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!

1973 Venezuelan League Baseball #5, Jose Lopez

By coincidence, the 1972 and 1973 Venezuelan league #5s both feature Jose Angel Lopez, a Maracay native who also spent 7 seasons in the American minors as pitcher, catcher, and outfielder. Sportswriters made a lot of hay about Albert Pujols' recent shift from 1st to 3rd--wonder what they'd say if he donned the "tools of ignorance" or took the mound.

Card front (blank back)

Like many in the lower leagues--Rookie, A, and AA--Jose bounced around throughout his career, going west to Modesto, CA, north to Cedar Rapids, IA, and south to St. Petersburg, FL (career stats at Baseball-Reference). It's not clear how long he played pro ball in Venezuela, but we know he didn't take the field in 1973, as a player strike wiped out their whole season. While this 275-player set (and a collectors album) still reached the market, sales probably suffered from a lack of real games.

Today's set design approximates 1971 Topps' black borders, block team names, and photo matting. They're paper-thin with no stats and blank backs, since collectors mounted them into albums. (Guides call them "stamps" or "stickers," thanks to this practice, though buyers had to supply the glue.)

Value: Bought this at a card show for $5, a good find considering the rarity. Many have back or edge damage, like Jose's upper-left corner.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace.

Venezuelan Baseball Sets (So Far)

This blog spent the last fortnight profiling Venezuelan sets, a South American neighbor that's home to many baseball fans and its own professional league since 1945. While native card production stretches back into the 1920s, Topps made the country more accessible to modern collectors by licensing their designs locally on-and-off during the 1960s. Building a complete set today is pretty much impossible, but singles turn up on eBay for as little as $10.

• 1959: American and Venezuelan (198 cards, no album)
• 1960: American and Venezuelan (198 cards, no album)
• 1961: American only
• 1962: American and Venezuelan (198 cards, no album)
• 1963: American only
• 1964: American and Venezuelan (370 cards, with album)
• 1965: American (and first O-Pee-Chee set)
• 1966: American and Venezuelan (370 cards, with album)
• 1967: American only (sort of, see below)
• 1968: American and Venezuelan (370 cards, with album)

It took several years, but finally found a 1968 Venezuelan #5 in late 2015, the last of my South American imports. (Its design copies Topps directly, so looks like this NL Home Run Leaders card.)

1968 Topps Baseball #5

The Oct 1967 to Jan 1968 winter season marked a turning point for South American issues, as they changed focus to Venezuelan pros.

• 1967 Venezuelan League (and MLB) (338 cards, 150 major leaguers)
• 1970 Venezuelan League (300 cards)
• 1972 Venezuelan MLB Stamps (242 stamps, all major leaguers)
• 1972 Venezuelan League Stamps (249 stamps)
• 1973 Venezuelan League Stamps (275 stamps)
• 1974 Venezuelan League Stamps (275 stamps)
• 1976 Venezuelan League Stamps (330 stamps)
• 1977 Venezuelan League (and MLB) Stamps (402 stamps, 50 major leaguers)

Just three years in that decade feature players in MLB uniform, though they all contain current, former, and future major leaguers playing for local teams. Several significant "pre-rookie" cards also appear, including a 1973 stamp of HOFer Jim Rice.

Scan courtesy Freedom Cardboard forums

Topps made Venezuela (1959) and Canada (1965, via O-Pee-Chee) their first "expansion" partners, much like the MLB expanded west following WWII. Questions remain around how Topps controlled (or didn't control) foreign set licensing, distribution, and availability, so it's been fun researching their makeup. See any of the links above for deeper dives into individual sets.

Take Five for Trivia: Losing a One-Hitter

On Saturday, May 14th, Chad Billingsley of the Dodgers lost a one-hitter, thanks to a double, missed pickoff play at second, and sacrifice fly from Melvin Mora. Short story, a 1-0 victory for the Diamondbacks.

"Nuts."

Chad's the latest pitcher to lose such a great outing, but hardly the only one. Knuckleballer Charlie Hough, in fact, threw a pair of one-hitters for the Rangers and lost both.

• June 16, 1986: California Angels win with two outs in the 9th on dropped strikeout pitch; Wally Joyner scores from second on the strikeout/passed ball, as Hough apparently fails to cover home (box score)
• August 15, 1989: Seattle scratches out first run on single, balk, wild pitch, and sac fly; second run scores on walk, steal, and error; Texas strands 15 (!) base-runners (box score)

Here's hoping Chad wins the next one!

1970 Ovenca Venezuelan Baseball #5, Roberto Munoz

In 1967, Venezuelan card makers broke new ground by dedicating the 1st series (138 cards) to local pro players. (Its #5 featured Cookie Rojas, an MLB veteran playing his first winter season in Venezuela.) Three years later, local printer Sport Grafico--using a similar card design--upped the ante by dedicating a full 300 player set to their Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional and its 1970-71 winter league season.

This set features two series: #1-249 show active players and #250-300 show "Veterans" or "Immortals."

Scan courtesy eBay seller John Rumierz Cards

Some MLB players signed winter league contracts to keep their skills sharp or earn extra money during "off-season," so also appear in the set wearing Venezuelan uniforms. Many cards show glue residue from being mounted in an album, so "high grade" typically means EX condition for this and other Venezuelan sets.

Thanks to blog reader Nathan for a translation of Roberto's bio!

He began his career as a catcher. In 1965 he successfully converted to pitcher, and is the only Venezuelan pitcher in the major leagues. This year he played for the Chicago Cubs, as a reliever. He's recovered completely from two years of spotty performance, including a demotion to Triple A.

Interesting that this card shows his birth year as 1946, but Wikipedia and Baseball-Reference say 1941. Latin players who make a splash in the big league often face scrutiny about their age, if they come from a country that tracks birth dates less rigorously. MLB teams have a financial incentive to know "real" ages, since 25 year-old players are entering their prime, but 30 year-olds are about to leave it.

2014 UPDATE: Found an autographed #5!

2016 UPDATE: Album photos from OBC friend Rick!

Front cover

First page, #1-6, with Concepcion

Value: Bought my #5 for $6 on eBay. Stars like Dave Concepcion and Luis Aparicio attract interest from both North and South American collectors, so can go for $100+ in decent shape.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace.

1967 Venezuelan Baseball #5, Octavio Rojas (a.k.a. Cookie Rojas)

You can collect decades of cards from Topps without getting much insight into pro leagues and stadiums beyond the borders of North America, given the company's laser focus on MLB teams. I acknowledge this serves buyers in one sense, by showing active players in their "correct" cities. On the other hand, it also limits appreciation of the sport's history, which has included international players and tours since the 1920s, with few fans more enthusiastic than Venezuela. (Venezuela's own pro league, the VPBL, stretches back to the World War II era, but Caracas native Alex Carrasquel's MLB debut in 1939 precedes even that, as the country's first big league player.)

Cuban-born Octavio Rojas, nicknamed "Cookie," played for clubs in several countries and made 5 MLB All-Star teams, including 4 straight from 1971-74. I love the clear-rimmed specs he sports on this card.

This set stands alone among vintage baseball issues by combining VPBL players (#1-138), retired MLB stars (#139-188), and reprinted 1967 Topps fronts (#189-338). It's too bad cards prove so hard to find, since they represent one of the few collections of Venezuelan players, uniforms, and stadiums from the 1960s.

Like the 1962 Venezuelan set, card backs feature Spanish. Here's a rough translation of the text.

Considered one of the best second baseman to play for the Venezuelan Champions, Rojas came to the majors with Cincinnati in 1962 and played with the Phillies in 1963, following a trade for Jim Owens. An All-Star in 1965. This is his Venezuelan League debut.

Card Value: $5 - 15 for non-star singles, depending on condition and player. (South American dealer John Rumierz Cards specializes in them.) Many dealers ask sky-high prices for graded stars, due to scarcity.

Reprints / Fakes: Haven't seen any in the marketplace. Stars cost a lot and cards often have back damage, so someone might try it, but low collector demand means there's little reason to fake a common player.

1966 Venezuelan Baseball #5, Jim Fregosi

Welcome to 1966, midpoint of MLB's biggest era of geographic expansion. Between 1957, when relocated New York teams opened up our West Coast, and 1977, when the Pacific Northwest received its first team and Canada its second, baseball jumped from 16 teams to 26. Ten years removed from acquiring Bowman, Topps remained the only company producing annual card sets, so made it their own era of "expansion" by licensing designs south to Venezuela and north to Canada, two other countries with pro baseball and solid fan interest.

Today's hatless Fregosi image appears three times in my blog, thanks to those expanding marketing efforts. Topps clearly wanted to cement their reputation as "big league" wherever people watched pro baseball.

• 1966 Topps Baseball #5
• 1966 O-Pee-Chee Baseball #5
• 1966 Venezuelan Baseball #5 (this entry)

Venezuelan sets offered a way for local fans to track popular native sons like #90 Luis Aparicio and #365 Vic Davalillo, both of whom were established MLB All-Stars by 1966. Luis even went on to win the World Series that year as an Oriole.

This set followed in the footsteps of Venezuela 1964's issue; it contains 370 cards with a companion album to mount them in. Most collectors pasted players directly on each page, leaving card backs with glue stains or missing paper when later removed. Each album includes 360 player spaces, omitting the 5 team cards and 5 checklists. (On the upside, that means those 10 rarely show this kind of damage.)

Scan courtesy Topps-Venezuela Yahoo group

The 1966 album cover mentions 4 series of cards, but no range of numbers seem rarer than another, so it's likely print runs remained the same throughout.

Value: South American specialist John Rumierz Cards sold me this for $5 in 2007. Mid- and high-grade singles get expensive quickly, since most surviving examples have back damage or writing.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any explicit Venezuelan reprints, though people can confuse them with normal Topps cards, since fronts and backs match. Look for their brighter pink ink on the back and no surface gloss.

1972 Electric Mayhem #5, Floyd Pepper

Last week, custom card maestro (and blogger) PunkRockPaint posted a primo collection of Electric Mayhem singles, honoring Jim Henson's best-ever Muppet musicians. (Emmet Otter and his Jug Band just don't rock as hard.)

I think any Muppet Show fan would've traded all their Reggie Jacksons and Nolan Ryans for these five cards. My favorite band member (then and now) is Animal, but check out the custom back PRP sent me for Floyd!

Click through for its full detail: that comic's superb and I'm surprised they stopped Dr. Teeth at only 9 anthems.

Find the full run of these custom Muppet cards at Baseball Card Blog!

Value: Priceless.

Fakes / reprints: If only I could reprint these on my brain stem.

1964 Venezuelan Baseball #5, NL Strikeout Leaders

As a country situated close to the equator, baseball-loving Venezuela enjoys more consistent year-round temps than North America, and thus, better "off-season" weather for native players. It's no accident that their own pro baseball league starts in October, right when USA teams wrap things up. Its 8-team schedule runs through January, after which the title-winner competes in the Caribbean Series against champs from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

1964 marked some important changes to Venezuela's baseball card production. First, they expanded set size to 370, almost twice the 198 cards used in previous issues. Second, they issued an album to encourage collectors to amass and store that year's set.

Album scan courtesy the Topps-Venezuelan Yahoo forum

Over time, the practice of gluing cards into albums became synonymous with Venezuelan collecting, at least compared to American kids who stacked, boxed, or rubber-banded them together. Many cards from this set show paper loss or glue residue. Earlier sets from 1959, 1960, and 1962 generally don't include back damage, but are still hard to find in higher grades because of their lower quality stock and lack of surface gloss.

League Leaders like my #5 usually escaped the back damage because albums came organized by team, with no spaces set aside for leader cards or checklists. Venezuelan card backs use black ink instead of the American orange, so prove easier to distinguish than previous years. (They still turn up in boxes of Topps singles at shows--I found a black-backed Venezuelan in a quarter box in Nov 2010.)

Just three guys appear on this #5, following Topps "rule" of only showing more players when there's a tie in the top three. I think Juan Marichal deserves a spot there, too, since he finished barely behind Drysdale but well ahead of Gibson, so here's a mock-up that combines 1964 leaders #3 and #5.

Value: I bought this #5 from John Rumierz Cards for $20 several years ago. #50 Mickey Mantle, #125 Pete Rose, and #331 A.L. Bombers (also featuring Mantle) cards are the set's biggest stars.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any Venezuelan reprints, but you can expect Topps to use this design for their Heritage set in 2014.

Happy May Number Five

Taking a quick break in the Venezuelan profiles to say Happy Cinco de Mayo. Big creative props to PunkRockPaint, who pimped the Baseball Card Blog with a set of six Muppets custom cards today!

He labeled the Janice card as number 5, but the whole Electric Mayhem team looks great. Wish we had these cards when I was a kid!

Check out the whole band at Muppets...The Retro Baseball Card Set. Identify the 1972 Topps cards he used and win a custom card of your own!