1992 Topps #969 Tom Trebelhorn Manager

 Today’s missing Topps card is #969 Tom Trebelhorn. 

Tom never appeared in the Majors as a player, but logged a good number of years as a coach and manager. His first experience in the Majors occurred in 1984 when he was a coach with the Milwaukee Brewers. He managed in the minors in 1985, and was called upon by the Brewers to manage them with 9 games left in the 1986 season. He stayed as their manager until the end of the 1991 season. After that, it was on to the Chicago Cubs as a coach in 1992. He coached for them in 1993 as well, before being named their manager for the 1994 season. He only managed them for the one season, and got back in the Majors in 2001 as a coach for the Baltimore Orioles, and stayed in that position until midway through the 2005 season when the Orioles promoted him to manager. In 2006, he returned as a coach to the Orioles, and finished the 2007 in that position. As of 2022, that was his last experience in MLB. 

Tom showcases both ends of the spectrum of how weird Topps could be when making manager cards in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s. Many times, if a team got a new manager in the offseason, Topps would airbrush them in the teams uniform and not make a card of the manager from the previous year. In the 1992 set, they did this for the Brewers, and this is the only reason Tom is missing a card in the ‘92 set. However, in the 1987 Topps set, they still gave George Bamberger a manager card (his sunset card), even though Tom managed the final 9 games of the 1986 season. Even had he been hired in the 1986 offseason, it’s a little surprising that he didn’t get the 1987 Topps Brewers manager card instead of Bamberger. I guess that just leaves more work for me. 

Tom was a minor league coach in the A’s system, and got to help Rickey Henderson learn how to steal bases in the minors, something Hendu thanked him for in his Hall of Fame speech. In 1994 as Cubs manager, the team lost a number of games in a row at home to start the season. Tom told reporters that if they lost another one that he would answer fans questions outside after the game. Of course, they did lose, and Tom was true to his word, answering questions for around 200 Cubs fans after the game. In 2009, he got to coach for the Italian team for the World Baseball Classic. The Classic is coming back for 2023, so maybe we’ll see Mr. Trebelhorn again. 

Tom’s first Topps card came in the 1987 Topps Traded set. He got into the 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991 Topps sets, and that was it for him. He is missing cards from the 1984 Topps Traded set, 1985 Topps set, the 1986 Topps Traded set, the 1992 Topps Traded set (Cubs), the 1993 Topps set, the 1994 Topps set (coach), the 1994 Topps Traded set (manager), the 1995 Topps set, the 2001 Topps Traded set, the 2002 Topps set, the 2003 Topps set, the 2004 Topps set, the 2005 Topps set (coach), the 2005 Topps Update set (manager), the 2006 Topps set (manager), the 2006 Topps Update set (coach), the 2007 Topps set, and the 2008 Topps set. Out of all of those, I’ve covered just the 1984 Topps Traded card, the 1992 Topps Traded card, the 1993 Topps card, the 1994 Topps card, the 1994 Topps Traded card, and the 1995 Topps card. In order to complete his career Topps run, Tom just needs cards from the 1985 Topps, 1986 Topps Traded, 2001 Topps Traded, 2002 Topps, 2003 Topps, 2004 Topps, 2005 Topps (coach), 2005 Topps Update (manager), 2006 Topps (manager), 2006 Topps Update (coach), 2007 Topps, and 2008 Topps sets. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy