Multi-player Cards

It's hard to figure out Topps' logic when it came to multi-player cards in the late 1960s.

In 1966, there were 5 such cards, all within the first 300 cards:
Astros
Giants
Phillies
Pirates
White Sox
In the later series, multi-player cards just disappeared.


In 1967, that number grew to 13 cards, but only for 11 teams:
Braves
Cardinals
Giants
Mets
Phillies
Pirates
Indians (2)
Orioles (2)
Tigers
Twins
White Sox


In 1968, Topps cut way back to just 3 cards (all in the 6th series):
Orioles
Stars from multiple teams (2)


In 1969, there were 4 such cards, again all in the 6th series (it's as though Topps waited until they were sure they wouldn't need a 5th Royals Rookies card!)
Giants
Orioles
Senators
Athletics
(I first discovered these baseball card blogs last September, when I stumbled upon PackAddict's 1969 Athletics' card shown in the above link.)



I previously posted the Giants' multi-player card. Here are the rest:


#152 Power Plus - How can they make a card about the Phillies' power hitters and not include Richie Allen?



#99 Buc Belters - Stargell and Clendenon would also appear together on the 1967 Pirates' multi-player card. Hey Topps, where's Roberto Clemente? In 1965, he had 10 homers to Clendenon's 14. (They both had fewer than Jim Pagliaroni's 17.)



#199 Chisox Clubbers - In the land of the Go-Go Sox, "clubbers" is a relative term. Skowron and Romano each had 18 dingers in 1965, Robinson had 14.



#273 Astro Aces - At least the title of this card isn't implying home run power for its featured players!

Giants' DP Combo (Dick Schofield/Hal Lanier)

Here's one of the "group" cards that Topps issued for most of the teams in 1966 and 1967. In 1965, these two were the Giants' starting Keystone Combo for 81 games. In 1966, they only hooked up 4 times before Schofield was sold to the Yankees in mid-May.

Dick Schofield had a 19-year career (1953-71) as a shortstop with 7 teams, mostly the Cardinals (1953-58) and the Pirates (1958-65). His only extended time as an everyday player was during the '63, '64, and '65 seasons.

His son Dick was the Angels' shortstop during the 1980s and early 1990s, and his grandson is Phillies' right fielder Jayson Werth.



Hal Lanier also comes from a baseball family. His father Max pitched for the Cardinals during the 1940s. Hal played shortstop and 2nd base for the Giants from 1964 to 1971, before winding up his career with the Yankees in 1972 and 1973. He later managed the Astros from 1986-88.