 |
 |
John David Donaldson
Oakland Athletics
Second Base
Born: May 5, 1943, Charlotte, NC
Signed: Signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent before 1963 season
Major League Teams: Kansas City Athletics 1966-1967; Oakland Athletics 1968-1969; Seattle Pilots 1969; Oakland Athletics 1970, 1974
Second baseman John Donaldson played in parts of six big league seasons, primarily with the Athletics during the team's final years in Kansas City and its first years in Oakland. Donaldson was a light hitting infielder who occasionally secured regular playing time at second base for the Athletics. Upon the team's move to Oakland, he was their starting second baseman on opening day 1968. Steadily losing playing time to fellow second baseman Dick Green (#515), Donaldson was dealt to the expansion Pilots in June 1969, only to be reacquired by the Athletics in May 1970. He'd play in the minor league systems of the Tigers and in 1971 and the Padres in 1972 before joining the Athletics for a third time before the start of the 1974 season. He'd see his last big league action in 10 games for the eventual World Champions in 1974 before retiring. Donaldson batted .238 for his career with 292 hits, including four home runs.
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 142nd 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 less than a dollar.
The Card / Athletics Team Set / Accuracy Index +2
Assuming this photo was taken in 1967, the coach behind Donaldson could be Cot Deal, Bobby Hofman, Wes Stock or Al Vincent. There's also a chance it could be one of the Athletics two managers during the season - Luke Appling or Alvin Dark (#91). If this were a Topps card from the 1980s, I'd likely be able to tell who the coach was, but I'm at a loss here. My version of the card has a weird black streak right below Donaldson's neck I didn't notice when I was picking it out. With not a lot of material to draw from for the back of the card, Topps highlights Donaldson's 18-game hitting streak in 1967 with the Vancouver Mounties.
Accuracy Index: The uniform is accurate (+5) but the "KC" logo on the hat has been blacked out (-3) given the team's move to Oakland for the 1968 season.
1969 Season
Donaldson began the season as Green's back-up with the Athletics, with Donaldson appearing in only 12 games between opening day and mid-June. He was used as a pinch-hitter in 11 of those games, getting one start at second base on May 30th during the first game of a double header. On June 14th, the Athletics traded him to the Pilots for catcher Larry Haney (#209), and Donaldson would serve as the regular second baseman for the Pilots for the remainder of the season, occasionally yielding to Gus Gil (#651) or Ron Clark (#561). With the Pilots, Donaldson batted .234 in 95 games, collecting eight doubles and 19 RBIs.
|
|
First Mainstream Card: 1968 Topps #244
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3): 1968-1970
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1983 Galasso 1969 Seattle Pilots #32
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 17 in the Beckett online database as of 1/13/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
That may be another player behind him, because the A's coaching staff normally wore white caps.
ReplyDeletehttps://1967topps.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-1967-athletics.html
(Maybe things were different in Spring Training.)