Faces from your '52s

Uncommon commons. Contemporary accounts of tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figure that if I found these items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors.

Decades before Bowie Kuhn banned Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays from participating in Organized Baseball activities because they had taken jobs glad-handing whales at Atlantic City casinos, a pair of Brooklyn Dodgers worked in a gambling establishment, apparently without a peep from Commissioner Ford Frick.

In the off-season of 1952-53, Dodgers Ben Wade and Dick Williams worked the parimutuel windows at Santa Anita racetrack in California.

Milt Stock was Eddie Stanky's father-in-law.

E91 Tinker correction sought

Past Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards contributor Ellis Anmuth has inquired about the existence of a corrected version of an error on the 1908-1909 American Caramel Co. (E91) cards of Joe Tinker.

Tinker appear in two (Sets A, B) of the three subsets of this early candy issue, differentiated by the content or arrangement of the team checklists presented on the backs. 

Anmuth's card, a Set B example, and all of the available images of Tinker's Set A cards, have no closing parentheses after the N.L. league designation in the caption.

Given that the E91 set is among the least popular of the caramel card genre, by virtue of the reuse of the player artwork with different names on many of the cards, it is possible that if the missing close-paren was eventually added, it may have escaped the notice of hobbyists . . . even a century after the fact.

If you can confirm the existence of an E91 Tinker with a closing parentheses, please send a scan to me at scbcguy@yahoo.com.

The Moose gets a football card

I could spend a lot of time creating 1955-style custom cards for guys who played football in college but went on to greater fame in Major League baseball. In, fact, I already have: Lou Gehrig, Christy Mathewson, Jackie Robinson, etc.


In order to balance my output, however, I generally limit my cross-over customs to guys who meant something special to me as players or baseball card subjects when I was growing up in the 1950s.


One such is Moose Skowron. As a kid, Skowron was one of my favorite Yankees. Maybe it was the nickname, or just the fact that he had such great looking cards in the Fifties.  I liked him ever better after he grounded out (he recalls it as a "sizzling shot") to Eddie Mathews with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to end Game 7 of the 1957 World Series and give the Braves the World Championship.


Some of the infatuation wore off a year later when his three-run home run in the top of the eighth of Game 7 clinched the 1958 Series for the Yankees, preventing a Braves repeat. 


Skowron is a frequent guest or even just a visitor to card shows in the Chicago area, and is an absolute delight to talk with about baseball in the Fifties.


It has only been in the past three or four years, however, that I realized that Skowron had been a college football  player at Purdue.


Skowron had gone to a Chicago prep school on a basketball scholarship, and received a football scholarship from Purdue, where he also played basketball and baseball. He only played one season of Boilermaker football, as halfback and punter for the 1949 team that went 4-5 in the Big 10.


During the 1950 baseball season, sophomore Skowron played shortstop and batted .500 (10-20), setting a batting mark that stood in the Big 10 for a decade. (Skowron's record was shattered in 1961 by Michigan catcher Bill Freehan, who hit .585.) He was named an All-American. His baseball coach at Purdue was Hank Stram.


That summer, Skowron took a $400 a month job with a plumbing and heating company in Austin, Minn., so he could play third base on the company team in the fast semi-pro Southern Minnesota League. He hit .323 with five home runs and 24 RBIs in 23 games. At the end of the season he was signed by the New York Yankees for a $25,000 bonus.


Moose spent 1951 with the Yankees' farm clubs at Norfolk (Class B) and Binghamton (Class A), batting a cumulative .321 with 20 homers (RBI stats weren't kept) in 116 games.


With the Yankees top farm club at Kansas City in 1952, Skowron was named Minor League Player of the Year with a .341 average, 31 home runs and 134 RBIs. The Blues won the American Association pennant that season, and repeated in 1953 with Skowron, kept down at the farm to be converted from an outfielder to a first baseman, contributing a .318 average, 15 home runs and 89 RBIs.


He began his big league career the next season, playing for the Yankees from 1954-62. In pinstripes he was named to seven All-Star teams between 1957-61 (both games in 1959 and 1960). He was also an All-Star in 1965 with the White Sox.


Skowron went from the Yankees to the Dodgers for 1963. Meeting his old teammates in the World Series where he batted .385 -- he'd hit National League pitching for only .203 during the regular season -- he helped Los Angeles sweep the Yankees.


It was back to the American League for Skowron in 1964, splitting the year between the Senators and the White Sox. He remained with his hometown White Sox until May, 1967, when he was traded to the L.A. Angels where he ended his career after that season.


As I mentioned, I thought most of Moose's Topps cards in the 1950s and early '60s were pretty neat, so I hope my football tribute card is a worthy addition to his cardboard compendium.


As with the Ted Kluszewski Indiana card presented a few days ago, I'm indebted to collector Jay Sokol for providing a football-specific photo of Skowron, taken from a Purdue yearbook.

Kluszewski gets a football card

If he hadn't gone on to a near Hall of Fame caliber career in baseball, Ted Kluszewski might have become a star tight end in the NFL. According to knowledgeable contemporaries, he had surprising agility for a man of his musculature, and had great hands.

Cincinnati Reds scouts discovered Klu in 1944 when travel restrictions during World War II forced the team to conduct spring training on the campus of Indiana University at Bloomington. Legend has it that after the major leaguers had vacated the practice facilities for the day, and the college team had taken the field, the Reds equipment manager, who had stayed behind to clean up, noticed Kluszewski blasting moon shots.

He brought the big guy to the attention of team officials who were so impressed they tried to sign him on the spot. Klu declined, preferring to maintain his college eligibility. Playing centerfield for the Hoosiers in the 1945 season, he set a school record with a .443 batting average . . . a mark that stood for half a century.

In the 1945 football season, Kluszewski played tight end on offense and defensive end for the team that won the Big 10 Championship with a 9-0-1 record, the Hoosiers' only undefeated season. They held their opponents to just eight points in the last five games of the season and finished #4 in the polls. For the '45 Hoosiers, Klu caught 10 passes for 112 yards and three touchdowns. He also did a bit of punting, placekicking and kick returning.

After he graduated in 1946, the Reds signed Kluszewski for a reported $15,000 bonus. He played two years of minor league ball, leading his league each season. In 1946 with Columbia of the Class A South Atlantic League, he hit .352. His 11 home runs were tied for third in the circuit, though he had played in only 90 games, as opposed to the 124-130 games that that those above hit had played.

In 1947, after a week with the Reds, Kluszewski was sent down to Memphis of the AA Southern Association, where he batted .377 with seven home runs.

The following season he was back with the Reds to stay. Klu spent 11 seasons with Cincinnati, hitting a cumulative .302. He led the National League in 1954 with 49 home runs and 141 RBIs. Each year from 1951-55 he led N.L. first basemen in fielding. He was the league's All-Star first baseman each year 1953-56.

In his final year with the Reds, he appeared on one of the most iconic Topps baseball cards of the 1950s. His 1957 card pictures him putting on a gun show in a power swing follow-through. To accommodate his huge arms and shoulders, Kluszewski modified his uniform by cutting the sleeves off his undershirt.

After the 1957 season, he was traded to the Pirates. At the end of August, 1959, the White Sox picked him up for their pennant run.  Though the White Sox fell to the Dodgers 4-2 in the World Series, Klu tied for the lead among all participants with double-digit at-bats, hitting .391. He led both teams with three home runs and 10 RBIs.

Klu was the 51st choice in the 1961 American League expansion draft, being picked by the Los Angeles Angels, for whom he hit the franchise's first home run, one of 15 in his final major league season. He retired as a player at the age of 36, with a lifetime .298 average and 279 career home runs.

Kluszewski returned to the Cincinnati Reds as hitting coach during the Big Red Machine years of the mid-1970s, finally earning a World Series ring that eluded him as a player. In 1979 he became the Reds' minor league batting instructor, serving in that capacity until he suffered a heart attack in 1986. He died two years later.

In 1998, the Reds retired Kluszewski's uniform #18. Today the team honors Big Klu with a bronze statue in the plaza at Great American Ball Park.

While he never made the Hall of Fame, Kluszewski has always enjoyed significant status in the card hobby as a regional favorite; some of his cards in greater demand than those of some contemporary Hall of Famers.

Creating a 1955 Topps All-American style football card of Kluszewski was on my to-do list for a long time. I finally obtained an Indiana yearbook photo from collector Jay Sokol and was able to complete the card shown here.

Another "error" for Babe Herman

Uncommon commons. In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired. In my years at Krause Publications I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons." I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

With a .324 lifetime batting average over 13 big-league seasons (1926-37 and 1945), the conventional wisdom holds that Babe Herman has been kept out of the Hall of Fame because of fielding inadequacies.

One of Herman's most costly "errors," however, doesn't show up in any box score.

 According to a sidebar in a 1953 Sporting News two-part feature on the occasion of Herman's having been named a Yankees scout, Babe missed his chance at a fortune due to the deference in which he held an older, and supposedly wiser, teammate.

Now, I have to point out here that the piece in TSN probably has to be taken with a grain of salt, because the facts don't match up with the realities, but the basic premise of the tale must have had a kernel of truth.

The article reported that in 1922, when he was 19 years old, Herman was part of a post-season exhibition tour with Ty Cobb and some of the other Detroit Tigers. In one game in "a small Georgia town," Herman rapped a single when he pinch-hit for manager Cobb. He whiffed, however, on a stock tip, possibly pitched by Cobb. 

The article reports that Herman passed up the chance to buy 100 shares of Coca-Cola stock at $1 apiece. Since Cobb was a major early investor in Coke, it's possible it may have been him that gave the tip to Herman. The youngster, seeking the advice of Tigers pitcher Howard Ehmke, whom he considered more wordly and mature, was steered away from the investment.

The TSN article said that if Herman had bought the stock, it would have been worth some $256,000 in 1953.

In doing a little deeper research into Coca-Cola stock values, I found a significant inconsistency in the story. Coca-Cola went public in 1919 at $40 a share. At the end of 1922, the stock price was $79.625. Thus it seems unlikely Herman really had the chance to buy Coke shares at $1 each. I suppose it's possible Cobb may have offered the kid such a deal in a private stock sale, but that doesn't seem likely.

If Herman had, indeed, been able to buy 100 shares for $100 in late 1922, with stock splits and the reinvestment of dividends, his Coke shares would have been worth more than $39 million at the time of his death in 1987. Today, if I'm reading the data on Coke's website correctly, that buck-a-share investment in 1922 would be worth almost $850 million.  

Even if we assume that in 1953 either Herman misspoke or the TSN reporter misunderstood him, Herman would have made a pile if he had invested $100 in Coca-Cola stock at the then-current market value. Theoretically, his C-note would have yielded 1.25 shares of Coke stock. With splits and reinvestment of dividends, that would have grown to more than 12,000 shares at the end of 1986, with a market value of $481,501. Today, if that stock had remained in his estate, there would be 161,280 shares, worth more than $10.6 million.

It looks like Ehmke was a better pitcher (he was 166-166 with a 3.75 ERA in 15 major-league seasons between 1915-30) than he was a stock picker.

1949 Bowman Muncrief mystery

An e-mailed query from an old hobby colleague prompts this presentation. 

Walt Edwards was my go-to guy at the FBI in the 1980s-90s when, as publisher of SCD, I was tilting at the windmill of card/memorabilia hobby crime. This was long before the days of Operation Bullpen. It greatly helped that Walt was a dedicated card collector with a broad understanding of the hobby.

Walt has since retired and is spending more time with his cards. Something he recently noticed prompted him to contact me after his own research failed to come up with an answer.

Walt noted that in the 1949 Bowman set, card #221, Bob Muncrief, pictures the pitcher in the uniform of the New York Giants. The back of the card, however, correctly identifies Muncrief as a Pittsburgh Pirate and accurately sums up his baseball career to that point. 

About the time Muncrief's card was issued in the high-number series (besides the 1941 Goudey, the '49B is his only mainstream card), Muncrief was acquired on waivers by the Cubs. After spending the 1950 season with Los Angeles in the Pacific Coast League, he returned to the majors for a cup of coffee with the Yankees in 1951, then continued to pitch in the high minors through 1955, at the age of 39.

In my own search of the SABR data base, which includes all major and minor league affiliations and transactions, I came to the same conclusion as Walt, there is no known association between Bob Muncrief and the N.Y. Giants prior to his playing for their Double-A farm club in Dallas in 1955.

So why is Muncrief pictured as a Giant on his 1949 Bowman card?  My best guess is that the Bowman artist simply airbrushed the wrong uniform on a photo of Muncrief. It's also possible that the photo on the card is not Bob Muncrief. There aren't a lot of readily available photos with which to compare the picture on the card.  But in checking the image on his 1948 Indians and 1953 S.F. Seals team-issued photos, I saw nothing to indicate the player pictured is not the player named.

If you can shed any light on this mystery, please do so in the comment section.

Trippi's short-lived baseball comeback

Uncommon Commons: In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired.

Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons."

I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

Prior to the 1960s, careers in pro football weren't nearly as lucrative as they became in later decades. For one thing, there were only 12 teams in the NFL, so roster spots were limited.

It was not uncommon for star college football players to take a run at professional baseball. One such prospective cross-over was Charley Trippi. Between 1942-46, with time out for WWII, Trippi was a two-time All-American at Georgia.

In 1947 he signed to play baseball for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association, being both a legitimate prospect -- he had been an All-American in 1946 and hit over .400 for the Bulldogs -- and a fan-favorite gate attraction.

Trippi played at first base and in the outfield. In 106 games he led the team with a .334 batting average, though without much power, hitting only three home runs.

Trippi was provisionally sold to the Chicago White Sox for 1948, but when the team demanded he quit playing pro football, he opted for the gridiron career. Trippi had begun his NFL career with the Chicago Cardinals in 1947.

In 1953, Trippi considered a comeback in professional baseball. When Atlanta sold his contract to Jacksonville of the South Atlantic League, Trippi demand 40% of the sales price, according to a provision in his 1947 contract. Crackers' president Earl Mann replied that Trippi was only due a piece of the action if his contract was sold to a higher classification minor league, not a step down. 

Thus the comeback fell through and Trippi returned to the Cardinals through the 1955 season, compiling a Hall of Fame career. Besides the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Trippi was also selected to the College Football Hall of Fame, the Georgia Hall of Fame and the Italian Hall of Fame. 

After his playing days, Trippi returned to the University of Georgia for a time as head baseball coach. 

Charley Trippi never appeared on a baseball card, but he was in both the Leaf and Bowman football card sets in 1948, and in every Bowman set from 1950-55.

A few nuggets from TSN, March, 1953

Uncommon commons. In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired. In my years at Krause Publications I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons." I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

A few things I learned from reading the March 18, 1953, issue of The Sporting News . . .

. . . In the days before A-Rod and Cameron Diaz, or even before Bo Belinsky and Mamie Van Doren, ballplayers and actresses were hooking up.

In December, 1952, N.Y. Giants pitcher Roger Bowman secretly married budding actress Donna Drew , withholding the news not only from the sporting press, but also from their familiesfor a number of weeks.

The couple had met in Oakland during the season where Bowman was out on option to the Oaks of the Pacific Coast League, and his bride-to-be was serving as team "mascot."

Bowman had a 2-11 major league career with the Giants (1949, 1950-52) and Pirates (1953, 1955). In the off-season he operated an upholstery shop in Hollywood. His only mainstream baseball card was in the 1955 Bowman set.

Donna Drew had a similarly modest Hollywood career, appearing in episodes of nine TV series between 1954-61, including Death Valley Days, I Led 3 Lives, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, The Whistler, etc.

. . . When Anheuser-Busch bought the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953, the sales of beer in four of their minor league ballparks became prohibited by state laws that barred retail beer sales at any property owned by a brewery.

This prohibition affected the Cards' stadium operations at Houston, Rochester, Columbus (Ohio) and Omaha. They couldn't even offer fans a competitor's brew. In Columbus, due to a loophole in the city's open-container laws, fans were free to bring to their own beer to the ballpark . . . as long as it was 3.2 beer.

Anheuser-Busch held the radio broadcast rights for the Columbus Red Birds in 1953. On Sundays, they didn't air beer commericals, but donated the air time to local civic and public interest groups.

There was no such problem in St. Louis, though, because the Cardinals rented their stadium time at Sportsman's Park from the Browns.When the season opened, the ballpark's concessionaire raised the price of the three "popular" priced beers -- Fallstaff, Stag and Griesedeick -- by a nickel, to 30 cents, to match the price of the "premium" brand, Budweiser.

It was also announced when the brewery bought the team that they wouldn't initially be able to advertise Budweiser and the rest of A-B line on Cardinals TV games. Those telecasts had sponsored by a another local brewery selling Griesedieck (really) beer. The competing brewery had the right of first refusal for the 1953 season but graciously declined, though they did retain the radio broadcast sponsorship for both home and away games.

. . . According to Oscar Ruhl, in his TSN column "from the RUHL BOOK," when a New York Yankees player gave an autographed baseball to a fan, he had to reimburse the team $1.75. That was a discount from the $28.80/dozen price ($2.33) that Spalding charged for OAL and ONL balls in 1953. At that time, a single "official" major league ball carried an over-the-counter retail price of $3.20.

A team-signed 1953 Yankees ball sold in the November, 2010, Heritage auction  for $1,434.

A couple of customs, just for me

I realize that some of the custom cards I create will resonate with a fair number of collectors. Others I do strictly for myself. The latter are more in keeping with one of the principal reasons I started making customs in the first -- to create cards that I would have liked as a kid.

My latest pair of card creations fills a gap in the baseball card legacy of a Milwaukee Braves player who was an instant favorite of mine in the mid-1950s.

Mel Roach was one of the relatively few bonus babies signed by the Braves under the reformatted bonus rules that took effect in 1953. He debuted in Topps' 1954 and 1955 sets before vanishing until 1959, when he resurfaced wearing glasses -- just like eight-year-old me.

Not being much a newspaper reader in my pre-school years, I didn't know that Roach's absence from the baseball card world from 1956-58 was due to the fact that, after appearing in all of eight games as a bonus baby in 1953-54 (and batting .000), Roach had spent the 1955 and 1956 seasons in the U.S. Navy, and most of the 1957 season in the Braves' minor league system, getting some much-needed professional experience. 

With Milwaukee in 1958, Roach was finally beginning to show the form the Braves had seen when they signed him off the University of Virginia campus five years earlier. He was batting  .309, spelling Red Schoendienst at second base, pinch-hitting and playing in the outfield when he tore up his left knee on Aug, 3, sidelining him for the rest of 1958 and, after a temporary comeback, most of 1959. He returned in 1960 to hit an even .300 as a versatile utility player all over the infield and outfield. 

Early in the 1961 season, he was traded to the Cubs for Frank Thomas, and Mel Roach was dead to me as a Braves fan and card collector. 

He jumped back into my consciousness a couple of months back when a pair of late-1950s photos of him appeared in the Topps Vault auctions on eBay. The custom cards that resulted are presented here. The 1958-style card is my first in that format.

Roach appeared in the 1960 Topps set (without the specs) and 1961 (with) as a Brave. He does not appear on a card as a Cub, having been traded in November, 1961, to the Indians and then to the Phillies prior to the opening of the 1962 season. His last card (again with glasses) in 1962 Topps pictures him as a Phillie.

When I revitalized my interest in card collecting in the late 1970s, I was surprised to find that Mel Roach's card in the 1961 Post cereal box-back issue was a scarce short-print, falling within the numbers assigned to the L.A. Dodgers.

Roach was one of the former bonus babies interviewed in Brent Kelley's 2006 book, Baseball's Bonus Babies. You can find the entire interview on line by doing a Google books search.

Uncommon commons: Torgy narrowly missed air disaster

In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired.


Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons."

I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

A teammate's loan of an automobile saved the life of Boston Braves first baseman Early Torgeson and his family in 1953.

Torgeson was wintering at the Braves' spring training site at Bradenton, Fla., in February, when former teammate Connie Ryan invited Torgy and his family to New Orelans for Mardi Gras week.

With his car in need of repair, Togeson booked a flight for himself, his wife and their two children from Tampa to New Orleans for Feb. 14. 

When Braves pitcher Vern Bickford offered Torgy the use of his auto, Torgeson cancelled the flight and drove  to New Orelans.

The flight that Torgeson opted out of, National Airlines Flight 470, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico near Mobile, Ala., killing all 46 aboard. The Douglas DC-6 had lost a wing in a thunderstorm.

Two days later, Torgeson was traded from the Braves to the Phillies in a three-team deal that sent Joe Adcock from the Reds to Boston/Milwaukee, Jim Pendleton to the Braves from Brooklyn, Rocky Bridges from the Dodgers to the Reds and Russ Meyer from the Phillies to the Dodgers. 

That trade made a mess of Topps' and Bowman's baseball card plans for those players so close to the start of the season. Bowman had to scramble to get photos of Adcock, Meyer and Bridges in their new uniforms. Adcock and Meyer appeared in the '53 Bowman high-number color series later in the season, and Bridges in the even-later black-and-white Bowman issue that year. Pendleton appeared in the mid-season series of 1953 Topps. Lucky Earl didn't appear in either the Topps or Bowman set that year, though he had been on both bubblegum card companies' cards in 1952. Torgeson was in every other Bowman set between 1949-55, and with Topps in 1951-52, and from 1956 through 1961. He was also in the 1952 Red Man set, and several scarce regional issues during his career.

Uncommon commons: Kansas towns named for ballplayers

In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired.


Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons."


I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

In the heyday of the St. Louis Browns' years (1885-1888) as champions of the American Association, the Missouri Pacific Railroad was building its line just south of the old Santa Fe Trail between Kansas City and Denver.

In setting up its station stops along the route, some executive of the MPRR, evidently a baseball fan, named two of them after members of the Browns dynasty.

The town of Comiskey was established in the northwest corner of Lyons County in eastern Kansas, about 25 miles northwest of Emporia. In 1910, Comiskey consisted of telegraph and express offices, a few "mercantile interests" and a population of 28. The town is no longer in existence.

Comiskey was, of course, named for the Browns first baseman and future White Sox owner and Hall of Famer Charlie Comiskey.

About seven miles east of Comiskey, the town of Weeks, named for its founder Joseph Weeks, was renamed Bushong. Albert "Doc" Bushong was the Browns catcher in their glory years.

Bushong is still around today, its population recorded as 55 in the 2000 census.

In a 1953 issue, The Sporting News incorrectly stated that other Kansas towns along the railroad had been also been named for ballplayers, citing Admire, Miller, Allen and Rapp in Lyons Co., and Helmick, Wilsey and Delevan in Morris Co.

Uncommon commons: Porter's day went from triumph to tragedy

In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired.


Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons."

I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

In less than 24 hours, St. Louis Browns rookie J.W. Porter experienced both the best and the worst day of his life.

On July 30, 1952, at Sportsman's Park, the 19-year-old made his major league debut, having been called up from Colorado Springs where he had been batting .340.

Porter struck out in a pinch-hit at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 6-2 loss to the Senators. That was an inauspicious beginning to what would be a six-year role as a big-league bench-player, but that strikeout was not even close to the worst that would befall Porter in the next 24 hours.

Around noon on July 31, Porter's 18-year-old wife Patricia Ann was killed, along with her father, when the car they were driving from Colorado Springs to California was involved in a head-on collision near Gunninson, Colo. Two persons in the other vehicle were also killed. The Porters had been married just seven months earlier.

Mrs. Porter's father had come from California to Colorado Springs to keep Patricia company while Jay was on long Western League road swings. After he had been called up by the Browns, Patricia decided to return to California until Porter's status was more settled.

Porter left the team to return to California to make funeral arrangements, then resumed his career. He was traded to the Tigers after the 1952 season, remaining with Detroit through 1957. In the 1958 pre-season he was dealt to the Indians. He split the 1959 season with the  Senators and Cardinals. During his big-league career, Porter played at first and third bases, in the outfield and at catcher, batting .228 lifetime. After leaving the majors, Porter played in the high minors through the 1966 season.

J.W. Porter appeared on Topps cards in 1953, 1955 (both regular and Doubleheader) and 1958, all as a Tiger, and 1959 as a Senator. Porter's card in the 1958 Topps set is one of those First Series cards that can be found with the player name either in yellow (scarce) or white (common).

Uncommon Commons: 1952 Brother Acts

In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired.

Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons."

I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

During the 1952 season, there were three of what The Sporting News called "brother acts" in the major leagues. Actually, they were all in the American League.

 What the paper found particularly interesting was that all of the ballplaying brothers shared similar surnames: Kell, Keller and Kellner.

Future Hall of Fame third baseman George Kell played for the Red Sox and Tigers that season, while his brother Everett "Skeeter" was a second baseman for the Philadelphia A's.

Charlie "King Kong" Keller was wrapping up his major league career back with the Yankees as a reserve outfielder in 1952. His brother Hal was a catcher with the Senators.

The third pair of big league brothers in 1952 was Alex and Walt Kellner. They were moundmates for the A's.

Two of the '52 brothers, Hal Keller and Walt Kellner, did not appear on any baseball cards -- at least not mainstream Bowman or Topps cards -- during their careers, and Skeeter Kell was only on a 1952 Bowman. George Kell, Charlie Keller and Alex Kellner appeared on many cards during their playing days.

Uncommon commons: Red Wilson, two-sport star

In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired.


Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons."

I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

Opportunities in pro football weren't as attractive or lucrative during the early 1950s as they would be in later decades, so many college gridiron stars opted to try their hand at professional baseball.

One such player was Robert "Red" Wilson. Playing college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, Wilson was the Big 10 Conference's MVP in 1949. He had played "offensive end" and "defensive center" for 5-3-1 Wisconsin.

Wilson played 10 seasons, batting .258 as a catcher in the American League. Originally signed by the White Sox he debuted in 1951. By the time the 1954 Topps card shown here was issued, he had been traded to the Detroit Tigers. In July, 1960, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians.

In the post-season MLB expansion draft, Wilson was chosen by the Washington Senators, returned to the Indians, then drafted by the L.A. Angels who also returned him to Cleveland. All that maneuvering was moot, however, as Wilson left pro ball before the 1961 season.

Among mainstream card sets, Red Wilson appeared in Topps sets from 1953-54, and 1956-60, and was in the 1961 Post cereal set.

Uncommon commons: I'll trade you Les Richter for . . .

In 2006 I purchased a complete set of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired.



Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons."

I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.

Last weekend, L.A. Rams star linebacker of the 1950s-1960s was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame; regrettably, it was posthumous.

I imagine many of the mentions Richter receives in the media will reference the fact that the Rams acquired Richter by trading the New York Yanks (who became the Baltimore Colts in 1953) 11 players for him.

Richter was the second pick in the 1952 NFL draft. The Rams had the first pick, and chose quarterback Billy Wade. The Yanks/Colts took Richter as the No. 2 pick.

As reported in TSN, the Rams traded two "regulars" and nine "recruits" for Richter. Actually, it appears that the Rams traded for "selection rights" for the Yanks,  instructing them to take Richter.

I doubt most of the current media coverage will detail the players the Rams gave up for Richter, but I have the information for you.

The two "regulars" the Rams dealt were running back Dick Hoerner and defensive back Tom Keane. They are the only two of the 11 to appear on contemporary Bowman football cards. Hoerner was in the 1950 set, and Keane in the 1954 and 1955 issues.

The nine "recruits" the future Colts received were: DB George Sims, C Joe Ried, HB Billy Bagget, T Jack Halliday, FB Dick McKissack, LB Vic Vasicek, E Dick Wilkins, C Aubrey Phillips and RB Dave Anderson.

Those 11 players collectively appeared in 87 games in the NFL after the trade. Richter went on to play 112 regular-season games over nine seasons for the Rams, plus the loss to the Browns in the 1955 NFL Championship game. Richter was also selected for the Pro Bowl for eight consecutive years, 1954-61.

Richter and the Rams had to wait a bit for his NFL career to get started. Two weeks after the Rams drafted him into the NFL, the U.S. Army drafted him, and he did not join the team until the 1954 season.

In terms of mainstream football card sets, Richter appeared in Bowman sets in 1952 (shown here), 1954 and 1955. He was in every Topps set between 1956-60, in Fleer in 1961, and back in Topps in 1962. Richter also appeared in a few L.A. area regional sets during his career.

Mystery Regional Rarity: 1961 Gold Mine Bucks

One of the rarest regionals of the early 1960s is a (possible) series of Gold Mine Bucks issued by an ice cream novelty company, possibly in Milwaukee, in 1961.

Little is known about this issue of "play money" bills. In recent years, only a single example of the issue has been seen -- Nellie Fox. One of the big questions about the issue is whether the other possible players were ever issued in this format.

The piece is about 5-5/8" x 3-1/8" and is printed in black on gold paper. According to the back, the "note" could be redeemed, along with the wrappers from three ice cream/frozen novelties and $1, for an "autographed" t-shirt and a baseball cap.

A list of players on the back of the note MAY be a checklist for notes that were issued, or it may be just a list of the player t-shirts available.

If these players WERE issued on the play money bills, it is unknown whether they are in denominations or colors other than the gold "400 Bucks" with Nellie Fox.

The Nellie Fox note was first spotted in a 2008 Huggins & Scott auction, where it was included in a lot of 39 "Hall of Fame" regional cards and oddball player memorabilia. The lot sold for about $1,500.

Since then it (or perhaps another example) has surfaced in an SGC-certified slab being offered for $1,200 by a Wisconsin dealer.

Proof that this was actually a multi-player issue will have to await the confirmation of a note of any player other than Fox. Here's the list as printed on the back of the note.

1 Jim Lemon

2 Norm Larker
3 Willie Mays
4 Norm Siebern
5 Ernie Banks
6 Pete Runnels
7 Gus Bell
8 Harvey Kuenn
9 Roger Maris
10 Ron Hansen
11 Rocky Colavito
12 Nellie Fox
13 Dick Groat
14 Ernie Broglio
15 Warren Spahn
16 Robin Roberts
17 Mike McCormick
18 Jim Perry

Uncommon Commons: Hank Johnson tamed A's Hall of Fame line-up

When I left Krause/F+W in 2006 I made arrangements to purchase the archives of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life newspaper microfilms from 1886 through the early 1970s that I had put together over the years. I figured they would be a great source of entertainment when I eventually retired. 

Over the years I had used the films to research feature articles and columns that appeared in SCD and Baseball Cards magazine. In that process I discovered that each issue of those venerable sports weeklies had many tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figured that if I found those items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors, so from time to time I compiled my notes into columns that I called "Uncommon Commons." 

I've decided to continue that tradition in this forum because a blog is tailor-made to host these short pieces and because it is easy to share images of some great old cards that may not be worth a lot of money, but that have an appeal to veteran collectors.  

I'm going to kick off the revival with the story of a journeyman pitcher who had an outstanding outing one day in 1928.

Hank Johnson had a long, but only modestly successful major league career with the Yankees (1925-36, 1928-32), Red Sox (1933-35), A's (1936) and Reds (1939). Lifetime he had a 63-56 Major league record on a 4.75 ERA.

But on June 21, 1928, the right-hander dominated a Philadelphia A's lineup that featured seven future Hall of Famers, managed by future Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack. 

Johnson pitched a 4-0 shutout. In the process he faced Ty Cobb (who was 1-3 in the game), Mickey Cochrane (0-4), Al Simmons (2-4), Jimmie Foxx (1-4), Eddie Collins (0-1), Tris Speaker (0-1) and Lefty Grove (0-2).  None of the hits Johnson gave up that day went for extra bases.

Joining Johnson on in the Yankees line-up that day were another four Hall of Famers: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Earle Combs and Tony Lazzeri. 

I wonder if there has ever been another regular-season game that included so many Hall of Famers on one team, or some many on both sides of the contest?

After he left the big leagues, Johnson continued to pitch in the minors until he was 37 years old in 1943.

Usually referred to as Henry Johnson n his baseball cards, Johnson is most often seen on his 1933 Goudey (and Canadian-version World Wide Gum) and 1936 Goudey Wide Pen, though he does appear in a couple of more obscure issues.

Starting a '61 White Sox checklist

There are probably few vintage baseball card/memorabilia collectors who spend as much time scouring eBay for the unusual as Florida collector Larry Serota.

As editor of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, I really appreciate the fact that Serota shares his finds with me. As a collector, you should be equally appreciative because not all collectors are as public spirited, hobbywise, as Serota. Some miserable collectors like to hoard away their finds, reveling in the fact that they have an "uncataloged" card. Of course when they want to cash in their stash, especially if they want to have one of the major grading companies slab their card, many of them come sniveling around the catalogers for recognition.

Here we have another freely shared and intriguing discovery from Serota.

This is one of 20 paper "cards" that, judging from the copy thereon, was issued in a kids' ticket promotion by a Chicago dry cleaner, or perhaps it was a local chain of dry cleaners.

This piece is about 10" x 2-1/2". Printed in red and blue on white. Serota speculates that it may have been the paper wrapper placed around a dry cleaned shirt, and may have been up to twice as long before being torn off and the printed portion saved.

From reading the copy, we can surmise that there were probably 20 White Sox players in the complete issue. The composition of the checklist is speculative at this point, but if we don't start compiling it now, we'll never complete it. We can look forward to confirmation of the existence of Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox and Early Wynn, and such local favorites as Minnie Minoso and Billy Pierce.