Nate Colbert's Doubleheader Encore Found a Gap
One last glimpse of a slugger gone (from the game) too soon
Note: When you click on links to various merchants in this newsletter and make a purchase, this can result in this newsletter earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network and Amazon Associates.
1977 Topps Nate Colbert Turn Back the Clock (#433)
(affiliate link)
If you hang around these parts for long, you’ll no doubt notice that I have an affinity for “career capper” baseball cards. In case you haven’t encountered the term, a career capper is a baseball card issued the year after a player appears in his final game, meaning the stats on the back of the card show his entire body of work, modulo any categorical omissions by the card maker.
For most of my collecting career, a player was better off not announcing his retirement if he wanted to score a career capper after he hung up his spikes. That’s because Topps, and to some extent the other card manufacturers, had at least a tacit rule that went something like, “we don’t issue cards of players who we know won’t be on an active roster during the year of issue.”
So, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays whiffed when it came to career cappers since they retired at the end of 1973 and 1976, respectively. Mickey Mantle did get a career capper, though, since he lasted into Spring Training of 1969, by which time Topps already had him in their new checklist.
Sometimes, though, a player falls into a kind of in-between zone when it comes to career cappers. Take Nate Colbert, for example.
One of the first stars for the expansion San Diego Padres, Colbert established himself as a bona fide masher right away for the Friars, hitting 24 home runs in 1969. By the early 1970s, he was one of the most feared sluggers in the game. And, on August 1, 1972, Colbert put together a day for the ages.
That day, the Padres played a doubleheader in Atlanta against Aaron’s Braves, and Colbert went a combined 7-for-9 with five home runs and 13 RBI. Wow!
By most measures, that 1972 season would end up being Colbert’s best overall, though he did make the All-Star cut for a third consecutive year in 1973. But with his back starting to bother him and his production sliding, the Pads traded their first baseman-left fielder to the Tigers in November 1974 in exchange for Ed Brinkman, Dick Sharon, and Bob Strampe,
Colbert split the next two seasons among the Tigers, Expos, and A’s but appeared in a total of just 99 games. With only 16 of those coming in 1976 and his back problems mounting, it seemed pretty clear Colbert was about done at age 30.
Clear enough, in fact, that Topps left him out of their 1977 set. Well, almost…
Thanks to a five-card subset of “Turn Back the Clock” (TBTC) cards, Colbert made one last appearance on a regular-issue Topps set as a more or less active player:
(affiliate link)
If you didn’t take the time to read that text, there’s a pretty cool backstory related therein. Specifically, Colbert attended the Cardinals game in St. Louis on May 2, 1954, when Stan Musial set the all-time record for homers in a doubleheader — five.
Colbert was eight years old at the time and, as detailed above, would go on to match Stan the Man’s mark slightly more than 18 years later. Which just goes to show — and stop me if you’ve heard this before (or don’t) — that baseball is so cool!
In case you’re wondering, the full checklist of TBTC cards in that 1977 subset reads as follows:
433 Nate Colbert (1972) - 5 Homers, 13 RBI in Doubleheader
434 Carl Yastrzemski (1967) - Triple Crown
435 Maury Wills (1962) - Single-Season Stolen Base Record
436 Bob Keegan (1957) - Only No-Hitter of the Year
437 Ralph Kiner (1952) - 7 Straight Home Run Crowns
So, no — Nate Colbert did not have a career capper baseball card. But he did have a regular-issue card in his career-capper year, detailing his most memorable career accomplishment.
That’s nothing to shake as stick at, and better hobby treatment than, say, Musial and Ted Williams garnered at the end of their storied runs.
—
Nate Colbert, who passed away in January 2023, was born on April 9, 1946.
No-Neck Stan
Musial may not have ended up with a career-capper, but he did appear in an appropriately funky oddball Topps set during his final season as a player, in 1963. Check out 1963 Topps Peel-Off Stan Musial Stuck Its Neck Out … and Lost for the full story.
Down on the Korner
Speaking of Kiner and Mays, you can catch the duo together on the cover of Down on the Korner, the 2016 book that takes you back to the heyday of Kiner’s broadcasting career. From the 1960s through the 1990s, the Kiner’s Korner postgame show saw the Mets broadcaster interviewing baseball men of all types, and the conversations were priceless for baseball fans.
(affiliate link)