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Richard Benjamin Reese
Minnesota Twins
First Base
Born: September 29, 1941, Leipsic, OH
Signed: Signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent before 1962 season
Major League Teams: Minnesota Twins 1964-1972; Detroit Tigers 1973; Minnesota Twins 1973
Rich Reese played 10 years in the majors, serving as the Twins regular third baseman in the late 1960s and earning some A.L. MVP votes in 1969. That was by far his best season as he hit career highs in average (.322), home runs (16) and RBIs (69). Reese is tied with three other players (one of whom is Willie McCovey - #440) for the most pinch-hit grand slams all-time with three. He struck out to end Catfish Hunter's (#235) perfect game on May 8, 1968 and he was also the 383rd strikeout victim of Nolan Ryan (#533) in 1973, when Ryan set the single season record for strikeouts.
In 866 games, Reese collected 512 hits, and batted .253 with 52 home runs and 245 RBIs.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
Building the Set / Card #109
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
The Card / Twins Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
1969 Season
As mentioned above, this was Reese's career year. As the regular first baseman for the pennant-winning Twins, he appeared in 132 games, making 95 starts at first base. Harmon Killebrew (#375) received 66 starts at first, in what essentially amounted to a platoon between the lefty Reese and the righty future Hall of Famer. Throughout most of the season, Killebrew moved over to third base for the games the opposing team started a right-handed pitcher. In the ALCS against the Orioles, Reese batted just .167 (2 for 12) as his team was swept in three games.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1965 Topps #597
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7): 1965, 1967-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1989 Pacific Legends II #112
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 32 in the Beckett online database as of 6/3/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
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 32nd 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 less than a dollar. 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!
The Card / Twins Team Set / Accuracy Index +5
This is another card from the set where the photo works well with the design. I can see what Topps was trying to do with this design, and the lack of options with photo choices for players who had switched teams in the prior three years turned this set into an eyesore. Once I've completed our set, I'll be interest to see how many of these cards are "good" cards, like this Reese card. The back of the card pulls details from Reese's somewhat distant past, highlighting his high school basketball days, his success in the minor leagues and how he came to Minnesota (via draft) in 1962.
Accuracy Index: Reese scores a solid 5 here.
1969 Season
As mentioned above, this was Reese's career year. As the regular first baseman for the pennant-winning Twins, he appeared in 132 games, making 95 starts at first base. Harmon Killebrew (#375) received 66 starts at first, in what essentially amounted to a platoon between the lefty Reese and the righty future Hall of Famer. Throughout most of the season, Killebrew moved over to third base for the games the opposing team started a right-handed pitcher. In the ALCS against the Orioles, Reese batted just .167 (2 for 12) as his team was swept in three games.
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First Mainstream Card: 1965 Topps #597
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7): 1965, 1967-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1989 Pacific Legends II #112
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 32 in the Beckett online database as of 6/3/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
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