Globe Printing Co. historical data comes to light

For as long as I've been writing baseball card columns, one of the topics that nevers seems to fail to generate reader response is the series of minor league team sets, albums and "Souvenir Pictures" booklets issued between 1949-1954 (mostly 1951-1952) by Globe Printing Co.


The pair of posting that appeared on this blog on Aug. 25-26 proved to be no exception. After those posts were reprinted in Sports Collectors Digest, I received a phone call from Bill Weiss of San Meteo, Calif. Long-time baseball fans and historians, especially those with an appreciation for the minor leagues, will remember Weiss as the official statistician and unofficial historian of the California League, the Pacific Coast League and several other western minor leagues for more than 40 years, beginning in 1949. Weiss has written extensively on a wide and diverse range of baseball subjects and for many years his column was a staple in Baseball America. Bill has been retired for a good while now, but still maintains an active interest in his lifelong passion.

As a first-hand witness to what was going on in the world of minor league baseball 60 years ago, his phone call with information about Globe Printing Co. was especially welcome.

According to Weiss, Globe Printing was a San Jose, Calif., firm owned by Jack Anderson. The company's association with minor league baseball began in 1949, when Globe produced a yearbook, titled Your California League. The pages devoted to each team presented player photos in the approximate size and in the format that collectors now associate with the company's baseball card issues: Full-length poses with the player name in a white strip at bottom.

According to Weiss, Globe's first baseball card set was produced that same year for the Stockton Ports, sponsored by Sunbeam Bread and unusual for Globe issues in that there is advertising and player biographical data on the back. A similar set was produced in 1950.

A number of similarly formatted card sets were issued for PCL teams in that era, including the Sunbeam-sponsored card sets of the 1946-1947 Sacramento Solons, Oakland Oaks sets in 1946-1947 and 1949-1950 sponsored by Remar Bread, and in 1947-1948 sponsored by Smith's Clothing store, and, the 1948-1949 S.F. Seals sets sponsored by Sommer & Kaufmann boy's clothier. It is unknown whether Globe printed those sets or just drew heavily on their design.

Weiss said that 1949 Stockton set was initially printed in blue ink, later switching to black. He said the cards were distributed four at a time in a folder as a stadium giveaway, which is likely the manner of distribution for many of Globe's later card issues, considering the dearth of complete set, and even the lack of complete checklists for many of the team sets.

Globe continued to print programs and other promotional items for minor league teams, and in 1951-1954 really cranked up its efforts in the area of team-sponsored baseball card sets, with more than two dozen card sets (and a handful of picture albums) for big- and small-market minor league teams from Ventura, Calif., to Miami Beach, Fla. The breadth and depth of Globe's card sets are scattered throughout the Vintage Minor League section of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.

In discussing the various Globe Printing items that he has in his archives, Weiss provided several nuggets if special interest to vintage minor league collectors. He has a six-card sheet of the 1952 Ventura Braves (I've also seen one), that has marginal notations that 3,000 of the sheet were to be delivered before April 14. This indicates to me that Globe did most or all of its baseball card printing in sheets of six. Indeed, many of the checklists of known Globe issues consist of 12 or 18 cards.

Bill also provides information on an heretofore uncataloged Globe card set. He has among his holdings an album for the 1952 Bakersfield Indians (though he has none of the cards). Thus we can expect to someday be treated to the discovery of one or more cards from that California League team, though there won't be any future or former major league stars on its checklist, probably the biggest names being Hank Aguirre and Gene Lillard. (A similar album for the 1952 Visalia Cubs is believed to exist, though to date no cards from the set have been cataloged.)

Finally, Weiss relates a tale that will bring a tear to the collector's eye. Some years ago, Globe Printing Co. had "boxes and boxes" of cards and other printed material in the basement of its plant on South First St. in San Jose when a flood occurred and destroyed all of it.

I imagine that a thorough Google search on Globe Printing could turn up more information, such as the company's destiny, but that will have to wait for another time or another researcher.

Many thanks to Bill Weiss for coming forth to share his knowledge about Globe Printing's baseball cards and related issues.

Standard Catalog Update #20 : Globe Printing Ponca City Dodgers

One of my favorite areas of collecting and cataloging has always been vintage minor league baseball cards. I am particularly fond of the more than two dozen team sets issued circa 1951-54 by Globe Printing Co., of Fresno, Calif.

I particularly like the Globe card sets because they are primarily focused on the lower levels of Organized Baseball. Most of the players included in those sets never had so much as a cup of coffee at the major league level, and for most of the players, the Globe issue is their only baseball card.

One of the significant challenges about collecting Globe minor league cards is that they are nowhere near being completely cataloged. We don't know how many teams are represented, and we don't have complete checklists for most of the teams that are cataloged.

Globe's business model appears to have been along the lines of traveling the length and breadth of minor league America selling teams on the concept of issuing baseball cards as a promotion to bring fans into the ballpark. While more than a few teams appear to have issued their cards in complete sets, usually sponsored by a local business, most seem to have distributed them a few at a time over the span of several different games, making complete sets virtually impossible to assemble today. Globe also produced "Souvenir Albums," which are really card-sized images in booklet form, for a few teams, along with albums in which the single cards could be mounted.

All Globe cards share an identical format. They are printed in black-and-white, blank-backed on fairly thin cardboard. The size is about 2-1/4" x 3-3/8". The Globe photographer seems to have favored nearly full-length poses or posed action shots. Which is great, because it gives collectors a great look at the old uniforms and, especially, the old ballparks. Most cards have only the player name in a white strip at bottom. Some cards have a sponsor's name in a white box, along with the player identification.

The rarity of Globe Printing minor league cards cannot be understated. Most are known in only a single example. Fortunately for the true collector, demand is also fairly low for these cards, keeping prices at a modest level.

Another factor in the limited appeal of Globe cards is the non-star status of most of the players who appear in the sets. As mentioned, most of the players were career minor leaguers, with only a handful of future major league semi-stars sprinked among the sets: Charley Lau, Ken Aspromonte, Dave Garcia, etc. Some teams had former major leaguers, including Pepper Martin and Lefty O'Doul, as managers. Also seen among the issues are a handful of aging former Negro Leagues players such as Sam Hairston and George Handy.

It is fun to speculate on how high the bidding would go if a Globe card of a real superstar was to be discovered, such as Henry Aaron with the 1952 Eau Claire Bears. That's not so far-fetched, since Globe did make its presence known in Wisconsin, with a 1952 Oshkosh Giants set.

Through the courtesy of Oklahoma collector Glen Turner, we are now able to add two more teams to the line-up of Globe Printing minor league sets. Today we'll present the larger of his two "finds," the 1952 Ponca City (Okla.) Dodgers, of the Class D Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League.

Glen's Globe cards came to light via a colleague who grew up in Ponca City and whose mother recently passed away. In squaring away the household, Glen's friend found his old Robin Hood and Zorro cards, while his older sister found the Globe P.C. Dodgers cards that she had acquired while attending games back in the day.

The 1952 season was the K-O-M League's final year, having lasted just seven seasons. Ponca City had joined the circuit when it expanded from its founding six teams to eight in 1947. The team was a Brooklyn Dodgers farm club during its entire run in the K-O-M.

Probably not unlike many other Class D minor league teams in that era, the only former or future major leaguer on the roster was the manager, Boyd Bartley, who also played third base. Bartley had been a star at Illinois University from 1941-43. He had played in nine games at shortstop for Brooklyn in 1943, while Pee Wee Reese was in military service. He hit just .048 before being sent down to Montreal, then going off to war himself. After the war he played for Ponca City 1947-49. He was out of OB in 1950-51 (possibly again in uniform during the Korean War), then returned to Ponca City for 1952. After the K-O-M League folded, he managed three other Dodgers Class D teams 1953-56.

Glen has turned up nine Ponca City cards from the 1952 Globe team issue. If the set was typical of Globe issues, there are probably at least nine more cards to be accounted for. The P.C. cards are different from other Globe sets in that eight of the nine cards we have seen are "sponsored" by seven different local businesses. The only exception is Bartley. This probably indicates the cards were distributed one or two at a time on the sponsors' different nights at Conoco Park.

Here is the checklist, so far as is currently known:

• Boyd Bartley no sponsor
• Tony DeVelis Midwest Creamery
• Clyde Girrens First National Bank
• Russ Greenbush Cities Service D.M.F.
• Al Jarvis Colvin's Conoco Service
• Morris Mack Midwest Creamery
• Mike Ryan Jay G. Paris Furniture Co.
• Don Stewart Ponca City Savings & Loan
• Duke Stuart Alexander Distributing Co.

Tomorrow we'll cover the single card that Glen turned up from another Globe Printing Co. set.