1953 Johnston Cookie Braves set updated by two

As a fan of Johnston's "tiger stripe" cookies, the Milwaukee Braves and baseball cards in the 1950s, it's no surprise that the 1953-55 card sets issued by the Milwaukee cookie company remain among my favorites.

In tribute to those great old sets, I recently created a pair of custom cards in the format of the 1953 "cookie Braves." To the original 25 cards that Johnston published in '53, I've added two more: Harry Hanebrink and Joey Jay.

Jay, of course, couldn't have been part of the original Johnston set because he didn't join the team until the end of June after signing a bonus contract various reported as being worth $20,000-40,000. 

If you go back to my blog post for May 9, 2011, you'll get a feel for why I wanted to do a Joey Jay card in this format.

The portrait I used for my Johnston-style card came from a Jay Publishing Co. Braves picture pack.

No doubt you've noticed the blank stats boxes on the back. That isn't an error; that's the way Johnston indicated a player wasn't in Organized Baseball during a previous season.

You may recognize the player picture on my Harry Hanebrink card as virtually the same one I used for my 1953 Topps-style Hanebrink "rookie" card presented here on Oct. 12.

Since I had already done the work colorizing that photo, all I had to do to make use of it on my Johnston card was change the cap logo from a "B" to an "M". Johnston did the same thing on a few of its cards in 1953. 

I think the addition of these two players will likely be the end of my updating of 1953 Johnston. The 1954 Johnston cookie Braves are my least favorite among the three, so I don't envision I'll be doing any updating of that set. I do envision that someday in the future I'll probably try my hand at something in the 1955 Johnston format.