Jim Bouton was one of the most famous baseball personages of the 1970s. Once "Ball Four" was published the sports world changed. The raw language, the humanizing of players and even the financial struggles the players went through made "Ball Four" must reading at that time and to the present day, His playing day card run was just as interesting as his post baseball career.
His first card was in the then revolutionary 1962 Rookie Parade subset in the last series. Topps had beginning with 1959 started to annotate rookies in their set. 1959 and 1960 had subsets but 1961 and 1962 had those rookie cards scattered throughout the set. More than six decades later, we may not know all the reasons why Topps suddenly went for multi-player rookie cards but today the set collectors sometimes shake their heads at how difficult or popular some of these cards are, At one time this may have been the most in demand card from this eight-card group but it's now Bob Uecker. Needless to say, still a fun card to chase down
The next year he had his first card by himself. This card is in the middle series in the 1963 set and while not as difficult as the final two series back in the olden days there was a belief in some circles those cards were more difficult than the final two series. That happens to be true for the 1965 set in my opinion but 1963 has over the years been proved otherwise. And I say that because if anyone still has the price lists from the Sports Corner Store (the 1st card store in America) they had that middle series at the higher price point. A nice photo and one which at one time was even considered better than today.
The next year had three Jim Bouton cards in the main set and the first of two years he would have more than one card in the basic Topps set. He is on a leaders card featuring Whitey Ford as the league leader and is the only card he shares with a Hall of Famer.
He also has a posed multi-player card with Al Downing as Young Aces. Neither player quite hit the heights of what was hoped for but they both did have decent careers. In one of those everything in life is a circle than Downing and Bouton quality. The Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1963 World Series, and nearly a decade later Downing would have one of those years by winning 20 games in 1971 for those self-same Dodgers. That season would enable him to hang on with the Dodgers for a few more seasons. He actually had a more famous moment as a Dodger as he was on the mound when Hank Aaron hit homer #715. Let's listen to the legendary Vin Scully making the call
Note that Scully immediately after saying the ball was a homer did not say another word for 25 seconds.
If you need more proof why he was great this is just another example
His third major card in 1964 was his regular card. Again. in a more difficult series, this is another card with some occasional challenges to find. This is the type of pose which gave him the "Bulldog" nickname
There is also a Topps Coin card and a really fun to get Challenge the Yankees card. Two nice items to close out 1964. He had the final of his two really good seasons in 1964 and pitched well in the World Series. He won a World Series game and got honored with a World Series highlight card
He has a base card and a Gold Embossed insert card. Now everyone has a different opinion but to me those Gold Embossed cards are amongst the worst ideas Topps had in the 1960s and you can make your own selection about what else you might not like.
You can see nearly six decades later about just what a bad idea these cards were and still are.
The next couple of years he battled arm injuries but was still getting cards each year in the Topps set. Nothing really special in either set but just those type of cards Topps used as st "fillers".
His final basic Topps card came in the final series of 1968. A popular card in a series which I think from all the cards I've handled over the years is underrated as to the difficulty.
We are showing the back of this card because it shows how Topps was a "living" set in those days. The first line of the text refers to spring training. Really cool Topps would probably change some of their player selection on the fly
Now comes the question which has perplexed me for many years. Which is, why no 1969 or 70 Topps cards. For those who said he had no guarantee of a roster spot, I have this to say. When you consider the very first card of the Seattle Pilots was Mike Marshall who did not pitch in the majors in 1968 one wonders even more. He certainly could have been in one of the final two series.
We will use these "Cards that never were from Bob Lemke's blog. For those reading who don't know Bob was as pre-eminent cataloguer and the driving force behind what made the Standard Catalog a must for many dealers and vintage card collectors. Dr. Jim Beckett and I did a series of podcasts with old hobby friend TS O'Connell with tales about Mr. Lemke
And now his 1969 card that never was
"Ball Four" was released during the 1970 season but there was time for Bouton to be included for Topps in the early series. My guess is after the publishing of his book, there was probably not a way to include his card. He did pitch in 71 games in 1969 so he was very active that year.
But no, Bouton's career was not completed. After a few years away from professional baseball he made it back to the Atlanta Braves in 1978 and pitched reasonably well before not coming back to 1979. I think he could have pitched a few more years as he was younger than then ace Phil Niekro
And this ends any of Jim Bouton's playing career cards. And we're just focusing on Topps since they were the only major manufacturer during his playing career. Topps only had a few Bouton cards during the rest of his life. He would have only a few Topps cards but to me the most interesting group of cards was the 2019 Topps Archives Snapshot cards
There are also some signed copies of these cards and those are very nice cards. Bouton does have plenty of other cards so one can dig around and find other cards you might be interested in.