Sunday, December 6, 2020

Two from 1960 Fleer

A while ago I picked up some Chuck Klein and Grover Cleveland Alexander cards for my main binder, since they're two of the four Phillies whose "numbers" were retired back in the days that Dad and I went to all those games at the Vet in the late 80s.  I say "numbers" because Klein and Alexander were from before the days of players wearing numbers, or at least from before the days of players consistently wearing the same number.  So they just had their names/initials hung up.  The other two, of course, were Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts.  Others would join those four, and Dad and I got to go to the games where Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt had their numbers retired -- the souvenir programs from those games will eventually make it to their own posts.

Anyway, for the Klein and Alexander, I also used them as an excuse to get my first 1960 and 1961 Fleer cards.  I considered and decided against collecting those Fleer sets, but did want to get a couple more.  So here they are.

1960 Fleer Honus Wagner.
Honus Wagner card back.
I don't have a lot of cards of Honus Wagner, despite being a huge Pirates fan.  This is probably because there aren't that many cards of Wagner, at least that are (a) affordable, and (b) from before 1994 when the bulk of my collecting stopped.  Other than this new one, I appear to have 3 Wagner cards: a Baseball Immortals, a Red Superstar, and a Fritsch Museum card.  (The Fritsch Museum set will also be a post of its own at some point.)  The Fritsch Museum card is in my binder so it's not like Wagner is unrepresented there.  But I think this 1960 Fleer becomes by far my best card of him.
1960 Fleer "Jimmy" Foxx.
Foxx card back.

Then we have Jimmie Foxx, spelled here as Jimmy Foxx.  I have two different pictures of Foxx in my mind, one of which is that he was a huge star, having been a 9-time All-Star and 3-time AL MVP.  On the other hand, I don't know how true it is, but I heard at least once that people didn't realize at the time how significant his 500+ home runs were because Babe Ruth had 700+.  Other points making me a fan of Foxx are that he's a local guy in more than one way -- he was from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, with his hometown being only about 40 miles away from my hometown of Newark, Delaware.  And as a player he was a huge figure for Connie Mack's Philadelphia Atheletics.  When I was a kid I remember the Phillies remembering the Athletics tradition in Philadelphia, callling their Wall of Fame the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame and inducting the old Athletics alongside Phillies.  Of course Foxx was the second Athletic so honored, after Mack.  This isn't by best card of Foxx, but since my 1940 Play Ball is PSA-graded it can't go in the binder.  Instead this 1960 Fleer is a great representation of him for the binder.

I'm on a roll with two posts in two days.  Thanks for reading!

2 comments:

  1. The Wagner is one of the best cards from this set, top 3 in my opinion.

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