Today’s Nitty Gritty Card of the Day comes from 1967 Topps, card #390 of
Jim Wynn. In ’67 the Toy Cannon was in his 5th year with the Houston organization. He was called up to the Colt 45s in their second year of existence in 1963 but became an everyday big leaguer after their name was changed to the Astros in 1965. The back of the card mentions that Wynn was sidelined with an injury in July of ’66 which ended his season early.
He still led the Astros with 18 homers that year. The back of the card also mentions that Wynn was Houston’s career leader in homeruns. At that point he led the young organization with 49 homers. Now, nearly 50 years into their history as a franchise the Toy Cannon still ranks 4th All Time in homers for Houston behind 3 Killer B’s, Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman and Craig Biggio. Biggio is third All Time with 291 bombs, just 68 ahead of Wynn. Over his tenure with the Astros Craig Biggio had more than twice the at-bats that Wynn had to reach that number.
Even though he only spent 11 seasons in Houston he still sits in their Top-10 All Time in homeruns, on base percentage, games, at bats, total bases, hits, singles, doubles, extra base hits, runs batted in, walks, steals, intentional walks and runs. His finest season with Houston came the year that this card was printed, in 1967 when he batted .249 with 37 homers, 16 steals and 107 runs batted in. He made his first of 3 All Star appearances that year, too. Over his 15 year career he also made stops with the Dodgers, Brewers, Braves and Yankees. He was among the top 10 in the National League in homers 5 times and his 291 career blasts ranks 132nd of All Time. He also ranked in the top-10 in walks 10 times and his 1224 career free passes stands as 51st in history. Most remarkably was that he was one of the league’s most feared power hitters while standing 5’10” and weighing only 160 pounds, hence the nickname, the Toy Cannon. These things all make
Jimmy Wynn receive 100% Nitty Gritty approval. 43 years LATER.
I am really drawn to “custom” cards of yesteryear. Mainly I want to know what inspired collectors back then to customize. Did this person just really not like Joe Morgan? Maybe he or she really liked Sonny Jackson and felt he should be solo on the card. I don’t think this is a Traded or update card because Jackson was traded to the Braves long before Morgan was traded to the Reds. Maybe the card owner was a big fan of Morgan and a friend or older sibling did this to the card to get back at them for something. Perhaps this person treasured this card for years and then vandalized it because they dislike Morgan as a sportscaster… Who knows, that is what makes this card fun and interesting to me. The story is most likely that a kid did it out of boredom, outgrew the cards and gave it to someone who passed it along to someone who eventually sold it to someone who sold it to me… 
I would guess that this cards original owner is in their 50s. I wonder if they remember doing it. I wonder if they followed baseball. I can almost this person using this card as dinner party conversation. “When I was a kid I had Joe Morgan’s rookie card and I blacked his face out with marker. It must be worth a fortune now. If only I still had it and hadn’t marred it”. I can totally imagine it. Either way, it is one of my favorite cards now, I love it! I have never done this to a card myself, but I imagine that it takes balls to do it. I wanted to try and see what kind of a rush I got. I dug around and found this rookie card of one of Morgan’s teammates on the Big Red Machine. 
I flipped it over and went to town with a black sharpie… Wow, that was a rush. 
Well, it would have been if I took the card out its top loader but I didn’t because I am not an idiot… Maybe I will try this experiment with a different card down the road. Back to Sonny Jackson. I keep on adding the middle name Man to his name when I think of it in my head, I don’t know why. 
Anyway, Jackson’s career got off to a quicker start than Joe Morgan’s did. In 1966 Jackson finished second in the Rookie of the Year vote. That was the year that Tommie’s swept the Award. Jackson batted .292 with 49 steals as the 45s shortstop. Morgan batted .285 that year with 11 steals, but made the All Star team. All things considered this card tells a story. Since I don’t know it, I guess I get to make it up. That is fun for me. Plus its pretty neat to have a blacked out rookie card of a Hall of Famer… I love this hobby! 45 years LATER
