1961 Dice Game

[sflayank]

Youre amazing bob
I never knew this
From memory i believe richardson is batting and so is crandall..kubek is fielding...but dont quote me
Cards are unavailable at present so cant double check
The other 5 still have never seen
Y r u. Guessing they will match

[ALR-bishop]

Larry--- other worldly maybe, but amazing ?

[bobsbbcards]

Originally Posted by sflayank

Y r u. Guessing they will match

The Battey and Frank Robinson '60 side panels are "cramped" pictures--catcher in a squatting position and Robinson leaning over for a ground ball. Neither one would have filled the vertical space on a Dice Game card. Also, in the '60 Battey, he's got a "Duh, I'm a catcher look on his face."

The Kubek and Richardson are in between--they're sort of crouched, sort of standing. Same with Pascual, and he's turned to the side a bit. The rest of them would make fantastic Dice Game poses--nice and upright, especially the White and Davenport.

[bobsbbcards]

Position-wise, the 18 players selected make sense:

Pitchers (2) - Pascual* (AL) and Drysdale* (NL)
Catchers (2) - Battey (AL) and Crandall (NL)
1st Base (2) - Musial (AL) and White (NL)
2nd Base (2) - Richardson (AL) and Mazeroski (NL)
3rd Base (2) - B. Robinson (AL) and Davenport (NL)
Shortstop (2) - Kubek (AL) and Groat (NL)
Outfield (6) - Siebern, Mantle*, Kaline* (AL) and Wagner, Mays*, Robinson (NL)

* - indicates they were in the 1960 Topps All-Star subset

It's a bit surprising that more All-Stars aren't represented in the Dice "set."

[hcv123]

Well, I too never knew about the 1960 inset poses! Thanks for teaching me my something for today! Someone was asking about Levi and what he collects earlier - I believe he is a HUGE Mantle collector - Not sure what else - I know he used to love the test issue/rarer items because they were highly profitable and easy sales.

[ALR-bishop]

As a Cardinals fan I sort of resent a Reds guy putting Stan in the AL

[bobsbbcards]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

As a Cardinals fan I sort of resent a Reds guy putting Stan in the AL

I wish St. Louis was an AL team--that's why I put him there. Get over it.

[toppcat]

I see Kubek missed a large part of 62 due to military service. And how Bill White missed being an All Star in 1962 is beyond me, his stats were stellar that year. Aparicio and Tresh were the AL All Star shortstops that year, Banks and Cepeda got the NL nod that year at 1B.

[toppcat]

I just spot checked about 7 guys and all were in the 1962 All Star Games. I don't have time to check the whole list right now but it looks like that might be the All Star year in question, making these a 1962 or 63 issue. I suspect these were pieces originally created for internal design purposes, like we've seen with many others that Topps cobbled together over the years, and then they went into an early test stage which resulted in the cards we know today. The 1960 inset photos being used don't necessarily correlate to a 1961 date for Dice Game; Topps often used archival photos years after they were used in a set for such creations.

[sflayank]

White and kubek didnt make 62 team
Other 16 did