Tough (but Fun) Baseball Card Trivia
 

I like trivia that makes you think for a while before you get the answer. Hate trivia that can be easily looked up on-line. So, let's see how good you are:
Postwar Baseball cards (Topps 1952 - 1980):
1) The set containing the most rookie cards of 20 game winners had 8. Name the set, and of course I'd expect you to name the pitchers involved.
Bonus question: There were two other sets that contained the rookie cards of 7 twenty game winners. Interestingly the two sets with 7 and the one set with 8 all ran consecutively. Name the two sets with 7, and of course I'd want you to name the corresponding players.

I believe 1965 had 7: Carlton, Niekro, McLain, Lonborg, Stottlemyre, Hunter, and Tiant (Blass and Briles came close at 19)

1965 Topps had Steve Carlton, Jim Hunter, Luis Tiant, Denny McLain, Mel Stottlemyer, Jim Lonborg and Larry Dierker. Also had Steve Blass and Nelson Briles who won 19 as well as Tug McGraw for a closer.

My first thought was 65 as I remember putting this set together and remember the number of rookie cards.

I got 7 too, but I included Dierker, but not Niekro. He did have a "Rookie Card" in '65, but his true rookie card was '64 Topps.

Probably 66 with a start of Palmer Jenkins and Sutton, plus Bill Singer on the same card with Sutton, but I can't think of the rest.

I believe you can add Bill Hands and Jim Merritt to those four from 1966.

1965 with 7 is correct (Larry Dierker was the 7th, not Phil Niekro who's RC was 1964). You guys are on the right path with 1966... but who were the remaining 20 game winners?

Jim Merritt... very impressive. Thought he would be the last guy anyone guessed.

Fritz Peterson

Correct. Fritz Peterson is the 7th 20 game winner RC from the 1966 set. There was however, an 8th. Whom? ...and what was the other set with 7 20 game winner RCs (and, of course, who where those guys)?

You know how 1972 had those famous "Traded" cards? Topps should've done two more showing the wives of Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich. :)

Joe Coleman

From 1967: Boswell, Short, Seaver, Bahnsen, Dobson, Holtzman and Niekro.

That ends it. Joe Coleman is the 8th twenty game winner RC from 1966. The 7 guys listed above are correct for 1967 (as long as you understand that the Niekro in question is Joe, not Phil), which was the other season (in addition to 1965) which had 7. Very impressive. Thank you for playing.

Thanks for asking. BTW, I had to triple check to make sure that 1967 was Chris Short's rookie card, as in my mind I recall seeing a'65 and even a '64 Topps card of his. How in the heck did he not have a card before 1967? Contract dispute with Topps I assume? He appeared in enough games to basically "earn" a card for every season from 1961-1966. Maybe this has been covered before.

I remember the famous (alleged) quote -- it isn't a wife swap, it's a life swap.

There are a whole bunch of people who have their RC in 1967 that you would never suspect never had Topps cards before

The most famous was Maury Wills

Then Chris Short

Then people such as Doug Clemens and Arnold Earley. Trust me, there were some funky things in 1967. I think, and if Mark Armour reads this he probably can chime in better than I do but that was when Marvin Miller 1st got the players reasonable money to be on Topps cards.

Rich

Thanks Rich. I knew about Wills of course, his absence being the stuff of considerable writing. But Short? Wins 17 games in 1964, makes the AS team and gets MVP votes, then wins 18 games in 1965, and doesn't have a Topps card in either of the ensuing years?

It might explain a minor mystery, though, and maybe is something collectors are pleased that happened. Short was third in 1964 ERA in the National League, so one might think he would be on the LL card in 1965. Instead, Topps chose to show only Koufax and Drysdale, which was always curious to me--why only two guys shown when the other leaders honored three? Then I see the ERA leaders from the AL show only two as well, and leave out Whitey Ford, which makes little sense, unless they were looking for some sort of symmetry in the treatment of the ERA leaders from the two leagues.