Kurt Bevacqua was a Major League baseball player from 1969-1978 who primarily played second base and third base. While his career batting stats were modest at best, topping out at a .257 career batting average, Bevacqua holds a unique distinction that has made some of his baseball cards highly sought after collectors items.
Bevacqua was originally signed by the New York Mets as an amateur free agent in 1966 out of the University of Southern California. He made his MLB debut with the Mets in 1969 at the age of 23. Bevacqua spent the next four seasons in New York playing a backup role and bouncing between the majors and minors. His best season with the Mets came in 1970 when he hit .247 with 3 home runs and 20 RBI in 92 games played.
In 1973, Bevacqua was traded by the Mets to the San Diego Padres along with Nate Colbert and Tom Phoebus in exchange for decision Leroy Stanton and OF/1B Dave Roberts. It was with the Padres that Bevacqua saw the most playing time of his career, appearing in 156 games in both 1973 and 1974. His best offensive season came in 1974 with San Diego when he hit .287 with 7 home runs and 35 RBI.
During his time with the Padres, Bevacqua earned himself a place in baseball card collecting lore and has since become one of the most sought after players from the 1970s due to a printing error on his 1974 Topps baseball card. On Bevacqua’s standard issue 1974 Topps card, he is pictured in a Padres uniform along with the standard player stats and information on the back. Due to a production mistake at the Topps printing plant, a small number of Bevacqua’s 1974 cards were accidentally printed on the cardboard stock that was meant for the high number subset at the back of the set.
As a result, the front of Bevacqua’s card is correct but the stat back has the entirely wrong stats and information for another Padres player, Don Stanhouse. Since the two players wore similar uniforms in the photo on the front, the mix up went unnoticed for quite some time. It wasn’t until collectors started carefully checking details that the error was discovered. Today, Bevacqua’s 1974 Topps printing error card has become one of the most desirable issues from the whole decade of the 1970s due to its rarity and uniqueness in the hobby. In high grade it can fetch thousands of dollars.
After two seasons with the Padres where he established career highs in games played and average, Bevacqua was traded in December 1974 to the Montreal Expos along with Gene Locklear and cash for pitcher Bill Greif and infielder Mike Jorgensen. Bevacqua spent one season in Montreal as a part-time player and utility man, appearing in 90 games and hitting .238. Following the 1975 season he was dealt again, this time to the St. Louis Cardinals for Tim Foli.
Bevacqua had his best offensive season with St. Louis in 1976, establishing new career highs of 6 home runs and 33 RBI while splitting time between second base and third base and hitting .263 in 91 games. He remained with the Cardinals through the 1978 season, serving mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch hitter off the bench during the final few years of his career. Bevacqua appeared in his last MLB game on September 17, 1978 at the age of 33.
After retiring from baseball, Bevacqua stayed involved in the sport by becoming a baseball scout. He worked as a scout for the Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers over a 20+ year period. Bevacqua passed away in 2012 at the age of 65 while still working as a scout in the Dodgers organization.
While his career MLB stats may not stand out, Kurt Bevacqua’s place in baseball card history has been cemented due to the extreme rarity and value of his 1974 Topps printing error card. The mix up between his and Don Stanhouse’s stats is a one-of-a-kind mistake that still fascinates collectors decades later. For anyone lucky enough to own a high grade example in their collection, it serves as one of the ultimate 1970s prospects and a true anomaly from the “junk wax” era. Bevacqua may not have reached Baseball Hall of Fame levels on the field, but his legacy will forever live on through one of the coolest flukes found in the world of collectibles.