The Nitty Gritty Card of the Day is Back!

I figured this card was the ideal follow-up to the “What’s In a Name” post because I often get Chuck Hinton and Chuck Harmon confused. Both are great players with intriguing histories and I seem to have a number of each of their cards. Beyond that, it is easy to get Chuck Hinton the baseball player confused with Chuck Hinton the football player. This post is about Chuck Hinton the baseball player, in particular his 1964 Topps Giants card which is number 20 in the 60 card set. This is one of 5 awesome Giant cards that came courtesy of my brother with a similarly pronounced name, Mark from the awesome Mark’s Ephemera blog. I do plan on highlighting all of the cards he sent and I eventually plan to post each of the 60 cards in this set. I laughed to myself a little bit as I read the back of Chuck Hinton’s card. Of the cards I have posted recently, one highlighted Warren Spahn winning his 350th game, the one before that showed Mickey Mantle hitting his 18th postseason homerun. Chuck Hinton led the last place Washington Senators in batting. It is a little less impressive comparatively, but it is a feat nonetheless. Chuck Hinton played for the Senators of Washington from 1961 until 1964 and each year he paced the team in batting average, triples and steals. The Senators also lost a minimum of 100 games over those 4 seasons. Hinton finished 4th in the American League in batting in 1962 and had a career year. He hit .310 with 17 homers, 75 RBI and 28 steals. He was an All Star for Washington in 1964 and finished the season with a .274 mark. After the ’64 season he was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Bob Chance and Woodie Held. Hinton spent 11 seasons in the Majors with the Senators, Indians and Angels. He was a career .264 hitter with 1048 hits, 47 triples and 130 steals. You can find his complete list of stats HERE. He has a true utility man and could play anywhere on the field. He spent the most of his time at second base and the outfield, but over his career he logged innings at EVERY position other than on the mound. He did pitch in a game while in the minors though. As a part of the Baltimore organization he was mainly a catcher, but appeared on the mound in 1959. Over 5 seasons in the minors he owned a .346 career mark and won 2 batting titles. Like many of his contemporaries, he lost two years of playing time while serving his country in the military. His 12 triples in 1963 are a Washington Senators (AL) Franchise record. He was the last Senator to bat over 300 and is the career franchise leader in both steals (92) and triples (30). Thanks again to Mark for the awesome cards. I hope everyone enjoyed the lesson in history on Chuck Hinton and the futility of the Washington Senators teams of the 1960s. Seriously, one more thanks to Mark's Ephemera for the Giants!!! On a personal note, I will no longer be trying to chase 1951 Bowman or 1965 Topps, but 1964 Giants remains on my radar. I still love vintage, but losing that many cards was just too much to deal with. Relating to that, I do have about 40 cards left (dupes) from the '65 set that are on the block. I am always looking for MLB cards of ANYONE who played in the Negro Leagues (like Chuck Harmon) and any random singles from the 40s, 50s or 60s. Later!