Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Project Durham Bulls #48 - Andy Kosco




1960 Durham Bulls 


Background-
Andy Kosco is a bit of a local legend in Youngstown, Ohio.  He excelled at football, basketball, and baseball in high school.  By his senior year he had more than 44 football scholarship offers, many from large conference powerhouses such as Michigan State and Ohio State, along with more than 20 basketball scholarship offers, and a deep interest from several baseball teams.  Ultimately, the Detroit Tigers signed Kosco for more than $62,000 in bonus money, which was an enormous amount at that time. 

Kosco appeared for the Durham Bulls in 1960, his second year in professional baseball.  He hit 22 home runs, drove in 75 runs, and won the Rookie of the Year Award in the Carolina League that season.  For the next several years, Kosco lingered in the Tigers farm system, but was ultimately released in 1964 when the Tigers thought his talents had maxed out in the Minors.  He signed with the Twins and made his Major League debut in 1965.  Eventually, he ended up on the Twins World Series roster that fall.  He never got an at bat in the Series though, and the Twins lost the World Series to the Dodgers.

After three partial seasons in Minnesota Kosco began to bounce around the league.  He was sold to the A's.  The A's left him unprotected on their 40 man roster at the end of the 1967 season where he was selected by the Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft.  The Yankees traded him to the Dodgers.  The Dodgers traded him to the Brewers.  The Brewers traded him to the Angels.  The Angels traded him to the Red Sox.  The Red Sox traded him to the Reds.  10 years, 7 teams.

Card- 
In honor of the release of the 2019 Topps Heritage set, I decided to pick a Durham Bulls player who was featured in the 1970 Topps set.  The highly anticipated Topps product is using the design from the 1970 flagship set.  Topps had some pretty bold designs during the 1970s, this was obviously not one of them.  The grey borders were pretty drab, but for me this was one of the first "vintage" sets that I owned a card from, which was a Red Schoendienst manager card.

Kosco's frequent trades made him a frequent subject of airbrushing.  His rookie card in 1966 was airbrushed, along with his 1969 Topps, 1971, and 1972.  Almost half of his cards.  I was actually able to get a pair of Kosco cards for next to nothing, also landing his 1967 Topps card.  Obviously the connection to the this week's Topps Heritage release made me go with this Dodgers card. 


1 comment:

  1. I actually love those 1970 Topps cards and I am delighted that this year’s Topps Heritage cards are utilizing that design!

    ReplyDelete

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