5 Baseball Cards that Really Hit 'Home'
Or at least stole/called/caught/slid/stayed home
Happy June 1, and welcome to…uh…National Home Ownership Month!
Just to prove that baseball cards are down to celebrate anything, here are five that get the job done for NHOM. You might want to turn down the volume on your transistor radio or turn off your hearing aids, because the groan meter is sure to be pegged from the start with this one.
Enjoy(?)…
1958 Topps Vic Power (#406)
There are some guys whose baseball cards always seem to just look “right” to me, somehow. Larry Doby (read more about him here) is one who comes to mind, along with Luke Easter, and (bless my Reds-fan soul) countless Dodgers players (like this) over several decades.
Another is Vic Power, whose 1961 Topps card makes me want to grab a bat and jump in the time machine every time I see it. Considering that one shows him with the Indians, and the inclusion of Doby and Easter on my “always beautiful” list, maybe there’s something in my brain that identifies with old-school Cleveland sluggers
*shrug*
One problem with that theory is that Power was more a slugger in name than in deed, as he never reached 20 home runs in a season and topped out at 37 doubles in 1958.
Which brings me to today’s card, that 1958 Topps beauty you see above. It’s a great looking card and also feels pretty “right” to me, all of which constitutes another ding to my “Indians slugger” theory since Power is a member of the Kansas City A’s on this card.
And that brings me almost to the point.
Because in 1958, Power split his season between the A’s and the Indians, traded in June with Woodie Held to Cleveland for Roger Maris, Dick Tomanek, and Preston Ward.
Along the way, Power accumulated ten triples, enough to lead the American League and tie his personal best (with 1955) and excite plenty of fans. Indeed, triples are among the most exciting plays in baseball, taking a backseat to inside-the-park homers and, at least sometimes, steals of home.
And, finally, we’re rounding third and heading home.
Because, on August 14, 1958, at Cleveland Stadium against the Tigers, Power stole home. Twice.
And the second of those came in the bottom of the tenth inning with two outs, Doby on first, and Rocky Colavito at the plate with Frank Lary pitching for Detroit.
A walk-off home-steal that gave the Tribe a 10-9 win and must have sent the home crowd into a frenzy!
For the record, Power was the first man to steal home twice in a game Doc Gautreau did it for the Boston Braves in 1927. No one has done it since.
Oh, and one other thing — Power stole three bases total in 1958.
1961 Topps Bill Kunkel (#222)
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Bill Kunkel grew up there in the heart of the New York baseball scene, spitting (or subway) distance from the Giants, Yankees, and Dodgers. So you gotta think his boyhood baseball dreams didn’t involve suiting up for the Boston Red Sox.
But it was the Sawx, indeed, who signed Kunkel as an amateur free agent before the 1955 season, when he was just 18 years old. As things worked out, though, Kunkel found the minor leagues to be a bumpy ride, and a long enough one that he changed his laundry a couple of times on his way up.
Traded by the Sox to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956, Kunkel finally looked like he was ready for the big leagues after posting a 3.86 ERA in 210 swingman innings for the Triple-A Montreal Royals in 1960.
The Kansas City A’s believed he was ready, too, and whisked him away from the Dodgers that November in the Rule 5 draft. Topps, in turn, bought Kunkel’s rise to the extent that they reserved a slot for his rookie card in their 1961 set. ]
The result is the nifty (if a bit billowy and amorphous) number you see above.
True to his Rule 5 status, Kunkel spent 1961 with his new team, debuting in relief at Yankee Stadium against the Bombers on April 15. In all that summer, the righty made 58 appearances (two starts) and posted a hefty 5.18 ERA across 88.2 innings.
Not surprisingly, that bought him a ticket back to the minors for 1962, though he did start the season with the A’s and also nabbed a few more appearances with the big team in May and June.
In August, though, the A’s traded Kunkel to the Braves, who stashed him in the minors. In November, the Yankees took a flyer on the 26-year-old in the Rule 5 draft.
On the New York roster all of 1963, Kunkel went 3-2 with a 2.72 ERA, but he never appeared in pinstripes — or any other big league uniform — again.
After two more seasons in the minors for three different franchises, Kunkel embarked on his second sports career — officiating.
Working as a referee in the NBA and ABA starting in 1966, Kunkel also became an umpire in the Florida State League that same year. He moved on to the Southern League in 1967 and 1968 before crashing the majors again — as an American League umpire — later that season.
Kunkel worked as an ump in the majors through August of 1984, when he was battling the cancer that would take his life in 1985. In all, Kunkel officiated 2227 major league games, with many of those coming behind (yes) home plate.
Kunkel’s son Jeff was a major league infielder (mostly) from 1984 through 1992, overlapping with his dad by a year. To date. Bill Kunkel is the last major league player to also ump in the majors.
1974 Topps Tom House (#164)
This one’s all about the name, homie. Er, housie.
I mean, what makes you feel more at home than meeting a chap named, “Tom”?
And if that doesn’t do it for you, consider that House gave up 49 home runs over 536 big league innings, en route to a 3.79 ERA. He also scored a whopping three times as a batter/runner.
So, you know, House had some experience with home plate.
And then there’s his more famous career as a pitching coach, both in formal roles and as a biomechanics throwing guru. That latter bit even made him a sought-after (ahem) home for quarterbacks looking to up their games or rehab their arms/shoulders/psyches.
And then there was the time that House caught Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run, which caused me all sorts of consternation when I read about it years later. And which, of course, also eventually led to my writing about the incident and said consternation right here.
That catch, and Aaron’s crowning achievement(s) came in 1974, about the same time collectors were starting to pull House’s first solo card from wax packs.
2000 Stadium Club Jeff Bagwell (#167)
The 2000 Houston Astros weren’t a very good team, finishing 72-90, and in fourth place (out of six teams) in the original National League Central division.
The big problem was a pitching staff that gave up 944 runs, second most in baseball, behind the cross-state Texas Rangers. That was also an increase of 269 runs allowed over the 1999 staff.
Such is life when you move from a pretty extreme pitcher’s park (Astrodome) to a pretty extreme hitter’s park (Enron) from one season to the next.
The upside was that the Astros’ offense pretty much answered the opposition blow-for-blow in 2000, scoring 938 runs overall. That was good for fifth in the majors, second in the National League, and 115 runs better than the 1999 version of the team.
When you think about the early-2000s Astros teams, you might picture Craig Biggio batting near the top of the order and figure he also topped the team in runs scored. That mental image is just half right, though.
While Biggio did spend most of his time in the leadoff or number-two slot, he also played only 101 games that summer. Other early-in-the-order dudes like Julio Lugo, Roger Cedeño, and Bill Spiers also logged limited playing time.
Indeed, only two Astros made it into 150+ games in 2000, and they also paced the team in runs scored.
Richard Hidalgo played in 153 games and scored 118 times, most often batting fourth, fifth, or sixth.
First baseman Jeff Bagwell, meanwhile, played 159 games and hit third in 158 of them. Coupled with his 47 home runs and .424 on-base percentage, that slot proved to be magical — Bags scored a whopping 152 runs, the most since Chuck Klein also scored 152 in 1932 and the first 150-run season since Ted Williams scored exactly 150 times in 1949.
The closest anyone has come since Bagwell’s feat was Ronald Acuña, Jr., in 2023, with 149 runs.
Given all that, the cloud-of-dust Stadium Club card up there seems like the only one that would do for this occasion. I don’t know whether Bagwell was safe on the play at the (home) plate, but given what we’ve just learned, it seems pretty likely.
Check out The Hall of Fame Rookie Cards of Jeff Bagwell: A Collector's Guide
1990 Bowman Frank White (#371)
Frank White was born in Greenville, Mississippi, but his parents moved the family to Kansas City when little Frank (he’s a Jr.) was just six years old. The move stuck.
After graduating from high school, White worked at a few different jobs and briefly attended college. But in the late summer of 1969, White attended tryouts for the expansion Royals’ brand new “baseball academy” in Florida — sort of on a whim and squeezing it in around his work schedule.
The “chance encounter” paid off, as White was accepted into the academy and handled himself well enough there that the Royals signed him to a minor league free agent deal in July of 1970. By 1973, he was back home in Kansas City for good, this time as a major leaguer.
White spent the first two-plus years of his big league career splitting time between second base and shortstop, providing ready backup when Cookie Rojas (2B) or Freddie Patek (SS) took a game off. White took over as the keystone regular in 1975, though, and made it his diamond home through 1990.
After his career was over, White spent some time coaching in the Red Sox organization before coming home (again) to the same type of role with the Royals. He’s also coached for the Kansas City Monarchs and spent time in the Royals broadcast booth in the years since.
Among his other post-baseball careers, White has held multiple elected offices in county government since the mid-2010s.
Oh, and about those pre-baseball jobs of his? One had him working construction as part of a crew building the brand new Kauffman Stadium, which is still the Royals home today.
So, what better card than White’s 1990 Bowman near-career-capper showing him in his blazing home whites against a spotless blue sky. There’s not really enough of the ballpark in the background for my untrained eye to say for sure that it’s Kauffman, but we can at least pretend (and let me know if you know for sure one way or the other).
Because, Frank White might just be the ultimate hometown player, or at least right up there. Heck, maybe his baseball name should have been Home White, just like his shirt.
—
Alright, that does it for this week’s smorgasbord of cardboard shenanigans. Unless you want to chip in dessert, in the form of…
What are your favorite home-based baseball cards? Let your imagination run wild, but you might want to avoid options that involve a big mortgage. This is all just paper pulp we’re talking about, after all.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
The irony about selecting White, is that he currently might be wishing he lived anywhere else than KC. As Jackson County Executive, he's become the villain and main obstacle preventing the Royals from building their new stadium in Jackson County, which is where Kauffman is located. Maybe it's because I'm not a Jackson County resident and don't care where the new stadium goes, as long as it stays in the KC metro, and because I also think White has some valid points, I think the demonization of White has gone a little too far. Although, I'll concede that White has feuded with the Royals many times over the years, and it feels like that's brought a level of pettiness to the proceedings that doesn't help things. At least the two sides could call a truce a few weeks back and White attended the anniversary celebration of the 85 WS team. Because if you can't fight with your family at home, who can you fight with?