More Players on the Tube

My entry on Friday showed different sets that used a television design, and it occurred  to me after I posted it that I really could have given a little more attention to the most famous set that used it, the 1955 Bowman. Yes, I put up a link to an article I wrote about them, but I overlooked the set after that. This post should help rectify that somewhat.

The final baseball card set issued by the Bowman Gum Company before Topps bought them out was designed to look like a color TV set:

Card #4 -- Eddie Waitkus, Baltimore Orioles

The woodgrain border gave it the right look, since televisions then were built inside a wooden box, not the plastic shell most of us are familiar with. The "picture tube" is curved, and the design even features a border that looks like the one that separated the screen from the exterior. The card also featured this element that made the visualization even more perfect:

A faceplate. While this one didn't use a logo for RCA, Admiral or any other maker of televisions, you can see two knobs. The volume knob is on the left and the channel selector (VHF) is on the right.

No, there was no vertical hold on the back. Instead, the cards looked like this:

Most of the cards feature a short passage with a title like "My Biggest Thrill," "The Toughest Pitcher (or Batter) I've Ever Faced" and "My Advice to Youngsters." Reading through these cards, it seems Ted Williams and Stan Musial were the most respected hitters (although neither appear in the set) and Bob Feller was named often among the pitchers.

I'm going to stop for a moment and show something from the Waitkus card shown above:

That's quite a way to begin a story. I'm not going to rehash it -- that can be a topic for another post -- but Eddie Waitkus's story is interesting. I'd recommend looking it up if you're not familiar with what happened to him.

The first 64 cards in the set were given a blonde-colored wood border, but it was decided that the pictures stood out with a darker color. So, just like the models in the showroom at the appliance store, a new border was added:

Card #95 -- Sal Maglie, New York Giants

Sal looks a little bit disturbed, so I'll move on...

The change from a blonde wood to cherry wasn't sudden. The new color was introduced along with the older, as this Dick Cole card can attest:

Card #28, Dick Cole, Pittsburgh Pirates

There is a streak of a cherry-colored border down the left side. Some collectors need to know that cards like this are occasionally found short, since collectors sometimes trimmed off the extra border. Other collectors, however, didn't stop there:

Card #108 -- Lou Kretlow, Baltimore Orioles

While that's an extreme example, the darker borders are very susceptible to damage. They are frequently found trimmed or recolored to hide some of the damage. I knew a collector who was well on his way to building a killer top-grade set and eventually quit out of frustration after finding that some of his cards had been altered when he began submitting them to a third-party grader.

As you may have noticed, many of the photos used in the set have noticeable towers in the background. They were taken at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, which had been home to the Bowman Gum Company as well as two major league teams. While there are other stadiums used (notably Ebbets Field and Yankee Stadium), most of the pictures were taken there during the 1954 season. Unfortunately, the A's moved to Kansas City for the 1955 season, so Bowman would not have had the benefit of two leagues passing through their home city to get photos for '56. Topps took care of that little problem by purchasing the company.

Card #239 -- Edwin Rommel

The final series of 1955 Bowman cards included a subject that had never been seen on baseball cards: umpires. There were 31 in all. While the kids of '55 likely had issues with cards of old men in their uniforms, collectors find them intriguing, since a number of the arbiters are now Hall of Fame members and these cards represent their only appearance in a mainstream set.

Several errors appear in the set as well. Here's a card for a young player from the Detroit Tigers:

Card #204 -- Frank Bolling

There are two different backs for this card:

Frank and Milt Bolling were brothers who played at the same time. Despite being on different teams, Bowman still managed to confuse them. Not only did they mess up card #204, the same error was found on card #48 (Milt Bolling's card).

Bowman also managed to confuse the non-related Don and Ernie Johnson (cards 101 and 157) and also had to go back and correct Harvey Kuenn's card after spelling his last name as "Kueen." In all cases, the corrected versions are the rarer ones. Additionally, Card #195 of Erv Palica can be found with or without a line on the back saying he'd been traded to Baltimore. I'd show mine, but a former owner already placed the notation on the back for me.

Despite not being able to get their Bollings straight, another brother combo was given their own card:

Card #139 -- Bob and Bill Shantz

Interestingly, each brother had his own card in the set as well. There was no confusion, though. Perhaps being in Bowman's home city was a benefit.

Rest In Peace, Duke

Sad news today.

Duke Snider passed away this morning at 84.

The picture on the card above shows Duke shaking hands with teammate Pee Wee Reese after a home run shot. Tonight, the two can shake hands once more on the Field of Dreams. In fact, a full '55 Dodgers squad can now take the field there, as Duke was the last remaining person alive who was on the field for the final out of that series.

He'll be missed.

Players on the Tube

On Monday, I revisited an article I'd written several years ago. Today, I'll do it again.

In 2004, I wrote a newsletter article about the 1955 Bowman set and the then-new invention of color TV. The article appeared again in 2007 in the SMR magazine that PSA puts out. Click here to read it (in PDF format).

However, what many collectors don't realize is that the '55 Bowman set wasn't the first to use a television design. That honor goes to the 1950 Drake's set:

Card #22 -- Eddie Stanky

While many collectors remember Drake's for the cards they included on the packaging of their various snack boxes during the 1980s, in 1950 they were a smaller regional bakery and these cards were available in packages of oatmeal cookies or "Jumble" cookies. The cards aren't impossible to collect, but they weren't widely collected when they were new and the black borders make them tough in high condition.

For more about the 1950 Drake's set, here's a link to the set description in my main site.

After 1955, the TV-inspired design never went away. Topps would return to the concept in 1966, for both its football and hockey cards:

The football design used cherry-colored woodgrain, similar to the one used in the '55 Bowman set. However, they removed the "Color TV" faceplate and the knobs below the picture tube to place the player's name, team and position.

The used the exact same design for their hockey cards that year. I borrowed the image of this Mikita card; it very well may be an O-Pee-Chee, judging by the Canadian-styled spelling of "Centre." (Edited: the explanation appears in the Comments section.)

Too bad Topps didn't use the TV-design for its 1966 baseball set. The design they went with is often pointed out as one of the more unimaginative of the 1960s, and even a horizontal design may have been neat, since there hadn't been one of those since 1960.However, Topps didn't toss the TV out the window:

In fact, they used the design as part of the next two years' World Series recaps. That was a good use for the designs, since many fans watched the games on their own televisions.

They even revisited the concept a couple of years after that:

But of course, that was a TV show, so the design was perfectly suited for it.

Short Bits

In the spirit of my last post...here's a few cards I've recently added to my collection:

1949 Bowman #134 -- Hank Borowy

1949 Bowman is a neat set, but one that will be a very long-term process for me.

Hank Borowy is a largely forgotten name today, but he was a participant in three World Series in the 1940s. Starting out with the Yankees in 1942, he pitched against the Cardinals in both the '42 and '43 World Series and went 1-0 with a no-decision. However, being an effective pitcher from 1942-'45 wasn't considered such a feat because the major league rosters had been slowly transformed by a different type of draft altogether...the one from Uncle Sam. As the war in Europe ended and star players began to be mustered out of service, several players began to see their limited window of opportunity closing. For Borowy, the end seemed to come in July '45 when the Yankees placed him on waivers despite a 10-5 record and 15 teams passed on him.

Then, the Cubs picked him up and added him for their pennant run. He went 11-2 during that stretch and was a big part of the National League pennant. In the World Series, he took the mound for four games against the Tigers. After a masterful shutout in Game 1, he lost Game 5. Undaunted, he came back to win Game 6 with a relief appearance that not only saved the game but the Series. However, When he took the mound for Game 7 as the starter he'd been used up. After three batters, he was pulled and the Cubs lost the Series.

As of today, that relief effort in Game 6 makes Hank Borowy the last Cubs pitcher to win a World Series game. He was also the first player in history to win 10 games each for two different teams in the same season. He appeared on three Bowman cards, and this was his first. Despite being shown in a Cubs uniform here, he pitched with the Phillies in 1949 and is identified with his new team on the back of the card.

Last summer, I showed some of the program for the '84 National in Parsippany, New Jersey. Borowy was one of the guests signing autographs there:

Hank Borowy died in 2004.

1951 Bowman #67 - Roy Sievers

1949 was the year they split the Rookie of the Year award. At first, it was awarded to the top rookie in baseball, but later it was decided that each league would honor its own first-year players. The first American League Rookie of the Year was given to Roy Sievers.

Through the 1950s, he played with the St. Louis Browns and then the Washington Senators. Since those were perennially awful teams, he's been forgotten by fans who don't bother looking outside the New York City-based teams that enjoyed much of the success of that era. What's interesting about Sievers, though, is that he still managed to hit 300 homers in his career at a time when that was a much bigger milestone than it is today. He was the 18th player in history to reach it and was the first who didn't get into the Hall of Fame.

Roy Sievers is still living in the St. Louis area.

1956 Topps #330 -- Jim Busby

One of the things collectors like about the 1956 Topps set is the way the action shots nicely add to the card. Many of those photos are great game-action shots with plays at the bag (or the plate). However, this one just looks odd. Busby appears to be sliding into second, but the fact that there's no fielder present might give the impression that he's blown the play and is watching that ball get away.

1956 was the only full season Busby spend with the Tribe. He was on original member of the Houston Colt .45s in 1962, when he retired and became a coach. He was still coaching in 1977, when he was part of the first Seattle Mariners team in 1977.

Jim Busby died in Augusta, Georgia (a town where I once lived as well) in 1996.

I Reverently Call it "The Book"

As you may have guessed, I have a bookshelf loaded with reference material related to baseball cards. All I have to do is look over my right shoulder and and wheel over to it in my swivel chair.

One of those books is this one:

It's the 1991 paperback re-issue. The original 1973 edition came as a hardcover book.

I've mentioned this book in the blog before. Once, I mentioned it in this entry about a trade I made with Phungo, to which he immediately commented that he was proud to be mentioned in the same post with this book. He also said he believed that Boyd and Harris were possibly "the first fun baseball card reviewers/bloggers/snarks." Though the Internet was merely a text-based toy for academia and the military when the book was originally written in 1973, he may be onto something with his statement. The entire section of the book that shows and comments on the cards reads amazingly like a series of blog posts.

Several years ago, I wrote an email newsletter. In 2003, I wrote one of my best-received articles about this book. I'd like to share it here, for your enjoyment.

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For some of the earliest collectors of "bubblegum" cards, it wasn't intended to be an adult hobby. The kids who opened packs of Goudey, Delong and Tattoo Orbit gum in the 1930s had to grow up quickly because of the Depression and World War Two. Older kids often were compelled to find a job to help out during the slow economic era; the war effort saw many former collectors drafted into the service, and the paper drives claimed a lot of cards. After the war ended and the times got better, those kids who had collected in the 1930s had grown up and many of them simply let the things of their youth slip into a distant memory.

Baseball cards had a special place in the lives of many kids who grew up during the 1950s as well. The children of those Goudey-era collectors developed their own type of collecting. Like their fathers, they would use cards as currency on playgrounds and schoolyards. They flipped cards against brick walls in an effort to win their friends' cards; some kids even cheated by dipping the cards in paraffin. It was much easier to get a spare nickel or two to spend on cards from fathers who had remembered how they only had to pay a penny for a gum pack. They would trade their dupes in an effort to get a card of their favorite player. Some would even try to complete the entire set, but while every other kid in the neighborhood already had a Duke Snider card, nobody could produce the one Toby Atwell or Paul Minner card needed to finish up the set, But unlike their fathers, many of those kids decided to carry the hobby into adulthood in greater numbers. Though a lot of those kids stopped actively collecting when they decided to pursue girls and cars, many of them came back to the hobby as adults. Two of those kids grew up and unwittingly helped advance the hobby simply by writing a book.

In 1971, Fred Harris and Brendan Boyd worked in a Boston bookstore. One day, a customer came into the store and asked whether there was a book about baseball cards. Certain that there must have been one, they checked around but couldn't find a single book anywhere. Neither Harris or Boyd could believe that nobody had ever written a book about baseball cards. As kids, both had collected them and so had most of the kids in their neighborhoods. It seemed odd that somebody hadn't written a book on the subject.

Harris told Boyd, "we should write one." So they each took out their old cards and wrote a book around them. Boyd covered American League players and Harris focued on National Leaguers. Ironically, they couldn't get any publisher to consider printing their book until Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer raised interest in 1950s baseball nostalgia. Finally published in 1973, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book wasn't a blockbuster, but it is still regarded as an important hobby book more than thirty years later. Even though most of the players whose cards are shown have faded from many fans' memories, they remain in their "glory days" in the book.

The book has an introduction which recalls the author's experiences of their 50s childhood in a rapid-fire delivery, followed by a report about a visit to the Topps factory complete with an interview with Sy Berger. The book ends with a list of different things a collector could do with cards (and included a short glimpse into a hobby that was about to explode, though the authors didn't realize that at the time). The meat of the book, however, is in between Berger's comments about Topps' operation and descriptions about how to properly flip cards. Most of the book is a section titled "Profiles." In that section, cards -- mostly from 1951-'63 but some later cards appear -- are pictured along with a comment about the player or his career. The comments are a mixed bag; sometimes respectful, usually irreverent, and thouroughly entertaining.

Most books covering baseball of the 1950s spend a lot of ink covering the important players and outstanding feats, but this book is different. The players aren't all Hall of Famers. In fact, of the 221 baseball players featured, only 15 are enshrined in Cooperstown. In 1973, four of those were considered longshots but eventually made it to the Hall (Richie Ashburn, Larry Doby, Enos Slaughter and Nellie Fox). Satchell Paige gets the following comment: "he could have been the greatest pitcher in major league history, if he'd been given the chance." Stan Musial was mentioned simply because he rarely showed up on cards and made it hard to play any type of baseball card game as the Cardinals without him. Yogi Berra was a natural player for the book's format. Ernie Banks was remembered as a great player who had the misfortune of playing with some terrible teams. Sandy Koufax's rookie card is called his "bar mitzvah picture" because he looked so young. Cards of Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente appeared together on a page with no comments; in a book that was irreverent, this was a respectful way to remember the early passing of both players just prior to the book's publication. Since Boyd was a Boston native and by extension a Red Sox die-hard, Ted Williams makes an appearance very early.

Hank Aaron doesn't show up in the book, but his brother Tommie is featured because he had the guts to play on the same team (and at the same position) as his more gifted brother. Niether Brooks nor Frank Robinson appear on any of its pages, nor do Al Kaline or Carl Yastrzemski. Roger Maris is mentioned but not shown. The three famed center fielders of the New York City teams aren't even spotlighted; Willie Mays and Duke Snider share a card in the section about Topps' specialty cards, but Mickey Mantle isn't shown at all. In the final section, Harris writes the following about "the Mick:"

"I remember one year, 1955 I think, when I must have had fifteen Mickey Mantles. You couldn't even use him for flipping because no one wanted another Mickey Mantle. Everyone on my block was sick of Mickey Mantle. And that was long before such emotions were popular."

Spoken like a true son of Boston.

Anybody can read about the superstars of the 1950s in just about any baseball book ever written about the era. Focusing on lesser-known players instead of the stars makes this book more special, because the writers choose to comment on players they recall from their own youth. The perspective is unique and the stories personal.

Then there are the cards. Gus Zernial's 1952 Topps card shows him holding up a bat with five baseballs attached to it. Bob Cerv's 1958 Topps card is needled because he appears to be smacking himself in the head with a bat. As a change of pace, a football card of Johnny Unitas is even tossed in. The 1969 Topps card of Aurelio Rodriguez shows a 14 year-old Angels batboy instead (Rodriguez "could very easily be mistaken for a batboy, except that most bat boys could easily outhit him," they cracked). Coot Veal, "Cot" Deal, Foster Castleman, "Spook" Jacobs and Whammy Douglas are spotlighted for their names.

One of the neat things about the book is that it's not a linear story. That is, each card shown has its own separate commentary, and only rarely do they blend. That way, you can always open the book to just about any page and start reading it. The writing is often quixotic because it jumps quickly from subject to subject, but is thoroughly entertaining to anybody interested in 1950s baseball (but not the black-and-white newsreel highlights shown repeatedly since).

Some of the stories are classic, like the account of Pumpsie Green and Gene Conley trying to catch a flight out of Idlewild (now JFK International) airport to Israel in what is described as "a markedly inebriated condition" two days after they jumped the Red Sox team bus in New York City traffic following a game against the Yankees. Ned Garver was remembered for winning 20 games with the 1951 St. Louis Browns, a team that won only 52 games all season. Even personal stories are shared, like the time Harris went to a store to meet some Red Sox players and how Billy Klaus sneered at him and his friends when they weren't allowed in because they were too young.

One page features the pictures (but not the TV borders) of umpires Chylak, Secory, Driscoll, Hubbard, Boggess and Barlick from the 1955 Bowman set. The rest of the page is red, and one word is repeated over and over behind them: "Boo." Another page shows cards of three players nicknamed "Bubba" (Morton, Church and Phillips). The 1962 Mets got their own page, with Casey Stengel's comment, "can't anybody here play this game?" as its headline. Another page pays homage to Kahn's Boys of Summer and shows four Brooklyn Dodger cards. A page featuring coach and manager cards starts out saying, "of course if you are really lousy at what you do, there's always a chance that you can work your way into management."

Marv Throneberry and Dick Stuart are remembered for their lack of finesse with a glove. Likewise, Casey Wise and Eddie Miksis are celebrated as players who could claim truly embarrassing offensive statistics. Johnny Antonelli and Joey Jay are lauded because each was drafted by the Braves and then showed their promise later by beating up on the Braves on the mound after getting traded. Ken Hubbs and Harry Agganis are remebered for their far-too-early exits from the baseball diamond.

The chapter describing the visit to Topps' offices is a terrific look into the world of Sy Berger. Though it never explicitly says so, the 1973 Topps set was in production. The little comments flesh out the details: the cards were still being released in series, each player had his own file with numerous photos, an artist was airbushing Diego Segui's card, and Berger mentions about how the "kid pictures" subset was being included again in the new set and how they were going to include more action shots. Berger also mentions about how the "new design" would be among the best Topps ever issued, but it's interesting to have the hindsight of time because that 1973 Topps set is on few collectors' "best of" lists. The "kid pictures" subset never appeared again after '73, and collectors often criticized the action shots in that set because it was hard to tell which player was being featured (in fact, Joe Rudi's 1973 card shows four A's celebrating a Gene Tenace home run, but Rudi isn't even among them).

In 1991, Boyd and Harris came out with a new edition. The 1973 edition was reprinted intact, with new introductions by each author. They acknowledged how the hobby had changed after 1973 and how they handled their short period of fame. Boyd recounted how they tried to get a celebrity endorsement for the book, but unfortunately the celebrities they approached were rubbed the wrong way by the book. Jim Bouton took exception to being called a "big mouth" (though he should have been intimately aware of the effects of somebody's written words thanks to Ball Four), and Joe Garagiola wasn't happy that Sy Berger told how he had signed an exclusive contract with Bowman and still pretended he was interested in signing with Topps. Boyd then related about how his baseball card collection was stolen along with his car.

Harris added in his introduction that they had written "the book that wouldn't die." He explained, "even when all the editions were out of print, somehow the spirit of this book never died." He mentioned that they had planned on featuring additional players from the 1973-'90 era in the new edition but it seems the idea never came to fruition. Still, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book remains to be an integral book for any hobbyist's reference shelf. The book is mentioned on the website for the OBC group as "The Book," and a few collectors have sought to obtain all the cards featured in its pages. Even 30 years after its original publication, it remains a great hobby book.

If somebody wanted to use the idea to write a similar book using players from the 1970s and 80s, it could be interesting. Imagine being able to open a book filled with cards from the 1970s and 80s and stories of some of the characters of the era. Featured cards could include the 1984 Fleer Glen Hubbard, showing him with a large snake, or the '86 Fleer with Mickey Hatcher holding a giant glove. Some of baseball's goofballs could once again take center stage, like Bill "Spacman" Lee, who once told a reporter that he ate marijuana pancakes for breakfast, or Joe Charbonneau, who was a noted party animal just before becoming a hobby footnote. Mark Fidrych could be remembered for his proclivity for talking to his baseball while on the mound. A card of Ivan DeJesus would be accompanied by a commentary about how he was traded to the Phillies in 1981 for Ryne Sandberg. Finally, some of the obscure players could once again be recognized; guys like Buddy Biancalana, Joaquin Andujar and Bobby Meacham can be seen in their mid-80s glory. Lenny Dykstra, Dave Concepcion and George Foster could be recognized as great players who probably won't get to Cooperstown without paying admission. Finally, names like Shooty Babbitt, Joe Zdeb and Jerry Dybzinski can be brought out for the way that kids mangled them while trying to pronounce them. Then there's guys like Don Aase, Pete LaCock and Rusty Kuntz (a name that should have never been allowed in any 12 year-old's card collection), but maybe not for a family-oriented book.

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If you've read this far and would like to get your hands on a copy of this book, here's a link that will let you pick one up:

Pick it up if you enjoy reading blogs like this. I guarantee you'll love it.

Vintage Paneling

No, I'm not talking about the wooden paneling in the basement that looks like it inspired the 1962 Topps set.

Today, here's a card image that I find neat:

This is a 1959 Bazooka box panel (though not a full box) featuring Del Crandall. Crandall's card is the example shown in my website's description of the 1959 Bazooka set, but it's neat to see that not all the cards in this set were subjected to the wrath of young collectors armed with scissors.

I'd like to point out the little box at the bottom of the panel. It mentions that there are 9 cards in all, even though a complete '59 Bazooka set contains 23 cards in all. The first series contained nine cards -- Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Del Crandall, Jim Davenport, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Bill Mazeroski, Roy McMillan, Bob Turley -- and an additional 14 were issued later in the year. Those 14 are considered short-prints.

My Oldest Yankee Card

It's been a little while since I shared one of the cards with "character" from my collection. Here's one today from a set that doesn't get seen all that often:

It's a T213 Coupon and was printed around 1914. There are three types of T213 (each with a different back and different years of issue), and this card is a Type 2. The player is Jeff Sweeney, who is also found with Richmond as a team name. I'd show the back, but there's not a lot of it still attached to the card. But it's nearly 100 years old, and it's an early Yankee (they had changed their name from Highlanders in 1913).

There is sometimes a little confusion with this set, since it shares a similar design with T206 cards and even uses the same photos. However -- and this is a little hard to see on my card -- the text at the bottom is blue, which a T-card collector should notice right away. Blue ink is found on Type 2 and 3 cards, while brown ink is used for Type 1.

The Old Cardboard website has a quick breakdown of T213 cards, including years of issue and back images.