Question about 1962 Salada Coins

[droid714]

Hi Fred,

First off, I hope your wife is feeling better soon. Good to know it's nothing serious.

Second, thank you so much for the information! It's exactly what I was hoping to find out! And if you can find the time to post the uncut sheets, that would be a dream come true!

That's one of the problems with the Corona virus, too much time on my hands!

I had always been curious to see if the eight position player two pitcher rule would hold for all teams and all coin variations, and it does, but only if some of the A-B designations are wrong.

Additionally, Salada made some very strange choices with their replacement coins. I don't have my list in front of me, but I remember one "B" player was listed a "SS" and would replace the "A" shortstop on his team. The only problem is that he hadn't played shortstop since 1956, nor would he play that position in 1962!

In the case of the Indians, which I'm more familiar with, there were a couple of anomalies. First baseman, Vic Power, was traded to the Twins following the 1961 season, yet he was never issued a replacement coin and would be part of both shields, despite never playing for the Indians in 1962.

Center fielder, Jim Piersall, was traded to the Senators after the 1961 season. In reality, a rookie named Ty Cline was the full-time center fielder in 1962 and would have made a better choice for a replacement coin. Instead, Salada chose to immortalize Walt Bond, a seldom used outfielder who played a grand total of 13 games in center field in his six year career. Sadly, Bond died in 1967 at age 29 of Leukemia.

The expansion of the NL into Houston and New York was responsible for a lot of the confusion. Many of the "A" players ended up as "B" players on those two teams, as they were selected in the expansion draft. Many of the remaining "A" players, plus many of the additional 21 were shifted to the teams that lost players in the expansion draft to fill the voids.

The bottom line is that it was actually quite an enjoyable exercise and if anybody would like to see my results, let me know and I'll post them, a few teams at a time.

Thanks again, Fred, for taking the time to respond!

John