#36 Bob Tillman of the Boston Red Sox.

Up next is one of the lesser known players from the 1967 pennant winning Boston Red Sox, Lesser know because he wasn't even on the Red Sox when they actually won the pennant. He was sold to the Yankees in August of that year. Tillman was a regular catcher for the Red Sox but ultimately lost his job by 1967 to the catching tandem of former Yankee Elston Howard and Russ Gibson. 

What I never knew was that he was one of three players the Yankees dealt to the Braves for future Hall of Fame manager (but then a career minor league player) Bobby Cox.

Tillman's best season in the majors was in 1964.  That season was his only full time season as a catcher. While seasons were 162 games long, a catcher typically get day games after night games off. Russ Nixon filled in during his absence. The Red Sox lost 90 games in '64 but Tillman managed to bat .278 and show decent power numbers for a catcher. Tillman's lone post season appearance came in 1969 with the Braves. The league restructured and split into 4 divisions thus opening the door to regular league championship series playoff games. The '69 Braves were soundly beaten in the NLCS by the Mets. 3 games to none.

The card itself is a good looking one. The Red Sox cards grab your attention with the orange lettering. You have to admit that orange is a better choice then pale blue or burnt lawn green.

The photo used is a good one as well. It's a good posing shot of Tillman. This and the previous Carty card look like what you'd expect a card from the set to look like. Someone can say this about these cards. They wouldn't point to the Cimino card with the Angels name in front of a photo of the player, sans hat, obviously wearing another team's jersey.

It's anyones guess where this photo was taken, Tillman has a home jersey on but I imagine the photo was taken where most of the Red Sox photos were taken, in Florida during spring training, perhaps Winter Haven, where the team called home starting in '66 through to the 90's.

#35 Rico Carty, an unsung Brave.

Up next is a player well worth the 0 or 5 card number distinction bestowed on him, Rico Carty. Carty is one of the major talents to come into the majors from Latin America in the mid 60's. Latin American players began to make their way into the Majors in the early 50's. Then as the decade moved along toward a close Orlando Cepeda, Felipe Alou (followed by his brothers, Matty and Jesus) arose to not only make the Majors but to excel in the league. Following their lead were players coming up in the middle 60's. Manny Mota, Tony Oliva and this man, Rico Carty come right to mind.

Carty by 1967 wasn't even an all star yet, but his '66 stats speak for themselves. .326 batting average in 151 games played. 15 homers and 76 RBIs. Carty had the misfortune of being overshadowed on the team in a national press sense, by Hank Aaron. The Braves by the time they moved to Atlanta were struggling to regain the dominance they experienced while playing in Milwaukee. The Braves were nothing less than a success in Milwaukee but despite a World Series title and winning back to back pennants, the team was sold and moved to Atlanta only 12 years after moving to Milwaukee from Boston.

The Braves success in Milwaukee (particularly in terms of their attendance) opened the door for other Northeastern teams to move west and seek out their own market instead of competing with other teams for one. O'Malley saw the Braves shatter attendance records while his Dodgers, make it to the World Series and not only lose the battle for season attendance to the Braves, but lose it by almost 700,000 fans. 1.163 Million showed up to see the Dodgers win the pennant in 1953. 1.826 million showed up to see the Braves finish 12 games back in 2nd place that year.

Carty had a bright future. A career .300 plus hitter. before injuries got him in 1967. He rebounded to win the batting title in 1970 with an average .366. Then injuries got him again and that's when he started having trouble finding teams willing to build with him. He went to the Rangers, Cubs, and Athletics in 1973 alone before settling in with the Indians  in 1974. He saw alot of work in Cleveland and had very good production for them through to 1977. The Indians were not a good ball club as a whole though and whatever he was doing wasn't attracting much attention. He went on to the Athletics and Blue Jays in '78 and '79. Again, neither team was good and appearing on these lackluster teams pushes Rico Carty's name and accomplishments on the back burner of Major League history.

As for the card. I didn't like it when I was a kid simply because it was a Braves card. The Braves were a team I was able to follow on basic cable regularly growing up, but never did. Basic cable in the late 80's had some local tv stations syndicated as a basic cable channel. I could watch the Yankees on channel 11 and the Mets on channel 9 off of an antenna in my bedroom. I could watch the Cubs on channel 19, the Phillies on channel 21 and the Braves on channel 39. I regularly watched the Yankees and Cubs, sometimes watched the Phillies, rarely watched the Mets and never watched the Braves. The team was awful in the late 80's. The only Braves I ever heard of back in 1987 were Hank Aaron and Dale Murphy.

Not caring about the team means not caring or even noticing the card when I first got it. The card looks like one of the better ones in the set. You get a good shot of the player. The signature is in a unique spot, up over left shoulder then arching up toward the batting cage set up before a Braves Mets game at Shea stadium. Can even see a good (though out of focus) amount of the Shea Stadium scoreboard in back. You also get a little of the Braves logo on Carty's left shirt sleeve instead of just the A on the blue and red baseball cap.

# 34 Pete Cimino from the Twins to the Angels.

A 9 year old looking at old baseball cards can be forgiven for glossing over some cards at the time. Pete Cimino's card is one of those cards. I couldn't have cared less about the Angels. They were like the Athletics in my mind back in the late 80's except they weren't good. I started following the game the year after their near historic first pennant but ultimately ill fated trip to the 1986 ALCS.

Topps didn't make it any easier by picking a parched dying lawn green for the team name on the front. The color is still better than the Reds

This is Cimino's second of three cards. His rookie is an expensive high number in the '66 set. He is half of the Twins rookie star card, sharing it with Cesar Tovar.

This, to me is the least of Cimino's cards. The Twins jersey is clearly being worn by the player. His other cards feature him in the uniform that's stated on the card.

The signature looks good and of course, the no hat photo (I keep wondering what was going on through there minds when Topps asked for a shot without a hat.) Did they think it was bad luck when they heard something like "In case you're traded"??

Cimino's career in professional baseball was brief. His ERA was pretty good. 3.07 is respectable for a career spanning 89 games. He had only 13 decisions in his career but he also only had one start. Win/ loss totals aren't easy to come by when you're a bullpen pitcher often either closing games or doing mop up duty after a starter's bad outing. He saved 5 games in his career.

He was traded as part of a deal that sent Dean Chance to the Twins.

He went on to spend part of the '68 season with the Angels and the rest in their minor league system. He pitched in only 9 games in the minors that season. This leads me to believe injuries caught up to him.

While his card doesn't mention it, Pete Cimino famously scored 114 points in a single game for his Bristol High School basketball team.

#33 Athletics Rookie Star Card, Sal Bando/ Randy Schwartz

I already stated my views on Rookie Star cards. It's a shame great player's rookie cards get a little buried  on half and sometimes one quarter of a card. Recently found out that the '78 Topps Burger King rookies of Jack Morris, Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell are far more desirable for collectors to find because they have their own card. They aren't rookie stars, they are Tiger players as part of the team set.

This card itself didn't grab my attention like other rookie star cards in the set. Athletics were a team I didn't appreciate in the late 80's. They were always beating the Yankees senseless. They even swept the season series on them in 1990. The photos used are just head and shoulder shots and I can't even tell you what the A's called home in KC. The players depicted show a quiet cool confidence in their expressions.

#33 features Sal Bando. This is the first prominent player to appear on the rookie stars card in the set. Bando was a 4 time all star and near MVP winner 3 times. His power numbers speak for themselves. 10 years straight of double digit home runs, 10 of 11 straight seasons of at least 20 doubles, an average .250 hitter but dependable. He didn't miss many games until injuries began to catch up to him in Milwaukee at the age of 35.

Bando also played on three World Series winning Athletic teams. He got 6 hits in 12 at bats against the Red Sox in a losing ALCS effort for the A.s. He ended his career after the Brewers were beaten by the Yankees in the '81 ALCS, by that time Bando was a 5 year veteran in Milwaukee after spending 11 seasons with the A's. He was also one of the few remaining players from the Kansas City era Athletics left when he retired. Campaneris and Reggie Jackson retired later.

Randy Schwartz when compared to Bando, is just along for the ride on Bando's rookie card. Schwartz appeared in only 16 games in the majors and never returned to the circuit after the 1966 season. He had 3 hits in 17 career at bats and 2 RBIs. Schwartz's minor league career was also brief. Schwartz was a 230 lbs, 6'3" rookie. He was bigger than Bando who was 6' and a shade under 200 lbs. Topps was a card maker, not a prophet. They never knew where these guys were going in their lives. Or if injuries would short change their potential as professional athletes. Looking at just the minor league stats on the card, you'd think Schwartz would be the player with staying power,

#32 Bob Bailey of the LA Dodgers/ and the dreaded blurred photo.

Up next is another member of the '67 Dodgers, Bob Bailey. I'm sorry to say this but the image of the card is the one I have in the set and the picture is as bad as it looks. I can't stand cards with blurred images on them. I don't know what causes them. I imagine every X amount seconds or even minutes, the Topps printing machine burps a bit and the little glitch shows itself on the printing sheet like this. And what do you get? A card with a flaw on it.

Other flaws are cards miscut so bad that top 3/4" inch is missing and is replaced with the bottom 3/4" inch of a completely different card on the bottom. Other flaws are wax pack stains on the back. but because these card backs are bright, the stains don't show.

Printing flaws, miscuts and stains are not to be confused with errors in design. An error would be the Dodgers lettering being printed in white until a quality control man caught it, corrected it, then have the corrected version printed in bulk. The value of one or the other version increases dramatically depending on the number of mistakes (or corrections) made.

As for Bob Bailey, He was utility player and judging from the back of this card, he was a major minor league prospect when the Pirates picked him up in 1961. The give away is the $135,000 bonus he received to sign with the team. The term for these players are 'bonus babies'.

His batting average was decent in Pittsburgh. He suffered a dropoff in LA and was left unprotected in the '69 expansion draft. The draft made him a charter member of the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals).

Bailey found success and more regular playing time for the Expos. He also became a bit of a power hitter.He hit 104 home runs over a 5 year span up there. His batting average improved back to a respectable high .200's area.

After Montreal, he went to the Reds and was on their '76 World Series winning team though he didn't appear in the Series and spent the final season and half of his career up in Boston. He retired after '78 and went into managing but only in the minor leagues

He also shares the same birthday as my father. 10/13/42.

As for the card, I think I made it clear why I don't like it. The image is wrecked. This is one card I'd like to replace in the set with a better image. The signature makes me wonder if it's genuine too. Some wonder if Topps used real signatures on the front of their cards. Not many players give those out readily and the lesser known players as Bailey was still at this stage of career are even harder to find.

The photo itself is of Bailey while with the Pirates. The trace of yellow and black lining on the front is the give away. I assume that's the lighting fixtures of old Forbes Field out of focus in the background but that really could be anywhere. There wasn't stands beyond the outfield walls from left to halfway between center and right field, There were more prominent trees beyond the walls at some point but that too may have changed toward the mid 60's (and not long before the team's relocation).

#31 Jim Brewer of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Next in the set is. Dodger bullpen pitcher. Jim Brewer. Brewer jumped fron the hapless Cubs to a World Series contender and he went on to appear in three of them for the Dodgers. He saw the most action in the '65 fall classic. He wasn't overly successful but the Dodgers did win the series. He went on to pitch an inning in relief in '66 and a 3rd of an inning in the '74 series.

Brewer also was a mainstay on the LA roster from '64 to '75 when he was traded to the Dodger American League counterpart organization, the Angels. Players that stick with franchises that long tend to be fan favorites and Brewer's low ERA and career as a LA closer, also the heir apparent to the role when Ron Perranoski left for Minnesota leads me to believe this is the case. This is pure speculation on my part because finding information about Jim Brewer's career and how he was seen in the eyes of LA fans is a mystery.

As for the card, I don't like it. Dodger cards from this set have their appeal. The red is on purpose. It grabs your attention and the players from the defending NL champs were something collectors would seek out.

The signature is nice and legible but the picture used is just head and shoulders and because Brewer isn't exactly a player that comes to mind easily, his card is lost in the shuffle.

Another issue I have with Topps cards from this era is bad airbrushing jobs. This Brewer card doesn't have it but at first, I was certain Brewer's hat was actually a Cubs hat and the Red and white bordered C was blued out and replaced with the interlocking Dodger LA logo. I prefer the hatless pictures to the airbrushing jobs they would go on to do regularly for decades Below is a 1987 Topps example of airbrushing on their Mike Laga Cardinals card.

Not too good but it's
better than what
they tried to do in the
70's. like this '76
 Lolich card on the right.

'86 World Series - 2014 World Series. The near parallel.

Now that 2014 World Series is over. I can say that my prediction was wrong. I recently revisited the entire 1986 World Series. I watched every game on youtube in detail and I thought the Royals, though not nearly as good a team as the Mets, would succeed in the series the same way they did over the Red Sox. The pattern of the games was nearly identical until Game 7. The Red Sox took two in Shea Stadium led mostly by Bruce Hurst who completely shut down the Met offense. Roger Clemens wasn't as dominate as Hurst in Game 2 but the Sox won anyway thanks to their timely hitting against Dwight Gooden. This Series started with a split in KC but it will be remembered mostly for Bumgarner's equally dominate performance in the opener to Hurst's.

Both series' shifted to opposing cities in Game 3. The Mets came alive for a couple games to even up their series. The Giants and Royals split the next two games. Game 5, Hurst shut down the Mets again. Bumgarner did the same for the Giants. Both games were also lopsided home wins too. The Red Sox were riding a huge wave of momentum when they went back to Shea. The Giants were doing the same against the Royals.

Both Game 6s were the same in the sense that both were huge momentum builders going in the opposite direction. The Mets, capitalized off of the Red Sox weakest point, their bullpen. The same thing happened to the Giants in the series more often than they care to remember.

Then came game 7 and here is where Bruce Hurst proves to have not been in the same class as Madison Bumgarner. Hurst had a lead and the game was getting late. Hurst was even named prematurely as the MVP of the series but the Mets fought back in the game and eventually put it away against the Boston bullpen.

Maybe Giants manager Bochy saw that and learned from history. Sox manager McNamara was happy to stick with his pen even though they blew the lead on Saturday in game 6, Blew the lead in Game 4 of the ALCS in the 9th and they cemented their own fate in game 7 of the series. Bochy turned to a starter, Bumgarner in relief and the rest is history. McNamara's initial plan was to have Dennis Oil Can Boyd start game 7 and he would have had the Sunday game not been rained out but since it was, he turned to Hurst to start. Had he started Boyd and turned to Hurst in relief at the first sign of trouble (even with short rest), things might have been very different.

But the Giants won and former Yankees, Hensley Meulens, Dave Righetti and Roberto Kelly are part of a dynasty (arguably a dynasty, because they wouldn't have been near the 2014 World Series without the new post season rules)