#38 - Don Kessinger (CHC)

Don Kessinger was the traditional weak-hitting shortstop that could field well.  Back in those days, if a shortstop could field, he was given a pass on his bat.  No Ripken, A-Rod, Jeter or Tejada of today.  Nope.  And Don was that somewhat tall, skinny kid that naturally ended up at shortstop.  He came along several years after All-Star shortstop Ernie Banks was moved to first base, and after only a few years in the bigs, he became the All-Star shortstop.  The Cubs had a lot of All-Star shortstop action in the 50's to the 70's.  He played 16 seasons in the majors, yet hit only 14 home runs.  He never played in the post-season, either.  One of his All-Star appearances appears on the back of this card under the star - where else?  Two for two isn't bad in the Summer Classic.

I remember seeing Kessinger play short on TV when I was a kid.  I watched him on radio, too, when they played the Giants.  He was the fixture SS for the Cubbies.  This 1974 season would be his last All-Star team. 

Cartoon: Don gained 25 pounds eating the spread in the dressing room prior to the game, and promptly got six hits in six at bats that day.  Oh what a day for Oscar Meyer.  I guess all that MSG made him see stars.  Hey, Doc Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD, so why can't Kessinger go 6-for-6 on MSG?


Ballpark background: Here's a shot of Kessinger with an amazing amount of real estate behind him.  Or, third base side at Candlestick Park.  This Astro-turf layout was certainly bigger than the Brady Bunch back yard.  Candlestick and the Oakland Coliseum were the two parks with the most foul territory until the Giants built a new park.  The A's now rule foul ground.

#14 - Paul Popovich (CHC)

This card shows Paul with the Chicago Cubs.  He was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 1, 1974, just a few days before opening day.  Even though he was traded, Topps did not issue a card of Popovich in its Traded set released later in the year.  Maybe this was a belated April Fool joke, or maybe Topps thought the trade itself was an April Fool joke.  In any case, Paul would play only two more years, '74 & '75, in a limited role with the Bucs.  What never shows on his card is that when he was traded in June of 1969, the Dodgers sent him to the Expos, who traded him to the Cubs that same day.  I'm not sure if it was part of a three-way trade, or whether the Expos planned the maneuver as the middle-man.

This is the first card in this set where the nondescript "infield" position shows on a card.  His career was spent mostly at second base, with some short and third mixed in.  In '74 he played about evenly between 2B and SS with the Pirates, with a majority of his second sacker action coming from starts, and all of his stints at short from being inserted later in the game.

Cartoon: I'm not sure what bonuses were back in the early 60's, but 40 grand seems like quite a lot.  It seems that Topps is playing with words here, as Paul received only a "reported" bonus.  Didn't he get a real one?


Ballpark background: This photo was taken in 1973 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, one of the home ballparks of my youth.  In fact, 1974, the year of this Topps set, was the year of my first visit there.  The green stuff you see behind Paul is actually artificial turf.  It's a bit too green and uniform looking for astroturf, but that's what it is.  I'm not sure why it looks so green, as Candlestick Park in the 70's had some of the most horrifically streaky, faded looking carpet in the Bigs.  This photo must have taken advantage of the reverse-grain velvet effect.  The orange seats were real box seats with real metal bars dividing up the rows.  The dugouts weren't dug out, but level with the playing field.  There are what looks like 25 towels hanging from the visitor's dugout wall.  As was typical at the 'Stick, the shadow line from the upper deck divided the sun drenched box seats (tank tops and shorts) from the freezing reserved section (parkas and down coats, even in summer).  Only the front row or so of the reserved seats see sun in this shot.