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Gilbert Raymond Hodges
New York Mets
Manager
Born: April 4, 1924, Princeton, IN
Signed: Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent, September 6, 1943
Major League Teams: Brooklyn Dodgers 1943, 1947-57; Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-61; New York Mets 1962-63
World Series Appearances: Brooklyn Dodgers 1947, 1949, 1952-53, 1955-56, 1959
As a Manager: Washington Senators 1963-67; New York Mets 1968-71
Died: April 2, 1972, West Palm Beach, FL (age 47)
Jackie Robinson called Gil Hodges, "The core of the Brooklyn Dodgers." Originally a catcher, Hodges moved to first base for the Dodgers in the late 1940s where he'd be a mainstay for the club throughout the next decade, including their move west to Los Angeles. Hodges had seven straight seasons of 100 RBIs or more between 1949 and 1955, and his bat helped lead the Dodgers to World Series titles in 1955 and 1959. He never won an MVP, but the eight-time All-Star was a perennial MVP vote getter. Considered one of the finest defensive first baseman of his era, he won three Gold Gloves. His 361 career home runs are second on the Dodgers' all-time list behind Duke Snider's 389 and he finished his playing career as a member of the expansion Mets. In 1,921 career games he hit .273 with 370 home runs and 1,274 RBIs.
Hodges retired as an active player when the Mets traded him to the Senators on May 23, 1963 for Jim Piersall, and Hodges assumed managerial duties for the departed Mickey Vernon. His years with the Senators were fairly dismal as the team never finished above sixth place. He took over at the helm for the Mets in 1968 and led the club to their first improbable World Championship title in 1969 with a miraculous victory over the heavily favored Orioles. Hodges passed away unexpectedly during spring training 1972, felled by a heart attack after a round of golf with his Mets coaches.
His #14 was retired by the Mets in 1973 and he was elected into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1982. Hodges was finally elected in the Hall of Fame in December 2021 by the Golden Days Era Committee, and was inducted posthumously in 2022.
As a Manager: Washington Senators 1963-67; New York Mets 1968-71
Died: April 2, 1972, West Palm Beach, FL (age 47)
Hall of Fame Induction: 2022
Jackie Robinson called Gil Hodges, "The core of the Brooklyn Dodgers." Originally a catcher, Hodges moved to first base for the Dodgers in the late 1940s where he'd be a mainstay for the club throughout the next decade, including their move west to Los Angeles. Hodges had seven straight seasons of 100 RBIs or more between 1949 and 1955, and his bat helped lead the Dodgers to World Series titles in 1955 and 1959. He never won an MVP, but the eight-time All-Star was a perennial MVP vote getter. Considered one of the finest defensive first baseman of his era, he won three Gold Gloves. His 361 career home runs are second on the Dodgers' all-time list behind Duke Snider's 389 and he finished his playing career as a member of the expansion Mets. In 1,921 career games he hit .273 with 370 home runs and 1,274 RBIs.
His #14 was retired by the Mets in 1973 and he was elected into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1982. Hodges was finally elected in the Hall of Fame in December 2021 by the Golden Days Era Committee, and was inducted posthumously in 2022.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
I made stops at six tables at the show, all yielding needed cards for our 1969 Topps set, and I left the show with just 16 more cards to go for my version of a complete set. I'm not even sure how best to describe the fifth table I visited. I typically steer clear of tables that look incredibly disorganized or tables that look as if the dealer put minimal effort into his/her display. This table was both. But the crudely designed, hand-made sign advertising "Entire Table is 50% Off" made me stop and at least look at what was in the 1969 Topps hodgepodge of cards. And I'm glad I did. It took me a solid 20-25 minutes to go through the cards that were loosely in order, but I found seven cards I needed with either mislabeled prices (?) or prices that hadn't been updated since the 1980s. I paid $1 for this Hodges card, the fifth of seven cards purchased from what I'm calling the Crazy Boxes table, and I wished I had made this table my first stop.
The Card / Mets Team Set / Accuracy Index +1
1969 Season
From his SABR biography, written by John Saccoman:
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (22): 1951-52, 1954-72, 1989
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2025 Topps Living #861
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 585 in the Beckett online database as of 3/1/26.
Sources:
Baseball Reference - Hodges / Baseball Reference - 1969 Mets / SABR / Wikipedia
Building the Set / Card #645
September 21, 2025 from The Philly Show (Crazy Boxes)
On Sunday morning, September 21st, I made the hour-long drive to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania for the latest installment of the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show, known to its friends as The Philly Show. The show has a legitimate official sponsor (eBay) and the advertisement for the event notes the show is in its 50th year. I hadn't attended a baseball card show since the last Philly Show in December, and I was flying solo to this one as our oldest son is in his first month of college at Villanova. I posted a full summary of the show over at The Phillies Room.
The Card / Mets Team Set / Accuracy Index +1
Collectors had already seen this exact same photo on Hodges' card in the 1968 Topps set, and the card would appear again in the 1989 Topps set on a Turn Back the Clock subset card. Topps reprinted the full card for its 2002 Topps Archives set. With not a lot of managerial highlights to date, Topps celebrated the four home runs Hodges hit in one game in 1950 on the back of the card.
Accuracy Index: Hodges' card loses points for the duplicate photo.
1969 Season
From his SABR biography, written by John Saccoman:
Hodges' first winning season as manager came with the 1969 Mets, a team that went 100-62, 27 wins more than the previous year. They were led by rising star pitchers Tom Seaver (#480), Jerry Koosman (#90), and promising youngster Nolan Ryan (#533), as well as left fielder Cleon Jones (#512) and center fielder Tommie Agee (#364) . . .
Hodges' level-headedness and humor were certainly a factor in guiding the team through this season . . . What is truly remarkable about Hodges' managerial achievement, besides the 27-win improvement from the previous season, was the fact that the Mets only had two players (Jones and Agee) who had enough plate appearances to qualify for a batting title. In fact, Hodges platooned at catcher, right field, and all the infield positions. While the Mets did not finish above the league average in any major offensive statistic, they had one more run allowed than the league leading St. Louis Cardinals.
Projecting wins based on runs scored and runs allowed (Bill James' Pythagorean Projection), the Mets were expected to have 92 wins. They wound up with an even 100. The Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, with four future Hall of Famers on its roster, in three straight games in the NL playoffs . . . Hodges and the Mets defeated the heavily-favored Baltimore Orioles (also with four future Hall of Famers, including manager Earl Weaver - #516) in five games in the World Series, making the Mets the first expansion team ever to participate in and win a World Series.
Hodges was voted Manager of the Year for turning the lovable losers into World Champions.
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Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1949 Bowman #100Topps Flagship Set Appearances (22): 1951-52, 1954-72, 1989
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2025 Topps Living #861
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 585 in the Beckett online database as of 3/1/26.
Update Cards
For my 1965 Topps blog, I used the team card posts to come up with five or six candidates per team for an imaginary update series. With no team cards in the 1969 Topps set, I'll use each manager card for this exercise, and come up with a list of deserving cards to be included in an 8th/update series. They're not all attractive cards, but the Mets are already fairly represented in the 1969 Topps set.
- Wayne Garrett (3b) - Wayne Garrett played in 124 games, batting just .218 but starting more games at third base (63) than any other Mets player.
- Rod Gaspar (of) - Back-up outfielder Rod Gaspar batted .228 in 118 games. Garrett's and Gaspar's rookie cards are in the 1970 Topps set.
- Donn Clendenon (1b) - I'd give Donn Clendenon his third card in the set (#208), as he was previously featured with the Astros and Expos, but he's justifiably best remembered as a member of the Mets.
- Gary Gentry (rhp) - Gary Gentry shared a Rookie Stars card with Amos Otis (#31), but only Seaver started as many games as he did with 35.
- Bobby Pfeil (3b) - Bobby Pfeil appeared in 62 games, the most of his two seasons in the majors.
- Yogi Berra (coach) - And coach Yogi Berra gets a card in my update set. The Mets' first base coach, he'd take over for Hodges when the popular manager died suddenly of a heart attack on April 2, 1972.
Baseball Reference - Hodges / Baseball Reference - 1969 Mets / SABR / Wikipedia
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