Back in the 1970s as a pre-teen, there was no other feeling like opening a pack of baseball cards.
Pulling a Hank Aaron, Willie Mays or Roberto Clemente was a special event though they were at the end of their careers. New players like George Brett or Robin Yount brought just as big a smile.
The thing that made this 10-year old frown the most in 1973 was duplicate cards. There was never seemed to be a double for superstars that one could swap for another great card.
To this day, I can’t count how many Celerino Sánchez 1973 cards are in my collection. They just appear out of nowhere and with an ungraded value of no more than $3, that will likely continue to happen.
Sanchez is not the only one I didn’t know. The Texas Rangers first cards in the uniforms that didn’t belong to the Washington Senators also populated many of my packs. You can read about one of them later.
The Yankees
Joining the New York Yankees prior to the 1972 season, Sanchez had played some minor league ball in the 1960s.
With Triple-A Syracuse in 1972, he was batting .327 with three homers and 28 RBI in 43 games.
A third baseman, he would make his big league debut on June 13 in Yankee Stadium against the Chicago White Sox.
It took three games, but Sanchez got his first hit at home against the Texas Rangers. It was a RBI single off Mike Paul, who probably has as many cards in my collection as Sanchez does.
Sanchez finished 1972 as the primary third baseman for the Yankees with a .248 batting average and 28 RBI.
Graig Nettles joined the Yankees in 1973 and the playing time diminished for Sanchez. He did hit his only home run off Baltimore’s Mickey Scott in May.
Who Knew?
As a 10-year old, one doesn’t really appreciate what it takes to make the major leagues.
However, as a adult and with the tremendous amount of information now available, it made some baseball cards more valuable to me.
Sanchez was a star in the Mexican League for several years before and after his time with the Yankees. Most of his time from 1964 to 1979 was with the Mexico City Tigers, which was the team that sent him to the Yankees for Ossie Chavarria.
He batted over .300 several times in Mexico, including his career-best of .448 for Campeche in 1966. His best season for the Mexico City Tigers was in 1969 with 20 homers, 88 RBI and a .314 average.
In 1994, Sanchez became a member of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
On the back of his 1973 Topps card, it states that Luis Tiant was the best man in his wedding. Born in Mexico in 1944, Sanchez passed away in 1992.
Mike Paul
Not to be forgotten is Paul, who played in the majors from 1968 to 1974.
Paul pitched for Cleveland in his first four seasons before traded to Texas for the inaugural season for the Rangers in 1972. Near the end of the 1973 season, Paul was sent to the Chicago Cubs and he was released early in 1974.
He was 27-48 in his seven-year career. His best season was in 1972 as he posted an 8-9 record in Texas with a 2.17 ERA in 49 games.