The Ultimate 'This Guy Doesn't Have a Tribute Thread Yet' Tribute Thread:

[MCoxon]

Originally Posted by commishbob

Love that card. Poking around I see that Zorro never played for the Pads. He was their property for about six weeks the off season of '68. I still remember how Phil Rizzuto would mangle his name during broadcasts and how eloquently Red Barber pronounced it.

He won MVP in 1965! His 1965 Topps card with glasses is also a keeper.

I am of an age where the 1982 Kmart set burned into my brain the MVP winners from each league, each year, from 1962-1981, a recall which I retain to this day...the set shows Topps cards from the year that each MVP winner won (e.g., 1962 Topps Mantle, 1962 Topps Wills).

I remember as an 8-year old thinking, I could just cut-out the image of the original Topps card, and no one would notice...

[brian1961]

Zoilo Versalles truly played a key role for the fine 1965 Minnesota Twins, the first team since '59 to play in the World Series that was not the Yankees.

My mind recalls his radiant smile on his 1966 Topps card. It was beautiful. Sadly, as I also remember, after 1965, he never had another good year. By the time that pix was taken for his '69 Topps card, his precious smile was long gone. Poor Zoilo struggled with life in later years. I remember wincing as I read a story in The Trader Speaks or Sports Collectors Digest of Zoilo, in his car with his family, going to a dealer in Chicago to sell his baseball treasures, among them his 1965 AL MVP plaque. The dealer's name was Pat Quinn, and he truly was one of the good guys back then, and gave Zoilo as much as he could. I will always remember dear Mr. Quinn with in high regard for that.

In the end, at least Mr. Versalles had 1965, and his Twins forced the Dodgers to play all seven games to win the Series. That was a terrific World Series, and the first one I saw on TV.

A lot of players never had a year as Zoilo did. I salute his memory.

---Brian Powell