In celebration of the 65th anniversary of Topps baseball cards, my collection is going to be the subject of this year-long series.
Shortly after starting my obsession in 1971, the goal was to have at least one Topps card from every year.
Although the 1952 set is considered to be the first released by Topps, the company issued two series that was a part of the game a year earlier.
Over the years, there have been cards featuring players who never wore the uniform for the team. One of the most unusual instances involved Donn Clendenon.
Clendenon had played with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1962 to 1968. He was second in the 1962 National League Rookie-of-the-Year balloting behind Ken Hubbs.
The slugging first baseman had blasted 106 home runs in his eight seasons with the Pirates, which included a career-high 28 in 1966. On the down side, he led the league in strikeouts twice.
After the 1968 season, Clendenon was left unprotected in the expansion draft and he was selected by the Montreal Expos. In January of 1969, he was traded to the Houston Astros with Jesus Alou for the popular Rusty Staub.
Apparently, Topps had created a Clendenon card with the Expos after he was drafted. He’s in a Pittsburgh uniform with an airbrushed helmet. Once the trade occurred, the name of the team was changed to Houston. Something interesting about the 1969 set is that the Astros are the only cards that does not have the team’s nickname on them.
Ultimately, Clendenon refused to report to the Astros even after appearing in a press conference according to an article in the 1970 Baseball Guide publishing by the Sporting News. It was a turbulent time in baseball with new commissioner in Bowie Kuhn in his first year.
Clendenon voluntarily retired from baseball and took a public relations position. The retirement was eventually not accepted by Kuhn, who determined that Clendenon would stay a member of the Expos and that Montreal could also keep Staub.
According to the previously mention story by Jerome Holtzman in the Sporting News, the general manager of the Astros wasn’t pleased.
“The whole thing is a three-ring circus,” said Spec Richardson, who served in that capacity from 1967 to 1975. “It’s the worst decision handed down in the history of baseball.”
For Clendenon, it appears to have been a good decision and he never played Houston. Ironically, he went hitless in five games in Houston with the Expos and the Mets.
For their troubles, the Astros got to keep Alou and later received Jack Billingham, a minor leaguer and some cash from the Expos.
Clendenon joined the Expos and played in 38 games with four homers, 14 RBI and a .240 batting average.
As strange as Clendenon’s odyssey had been, a mid-season trade to the New York Mets changed his career. With the Mets, he was in 72 contests and hit a dozen homers and knocked in 37 runs, while his batting average was .252.
Clendenon hit some big homers for the Mets including two in the game where they clinched the NL East in a 6-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
After not playing the Mets three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves the very first NL Championship Series, Clendenon would become the World Series Most Valuable Player.
As the Mets won the title in five games, Clendenon batted .357 with five hits, three homers and four RBI. His three longs balls were the most in World Series history in a five-games series. That total was matched by Ryan Howard in 2008 when the Philadelphia Phillies won the championship.
The 1970 season proved to be one of Clendenon’s best as he hit 22 homers and knocked in 97 runs for the Mets. He played a part-time role for the Mets a year later and then finished his career in 1972 with the Cardinals.