1968 TOPPS DICK KENWORTHY
Dick Kenworthy was a sweater that didn’t fit.
If you check his baseball-reference.com page, you’ll see a major-league career of uninterrupted service to the White Sox, starting with four September at bats in 1962 and ending with a career-high 127 plate appearances for the Pale Hose in 1968. The light-hitting infielder tallied a .215 average over that span, with a total of four HRs.
These meager achievements resulted in Kenworthy being featured on only one Topps card over the course of his six-year stint in the bigs. So why in the name of Walt “No Neck” Williams is he pictured with the Mets on that solitary issue?
Well, on October 19, 1967, the Mets purchased Kenworthy from the White Sox. No doubt the team was intrigued by some gaudy numbers he had put up in AA a few years prior.
But come the end of spring training in 1968, the Mets were looking to get out of the Kenworthy business, so they returned him to the White Sox on March 30, 1968.
This five-month term with the Mets coincided with the planning and production of the 1968 Topps set, so Kenworthy was captured for posterity as a member of the Mets.
But the Sarasota sunshine, black pinstripes, and black roll-neck sweatshirt on display here all scream “White Sox”…
Hey, how do I get out of the Kenworthy Business?
This sounded like a Bing Devine type of move but he had already moved on and was never part of the Kenworthy Business. Instead, this was a Johnny Murphy production.
I love these articles.
Thanks very much for the kind words, Patrick!