Fast As A Shark

A little curveball today kids, or maybe just a frisbee slider.  Poring through various eBay listings of late, I came across an image from the 1967 "Topps "Venezuelan set of Luis Aparicio. Luis Aparicio, Sr. that is, father of Luis Aparicio Jr., the Hall-of-Fame shortstop.

Now, he is not a new name, nor is his legacy as a player, manager and foundational pillar of  Venezuelan baseball lost on me. I've been delving into the various winter leagues and tournaments that sprang up in earnest following World War 2 and for some reason I just decided to take a look at the man you see here:

I've covered the "3 in 1" 1967 Venezuelan "Topps" set a few times here, and the specific Venezuelan Winter League subset as well and it's a wonderful issue, with all sorts of ins and outs. The 138 subject VWL subset offers a substantial look at the wide array of players and coaches who participated in 1967-68.  Obviously, Aparicio is one of the coaches.

Luis Aparicio Ortega (the mother's name comes after the father's name) was born on August 28, 1912 in Maracaibo (an oil rich city in Zulia state) and was an athletic kid who gravitated to football (soccer), playing as a Forward for several talented teams in Venezuela. He also played baseball, founding a local team with his brother Ernesto, and that was the sport he made his own. Aparicio would soon become renowned as the slickest fielding shortstop in Venezuela.

In 1931 Luis, Sr. played in his first National Baseball Series and would be a perennial participant.   In the mid-1930's he became the first Venezuelan born player to appear for a team outside of the country and in 1946 was a founder of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, both playing and the managing, permanently cementing his already notable status as a scion of baseball in his home country. stadium in Maracaibo is named after him in honor.

After retiring from active play in 1953, where he had Luis, Jr. pinch hit for him in the season opening game for Gavilanes, Aparicio remained a manager, essentially gravitating to where his son played and in 1962 found himself at the helm of the newly rebranded Tiburones de la Guaira, or as we would know them in English, the Sharks. We see him with the team on his 1967 card.

Aparicio, Sr. moved on to another newly founded team in Zulia, known as the Aguilas (Eagles) in 1969 and died of a heart attack on January 1, 1971. He was elected to the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Here's the reverse of his 1967 card:

It reads, according to Google Translate, as follows:

"Luis the Great of Maracaibo filled a golden age of Venezuela baseball since it debuted in Caracas by the Concordia in the early years of the 30's. Your man has been brilliantly linked to the history of baseball actively until he retired in November 1953, bequeathing in his son Luis Ernesto a worthy representative of fervor and the mystique that he sowed. Professionally he played for Magallanes and Vargas, he works as a coach in La Guaira."

My grammar is off but you get the idea. The Concordia (Eagles) were a well known team from Caracas that in 1934 had players such as Martin Dihigo and Josh Gibson join Aparacio and other Latin American players, laying waste to all teams that faced them, not only in Venezuela but Dominican Republic and Puerto Rican tournament play (twice) as well, truly a legendary squad.

I love the look of the VWL cards in this hard to complete set!

Aye Caramba!

New year, old errors! But also a new beginning!

Correcting a couple of longstanding screwups here as concerns the 1967 Topps Venezuelan set, both of which are totally my fault.  In a post over ten (!) years ago, I wrote about the Venezuelan Winter League subset:

"Only 132 of the 138 cards can be found with the reddish backs. Six cards in the series (46, 60, 62, 95, 107, 123) are found with blue backs, which as we will see shortly were used for the US themed cards and the presumption is they had to be printed on another sheet."

Well that is, quite embarrassingly, partially incorrect and due to my misreading of certain hobby literature.  To compound things, after my original post was published, a noted collector of these cards, Paul Sjolin, sent me two messages correcting things, which promptly were misfiled by yours truly.  Well, with apologies to Paul, a thorough canvass of my e-mails and hard drives has yielded his original messages from April of 2011 and he's ben kind enough to send some additional insights.  Here is #46 in both colors to show how some VWL cards can be found with blue reverses, although it's immediately obvious it's not the same player that is described:

This is a totally different guy and writeup (same height though!):

The fronts differ for this number as well, although both Diaz's were on the same team, as these images from the mighty Trading Card Database show, with red first, then blue:

Well now they all have to be looked at, right? Here is #60, once again we have two different players but this time they do not share the same last name. They do, however, appear with the same team.  As before, red (from Mr. Sjolin) then blue:

You may recognize Frank Fernandez, as he is probably best known for playing a handful of seasons with the Yankees.  Once again (and from hereon out unless noted) from the Trading Card Database:

No. 62 though, only appears as a blue back:

This leads us to the curious case of one Alfonse Carrasquel, better known as Chico.  Drafted by the Dodgers and an excellent defender at shortstop who was blocked by Pee Wee Reese, he became only the third Venezuelan to play in the majors after coming over to the White Sox from the Brooklyn organization. He replaced Luke Appling at shortstop with the Pale Hose in 1950 and was the first Hispanic player to start an All Star Game, beating out Phil Rizzuto for the honor in 1951, among other notable achievements. An eye injury suffered in 1959 curtailed his playing career in the U.S. and he returned to Venezuela, continuing to play in the Winter League until 1967 (and where he had hit the first home run in league history in 1946).  He started maanging in the VWL in the 50's, as duly noted on his cards.  Yup, cards as he get two numbers, 95 and 115, which are blue and red backed respectively.  The front of each though, carries the same image:

He lost a kilogram and got a different writeup as a red back!

But hold on, who's this guy?!

At a guess, Munoz was always #115 and the red backed Carrasquel was a mistake that was later corrected.  Which then means there were at least two press runs of the VWL reds. But why two bios for the same guy?!

Moving forward (or backward) we get to #107, Cecilio Prieto, who is only available as a blue back, while appearing in the midstream numbering of the reds.  Here is Friend o'the Archives Josh Alpert's, from his amazing PSA Registry set:

He's definitely blue:

As is #123, Cruz Amaya:

See, no red for him!

Well I mentioned six blues among the reds above but there's another variation as well amongst the Venezuelan Winter Leaguers and it's represented by a red-only back:

 

The front is where the difference lies:

OK, now to try and untangle all of this.  The set has three distinct sections:

Venezuelan Winter League    #1-138

Retirado (US Players)            #139-188

1967 Topps "Reprints"           #189-338 (hang tight on these)

For the VWL we get 132 Red Backs, then the 6 "blues", so that's 138. We will get back to these blues momentarily but we still need to add the four "extra" variations, namely nos. 46, 60, 115 & 133.  That's 142 for a master VWL subset.

The Retirado's are 50 in number, with no variations. They have green backs in a similar style to the VWL players.

The reworked 1967 Topps cards though, are not at all that simple.  There are 150 cards, that seemingly fit into two print groups. The larger group, which has the card number at the top left when the card is flipped, matches the placement of the number on the VWL and Retirado subsets.  There are 101 of these, including the two examples each of nos. 213 (Lonborg or Mays) and 214 (Mathews or Bunning).  These fill two missing holes at nos. 273 and 274 and were clearly doubled up due to a "1" being mistaken for a "7" at some point.

Then there are 49 of the Topps cards with a darker blue ink with the card number at bottom right.  Josh Alpert believe these are much, much harder than the 101 "top left" cards. The six blues from the VWL also have the numbers oriented this way and appear to have the darker blue backs, so overall you get 55 dark blue back cards that are numbered in the bottom right corner.

Theories?  OK here goes, going from the end back to the beginning.

55 cards in darker blue makes a nice neat match for the "rule of 11" when it comes to Topps layouts.  I believe Topps did indeed provide the films for the fronts (and in years other than 1967, the backs) for the Venezuelan sets over the years, so this makes some sense. It's worth noting the cards in the Topps subset are from mixed series, including the seventh, whereas in prior years of Venezuelan issues they were drawn from distinct, discrete series, with only a handful of exceptions such as where checklists were pulled and replaced with a player card.

The 101 lighter blues are problematic but if you realize there are two doubled up numbers, it's possible two press runs were made up, each with 99 cards but with one #213 and one #214 replacing the respective "other".  Again, this fits the "rule of 11" quite well.  Did these get screwed up up or perhaps instead the A slit and B slit (if they were arrayed that way) had two different versions of #213 and #214?  If you look at the album issued for the set you can see some of the spots reserved for each player had stats under them.  It's entirely possible there was a mismatch between the press sheet for the cards and the album art, which created the whole dual-numbering problem.

So with what sure seems like two red VWL press runs due to the two backs in that color on nos.115 and 133, indicating corrections and substitutions made on the second, you get to a righteous Topps-like number of 132 on the reds for the press sheet array!

We then look at the Retirado set, and see the player images are all in black and white.  These may have been made up locally, except for the larger of the two typefaces used on the front but it's not at all clear if that's the case.  These are the most mysterious cards of all to me.

The VWL team or "Retirado" designations look like reduced versions of the typeface used on the regular 1967 cards and Topps looks like they made use of this style as well for the 1970-71 A&BC Footballer Cards and their Poster Inserts sold in the UK. Check it out via this link and a little scrolling to the 1970-71 section.  I wonder if Topps was able to compose those as needed if they didn't make up the entire card.

Add it all up and there should be 342 cards in the master set.  As for the print arrays, these are my own theories and they are mostly in the area of true conjecture. You could look at a nice even 50 Retirado players and 150 Topps players and get to a different conclusion or two easily enough.

If you want even more in-depth coverage of this fascinating issue, check out this excellent post over at the SABR Baseball Cards Blog.  

Limite Loco

Back to Venezuela today folks as we take a look at the multi-faceted and intertwined sorta-Topps, sorta-not 1967 issue (or issues to be a tad more precise). For the first time since 1960, two consecutive years of cards were issued, although the '67 Venezuelan issue would not get to the Topps designed MLB cards until the end of the series. We'll get to it in the next installment but another set would be issued in '68 and the three year run would prove to be the last time consecutive Topps inspired cards were issued. In what must have been a very well thought out plan, the first 138 cards in 1967 were of players from Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (VPBL) teams. The design of the VPBL cards mimics that of the 1967 Topps issue, although the cards, like all the Venezuelan cards from this year, are 1/8" shorter in each dimension than their US counterparts. This led to razor thin borders on the cards, which looks a little strange:

   

 The photos used are quite nice, as you can see. The league consisted of teams from six cities: Caracas, Oriente, La Guaira, Valencia, Lara and Aragua, having expanded two seasons prior from an original count of four. Caracas was the defending Champion and would repeat in the 1967 tournament. While some MLB players are depicted in the VPBL series with their Venezuelan teams (Luis Aparicio being the most prominent) it primarily consists of local players who never reached the majors in the states and the flavor is decidedly local. I would think many of the stadiums in the backgrounds are not well represented with extant photos so the set provides a neat historical reference as well. The backs are where the fun begins. and the VPBL series runs from #1-138. The vast majority of the first series backs look like this:

   

Spanish language backs have returned! I can only describe the color as somewhere between red and pink and it likely is imbued with just a tad more orange than Topps would use in the states. The cards must have been printed locally and while the fronts are Topps inspired, those backs are unique. As always though, there is a twist with these cards. Only 132 of the 138 cards can be found with the reddish backs. Six cards in the series (46, 60, 62, 95, 107, 123) are found with blue backs, which as we will see shortly were used for the US themed cards and the presumption is they had to be printed on another sheet.  (UPDATE: Dec. 20, 2021.This is somewhat incorrect, all six can be found with both colors on the reverse but there is indeed a twist!  See my Jan 1, 2022 post for more details on this and other aspects discussed below.)

In addition, three numbers (46, 60 and 115) can be found with two players (unsure if these were cards that depicted players who replaced those who had departed the league or changed teams or were merely a mistake) so there are 141 different players in this run, plus a pose variation of card #133. Why two of the doubled numbers are blue backed and the third is not just adds to the intrigue. Now, in a world where 132 card uncut sheets (or, technically speaking, half-sheets) were a Topps certainty for many a year, you would think that the 6 blue backed VPBL cards indicate that was the size of the uncut sheets but it may not be as simple as that since the next two series of cards are tied to runs of fifty. In addition the next run of cards, called the "Retirado" series, was a radical departure from previous Venezuelan sets not only in terms of sub-series size (fifty) but also design. Here, check it out:

   

That vibrant blue color setting off the black and white photo was used on all fifty cards in the series. John Rumierz had a full set of these at the 2010 National and when seen together the blue is mesmerizing. You can see the cards are a little smaller than the US whens by the way Joe D. is swimming in his PSA holder, which uses a "card condom" to keep things in place. The vast majority of Retirado subjects are hall of famers and the sub set is quite pricey; you could buy a new car with the Bolivars it would require to piece all fifty of these together. I plan to take a much closer look at the Retirado set someday as the list of players who would eventually make the hall but would never have been thought of as immortals in 1967 is quite impressive. The backs of the Retirado series continue the style and numbering commencing at #139 but the back color is now a dark green:

   

The above Joe D's sadly are not mine, they were lifted from Ebay, likely from John Rumierz's store. The DiMaggio card is an anomaly in that it is in nice shape. I have a Cy Young that is more typical of the average condition Retirado card, with a bit of a dirty front...

 

...and reflecting the fact you could get an album for all three series in '67, resulting in massive back damage when removed (forgive the glare):

   

The Retirado's are the most difficult of the three subsets in 1967 while the VPBL cards are the easiest to obtain. Somewhere in the middle lies the traditional US reissue (with a US Foy alongside for comparison but not to scale):

   

You can easily see the Venezuelan card has muted colors and smaller borders and the lack of gloss common to the Venezuelan cards is highlighted as well. For the first time since the run began in 1959, the reissued Venezuelan fronts did not mirror US print sheets but feature cards taken from a variety of series. I haven't checked but don't see any obvious '67 US high numbers in the Venezuelan cards but do see some higher series cards such as Tony Perez who is #476 in the US and therefore part of either the fifth or sixth press sheet in the US. As you might imagine, this allowed a better selection of players to be used in the 150 card series and many hall of famers lurk within. The backs continue the numbering and style but are in blue:

   

The backs can be oriented one way, like shown above, or the opposite when flipped over and the best guess is 100 of them are one way and fifty the other. I do not yet know if the 6 VPBL cards with blue backs have one orientation or the other. Additionally the color on the fifty "flipped" cards is slightly different being a darker shade of blue. Whether these were printed on 132 card sheets is unknown; I suspect not and think 110 or 121 card sheets are possible as the 132/50 discontinuity is bothering me somewhat, even with the thinner borders making any speculation about specific print arrays dubious. Prevailing wisdom over on the Topps Venezuelan site is these "flipped fifty" were part of the last run of cards printed. Here is a comparison of what happens when the card is flipped the same way over to the back for each type: a "left/light" of Gaylord Perry From the 'bay) on the left and a "right/dark" of Sam Ellis (from Josh's Yahoogroup) on the right.

   

The fifty darker blue backed cards seem to be available in far lesser supply on Ebay right now, as in I can't even find one among a large group of auctions over there! Whether or not it's because the group being offered is from one collection bought intact from a specific area in Venezuela I can't say but it seems odd and suggests the dark blue backs are either harder to find or were sold separately from the light blue ones. All three susbets in '67 were sold at once but in identifiable packaging for each so the different coloration of the backs and consecutive numbering scheme was meant to unify them all. In my opinion this is the best of the Venezuelan issues by far and one of the landmark issues in the hobby, albeit one that is not widely collected. I plan to look at the entire 1967 Venezuelan set in much more detail fairly soon but will be back with the final Topps related cards from the Bolivarian Republic next time out.