daves to be different

i happened to be adding cards to my sportlots inventory, and it's a pain when the new cards are of older stature. i have to go into the monster boxes on the bottom of my stack to get them in the right place, knowing full well that the likelihood of someone actually buying a card from 1990 topps is pretty low.

all was not lost, however, as i took some time to peruse some of the other cards already in my inventory and found a couple of anomalies worth a few words here. first up is dave dravecky's 1990 score card

this is, at face value, an interesting card because the photo shows dravecky waving his cap with his arm in a sling. for those of us who remember, dravecky broke his arm during a game following recovery from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. so, the photo is to be respected as a record of that and not just a random photo of him pitching in a game. what really sets the card apart from the rest of the set, however, is the back

rather than a portrait shot like every other card, score used a photo of dravecky warming up before making his first start after surgery, and even captioned the photo for us. this sort of willingness to vary from the norm should be appreciated, applauded, and replicated on more cards to this day.

the card also opted for more text than stats in order to explain the challenges that dravecky faced. unfortunately, he did not return to the majors in 1990, so the card is effectively a final tribute for him.

the other card i pulled to scan is dave clark's 1989 fleer card

it is the only card i am aware of in the set (to be fair, i have not completed this set nor seen every card in the set) that lists "rookie" as part of an individual player card. the designation does not appear on the back

i didn't bother to peruse comc's library to see if there are others like this in 1989 fleer. even if there are, it's fun to find some anomalies among the monotony of junk wax era sets.

what about kenny lofton?

i was on the lookout for a kenny lofton autograph card the last couple of years since he was showing up as a dodger on some releases. i sort of forgot about it until late last year and started tracking them again. i wound up purchasing a 2024 topps tribute autograph - the blue parallel, actually

which is numbered to 199. here's the back

lofton wore number six during his lone season with the dodgers (jd drew wore lofton's normal number 7), which is always a reminder to me that the number that had been held out of circulation while steve garvey was on the writer's ballot for the hall of fame will likely never be retired by the club. i'm ok with that, but i do think that lofton is the fourth hall of famer to wear that number for the dodgers. more on that in a bit.

lofton has been showing up as an autograph subject on topps cards the last few years, with most of those cards showing him on teams other than the indians, with whom he spent the bulk of his career over three different stints. i suppose that's because topps no longer uses the indians team name for players from that era of the franchise, nor do they show the chief wahoo logo (his 2025 topps 1990 design autographs have him with "cleveland" and wearing a logo-less hat) which was very prevalent during lofton's playing days.

case in point, here is his 2008 topps card

with the nickname and logo prominently shown, even as the team had introduced the non-controversial "i" logo for their hats. for the record, i believe that the chief wahoo logo was offensive and not appropriate, and i think that the name change was the right move as well. i understand why topps avoids the use of both the name and logo, but it is part of the historical record so i use them here.

here's the back:

which is a true final tribute with his full career stats.

his 2008 topps opening day card looks the same, but with a red border

and the opening day logo watermarked on the back

and i've added both of these to my final tribute collection.

i reserve that collection for personal favorites and hall of fame caliber players, and lofton checks both boxes. moreso the latter, but i did enjoy following his career which i think should qualify him for the national baseball hall of fame. yes, kenny lofton is in my hall of famer collection!

i wanted a card from his time in cleveland, and found this 2013 topps tier one crowd pleasers autograph numbered to 59

for a song. here's the back:

with carlos beltran and andruw jones being elected to the hall last month, it is worth noting that there is another centerfielder who sits between those two in jaws ranking, and it's kenny lofton.

by any metric in those columns other than peak war and dwar, lofton surpassed jones and performed close to beltran (far exceeding him as a fielder). i think lofton's issue is his lack of power comparatively (his slugging percentage was .423 while both beltran and jones settled at .486). however, lofton's obp of .372 is better than either of theirs which brings his ops close to .800 (and better than hall of famer richie ashburn's). 

i got to see lofton play in person a few times. the first time was in 1996 (august 13 against the angels) when he was still in his first go-round with cleveland. he didn't steal a base in that game, but he did go 2 for 4 with a solo home run. the primary memory i have from that game was albert belle's solo shot in the second inning which is one of the hardest hit balls i have ever seen in person. absolutely crushed. i did get to see lofton steal a base in 2006 when he was with the dodgers. he also tripled in that game (june 9 against the rockies). 

lofton scored over 1,500 runs, had 2,428 hits, 945 walks, and 622 stolen bases during his career which ended with a .299 lifetime average. as i said earlier, i consider that to be a career worthy of the hall of fame, where he would join other dodgers to wear number 6 - joe medwick, joe torre, and hopefully one day, steve garvey.

you can see lofton and the other members of my hall of famer collection here.

1955 bowman complete!

it's been almost two years since i decided to pursue the 1955 bowman set, and here we are with the last 16 cards to share. i know you're busy, so i'll get right to it...

sheet 37, cards 305-312

just like last time, four umpires on the left and four team representatives on the right. i don't say players, because there's a manager in there (just as there was a coach or manager in the last post' sheets)

i am going to go through all eight of these subjects, so strap in...

frank umont, whose ethnicity is omitted on the card back, was one of the first umpires to wear glasses on the field. he was also a professional athlete before turning to umping - he was a guard for the new york football giants in the 1940's.

bob cerv is the last yankee in the set. perhaps best remembered as a roommate to mickey mantle and roger maris during the 1961 season, cerv had some power of his own as evidenced by the 38 dingers he hit for the kansas city a's in 1958. he had three different stints with the yankees, with this card being issued during his first.

r.a. "babe" pinelli was a major league infielder before switching to umpiring. he played mostly for the reds in the 1920's, but debuted with the white sox in 1918. i suppose that means he was a teammate of shoeless joe jackson's, but he debuted after jackson's 1918 season was over due to injury. pinelli's ethnicity is also left out of his card back bio, as is the fact (for obvious reasons) that he was behind the plate for don larsen's perfect game.

al lopez gives us the last manager card of the set, and he's a hall of famer to boot. the former dodger backstop took the indians to the fall classic in 1954, so it makes sense for him to be included in the set. his national league counterpart, leo durocher, did not receive the same consideration from bowman. his card back notes that he is an "expert" in managing and was an "expert" catcher as well. thesauruses were rare in the 50's i guess.

hal dixon has one of the more mug shot type cards in the set. we aren't given his ethnicity, but we are told of his extensive experience prior to joining the major league's umpiring ranks. he worked the 1959 world series, but that was his last hurrah as he resigned following the season's end due to the fact that his request for a raise was denied.

ken lehman is the last dodger (and final national leaguer) in the set, and i am sure that some kids opening packs were a bit confused. lehman hadn't pitched in the big leagues since 1952, and he didn't make any appearances in 1955 either. he did return to the dodgers in 1956 before moving on to the orioles in the summer of 1957. a seattle native, lehman eventually returned to the pacific northwest and coached udub's baseball team.

lawrence goetz went by larry and was from cincinnati. it looks like bowman punted on ethnicity for these late-set umpire cards, but that's ok and frankly less weird. we learn from goetz's card that he worked at a post office when he decided to take up umpiring which is a very faulkneresque thing to do. he was also one of the umpires featured in a norman rockwell painting entitled "tough call".

bill wight's card is the last on the page, and the back lets us know that he did not appear in the majors in 1954, thus missing the team's pennant win and world series appearance. he did, in fact, return in 1955 with the indians but finished the campaign with the orioles.

sheet 38, cards 313-320

no coach or manager on that sheet, but three bosox plus a card of the guy who probably frustrated kids the most. who wanted a card of cal hubbard back in 1955? well, i am sure there were some who were happy to find a card of the umpire supervisor, but not for that reason.

here are the backs:

i was happy to see one last non-bio back among this group.

a.j. donatelli continues the trend of ethnicity not being given for umpires, but i would guess he has some italian blood. the card back notes that he was a pow during world war ii for 15 months, and further research shows that he began umpiring softball games during this time, choosing to continue with that effort when he was liberated and returned to the states. he was also the umpire featured on the first ever issue of sports illustrated

dale mitchell spent nearly his entire career with the indians, playing for them from 1946 through partway of the 1956 season. he appeared in two world series for cleveland, but is best know for his appearance in game 5 of the 1956 fall classic when he was with the dodgers and pinch hit for sal maglie and struck out to end the game and secure don larsen's perfect game.

cal hubbard, as previously noted, was the umpire supervisor. this followed a successful umpiring career that was ended by a shotgun pellet hitting him in the eye. prior to his baseball officiating career, however, hubbard was a football star. he played in the nfl as a tackle for the giants, packers, and pirates (who became the steelers) and was elected to the pro football hall of fame in 1963. i am guessing some card collectors in 1955 recognized hubbard as a football player given his status in the game as one of the greatest tackles in league history. he's scotch-irish, by the way.

marion fricano's card features the final non-bio back of the set. his advice to youngsters is to develop character, which is solid advice no matter the times. fricano's major league career ended in 1955 with a handful of appearances for the a's, but he would continue to pitch in the minors for a few more seasons.

wm. r. summers, known as bill, is the last umpire of the set and is noted to have been a "gifted after-dinner storyteller". i am guessing that in addition to visiting troops, this refers to the offseason hot stove circuit that was commonplace until the early 1980s. i remember one hot stove i attended circa 1980 that turned into a bit of a roast of pete rose. i don't remember the stories, but i do remember rose commenting as such when it was his turn to speak. as for summers, he's the guy who called jackie robinson safe at home during the 1955 world series much to yogi berra's displeasure.

sid hudson begins the run of three red sox players to end the set. he was a 12-year veteran of the major leagues who was actually released by the red sox in april of 1955. another card for kids to be confused about, given the fact that this series was the last to be released (i am assuming there were more than two series). regardless, hudson turned to scouting and later to coaching, serving the washington senators/texas rangers franchise for 25 years following his playing career.

al schroll's card predates his major league debut by three years. he had been in the boston system since 1951, but didn't appear in a big league game until april of 1958. after the following season, he was dealt to the cubs for bobby thomson and then finished his career with the minnesota twins in their inaugural 1961 campaign.

and finally, we have george susce jr to close out the set. the back tells us that his father was a big leaguer and was coaching when this card was released. the younger susce, unlike the previous two red sox on this sheet, actually appeared in big league action in 1955, making his debut against the yankees in april. he went on to win nine games in a season highlighted by a one-hit shutout against the a's in july.

and there you have the 1955 bowman set and the last of the true bowman baseball cards, period. 

if you'd like to check on any of the previous posts, here they are for your convenience:

cards 289-304

cards 273-288

cards 257-272

cards 241-256

cards 225-240

cards 209-224

cards 185-208

cards 161-184

cards 137-160

cards 121-136

cards 105-120

cards 89-104

cards 73-88

cards 65-72

cards 49-64

cards 41-48

cards 33-40

cards 17-32

cards 1-16

it's been fun, but i don't see myself chasing another vintage set. i've learned not to say never, though. thanks for following along and happy new year!

1955 bowman complete through 272!

despite not completing it during my trip to the national, i am into the home stretch with my 1955 bowman set build, and here are the next two pages of cards to share.

sheet 31, cards 257-264

the "wrong" alston, cardboard legend don mossi, a couple of umpires, a brooklyn dodger, plus a headscratcher among others. here are the backs:

by the "wrong" alston, i mean no disrespect to tom alston. it's just that with bowman included a small number of managers in this set, it would have been nice for the dodgers' skipper walter alston to be included. tom alston was certainly worthy of a card, having played in 66 games in 1954.

john stevens is the first umpire on the sheet, and we learn that his ancestry is "slovak". the card also mentions that he worked the 1954 world series (he was the third base ump for willie mays' catch), but it fails to mention that he was also a college basketball referee and that he, as the home plate umpire, made the calls (valid, i assume) that cost bob keegan a perfect game in 1957 due to some bases on balls.

ed hurley is the other umpire here, and he is "german-irish". hurley was one of the umpires who was by many accounts forced into retirement when he reached the age of 55. he felt it was retaliatory for his efforts in trying to organize or seek additional benefits for the umpires which sounds plausible given the times. he was also featured on the television program "what's my line?" in 1953 and was the home plate umpire during eddie gaedel's lone big league at bat.

walt moryn was with the dodgers in 1955, but only as a september call up and wasn't a part of the world series squad. he went on to have greater personal success with the cubs, even making an all-star team.

all of the backs here are biographical, although eddie joost's back has some shenanigans on it. he is listed as "infield" for the cleveland indians but a previous owner of the card has noted "catcher" below that text and the bio text mentions that he was the manager of the philadelphia a's in 1954. add to that the fact that joost played for the red sox in 1955 and you have the headscratcher that i referred to above. turns out that joost was the player/manager for the a's in 1954 and played the infield in the games in which he appeared. he was released by the a's in november of 1954, but baseball reference doesn't show another transaction until the spring of 1955 when he signed with the red sox, for whom he would only play the infield. so, i am not sure where the indians or the "catcher" writing comes from.

sheet 32, cards 265-272

three more umpires, old friend joey amalfitano, brooklyn dodger chico fernandez, and more. here are the backs:

we are again met with all bio text. someone has put an "x" on amalfitano's card back. perhaps it's because he was sent down after the 1955 season, having met the requirements of his bonus baby status. he wouldn't return to the majors until 1960.

the star of the sheet is al barlick, a hall of fame umpire who was highly regarded as the best umpire during his tenure. he was the first base umpire for jackie robinson's debut in 1947 and later worked the first game at the astrodome as well as the first game at riverfront stadium, plus the last game at forbes field. he also was the crew chief for the first nlcs. he umpired in four different decades and was elected to the hall of fame in 1989.

while no ancestry was given for barlick, george (jim) honochick is noted as having "czech" ancestry. he was a minor league player before moving to umpiring, and wound up being behind the plate for three no-hitters as well as game 7 of the 1955 world series (who's a bum?). he is likely best known to a later generation as a participant in miller lite commercials alongside boog powell. 

rounding out the umpires on this sheet is john flaherty. no ethnicity is listed, but going by his last name and the fact that he went to college in boston (and played in the cape cod league), i am going to guess irish. flaherty was also one of the umpires that witnessed the dodgers win the world series for the first time (he was the left field ump), and he also was working the game in which roger maris hit home run number 61. 

chico fernandez is the dodger featured on this sheet, and it's worth noting that he did not make his major league debut until 1956, spending the entire 1955 season with the dodgers' triple-a affiliate in montreal. i am guessing that many a pack ripping kid were confused about him being shown on a card - perhaps more so than the umpires.

just six sheets left to share in the set - stay tuned!

1955 bowman complete through 208!

it's time for the next installment of my 1955 bowman set build.

sheet 24, cards 185-192

we are off to a good start with teammate pairings featuring cardinals, tigers, reds, and indians. bob lemon in the lone hall of famer on this sheet. here are the backs:

vic raschi counts joe dimaggio as the greatest hitter he has seen on the back of his card. it's pretty cool to have a card that features a guy who was a teammate of dimaggio's for several seasons. fred baczewski counters with a more typical response for the set with stan musial as the greatest hitter he's seen. lemon's back is the only other non-biographical back, and he says that the 155th game of the 1948 season is the most exciting contest he's witnessed. the indians beat the red sox to claim the pennant in that winner take all game.

sheet 25, cards 193-200

more teammate pairings featuring reds, dodgers, indians, and pirates. ralph kiner (in a cleveland uniform) is the lone hall of famer here - that's indian hall of famers on consecutive sheets. here are the backs:

both dodger card backs are worth mentioning here. russ meyer hits on a bunch of topics as he names musial as the best hitter he's seen and robin roberts the best pitcher while also giving advice to kids and sharing his biggest thrill, most exciting game, and funniest thing that has happened to him. the other dodger, erv palica, has a variant back. the regular version which is in the sheet above, end with the text "had a 13-8 record in 1950". the variant back

adds the sentence "sent to baltimore when preacher roe retired". i have this variant along with the other errors in a sheet at the back of my set binder. and, because palica is still listed as a dodger, i have two of each of his cards in my collection - one of each for the team set and one of each for the set build. here's the front of the variant

which is the same as the base version. 

i would be remiss if i didn't mention vern law's advice to youngsters which starts with "live clean lives".

sheet 26, cards 201-208

yes, there is a missing card and i will get to that in a moment. i assure you, however, that these are teammate pairs. here are the backs:

some familiar names to me, including allie reynolds (because he was a yankee who pitched against the dodgers in multiple world series), eddy fitzgerald (he's from the 805, like me), and rip repulski (who went on to play for the dodgers and i later learned is from sauk rapids which is not too far from where i currently reside, and is perhaps best known for its hot air balloon water tower).

as far as the cards go, fitzgerald identifies ted williams as the greatest hitter he's seen (with a reference to the williams shift), but repulski hits things out of the park with his advice to youngsters: "my advice is never give up".

back to the missing card - yes, there is a blank space in the sheet, but that's because i have card #202 in a psa holder. it's none other than mickey mantle!

it's not a bad psa 1.5 specimen. the detractors are the creases in the lower left and just off of mantle himself. it's a kick to have a early career mantle card in hand - the earliest one i had previously was his 1957 topps card. here's the back:

"he is a highly regarded young player". spot on. i left the card in the ebay authentication bag but will likely remove it at some point.

finally, the frank bolling card has an error thanks to his brother milt being in the set as well. the error uses frank's photo

but has milt's back

we saw the reverse of this error when i shared the sheet that featured milt's card. 

stay tuned for the next installment of the set build. just 112 cards left in the set!

1955 bowman complete through 160!

it's been a while since i added any cards to my 1955 bowman set build, but i can still provide an update post as i have a few complete sheets that you haven't seen yet!

sheet 18, cards 137 through 144

the shantz brothers provide the highlight of the page, with bowman's followup to the 1954 topps o'brien brothers card. unlike topps, however, bowman gave each brother an individual card, too. bobby's card is right next to the duo's card in the set, with billy's is coming up later in the set.

here are the backs:

the backs of both shantz cards address bobby's injuries that limited his time following his mvp performance in 1952.

brooklyn dodger don newcombe is on that page as well, and the well loved card you see above was actually in my dodger collection until a few months ago. for this project i picked up another one of newk's 1955 bowman cards

which turned out to be an upgrade, so i put it in the dodger collection and moved the other one to the set. maybe i have it backwards, but that's what i did.

sheet 19, cards 145 through 152

here are the backs:

not a lot of star power on that page, but the backs have some fun information. both bob nieman and sam mele count their biggest baseball thrill as hitting the first home run of their career - in nieman's case he hit one in each of his first two big league at bats! and how lucky was mele to get his home run ball back from the fan in exchange for a new ball? today that would have cost him at least a signed ted williams bat.

sheet 20, cards 153 through 160

a couple of yankees and a couple of dodgers, but they are not side by side as teammates. gil hodges looks annoyed at the creases in his card. sorry gil.

here are the backs:

this page also gives us the corrected version of ernie johnson's card, with the photo on the front matching the player on the back. note that johnson gives another vote to stan musial as the best hitter he's seen (bill klaus on the previous page voted for his teammate ted williams).

here's a look at the ernie johnson error card

that's don johnson of the orioles. here's the back of the error card

which is the same as the correct card.

back to gil hodges, his card status is the same as newcombe's. i found a card in better condition for the set and wound up putting it in the dodger collection instead.

no more creases, gil!

so there you have it. as of now, i've shared exactly half of the set! however, i am further along than that as i need just 47 cards to have all 320. stay tuned!

1955 bowman complete through 136!

i am continuing to pick up singles for my 1955 bowman set, but it is getting harder and harder to do without getting into the $10/card range. these two sheets were relatively easy to fill out, thanks to the fact that i had a couple of the big names in my collection already.

sheet 16, cards 121 through 128:

four new york giants on that sheet! a couple of things to note, i believe that the person in the background of al corwin's card is giant shortstop (and future big league manager) alvin dark. and, when i was scrolling through these cards, i had to do a double take of mike garcia's card as i thought at first he was wearing a black armband.

here are the backs:

i find it interesting that the back of giel's card mentions his teammate johnny antonelli, who precedes him on the checklist. both majeski and garcia mention the 1954 world series, and the writeup on garcia's card is pretty dense. he also mentions babe ruth, yogi berra, and bob lemon. it's cool to see a card where the player featured grew up with babe ruth as their childhood hero.

sheet 17, cards 129 through 136

a couple of hall of famers there with richie ashburn and bob feller. both of those cards were part of the partial set i already owned when i started this endeavor, so i didn't need to seek them out. i did pick up a clean version of harvey kuenn's card - no gold star on this one.

here are the backs:

it's nice to see richie ashburn referencing a duke snider catch as the best he's ever seen. bob feller refers to his opening day no-hitter as his biggest thrill and lists ted williams as the greatest hitter he's seen. that's a departure from the more often mentioned stan musial, but it makes sense given feller pitched in the american league.

there is another version of kuenn's card, and it's an error. his corrected card is on the sheet above, and i picked up his error to put at the end of the set

the error is only visible on the back - his name is misspelled as "kueen"

but they kept the spelling correct on the front. go figure.

1955 bowman complete through 104!

my 1955 bowman set is coming together at a decent pace, and i've completed a few more front end sheets to share.

here is sheet 12, cards 89 through 96

hall of famer lou boudreau is probably the biggest name here, but hank thompson's card gave me the toughest time to acquire. andy seminick seems out of place as he upsets the teammate pairing, but that is becoming more common as we progress through the set.

here are the backs:

it's nice to see sal maglie's nickname mentioned on the back of his card, but there is only one non-narrative card back here. on the back of art ditmar's card, he shares several of his biggest baseball thrills, including his first big league win that came on the last day of the 1954 season. that means that ditmar is the last pitcher to record a win for the philadelphia athletics, as they relocated to kansas city for the 1955 season. staying on that topic, jim hunter was the last kansas city a's pitcher to win a game, and j.t. ginn holds that distinction for the oakland version of the a's.

here is sheet 13, cards 97 through 104

this is a great sheet of cards with johnny podres, jim gilliam, jerry coleman, bobby thomson, and eddie mathews. on this sheet, it's don johnson who is out of place and messing up the teammate duos.

here are the backs:

ted williams, who is famously absent from this set, is namechecked on the back of thomson's card as the best hitter thomson has ever seen.

the don johnson card is one of the cards in the set that has an error variation. the one shown above is the correct version, with this being the error

that is ernie johnson showed there. ernie obviously pitched for the braves, while don was an oriole. the back of the card is still don's

and this error is reversed on card number 157. i hope to get there with these posts very soon!