5 Baseball Cards that Power-Peaked Early

And then Dropo-ed off from there...if you Nokes what I mean

Former Braves slugger Earl Williams was born on this date in 1948. In case you don’t remember, Williams hit .260 with 33 home runs and 87 RBI in 1971 to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

Those numbers were all the more amazing considering that Williams played the majority of his games as a catcher.

As it turned out, all of those marks would be career highs, though Williams did turn in a few more solid summers for the Braves and Orioles through the middle of the decade.

To celebrate Williams — who died in 2013 — here are five baseball cards of hitters who recorded their career-best home run totals as rookies.

1950 Bowman Walt Dropo (#246)

Dropo showed good power in his last two minor league stops, hitting 17 home runs in both 1948 and 1949. But the big first baseman really found big league pitching — and Fenway Park — to his liking as a rookie in 1950.

Taking over for the injured Billy Goodman early in the season, the righty-hitting Dropo hit .322 with 34 home runs and a majors-leading 144 RBI to win the American League Rookie of the Year award.

Of his 34 dingers, 24 came at home in Fenway.

And he never approached any of those Triple Crown numbers again in a full season. Looking back now, that rookie-season peak isn’t all that surprising considering that Dropo was already 27 years old for all of the 1950 season.

But, likely owing to his strong minor league showing and a seven-game cup of coffee in 1949, collectors got to play along with Dropo during his magical season. Bowman had the foresight to include him in their 1950 set, giving young hobbyists a colorful chase card in their wax packs that summer.

1965 Topps Tony Oliva (#340)

I tried to limit this list to rookie cards, but Oliva’s first two cards were of the multi-player-blurry-head-early-1960s variety, in the 1963 and 1964 Topps sets…although the 1964 wasn’t too bad.

But then Oliva’s first solo card was this 1965 Topps beauty, sealing the fate of this slot in this newsletter 59 years on.

Of course, all that’s a bit beside the point here, which is that Oliva hit 32 home runs in his rookie season of 1964. He also won a batting title by hitting .323, and he drove in 94 runs.

It was all good enough to win Oliva the American League Rookie of the Year Award. He also made the All-Star team and picked up MVP votes, both of which he would accomplish for eight years in a row.

A relatively short peak left Oliva with “just” 1917 lifetime hits and 220 home runs, but he did hit .304 over the course of his career. And, after decades of debates among generations of fans, a version of the Veterans Committee elected Oliva to the Hall of Fame in 2022.

But even with all those accomplishments and diamond bling, Oliva never again reached even 30 homers in a season, topping out at 25 in 1966.

1972 Topps Earl Williams (#380)

This is our Dude of the Day, of course. Like Oliva, Williams started his cardboard life with a multi-player rookie card, in 1971, before landing on this stellar, gold-figurine-clad entry in 1972.

Who knows? If Williams had stayed in Atlanta, maybe he would have been the fourth member of the 1973 Braves to hit 40 home runs, thus establishing a new personal best.

Of course, that would have been a universe-glitching trick, considering that one of the three Braves who did connect for 40 that summer was Davey Johnson, whom the Orioles traded (with others) for Williams himself (and other) after the 1972 season.

By then, Williams’ homer totals were in a steady decline phase, and he wound up his playing career in 1977 with a .247 batting average, 138 home runs, and 457 RBI.

had multiplayer RC in 1971

1978 Topps Mitchell Page (#55)

I actually learned about Mitchell Page and his prodigious power from his 1979 Topps baseball card, which is still one of my favorites. And about which, of course, I was compelled to wax (see what I did there?) poetic — that happened here if you want to read it.

For us here, though, this 1978 Topps rookie card is pretty stellar. Page looks like he’s having a pretty good time in his Oakland gold and green, and with his eyes well-protected from the summer gnats there behind his windshields.

And why wouldn’t he be having a good time? After four years in the Pirates’ minor league system, Page was part of a six-player package the Bucs sent to Oakland during Spring Training in 1977 in exchange for Chris Batton, Phil Garner, and Tommy Helms.

Dropped in among the ranks of a suddenly rebuilding franchise, Page found himself starting in left field for the A’s on Opening Day less than a month later. He stayed in the starting lineup most of the season and made the best of his newfound opportunity: .307, 21 home runs, 75 RBI, 42 stolen bases.

That was good enough to land Page in second place in American League Rookie of the Year voting, behind only Eddie Murray.

Alas, their paths diverged from there.

Page was 25 in that golden rookie season, and, as it turned out, he was at his absolute peak. He never again matched any of those numbers in a season (though he did hit .333 in 16 games with the 1984 Pirates).

But all those dingers and all those steals, and a return to power in 1978 and 1980 — he hit 17 long balls in each of those summers — coaxed some collectors to clutch tight to Page’s cards.

Some might still be holding on. Won’t mention any names.

1988 Score Matt Nokes (#15)

Matt Nokes chose the wrong place and the wrong time to stage a breakout rookie season.

But he also chose the right place and the right time.

Dude was like a Dickens novel all wrapped up in the tools of ignorance.

I mean, any other year, Nokes’ 32 home runs as a rookie catcher would have wowed the world. But he hit his in 1987, the same year Mark McGwire hit 49 as a rookie. The same year Wade Boggs — Wade Boggs, for goodness sake — hit 24.

So Nokes had to settle for finishing third in A.L. ROY balloting, behind McGwire and Mr. 323, Kevin Seitzer.

But Nokes also spent the season as the starting backstop for an underrated and exciting Tigers team who came out on top in one of the most thrilling division races ever.

And then he showed up on this striking 1988 Score rookie card. Now, that inaugural Score wasn’t my favorite, and I still think it fell short of the enormous hype surrounding it. And there’s an awful lot of empty space on this Nokes card…but it works great.

The black sky is majestic, like Nokes is batting in prime-time, with the world watching from our TVs, and with everything on the line. Which might have actually been true.

Anyway, Nokes put together a solid 11-year career, but he never again hit even 25 homers in a season. Of course, considering he peaked in the launch-fest of 1987, maybe Nokes should get an asterisk here.

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I can relate to these guys. I really can.

I mean, I pulled an Earl Campbell rookie card my first year collecting football cards, then never found a single Campbell single in any of the hundreds of packs I opened from that point forward.

Go figure.

Anyway, enjoy the All-Star festivities — it’ll be another year before we see them again, after all. Unless this is 1959…or 1960…or 1961…or 1962. Then we’ll get another chance later in the month.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam

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PS — I put together a quick All-Star trivia quiz/ebook, just in time for, well, the All-Star break. Free on Amazon through Tuesday night.