Uncle Cards - 1965-66

Welcome to the fourth post about my uncles childhood cards that they kindly let me look through and post about.  Here are the other posts (finished and upcoming):

0. Intro and Football
1. Miscellaneous
2. 1958s
3. 1965-66s (today!)
4. 1959-60s
5. 1962-64s


I know the title of this post says 65-66, but there are only a couple of 66's.  You will see them further down, but here are the 65's in all their glory!

Sorry for the glare, I will work on my photography skills.  This is another set that looks like mostly close ups and head shots.

These cards are not in quite as bad of shape as some of the earlier cards.  Maybe as they got older, they matured. This is my favorite marked up card of the bunch. My uncles sure liked drawing on their cards.  Actually, come to think of it, I can't rule out that it was actually my mom that did some of this drawing! The drawing kind of looks like a house, but I'm not sure.  Can't think of why anyone would do that, especially in the 60's.  If they did that in the 90's, maybe they were trying to say 'Athletics in the HOUSE!'

And the back of the card is just as nonsensical.  Hey, I'll scribble out our top 8 pitchers win/loss records against the White Sox!!  Nope, can't see the sense in that.  Mental illness does run in my family, but mostly on the other side from these uncles!

Here are some non-listed players that I have a soft spot for... That Zoilo Versalles card really threw me as a kid when it was included int the 1982 KMART set.  First off, I had never heard of him before that set, and second, he won the 1965 MVP!!  With a .273 batting average??  That blew my mind as a kid.  Here is the back of that KMART card, what do you think of his MVP year?

And now, on to the few cards that an old Beckett said were not commons:

Another Richardson.  Not sure what to say about that.

And another Nellie Fox.  This time as a player/coach.  Cool!  Player/coaches never seemed to have a lot of success, but I always thought it was impressive to be wanted as both.  An interesting note, Fox didn't play/coach for the Astros in 1964 (no Astros logo on the hat).  Because there were no Astros in 1964, they were still known as the Houston Colt 45's then.  After the season was over that year, the name change was announced, and I guess Topps picked right up on it.

My favorite card in this post, the almost criminally unremembered Frank Robinson.  This guy was a wrecking crew, and as far as I know, still the only player to be named MVP in both the NL and AL.  The card unfortunately has some interesting surface wear.

Here are the 2 1966 cards!  Orlando Cepeda!  While not as good a player as Frank Robinson, Cepeda has been largely forgotten by newer fans.  But he was kind of a beast too!  Known as the Baby Bull.  He looks either surprised to be having his picture taken or is just staring off into the distance.

And the last card, Rocky Colavito.  Known as a steady, dependable power hitter, the thing I found most interesting when reading about him is that in 1965, he became the first American League outfielder to play a complete season with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.  Glove man!

Thanks for reading!!