I had a few small projects to put a handful of cards on a theme together in my binder, and it seems like for all of these I had one card missing. These just arrived in my COMC box.
Burt Shotton.
I posted about the book Electric October, covering the 1947 World Series. The book says that it's told through the lens of six not-famous major leaguers, although it does it admit that one of them is a bit more famous given that he's a Hall-of-Famer (Bucky Harris). I tried to get cards of all of them but couldn't find a good card of one, Bill Bevens. But I showed the Harris, Snuffy Stirnweiss, Al Gionfriddo, and Cookie Lavagetto cards that I picked up. The only one missing, then, was this, a Target Dodgers Burt Shotton. You learn in the book that Shotton was the last manager to manage in a suit rather than the uniform -- he very slightly outlasted Connie Mack in that respect (by a few hours).
Sherm Lollar.
Another project I had was to make a page of cards of teams that no longer are. I've shown some Seattle Pilots, Philadelphia Athletics, Kansas City Athletics, and Colt .45s, (and of course some others like Milwaukee Braves, New York Giants, and Brooklyn Dodgers), and at least one Boston Brave (although the Sam Jethroe is PSA-graded and so not for the binder). But I noticed I didn't seem to have any St. Louis Browns. I picked out this Sherm Lollar since he was a notable player of the day and I even had another card of him already (with the White Sox by then). Of course an ideal St. Louis Browns card would be the 1953 Topps Satchel Paige, but even if not for the expense, the misspelling of his name ("Satchell") bugs me enough that I won't try to get one.
Edward G. Robinson.
Robinson card back.
I don't go for non-sports, or even non-baseball, much (please excuse the main exception in my collection, the circa-1990 Marvel and DC superhero cards from my youth). But I posted about the movie Big Leaguer before, and got a handful of cards to remember that: Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott, and Freddie Fitzsimmons, and the main character, Hans Lobert. Lobert was played in the movie by movie star Edward G. Robinson, so I thought I would get a Robinson to go next to Lobert. I picked up this 1939 Milky Way card. The card says that Mars Confections are manufactured in Slough, which surely makes this card from England. It's probably unique in my collection in that respect. It's also tied for my oldest card, along with the 1939 Play Ball Gus Suhr I posted recently. I guess Robinson makes the second movie star in my binder, after Kevin Costner.
It's been over four months since my last post. I find it hard to pay much attention to baseball cards these days, but have a number of posts I've been planning to write over these past months. I woke up a bit early this morning and thought I might finally get one post out.
One morning in quarantine (months ago now) I remembered a movie I once saw, years ago now, on one of the cable channels, American Movie Classics or Turner Classic Movies. It was about spring training in Florida, and featured the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The main thing I remembered is that the Giants let go a pitching prospect but weren't sure if it was the right thing to do, then he showed up against them in a spring training game against the Dodgers. I thought it was probably from the 50s, and a little searching of baseball movies from the 50s turned up the title: Big Leaguer, starring Edward G. Robinson.
1940 Play Ball Hans Lobert.
1940 Play Ball Hans Lobert card back.
The movie isn't a true story, but Robinson plays a real guy, Hans Lobert. In the movie Lobert's playing days are over and he runs the Giants' spring camp in Florida. Spring camp then, at least in the movie, isn't like it is today. According to the movie it was like an open tryout -- young guys from all over could come stay at camp and show the Giants what they have, hoping for a minor league contract. And Lobert ran the camp, hoping to find a star so the Giants would keep him on running the camp.
I bought this 1940 Play Ball card of Lobert. I bought another card related to the movie too, but can't show it because COMC says that my shipment won't arrive until October. That's an Edward G. Robinson card. I don't usually go for non-sports stuff these days (although I do have a bunch of mid-90s Marvel and DC superhero cards). But I thought these would make a nice pair together, Lobert and the guy who played him in the movies. The Robinson that I bought is a 1939 Milky Way Famous Film Stars card. It's always nice to have another food-issued card, I think, and nice to add a card from the 30s. Come to think of it, the Robinson might now be my oldest card! I don't think I have any others from the 30s, and I don't think I have anything older. I'll post it when I get it, but like I said, COMC said the shipment I requested in July will come in October.
It's just occurred to me, as I write this post, that there's another card from the movie that I should have bought, so I just ordered it right now. That's a card of Carl Hubbell. I guess they wanted to add some baseball star power to the film, so they had Hubbell appear to watch the game at the end between the Giants kids from camp and the Dodgers' minor-leaguers. So I just ordered a 1940 Play Ball of Hubbell from eBay to go with this one.
Overall I would say that the plot of the movie isn't that strong, but it's interesting to see even a fictional window on the past of baseball. The movie has a shot of the Polo Grounds. I've said many times before I have a certain fascination with the bygone stadiums, and of that moment in time before baseball moved west. If you haven't seen the movie, it's a quick, easy watch; I think I bought it on iTunes for a few bucks.
I might say a few words about Lobert, since he's the card I'm using to represent the movie. As a personal plus, he was born in Wilmington, Delaware, like me, and according to Wikipedia, he was an alum of Carnegie Mellon University, like me (it wouldn't have been called Carnegie Mellon back then, but still). He was an infielder with the Pirates, Cubs, Reds, Phillies, and Giants between 1903 and 1917, and briefly managed the Phillies a couple of times. He continued to work in baseball for many years.
This is my second of the 1940 Play Ball series, after the Jimmie Foxx card I got myself for Christmas a couple of years ago. I have another 1940 Play Ball that I just got that will be the subject of another post.
1940 Play Ball Jimmie Foxx.
I'll end the post here, I suppose. I hope you're all doing well.
I posted the other day about being nearly finished with my 1972 Topps set, so I thought I'd give an update on how I'm doing with my 1955 Bowman set as well.
Jocko Conlan.
I focused my Black Friday shopping on knocking out 1972 Topps needs, but I did buy a few 1955 Bowman cards. And this Jocko Conlan, the Hall of Fame umpire, just arrived in the mail yesterday from an eBay seller. Jocko here puts me at 178/320 cards, or 55.6% complete. The high numbers are about the last one-third of the set, so about 106 cards or so, and I have 26 of those. I have two of the four highest-value cards -- of Mantle, Aaron, Banks, and Mays, I have the Mantle and Aaron. So, my plan is to keep slogging through it for the next year, sometimes getting the more expensive cards while focusing on completing the more easily attainable part of the set. I don't expect I'll quite finish the whole set in 2020 but I hope to be much closer.
Jocko Conlan card back.
As for Conlan himself, on the one hand, I think everyone likes these umpire cards and I'm no exception. On the other hand, besides the novelty of the umpire cards, I learned from this card back that Conlan was actually a player himself, and started umpiring when he filled in for a sick umpire. Wikipedia says that in those days, "a player with a reputation for honesty might be pressed into service if one umpire became incapacitated." It was a different time, for sure.
I love the 1955 Bowman set for its design and because it captures the last moments of baseball being confined to the northeast and the upper midwest/rust belt, more or less. But one of the most popular features, of course, is the inclusion of umpires. I have three of the umpires so far, and showed one, Bill Jackowski, already. Here are the other two I have.
Larry Napp.
Larry Napp card back.
Larry Napp worked in the AL from 1951 through 1974. He was at third base during Don Larsen's perfect game, and at first base for Catfish Hunter's perfect game.
John W. Stevens.
John W. Stevens card back.
John W. "Johnny" Stevens was an AL umpire from 1948 through 1971. Notice the wide line spacing on the back of the card -- Bowman couldn't come up with much to say. On both of these, they went out of their way to point out the umpires' ethnicities. They didn't actually do this on all of the umpire cards, as a quick check of COMC shows no similar mention on Jocko Conlan's card back. Maybe they needed more text and a short sentence about Napp being Italian and Stevens being Slovak made for a little less unused space.
Many of my posts lately have focused on my 1955 Bowman set project. That's because it's my main collecting focus now. I've accomplished most of my collecting goals for this, my renewed interest in collecting which started two years ago. When I finish my 1972 Topps set and my 1955 Bowman set, I plan to be done.
Roy Campanella.
So, let me show a few of the stars I picked up lately. This is my second good Campanella card, after the 1957 Topps card I showed recently. One unanswered question I have for my collection goals is whether I'll also pick up a nice PSA-graded card of Campanella. It probably depends on how much room I have in the box I store the graded cards in.
Hoyt Wilhelm.
This is my only good card of Hall-of-Fame reliever Hoyt Wilhelm. I always heard that the reason Lee Smith wasn't in the Hall was that the criteria for relievers wasn't clear, but somehow that didn't stop guys like Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, and even Bruce Sutter. I'm really glad they finally saw fit to induct Lee Smith.
Phil Rizzuto.
I've never been a fan of Phil Rizzuto, who I mainly know of from his 1980s commercials for The Money Store. It seems clear to me that the only reason Rizzuto is in the Hall is that he was a Yankee when the Yankees were great. So I didn't insist on condition on the Rizzuto card, accepting a huge crease down the front so that I didn't have to pay as much.
Minnie Minoso.
Then we have Orestes "Minnie" Minoso, the only non-Hall-of-Famer in this post, but who has been a credible candidate for enshrinement. Minoso started out in the Negro Leagues and then became the first black player for the White Sox in 1949. Minoso racked up 1963 MLB hits. Of course there's no telling what stats he might have racked up had he had a fair shot at playing in the bigs the whole time.
Whitey Ford.
Then we have Whitey Ford; I featured my other good Whitey Ford cards and autograph in a previous post. I was disappointed when I found out that Ford was a cheater, as he admitted in his autobiography, cutting balls at least towards the end of his career. But I do have a good memory at least, which is that when Dad and I got the autograph of Whitey Ford, I could tell that Dad was really happy to see and him and talk to him for that brief moment. Ford would have been one of the dominant pitchers of Dad's childhood.
There are a few championships that are especially commemorated in my collection, such as the 1971 Pirates, the 1979 Pirates, and the 1980 Phillies. And I'm working on getting PSA-graded versions of the 1961 Topps cards recognizing the 1960 Pirates World Series win. This is the fifth of the eight cards that I have from the series; they're mostly graded PSA 6, but one is PSA 7. It's not the best example of a Mantle card, but I think it still counts.
I work in Philadelphia and grew up in the area; I've always been aware of the Philadelphia A's and Connie Mack's place in Philadelphia baseball history. I've said several times on this blog that I appreciate that the Phillies commemorate the A's history in Philadelphia with their wall of fame being the "Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame." They don't induct any more Athletics these days, figuring they've got all the ones they wanted already (it's getting close to 70 years since they left), but if you go looking at the stadium, you'll find Connie Mack, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Al Simmons, and more.
1949 Bowman Elmer Valo.
I thought I should add some Philadelphia Athletics to my main binder. Not long ago I picked up some Kansas City A's from the 1956 Topps set, but I never had any good cards of Philadelphia A's. One of those 1956 Topps cards was of Elmer Valo, who was inducted onto the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in 1990. This 1949 Bowman card is my first from that set, and I think this must be only my second card from the 1940s, after my 1940 Play Ball Jimmie Foxx.
1951 Bowman Joe Coleman.
Then we have a 1951 Bowman, was my third card from that set when I bought it, I think. My first two 1951 Bowman were Richie Ashburn and Sam Jethroe. I have since picked up the Larry Doby I posted the other day, and just a few minutes ago I bought Sherm Lollar from COMC, to make cards four and five from the set. Coleman was a pitcher and the father of another MLB pitcher Joe Coleman, whose card is in the 1980 Topps set with the Pirates. The younger Coleman pitched 10 games with the Bucs in their championship season in 1979 but didn't appear in the postseason. This Joe Coleman is the grandfather of, and the younger Joe Coleman is the father of, Casey Coleman, who has pitched for the Cubs and Royals.
1951 Topps Red Back Elmer Valo.
Then we have my second-ever 1951 Topps; I posted my first, which was also a Red Back, of Ray Boone. I made this endeavor really to get some Philadelphia A's into my binder, and the selection of particular players was secondary. There's no good reason that I chose to repeat with Elmer Valo, but I'm happy to have another card from this set.
1952 Bowman Eddie Joost.
Finally we have what is my first card from 1952 Bowman, with Eddie Joost. Joost was inducted into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in 1995. Joost was not only a player but also became the player-manager for the 1954 season, when the Mack family's ownership was coming to an end among years of financial troubles. Joost's 1954 A's finished with a 51-103 record. The A's only fared slightly better after moving to Kansas City, and it wasn't until 1968 in Oakland that the team really came alive.
I've been going over my last year+ of acquisitions and figuring out what I never posted. Today we have four cards from 1959 Topps. I considered trying to complete the 1959 set but abandoned the idea, for now at least. After I finish 1972 Topps and 1955 Bowman, I'll see if I want to start another set project. But I did pick up a few cards to test the waters.
Johnny Podres.
I have a certain fascination with the Brooklyn Dodgers. This being the 1959 set, it's after the move to Los Angeles, but I'm interested in Podres for his role with Brooklyn as MVP of the 1955 World Series. Podres was part of the 1959 and 1963 World Series champion Dodgers as well. He played with them in their 1965 championship season, too, but not in the postseason.
Danny Murtaugh with Frank Thomas and Ted Kluszewski.
On my list of "These guys should be in the Hall of Fame," in addition to Curt Flood and Dick Allen, is Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh. This card was just before Murtaugh led Clemente, Mazeroski, Groat, and company to upset the Yankees in the 1960 World Series. He would go on to beat the Orioles in the 1971 World Series as well, and the Orioles were again arguably the better team. Murtaugh is pictured here with Frank Thomas, who I featured in a recent post of 1955 Bowman cards, and Ted Kluszewski. This is one of my only cards (and the only one issued during his playing days) of Kluszewski.
Richie Ashburn.
I tend to pick up cards of Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts in pairs. I got the 1959 Roberts first and posted it some time ago. Then there's a little asymmetry, in that I picked up a 1957 Roberts but not the corresponding Ashburn. But that's balanced on my binder page by the following card, which is also a 1950s Ashburn, although that's not all it is.
Richie Ashburn and Willie Mays.
So, saving the best for last, we have Richie Ashburn and Willie Mays! Of course in hindsight Mays is the much bigger star and better hitter. But in 1958, Ashburn led the majors in batting average with .350, and Mays was second with .347. Coming in third, fourth, and fifth were Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and Hank Aaron. Cards like this, and the Pirates one above, remind me of the 1980s Fleer Super Star Specials, in which Fleer would come up with just about any excuse to have a couple of popular players on a card together. Even though these old Topps cards came first by several decades, I experienced the Fleer versions first, as these 1950s cards were unaffordable and inaccessible to me back then.
Just a brief post today. I have seven Red Man cards in my collection, and I've shown the Yogi Berra, the Robin Roberts, the Casey Stengel, and the Duke Snider before. Today we have the two Ralph Kiners.
1952 Red Man Ralph Kiner card.
1953 Red Man Ralph Kiner.
I've told the story before, that circa 1992 in high school, a friend (who was estranged from her dad) got a bunch of these cards from him. She didn't want them, and preferred to have cash. She let me look through them for a few I wanted, and let me figure out how much the ones I wanted were worth, and I bought my seven for that much. If I had more money, I would have taken more, I'm sure. Being a Pirates fan, I took more than one Pirate, but maybe the only Pirate there was was Ralph Kiner. So I got two of him. You see that all they did to change the picture from year to year was change the background. They did update the text, though.
So that's it for now. I said I had seven of these cards, so that leaves Pee Wee Reese as the last one I have to show, which I'll do at some point. Thanks for reading!
As I've said, my COMC Spring Cleaning box focused on my two set-building projects, 1972 Topps and 1955 Bowman. Today I'll show the six Pirates I got for my 1955 Bowman set.
Bob Friend.
Bob Friend was a longtime Pirate, staying with the team 1951-1965. He then briefly played for the Yankees and Mets in 1966. He led the NL with a 2.83 ERA in 1955, while the Pirates finished in last place. He died just recently, in February, at age 88.
Max Surkont.
Max Surkont pitched in the majors from 1949 through 1957 with a variety of clubs, including the White Sox, the Boston and Milwaukee Braves, the Cardinals, and the New York Giants in addition to the Pirates. He had a career 61-76 record.
Bob Hall.
Bob Hall last appeared in the majors in 1953, so it's not all that clear why he has a card in the 1955 set. But he pitched for the Boston Braves in 1949 and 1950, and for the Pirates in 1953. His career record was 9-18. Most of those decisions came in 1953 with the Bucs, when he pitched in 37 games, going 3-12.
George Freese.
George Freese played for the Tigers in 1953, the Pirates in 1955, and the Cubs in 1961. With the 1953 Tigers, he had one plate appearance, and he had eight for the 1961 Cubs. So the bulk of his career was his 202 plate appearances with the 1955 Pirates. He batted .257 for his career with 3 home runs and 23 RBI.
Frank Thomas.
Frank Thomas (well, this Frank Thomas, not the other one) had a relatively long career as a slugger, playing in the majors from 1951 through 1966 for a variety of teams, amassing 286 home runs. He was part of a trade with the Reds that brought Harvey Haddix to the Pirates. I have another good card of him, from 1959 Topps, that I've been meaning to show, and which I'll have to get to posting soon.
Lee Walls.
Finally, we have Lee Walls, who played in MLB with a variety of teams from 1952 through 1964 and in Japan in 1965. He was an All-Star in 1958 with the Cubs, and had a career .262 batting average.
My COMC spring cleaning box was almost entirely made up of cards for my two set-building projects, 1955 Bowman and 1972 Topps. Here I'll show a few highlights of the 1955 Bowman cards. I'm currently just over one-third complete with the 1955 Bowman, with 107 out of 320 cards.
Gil Hodges.
I'll start off with Night Owl's nominee for someone who should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago, the Dodgers legend Gil Hodges. I would say that this is my first good card of Hodges. That's because this is my first card of him produced while he was playing. I do have a good managerial card of Hodges, from the 1972 set I'm building. And then I have a couple of cards from later, the Hygrade All-Time greats, and the 1985 Circle K Home Run Kings. When the Circle K set was produced, Hodges was 29th on the all-time home run list with his career total of 370.
Enos Slaughter.
This is my first good card of Hall-of-Famer Enos Slaughter, too. I have the Hygrade of him, and also a Pacific Legends and a Swell Baseball Greats. Slaughter was from Roxboro, NC, a place I visited at least once when I was in grad school in Durham, NC. Roxboro has a prominent "Home of Enos Slaughter" sign when you enter town.
Mickey Vernon.
Then we have Mickey Vernon, pictured with the Washington Senators. It's slightly jarring going through the 1955 set to see how different the teams are then as compared to today. In about 65 years, a lot has changed. To be precise, there were only 16 teams back then, and 5 of them have undergone major changes since -- the A's, Giants, Dodgers, and Braves all later moved while retaining their team name, while the Senators later moved and became the Twins. So, there are only 11 teams from the set that still exist in the same form. One of those, the Orioles, was brand new at the time.
Lew Burdette.
Here we have Lew Burdette of those Milwaukee Braves. I showed another card of Burdette before, in the TCMA set of the 1957 Braves.
Bill Jackowski.
Finally, we have NL umpire Bill Jackowski. It goes without saying that the umpire cards are a highlight of the set. Jackowski was the home plate umpire in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, the game with Mazeroski's famous home run.
I'm continuing to post some cards I've picked up from various COMC shipments in the past year. This time, two 1957 Topps and two 1958 Topps.
1957 Topps Larry Doby.
1957 Topps Roy Campanella.
I'm very excited to get my first good cards of both Larry Doby and Roy Campanella. I want at least one more of both, especially one of Doby with the Indians, with whom he became the second black player in MLB just months after Jackie Robinson with the Dodgers. Back when I was watching baseball in the late 80s and early 90s, Doby had thus far been excluded from the Hall. When I rejoined the baseball-watching world a couple of years ago, I was delighted to see that this oversight had been corrected in the interim.
At first I thought I didn't like the 1957 design so much because it's so plain, and the 1958's with their bright colorful backgrounds seem fun. But seeing all of these together, I think I do prefer the full photos on the 1957's. They're all great, though. Thanks for reading!
When I posted my newly-acquired 1955 Bowman Mickey Mantle in my last post, I got a few comments that the high numbers in the set can be tough. So I looked through COMC to see, of the first few dozen of the high numbers, what seemed the toughest, at least as far as COMC is concerned.
Billy Loes.
The worst I saw, of the ones I looked at, was card #240, Billy Loes of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The current situation is that there are 3 cards, one for $165, one for $82, and one for $52. I think this has changed from when I first looked, though -- I think there were only two, and they were both around $150 then. These are all listed from Dean's Cards, which I'm aware can be a bit expensive. But it was worrying that Dean's was the only one listing this card on COMC. So I head over to eBay. There was one cheap listing for the card, with no Buy It Now option. I bid on the auction, and did win it after three and a half days, for $7.51 plus shipping. Sure beats paying over $100.
Billy Loes card back.
So, this one particular high number is marked off my list. A bunch more to go. For the whole set, I'm now at 85 cards out of 320.
Let's say something now about our subject, Billy Loes. He pitched for Brooklyn from 1950 through 1956, going 0-1 in their 1955 World Series win. He then went to Baltimore from 1956 through 1959, and was an All-Star in 1957. He closed out his career with San Francisco in 1960 and 1961. Loes put together a career 80-63 record with a 3.89 ERA.
Thanks for reading! Work continues to be busy, but I do hope to be able to post from time to time.
A few months ago I decided to start working on a 1955 Bowman set; I love the classic design which commemorates the television becoming a major factor in American life. According to Wikipedia, "Half of all U.S. households had television sets by 1955, though color was a premium feature for many years." One nice feature of the 1955 Bowman set, other than the classic design, is the small set size: only 320 cards, as compared to the giant 787-card 1972 Topps set I'm also working on.
1955 Bowman Mickey Mantle.
A downside, though, is that there are a few rather expensive cards, as would be expected with a set from the 1950s. Looking through COMC, the Trading Card Database, and eBay, I determined that it seemed the most expensive card was Mickey Mantle, followed by Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays. Of course there are a number of other moderately expensive cards, including the popular umpire cards. So as to not feel too daunted by these high-value cards, I decided to get the biggest one out of the way. So this Mickey Mantle becomes my first good card of him, and becomes the third most expensive card I've ever bought, behind my 1954 Topps Jackie Robinson and my 1940 Play Ball Jimmie Foxx, both of which I've blogged about before. The card has a crease all the way down, which I think you can see in the picture between him and his name, and some other smaller defects; despite that I'm really very happy with the condition, and it did make it more affordable.
Mickey Mantle card back.
The back has an uncorrected error, getting his birth date wrong.
I'm at 84 out of 320 of these 1955 Bowman; I find that many of them go for about $2, so it's easy to get a bunch of commons, and other than Mantle I've picked up a few of the moderately priced cards as well. I'm hoping to finish my 1972 Topps set this year; I'm at 600 out of 787 on that, including about half of the high numbers. When that's done this 1955 set will be my main focus for collecting.
Today's a bit of a special post; today is the 6th anniversary of my dad's death. Dad died on his and Mom's wedding anniversary, and today would have been their 50th, if he had lived. This post is about Bobby Shantz, but we'll get there by starting with some background on my dad.
Dad was born in 1945 in Wilmington, Delaware, which is quite close to Philadelphia. His father died in 1951 when he was five years old, almost six. He went to live in Philadelphia at a boarding school for "orphans," which in practice at the time meant fatherless boys. His mother had a home near Wilmington and he only saw her occasionally, until she died when he was 13, making him a true orphan. Her home passed on to one of Dad's aunts. That aunt lived there for about thirty years, until she got sick and moved in with her daughter circa 1990. When that happened, Dad was invited over to go through some of the things in the basement. He brought home some stuff, I think including an old model train set, but mainly a few boxes of his father's books. He bought some bookshelves and put his father's books in the living room. They stayed there, largely untouched I think, for a couple of decades, I would say.
Now that Dad is gone, Mom is staying in the house but has in mind that she might sell eventually. She wants to be ready if she does sell, and has been getting rid of some old things. She gave most of Dad's father's books away, but saved one for me: The Story of Bobby Shantz. But it couldn't have been his father's book since his father died in 1951 and the book was published in 1953. I think this must have actually been Dad's book when he was little, and even though he lived at the orphanage/boarding school, maybe his mother gave it to him when he was home sometime. Anyway, so much is lost to history. But for sure Bobby Shantz was a Philadelphia star, Dad was a little kid in and near Philadelphia back then, and this book came out of his mother's house and eventually made its way to me many years later.
Front cover.
Back cover.
Night Owl had a great post on Bobby Shantz earlier this month. He featured the 1956 Topps card, which I've since gone and picked up in my COMC account. This book, the Story of Bobby Shantz, was published just a bit earlier, in 1953, coming off Shantz's big 1952 year for the A's. In 1952 Shantz was the AL MVP (there was no Cy Young award yet) and the AL wins leader with a record of 24-7, with a 2.48 ERA and 152 strikeouts. The back cover summarizes the chapters, my favorite of which is Chapter 12, about the FBI investigating when he was threatened not to pitch against Boston.
Title page, and stats table.
Some pictures including being weighed.
Opposite the title page there's a table of Bobby Shantz's stats. Of course everyone's always interested in his size; in Chapter 1, he says that's a big reason to write the book, to tell his story of how the little guy can be successful. The stats table lists him as 5 feet, 6 and 1/4 inches, and 139 pounds, 12 ounces. Night Owl went through the weights listed on his Topps cards, and found that they were either 138 pounds or 150+. So the book comes in on the side of the sub-140 weights. There are many pictures in the book, and I've shown one page here. The picture in the upper left is of him weighing in on Bobby Shantz night at the ballpark -- everyone was always interested in his weight, it seems. Then the top right is of him meeting with FBI agents after receiving those threats about pitching against Boston. In the bottom picture, a trainer checks him out after being hit by a pitch.
1975 Topps Mini 1952 MVPs, Bobby Shantz and Hank Sauer.
Then, since this is a baseball card blog, I will feature some baseball cards. I picked up this 1975 Topps Mini of the 1952 MVPs for two reasons: to have Bobby Shantz in my main binder, and to have another 1975 Topps mini in my main binder. I don't remember ever knowing about the 1975 minis when I was collecting in the 80s and 90s, but now that I know about them, I wanted a couple. I didn't really realize before, but I think the card serves a third purpose in that binder: I think it's the only representation of the Philadelphia Athletics there. That won't be true for long -- last night I picked up 4 old Philadelphia Athletics cards on COMC, and when they arrive I'll make room for them.
Hygrade All-Time Greats Bobby Shantz.
Pacific Legends Bobby Shantz.
Then I have these other two nostalgia cards of Shantz, the Hygrade All-Time Greats, and the Pacific Legends. The Pacific card features him with the Yankees, with whom he won the 1958 World Series. Shantz also pitched in three games in the wild 1960 World Series against the Pirates, who famously pulled it out in the end.
Finally, I'll mention connections to another player I've featured recently, Curt Simmons. I've shown the 1955 Bowman and the 1956 Topps cards of Simmons recently. Simmons was one of the 1950 Phillies Whiz Kids. Shantz and Simmons were both important pitchers of the 1950s, both in Philadelphia and further afield, both won World Series with other teams, both were multiple-time All-Stars, and both are on the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame. Both are also from the Philadelphia region originally. And both are also still alive. They did an interview together a few years ago and it's available on YouTube. I'll close out this post with that YouTube video; thanks for reading.
