#563 Mickey Mantle Sport Magazine All Star

Mickey Mantle, Sport Magazine '60 All Star Selection

As an All Star: The Mick played in 16 ASGs but hit only .233 going 10 for 45 with 17 whiffs. His brightest ASG moment came in the top of the first in the '55 game in Milwaukee when he smacked a three run homer in the top of the first. That staked Billy Pierce and the AL to a lead that Whitey Ford would blow in the 7th and 8th. The NL won 6-5 on Stan Musial's lead-off dinger in the bottom of the 12th.. His other AGS homer came the next year in Washington when he followed Ted Williams' homer off Warren Spahn with one of his own.

In the 1960 ASGs: He started in center in both games that year. In Kansas City he walked twice than gave way to Al Kaline. In Yankee Stadium a couple of days later he singled in four trips to the plate.

The Card: This one came to me in a screw-down holder and it looked great if you can forgive the off centeredness. Scanning reveals a few flaws. Both the bottom and the top edges are rough and the corners are softer than they appeared in the case. Still its a pretty nice card for the price I paid.

The All Star subset is growing on me. It'll never replace the '58 as my favorite but it has a pretty cool design.

#483 Camilo Pascual

Camilo Pascual  Washington Senators

Career: Pascual spent nearly all 18 big league seasons with the Senators/Twins franchise. He went 174-170 while spending a good portion of his time on some wretched Senators clubs. He won 100 of those games in a stretch from 1959 thru 1964. He made the All Star team in all but one of those season.

In 1960: According to SABR..."Including the Cuban Winter League, during a ten-month period, from mid- April, 1959, and culminating with the Caribbean Series in February, 1960, Pascual threw a stupendous 410.1 innings, recorded 363 strikeouts and compiled a cumulative 34-15 record." Didn't seem to faze him as he went 12-8 with a 3.08 ERA in 1960.

WikiFacts: In late December 1959, it was widely published that Senators owner Calvin Griffith “had looked one million dollars in the eye and expressed no interest.” It was an offer not for his Washington franchise but merely for two of his ballplayers, first baseman Harmon Killebrew and pitcher Camilo Pascual.. One of those published reports further explained the matter as follows: “The bidder was Gabe Paul, vice president of the Cincinnati Reds. ‘I offered Griffith $500,000 each for Killebrew and Pascual and it was a firm offer,’ Paul said. ‘I consider Pascual the best pitcher in the majors.’” -SABR bio of Camilo Pascual

"He'd come straight over the top with it and it would just dive off the table. The spin was so tight, you couldn't identify the pitch until it was too late. It didn't flutter, it didn't hang, it just kept biting. When Pascual was right, nobody had a chance. That curve was unhittable." -Tony Kubek

[Mickey] Mantle ...smacked plenty of long bombs off Pascual, whom he took deep 11 times in total, ...... "I hit those off Camilo Pascual, one hell of a pitcher." -Mickey Mantle quote via SABR

The Card: Pascual has an error free card! That's significant because in 1959 Topps butchered his first name on the front of his card and his last name on the back. And they stuck his face on Ralph Lumenti's card, just for more fun.

#160 Rival All Stars (Mantle & Boyer) and some set background

The Card: This is the first of the ten multi-player 'specials' in the 1960 set. Mickey Mantle, looking impossibly young, exchanges pleasantries and a smile with Cardinal Ken Boyer. Four years after this card was issued the two would face off in the 1964 World Series. Mantle would outhit Boyer but the Cards took the title in seven.

Mickey Mantle was a 16 time All Star and won 3 MVP awards. He had 43 at bats in 16 All Star games and hit .233 with two home runs.

Ken Boyer, brother of Mantle's teammate Clete and Cloyd, a Cardinal pitcher in the early 50s, was a seven time All Star and the 1964 NL MVP. In 10 All Star games he had two dingers and batted .348 in 23 at bats.

My copy obviously isn't pristine but it came cheap. I am going to pick up nice copies of the two other Mantle cards in the set so condition on this one wasn't a priority. The crease that shows up in the scan above isn't really visible when the card is sitting in the page pocket.

I recall specifically having this card when this set was new. I know Topps had multi-player cards previously, as far back as 1957 at least, but this one sticks out as the one I loved having in my cigar box.
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Before I get too far into the set I figured a bit of background would be appropriate.

The 1960 Topps set had, like the '59 set, 572 cards. They were issued in seven 'series' with the final one having somewhat limited distribution and is therefore more expensive to complete. The key rookie cards from this set include #136 Jim Kaat, #148 Carl Yastrzemski, and #316 Willie McCovey. Among my favorite aspects of the set is the great assortment of subsets it contains:

• 1960 Rookie Stars (#117-148)
• Managers (#212-227)
• Topps All-Star Rookies (#316-325)
• World Series Highlights (#385-391)
• Coaches (#455-470)
• Sport Magazine All-Stars (#553-572)

In addition each team was featured on a 'team' card with a checklist on the reverse. The checklist references the series that contains the team card. Speaking of the 'reverses' I've mentioned before that the gold/orange and black printing on that cream colored cardboard is my absolute favorite among all of Topps' vintage cards.

The cartoons, by Jack Davis who is known for his work on Mad magazine and many other places, are another strong point. As an aside, Mr. Davis just retired last December. He was working at the age of 90! A story about his retirement is here and you can see some of his work on this page..

But, back to the set......I'm particularly enamored with the Rookie Stars (love the orange!), the managers (I've blogged that group) and the Sport Magazine All Stars that close out the checklist.

Topps had first used the horizontal format in 1955 and 1956 and revived it in 1960. They would never again issue a flagship set with primarily horizontal cards. Two subsets, the managers and coaches, were formatted vertically.

In addition to black and white Topps used eight colors on the card fronts: blue, red, yellow, orange, light green, light blue, pink, and dark green. The cards came in one- and five cent wax packs. I don't think I ever saw a penny wax pack. They also came in cello packs. Those I remember.

As time goes by and I find out more about this wonderful collection of cards I'll include items of interest here. Like the 1959 set this one is growing on me as I fill in the binder pages with the colorful cards. I hope you'll keep checking back.