As an extremely biased Phillies collector, there are five Hall of Famers that spent a good portion of their career with the Phillies during the Topps era: Ashburn, Roberts, Bunning, Schmidt, and Carlton. In a sense, getting the rookie cards of any of these power five, would be an automatic keeper.
The Carlton rookie is an interesting card in many respects.
- This card was issued prior to his big league debut in 1965.
- He's paired up with a pitcher on the card, who had already made appearances for two years and never ultimately made an appearance with the Cardinals.
- The Cardinals red is significantly muted on the card; it's almost a shadowy red. Was this done to match Ackley's airbrushed White Sox uniform? It is the opposite in feeling of most 1965 Topps cards, which were bright and swooping
- Carlton's next issued card wouldn't be until 1967; Topps seemed to forget about the pitching prospect for awhile.
- It is arguably the best rookie card of the 1965 set (other contenders: Joe Morgan, Tony Perez).
This now enters the pantheon of my collection awaiting the rest of its contemporaries.
3 comments:
Such an amazing card. My copy is a little damaged, but it's still the heart of my Steve Carlton PC.
Great addition and analysis. Carlton is certainly one of the best ever. My team the Cubs would certainly agree. He won two thirds of of his decisions against them (41-20).
The Cardinals wore dark gray caps in the first half of the 1960s. There are a few players still sporting them in the 1967 set.
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