In celebration of the 65th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, my collection is going to be the subject of this year-long series.
Shortly after starting my obsession in 1971, the goal was to have at least one Topps card from every year.
Although the 1952 set is considered to be the first released by Topps, the company issued two series that was a part of the game a year earlier.
A pair 1958 cards in my collection featuring Johnny Temple of the Cincinnati Reds and Sandy Amoros of the Los Angeles Dodgers are unique.
Temple’s card was one of the first set of all-stars from Topps that included many members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Sport Magazine would put its name on the cards in 1958 and again in 1960.
Unfortunately for Temple, he didn’t make the all-star game for the National League that season as he had in 1956 and 1957.
Temple had one of his better seasons and even picked up some votes in the Most Valuable Player balloting. The North Carolina native batted .306, which put him in ninth. He topped the NL in sacrifice hits for the second straight year. Defensively, he the league in putouts by a second baseman for the third time in his career.
Beginning his major league career in 1952 with the Reds, Temple stayed with the club until 1959 when he also was an all-star.
He joined the Cleveland Indians for the 1960 and 1961 seasons and was an all-star for the final time in his second year in the American League.
In 1962, he was sent to the Baltimore Orioles before moving on to the Houston Colt 45s later in the season. After another year with Houston, he ended his career with the Reds in 1964.
Amoros Robs Yogi
Although the catch by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series for the champion New York Giants is probably more famous, a grab by Amoros for the Brooklyn Dodgers the following year proved to be just as important.
Amoros entered the final contest of the 1955 World Series as a defensive replacement in left field. With the Dodgers leading 2-0 in the sixth, New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra slapped a ball to left that was going to tie the game. Amoros raced into the corner and made the catch to preserve Brooklyn’s advantage allowing the Dodgers to win their first title.
By time he was featured on this 1958 card, two things happened. The Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles and Amoros was sent to the minors and he spent the entire season with Montreal.
With the Royals that season, he hit 16 homers and knocked in 62 runs with a .260 batting average. The following season in Montreal, he had 26 long balls with 79 RBI as he hit .301.
A native of Cuba, Amoros played his first big league game in 1952 for the Dodgers and played in the majors with them from 1954-1957. He returned to the Dodgers in 1959 before they traded him to the Detroit Tigers a year later as he finished his time in the majors.