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Tommy Harper
Seattle Pilots
Outfield
Born: October 14, 1940, Oak Grove, LA
Signed: Signed by the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent before 1960 season
Major League Teams: Cincinnati Reds 1962-1967; Cleveland Indians 1968; Seattle Pilots 1969; Milwaukee Brewers 1970-1971; Boston Red Sox 1972-1974; California Angels 1975; Oakland Athletics 1975; Baltimore Orioles 1976
Tommy Harper was considered one of the first (if not the first) superstars for the Milwaukee Brewers, joining the exclusive 30-30 Club in 1970 when he hit 31 home runs and stole 38 bases. At the time, the only other club members were Hank Aaron (#100), Bobby Bonds (#630), Willie Mays (#190) and Ken Williams. A few years later, he was one of the top hitters for the 1973 Red Sox, hitting .281 and leading the league with 54 stolen bases. His only other time topping the league in stolen bases came in 1969 during the only year of the Seattle Pilots' existence. Mostly a left fielder throughout his career, Harper was the team's opening day second baseman and finished the season as their regular third baseman.
Harper played 15 seasons in the majors, hitting .257 with 146 career home runs and 408 stolen bases. He finished in the top ten in the league in stolen bases ten different times and his career tally currently has him sitting at 68th on the all-time stolen base leaders list. After retiring, Harper served as a coach for the Red Sox (1980-1984, 2000-2002) and Expos (1990-1999). He was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2010.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
Building the Set / Card #98
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
The Card / Pilots Team Set / Accuracy Index -8
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
In mid-March, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set. That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon. I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.
This is the 21st of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York. My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside. After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far. With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298. The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards, with this card costing me $1.25. If I stick to composing posts five times a week, and I'm already slipping off that pace a little, I should go through the stack and be caught up by the week of January 22, 2024!
Harper is wearing an away jersey of one of his two former teams here, either the Reds or the Indians, with whom he had spent the 1968 season. Given the Indians had piping around the neck of their 1968 uniforms, and as it's unlikely Topps would have gotten a picture of Harper in his Indians gear, I'm going with this being a Reds away jersey. The back of the card summarizes his path to the expansion Pilots. Drafted as the third pick in the 1968 expansion draft, I imagine it was a little surprising for Harper to have been left unprotected by Cleveland. On November 21, 1967, less than a year before the expansion draft, the Indians had dealt George Culver (#635), Bob Raudman and Fred Whitfield (#518) to the Reds in exchange for Harper.
Accuracy Index: Harper loses five points for the Reds jersey and another three for being hatless.
1969 Season
In a mostly forgettable season with the Pilots, if not for Jim Bouton's Ball Four book, Harper was the team's opening day second baseman. He has the distinction of starting the most games ever for the Pilots with 137, which included 58 starts at third base, 57 starts at second base, 21 starts in center field and a start in right field. Given a permanent green light by Pilots' manager Joe Schultz (#254), Harper stole 73 bases to lead the league. (He also led the league with being caught stealing 18 times.) Overall, Harper batted .235 with 78 runs scored, nine home runs and 41 RBIs.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1963 Topps #158
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15): 1963-1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1983 Galasso 1969 Seattle Pilots #37
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 102 in the Beckett online database as of 5/20/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
In a mostly forgettable season with the Pilots, if not for Jim Bouton's Ball Four book, Harper was the team's opening day second baseman. He has the distinction of starting the most games ever for the Pilots with 137, which included 58 starts at third base, 57 starts at second base, 21 starts in center field and a start in right field. Given a permanent green light by Pilots' manager Joe Schultz (#254), Harper stole 73 bases to lead the league. (He also led the league with being caught stealing 18 times.) Overall, Harper batted .235 with 78 runs scored, nine home runs and 41 RBIs.
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First Mainstream Card: 1963 Topps #158
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15): 1963-1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1983 Galasso 1969 Seattle Pilots #37
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 102 in the Beckett online database as of 5/20/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
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