'60 Tulsa set expanded by two

Beginning March 1, and continuing on the 5th, 9th and 19th, we presented in this space information about several additions and enhancements to listings in the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards that resulted from a package of photocopies and data sent by Maryland collector Al Moore.

We recently received another group of goodies from Al's long-time collection and have begun sorting and processing the information. While we're currently working on getting a few answers about some of the items, we'll share with you what we find over the next week or 10 days.

Today we can report the addition of two cards to the 1960 Tulsa Oilers Team Issue of 4" x 5" black-and-white player portrait photos.

This set has been checklisted in the "big book" for most of the past 30 years, but only as an 18-card entity.

The two players added via Al Moore's latest contribution are Oilers pitchers Craig Anderson and Dick Hughes.

Anderson made the majors the following season with the parent St. Louis Cardinals, then was selected by the Mets in the expansion draft for 1962. He can also be found on a 1963 Topps card. His major league career record was 7-23 with a 5.10 ERA.

Hughes didn't get his shot in the bigs until 1966. He was on the Cards World Series championship team in 1967, contributing a 16-6 record to the effort. Hughes pitched only three seasons in the majors, with a 20-9 record and 2.79 ERA. He's on Topps cards each year 1967-69.

Tulsa was the Cardinals Class AA farm club in the Texas League. Many of the players were former or future major leaguers. While 20 seems like a nice round number for a team-issued set of this sort, it's not impossible that other cards may yet surface. Notably missing is team manager Vern Benson and former Cardinals bonus baby Von McDaniel..

Here's the now expanded checklist for the 1960 Tulsa Oiler Team Issue. Players with major league experience are indicated in bold.

1.   Craig Anderson
2.   Jim Beauchamp
3.   Bob Blaylock
4.   Artie Burnett
5.   Bill Carpenter
6.   Julio Gotay
7.   Jim Hickman
8.   Dick Hughes
9.   Ray Katt
10. Harry Keister
11. Fred Koenig
12. Gordon Richardson
13. Rich Rogers
14. Lynn Rube
15. Jim Schaffer
16. Clint Stark
17. Ted Thiem
18. Fred Walker
19. Harry Watts
20. Fred Whitfield 

The 1960 Tulsa cards are not particularly scarce. They carry a book value of $20 each in NM. Like other regional minor league sets of the era, however, finding a card of a particular player can be a lengthy process. As I like to say, paying for such cards is usually easier than finding them.