Card Spotlight: 3-26-10

1967 Topps #506 - Smoky Burgess

Every time I run across this card, I think that Smoky is playing in a cemetery. It reminds me of a few of the views of the many cemeteries in Alsip, Illinois.

It doesn't help matters that Smoky, whose actual name is Forrest, looks much older than the 40 years old he actually was at the time of the photo. Smoky looks like he should be coaching instead of playing catcher, which is the most physically demanding position on the baseball diamond.

The 1967 set is one of my favorites from the sixties. It always seemed a little foreign to me. The only card I had from 1967 Topps as a young collector was Jesse Gonder on the Pirates. I always wanted more cards, but I could never find them. When I did find cards, they were well out of my comfortable price range for a passing fancy.

I am slowly getting the White Sox team set together, but it is a slow process. One that I am willing to wait for. The '67 set gets lost a lot within the context of the sixties sets. It is starting to get the type of recognition that it deserves with a blog devoted to the set.

This is the final card for Smoky and deservedly so. His part time status on the White Sox in 1967 was pretty pitiful at 77 games with a .133 average. Smoky might have been the difference between a championship in 1967 and where they ended up, three games back, in fourth place in a very tight American League race for the crown. It could have been the White Sox against the Cardinals in the World Series in 1967. Maybe the allusion to cemeteries in this card is apropos.