Oldest living players from 1966-70

With the recent passing of long-time Cardinal Red Schoendienst, it was said that he was the oldest living member of the Hall of Fame. Bringing that idea closer to this blogosphere, I wondered “Who are the oldest living players with baseball cards in the Topps sets that I am following?”

Pirates’ reliever Elroy Face is at the top of the list for the 1966-69 sets, at age 90. One would think Willie Mays (at age 87) is up there too, but there are 13 living players older than Mays in the 1966 set. That number drops off to 7 in the 1967 set, as 6 players had their final card in the ’66 set.

In the ’68 set, only 3 players are older than Mays. In the 1969 and 1970 sets, there is only one player older than Mays – Face (’69) and Hall (’70). (Elroy Face’s final card was in 1969. Dick Hall was not in the ’66 or ‘69 sets, but was in the ’67, ’68, and ‘70 sets.)


Here are the 5 oldest living players per set that I follow:

1966 
Elroy Face
Whitey Ford
Don Mossi
Al Worthington
Curt Simmons

1967 
Elroy Face
Whitey Ford
Al Worthington
Curt Simmons
Vern Law (10th in the ’66 set)

1968 
Elroy Face
Al Worthington
Dick Hall (6th in the ’67 set)
Willie Mays
Maury Wills

1969 
Elroy Face
Willie Mays
Maury Wills
Al Spangler
Camilo Pascual

1970 
Dick Hall
Willie Mays
Maury Wills
Al Spangler
Camilo Pascual