#44 Danny Cater - Oakland Athletics

Danny Anderson Cater
Oakland Athletics
First Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  170
Born:  February 25, 1940, Austin, TX
Signed:  Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent, June 8, 1958
Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Phillies 1964; Chicago White Sox 1965-1966; Kansas City Athletics 1966-1967; Oakland Athletics 1968-1969; New York Yankees 1970-1971; Boston Red Sox 1972-1974; St. Louis Cardinals 1975

Danny Cater tallied at least 500 plate appearances in six straight seasons as an everyday first baseman for the White Sox, Athletics and Yankees.  He was a tough batter to strike out, but his lack of speed resulted in Cater finishing in the top ten of double plays grounded into in six different seasons.  Cater finished second in the American League in batting in 1968 with a .290 average during the Year of the Pitcher.  He also led all American League first baseman in fielding percentage that season (.995) and his .994 career fielding percentage is currently 72nd all-time for the position.  Cater was involved in a lopsided trade in March 1972, with the Yankees shipping him and Mario Guerrero to the Red Sox for Sparky Lyle (#311).  Lyle would enjoy three All-Star seasons with the Yankees and win the American League Cy Young Award in 1977.

Cater was released by the Cardinals on July 26, 1975, ending his playing career.  In 1,289 career games, Cater batted .276 with 1,229 hits, 66 home runs and 519 RBIs.  He briefly served as a minor league hitting instructor for the Yankees in 1976 before leaving baseball behind and returning to his home state of Texas.

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

Building the Set / Card #100
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 23rd 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 me less than a dollar.  If I stick to composing posts five times a week, and I'm already slipping off that pace a little, I should go through the stack and be caught up by the week of January 22, 2024!

The Card / Athletics Team Set / Accuracy Index +2

This is the third (and final?) card featuring Cater I've added to our set.  He's on the first card of the set (#1), featuring the 1968 A.L. Batting Leaders, and he's also on one of the four combo cards in the set (#556), featuring him with teammates Sal Bando (#371) and Bert Campaneris (#495).  The back of the card highlights his runner-up status in the 1968 batting race.  The photo used here is similar to the photo used for his 1968 Topps card, but Cater's crew cut is a little shorter here.

Accuracy Index:  While Cater is wearing an Athletics' jersey here (+5), Topps had to go with a hatless photo (-3) given the team's move to Oakland for the 1968 season.  That drops Cater from a 5 down to a 2.

1969 Season
Once again the team's regular first baseman, Cater's batting average came back down in 1969, as he batted .262 over 152 games.  He started off hot, batting .302 through June 1st, but he'd slump over the summer months, batting just .244 over his final 107 games.  Cater hit 10 home runs and collected a career-high 76 RBIs for the second place club.  That RBI total was third on the team behind right fielder Reggie Jackson (#260) and third baseman Sal Bando (#371), who had 118 and 113 respectively.  On December 5th, Cater and Ossie Chavarria were traded to the Yankees for Al Downing (#292) and Frank Fernandez (#557).

Phillies Career
Cater was one of six rookies to make the Phillies opening day roster in 1964 after having been invited to spring training as a non-roster player.  He was the club's opening day left fielder, and served in a platoon with Wes Covington until breaking his arm on July 22nd.  Cater collided with the Braves' Joe Torre (#460) on a play at first base, fracturing his arm near the wrist.  He'd miss all of August and return September 1st, making only three starts that month during the club's epic collapse.  On November 29th, the Phillies acquired Dick Stuart from the Red Sox and Cater became expendable.  He was dealt to the White Sox a few days later.  Cater appeared in 60 games for the Phillies, batting .296 with 45 hits, a home run and 13 RBIs.  During his short time with the club, he played all three outfield positions and both corner infield positions.

1964 Topps #482

1966 Topps #398

1968 Topps #535

1971 Topps #358

1975 Topps #645

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1964 Topps #482
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (12):  1964-1975
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2003 Upper Deck Yankees Signature Series #18
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  64 in the Beckett online database as of 5/29/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog / The Phillies Room

#43 Joe Niekro - Chicago Cubs / #45 Maury Wills - Montreal Expos

#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

#1 1968 A.L. Batting Leaders - Carl Yastrzemski / Danny Cater / Tony Oliva

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1969 Topps set.  League leader cards can be found at the beginning of each Topps set issued in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969.

Building the Set / Card #33
December 3, 2022 from The Philly Show (Huggins & Scott Auctions)

At the outset of The Philly Show, more formally known as the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania, we needed just four cards to complete our 1965 Topps set.  I wrote a full summary of the show in this post over at The Phillies Room.

The show so far had been an all-timer.  Major purchases were made (1965 and 1969 Topps Mickey Mantle, 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson rookie card, Diamond Stars Rogers Hornsby), our 1965 Topps set was completed and I admittedly wasn't ready to leave just yet.  With a little more cash in hand, I decided to find a few more cards for our now newly-collecting 1969 Topps set.  

I found a box of vintage semi-star cards at the table of Higgins & Scott Auctions from Silver Spring, Maryland, with a "50% Off" sign attached to it.  It was truly a hodge podge of minor stars, checklists, multi-player Rookie Stars cards and other assorted randomness.  After confirming the cards were indeed 50% off the sticker prices, I found eight interesting cards needed for our set and parted with my final $50 of the day.  This League Leaders card, the first card of the set, was $7.50.

The Card / Red Sox Team Set / Athletics Team Set / Twins Team Set

Carl Yastrzemski (#130) won his third and final batting title in 1968 with a .301 mark, adding to the titles he had previously won in 1963 and his Triple Crown year of 1967.  That's a low mark for a batting title, but 1968 has become universally known as the Year of the Pitcher.  Danny Cater (#44) makes a somewhat surprising appearance here, as his .290 average was good enough for the runner-up spot behind Yastrzemski.  Cater had joined the Athletics via a trade with the White Sox on May 27, 1966, and he's still shown wearing a White Sox uniform and hat here.  His base cards from the 1968 and 1969 Topps sets show him hatless, but at least wearing the green vested uniform of the Kansas City Athletics.  Cater would bat .301 in 1970, which was only good enough for 10th place in the batting race that season.

Finally, Tony Oliva (#600) and his .289 mark resulted in a third place finish.  Oliva would win three batting titles in his career, in 1964, 1965 and 1971.  For the record, the Orioles' Paul Blair (#506) and his .211 average wasn't the worst in the league in 1968.  His teammates Mark Belanger (#299) and Curt Blefary (#458) had worse marks with .208 and .200, respectively.  The Tigers' Don Wert (#443) had a .200 average and the Yankees' Tom Tresh (#212) rounds out the official list with a sub-Mendoza line average of .195 for the year.

I wanted to take a quick look back at the #1 card of each Topps flagship set released in the 1960s.

1960 Topps #1 Early Wynn - Chicago White Sox (1959 A.L. Cy Young)

1961 Topps #1 Dick Groat - Pittsburgh Pirates (1960 N.L. MVP)

1962 Topps #1 Roger Maris - New York Yankeees (1961 A.L. MVP)

1963 Topps #1 1962 N.L. Batting Leaders - T. Davis, F. Robinson, Musial, B. White, Aaron

1964 Topps #1 1963 N.L. ERA Leaders - Koufax, Ellsworth, Friend

1965 Topps #1 1964 A.L. Batting Leaders - Oliva, B. Robinson, E. Howard

1966 Topps #1 Willie Mays - San Francisco Giants (1965 N.L. MVP)

1967 Topps #1 The Champs - F. Robinson, Bauer, B. Robinson

1968 Topps #1 1967 N.L. Batting Leaders - Clemente, Gonzalez, M. Alou

1969 Topps #1 1968 A.L. Batting Leaders - Yastrzemski, Cater, Olivia

It's interesting to me that when Topps decided to open its set with League Leaders cards in 1960s, there was no set formula.  It was a different category or different league each time.

#664 Ron Hunt - San Francisco Giants / #2 1968 N.L. Batting Leaders