Saturday, July 4, 2009

1961 Topps #179 Joe Koppe

Recent purchase from Pitchout Baseball Cards in Avalon, NJ

Joe Koppe played with the Phils in 1959, 1960 and 6 games in 1961 before being traded to the Dodgers in May. As the Phillies' regular shortstop in 1959, Joe hit .261 with 18 doubles and 7 triples.

Joe had a busy 1961:
May 4 - Traded with Turk Farrell to the Dodgers for Don Demeter and Charley Smith
May 16 - Traded to the Cardinals by the Dodgers for Duke Carmel.
June 19 - Sold to the L.A. Angels for $1,000.

Who Is That?: The Phillies had no one on their active roster from 1959 through 1961 who wore #31. Similar to the Jim Coker 1961 Topps card, is this a Phillies' coach in the background?

4 comments:

Pop-Pop said...

Wo is Duke Carmel?

Jim said...

Excellent question. I have no idea.

Jim from Downingtown said...

According to a Wikipedia article, coach Ken Silvestri wore #31 in 1960:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Philadelphia_Phillies_season

Jim said...

Another mystery solved!