#495 Bert Campaneris - Oakland Athletics

Dagoberto Campaneris
Oakland Athletics
Shortstop

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'10"  Weight:  160
Born:  March 9, 1942, Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba
Signed:  Signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur free agent, April 25, 1961
Major League Teams:  Kansas City Athletics 1964-67; Oakland Athletics 1968-76; Texas Rangers 1977-79; California Angels 1979-81; New York Yankees 1983

World Series Appearances:  Oakland Athletics 1972-74

A speedy and steady fielding shortstop for most of his 19-year major league career, Bert Campaneris was a six-time All-Star and a three-time World Champion as a member of the Oakland Athletics dynasty of the early 1970s.  He first came to fame in 1965 when he became the first player to play all nine positions during a game in a publicity stunt staged by A's owner Charlie Finley.  Campaneris led the league with 51 steals in 1965, his first of four consecutive years leading the American League in that category.  He'd lead in six seasons overall with his 62 steals in 1968 his career best.  That 1968 season, the Athletics first in Oakland, was also his finest year in the majors as he batted .276 while leading the league with 177 hits.  Campaneris would play in his first of three consecutive postseasons in 1972, but earned a suspension when he threw his bat at Tigers' pitcher Lerrin LaGrow in Game 2 of the ALCS.  He batted .263 in his three World Series appearances, as the Athletics won in 1972, 1973 and 1974.  Campaneris was the starting shortstop for the American League All-Star teams in 1973, 1974 and 1975.

He signed as a free agent with the Rangers following the 1976 season, and Campaneris spent the final years of his big league career as a back-up infielder and pinch-hitter, leading the league in sacrifice bunts twice.  The veteran retired following one last stint in the majors with the Yankees, replacing an injured Willie Randolph in 1983.  He batted .259 in 2,328 games, collecting 2,249 hits and 649 stolen bases, currently 14th all-time.

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

Building the Set / Card #433
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 141st of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost a little over a dollar.

The Card / Athletics Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

Campaneris appears three times in the set - this base card, an All-Star card (#423) and a A's Stars combo player card (#556) with teammates Sal Bando (#371) and Danny Cater (#44).  The back of the card appropriately celebrates Campaneris' stolen base skills.  He'd lead the league in stolen bases twice more in his career, in 1970 and 1972.

Accuracy Index:  Campaneris is a rare +5 for an Athletics card, given most of his teammates show up earlier in the set with the former "KC" logo on their hat blotched out.

1969 Season
Campaneris was the everyday shortstop for the Athletics, and he was in the middle on a run of 12 consecutive seasons playing more games at shortstop for the club than any other player.  In 135 games, he batted .260 with 142 hits and 62 stolen bases, second in the league behind Tommy Harper (#42), who had 73.  But Campaneris was more successful than Harper and led the league with a 88.57% stolen base success rate.  Campaneris missed playing time in July after breaking his right index finger on a double play relay throw on July 3rd.

1965 Topps #266

1973 Topps #209

1975 Topps #170

1979 Topps #620

1984 Topps #139

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1965 Topps #266
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (20):  1965-84
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2016 Topps Archives Fan Favorite Autographs #FFA-BC
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  232 in the Beckett online database as of 12/1/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#494 Ken Berry - Chicago White Sox / #496 Larry Jaster - Montreal Expos

#423 Bert Campaneris AS - Oakland Athletics

All-Star cards returned to Topps sets in 1968 under The Sporting News banner for a three-year run between 1968 and 1970.  Topps included 20 All-Star cards in its 1969 set, featuring 10 All-Stars from each league and one player from each position, including both a right-handed and left-handed pitcher.  

Building the Set / Card #381
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 89th of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost a little over $2.

The Card / Athletics Team Set / Carl Yastrzemski Puzzle

Bert Campaneris (#495) appeared in six All-Star Games, making three starts as the American League's shortstop - 1973, 1974 and 1975.  Along with Vida Blue, Gene Tenace, Joe Rudi (#587) and Reggie Jackson (#260), he was one of five Athletics' players in the starting line-up in 1975.  Campaneris was a reserve in 1968, and not named to the squad in 1969, when Rico Petrocelli (#215) was the starting shortstop for the American League All-Stars.

Campaneris is wearing an outdated Kansas City Athletics uniform here, as the team hadn't worn pinstripes since the early 1960s.  The photo could likely date back to the same session as the photo used for his 1965 Topps rookie card.  The action photo behind Campaneris is actually a photo of Yankees' shortstop Tony Kubek catching the ball as the Pirates' Gino Cimoli slides into second base in play that happened in Game 4 of the 1960 World Series!  It's not the exact photo used on the 1961 Topps card, but it's from the same play.  Linked below is a great article from Sports Collectors Daily, and the author did his best in tracking down the origins of the action photos appearing on these All-Star subset cards.  

The backs of these All-Star cards contain a puzzle piece of either Pete Rose (#120) or Carl Yastrzemski (#130).  The back of Campaneris' card features Yaz's right elbow.

Topps All-Star Card Appearances (4):  1969, 1974-76

1961 Topps #309

1974 Topps #335

1975 Topps #170

1976 Topps #580

Sources:  
Baseball Reference

Sports Collectors Daily - Mistaken Identities

#422 Don Kessinger AS - Chicago Cubs / #424 Pete Rose AS - Cincinnati Reds

#556 A's Stars - Sal Bando / Bert Campaneris / Danny Cater CPC

In the set's sixth series, Topps made the decision to include four (and only four) combo cards featuring members of the Orioles, Senators, Athletics and Giants.  A staple throughout the prior decade-plus of Topps sets, the combo cards would make a brief, final appearance with these four cards and then disappear again.  Various checklists also denote these as "CPC" for combo player cards.

Building the Set / Card #73
February 13, 2023 from Wenonah, NJ (Gar Miller Cards)
Given my chosen profession, I sit through an inordinate amount of work meetings, which are now almost all virtual in this post-pandemic world.  On some occasions, these meetings are admittedly a combination of boring, unneeded, too lengthy or some combination of all three.  During a recent early February virtual work meeting, and after it became apparent the meeting had derailed into matters unimportant to me personally, I bought a bunch of old baseball cards.  Gar Miller is a noted hobby luminary, and he still sells vintage baseball cards via his online store, Gar Miller Cards.  I navigated over to his website, picking up a small stack of cards from this 1969 Topps set build and a few bonus cards for our not yet officially collecting 1955 Bowman and 1959 Topps sets.  For those watching me on screen during the virtual work meeting, I had the appearance of someone smiling, nodding appreciatively and following along attentively.  But in reality, I was adding baseball cards to my online cart, including this A's Stars card which was $10.

The Card / Athletics Team Set

Similar to the combo card proceeding it, the "Bird Hill Aces" (#532) that omitted the main Bird Hill Ace, Jim Palmer (#573), this card omits the biggest star for the A's in 1969 - Reggie Jackson (#260).  As Jackson had first made his mark on the league in 1968, this shouldn't have come as a surprise to Topps.  What's more, first baseman Danny Cater's (#44) inclusion here is somewhat surprising, given he had never been considered in the "star" category.  He did finish second in the batting race in 1968 with a .290 mark, but that's barely star-worthy.  In 1968, the Athletics sent three players to the All-Star Game - Bert Campaneris (#495), Rick Monday (#105) and John Odom (#195).  In 1969, Odom returned to the All-Star Game and was joined by teammates Sal Bando (#371) and Jackson.  Nothing against former Phillie Cater here, but an A's Stars card likely should have omitted him and included either Monday, Odom or the budding superstar Jackson.

What's more, the first sentence on the back of the card refers to the "youthful A's" which would have fit the description of Bando (25), Monday and Jackson (both 23), but likely not Cater (29).  Had the Topps photographer found someway to squeeze Jackson into this photo, it would have been much more desirable and accurate.

1969 Season

The three top players in 1969 for the Athletics were Jackson, Bando and second baseman Dick Green (#515).  Hank Bauer's (#124) club was in first place as late as July 4th, but then fell into second place on July 5th, where they'd stay for the duration of the season.  Their 88-74 record landed them nine games behind the American League West division winners, the Twins.  Bando batted .281 with 31 home runs and 113 RBIs, leading the team in batting, but second behind Jackson who had a monster year.  At one point, Jackson's home run tally was on pace to break Roger Maris's single-season record of 61 home runs set in 1961.  Jackson would finish the season with 47 home runs and 118 RBIs.

Campaneris had another consistent year, playing steady shortstop and batting .260 with 62 stolen bases, which was second in the league behind Tommy Harper's (#42) 73.  Cater had a decent year too, batting .262 over 152 games with 10 home runs and 76 RBIs.  His RBI tally was third on the club behind Jackson and Bando.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia

#555 Jim Hart - San Francisco Giants / #557 Frank Fernandez - New York Yankees