5 Missing Topps Baseball Cards of the 1960s
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The 1960s were a decade in which fans and collectors bid farewell to titans such as Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, and Mickey Mantle while welcoming a new generation of superstars including Pete Rose, Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, and Nolan Ryan. Even with Topps the only game in town for much of the decade, there was never a shortage of awesome cardboard. Still, that's not to say the 1960s couldn't have been even better.
1962 Topps Maury Wills
Maury Wills took over the shortstop position for Los Angeles in June 1959 but didn't earn his first true Topps card until 1967. In truth then, ALL his Topps cards were missing from 1960 to 1966, but the most glaring omission came in his MVP season of 1962 when he electrified the National League with a then record 104 stolen bases. As partial atonement for the omission, Topps included images of "fantasy" 1962 Wills cards on three other cards issued over the next quarter century: a 1975 MVP subset card, a 1982 K-Mart MVP card, and a 1987 Turn Back the Clock card.
1962 Topps Buck O'Neil
Hall of Famer Buck O'Neil became the first Black coach in the majors when he assumed the role with the Chicago Cubs in 1962. As the Cubs were at the time experimenting with a "college of coaches" in place of a true manager, Topps passed over the ballclub when handing out team cards in its 1962 set. While it would have taken some extra work, how great would a photo of the team's coaches, Buck front and center, have been!
1966 Topps Mets Rookie Stars
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Topps included three different Mets Rookie Stars cards in its 1966 set, all featuring a pair of young players with aspirations of big league greatness. Of the six players across the trio, the most prominent by far was 1969 All-Star and World Series hero Cleon Jones. One player who cracked the roster in 1966 but did not earn cardboard was the great Nolan Ryan. Meanwhile, ace pitcher Tom Seaver was proving himself in AAA ball with what would be his only minor league season. Though Seaver in particular would have been a stretch for the "rookie stars" label, Mets fans can only imagine how Amazin' a Ryan/Seaver dual rookie card would have been.
1966 Topps Steve Carlton
As good as Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver were, Steve Carlton was right up there with them, not only as a hurler but in being left out of the 1966 Topps set. Interestingly, Lefty did earn cards in 1965 and 1967, the first a shared rookie stars card and the second his first of many solo cards. Unlike Ryan and Seaver then, Carlton has a gaping hole in his card catalog. On the surface, Carlton seems to have logged enough innings to have merited a second straight Rookie Stars card. However, because those innings did not begin until July 31, they came much too late even to crack the checklist of the 1966 set's fabled high numbers series.
1968 Topps Reggie Jackson
Vintage collectors know well that Mr. October has his rookie card in the 1969 Topps set. What they may not have thought about as much is why it took Topps so long to put Reggie on the checklist. Jackson, along with numerous other young players, had the bad luck to rise to prominence during a two-year dispute between Topps and the MLBPA in which no new baseball card photographs were taken.
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.