Over the three day weekend, I watched the first four episodes of Marvel's new animated series, What If...?. The premise of the show is simple. It looks at alternate timelines within the MCU had one or two events occurred differently.
The idea is something my friends and I played a lot in college... especially while on road trips. It's something I still find entertaining twenty-five years later.
Today's "what if" is simple...
What if you were born ten years earlier? Would your all-time favorite player be someone else?
1967 Topps Poster #2
If I was born ten years earlier, I think I would have been a huge Bert Campaneris fan. My family moved to the Bay Area when I was six years old... right about the same time the Oakland A's were about to start an epic run in baseball. This supports the belief that I still would have wound up rooting for the Green & Gold.
1975 Topps #170
And after looking at the members of The Swingin' A's... Campy stood out the most. He was fast, versatile, solid defensively, and scored a lot of runs. In short... he was my kind of ballplayer. I think the only thing he lacked was a high batting average, but none of the A's during that era were known for that.
2016 Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-BC
That's why I've been tossing around the idea of targeting his cards more frequently than I have in the past. Up until now... I've just added cards of his here and there when the price was right. Here's a look at what I've acquired up until now.
As an autograph guy, let's start with them...
1999 Fleer SI Greats of the Game Autographs #NNO
2002 Topps Archives Autographs #TAA-BC
2004 Topps Team Legends Autograph #TTBC
2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Platinum Autograph #80 (1 of 1)
2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Silver Autograph #100
My rarest Campaneris is the Timeless Teams Platinum autograph that I purchased off of GCRL back in 2013. It was my favorite autograph of his for several years... until I acquired this autographed rookie card of his on eBay for $19.99 four years ago:
1965 Topps #266
A few years after he sold me the 1/1 autograph, GCRL gave me the coolest memorabilia card sitting in my collection:
2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Team Terrific Booklet #TT-OA
This booklet represents my only game-used memorabilia card of Campy and it doesn't get cooler than this. Here's a look at the front and back of the booklet when closed:
1966 Topps #175
1968 Topps #109 (75th Anniversary Buyback)
1968 Atlantic Oil Play Ball #2
1969 Topps #495
1971 Topps #440
1972 Topps #75
1974 Topps #155
My latest Campaneris acquisition was part of the first care package Reader X sent to me at the start of the summer:
I'm not exactly sure what this is, but it's encapsulated in a one-touch magnetic and has a Topps Vault hologram. After scouring COMC, I failed to find any Topps cards of his with this photograph. Even a quick Google image search came up short. I've seen Topps Vault items before, but don't really know much about them. Any idea what this photo/card is?
By the way... I've been sitting on these scans for several months now. Why? I was waiting for today... because it marks the 56th anniversary of Bert Campaneris Day. Back on September 8th, 1965... Campy became the first player in MLB history to play all 9 positions in a single game. I told you he was versatile.
Reader X also sent me these two Topps Vault photo slides of Livan Hernandez:
2000 Topps #308 (COMC Image)
Thanks again Xavier for three more awesome additions to my collection. He recently sent two more care packages, which means I should have plenty of interesting items to show off for several more months.
Happy Bert Campaneris Day and sayonara!
19 comments:
In 1972 Campaneris led off with a triple at a game I was at in what turned out to an Athletics win. The only run by the Tigers was a LONG home run by Jim Northrup that landed about 10 rows in fron of me.
p.s. I still can't forgive Campy for throwing his bat at Tigers pitcher Kerrin LaGrow in the '72 ALCS.
Great cards, Good Job.👍
If I was born ten years earlier, I think I'd still be a Mariano Rivera fan. I'd just be an even bigger Mariano fan because I would've actually been able to watch him in his career.
You have a nice Campy collection.
I used to enjoy reading those what if comics. I remember one about daredevil in particular.
If I were ten years older I would likely still be a dodger fan but would probably be a bigger Maury wills or Jim lefebvee fan. I still would have missed out on being able to recall sandy koufax as an active player.
Glad to have helped you amass some of your campy cards - he was an early favorite of mine!
I caught Ryne Sandberg late in his career, so it's very possible he would have still been my favorite.
I can't really say that I actually have a favorite player, team yes. Hank is up there at the top for sure, just not sure he is alone. 10 years earlier, probably would be just like today.
Being born 10 years earlier would probably put me in the Johnny Bench or Tom Seaver camp for favorite player. Not bad choices!
So ten years earlier would have been before Schmidt and Carlton (as a Phillie). Carlton got there first and had that 27-win season in '72. But I don't see myself picking an every fifth day guy as my favorite. Bowa maybe? He wasn't much of a hitter.
Or maybe I would have gone with Joe Rudi, who was from my home town and played about 90 miles away for a much better team than the early '70s Phillies. With your Campy.
Anyway, it would have been Schmidt once his career took off regardless of who it was before him.
For me it would be the late Roberto Clemente and Toy Cannon Jimmy Wynn. Clemente was the best batter of the era. Wynn because he's an Astros legend
Those slides are cool. Love that stuff. The other vault item looks like a photo proof. Interesting but whoever's selling them on ebay is calling them negatives and charging way to much for something that's a super-low-quality print used for having something to look at.
Anyway, if I had gotten into baseball 10 years earlier would've been slim pickins. 1977 A's were dire and the Giants weren't much better. My guess is I would've been a Bill Madlock or Willie McCovey fan. Though Jack Clark is a possibility too.
According the the Topps Vault auctions (per an old post of mine), those are "original color negatives" and are "a random selection of vintage color negatives hand-picked from the legendary Topps photo archives. All of these classic images were shot by official Topps photographers but, for reasons unknown, failed to make the cut, and thus, never appeared on a vintage Topps trading card. The original color transparency offered here measures approx. 2 1/2" X 3" and is in excellent condition."
Hmmmm...I became a Mets fan in 1973 when they made their "You Gotta Believe" run. If I had been a little kid when the Mets were new, would I have been charmed by the new team or, because they were bad, would I just have gone along with my Dad and been a Yankee fan. I'd like to think I still would have been a Mets fan and a Seaver fan. Maybe George Brett sharing my name wouldn't have been as big a deal if I'd been 17 instead of 7 when I first heard of him, though.
Hmmm...I became interested in baseball in 1986 when I was 11. Roger Clemens's great season is a main reason I became a Red Sox fan. If I go back 10 years to 1976, it's not unreasonable to believe that I would have gotten caught up in "Bird-mania" and become a Mark Fidrych fan, and thus a Tigers fan!
For me, a Yankee fan starting in 1976 instead of 1986 (certainly would have been a nicer start to my fandom) - Mickey Rivers for sure (my dad wanted to name me after him). Probably also Lou Piniella, Sparky Lyle and of course Thurman Munson. I got to see the tail end of Willie Randolph's career, would have been great to follow it from the start.
Turning back the clock from 1992 to 1982, I think Vladdy would've still been my favorite player since I would've been a teenager during his prime. Would've been around 20 when Ichiro debuted too, so he'd probably still be up there. Don't think my favorite players would've changed much.
The timeless teams are some of my favorites. That's a nice Topps Vault photo.
The Cubs weren't very good in the late 70s so if I started watching baseball Andre Dawson wouldn't be my favorite player since he'd still be with the Expos. I may say a Cubs Era Bill Matlock or Dave Kingman.
john sharp - just watched the play on yt... and that definitely wasn't cool of campy.
gtt - good choice. the guy is a legend
gcrl - my campy pc wouldn't be nearly what it is today without your help. thanks jim!
jeff b - sandberg was very popular among collectors my age. in fact, i'm surprised i didn't become a bigger fan of his.
johnnys trading spot - if i was born 10 years earlier, i'm guessing i'd be a bigger aaron ran
nachos grande - yeah, can't go wrong with either of those guys. i only caught the tail end of their careers
elliptical man - joe rudi is a great choice. i probably should track down more of his a's cards.
rebel coyote - i'm guessing i would have hopped on the clemente bandwagon as well. never heard a single bad thing about the guy.
nick vossbrink - madlock is a great choice. i'd probably go with him (or vida blue) for that era of giants baseball
defgav - thanks for the information. can't believe i missed that post.
brett alan - it would have been cool to watch the 68 mets win the world series. i'm sure that would have made me become a bigger seaver fan. i think i still would have ended up being more of a steve carlton guy though.
matt - had i been five years older, i'm positive i would have gotten caught up in bird-mania. heck... the guy was so interesting... i became interested in him years after he retired
bo - as much as i dislike the yankees, if i was ten years older i would have been able to watch or at least follow part of mantle's career. that would have been cool. i remember when i started collecting, it was right after munson's tragic crash, which made me interested in his cards.
nick - i love vladdy and ichiro. i wonder if you went back twenty years if you'd be a gwynn fan ;D
steve at 1975baseballcards.com - timeless teams was great product and an excellent way for me to add some of those fan favorites from the 70's a's teams
jafronius - hmmm... late 70's cubs? nobody really comes to mind except bruce sutter and that's only because i remember his rookie card is from that 77t set.
Great post. If I had been born 10 years earlier, I would have probably gone Lou Brock or Ted Simmons.
the snorting bull - i probably would have been a brock fan too. loved guys who could steal a base when i was a kid
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