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Stephen Edward Whitaker
Kansas City Royals
Outfield
Born: May 7, 1943, Tacoma, WA
Signed: Signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent before 1962 season
Major League Teams: New York Yankees 1966-1968; Seattle Pilots 1969; San Francisco Giants 1970
Major League Teams: New York Yankees 1966-1968; Seattle Pilots 1969; San Francisco Giants 1970
Steve Whitaker played in parts of five big league seasons, with the bulk of his career spent with the Yankees. After a late season call-up in 1966, Whitaker earned a regular outfielder's job with the Yankees in 1967, starting 108 games overall - 74 in right, 23 in left and 11 in center field. Whitaker appeared in a career-high 122 games that season, batting .243 with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs. Limited to only 28 games with the Yankees in 1968, Whitaker was left unprotected for the postseason expansion draft. The Royals made him the 23rd pick, but dealt him to the Pilots at the end of spring training with John Gelnar in exchange for Lou Piniella (#394).
Whitaker would spend the 1969 season with the Pilots, and play in 16 games for the Giants in 1970, ending his big league career. He would find some success with the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders in 1971 and 1972, the top Giants' farm team, batting .270 and .284 respectively over his final two professional seasons. Whitaker batted .231 in the majors with 24 home runs and 85 RBIs.
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 45th 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 $1.25.
The Card / Royals Team Set / Accuracy Index -13
Whitaker is wearing a Yankees uniform here, and the photo is likely from the same session as the photo used for his 1967 Topps card. As mentioned on the back of the card, he did indeed lead the league in doubles plays turned as an outfielder in 1967 with six, tying him with the Athletics' Rick Monday (#105).
Accuracy Index: Whitaker earns a rare -13 for these demerits - Not actual 1969 team (-2), former team uniform (-5), never played for team (-6).
1969 Season
As mentioned above, Whitaker went to spring training with the Royals, but never played a game for them in the regular season. He played in 69 games for the Pilots, with all of August spent in the minor leagues before coming back as a September call-up. Whitaker rarely started, making 15 starts in right field and 12 starts in left field, and pinch-hitting 30 times. He batted .250 overall, with six home runs and 13 RBIs. On December 12th, he was traded with Dick Simpson (#608) to the Giants for Bobby Bolin (#505).
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First Mainstream Card: 1967 Topps #277
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4): 1967-1970
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2019 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-SW
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 18 in the Beckett online database as of 9/11/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
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