Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Deckle is in the Details

When I posted at the end of May on the 1969 Topps Deckles, I figured it would be a pretty innocuous piece and for the most part I was correct. What I didn't realize at the time though, was that there was a pattern to how the cards were originally ordered, thanks to an e-mail from friend o' the archive Duke, who alerted me to the reasoning behind the two pulled cards and their corresponding replacements.

Wilhelm had actually changed teams when the yet-to-play-a-game Royals packed him off to the Angels on December 12, 1968. This left a hole that was made bigger by the the corresponding trade of Rusty Staub from Houston to Montreal early in the New Year as Topps was including players from the two dozen ML teams in '69.

Now, as you can see from the checklist below, the set was originally ordered by AL teams and then NL teams, alphabetically by city. But when Wilhelm and Staub were pulled, Wynn and Foy were placed out of sequence. Here look:

1
ROBINSON, B. BALTIMORE ORIOLES
2
POWELL BALTIMORE ORIOLES
3
HARRELSON, K. BOSTON RED SOX
4
YASTRZEMSKI BOSTON RED SOX
5
FREGOSI CALIFORNIA ANGELS
6
APARICIO CHICAGO WHITE SOX
7
TIANT CLEVELAND INDIANS
8
McLAIN DETROIT TIGERS
9
HORTON DETROIT TIGERS
10
FREEHAN DETROIT TIGERS
11
WILHELM KANSAS CITY ROYALS
11
WYNN HOUSTON ASTROS*
12
CAREW MINNESTOTA TWINS
13
STOTTLEMYRE NEW YORK YANKEES
14
MONDAY OAKLAND ATHLETICS
15
DAVIS, T. SEATTLE PILOTS
16
HOWARD, F. WASHINGTON SENATORS
17
ALOU, F. ATLANTA BRAVES
18
KESSINGER CHICAGO CUBS
19
SANTO CHICAGO CUBS
20
HELMS CINCINNATI REDS
21
ROSE CINCINNATI REDS
22
STAUB HOUSTON ASTROS
22
FOY KANSAS CITY ROYALS*
23
HALLER LOS ANGELES DODGERS
24
WILLS MONTREAL EXPOS
25
KOOSMAN NEW YORK METS
26
ALLEN, R. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
27
CLEMENTE PITTSBURGH PIRATES
28
FLOOD ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
29
GIBSON ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
30
FERRARA SAN DIEGO PADRES
31
McCOVEY SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
32
MARICHAL SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
33
MAYS SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

I'd say the Cardinals got short shrift and the Giants made out pretty well but the disruption of the alphabetical sequences is odd. Nonetheless, here's the deckle of Willie Mays, in a classic pose I have always liked:



I'll be more alert when discerning the patterns within patterns Topps was creating in my future endeavors.

4 comments:

  1. It's strange that Topps was so concerned about the teams, and arranged the cards by teams, but did not put the team name on the card anywhere!

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  2. Very interesting.. I always wondered. Thanks for posting!

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  3. Great research! Thanks for the great information.

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  4. Yes, the team concept seems to have been very import to Topps 40 years ago. They did the same thing with other insert sets of the era, such as the stratch-off and the team booklets.

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