FNFT Homepage

Vol. 3

I collected baseball cards when I was young. Out of every box of 500, there were 498 that were non-distinct. But those other two were priceless gems. Before my memory fades, I am going to try to chronicle some of my favorites.

Fred Kendall
1974 Topps - Card #53 Variant

After the 1973 season, the San Diego Padres club was in grave financial trouble. Deals were being made to move the team to Washington DC, this only two years after the old Washington Senators moved to Arlington, Texas to become the Rangers. The move seemed almost a certainty. It was even being spurred on President Richard Nixon. Frank Robinson was going to be their manager. The Washington club even had uniforms designed.

washingtonuniform

Topps needed to get their baseball card set to print and so printed all of the San Diego Padres cards with the team name "Washington - Nat'l Lea." The first time I ever saw or heard of this was when I got a 1974 Fred Kendall baseball card. I remember being astonished. Mind you, this was before Twitter, before MLB Network, before SportsCenter, before cable TV. Baseball cards came out before Street & Smith's back then so I really had no other way of finding out that this was going on.

streetsmiths

(As an aside, if you were not alive during this era you have no conception whatsoever of the immense historical significance of this publication.)

The Padres obviously stayed in San Diego. The city of San Diego threatened to sue owner C. Arnholt Smith for $84 million for breaking the stadium lease. Smith subsequently sold the Padres to McDonalds mogul Ray Kroc for $12 million and Kroc kept the team in San Diego. Street & Smith's is still around and sells for $12.99 today, so do the math. Topps did a second printing of cards with the San Diego Padres name back on making the 'Washington Nat'l Lea.' cards somewhat rare and a collectable. In 1979, C. Arnholt Smith was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion. Frank Robinson coincidentally, became the first manager of the Washington Nationals when they moved there from Montreal in 2005.

As I've been going through my old cards, I found my Fred Kendall 'Washington Nat'l Lea.', but unfortunately not any other San Diego Padres 'Washington Nat'l Lea.'. I believe this might be the only one I ever owned. Anyway, whenever I think about this card, I always say the name of the team in my head as "Washington Natalie". Like the girl's name - Natalie. To this day, whenever I meet a woman named Natalie, I think of Fred Kendall. What a weird thing.