 |
| 1960 Topps #264, #130, #17 |
I never gave much thought to the 1960 Topps set until Topps released its 2009 Heritage set borrowing the design from its 49-year-old predecessor. I only recently realized how innovative the set truly is, especially in light of the lifeless set (in my opinion) that would follow in 1961. Topps was rolling out the subsets in earnest now, including
Sport Magazine Rookie Stars, manager cards, team cards, multi-player cards, Topps All-Star Rookies, World Series cards, floating head coaches cards, and
Sport Magazine All-Stars.
 |
| 1960 Topps #103, #302, #366 |
The Set
Number of cards in the set: Similar to the prior year, there are 572 cards in a complete set.
My very brief thoughts on the set: It's horizontal. This was the first time Topps had used a horizontal design for its entire base set since 1955, and (to date) it's also the last time. The design features a full color portrait next to a black and white posed action shot. In a way, it's kind of like the 1994 Upper Deck set's hip father.
Notable competition: Leaf released a 144-card set, it's first baseball card release since 1948. And Fleer released a 79-card set of Baseball Greats.
 |
| 1960 Topps #226 and #466 |
1960 Phillies
Record and finish: The team's 59-95 finish landed them in the basement of the National League for the second year in a row.
Key players: Robin Roberts was 12-16 with a 4.02 ERA and closer
Turk Farrell was 10-6 with a team leading 11 saves.
Tony Taylor, acquired from the Cubs in May, led the team with a .287 average.
Pancho Herrera hit 17 home runs with 71 RBIS, but he also set a National League record (at the time) with 136 strikeouts. New Phillies
Johnny Callison (.260 in 99 games) and
Art Mahaffey (7-3 with a 2.31 ERA) also showed some promise.
Key events: As famously reported, manager
Eddie Sawyer quit after the Phillies dropped their first game of the season against the Reds, quipping, "I'm 49 years old and I want to live to be 50." Coach Andy Cohen took over for the second game, and the Phillies hired
Gene Mauch to manage the third game through the remainder of the season. Mauch definitely would see his share of heartache during his tenure as Phillies manager.
Curt Simmons was released by the team in May only to be signed by the Cardinals a few days later.
1960 Phillies in 1960 Topps
 |
| 1960 Topps #264 (Back) |
Cards needed for a complete team set: There are 35 Phillies cards in a complete 1960 Topps Phillies team set. For a master set of Phillies Topps cards from 1951 through 1960, we're up to 208 cards.
Who’s in: 40 players suited up for the 1960 Phillies, and 30 of them are featured as Phillies in the 1960 Topps set. The remaining five cards consist of a team card, a coaches card, a card for manager Sawyer, and cards for
Sparky Anderson and Valmy Thomas who did not play for the Phillies in 1960.
Who’s out: Regular shortstop
Ruben Amaro was featured in the 1959 set, but he's not in the 1960 set. The only other notable omission is pitcher Chris Short, who appeared in 42 games with the team. Short would have to wait until 1967 for his rookie card as, I'm guessing, he just never signed a contract with Topps. It would have also been nice to see a card for rookie
Bobby Wine, who made it into four games in 1960.
Phillies on other teams: Regular second baseman Taylor (#294) and catcher Cal Neeman (#337) were acquired from the Cubs in May for
Ed Bouchee and Don Cardwell. While center fielder
Tony Gonzalez (#518) and third baseman
Lee Walls (#506) were acquired from the Reds in June for
Harry Anderson,
Wally Post and Fred Hopke. Future Red Sox manager Joe Morgan appears on card #229 with the Athletics. He was purchased from the Atheltics by the Braves in August 1959 and then shipped back to the Braves in April 1960. In June 1960, the Braves traded him to the Phillies for Al Dark. The Phils kept him for a few months before selling him to the Indians in August.
What’s he doing here: I don't know the timing of when Topps released each series of its baseball cards in 1960, so I'm guessing they didn't have enough time to update the Phillies manager card to Mauch in time for card #226.
Cards that never were candidates: Mauch, Taylor, Amaro, Short and Wine.
Favorite Phillies card: None of the player cards really stand out, so I'll go with the
Dallas Green rookie card as my favorite. Green pitched in 23 games (starting 10), going 3-6 with a 4.10 in his rookie season. The coaches' floating heads card is a close runner-up.
 |
| 1960 Topps #34, #138, #451 |
Other Stuff
Recycled: Topps used this design for its 2009 Topps Heritage set - the first Heritage set since 2001 that I did not attempt to collect. A year before, Topps used the 1960 Topps All-Star Rookies subset design for its insert set, 2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Rookie Team.
Blogs/Websites: He's been quiet recently, but fellow Phillies fan Jim from Downington runs a blog detailing his "ramblings" on
1960s Baseball.
Did You Know?: We've seen examples of this here and there so far with the Topps Phillies cards, but there are two Phillies cards in the 1960 set where Topps doesn't even try to cover up the fact the player is appearing is his previous team's uniform - Callison appears in his White Sox uniform and Ted Lepcio appears as a Tiger.
 |
| 2009 Topps Heritage #334, #415, #563 |
All these years later, and I'm starting to compile wantlists of those oddball cards, starting with the hardest to find (and most expensive) cards from the 1950s. The Red Man Tobacco card presented here was the only Phillie to be found in the same Magic Box that contained the Original 44 of our 1956 Topps set. It's missing the redeemable tab from the bottom, but it's still an awesome card. If you click and enlarge the back, you'll see that the original owner must have clipped the tab in order to save up for a "BIG LEAGUE style baseball cap FREE!" I'm hoping he or she gathered the other 49 tabs needed.
