The Obscure Angels Outfielder Who Made Baseball Card History
In this story:
Say the name Bill Voss in a room full of baseball fans, and you're likely to hear mostly crickets. Though the former major leaguer played eight seasons, nearly all were in a backup capacity. His career Wins Above Replacement (WAR), is only 0.1. Still, sometimes making history comes down to only one thing: being in the right place at the right time.
Ten years before Voss cracked his first big league roster in 1965, future American League MVP Elston Howard made his New York Yankees debut, integrating the storied franchise in the process. Of course hardware and history aside, it may be that Howard's most enduring legacy came in the form of the weighted add-on decades of ballplayers, from Little Leaguers to Big Leaguers, affixed to the barrels of their bats during warmups. Howard, after all, was the inventor of the batting doughnut!
RELATED: Five Fun Facts About the 1959 Topps Baseball Set
According to the Baseball Law Reporter blog, the first sporting goods store to sell the "Elston Howard Bat Weight" was Bernard’s Sport Center in northeast New Jersey, which began carrying the device in April 1968, but soon enough the batting doughnut could be found nationwide. "That's great," you say, "but what does that have to do with Bill Voss, or whatever his name is?" And that's where the 1970 Topps Bill Voss card comes in.
RELATED: Five Baseball Card Firsts That May Surprise You
Though it was certainly possible for a Topps card in the 1969 set to show a player with a doughnut, none do. (Mark Armour of the Society for American Baseball Research has a simple explanation for why at least the first half of the 1969 set was doughnut-free.) Instead, the first Topps card to show a batting doughnut did not occur until the third series of the 1970 Topps set where only a single card offered a peek at the device. That card, numbered 326, belonged to Bill Voss of course. So yes, Voss may not have made much baseball history during his career, but "doughnut" doubt for even a second his contributions to baseball card history!
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.