30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Cheap Cool Cards #29: 1961 Topps #21 Zoilo Versalles

Who the heck is Zoilo Versalles? Well that's what I said to myself after I pulled his 1982 K-Mart card out of those $1 grab bags from last month's flea market venture:


Honestly... I had never heard of the guy and felt a little stupid since he was the 1965 American League MVP. That season, he led the league in runs, doubles, triples, and total bases as he helped the Minnesota Twins reach the World Series for the first time since their move from Washington several years earlier.

Anyways... I was so surprise to learn this little piece of trivia, that I headed over to Check Out My Cards to search for the 1965 Topps card captured on the K-Mart card.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find one. But I did find his 1961 Topps rookie card, which I found for 60¢. It's not in perfect condition, but it's still the rookie card of a former AL MVP.


Best of all... it's evidence that one piece of cardboard often leads us to another piece of cardboard.

Okay, let's see how many of you guys are like me...

Have you ever heard of Zoilo Versalles before today?

And just curious...

Who are other MVP's (from any sport) that people may not have ever heard of?

Happy Hump Day! Enjoy the rest of your week and sayonara.

13 comments:

  1. Heard of him, Picked up the same card a few months back from COMC it was real cheap!

    I'll say Mort Cooper 1942 MVP, WQhile Britain was battling with Hitler!

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    1. Never heard of Mort... but the guy seemed to dominate the 40's. 4x All-Star & 2x World Series Champion.

      Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Yes, but probably only because of my name thing haha.

    And I'd say Terry Pendleton will end up on that list someday.

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    1. You're probably right... I remember Pendleton from the late 80's/early 90's. But I'm wondering how many of the younger collectors (people born in the past 10-15 years) know who he is.

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  3. I've heard of him, but I didn't know anything about him other than that he was the 1965 AL MVP. I first heard of him from the MVP subset in the 1975 Topps set.

    Looked him up on Baseball-reference.com. His was a sad story.
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Zoilo%20Versalles

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    1. Wow... that is a sad story. Can't imagine how it must have felt to have to sell the MVP trophy. Thanks for sharing.

      Oh... and ironically own that 1975 MVP subset card. I have had it for awhile now... just never took the time to notice the name.

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  4. yes. That '61 card of his caught my attention as a young kid due to his name, and the subsequent follow up with the old man confirmed that he in fact deserved the little star unlike so many other of those '61 Stars (Billy Williams aside).

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    1. Yeah... it's crazy that I never took the time to stop and look at that name. It's definitely unique.

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  6. HEARD of him? Heck, I saw him play. And did you notice that the '61 has him as "Zorro"? We always called him Zorro and the 'Zoilo' bit threw us. Only the great broadcaster Red Barber called him 'Zoilo' as far as I remember.

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    1. That's awesome! He was a little bit before my time... but I'm still shocked that I didn't recognize his unique name after all of these years.

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  7. I think I learned who he was from the same 1982 K-Mart cards, 30 years ago.

    I always think I know hockey pretty well, and then there are like 10 new guys from back in the day I had never heard of. Heck, I just watched a documentary about the Broad Street Bullies from the 70's and I realized I had only heard of about half of them. There is always more to learn.

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    1. When it comes to hockey... if it occurred before 1991 (the year the Sharks entered the league) and doesn't involve Gretzky I probably don't know about it ;-)

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