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Americo Peter Petrocelli
Boston Red Sox
Shortstop
Born: June 27, 1943, Brooklyn, NY
Signed: Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent, July 2, 1961
Major League Teams: Boston Red Sox 1963, 1965-1976
World Series Appearances: Boston Red Sox 1967, 1975
Rico Petrocelli was a two-time All-Star who spent his entire 13-year big league career as the regular shortstop or third baseman for the Red Sox. In his biggest game with the club, he hit two home runs in Game 6 of the 1967 World Series, leading the Red Sox to the win and forcing a Game 7 against the Cardinals. He helped the Red Sox reach the World Series in both 1967 and 1975, but his best personal season came in 1969. He batted .297 that year with a career high 40 home runs and 97 RBIs as the most dangerous bat in a Red Sox line-up that also consisted of Carl Yastrzemski (#130) and Reggie Smith (#660). He bettered his RBI mark in 1970 with 103. Over his career, he earned three top ten finishes in the American League for home runs and four top ten finishes in RBIs. A fine fielder too, Petrocelli's .970 fielding percentage as a third baseman is currently 8th all-time. In 1,553 career games, he batted .251 with 210 home runs and 773 RBIs. Petrocelli was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997.
Rico Petrocelli was a two-time All-Star who spent his entire 13-year big league career as the regular shortstop or third baseman for the Red Sox. In his biggest game with the club, he hit two home runs in Game 6 of the 1967 World Series, leading the Red Sox to the win and forcing a Game 7 against the Cardinals. He helped the Red Sox reach the World Series in both 1967 and 1975, but his best personal season came in 1969. He batted .297 that year with a career high 40 home runs and 97 RBIs as the most dangerous bat in a Red Sox line-up that also consisted of Carl Yastrzemski (#130) and Reggie Smith (#660). He bettered his RBI mark in 1970 with 103. Over his career, he earned three top ten finishes in the American League for home runs and four top ten finishes in RBIs. A fine fielder too, Petrocelli's .970 fielding percentage as a third baseman is currently 8th all-time. In 1,553 career games, he batted .251 with 210 home runs and 773 RBIs. Petrocelli was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
Building the Set / Card #217
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
The Card / Red Sox Team Set / Accuracy Index +1
1969 Season
As mentioned above, this was Petrocelli's career year and he'd start all but nine games at shortstop for the Red Sox. He went 1 for 3 as the starting shortstop for the American League All-Stars, doubling off the Mets' Jerry Koosman (#90) in the game's seventh inning. He batted over .300 for most of the season, dipping down to .297 over the final two games of the year. Petrocelli finished the season with the second highest slugging percentage (.589) behind Reggie Jackson (#260) and his .608 mark. And while Harmon Killebrew (#375) won league MVP honors, Petrocelli had the highest American League bWAR for the season at 10.0.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1965 Topps #74
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (13): 1965-1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2019 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RP
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 170 in the Beckett online database as of 1/11/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
Building the Set / Card #217
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 140th 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.
The Card / Red Sox Team Set / Accuracy Index +1
The repeat photos are coming in bunches now. Topps previously used this exact photo for Petrocell's 1967 card. The cartoon on the back of the card celebrates his two home runs in the 1967 World Series, and the write-up focuses on his 1967 season.
Accuracy Index: It's another +1 for this card - accurate uniform (+5) but a photo collectors had seen before (-4).
1969 Season
As mentioned above, this was Petrocelli's career year and he'd start all but nine games at shortstop for the Red Sox. He went 1 for 3 as the starting shortstop for the American League All-Stars, doubling off the Mets' Jerry Koosman (#90) in the game's seventh inning. He batted over .300 for most of the season, dipping down to .297 over the final two games of the year. Petrocelli finished the season with the second highest slugging percentage (.589) behind Reggie Jackson (#260) and his .608 mark. And while Harmon Killebrew (#375) won league MVP honors, Petrocelli had the highest American League bWAR for the season at 10.0.
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First Mainstream Card: 1965 Topps #74
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (13): 1965-1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2019 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RP
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 170 in the Beckett online database as of 1/11/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
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