1960 Topps, Joe Amalfitano

#356 Joe Amalfitano

Here is another card that I got signed through the mail somewhat recently. I sent this card to Joe on October 27th and I got it back November 15th.

Joe played in the Major Leagues for parts of ten seasons. He made his Major League debut with the Giants in 1954 and he played a few games with them in '55, as well. Then, he got stuck in the minors for four years before finally making it back up in 1960. He stayed in the big leagues for good after that (for the most part).

Joe played for the Giants, Colt .45s, and Cubs during his career. He was a .244 career hitter that mostly played second base. He never made an All Star team and he never played in the World Series. He had seven home runs in his career and one of them came off of Bob Gibson. That has to count for something.

After his playing days were over, Joe went into coaching. But, I am going to save that for another day (probably Saturday, in fact).

The funny thing about this card is the airbrushing. The main photo has Joe wearing pinstripes, which I am pretty sure that the Giants never wore. Add in that fact that, prior to 1960, Joe hadn't played in the Majors since 1955 and now it becomes difficult to figure out what uniform Joe is actually wearing in that picture. He spent 1959 playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs (not the hockey team) and as far as I can tell, they did not wear pinstripes. He played for the Phoenix Giants in '58 and I doubt that they would wear pinstripes since the parent club didn't. Then you go back to 1957, the year he played for the Dallas Eagles. I don't know about the late '50s, but I do know that the Eagles did wear pinstripes in the early '50s. What do you think that odds are that the main photo is a picture from his Dallas days? I guess that it is not out of the question. If it is, I wonder if Topps had been saving that very photo for when Joe did eventually get called back up.

Here is a photo of a Dallas Eagles player from 1952. This picture is from "Baseball in the Lone Star State" by Tom Kayser and David King. The pinstripes did not show up too well in the scan, but they are there.