1974-75 Venezuelan League Baseball #5, Ramon Velazquez

Thanks to the paucity of Venezuelan winter league statistics, today's card, a paper-thin stamp destined for mounting in an album, features a player that makes me go hmmmm. I think we see the born-in-1953 Ramon Velasquez, who pitched a year of Florida League A ball in 1973. That surname's common enough that there could be two, including one who never played outside Venezuela.

Card front (blank back)

Ramon's 1974-75 Tigres de Aragua went on to capture its league crown and repeated as champs in 1975-76. Aragua's won a total of 8 titles, including 2008-09. And who hit leadoff for that selfsame squad, leading the winter league in triples? The Legendary Sam Fuld.

(April 2, 2011 - Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images North America)

1974-75's set design mimics the 1968 Topps "burlap sack" look, down to its blocky player name and spot for team and position. While just one of its 275 stamps features a HOFer (Luis Aparicio), a handful of MLBers appear in Venezuelan uniform and make for interesting conversation pieces, like Frank White's first solo card.

UPDATE: Thanks to OldBaseball.com trading friend Rick sharing photos from his original 1974 album. The cover's a reproduction, so looks whiter than an original would. All remaining pages are the real deal, complete with team, logo, and player photos.

Velazquez sits in the middle of its first page under its Tigres team pose. Album pages contain numbers that you mount each photo stamp onto.

Number and bio in album, under photo

Other team pages use this same format: group photo, logo, and then individual players.

Value: Found this #5 Velazquez for $10 on eBay several years ago. Stars and albums will cost more.

Fakes / reprints: Both North and South American collectors desire the Concepcion and Aparicio stickers, so there might be some fakes out there. Make sure to buy its stars from a dealer who knows foreign sets!