it's time for my 1959 topps flagship sampler set to be showcased!
as a reminder, i have reinstated my sampler sets for the vintage topps flagship sets that i have not completed. more details were provided in these posts featuring my 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1958 topps samplers which you can find here (i skipped 1957 since i've completed the set and so have no need for a sampler). i am maintaining my topps flagship through the years mini-collection, so the 1959 topps roberto clemente card remains there and not in this updated sampler. similarly, with the set size being expanded in the late 1950's, my 1959 topps ernie banks card remains in my topps flagship #350 mini-collection.
in 1959, there were still only 16 teams represented, and it's an (almost) all-portrait oriented set. as with 1958, there is just a single image of each card subject, and the facsimile autographs that were prevalent in the first five flagship sets are back after a two year hiatus. team logos are back for the second year in a row, and the solid color backgrounds of 1958 have given way to a circular photo within a rectangular solid color frame. this set is all about color, but is without a name, position, or team text box in varying colors to create a large variety of color combinations like we saw in 1956 and 1958. still, there are a number of colors used, and i counted nine, although i could be convinced that there are ten.
- red
- pink
- orange
- yellow
- green
- light green
- blue
- light blue
- black
the tenth color i would consider is light orange. let's see what you think.
the card backs are back to having "white" or "gray" backs thanks to differing card stock, and the comics that appear on most cards are single panel in nature, but specific to the card's subject.
the 1959 topps set includes cards from a few of the now-typical subsets - league president(s) (although only one league was represented), team cards, combo cards, and all-stars. checklists are still on the backs of team cards, but this set did introduce us to rookie stars and baseball thrills subsets. there were a couple of other cards of note that i've added to the sampler as well.
in team related news, the reds are still identified as redlegs, and the braves switched their logo from the headdressed portrait logo to the "screaming" braves logo.
enough now. let's see what the 1959 sampler set looks like, starting with an ai generated needlepoint sampler for the set.
aside from the length of the card images, that's not too bad. i had to ask a second time to use the 1959 design, but the robots seem to take direction somewhat well.
baltimore orioles - gene woodling
card #170
this card is obviously an example of the yellow "frame" and gray back varieties. woodling hit an even .300 in his second full season in baltimore and was also named to his first and only all-star team. he grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the game. the comic notes his batting average over his five world series appearances (all with the yankees) but doesn't note that he also had five rings as a result of those fall classics.
boston red sox - bill monbouquette
card #173
card #426
here's the red frame as well as a "white" back card. staley (listed as "gerry" on baseball reference) led the american league in pitching appearances in 1959, getting the call 67 times for the american league champs. he bested his 1958 stats mentioned in the text by finishing 37 of those 67 games in which he appeared. he relieved in four games during the 1959 world series, taking the loss in game 4 after giving up a go-ahead home run to gil hodges in the bottom of the 8th inning.
monbouquette's card features the green frame. he spent the full 1959 season with the red sox, appearing in 34 games and finishing with a 7-7 record. spoiler alert - the red sox did not overtake the white sox or yankees in 1959.
chicago white sox - jerry staley
cleveland indians - billy hunter
card #11
hunter's card uses the orange color frame. this card serves as a "final tribute" to hunter, as he spent all of 1959 in the minor leagues with cleveland's triple-a affiliate in san diego, never returning to the majors. well, not as a player, anyway. hunter spent several years as a coach on earl weaver's staff in baltimore before being hired as the manager of the texas rangers in 1977.
detroit tigers - don mossi
card #302
the latest installment of the don mossi sampler/player collection is a repeat of the red frame design. mossi is a repeat player from my 1955, 1956, and 1958 samplers, but that is by design as he is one of the players i chose to chase all the way through. his card back comic notes that he essentially pitched a perfect game across seven appearances (in 1954) which was also noted on the back of his 1958 card. i find it interesting that the text on this card uses the phrase of games "saved by don mossi" as saves weren't an official stat back then, but perhaps they were tracked as such? similar to how holds are tracked but are not an official stat. regardless, mossi didn't have any "saves" in 1959 as the tigers used him almost exclusively as a starter. he went 17-9 for his new team with 15 complete games and three shutouts, two of which were four-hitters against the yankees.
new york yankees - gil mcdougald
card #345
in 1959, mcdougald made both all-star teams but was losing playing time in the regular season to bobby richardson and tony kubek. still, he appeared in 127 games and amassed 2.5 war, which was third on the club for position players behind mickey mantle and yogi berra.
kansas city athletics - ralph terry
card #358
terry made nine appearances for the a's in 1959 before he was traded back to the yankees. in new york, he threw a four-hit shutout against the orioles, but finished the season with a 5-11 record between his two clubs. terry is well known as the pitcher who surrendered the world series winning home run to bill mazeroski in 1960, but he was also the only mlb player to ever qualify for the pga golf tour. born in oklahoma, went to college in missouri, and passed away in kansas, i wonder if terry really was an alabama fan as the comic on his card back suggests.
washington senators - russ kemmerer
card #191
card #65
torre's card features the light blue colored frame as well as that revised braves' logo i mentioned up top. frank was the only torre on the 1959 braves (brother joe debuted with the club in 1960) but his playing time was reduced from the previous two seasons. he appeared in 115 games but played about 300 fewer defensive innings than he had in 1958. his fielding percentage remained .994, however, same as it was in 1958 when he led the league.
kemmerer's card features what i think might be a light orange frame color. it's definitely not as dark as the orange on the hunter, mcdougald, or terry cards above, but i am not sure if that's just a print issue or if the color were intentional. anyway, kemmerer began the 1959 season by going 4-1 with three complete games in his first five appearances (all starts), but finished the campaign with a 8-17 record across 37 games (28 starts).
milwaukee braves - frank torre
chicago cubs - dale long
card #414
here's the light green color frame. the card back mentions two of the things that long is best known for - his consecutive games with a home run streak, and his appearances as a catcher for the cubs in 1958 which were noteworthy because he was left handed. it's a shame that the comic doesn't correctly show that key detail, nor does it really show the first baseman's mitt that he used in lieu of a properly constructed catcher's mitt. long didn't play behind the plate in 1959 (or in any other season than 1958), but did hit 14 home runs for the cubs that season.
cincinnati reds - harvey haddix
card #184
card #217
this card represents the pink frame, and his photo is one of several dodger images that features the structure of the los angeles coliseum in the background. i never saw a baseball game there, but i have seen concerts and football games there. it's an impressive structure and it was difficult for me to picture baseball being played in that setting. erskine, of course, was the starting pitcher for the dodgers' first game in the coliseum and earned the win. in 1959, erskine wrapped up his big league career with ten appearances which led to an 0-3 record. his final game came in june, so he did not participate in the dodgers' world series win against the white sox in the fall of 1959.
as was the case in 1958, it's a red(leg) that represents the black color scheme. in 1959, haddix was no longer a red(leg), as he had been traded to the pirates. on may 26 of that year, he spun 12 perfect innings in a game against the braves (his pirates had 12 hits off of the braves' lew burdette but could not score). in the 13th inning, haddix lost his perfect game due to an error, which was followed by a sacrifice bunt, an intentional walk, and then joe adcock's walk-off home run/double.
los angeles dodgers - carl erskine
philadelphia phillies - ray semproch
card #197
this card features the blue frame - darker than what we saw on frank torre's card - and is the tenth color used in the set (if we are going with light orange being a deliberate color). semproch's first name was roman - i had to look it up after not being able to reconcile his signature with "ray". his middle name was anthony. maybe "ray" was an offshoot of "r.a.". for what it's worth, baseball reference says his nickname was "baby". anyway, semproch didn't match his rookie performance in his second season with the phillies. he was 3-10 as a spot starter and reliever, although he had two complete game victories to his credit.
pittsburgh pirates - bob smith
card #83
i showed two bob smiths in the 1958 topps sampler, and this is the third bob smith that was in the big leagues in the 1950's. topps definitely confused this bob (g). smith with bobby gene smith, as this one was a pitcher but his comic references his play in the outfield. in fact, bobby gene smith's 1959 topps card features the same comic text, although there is a different drawing used. this smith split the 1959 season between pittsburgh and detroit, finishing with a record of 0-3 in 29 games.
saint louis cardinals - ernie broglio
card #296
card #332
this ray's first name was ramon, unlike semproch's. he made only one appearance for the giants in 1960, and it was the last of his big league career. he allowed a home run to carl sawatski but struck out the last batter he would face in the majors - george crowe - earning what we now call a "hold" in a 9-8 giants' win.
broglio did indeed make his big league debut in 1959, starting the cardinals' second game of the season. he pitched six innings and took the loss. overall, he went 7-12 but threw three shutouts, including a two-hitter against the red(leg)s.
san francisco giants - ray monzant
that's the end of the teams portion of the sampler, with all 10 of the color frames i counted represented.
now that the photos with backgrounds are back, i am able to feature a card showing the yankee stadium facade, and it's billy hunter's
because hunter was the rangers' manager when the 1977 season wrapped, he appeared in the 1978 topps set as the club's manager, and his card features a "as player" photo most likely taken during the same session as that on the card above. his "as manager" photo on that card was also taken in yankee stadium for a nice bit of continuity.
as i mentioned up top, there were a couple of true subsets in the 1959 topps set. the first one was the inclusion of (at least one of) the league presidents for the fourth year running.
league presidents: warren giles
joe cronin took over as the american league president in 1959, so i assume that's why topps didn't include a card for that position. instead, they added a card of the commissioner for the first time.
commissioner: ford frick
card #1
i suppose it's not really a subset, but it's a unique card to this set so i decided to add it even thought the design is the same as the league president's card.
team cards are one of the other returning subsets
los angeles dodgers
card #457
as was the case in 1958, the backs of the team cards featured the checklists for the entire set. this checklist features one of the new subsets for 1959, as well as roberto clemente (referred to as "bob" by topps) and eddie mathews and the two robinsons.
combo cards were included in the set for the third year running.
combo card: ace hurlers - billy pierce/robin roberts
for the second year in a row, the combo card i've chosen features pierce. he will show up in the sampler one more time, by the way. this card celebrates a couple of aces coming off of what might have been considered for each a supbar 1958 season. both pitchers won "only" 17 games for their teams that year, but roberts led all national league pitchers in what we now calculate as war, and pierce was third in the american league.
continuing with what was introduced in 1958, topps included an all-stars subset in the 1959 set. however, while the 1958 all-stars were subjects chosen by "the editors of sport magazine", the 1959 all-stars were credited to the sporting news. i've included one from each league because the design is a bit different.
all-stars:
bill mazeroski
two subsets (or at least subjects) that we've seen in some of the previous sets that were missing for the second year in a row were managers and coaches. however, topps did introduce a couple of new subsets in 1959.
rookie stars:
gene oliver
the other new subset was "baseball thrills"
baseball thrills - billy pierce
this next card is not a subset - it's just a standalone card with a unique design.
symbol of courage - roy campanella
another theme i look for are what i call "o-pee-chee" type cards. these are cards that feature a player in a uniform different from the team that is designated on the card. these cards are quite prevalent in the mid-60's when updated photos were scarce but are not necessarily as plentiful or obvious in other sets. in 1959, as in 1958, i am sorry to say that i could not find a card that clearly fit the bill, thanks primarily to hatless photos. however, this card comes close.
billy loes
with that, we've now seen cards for each team, all 10 color backgrounds, and each of the subsets or unique cards i deemed worthy of including in the sampler. that leaves just one space on the third sheet. i've filled that space with this card:
eddie yost
card #2
if only yost had a senators' hat on, this would be a good o-pee-chee style card as his pinstriped jersey is a clear non-detroit indicator. i also chose this card for the sampler because it is one of the few player cards to not feature a comic as far as i can tell, and i am always interested in cards that mention lou gehrig and his consecutive game streak. however, by the time that this card was printed, stan musial had passed yost's mark with a 895 game streak of his own. in yost's first season with the tigers, he led the league with 115 runs scored, and also led the league in walks for the fifth time in his career. fitting for the guy known as "the walking man".
i had also considered including this next card which would have required eight more cards to join the sampler. maybe i will eventually do that, but for now, it's just an honorable mention that didn't quite make the cut.
gene conley
so, that's my 1959 topps sampler set, all 27 cards of it. 1960 is next, and it's a big one - stay tuned!
