One-card wonders, update 10

It's 2020.

You know what that means: According to the 20-year nostalgia cycle, we're about to be inundated with cultural references from 2000-09.

Are you ready? Constant references to Monsters, Inc. and Endless Superhero Sequels? Odes to Nickelback and the Black-Eyed Peas? Paying homage to American Idol and High School Musical? Yuuuuuck.

For me, 2000-09 is all about my daughter and whatever she was interested in: so kids movies from that time and Sponge Bob. All of the other stuff from that decade seems way too recent -- or way too crappy -- to be looking back on fondly.

But I'm going to steer it quickly to the '80s and to cards.

One of the many '80s tributes to the '60s was the movie "Good Morning Vietnam," starring Robin Williams. Movies like this helped introduce me to '60s music beyond the Beatles, Stones, Motown and Woodstock. The '60s has always been a great unknown for me, in terms of music and baseball and baseball cards.

Who were those guys on those baseball cards? Who were the musicians called "The Searchers" and "The Vogues"?

It's taken me many years to unearth the music from that time and even longer to unearth the baseball players. I've gotten better at it ever since starting to collect sets like 1967 Topps. And I feel comfortable enough to conduct another One-Card Wonder segment on 1965, the year I was born.

As you'll recall, One-Card Wonders are cards of players who appeared one time in a major set as a player and that was it. They didn't appear on a multi-player rookie stars card or anything like that (if they showed up in oddball or minor league sets or later as a manager, I allow that).

Surprisingly, I could find just four One-Card Wonders in the 1965 Topps set.

There were a lot of close candidates:

Bob Heffner shows up in 1964, 1965 and 1966, then disappears. But three is far too much for this exercise.

John Herrnstein shares a spot with Richie Allen in the 1964 Topps set, then gets a card for himself in 1965 and 1966. And that's it. And that's too many.

Dick "don't call me Richard" Smith appears with the Mets on a 1964 rookie card and gets his solo card in '65 Topps and then he's gone, but also disqualified.

Such was the case for so many other '65 cards with great names that I discovered with this very exercise: Les Narum, Wayne Schurr, Tom Butters, Duke Carmel, Larry Yellen, Bill Spanswick and Frank Bork. None of them are One-Card Wonders, but this was a mind-expander, if nothing else, in learning '60s baseball names.

The four One-Card Wonders are:

#169 - Dave Vineyard, Orioles
#494 - Jay Ritchie, Red Sox
#529 - Jerry Fosnow, Twins
#543 - Ed Connolly, Red Sox

Connolly, a catcher, is the only non-pitcher of the four, but his dad pitched briefly in the majors. Fosnow's claim to fame is he won the first game of the Minnesota Twins' 1965 AL championship season. Ritchie should have received more cards than just that one. He appeared in 52 games for the Braves in 1967 but didn't get a card. As for Vineyard, not much notable outside of the 19 games he appeared in for the Orioles in 1964.

In honor of those four One-Card Wonders, here are four One-Hit Wonders from 1965:

Boy From New York City - The Ad Libs. Later remade for an early 1980s hit by The Manhattan Transfer.

Keep On Dancing - The Gentrys. One of those songs that popped up again in the '80s and played and played and played on Oldies Radio.

Liar, Liar - The Castaways. A song I first heard on the "Good Morning, Vietnam" soundtrack. Here's the song list off that very cassette, retrieved from my dusty attic:

Good stuff.

Everyone's Gone To The Moon - Jonathan King. Beautiful song. King would later discover the band Genesis and become a very successful music producer under a wide variety of names, then end up in prison for some bad, bad stuff.

The more I run this blog, the more I learn about cards -- and music -- that don't reside in my sweet spot. I think it's something everyone should do, get out of their comfort zone and learn about the players -- and songs -- that got us to where we are.

But I think for the next One-Card Wonders post, I'll return to the more familiar '80s and '90s. As tough as it is with all those card sets issued then.

OK, here is the revised One-Card Wonder list with 1965 added, now the oldest set tackled on the list:

1965 Topps

#169 - Dave Vineyard, Orioles
#494 - Jay Ritchie, Red Sox
#529 - Jerry Fosnow, Twins
#543 - Ed Connolly, Red Sox 

1967 Topps

#344 - Ossie Chavarria, A's
#388 - Arnold Earley, Cubs
#489 - Doug Clemens, Phillies
#497 - Ron Campbell, Cubs

1969 Topps:

#317 -- Bruce Look, Twins
#361 -- Gary Holman, Senators
#378 -- Jose Herrera, Expos
#437 -- Luis Alcaraz, Royals
#632 -- Jon Warden, Royals

1974 Topps:

#8 - George Theodore, Mets
#33 - Don Newhauser, Red Sox
#37 - Dave Sells, Angels
#77 - Rich Troedson, Padres
#421 - Dan Fife, Twins
#457 - Chuck Goggin, Braves
#573 - Mike Adams, Twins 

1975 Topps

#288 - Bruce Ellingsen, Indians
#407 - Herb Washington, A's
#508 - Bob Hansen, Brewers
#524 - John Doherty, Angels
#587 - Chris Ward, Cubs
#651 - John Morlan, Pirates 

1977 Topps

#118 - Rick Jones, Mariners
#132 - Chip Lang, Expos
#137 - Jeff Terpko, Rangers
#616 - Tommy Sandt, A's
#641 - Dan Larson, Astros 

1978 Topps:

#224 - Jerry Tabb, A's
#303 - Sam Hinds, Brewers
#311 - Jose Baez, Mariners
#386 - Bob Gorinski, Twins
#502 - Pat Rockett, Braves
#516 - Gary Beare, Brewers
#521 - Steve Staggs, Blue Jays
#591 - George Zeber, Yankees
#667 - Jeff Byrd, Blue Jays
#719 - Randy Elliott, Giants 

1979 Topps:

#172 - Mike Bruhert, Mets
#222 - Bob Beall, Braves
#292 - Don Reynolds, Padres
#336 - Bobby Thompson, Rangers
#363 - Craig Skok, Braves
#371 - Jeff Holly, Twins
#427 - Andy Replogle, Brewers
#658 - Taylor Duncan, A's
#676 - Johnny Sutton, Twins

1980 Topps:

#59 - Eddy Putman, Tigers
#72 - Fred Howard, White Sox
#156 - Tony Brizzolara, Braves
#221 - Joe Cannon, Blue Jays
#233 - LaRue Washington, Rangers
#291 - Randy Scarberry, White Sox
#347 - Harry Chappas, White Sox

1981 Topps:

 #491 - Gordy Pladson, Astros

1982 Topps:

#356 - Denny Lewallyn, Indians

1984 Topps:

#116 - George Bjorkman, Astros
#159 - Darryl Cias, A's
#163 - Lorenzo Gray, White Sox
#337 - Kevin Hagen, Cardinals
#382 - Chris Nyman, White Sox
#474 - Greg Bargar, Expos

1986 Topps:

#451 - Mark Brown, Twins
#502 - Glen Cook, Rangers
#567 - Jeff Barkley, Indians

1994 Topps:

#491 - John Hope, Pirates

1986 Donruss:

#32 - Johnny Abrego, Cubs
#42 - Rick Surhoff, Rangers
#461 - Dave Leeper, Royals
#510 - Steve Engel, Cubs
#595 - Carlos Ponce, Brewers