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James Alexander Campanis
Kansas City Royals
Catcher
Born: February 9, 1944, New York, NY
Signed: Signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1962 season
Major League Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers 1966-68; Kansas City Royals 1969-70; Pittsburgh Pirates 1973
Major League Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers 1966-68; Kansas City Royals 1969-70; Pittsburgh Pirates 1973
Back-up catcher Jim Campanis spent parts of six seasons in the majors, mostly with the Dodgers and Royals. Campanis was a September call-up by the Dodgers in 1966, making his big league debut in a blow-out 11-1 win over the Phillies on September 20th. He pinch-hit for John Roseboro (#218) and caught the final two innings of Sandy Koufax's complete game win. Campanis played in a career-high 41 games in 1967, third in the Dodgers' catching depth chart behind Roseboro and Jeff Torborg (#353). After a season spent almost entirely in the minors in 1968, Campanis was sent to the expansion Royals, where he'd make the club's opening day roster but get demoted to the minors in early June.
After a similar season with the Royals in 1970, Campanis was dealt to the Pirates at the end of the year. He'd spend four years in the Pirates' system, briefly seeing action with the big league club in 1973 with six pinch-hitting appearances. Campanis batted .218 for his career in 113 games, with six doubles, four home runs and nine RBIs.
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times. I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.
Similar to my strategy from March, I wanted to focus on accumulating commons and having found success with Uncle Dick's Cards before, I didn't mess around and headed right for the neon green binders. I pulled 145 cards from the binder containing cards 301 to the end of the set, stopping when I reached 500. This card was the 70th of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost me a little over $1.
Campanis is shown in a Dodgers uniform, and his uniform #25 means the photo was taken in 1967 or 1968, the two years he wore that number while in Los Angeles. His father, Al Campanis, is mentioned on the back. The elder Campanis was a long-time general manager of the Dodgers between 1968 and 1987, but lost his job following controversial and racially insensitive comments made during a live television interview in early 1987.
Accuracy Index: Campanis' card scores a somewhat standard -8.
1969 Season
Campanis was an original Royal, and began the season sharing catching duties with Ellie Rodriguez (#49). In 25 games through June 1st, he was batting just .155, which led to a minor league demotion. Campanis would be back as a September call-up, appearing in five more games for the fourth place Royals. In the majors, he batted .157 for the season. With the Triple-A Omaha Royals, he batted .244 with nine home runs and 48 RBIs.
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First Mainstream Card: 1967 Topps #12
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (5): 1967-70, 1974
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1974 Topps #513
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 19 in the Beckett online database as of 9/2/24.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia
Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
#395 Chris Short - Philadelphia Phillies / #397 Chuck Dobson - Oakland Athletics
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