A positive spin

 

I hate to be the blog known for bringing up the deaths of past ballplayers. Part of me wishes the blog could be happy and light all the time.

But whenever I hear about one of the players from my younger days moving on, I feel like I need to recognize it as a form of respect from a longtime baseball fan.

Today I heard that Bill Plummer passed away. He's known as the backup catcher to Johnny Bench during the 1970s. I've mentioned before that I almost had the chance to interview Plummer. He was managing a minor league team in California at the time and a player from our area was playing for the team. But the interview with the player fell through (he wasn't keen on talking) and I never talked to Plummer.

Plummer is the 181st player or manager featured in the 1975 Topps set who has died -- yes, I keep track of that, too. It's alarming that so many of those people who I collected in my first year of buying cards are no longer with us.

So, I decided to put a positive spin on the situation. Thanks to baseball-almanac.com, you can find the 1,000 oldest-living ballplayers. This service has been around for a good while and I've used it for blog posts many times. This time I'm finding the oldest-living ballplayers who appeared in the 1975 Topps set.

 

For each of them, I'll show a card I have of them in my collection, hopefully one I haven't shown on the blog before -- or at least not written about in great detail. Also, I'm not showing the '75 Topps card because I show them plenty ... and also I don't want to jinx them or the set any further.

 

I'll show just the top 10, because as ballplayers from that set are increasingly demonstrating, we don't have all day.

 

 

ORLANDO PENA, AGE 90

 

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 573

First card/last card: 1959 Topps/1975 Topps

First card of his I saw: 1975 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 5.

Thoughts:

 

There's nothing like a 1959 Topps card to hammer home how long a player has been on this earth. Remember when you would look on the back of card in the early 1980s and realize the player had been playing for four decades? Well, Pena has been living for TEN.

 

 

JIM PERRY, AGE 88

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 263

First card/last card: 1959 Topps/1975 Topps

First card of his I saw: 1975 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 20

Thoughts:

Jim Perry has outlived his younger brother, Gaylord Perry, who passed at age 84 in 2022. I selected this card because it's one of those 1969 Topps cards in which if you removed the name/position circle from the card, the photo would be wildly off-center.

SONNY SIEBERT, AGE 87

No. of 1975 Topps card: No. 328

First card/last card: 1964 Topps/1975 Topps (or 1976 SSPC)

First card of his I saw: 1975 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 10

Thoughts:

I stumbled across this photo reuse while pulling cards for this post. I've always thought one of '67's main strong points is its clear visuals and this demonstrates it perfectly, though it's possible I just have a poorly registered 1969 copy.

 

 

DIEGO SEGUI, AGE 86

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 232

First card/last card: 1963 Topps/1977 Topps

First card of his I saw: 1977 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 15

Thoughts:

SSPC is great for getting better looks at players during their brief time with certain teams. For Segui and the Red Sox, you get his '75 Topps card, an airbrushed Traded card in '76 and that's about it. So this is cool.

MANNY MOTA, AGE 86

 

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 414

First card/last card: 1963 Topps/1981 Donruss, 1981 Fleer

First card of his I saw: 1976 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 60

Thoughts:

 

I have more cards of Mota, by far, than anyone else featured here. I've shown pretty much all of them, including the Expos and Pirates cards. The '76 Topps card is the first one I saw and I remember thinking he looked old as the hills then. It's also an interesting way to hold a bat.

 

 

BILLY WILLIAMS, AGE 85

Number of his 1975 Topps card: No. 545

First card/last card: 1961 Topps/1976 Topps

First card of his I saw: Either 1975 Topps mini or 1976 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 36

Thoughts:

What an interesting photo choice for Pacific.

 

 

TONY OLIVA, AGE 85

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 325

First card/last card: 1963 Topps/1976 Topps

First card of his I saw: 1976 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 31

Thoughts:

I chose the 2003 Topps Fan Favorites card for comparison with Oliva's 1965 Topps rookie trophy card.

 

The 1965 card looks a lot better, obviously. Though the photos aren't from the same time period, I view a lot of the Fan Favorites photos as discarded outtakes from Topps' files.

 

JIM KAAT, AGE 85

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 243

First card/last card: 1960 Topps/1983 Topps

First card of his I saw: 1975 Topps mini

Number of cards in my collection: 38

Thoughts: 

 

This is card No. 300 in the '67 set, it's easy to forget what a big deal Jim Kaat was in the mid-1960s, given his lengthy career and extended period as a relief pitcher late in his career. ... I love the billboards in the background. My copy of the card is deceptively clean in hand but it's obvious here that there are creases going every which way.

 

 

 LEO CARDENAS, AGE 85

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 518

First card/last card: 1960 Topps/1976 Topps

First card of his I saw: 1969 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 13

Thoughts: 

 

Of the 10 players mentioned here, I have 1972 Kellogg's cards for four of them. I don't know what that says: appearing on '72 Kellogg's was some sort of Fountain of Youth?

 

COOKIE ROJAS, AGE 84

No. of his 1975 Topps card: No. 169

First card/last card: 1963 Topps/1977 Topps

First card of his I saw: 1977 Topps

Number of cards in my collection: 14

Thoughts: 

 

Cookie has a lot of interesting cards, which means I've shown just about all of them. So I thought I'd show what's got to be his most boring one (why am I trying to complete this set again?) Almost nothing about it is specific. No uniform markings, but you can see the Phillies pinstripes. Even his position is vague.

 

So that's the top 10. Congrats to those octogenarians and beyond! Apologies to Claude Osteen, Carl Yastrzemski, Rico Carty, Dave Giusti and Danny Cater, who are also 84.

 

Most of the players mentioned were more known in the 1960s than the 1970s. Rojas is the 252nd oldest-living MLBer, but those who performed at the top of their game in the '70s don't really start showing up until Luis Tiant (No. 323) and Pete Rose (No. 342). Fortunately, most of the '70s guys are in the back half of the 1,000.

 

But viewing this list is pretty dangerous. I found Ron Cey at No. 903 and Steve Garvey at No. 991. Yikes.