#188 Rick Wise - Philadelphia Phillies

Richard Charles Wise
Philadelphia Phillies
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  180
Born:  September 13, 1945, Jackson, MI
Signed:  Signed by the Philadelphia Phillies as an amateur free agent, June 16, 1963
Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Phillies 1964, 1966-1971; St. Louis Cardinals 1972-1973; Boston Red Sox 1974-1977; Cleveland Indians 1978-1979; San Diego Padres 1980-1982

World Series Appearances:  Boston Red Sox 1975

1983 Phillies Postcards Great Moments #11

A two-time All-Star with the Phillies in 1971 and the Cardinals in 1973, Rick Wise enjoyed an 18-year big league career, winning 188 games.  Wise was a 10-game winner in 10 different seasons, winning as many as 19 with the pennant-winning Red Sox in 1975.  He was the winning pitcher in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, the recipient of Carlton Fisk's walk-off home run against the Reds in the 12th inning.  Wise was traded for future Hall of Famers twice in his career.  The first time came in February 1972 when he was sent to the Cardinals for Steve Carlton (#255).  The Red Sox traded him in March 1978 to the Indians as part of the deal that sent Dennis Eckersley to Boston.

Also known for his hitting, Wise was a career .195 hitter collecting 15 home runs and 66 RBIs.  In perhaps one of the best single game performances ever from a pitcher, Wise threw a no-hitter against the Reds on June 23, 1971, hitting a pair of home runs to aid his cause.  The Phillies included the feat as one of their greatest moments in a centennial postcard set issued in 1983.

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

Building the Set / Card #28
October 17, 2022 from Tomball, TX - Card #594
In early October, with the Phillies improbably in the postseason and about to go on a month-long journey that would culminate with a trip to the World Series, I received an e-mail announcing a sale in the online store for The Battersbox, located in Tomball, Texas.  I had had my eye on the 1965 Topps Sandy Koufax card for quite some time, and I had assumed this would be the second to last card added to our set, with just the Mickey Mantle card remaining.  Riding the high of the good vibes brought on by the Phillies, and realizing it had been over a month since I had added any vintage cards, I happily added the Koufax card to my cart along with two cards to be added to my not-yet-collecting 1969 Topps set.  This Wise card was one of the two bonus purchases, and it cost $6.50.

I had intended for the Koufax card to be a Christmas present to myself from my family.  But impatience won here, and rather than see this card sit by itself on my project table for the next month, it entered the collection and its spot in the set's binder a little over a month sooner.  In early December, Doug and I attended the next Philly Show, and I was laser focused on the final four cards needed for our 1965 Topps set - Mantle, the Tony Perez rookie card, Orlando Cepeda and the surprise of the quartet, Gordy Coleman.

The Card / Phillies Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

The photo used here could have been taken as early as spring training 1966, as the photo used on Wise's 1967 Topps card looks to be from the same session as this photo.  This is another card where Topps found a way to center the player and not have the name and position circle appear awkwardly over top the picture.  It's early, but this and the Tony Taylor (#108) card are my two early favorites for the best Phillies card in the set.

The back of the card highlights his first shutout on July 18, 1967.  Wise limited the Dodgers to four hits in that game, and he'd throw two more shutouts that August.  The write-up incorrectly refers to those two additional shutouts as coming in September, but they happened on August 22nd against the Mets and August 26th against the Pirates.

Accuracy Index:  Wise gets a solid 5 for appearing in a Phillies uniform, although as mentioned above the photo may have been at least three years old.

1969 Season
Wise slotted in second in the Phillies starting pitching rotation to open the season, behind Chris Short (#395).  He was 15-13 overall with a 3.23 ERA in 33 appearances, including 31 starts.  His 4.0 bWAR was the highest on a Phillies team that went 63-99 for the season, finishing in fifth place in the new N.L. East.

Phillies Career
Wise made his debut with the Phillies as an 18-year-old in 1964.  He came up for good in 1966 and was a key component of the Phillies pitching rotation for six seasons, culminating with his 17-win season in 1971.  As the story goes, both the Phillies and Cardinals were locked in tense negotiations with their respective young pitchers, Wise and Carlton, when each team's general manager decided to swap their problems.  While Wise went on to have an objectively successful career, his numbers and his success never matched up with Carlton's, who would go on to earn the title of the best left-handed pitcher in the history of the Phillies franchise.

Over seven seasons with the Phillies, Wise went 75-76 with a 3.60 ERA.  He struck out 717 batters, and threw 52 complete games, including 13 shutouts.

1964 Topps #561

1971 Topps #598

1975 Topps #56

1979 Topps #253

1982 Topps #330

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1964 Topps #561 (with Dave Bennett)
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (18):  1964-1965, 1967-1982
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2022 Topps Heritage 1973 MLB All-Star Game Highlights #ASGH-7
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  116 in the Beckett online database as of 1/6/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR

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

#187 Leon Wagner - Cincinnati Reds / #189 Red Sox Rookie Stars

#2 1968 N.L. Batting Leaders - Pete Rose / Matty Alou / Felipe Alou

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 #27
September 15, 2022 from San Diego, CA (Kit Young Cards)

This card was part of a larger stress-induced purchase from Kit Young Cards in mid-September.  The stress was all work related, and while some people choose to relieve stress through less productive means, I opted to purchase several vintage baseball cards.  The centerpiece of the haul was the 1965 Topps Yaz card, which dropped the number of cards needed for that complete set down to five.  Joining Yaz were Diamond Stars cards of Joe Stripp and Lloyd Waner, along with this League Leaders card.  I've long been a fan of purchasing cards from Kit Young, and I took advantage of a mid-fall sale to add to three different set builds.  The League Leaders card was the least expensive of the quartet at a little less than $8.

September 2022 was a blur.  I travelled for work the better part of two weeks, school started, the boys' fall sports schedules (cross country and baseball) were non-stop and there was little to no time to rest or to enjoy baseball card purchases.  Taking a mental health day in early October, I was happy to have the time to catch my breath and truly appreciate the new baseball cards that helped get me through that month.  I composed posts for the Yaz and Diamond Stars cards then, and the it only took me until early January to finally compose a post for this League Leaders card.

The Card / Reds Team Set / Pirates Team Set / Braves Team Set

1968 was the first of three years in which Pete Rose (#120) won the National League batting title, as he'd repeat in 1969 and win a third time in his MVP year of 1973.  His .335 average was enough to top the .332 average of the Pirates' Matty Alou (#490).  On September 27th, Rose's average sat at .330, but he'd go 6 for 8 in the final two games of the season to bump him into the top spot, including a 5 for 5 performance on September 28th.  Matty Alou had been at .329 on September 27th, and he'd go 4 for 4 on September 28th to raise him to .334, but then 0 for 4 on September 29th.  Matty Alou had previously won the batting title in 1966 with a .342 mark.

Older brother Felipe Alou (#300) rounds out the top trio with a .317 average, and younger brother Jesus Alou (#22) makes an appearance on the back of the card with his .263 average for the year.

#1 1968 A.L. Batting Leaders / #3 1968 A.L. RBI Leaders

#107 2nd Series Checklist 110-218 / Bob Gibson

As I did for the checklists in the 1965 Topps set, I'll use these posts to give a brief state of affairs as it relates to building the 1969 Topps set and life in general.  As of this writing, on January 6, 2023, we've got 40 cards out of the eventual 666 I plan to collect - the 664 base cards and then the two variations for the players traded early in 1969, Clay Dalrymple (#151) and Donn Clendenon (#208).  The cards have come together in dribs and drabs, and there are a few major purchases coming up in future posts from the December 2022 Philly Show.

Our sons are as busy as ever, with Doug now pole vaulting for his high school winter track team and spending at least two days a week doing some baseball activities.  Ben is taking a break from school sports, still taking tennis lessons and gearing up for cross country in the spring.  His piano playing continues to improve and amaze us.  They are both excellent students, getting great grades and we're immensely proud of both of them.  Work is work.  Recently, and for the first time, I allowed myself to do the actual math and determine the earliest date at which I could retire with some pension benefits.  The date is actually a little closer than I had thought it was, and knowing the exact date gives me a strange sense of calm.  It's crazy to think I have more work days in my past than I do in my future.

I didn't think I'd want to do a complete set blog again so soon after completing our 1965 Topps set, but I'm glad I made the decision to move forward with this set.  I'm cheating a little, copying and pasting sections from my prior blog as players repeat, but still learning new things about a lot of players who had retired before I was born.  The bottom line is, this is fun for me and even if I'm the only person ever reading this, it's brought me happiness and relaxation.  It's incredibly important to have enjoyable hobbies.

Building the Set / Card #26
September 9, 2022 from La Verne, CA
In early September, I found myself taking the first of two required work trips and I purchased Wifi access on a flight to Orlando in order to catch up on work e-mails.  Dutifully catching up, and not having enough time to watch a full movie, I turned to eBay for the duration of the flight and found a Gus Suhr Diamond Stars card for sale at a very reasonable But It Now price from seller earhart47.  Not wanting the card to travel by itself from La Verne, California, I found four more cards for future set builds at reasonable prices and from high above somewhere over Georgia I clicked Add to Cart on those four cards too.  One of the random cards added to my cart was this checklist card, the first of seven checklists to be added to our set.  The cards were waiting for me when I got home late on the night of September 9th.  Sadly, during the second work trip, this time to Dallas, no new baseball cards were purchased while in flight.  Ironically enough, as I write this, I'm getting ready to go on another work trip, departing on Sunday night.  Maybe I'll need to do some online shopping during the flight . . .

The Card / Cardinals Team Set / Checklists

I like the idea of adding a star player to a checklist card.  With Bob Gibson appearing here, there's a chance the card wouldn't have been immediately discarded by a young collector and it allowed another chance for Topps to feature some of the game's top players.  Topps added star cameos to its checklists between 1967 and 1969, and I'm just now realizing Gibson is featured on the checklist in which his base card (#200) also appears.  He was by far the biggest star in the game in 1968.  Looking ahead to who else received recognition on the checklists in the set, there aren't any surprises.  Topps opted to go full checklist mode with the set's third series, allowing for the 33-card Deckle Edge set to be included as well.

There are two versions of this checklist available, and I've added the error version listing card #161 as "Jim" Purdin.  The corrected version shows him as John Purdin.  I don't feel the need to track down the corrected version - sorry, John.

#106 Jim Hannan - Washington Senators / #108 Tony Taylor - Philadelphia Phillies

#275 Vic Davalillo - California Angels

Victor Jose Davalillo
California Angels
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  5'7"  Weight:  150
Born:  July 30, 1939, Cabimas, Valenzuela
Signed:  Signed by the Cincinnati Redlegs as an amateur free agent, April 16, 1958
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1963-1968; California Angels 1968-1969; St. Louis Cardinals 1969-1970; Pittsburgh Pirates 1971-1973; Oakland Athletics 1973-1974; Los Angeles Dodgers 1977-1980

World Series Appearances:  Pittsburgh Pirates 1971; Oakland Athletics 1973; Los Angeles Dodgers 1977-1978

Venezuelan Vic Davalillo played professionally for 24 seasons, as a leadoff hitter, speedy baserunner and later a successful pinch-hitter.  He found his most success early with six seasons as the Indians' starting center fielder between 1963 and 1968.  Davalillo won a Gold Glove in 1964 and was an All-Star in 1965, earning MVP votes that season as well.  The Indians traded him to the Angels in June 1968, beginning his decade-plus journey that saw him play with five different teams.  Davalillo collected 24 pinch-hits in 1970, breaking the Major League record held by Dave Philley.  He won World Series rings as a member of the Pirates in 1971, and with the Athletics in 1973.

Davalillo finished in the top 10 in stolen bases in three seasons, and in the top ten for batting average twice.  At 43, he was the oldest player in the National League when he retired from Major League baseball at the end of the 1980 season.  Davalillo appeared in 1,458 career games, batting .279 with 125 stolen bases.  A legend in his native Venezuela, he's the all-time leader in hits (1,505) and batting average (.325) in the Venezuelan Winter League.  He played in the 1987 Caribbean Series at the age of 48 before finally retiring as a player.  Davalillo was inducted with the inaugural class into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame, and the the Venezuelan League's annual MVP award is named for him.

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

Building the Set / Card #25
September 4, 2022 from Deptford Mall Baseball Card Show
On the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend, Doug and I drove to the Deptford Mall for a mini baseball card show and Bobby Abreu signing.  We were among the first in line to secure our Abreu signatures, and then we spent about a half hour browsing the six or so tables set up in the mall.  I found one dealer (Cash for Cards, from Delaware) with stacks of vintage commons for sale, adding cards to my then not-yet-officially-collecting 1955 Bowman, 1959 Topps and 1969 Topps sets.  This Davalillo card was one of seven cards added to my small stack of 1969 Topps cards, and was less than a dollar.

The Card / Angels Team Set / Accuracy Index -8

Topps got some mileage out of a photo session for Davalillo from most likely the 1965 season.  Photos from that session appear on his 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969 Topps cards.  I didn't realize until scanning the card, but Davalillo is holding his bat perfectly parallel with the card's right border.

Davalillo's last name is misspelled on the back of this card.  The cartoon on the back highlights his trade from the Indians in 1968, but it looks as if Topps got the details wrong.  On June 15, 1968, Davalillo was traded from Cleveland to California for Jimmie Hall (#61), and not Jose Cardenal (#325).  Cardenal had been traded by the Angels to the Indians on November 29, 1967 for Chuck Hinton (#644).  Right teams, wrong trades.

Accuracy Index:  -8 for Davalillo for being hatless (-3) and wearing an Indians jersey (-5).

1969 Season
Davalillo began the season with the Angels making 15 starts in the outfield between April and May and appearing in 33 games overall.  In those games he batted .155 (11 for 71) with a pair of extra-base hits.  On May 30, 1969, the Angels traded him to the Cardinals for Jim Hicks (#559), and he'd be used primarily as a pinch-hitter in St. Louis, making just 11 starts in the outfield.  He had much more success with the Cardinals than with the Angels however, batting .265.  A former minor league pitcher, as the back of this card mentions, Davalillo appeared as a reliever in two games for the Cardinals, both blow-out losses against the Mets.  He didn't record an out in either outing, giving up a pair of hits and a pair of walks and allowing a run to score, leaving him with a major league ERA of infinity.

1963 Topps #324

1967 Topps #69

1972 Topps #785

1974 Topps #444

1979 Topps #228

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1963 Topps #324
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (14):  1963-1974, 1978-1979
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1981 Fleer #132
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  81 in the Beckett online database as of 1/5/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#274 Clyde King MG - San Francisco Giants / #276 Gary Wagner - Philadelphia Phillies

#294 Jim Lemon MG - Washington Senators

James Robert Lemon
Washington Senators
Manager

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'4"  Weight:  200
Born:  March 28, 1928, Covington, VA
Signed:  Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent before 1948 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1950, 1953; Washington Senators 1955-1960; Minnesota Twins 1961-1963; Philadelphia Phillies 1963; Chicago White Sox 1963

As a Manager:  Washington Senators 1968
Died:  May 14, 2006, Brandon, MS (age 78)

A power-hitting outfielder, Jim Lemon was a star for the original Senators before their move to Minnesota.  Lemon played in 28 games for the Indians before and after missing two full years due to military service in the U.S. Army.  Sold to the Senators in May 1954, Lemon would earn a regular spot in the team's line-up a few years later, beginning in 1956.  As the team's regular right fielder, he led the league with 138 strikeouts, the first of three years in a row topping the junior circuit in that category.  However, he also led the league that season with 11 triples and hit 27 home runs, including three on August 31st off future Hall of Famer Whitey Ford with President Eisenhower in attendance.  Lemon drove in exactly 100 runs in both 1959 and 1960, while hitting 33 and 38 home runs respectively in each season and pairing with Harmon Killebrew (#375) as one of the top home run hitting duos in the league.  Lemon was also named to both American League All-Star teams in 1960.

His offensive output steadily declined after the Senators moved west and became the Twins.  He was the opening day left fielder in the first ever Twins game, but hit only 14 home runs in 1961.  Lemon played two more seasons in the majors before re-joining the Twins on their coaching staff in two different stints, from 1965 to 1967 and again between 1981 and 1984.  He managed the expansion Senators for one season in 1968, guiding that club to a 65-96 record and a 10th place finish.  Lemon would coach and manage in the minor leagues following his one season as a big league manager.

Building the Set / Card #24
September 4, 2022 from Deptford Mall Baseball Card Show
On the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend, Doug and I drove to the Deptford Mall for a mini baseball card show and Bobby Abreu signing.  We were among the first in line to secure our Abreu signatures, and then we spent about a half hour browsing the six or so tables set up in the mall.  I found one dealer (Cash for Cards, from Delaware) with stacks of vintage commons for sale, adding cards to my then not-yet-officially-collecting 1955 Bowman, 1959 Topps and 1969 Topps sets.  This Lemon card was one of seven cards added to my small stack of 1969 Topps cards, and was less than a dollar.

The Card / Senators Team Set / Accuracy Index -1

In one of the harshest back of the card write-ups in the history of Topps baseball cards, Topps shows a cartoon version of Lemon either crying or sweating and carrying his suitcase with the explanation, "Jim was relieved of his position as manager of the Senators on January 29, 1969!"  Brutal.  They could have mentioned his prior year record, or his All-Star Game appearance in 1960, or his three home run game from 1956, but instead they just went for it and laid out Lemon's fate to young baseball card collectors.  The photo on the front is the same as Lemon's 1968 Topps card.

Accuracy Index:  Lemon is wearing an accurate uniform (5) but he didn't actually appear with the Senators in 1969 (-2) and the photo has been used before (-4).

1969 Season
After three seasons as a coach for the Twins, Lemon returned to Washington to manage the "new" Senators team, signing a two-year contract after the club had dealt their former manager, Gil Hodges (#564), to the Mets for pitcher Bill Denehy and $10,000.  Minneapolis millionaire Bob Short purchased the Senators following the season and coaxed Ted Williams (#650) out of retirement to manage the team.  Lemon, as unabashedly summarized on the back of his 1969 Topps card, was dismissed and spent the 1969 season collecting a paycheck for the second year of his two-year deal.

Phillies Career
On May 4, 1963, the Twins sold Lemon to the Phillies, ending his decade of service with the Senators/Twins franchise.  He had been slowed down by a shoulder injury and was batting just .118 (2 for 17) with the Twins at the time of the transaction.  With the Phillies, and wearing #21, Lemon appeared in 31 games in May and June, making 16 starts overall and appearing mostly as a pinch-hitter.  He was batting a respectable .271 with the club with a pair of home runs when he was sold again on June 28, 1968, this time to the White Sox.  Lemon would play his final 36 big league games with the White Sox, retiring as a player following the season.

1954 Topps #103

1957 Topps #57

1960 Topps #440

1963 Topps #369

1968 Topps #341

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1954 Topps #103
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10):  1954, 1957-1963, 1968-1969
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #103
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  72 in the Beckett online database as of 1/3/23.

With each manager card in the set, I'm presenting cards I'd include for that team in an 8th/update series.  For the Senators, I'll go through this exercise with the Williams card, later in the set.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database

#293 Dick Dietz - San Francisco Giants / #295 Tony Perez - Cincinnati Reds

#265 Chico Cardenas - Minnesota Twins

Leonardo Lazaro Cardenas
Minnesota Twins
Shortstop

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  160
Born:  December 17, 1938, Matanzas, Cuba
Acquired:  Sent from Tuscon (Arizona-Mexico League) to the Cincinnati Reds in an unknown transaction before 1957 season
Major League Teams:  Cincinnati Reds 1960-1968; Minnesota Twins 1969-1971; California Angels 1972; Cleveland Indians 1973; Texas Rangers 1974-1975

World Series Appearances:  Cincinnati Reds 1961

Nicknamed "Chico" or "Mr. Automatic," Leo Cardenas was a five-time All-Star, a Gold Glove winner in 1965 and one of the best fielding shortstops of the 1960s.  No one else played more games at shortstop in the National League than Cardenas between 1964 and 1966, and he was regularly among the league leaders in all defensive categories.  A lifetime .257 hitter, Cardenas played for 16 seasons and tallied 1,941 career games with 1,843 appearances at shortstop.  He accumulated 1,725 hits, 285 doubles, 118 home runs and 689 RBIs.

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

Building the Set / Card #23
September 4, 2022 from Deptford Mall Baseball Card Show
On the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend, Doug and I drove to the Deptford Mall for a mini baseball card show and Bobby Abreu signing.  We were among the first in line to secure our Abreu signatures, and then we spent about a half hour browsing the six or so tables set up in the mall.  I found one dealer (Cash for Cards, from Delaware) with stacks of vintage commons for sale, adding cards to my then not-yet-officially-collecting 1955 Bowman, 1959 Topps and 1969 Topps sets.  This Cardenas card was one of seven cards added to my small stack of 1969 Topps cards, and was less than a dollar.

The Card / Twins Team Set / Accuracy Index -8

Cardenas is wearing a Reds road jersey here, and the photo was likely taken at the same time as the photo used for his 1968 Topps card.  The cartoon on the back mentions his three All-Star Game appearances but Cardenas had appeared in four All-Star Games by this point in his career - 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1968.  He'd appear once more in 1971.  The note about the Twins acquiring Cardenas during the "interleague winter trading period" intrigued me.  I did a cursory Google search, not coming up with anything on this, but it would seem to infer there used to be a period where intraleague deals were allowed and then another period where interleague deals happened?

Accuracy Index:  The hatless Cardenas (-3), wearing a Reds jersey (-5) scores a -8.

1969 Season
On November 21, 1968, Cardenas was traded to the Twins for left-handed starting pitcher Jim Merritt (#661).  The Twins were looking to solidify their infield, and with Cardenas at shortstop and Rod Carew (#510) at second base they had an impressive double play combination.  Cardenas appeared in 160 games, starting all but three of the Twins' games throughout the entire season.  He batted .280 with 24 doubles and 70 RBIs, as the Twins went 97-65 to win the first ever American League West pennant.  They'd be swept in three games by the Orioles in the ALCS, with Cardenas batting just .154 (2 for 13) in the postseason.

1960 Topps #119

1962 Topps #381

1970 Topps #245

1973 Topps #522

1976 Topps #587

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1960 Topps #119
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (16):  1960-1973, 1975-1976
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1986 TCMA All-Time Cincinnati Reds  #7
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  105 in the Beckett online database as of 1/2/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#264 Bill Landis - Boston Red Sox / #266 Dodgers Rookie Stars

#309 Walt Williams - Chicago White Sox

Walter Allen Williams
Chicago White Sox
Outfield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'6"  Weight:  165
Born:  December 19, 1943, Brownwood, TX
Signed:  Signed by the Houston Colt .45s as an amateur free agent before 1963 season
Major League Teams:  Houston Colt .45s 1964; Chicago White Sox 1967-1972; Cleveland Indians 1973; New York Yankees 1974-1975

Died:  January 23, 2016, Abilene, TX (age 72)

Walt "No Neck" Williams played in parts of 10 seasons in the majors, mostly with the White Sox, and prolonged his professional baseball career with two seasons in Japan and two seasons in Mexico.  Williams would debut with the Colt .45s in 1964, appearing in 10 games, before spending two more full seasons in the minor leagues.  In December 1966, the White Sox selected Williams off waivers from the Cardinals, giving him his first regular playing time in the majors in 1967.  In 1969, Williams earned the everyday right fielder's job for the White Sox, appearing in a career-high 135 games and batting .304.  Williams would play three more seasons in Chicago before spending the 1973 season with the Indians.  He'd see his last big league action as a reserve for the Yankees in 1974 and 1975.  Williams would next find some success in Japan, playing for two seasons with the Nippon Ham Fighters and batting .277 in 239 games.

For his major league career, Williams batted .270 with 640 hits, 33 home runs and 173 RBIs.  He'd serve as the first base coach for the White Sox in 1988, and he managed for three seasons in the Rangers' system between 1992 and 1994.

Building the Set / Card #22
September 4, 2022 from Deptford Mall Baseball Card Show
On the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend, Doug and I drove to the Deptford Mall for a mini baseball card show and Bobby Abreu signing.  We were among the first in line to secure our Abreu signatures, and then we spent about a half hour browsing the six or so tables set up in the mall.  I found one dealer (Cash for Cards, from Delaware) with stacks of vintage commons for sale, adding cards to my then not-yet-officially-collecting 1955 Bowman, 1959 Topps and 1969 Topps sets.  This Williams card was one of seven cards added to my small stack of 1969 Topps cards, and was less than a dollar.

The Card / White Sox Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

If I didn't know better, I'd say Williams was taking a selfie here.  He's shown wearing Chicago's road uniforms from 1967 and 1968.  The back of the card references his acquisition by the White Sox, his short stature and also refers to Williams as a "speed demon."  It doesn't appear as if the minor league speed graduated to the major leagues for Williams, as he stole only 34 bases over 10 years in 53 attempts.

Accuracy Index:  This card scores a solid 5 for showing Williams in an actual White Sox uniform.

1969 Season
As mentioned above, this was Williams' best season in the majors and as the regular right fielder for the White Sox he led the team in hitting (.304) while playing solid defense in the outfield.  Overall, he started 78 games in right filed and 30 games in left field for the fifth place club.  His most frequent partners in the outfield were Carlos May (#654) in left and Ken Berry (#494) in center.

1967 Topps #598

1968 Topps #172

1971 Topps #555

1974 Topps #418

1976 Topps #123

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1967 Topps #598
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9):  1967-1974, 1976
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Fleer ProCards #2689
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  60 in the Beckett online database as of 1/2/23.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database

#308 Wade Blasingame - Houston Astros / #310 Tom Haller - Los Angeles Dodgers