1964 Wheaties Stamps Whitey Ford a Final All-Star Tribute

At the 1964 All-Star break, Whitey Ford headed to Shea Stadium for the Midsummer Classic along with teammates Elston Howard, Mickey Mantle, Bobby Richardson, and Joe Pepitone.

Having been swept out of the 1963 World Series by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ford’s New York Yankees were struggling to maintain their supremacy in the American League in 1964, entering the midseason break trailing the Baltimore Orioles by three games.

For his part, Ford pretty much looked like the future Hall of Famer he was, carrying a sterling 10-2 record with a 2.18 ERA into the All-Star Game. A 9-2 drubbing at the hands of the Minnesota Twins in the last game before the break notwithstanding, Whitey was Chairman of the Board all the way.

But …

In that interleague tilt at the home of the crosstown New York Mets, the Yanks got a glimpse of things to come.

None of their batters even got on base, unless you count Pepitone pinch running for Bob Allison in the eighth.

And Ford?

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Find 1964 Wheaties stamps on Amazon (affiliate link)

He never took the mound at all in his tenth All-Star Game (covering only eight seasons, courtesy of two ASGs in each of 1960 and 1961.

The Yankees would recover to win the AL pennant by a single game of the Chicago White Sox, and two over the O’s, and they fought the St. Louis Cardinals hard in the World Series before bowing out in seven games.

But 1965 brought the first losing season in the Bronx since 1925, and Ford was out of the rotation by the next year.

He hung up his spikes in 1967, and Mantle followed suit in 1968 (OK, technically March of 1969).

Ford wouldn’t get a career-capper card the way Mantle did in 1969, last appearing in the 1967 Topps set.

Back in that lead-up to the 1964 All-Star Game, though, Ford one-upped his fellow Yankees legend, in the hobby realm, at least.

That development came courtesy of Wheaties, who put together a set of 50 player stamps, available along with an album via a mail-in offer for the princely sum of a proof of purchase and fifty cents.

What a deal!

Unless you were looking for The Mick, because, although Mantle was technically an All-Star in 1963, he didn’t appear in the game and didn’t make the Wheaties cut.

Ford, not an All-Star at all in ‘63, nevertheless made the Wheaties roster, making this stamp his last ASG appearance

It was one final glimpse of the glory that defined the 1950s and 1960s Yankees, a line in the sands of time marking the last midsummer break for more than a decade when the Bombers reigned supreme (or close to it).

Wow! Wax of the Day

You may not find “wax packs” of the 1964 Wheaties baseball stamps, but you can occasionally find complete sets, all done up in their little album … like the one offered in this eBay lot …