Top Hat

I'm not sure exactly how many Topps All Star Rookie Awards trophies have popped up for auction over the years but it would surprise me if the total has hit double digits.  So it was noteworthy indeed when one was hammered down in a Hunt Auctions offering recently. The trophy in question belonged to Tommy Harper, who had a solid but relatively unspectacular career that spanned 14 seasons and started off quite well in CIncinnati.

He was an original Pilot, selected from Cleveland after a season there and was probably Seattle's best player. He made the move to Milwaukee and held best player distinction there as well before getting traded to Boston after the 1971 season in a massive ten player deal you don't see the likes of anymore.

Harper recently consigned a number of items from his playing days to Hunt and happily for us it included his 1963 trophy:

It's a really nice piece but the top hat is a real head-scratcher, isn't it? Described as being just under ten inches tall, it's had some small repair work done but looks remarkably well preserved.

Included in the lot was a photograph of the ten award winners for 1963:

Going left to right, front to back, that's  Gary Peters, Jimmie Hall, Pete Rose, Jesse Gonder and Harper rounding out the front. Rusty Staub, Al Weis, Pete Ward, Ray Culp and Vic Davalillo are mostly all smiles in back.

Here's Harper in 1964, with his card sporting the little trophy Topps usually added for the award winners:

I say "usually" because the left it off poor Jesse Gonder's '64 entry:

Totally uncool.

Before signing off, here's the cover of the 1963 Banquet Program, which is my favorite of the eight issued from 1959-66:

Get With the Program

Well, a little more information has dribbled in on the Rookie Banquet Programs and I figured it was a good topic for a catch up thread on a blustery day here at the Archive.

I'm going to work my way back in time, probably because I watched the new Star Trek movie last night and I'm just going with the theme.

I found a scan from Ebay on my hard drive of the '66 program cover and it's a beaut:



No interior scans unfortunately.

Friend o' the Archive Chuck Lumb left a comment here recently about the '64 program and confirmed it was issued along with the card set. He describes it as 3 3/16" wide by 5 5/16" tall, or just slightly larger than the dimensions of the cards. No scan yet but it would have to replicate the box cover for the card set. Chuck also advises that Luis Tiant is page #35 in the program but he is card #34a in the set. Topps numbering bugaboos are old school by now!

And finally, we have a nice cover scan of the '63 program, which I found on a fabulous Pete Rose site called www.4192cards.com



That is one kickin' cover. There is an interior shot at the 4192cards.com site as well, along with a veritable plethora of Pete Rose goodies.

I'll try to scour the web for our missing covers and get back to you all shortly.