Monster Card Monday: 1962 Willie Mays

Mays62

While I was playing a few APBA baseball games with my friend Shawn Lee on Sunday night, we went through the 1962 season reprint set I brought over.  I reached for the NL champion Giants and this card popped out at me. 

It’s Willie Mays’ homerun leading card.  He hit 49 dingers in 1962 which may not seem like a lot these days but only eleven players had accomplished that feat up until that year.  Mays himself was one of them, hitting 51 in 1955. 

For the year, Mays drove in 141 runs and scored 130 while hitting .304 and stealing 18 bases.

The Say-Hey Kid probably deserved the MVP in 1962 but voters were more impressed with Maury Wills’ 104 stolen bases though Wills’ other numbers were not as impressive (.299/.347/.373).  Wills eked out the MVP vote by 3 percentage points. 

Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG
1962 Totals 162 706 621 130 189 36 5 49 141 18 78 86 .304 .384 .615
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/5/2014.

 

There’s nothing as satisfying as double ones complimented by a 5.  Mays (1-1-4-5-6-8-8-9-9-10-10, 4 14s) really will really come through in the clutch with this card.  Especially with his two 10s, his card is made for a runner on first. 

Looking at his card, I thought he had three 31s for a second or two.  Alas, APBA put the 12 at 34 in the 1962 reprint set so they relocated the 31 to 46.  That’s pretty irrelevant anyway since I don’t think too many people are going to take away Mays’ two 1s and a 5 with the hit and run. 

Fun numbers:  22-5, 44-6

Interesting point:  Mays has hit more homeruns in a season and has hit for a batting average but it was in 1962 when he hit the most total bases (382) for his career.  He actually tied that mark from his 51-homer 1955 season. 

Thomas Nelshoppen

I am an IT consultant by day and an APBA media mogul by night. My passions are baseball (specifically Illini baseball), photography and of course, APBA. I have been fortunate to be part of the basic game Illowa APBA League since 1980 as well as a frequent participant of the Chicagoland APBA Tournament. I am slogging through a 1966 NL replay and hope to finish before I die.

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