1970 61 1969 NL Batting Leaders, Pete Rose, Roberto Clemente, Cleon Jones

1969 NL Batting Leaders Pete Rose Bob Clemente Cleon Jones

The back of this card raises questions.  The Pirates had 5 players with averages above 300 and six players in the first column (all of whom finished better than Willie Mays and other greats). How did the Pirates not make the playoffs in 1969?  I guess there is a good explanation or else they would have actually made the playoffs.

Modern documentaries falsely label Pittsburgh residents as racist and resentful of Clemente's success. Ken Burns' baseball documentary is guilty of this smear, even though this was completely at odds with the experience and memory of every Pirate fan. 

The documentaries display the Topps' cards with the first name "Bob" as proof that Pittsburgh fans did not respect Clemente or call him by his preferred name. I have seen PBS films parade card after card on the screen with the word "Bob" as an indictment of the steelworkers, their families and neighbors. The documentaries never acknowledge that the cards, their designs, the Topps' contracts with the players, etc. were/are decided by Topps' executives (e.g. Sy Berger, Abram Shorin, etc.) far from Pittsburgh. The fans do not choose what appears on the cards.   See Mint Condition by Dave Jamieson for a little better background on Topps' history.    

It is important that we do not allow modern, clever filmmakers to destroy our own childhood memories.

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