Most MLB Seasons w/o a Topps BB card?
PaulMaul
Posts: 4,891 ✭✭✭✭✭
What player had the most MLB seasons with some major league time, yet never had a baseball card? My nomination is Dave Schneck, who was on the Mets for parts of 1972-1974 without a card.
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A-Rod played several years without a topps card didn't he?
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Hitters who never appeared on baseball cards
Last post, I gave the answer and asked you to give me the question. The answer was:
For hitters: Dave Schneck (followed by Loren Babe).
For pitchers: Marshall Bridges (followed by Jim Duckworth).
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The question is:
"What player had the most career AB [innings pitched] without ever appearing on a major issue baseball card?"
The answer depends on what you consider "major issue". Tony Horton retired in 1970, with 2228 career at-bats, after stress issues and a suicide attempt. He never appeared on a Topps card, but he did appear on a 1971 Kellogg's card. If you don't want to count Kellogg's as a major set, then Horton is the answer. I'm not sure why he didn't appear on a Topps card ... a friend suggested that maybe he refused because he didn't want the attention. Anybody know?
I also ignored cards produced well after the player's career ended, including cards where he appeared as a manager.
And, finally, I counted only AB accumulated in 1952 or later, and I eliminated players still active in 2010.
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Here's the list of hitters with at least 250 AB but no card. The year in the chart is the season of the player's last game in the major leagues.
AB Year
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413 1974 Dave Schneck
382 1953 Loren Babe
298 1970 Van Kelly
274 1966 Ernie Fazio
257 1961 Joe Altobelli
255 1957 Jack Littrell
There are no players after 1974. That's probably because of the explosion in card sets that started in 1981, after Fleer and Donruss ended Topps' monopoly. By the 1990s, there were dozens of sets.
Topps also had competition from Bowman from 1950 to 1955, but that didn't seem to stop Jack Littrell and Loren Babe from making the list.
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The way I figured this out ... I copied Topps checklists off the web (thanks to this site) for every year (Topps regular sets only). Then, I tried to cross-reference the player names to the Lahman database. I fixed as many problems as I could -- different name spellings, Bob vs. Robert, "Vandeberg" vs. "Vande Berg", too many Greg Harrises, stuff like that.
Then, I eliminated everyone on the list who played at least one game in 2000 or later ... I figure there are so many sets these days, that I probably wouldn't find any candidates from this century. When I get less lazy, I'll confirm that. It seems not unreasonable, considering there were no players even from the 1980s or 1990s who qualified.
Then, I sorted the non-Toppsed batters by AB. There were still some uncaught false positives that I just crossed out. Finally, I checked every remaining player against an online card database, to make sure.
For the record, here's the list of batters without a Topps regular set card who played their last game before 2000:
AB Year
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2228 1970 Tony Horton
1160 1955 Tom Umphlett
625 1957 Mel Clark
579 1956 Wayne Belardi
564 1999 Manny Martinez
501 1999 J.R. Phillips
482 1998 Damon Mashore
423 1998 Jesus Tavarez
413 1974 Dave Schneck
382 1953 Loren Babe
381 1960 Billy Shantz
355 1997 Sherman Obando
336 1999 Dave Silvestri
319 1999 Bobby Hughes
317 1998 Rico Rossy
313 1978 Art Kusnyer *
307 1976 Jim Cox *
305 1998 Andy Tomberlin
301 1999 Ed Giovanola
298 1970 Van Kelly
274 1966 Ernie Fazio
269 1999 Matt Luke
258 1998 Frank Bolick
257 1961 Joe Altobelli
255 1957 Jack Littrell
254 1992 Kevin Ward
253 1956 Rudy Regalado
252 1997 Tilson Brito
Art Kusnyer and Jim Cox were each on one Topps "Future Stars" card (1972 and 1974, respectively), but my programming didn't pick it up because of how the checklists were written. So, maybe, think of this as players not having a Topps card *to themselves*.
The unbolded players from the 1950s all had Bowman cards. The 1990s players all had multiple cards from one of the many, many other sets of the era.
Except Manny Martinez, who is fifth on the list. Martinez came *very* close to qualifying for the overall "title". He had only one "major set" card that I could find -- this one, from 2000. Why only one appearance when so many sets were produced? I don't know. Most of his AB came with the Expos in 1999, his last season. Perhaps Topps had planned a card for him, but dropped it after he was released?
Also, Topps' 1999 and 2000 sets were very small -- less than 500 cards each, compared to 660 in the 1970s and 792 in most of the 1980s. But that still doesn't explain why none of the other sets picked him up.
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While I'm here ... if I extend the cutoff past 1999, the list gets much bigger ... there are a lot of 21st-century players of who didn't have a regular Topps card. That's probably because of Topps' small set sizes in that era.
In fact, there are eight recent hitters who would finish ahead of all but Tony Horton and Tom Umphlett on the all-time list. Here they are. I haven't checked for errors; there might be a false positive or two in the list.
AB Year
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1109 2008 Sal Fasano
1085 2006 Lou Merloni
779 2005 Jeff Liefer
754 2000 Aaron Ledesma
735 2008 Adam Melhuse
713 2007 Josh Paul
713 2004 Lou Collier
636 2004 Robert Machado
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I'll do the pitchers next.
Labels: baseball, baseball cards, trivia
posted by Phil Birnbaum @ 6/26/2013 01:47:00 PM
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
https://kennerstartinglineup.blogspot.com/
WTB: 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars Longevity: Ryan Jensen #/25
Without reading the other posts, my first guess was Maury Wills. Starting MLB in 1959, but no Topps card until 1967. Not sure what year the 1958-61 Jay Publishing was truly issued, so I'd go with the 1960 Bell Brand for his first card.
*edit to add, IMO I don't think the 1960 #389 counts in the spirit of the question in the OP.