1960s Baseball

Saturday, June 29, 2024

RIP - Orlando Cepeda

Orlando Cepeda, the 1967 National League MVP, passed away on June 27, 2024 at age 86.

Cepeda debuted with the Giants in 1958, and won the Rookie of the Year award.

He led the league in homers and RBI in 1961, and was an All-Star for his first 7 seasons with the Giants.

After missing much of 1965 with injuries, he was traded to the Cardinals during the following season, and went on to lead the Cardinals to the World Series in 1967, winning the MVP.

(Can you imagine if the Giants had kept Cepeda, eventually giving them a lineup featuring Cepeda, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Bobby Bonds, and Jim Ray Hart?)

Before the 1969 season he was traded to the Braves for Joe Torre, and 3 years later to the Athletics for Denny McLain.

He also played for the Red Sox and Royals.

New York Post obituary

AP obituary

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Oldest living players from 1966-70 (redux)

With the recent passing of Willie Mays, I remembered a post I made almost 6 years ago today:

“Who are the oldest living players with baseball cards in the Topps sets that I am following?”

Pirates’ reliever Elroy Face is still at the top of the list for the 1966-69 sets, at age 96. Here are the 5 oldest living players per set that I follow:

1966
Elroy Face
Al Worthington
Vern Law
Bob Skinner
George Altman

1967
Elroy Face
Al Worthington
Vern Law
Ozzie Virgil
George Altman

1968
Elroy Face
Al Worthington
Al Spangler (6th in 1966 set)
Rocky Colavito (6th in 1967 set)
Orlando Pena (7th in 1967 set)

1969
Elroy Face
Al Spangler
Camilo Pascual (6th in 1968 set)
Bill White (7th in 1968 set)
Luis Aparicio (8th in 1968 set)

1970
Al Spangler
Camilo Pascual
Luis Aparicio
Felipe Alou (8th in 1969 set)
Bob Humphreys (9th in 1969 set)