1965 Topps #2 NL Batting Leaders- R Clemente H Aaron R Carty NM+

Description: This original 1965 Topps #2 NL Batting Leaders (B Clemente / H Aaron / R Carty) card celebrates legendary Hall of Famers in their prime. The vintage card is in near mint or better condition with vivid colors, sharp corners and great centering. This card would be a terrific investment and a showpiece in any collection! PSA CardFacts:Roberto Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 - December 31, 1972) is widely considered the greatest Latin player to ever put on a Major League Baseball uniform with a .317 career batting average, a .973 fielding percentage and a record 254 career assists for a right fielder. In his native Puerto Rico, Clemente played for the Santurce Cangrejeros ("Crabbers") before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954. While coming off the bench for the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn’s minor league affiliate, the Pittsburgh Pirates took Roberto in the 1954 Rule 5 Draft offering him the opportunity to play everyday and win the right field position at the 1955 spring training. Clemente never played a minor league game again as he easily won the right field job and batted .255 with 121 hits and 47 RBI as a rookie. Though he hit .311 in 1956, Roberto’s break out year came in 1960 when he earned his first of 15 All-Star Game selections after batting .314 with 16 home runs and 94 RBI. He helped lead the Pirates to their first World Series title that year as they captured MLB’s top prize in dramatic fashion with Bill Mazeroski’s Game 7 walk-off series clinching home run. Clemente hit .310 with three RBI in the 1960 World Series. In 1961, Roberto hit 23 home run and hit .351 to lead the National League for the first of four times during the 1960s. He was a perennial vote-getter for National League MVP and in 1966, after leading the league in batting average the previous two seasons, won the award with a .317 average, 31 home runs and 119 RBI while also posting 17 outfield assists. The 12-time Rawlings Gold Glove recipient played his entire career with Pittsburgh (1955-1972) and helped lead them to a second World Series title in 1971. Roberto Clemente collected 3,000 hits, hit 240 home runs, had 1.305 RBI and batted .317 over 18-year seasons with the Buccos. Above and beyond his numbers at the plate, Bob possessed a powerful and precise arm that helped him achieve a .973 fielding percentage with 4,696 putouts. Clemente was heavily involved in humanitarian efforts in the third world Latin American countries and was killed on December 31, 1972 assisting in delivering aid to Nicaragua after an earthquake devastated the small country. Major League Baseball presents The Roberto Clemente Award to the player that best exemplifies Clemente’s humanitarian efforts. Roberto Clemente Walker was posthumously elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973. Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (February 5, 1934-January 22, 2021) established himself early in his career as one of the greatest power hitters in baseball. Aaron had humble beginnings near Mobile, Alabama, but found that sport offered a way out of the cotton fields – which, by the way, helped to build up the strength in his hands for his powerful and effortless swing. Henry’s focus as a teenager seemed to lean more towards sport that his studies and his skill on the baseball diamond allowed him to abandon school for greener pastures like the Negro Leagues. His performance as a member of the semi-pro Mobile Black Bears earned him a spot on the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. It has been estimated that Aaron hit .366 with five home runs and 33 RBI in 26 Negro League games before catching the eye of two Major League franchises, the New York Giants and the Boston Braves. “…the Braves offered fifty dollars a month more. That’s the only thing that kept Willie Mays and me from being teammates – fifty dollars.” The Boston Braves signed Aaron as a free agent in 1952, and he was shipped to the Eau Claire Bears of the Northern League. To that point, Aaron batted cross-handed (as a right-handed batter, his left hand was placed above his right on the bat), but once in the Braves organization deserted the unorthodox grip and excelled as he scored 89 runs, had 116 hits, nine home runs and batted .336 to earn the Northern League Rookie of the Year award. In 1953, Henry was promoted to the Jacksonville Braves of the South Atlantic League and he once again proceeded to tear up pitching as he led the league in batting average (.362), runs (115), hits (208), doubles (36), RBI (125) and total Bases (338). After leading the Braves to the South Atlantic League championship, he was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. He then played winter ball in Puerto Rico, where manager Mickey Owen helped improve his hitting even further by adjusting his stance allowing Henry to hit to all fields rather than only left and center, to which he was accustomed. At the Braves 1954 spring training, Aaron made it very difficult for management to keep him off the roster and when left fielder Bobby Thomson broke his ankle, Henry took over in left for the newly relocated Milwaukee Braves. Aaron, renamed as Hank by a local sport reporter to make him seem more approachable, was added to a lineup that already included future Hall of Fame slugger Eddie Mathews and All-Stars Del Crandell, Joe Adcock, Johnny Logan and Andy Pafko, among may others. In his second year, 1955, Hank led the National League in doubles (37), notched 27 home runs and 106 RBI, and earned his first of 21 All-Star Game selections. (He would appear in a record 25 All-Star Games over the course of his 23-year career.) This was his first of 20 consecutive seasons that Aaron eclipsed the 20-home run mark, a streak that also saw him amass 30 or more in fifteen seasons which included 40 or more eight times. In 1956, he won his first of two National League batting titles with a .328 average earning him third place in NL MVP voting – a position he would hold six times in his career. Hank earned top ten MVP consideration 13 times including winning the 1957 NL MVP award. That season, Hank missed capturing the coveted and elusive Triple Crown as he finished third in batting average (.322) – 29 point less than St. Louis Cardinals Stan Musial – while leading the NL in home runs (44) and RBI (132) as well as runs (118) and total bases (340). In 1958, Aaron won his first of three straight Gold Glove awards. Hank Aaron led the NL in hits and batting average (1956, 1959) twice, three times in runs scored, four times in doubles, home runs, RBI and slugging percentage and eight times in total bases. Despite never hitting over 50 home runs in a single season, Aaron’s blasts cleared the outfield walls consistently throughout his 23 Major League seasons (1954-1976), eclipsing the 40-mark eight times. Hammerin’ Hank hit for power, crushing 755 home runs, but he also hit for a career average of .305, had 3,771 hits and drove in more runs than any other player in baseball history with 2,297 at the time of his retirement. While averaging 36 home runs each year from 1954 to 1973, Aaron was on the inevitable path to potentially top one of baseball’s most heralded marks – Babe Ruth’s career 714 home runs. At the conclusion of the 1973 season, Aaron sat on 713 career home runs and, sadly, endured an off-season wrought with racism, hate mail and even death threats at the notion that he, a black man, might top Ruth’s mark. But, still not finished at the age of 39, Aaron tied The Babe on his first swing of the 1974 season off Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jack Billingham in Cincinnati. Then, on April 8, 1974, in front of a record-crowd of 53,000-plus in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium for the Braves home opener, Aaron topped the mighty Babe Ruth’s home run record of 714, which stood for 39 years, when he took Los Angeles Dodgers Al Downing’s 1-0 pitch over the left field wall for his 715th career home run. As he rounded the bases, he was greeted between second and third by two white college students who congratulated the slugger all the way to home plate. Opposing play-by-play announcer Vin Scully declared this a “marvelous moment for baseball … the country and the world … A black man getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol.” Hank Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs and remains atop the list of the greatest players in the history of baseball. Upon retirement, he joined the Braves head office and since 1980 has served as the senior vice president and assistant to the Braves president. Henry Louis Aaron was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. In 1999, the Hank Aaron Award was created to honor each league’s most effective hitter. That same year, The Sporting News placed him fifth on their “100 Greatest Baseball Players” list. In 2002, President George W. Bush presented Hank with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rico Carty (September 1, 1939-) born Ricardo Adolfo Jacobo Carty was one of the first Dominican players who, when healthy, easily hit .300 or better with his best year coming in 1970 when he led the National League with a .366 average. The Milwaukee Braves originally signed Carty in 1959 and he debuted for the club in the outfield, his original position being as a catcher, in 1963. In 1964, he hit .330 with 22 home runs and 43 RBI to finish second in NL Rookie of the Year voting. He played five years with Milwaukee and Atlanta, after the club relocated (1963-1965/1966-1967) before missing the entire 1968 season due to tuberculosis. He returned in 1969, batting .342 and 366 respectively over the next two seasons and earned his first and only trip the All-Star Game in 1970. 1971 was again lost to injury, but no matter as Carty was no longer welcome in the Atlanta clubhouse after multiple altercations. In 1973, Rico was traded to the Texas Rangers and then to the Chicago Cubs, where he clashed with All-Star third baseman Ron Santo, so he was shipped to the Oakland Athletics after only 22 games in Chitown. Though is was thought his career might be over due to the numerous injuries, illnesses and dust-ups with teammates and management, Rico landed with the Cleveland Indians as their designated hitter for the next four seasons (1974-1977), rejuvenating his career. He spent time with the Toronto Blue Jays (1978-1979) and back in Oakland (1978) before retiring in 1978. Rico batted above the .300 mark eight times during his 15-year career and despite early issues with his defensive skills posted a .974 fielding percentage with 33 outfield assists. Rico Carty retired with a .299 career batting average and 1,677 hits, 204 home runs and 890 RBI in 1,651 career MLB games.

Price: 129.99 USD

Location: Scottsdale, Arizona

End Time: 2024-12-28T14:23:32.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD