Tony, the Killer, and Carew

Topps has named an all-rookie team each year since 1959. Each year, eight position players are chosen (four infielders, three outfielders, one catcher) and 2 pitchers (one left-hander, one right-hander). The Baseball-Reference Bullpen has this to say about how the cards are identified,

The first team featured a special card design that included a trophy symbol of a batter on a top hat and the phrase, “Selected by the youth of America.” For the second set (1961) the cards had a trophy symbol that included the phrase “Topps 1961 All-Star Rookie” on cards that followed the same design as the rest of the regular issue. This practice continued until 1973, when the symbol was changed to a gold cup bearing the words “Topps All-Star Rookie.” Topps left the symbol off the 1974 cards but the gold cups reappeared in 1975 and stayed through 1978. From 1979 to 1986 the symbol was once again left off the cards. In 1987, the gold cup symbol was brought back and it has remained to today.

This will be the very first in a series of posts chronicling the inclusion of Twins’ players in this select group. Twenty-two Twins have been selected to the Topps All-Rookie team, beginning with Bernie Allen being selected in 1962 through Francisco Liriano in 2006. Each post will cover one player and his corresponding Topps All-Star rookie card.

1962: Bernie Allen, 2B - Bernie was probably pretty well-known to Minnesota fans before he was drafted as an amateur free agent in 1961. In 1960, Allen quarterbacked the Purdue Boilmakers past the 1960 National Champion, Minnesota Golden Gophers, in what turned out to be the only regular-season blemish on the Gophers 8-1 record. Allen made a big splash when he debuted for the Twins in 1962, but unfortunately it turned out to be his best season in the majors hitting .269/.338/.403 with 12 Hrs in 159 games. Bernie finished 3rd in the AL ROY voting in 1962 behind Tom Tresh and Buck Rodgers, but his playing steadily decreased the following two years. Early in 1964, a collision with Washington Senator, Don Zimmer, left Allen with torn ligaments and eventually led to the end of his playing time with the Twins. After playing in 74 games in 1964, Allen spent the majority of the 1965 season at AAA Denver and was traded prior to the 1966 season with Camilo Pascual to the Senators in exchange for pitcher Ron Kline.

The card itself is a great example from the 1963 Topps set. I especially like how large the All-Star Rookie trophy is displayed. It extends past one-fourth the length of the card. In later years, the trophy would get much smaller and less prominent on the cards. Like many of the 1960’s era cards, it looks like Bernie is “posing” for the photo instead of capturing him in an actual swing. I really like this card for another reason too. Although not a full frontal view of the 1962 uniform, it does give us a nice view from the waist up and a nice, if not blurry, view of the teams first sleeve patch…the classic handshake across the Mississippi logo.

As much fun as it is to look at the card fronts, I find it much more interesting to investigate the backs of player cards. The 1963 Topps Bernie Allen is a nice example of how the backs of cards should look. There’s not anything distracting about it, it provides year-by-year stats (both major and minor leagues) plus some personal information about Allen. It also includes a great cartoon-type drawing of Bernie as a college quarterback. In fact, I used this very card in last month’s trivia contest.

Although some may think this is Allen’s true rookie card, he did have a few others that were produced prior to the 1963 season. His first card was the 1961 Cloverleaf Dairy…a very rare set that displayed players on the sides of Cloverleaf and Apple Fresh milk cartons. Allen’s true Topps rookie card was the 1962 Topps #596, Rookie Parade where he was featured with fellow Twins infielder Rich Rollins and Yankees Phil Linz and Joe Pepitone.

For a very well written Bernie Allen retrospective, please give Will Young’s article a good read…you won’t be disappointed!

Here is the complete list of Twins that have been named to the Topps All-Rookie team, with links back to each post:

• 1962 - Bernie Allen, 2B
• 1963 - Jimmie Hall, OF
• 1964 - Tony Oliva, OF
• 1967 - Rod Carew, 2B
• 1971 - Steve Braun, 3B
• 1973 - Jerry Terrell, SS
• 1975 - Dan Ford, OF
• 1976 - Butch Wynegar, C
• 1978 - Hosken Powell, OF
• 1979 - John Castino, 3B
• 1980 - Doug Corbett, RHP
• 1982 - Tin Laudner, C
• 1982 - Kent Hrbek, 1B
• 1982 - Tom Brunansky - OF
• 1984 - Kirby Puckett, OF
• 1985 - Mark Salas, OF
• 1991 - Chuck Knoblauch, 2B
• 1995 - Marty Cordova, OF
• 1999 - Corey Koskie, 3B
• 2000 - Mark Redman - LHP
• 2004 - Joe Mauer, C
• 2006 - Francisco Liriano, LHP