1965 Topps Phillies Rookie Stars: Dave Bennett, Morrie Steevens

The first rookie card of the new year is from 1965 thanks to the random number generator. This card features two rookie pitcher for the Phillies. For Dave Bennett, this isn't his first rookie card. Topps recycled the same photo from his 1964 rookie card with Rick Wise, shown to the right. The 1964 card features one of my all-time favorite errors on the back. In Bennett's bio, Topps writes "The nineteen-year-old righthanded curveballer is just 18 years old!"  Classic.

Although Bennett would have a long minor league career, he was literally one and done in the majors. Just to clarify, at the time of his 1964 rookie card and his one-and-only MLB appearance, he was actually 18 years old. He came into the ninth inning of a game started by his older brother Dennis Bennett. The game was a 11-3 rout at the hands of the New York Mets. In all, the Phillies put 7 different pitchers on the mound including Bennett's 1964 rookie card-mate, Rick Wise. Bennett gave up one run on a wild pitch to Roy McMillan.

Normally two rookie cards are more than enough for a player who has only one MLB inning. But that's just not how I roll. So here is a 1964 Topps Giant Card That Never Was for Dennis Bennett's kid brother.

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Morrie Steevens (not a typo) made his MLB debut in 1962 with the Cubs. The year of  this rookie card (his only baseball card), 1965, was also the year he made his final MLB appearance. Like his card-mate Bennett, Steevens had a long minor-league career but saw limited MLB action. He was 0-2 in just over 20 innings of play. He was, however, 86-80 as a minor leaguer from 1958-1967.  For his Card That Never Was, I made this 1962 Topps individual rookie card from his first MLB season.

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Not much redeeming value to this card. The 2 pitchers on this card pitched a total of 3.2 innings in 1964. Dave Bennett didn't pitch at all in 1965 and Morrie Steevens pitch 2.2 innings. Really the only thing keeping it out of my bicycle spokes is Bennett's comical bio. And that isn't even on this card. It's on his 1964 rookie card. Topps couldn't even find a new picture of him for the 1965 card. I give it a 2, good for flipping.