Don Drysdale

Key Cards Of The 1984 Baseball Hall of Fame Class

January 12, 2025 by John

Between the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and the Veterans Committee selections, the 1984 Baseball Hall of Fame was among Baseball’s strongest. Luis Aparicio, Don Drysdale, and Harmon Killebrew were voted in, while the Veteran’s Committee added Rick Ferrell and Pee Wee Reese. A player had to be on 75% of ballots to be inducted to the Hall of Fame; Aparicio was on 84.6% of ballots, Killebrew on 83.1%, and Drysdale on 78.4%. Seven players received votes but failed to make the 75% cutoff but were elected in future elections: Hoyt Willhelm, Nellie Fox, Billy Williams, Jim Bunning, Orlando Cepeda, Bill Mazeroski, and Joe Torre.

Here are some standout cards celebrating the 1984 Hall of Fame inductees.

Luis Aparicio

Aparicio was the first Venezuelan inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was an excellent defensive shortstop who was a 13x All-Star, a 9x Golf Glove Award Winner, a 9x AL Stolen Base Leader, and a member of the 1966 World Series Champion Baltimore Orioles team. He finished his career with 2677 hits and 506 stolen bases.

Key Cards: 1956 Topps, 1964 Topps, and 1971 Topps

Don Drysdale played his entire career with the Dodgers organization. He was a 9x All-Star, 3x World Series Champion, and 1962 Cy Young Award Winner. He finished his career with 209 wins, 2486 strikeouts, and a 2.95 earned run average.

Key Cards: 1957 Topps and 1963 Topps

Harmon Killebrew

Over his 22-year career, Killebrew was a 13-time All-Star, 6-time AL home run leader, and 1969 AL MVP. He was a prolific home run hitter, finishing his career with 573.

Key Cards: 1955 Topps, 1963 Topps, and 1967 Topps

Rick Ferrell

Over his 18-year career, Ferrell was one of Baseball’s best catchers. He was an 8x All-Star and patient hitter, logging only 277 strikeouts over his career compared to 931 walks. He was super durable and, to this day, still ranks 12th all-time in games played as a catcher.

Key Cards: 1933 Goudey and 1940 Play Ball

Pee Wee Reese

Reese was a member of the loaded 40s/50s Dodgers teams. He played 16 seasons, making the All-Star Game 10 times while winning 2 World Series. Reese also made the top ten in MVP voting eight times over his career. He was consistently productive, scoring 1338 runs in his career while playing great defense.

Key Cards: 1952 Topps and 1953 Bowman Color

Happy Collecting!

1958 Topps Roger Maris Salesman Sample

August 13, 2024 by John

I was pretty excited when I saw this hand-cut 1958 Topps Roger Maris Salesman Sample card graded authentic by SGC pop up on eBay back in July 2024; it’s a really cool piece of hobby history.

Back in Newsletter #28, I wrote:

As the name implies, salesman-sample sports card panels were used by salesmen as samples to vendors (e.g. grocers and candy-store owners) to illustrate an upcoming release of cards to promote sales. These panels were produced in limited numbers, making surviving samples quite rare.

The front of the panels looked like regular-issue cards, while the back had a small advertising pitch for the new product. In some years, the backs also had redemption information or a sample card back.

Here’s an example from Heritage Auctions of a complete 1958 Topps Salesman Sample.

On the front, you can see that the three cards are just a random strip of three from an uncut sheet, while the back has advertising copy and an example card’s back. So, depending on a card’s location on an uncut sheet, it could be on any position on the front and, therefore, have any piece of the back (unless Topps placed it on a sheet’s edge). So a salesman sample with a 1958 Roger Maris front could go Frank Bolling/Wally Burnette/Roger Maris, or Wally Burnette/Roger Maris/Del Rice, or Roger Maris/Del Rice/Bill Fischer.

The cut Maris pictured above has the top of the back printed on its back, but it could have any; however, this SGC authenticated one is the only one in either PSA’s or SGC’s Pop Report.

The SGC-graded 1958 Topps Roger Maris “#47” cut Salesman Sample card sold on eBay for $785 on July 8th, 2024. Unfortunately, the buyer didn’t pay, and the owner had to relist the card. It was sold again on July 23rd for $538. The $538 price is reasonable when you compare it to other examples. REA sold a Don Drysdale cut sample for $156 in February 2023, and a Hank Aaron sold for $1,499.99 on eBay in April 2024.

The Maris sample card appears to have been purchased by another dealer who re-listed it on eBay with a Buy-it-Now price of $949.99.

Original Artwork For The Unproduced 1958 Topps Don Drysdale and Early Wynn Card

April 16, 2024April 16, 2024 by John

I ran across this incredible original artwork of Don Drysdale and Early Wynn in an April 2000 Ron Oser Enterprises auction catalog. They advertised it as an unissued original that didn’t make the cut for the 1958 Topps series.

The striking piece was described as being 4 1/2” x 6”

1958 Topps wasn’t the first set to feature multiple players on a card. 1953 Bowman Color had a Rizzuto/Martin card and a Berra/Bauer/Mantle. 1954 Topps had the O’Brien Brothers’ card. 1957 Topps had the Yankee’s Power Hitters and, my favorite, the Dodgers’ Sluggers.

Topps then included Slugger’s Supreme, World Series Batting Foes, and Rival Fence Busters in the 1958 set before expanding to 17 baseball combination cards in their gigantic 1959 release.

If you know anything else about the history of the Drysdale/Wynn card, please let me know. Oh, what could have been!

Update 1: Keith Olbermann wrote, “It’s possible. But Wynn didn’t go to the White Sox until 1958 and Drysdale didn’t make an all-star team until 1959. It’s much likelier this is from the ’59 ASG or World Series, and was rejected from the 1960 set.”