini Relic

1 Autograph

114 players featured in the set (per the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards) – though the exact number of cards issued is unknown.

• Set Background: The N174/N175 Gypsy Queen tobacco card set was issued by the Goodwin & Co. in 1887 to help market the company’s Gypsy Queen cigarettes.  Goodwin was founded before the Civil War and was one of four tobacco companies that became the American Tobacco Company monopoly in 1890.  Goodwin is known for Old Judge, Gypsy Queen and Goodwin Champions card sets.  I’ve seen this set designated as both N174 and N175.  Many of the cards feature the same photos as the N172 Old Judge set – which has far more than thee 150 or so cards from this set.
• Set Design: The cards feature a sepia toned photograph of the designated player with a white border.  The border curves at the top, with the words “Gypsy Queen” prominently featured in old-style font.  The player name (usually the full last name and first initial), position and team city are featured at the bottom.  Players for the 1886 World Series champion St. Louis Browns (of the American Association) also had the word “Champions” below the team name.  The bottom border states Goodwin & Co. copyright and clearly states the year of issue – 1887.  The words “Cigarettes” and “Goodwin & Co. N.Y.” are also shown at the bottom.  There are two sizes of cards in the set.  The most common size is the 1.5″ x 2.5″, while the far rarer larger cards measure 2″ x 3.5″.  There are only 8 or 9 larger cards known to exist, and they tend to be of more notable players.
• Packs: Cards were released inside 1 card per Gypsy Queen cigarette packs sold by Goodwin & Co.  I don’t know this for sure, but I surmise the larger cards were available via some sort of mail-in (as they seemingly wouldn’t fit in a cigarette pack).
• Rookies: I’m not even going to go there.  The rookie card craze still had 100 years before it built any momentum.
• Hall of Fame: There are 12 Hall of Famers out of the cards known to be issued in this set.
  • Buck Ewing, Dan Brouthers, John Montgomery Ward, Mike “King” Kelly, Ned Hanlon, Charlie “Old Hoss” Radbourn, Orator Jim O’Rourke, Pud Galvin, Roger Connor, Tim Keefe, Tommy McCarthy, and Charles Comiskey.
• Last Active player: Deacon McGuire.  This was interesting to figure out to say the least.  McGuire played 1 game for the Detroit Tigers in 1912 – he was the only player from this set to make an appearance in the decade of the 1910′s.  McGuire was a journeyman catcher who played in parts of 26 seasons – a record until Nolan Ryan broke it in the mid-90′s.  He also played for 11 different franchises, which was a record until Matt Stairs passed that record last year.  McGuire was the starting catcher for the 1904 New York Highlanders (Yankees), so he likely caught the majority of Jack Chesbro’s modern record 41 wins.  He played regularly until 1906, when he played 51 games New York.  He was a manager for Boston and Cleveland after that, never playing more than 6 games in a year over the last half of the decade.  He was a coach for the Tigers in 1912 when he played his last game – going 1 for 2.  A number of other players made appearances in the second half of the 1900′s, a couple of them after a significant time away from the game.
• Variations: The most recent Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards listed 114 different players, 56 more small size variations of cards for those players.  Many of the different photo variations involve one fielding pose and another batting pose.

Parallel Set

There are 8 large card variations of the players in the regular set.  These are not photo variations - they are the same card but in a larger size (the 2″ x 3.5″).  This is still slightly smaller than today’s standard card set.  If you were rich and collected old cards, it would be pretty sweet to marry up one of the larger cards with the smaller cards.  This would be difficult, though - the larger cards are particularly rare.  I’ve seen a number of websites reference that there are 9 large card variation.

All-Star Game:

World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over New York Yankees, 4-3     (Bob Gibson, MVP)

**********

MVP: AL – Brooks Robinson, 3B, Baltimore Orioles (.317/28/118)

NL – Ken Boyer, 3B, St. Louis Cardinals (.295/24/119)

Cy Young: Dean Chance, SP, Los Angeles Angels (20-9/1.65/207, 15 CG, 11 SHO, 278.1 IP)

RoY: AL – Tony Oliva, OF, Minnesota Twins (.323/32/94, 217 H, 109 R, 43 2B)

NL – Dick Allen, 2B, Philadelphia Phillies (.318/29/91, 13 3B, 125 R)

**********

Hall of Fame: Luke Appling, SS, Chicago White Sox (5th ballot)

Red Faber, SP, Chicago White Sox (VC)

Burleigh Grimes, SP, Brooklyn Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals (VC)

Miller Huggins, MGR, New York Yankees (VC)

Heinie Manush, OF, Washington Senators, Detroit Tigers (VC)

Tim Keefe, SP, New York Giants (VC)

Monte Ward, P/OF/IF, New York Giants, Providence Grays (VC)

**********

Batting Leaders:

Avg. (AL) Oliva MIN .323, (NL) Roberto Clemente PIT .339

HR (AL) Harmon Killebrew MIN 49, (NL) Willie Mays SFG 47

RBI (AL) Robinson BAL 118, (NL) Boyer STL 119

R (AL) Oliva MIN 109, (NL) Allen MIL 125

SB (AL) Luis Aparicio BAL 57, (NL) Wills LAD 53

H (AL) Oliva MIN 217, (NL) Flood STL / Clemente PIT 211

Pitching Leaders:

W (AL) Peters CHW / Chance LAA 20, (NL) Larry Jackson CHC 24

K (AL) Al Downing NYY 217, (NL) Bob Veale PIT 250

ERA (AL) Chance LAA 1.65, (NL) Sandy Koufax LAD 1.74

SV (AL) Dick Radatz BOS 29, (NL) Hal Woodeshick HOU 23

**********

Trends and Stats:

2 players above .330 AVG

15 players above 30 HR, 2 above 40 HR

13 players above 100 RBI

2 players above 50 SB

6 players above 200 H

5 pitchers above 20 W

11 pitchers above 200 K, 1 above 250 K

20 pitchers below 3.00 ERA, 8 below 2.50, 3 below 2.00

14 pitchers above 250 IP, 4 above 280 IP, 1 above 300 IP

**********

Read below for my All-Star selections.  There were no silver sluggers until 1980, so I won’t have an award to compare it to.

My NL All-Stars: C – Joe Torre, MIL (.293/14/71)

1B – Bill White, STL (.303/21/102)

2B – Bill Mazeroski, PIT (.268/10/64)

3B – Dick Allen, PHI (.318/29/91, 13 3B, 125 R)

SS – Dick Groat, STL (.319/6/73, 201 H, 43 2B)

OF – Mays, SFG (.314/47/111, 121 R, .607 SLG)

OF – Clemente, PIT (.339/12/87, 211 H)

OF – Frank Robinson, CIN (.306/29/96)

SP – Don Drysdale, LAD (18-16/2.18/237, 321.1 IP)

SP – Koufax, LAD (19-5/1.74/223, 7 SHO)

SP – Juan Marichal, SFG (21-8/2.48/206, 22 CG)

RP – Sammy Ellis, CIN (10-3/2.57/125, 14 SV)

Ron Santo is the most notable omission here.  He had an MVP caliber season with 30 homers, 114 RBI and a .398 OBP.  Dick Allen just had a little better year and played the same position.  Both of them had better years than MVP Ken Boyer.  Outfield was tricky – Mays was the easy first choice, but 5 or so other guys could have been considered over Clemente or Robinson.  First base is another close selection, as Orlando Cepeda was about as good as White was offensively. White was a gold glove fielder and I gave him the nod here.

There were 5 NL pitchers in the discussion for my 3 spots.  Drysdale had the most value, as he pitched an incredible amount of innings at a really effective rate.  Koufax was the best pitcher when he pitched, and I put Marichal just ahead of Bob Gibson and Larry Jackson.  Sammy Ellis just beats out Jim McBean of Pittsburgh for the reliever slot.

My AL All-Stars: C – Elston Howard, NYY (.313/15/84)

1B – Bob Allison, MIN (.287/32/86)

2B – Felix Mantilla, BOS (.289/30/64)

3B – Robinson, BAL (.317/28/118, MVP)

SS – Jim Fregosi, LAA (.277/18/72)

OF – Oliva, MIN (.323/32/94, 217 H, 109 R, 43 2B)

OF – Mickey Mantle, NYY (.312/35/111, .423 OBP)

OF – Boog Powell, BAL (.290/39/99, .606 SLG)

SP – Chance, LAA (20-9/1.65/207, 15 CG, 11 SHO, 278.1 IP, CY)

SP – Whitey Ford, NYY (17-6/2.13/172)

SP – Peters, CHW (20-8/2.50/205)

RP – Dick Radatz, BOS (16-9/2.29/181, 29 SV)

Al Kaline was in the argument for the 3rd outfield spot, but Powell nearly hitting 40 homers does the trick for me. The pitcher selections were fairly easy.  Dean Chance won the Cy Young and was the best pitcher in baseball in 1964.  And Radatz was incredible as a reliever; he struck out 181 batters, all in relief – which is a MLB record.  He also became the first pitcher to lead his team in strikeouts without starting a single game.

The Reds didn’t make the World Series, and Hutch succumbed to cancer that November.  The Reds would retire his number 1 the next season, and his name has lived on through the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which still thrives in Seattle, WA.  MLB still honors him through the Hutch award, which is given away each year to the player who showcases his spirit in fighting through adversity.  Reds winners have included Pete Rose, Bobby Tolan, Gary Nolan, Johnny Bench, Ron Oester and Sean Casey.

Outfielders Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson were solid as usual, both slugging over 20 homers and knocking in 80+.  As did first baseman Deron Johnson, who was a surprise coming up from the minors.  Pete Rose had a solid sophomore season.  Catcher Johnny Edwards and shortstop Leo Cardenas were the Reds only All-Stars given the NL depth at other positions.

The rotation was deep, with 6 pitchers starting over 22 games – all 6 of them won at least 9 games.  Jim O’Toole and Jim Maloney were the aces, winning 17 and 15 games with an ERA of around 2.70.  The bullpen was great, led by Sammy Ellis who saved 14 games and won 10.

Team MVP: Frank Robinson (.306/29/96)

Best Pitcher: Jim Maloney (17-7/2.66/265)

Award Winners:

Johnny Edwards, Gold Glove

All Stars:

Edwards, Leo Cardenas

Highlights and Events:

There was some interesting offseason activity in the league, as Charlie Finley tried to move the A’s from Kansas City to Louisville, getting an agreement with the city that was ultimately rejected by the American League owners.  He re-upped with a 4-year lease with Kansas City, though the team would move west a few years later.

Out west, the San Francisco Giants signed three Japanese players to Minor League contracts, though only Masanori Murakami would go on to play for the Major League club.

And in New York, the Mets opened up Shea Stadium for its first action on April 17th.  The Mets lost to the Pirates in a 4-3 affair.  Dick Schofield was the first batter, popping out to Mets hurler Jack Fisher.  Willie Stargell had the first hit, run and RBI when he led off the second inning with a home run off Fisher.  Bob Friend got the first victory, going the distance and holding the Mets to 7 hits.  The new park didn’t bring about new fortunes; the Mets lost 109 games and again finished in last place.  Shea did host the All-Star game that year, with the National League rallying for 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to take a 7-4 victory.

Baseball faced some tragedy right before the season opened – Houston relief pitcher Jim Umbricht succumbed to his battle with cancer on April 8th.  He’d made national headlines the previous year when he pitched through pain after surgery on his leg.  The Colt .45′s would eventually retire his uniform number 32 as a tribute to the pitcher.  Reds manager Fred Hutchinson also battled cancer throughout the 1964 season – he would manage the club through July before cancer took too much toll.  Eventually, Hutch succumbed to the disease in November; the Reds retired his number 1 the next season.

The Reds were inspired by their ailing manager, and were one of four teams in an incredible National League pennant race.  The Giants were the early leaders of that race, boasting a quartet of future Hall of Famers, including Orlando Cepeda (31 HR), Willie McCovey (18 HR) and Juan Marichal (21 wins).  However, Willie Mays had one of his best seasons, smacking 47 homers and knocking in 111.  He really deserved the MVP, and it looked his to take in the first half when the Giants were sitting in first place.

They faded a bit after the All-Star break; the Phillies wrestled the lead away in July and led for most of the second half of the season.  Led by a balanced team including Jim Bunning and Dick Allen, they were at the top of that pile with 2 weeks left.  After a 3-2 win over the Dodgers on September 20th, they were 6.5 games up on the Cardinals and Reds and 7 up on the Giants.  It all came crashing down at that point.  The Phillies were swept in three straight series first by the Reds, then by the Braves.  The Reds also swept 5 games in 3 days from the hapless Mets, and on September 27th – 1 week after trailing by 6+ games – they actually held a 1 game lead.

The Cardinals had played well, too, though, and sat only 1.5 games out at this point.  They swept the Phillies in a 3-game set, and the Reds cooled off by losing 2 of 3 to the Pirates.  The Cardinals took a half game lead over the Reds, and 2.5 over the Phillies.  The Cardinals inexplicably couldn’t seal the pennant against the last-place Mets, however, losing the first two games of their final series, sending NL baseball to its final day with a tie at the top and the Phillies still hanging on 1 game back.

The Phillies blanked the Reds, 10-0, to pull even with them, however the Cardinals won an “all-hands-on-deck” game. Ace Bob Gibson came on in relief to get his 19th victory of the season and clinch the title.  St. Louis was all about pitching and a balanced offense – with Gibson, Curt Simmons and Ray Sadecki all winning 18-20 games.  After Stan Musial had retired the previous season, Lou Brock (.348 average) and Curt Flood (211 hits) became the table setters for NL MVP Ken Boyer (24 homers, 119 RBI).

The American League pennant race in 1964 wasn’t as notable because it didn’t have the utter collapse by the Phillies, but it was just as close.  This was a 3-team race, with the Baltimore Orioles taking the early lead through the month of June.  The Orioles were led by league MVP Brooks Robinson, the defensive wizard who had his best offensive season, hitting .317 with 28 HR and a league leading 118 RBI – all career bests for the Hall of Famer.  Boog Powell crushed 39 homers, and Milt Pappas, Robin Roberts and Wally Bunker gave the Orioles a solid pitching rotation.

The White Sox would take over next, with their team built on Al Lopez’s motto of solid pitching and defense.  Gary Peters won 20 games for the south-siders, Juan Pizzaro won 19, Joe Horlen posted a stellar 1.88 ERA, and Hoyt Wilhelm led the best bullpen in baseball.  But a cold spell in mid-September left the White Sox 5 games behind the New York Yankees, and even a 9-game winning streak to finish the season wasn’t enough.  The Sox finished 1 game behind New York, with Baltimore 2 out.

The Yankees were again led by the best lineup in the league.  Mickey Mantle hit 35 homers, Roger Maris hit 26 in what would be his last productive season.  Elston Howard followed up his MVP campaign with 84 RBI, and Joe Pepitone clubbed 28 homers and 100 RBI.  Pitching was the Yankees weakness, but Whitey Ford pitched well, going 17-6 with a 2.13 ERA.  Jim Bouton and Al Downing also did well, winning 18 and 13 games, respectively, though the two would never be quite so productive after the 1964 season.

Some other notable milestones and accomplishments in 1964 included:

• On June 21, Bunning threw the 7th perfect game in history, and became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in both leagues.
• Sandy Koufax threw his 3rd career no-hitter, tying the record held by Cy Young, Bob Feller and Larry Corcoran.
• Ken Johnson of the Colt .45′s also threw a no-no against the Reds, but actually took a 1-0 loss when a 9th inning error led to a run.
• The Twins became the third team to hit 4 consecutive home runs, and the first to do so in extra innings, when Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall and Harmon Killebrew all connected in the 11th inning of a 7-3 win for the Twins.
• Bert Campaneris made his ML debut with a bang, becoming the second player with 2 homers (Bob Nieman, 1951).

Willie Mays was still the best player in the game at this point, with Hank Aaron closely behind (but Mays clearly the best in the game).  Mickey Mantle had been the best player in baseball since the mid 50′s – until 1962 or 1963.

The best pitcher in the game wasn’t so clear-cut.  I think it’s really between two Dodger hurlers at this point.  When I did this post for 1963, I picked Spahn as barely edging out Drysdale as the best pitcher in the game, despite the fact that Koufax was coming off a Cy Young / MVP year.  Drysdale was coming off a very good year in 1963 and a Cy Young season in 1962.  Spahn was bad in 1964, so it really would have been between Drysdale and Koufax at the end of the 1964 season.  I generally look at the previous 3 and 5 years when doing this, and I think Drysdale woud have a slight edge at this point.  This likely has more to do with injuries than anything else – Koufax was better than Drysdale – when he pitched.  But I had Drysdale ahead of Koufax in 1963, and Drysdale pitched 100 more innings than Koufax in 1964 (while being about a half-run less effective).  I’ll give the edge to Drysdale, with Koufax about ready to take that title away in 1965.

Read below for the World Series summary.

World Series:

The 1964 World Series featured a number of interesting storylines, some of them not so apparent at the time.  The series was the Cardinals’ first since 1946, and represented the first success of the post-Stan Musial era.  The Yankees were now managed by Yogi Berra, and were old hats at the series.  The 1964 AL pennant was their 5th in a row, their 9th in the last 10 seasons.  In fact, in Berra’s 18 full seasons as a Yankee manager and player, they won 15 of those pennants and 9 World Series titles.  This would prove to be the last of that Yankee dynasty of Mickey Mantle, Berra and Whitey Ford – they wouldn’t make it back to the playoffs for a decade, and found themselves in last place only 2 seasons later.  It was also intriguing because Ken and Clete Boyer played third base for the respective teams, the only time I know of that brothers faced off in the World Series at opposite positions.

The Cardinals weren’t able to lead off with their ace, as Bob Gibson had pitched in relief in the final game of the season to clinch the pennant.  But they had 20-game winner Ray Sadecki and implemented strategies to swing early against Ford and to take an extra base on balls hit to Mantle in the outfield.  Ford held them at bay until giving up 4 runs in the 6th inning, and St. Louis took an early lead after a 9-5 win.  But the Yankees came back to even the series in game 2, when rookie Mel Stottlemyre outpitched Gibson and the Cardinal bullpen.

The Yankees regained control of the series in a dramatic game 3.  Back at Yankee Stadium, Mantle came up in the bottom of the 9th with the score tied.  He hit the first pitch he saw, a knuckleball from Barney Schultz, for a walk-off homer and a 2-1 victory.  The home run was the 16th of his World Series career, breaking the mark he shared with Babe.

The Yankees looked ready to take a 3-1 series lead when they scored 3 first inning runs off of Sadecki.  However, in the 6th inning an error by gold glove second baseman Bobby Richardson left the bases loaded for NL MVP Ken Boyer, who slammed a grand slam off Al Downing.  The 4-3 lead held up, and the series was tied.

Gibson came back in game 5 and was his usual dominant self, holding the Yankees scoreless on 4 hits through 8 innings.  An error by Dick Groat in the 9th left Mantle on third with 2 out, and Joe Pepitone homered off Gibson to keep the Yankees hopes alive.  Catcher Tim McCarver homered in the top of the 10th, however, and Gibson came out to close the deal in the 10th, striking out his 13th batter in the process.  The Cardinals were one win from the title.

Back in St. Louis, the Yankees forced a game 7, however.  Mantle and Maris conjured memories of 1961 as they both homered, and a Pepitone grand slam paced an 8-3 win.

The Cardinals bounced back, however, when Gibson came out on 2 days rest.  He held the Yankees scoreless for 5 innings, while the Cardinals spotted him a 6-run lead.  Mantle cut that in half with a 3-run homer, the 18th of his World Series career – a record that still stands.  Gibson kept the Bombers at bay for the next few innings, giving up 2 runs in the 9th before finishing the game and solidifying the Series MVP award after 2 victories, 27 innings pitched and 31 strikeouts.

In some unusual moves, Berra was fired as Yankee skipper after the series; ownership felt he didn’t have control of the team.  Cardinal manager Johnny Keane resigned his post for St. Louis, in part because their ownership hadn’t given him support until the team made its late September playoff push.  Keane was then hired by the Yankees, but he’d never have the success he saw in St. Louis.

Brewery: Stevens Point Brewery in Stevens Point, WI

Beer:  Appleton Foxes Basebrau from 1978-1980

The one available today (that I’m drinking) is Stevens Point Special Lager

Description:  This brewery was founding in Wisconsin in 1857 – prior to the Civil War!  It’s the 5th oldest brewery in the country, and it’s stayed away from all the buyouts that have hit the beer industry.

The beers pictured is the Basebrau beer which was brewed for the local Appleton Foxes, a class A affiliate of the Brewers.  The team is now called the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The one above is obviously from 1979.

The Basebrau was brewed from 1978 through 1980 or 1981.  The 1980 beer is below.

The beer I’m consuming these days for this post is Stevens Point Special Lager.  I’ve got to think this is the closest thing they’ve got to the Basebrau from back then.  This is their standard lager, which is one of two beers you can find year round in the Chicago area.  The other is their Amber beer – which I doubt is anything like the Basebrau from 30 years ago.

I like the Steven’s Point Special Lager.  Generally for a lager, I judge them on a scale of:

• “tastes refreshing”, or
• “tastes like crap”

This one goes in the tastes refreshing category.  It’s pretty good.  It’s refreshing, which is the most important thing for a lager.  It’s got the corn-taste that any lager has, but it is way better than a Budweiser if you ask my opinion.

Medium:  I bought 12 12 oz bottles from Binny’s when I first moved to Chicago.  Me and a buddy (with some help from girlfriends and wives) drank this while watching the Michigan-OSU game last November.  The beer did not bring me good luck!  I think the 12 ounce bottles are the most common way to get this.  Like I said, you can also get an Amber beer from them.  At the time of writing, I hadn’t tried that, but based on the lager being pretty good – I probably will in the future.

How it’s related to baseball:  Like I said above, it’s a beer produced specifically for a minor league team, the Appleton Foxes.  I’ve never heard of that – all the marketing specifically was for that team.  Would have been neat if they kept it up going forward, but at least the lager is pretty good!

He also sent me some 1995 Topps, so it’s good to get back to some cards from the whole idea of this blog!  Getting there on this set!  He also sent me some of what he calls:

MIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS!

From the 1975 Topps mini set.  I’ve never had any of these before, so getting these is certainly appreciated – particularly that very notable 1975 Joe Morgan card!

Thanks for the trade, Greg!

I also completed a trade with Jeff from 2×3 heroes.  Jeff also sent me some 2012 Ginter, and some 2012 Topps Update.  I’m kind of surprised I haven’t put a bigger dent into 2012 Ginter at this point, but it’s good to know there are still some trades out there to get me closer!

He also sent over some of this year’s Heritage as well.  I’m getting close to finishing up the non-SP portion of this set!

Thanks for the trade, Jeff!