The Golden Age of Baseball Cards™
...its influence on society and the game
Vintage Baseball Card Blog
Topps Chronology 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968
Topps 1966 Baseball Card Set - The World Turns from Black and White to ColorJanuary 31, 2012Topps Baseball Card Checklist - 1966
Subsets, which were an important part of cards during the early sixties, were largely missing. There were cards for League Leaders (215-226) and rookie cards by team, but gone were the special sets for managers, World Series Highlights and All Star selections. #215 Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Henry Aaron on the same card is amazing. Think of what it would have been like if a single team had been able to sign these three hitting and fielding masters.
In 1966 my mind was not on baseball cards. I was graduating from high school and preparing for college. I eagerly applied myself to my studies. However, I was unaware that 20% of all students in all my classes would fail because the new school (University of Illinois Chicago Circle) did not have the faculty and accommodations yet to handle a larger number of students in subsequent years. Late in my first year I failed an integral calculus class and risked losing my scholarship if things didn't turn around. Lesson learned --- you may think you are giving it your all, but sometimes even more effort is required. The increased effort cut substantially into my already paltry social time... but in the long run it paid off. It was a different time, with different priorities and different circumstances, but it was those times that helped to get the best out of everyone through increased competition. There were no trophies for just trying. You won or lost in sports, in war and life. Baseball 1966In July Mickey Mantle passed Lou Gehrig on the all time home run list and Willie Mays moved into the number 2 spot behind Babe Ruth. That summer Boog Powell of the Baltimore Orioles hit 3 opposite field home runs over the green monster in Boston to lead the Orioles over the Red Sox. He totaled 13 bases on the day. Tony Cloninger of the now Atlanta Braves became the first player in the National League to ever hit two grand slam home runs in the same game and the only pitcher to ever do so.
1966 World Series
Then the Baltimore Orioles took out the Dodgers in 4 games in the World Series. The Orioles faced the premier pitching staff of the 60s in the Dodgers, but subdued the Dodgers hitters on two runs, seventeen hits, a .142 batting average and held the Dodgers scoreless for 33 consecutive innings. Frank Robinson took MVP Series honors. The 4 Orioles wins were split up equally among the only four Oriole pitchers in the Series, Wally Bunker, Moe Drabowsky, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer.
League LeadersFrank Robinson dominated American League pitching to win the Triple Crown. Sandy Koufax finished his Hall of Fame career and dominated Nation League hitters with 27 wins and a 1.73 ERA.
AVG (AL)
Frank Robinson BAL .316; (NL)
Matty Alou
PIT .342
Awards
Topps tried to Americanize Roberto Clemente's card by calling him Bob. Clemente never liked it. In somewhat the same way Hank Aaron always preferred to be called Henry, but was never very vocal about it. In The WorldFashion was also more colorful as dresses turned "Mod" which meant they must be avant garde, often made of metal or plastic, with no waistline and, of course... very short. The mini skirt was the cultural fashion of choice by the youth of the time. Swinging London provided the fashion statements and Carnaby Street was the place to be. Young men's clothing strived to match the ladies' in new styles. Those styles were in stark contrast to the establishment of the time. Andy Warhol's art epitomized the style of the times.
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson thought that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there could be ended. As U.S. troop levels reached 190,000, anti-Viet Nam war protests became more frequent. On May 15th tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators picketed the White House and rallied at the Washington Monument. Heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, refused to go to war, declared himself a conscientious objector and was stripped of his title. With the ongoing stress on both constitutional and inherent rights of American citizens and the added assertion of government subservience to the individual, some[thought it was necessary for government information to be available to the public. As a response, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act.
The government ruled that all cigarette packages in the U.S must carry the health warning "Caution! Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health." The campaigns worked pretty well as young people, particularly college kids, got the message. The poster shown here was very prevalent and did achieve the expected result. It's amazing how far behind we have fallen in the passing years. Pampers created the first disposable diaper. Hard to imagine what life was like before this invention. Television 1966
Westerns were alive and well, claiming the top spots. They were slowly getting more sophisticated. On Gunsmoke, did Marshall Dillon have a relationship with Miss Kitty, whose bordello was center stage on TV? And, if he were a good sheriff of the time wouldn't he have put her in jail or driven her out of town? It seemed the bordello was allowed at the discretion of the Marshall. The show was handled in such a way that the kids didn't really know what was going on.
Music 1966
But the list of memorable songs did not end there. If you look at Billboard's end of the top 100 you get: 90. Nowhere Man -
The Beatles Music was never bigger than in the mid 1960s and the quality of the recordings resulting from competition between groups like The Beatles and The Beach Boys had everyone moving to "The Beat" Movies 1966
ColorYes, it seemed like black and white had disappeared in 1966. But, with color came complexity. It was more complicated and diverse than shades of gray. All aspects of the simple life of the fifties were being eroded, sometimes violently. The times were changing and color meant something different to each and every individual.
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It's interesting to note when watching old clips of TV shows or
baseball highlights that black and white was accepted as a
standard for a long time after color capabilities were
available. 1966 marked a transition year where the world moved
to color rapidly. Color TV sets became more affordable as more
programs were broadcast in "living color" (NBC). Fashion became
more colorful also; and, in a sense, the world become more
colorful.
Topps released its 1966 Baseball Card Set of 598 cards in seven
series and for the first time used color to differentiate
various teams. The Cardinals had yellow backgrounds with red
letters, Giants were green with yellow letters, the Yankees were
red with yellow letters, the Cubs were an icky beige with white
letters as were the White Sox, the Angels were lilac with white
letters, the Mets were purple. Here's where it gets too hard for
me to classify various shades of purple, lilac or whatever. The
fact is that the teams looked consistent, which was a cool thing
for someone like me who played with cards and sorted them by
teams. The design was simple and used color well... most of the
time. Why Topps would choose a shade of purple for the
background behind the green and gold Athletics' uniforms makes me
wonder about the person who was in charge of their art.
Rookie cards included: # 254
Most Valuable Player
The Space Race was in full swing. The unmanned Soviet
In 1966 China's political hierarchy was run by elitist elements
and capitalists.
Racial conflict continued as the Civil Rights Act matured as
riots in Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Minneapolis,
Omaha and Dayton demonstrated the feelings of unrest.
The first episode of the science fiction television series
In an interview with London Evening Standard reporter Maureen
Cleave, John Lennon of
The Beatles
states that they are "
The Top grossing films from 1966 were: