Three loose ends

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.
 

Thanks for reading!

Iron Man Gus Suhr

A simple one-card post today.  I mentioned in the comments the other day that I love the 1940 Play Ball set but the cards are mostly either too expensive to justify getting more, or of players I've never heard of, which makes them less interesting.  So in a way I'm looking for excuses to get more of the less-popular (read: cheaper) cards.  Such an excuse presented itself the other day, although with the 1939 Play Ball set.  This is now the oldest card in my collection, tied with another card not yet in-hand which is coming from COMC, also from 1939.

1939 Play Ball Gus Suhr

Gus Suhr card back.

I was watching the Pirates game and they mentioned long-ago Pirate Gus Suhr, who was an Iron Man of his time.  He had a streak of 822 consecutive games, which was the NL record at the time.  He's still in 10th place all-time; the current NL record holder is Steve Garvey with 1,207, which is fourth place all-time.

I do like this card but the 1940 Play Ball set is definitely more charming, with its borders decorated with a ball and bat and whatnot.  Suhr had a good career, with three 100+ RBI seasons and batting over .300 twice.

I don't anticipate getting any more from the 1939 Play Ball set, but it's nice to have one and to recognize a notable Pirate of years gone by.  Thanks for reading!