#255 Steve Carlton - St. Louis Cardinals

Steven Norman Carlton
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'4"  Weight:  210
Born:  December 22, 1944, Miami, FL
Signed:  Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as an amateur free agent, October 8, 1963
Major League Teams:  St. Louis Cardinals 1965-1971; Philadelphia Phillies 1972-1986; San Francisco Giants 1986; Chicago White Sox 1986; Cleveland Indians 1987; Minnesota Twins 1987-1988

World Series Appearances:  St. Louis Cardinals 1967; Philadelphia Phillies 1980, 1983
Hall of Fame Induction:  1994

Steve Carlton was one of the best left-handed pitchers in the history of the game.  He found early success with the Cardinals, making three All-Star squads and earning his first World Series ring in 1967.  After the Phillies acquired him in February 1972 for Rick Wise (#188), he took his career to the next level.  Lefty led the league in strikeouts five times, wins four times and he clinched an ERA title in 1972 with a 1.97 mark to go along with his 27-10 record and 30 complete games.  That was also the year he won the first of his four Cy Young Awards, winning the honor again in 1977, 1980 and 1982.  His pitching helped the Phillies win their first World Championship in 1980.  

Carlton currently ranks 11th on the all-time wins list (329) and 4th on the all-time strikeouts list (4,136) and only Warren Spahn has more wins in baseball history (363) among all left-handed pitchers.  He briefly held the top spot for all-time strikeouts before being ultimately overtaken by Nolan Ryan (#533) in 1984, and along with Ryan, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens he's one of only four players with over 4,000 strikeouts in major league history.  That mark also puts him atop the all-time National League leaders list for strikeouts.  His #32 was retired by the Phillies in 1989, and he was an easy first ballot Hall of Famer in 1994.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set / Card #272
September 23, 2023 from The Philly Show (Ed's Old Baseball Cards)
Given the massive haul of 193 cards acquired for our 1969 Topps set at the March Philly Show, I held off on adding more cards throughout the summer of 2023.  We weren't even going to go to the Philly Show last September, but our oldest son's baseball tournament was rained out, and we found ourselves with a free weekend.  I wrote about the show originally over at The Phillies Room.

I added just 15 cards to our set build at this show, all from the same dealer, Ed's Old Baseball Cards out of the Buffalo area.  Technically, the cards I bought were from Ed's associate, Gary, who explained he was along for the ride and brought a bunch of his vintage cards for sale.  I picked four needed star cards, including this Carlton card.  Gary gave us a nice discount on the purchase, so we went back after securing a few autographs and I picked 11 more commons and semi-stars from his modest selection of 1960s Topps cards for sale.  Posting for these 15 cards should take me a lot less longer than what it took to get through the box of cards brought home from the March 2023 Philly Show.

The Card / Cardinals Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

The photo used here was likely taken at the same time as the photo used for Carlton's 1968 Topps card.  The back of the card highlights his career achievements to date, and Topps seems somewhat surprised Carlton had a decent season in 1968, following his rookie season of 1967.

Carlton signed reprints of this card for the 2018 Topps Heritage release.

Accuracy Index:  No issues here, as Carlton's card scores a +5.

1969 Season
Carlton enjoyed his best season to date in 1969, going 17-11 in 31 starts with an impressive 2.17 ERA.  He struck out 210 over 236 1/3 innings pitched, both career highs for him at that point in his career.  He and Bob Gibson (#200) won 37 games between the two of them, nearly half of the Cardinals' 87 total wins for the fourth place club.  Carlton was the starting pitcher for the National League All Stars, pitching three innings and ultimately getting credited with the win, despite allowing home runs to Frank Howard (#170) and Bill Freehan (#390).  On September 15th, Carlton set a then major league record by striking out 19 batters in a game against the Mets.

Phillies Career
Carlton put together a Hall of Fame career as the greatest left-handed pitcher in Phillies team history.  He was an All-Star in 1972, 1974, 1977 and 1979 through 1982.  Carlton was the winning pitcher in the World Series clinching game against the Royals in 1980.  He's the franchise's all-time leader in games started (499), wins (241) and strikeouts (3,031).  

A statute of Carlton stands at Citizens Bank Park, the current home of the Phillies, along with statues of the other members of the franchise's Mount Rushmore - Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn and Mike Schmidt.

1965 Topps #477

1972 Topps #751

1977 Topps #110

1980 Topps #210

1987 Topps Traded #19T

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1965 Topps #477
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (22):  1965, 1967-1987
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2024 Topps 1989 Topps Baseball 35th Anniversary Autographs #89BA-SC
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  2,223 in the Beckett online database as of 3/25/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

National Baseball Hall of Fame
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog / The Phillies Room

#254 Joe Schultz MG - Seattle Pilots / #256 Gates Brown - Detroit Tigers