A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection

Well, I didn't intend to be blog silent for the past three weeks, but a series of unfortunate incidents put a crimp in my writing schedule. Thankfully, everyone is on the road to healthy again and I am back with some more nonsense.

One card from each 1950s era Topps set - nothing jumps out right away looking at the front of each card.

The backs reveal the not-so-arbitrary pattern - each card is matched up with the year it was issued - Card #52 from 1952, card #55 from 1955, etc etc.

I've put together a collection spanning all the Topps years like this (more or less, you'll see when I get there) and it serves as a nice visual progression of Topps designs. The cards could as easily have been completely random selections, but I kind of like having the card # match the year on the back. Plenty of fun facts for each player, from Hall of Famer All-time great Eddie Robinson, to the trivia on the back of Sherm Lollar's card noting that the pitcher used to only be 35 feet from the plate in the early days. "Rip" Repulski is a Minnesota kid from Sauk Rapids, and Don Mueller played in Minneapolis before his call-up to the New York Giants.

The Old Arbitrary Presents: Pirates Week (1950s Vintage)

You may have already seen the news, but Matthew of Bob Walk the Plank is retiring from regular blog updates. In recognition of his contributions to the blogging community, I'm converting this to a Pirates-centric blog for a week, highlighting some of my favorite Pirate cards.

This is a 1949 Bowman, but we'll call it close enough the 1950s. One of my favorite things about early Bowman (and about Major League Baseball in the 40s and 50s in general) were all the great nicknames. 1948 was Rojek's best season-  he led the league in games played, plate appearances, and at bats. He had a career high 186 base hits and stole 24 bases.

I've always loved this card. Law looks 20 feet tall, throwing down fastballs from the treetops.

The back of this 1952 Topps card has an incredible tidbit of info- Verne was recruited by none other than crooner Bing Crosby! That's about as 50s as you can get. The last sentence has some odd implications - do all Mormon ministers know how to play the harmonica?

Another personal All-time favorite Topps card, this time featuring a double play tandem that were actually twins!

The first MLB twins teammates were also standout college basketball players.

1955 Bowman - Vic Janowicz was the Bo Jackson of the 1950s, playing both baseball with the Pirates and pro football with Washington,

Similar to Bo, Janowicz had his career cut short due to injury. Janowicz was in a tragic car accident in 1956, which partially paralyzed him. He eventually made a full recovery from the crash, though he never played again. He turned to broadcasting and covered Ohio State football games.

I couldn't pick a favorite from the 1956 Topps set, so here they all are, starting with the starting position players.

The starting rotation and the key members of the bullpen.

And the bench!

The Pirates finished last in the National League in 1955, but they were a talented young team that would soon be knocking on the door for the Pennant.

I really like the backs of these Team Cards, with the home stadium specifications and team records.

The 1957 Topps set has some strange entries, and I'm leaning towards building it if I finish the 1959 set. Paul Smith is shown here in front of a radio broadcast tower (I'm guessing it's radio and not televison).

Whammy was in the 1958 and the 1959 sets, though he only pitched in one MLB season. He was part of a big trade from the Pirates to Cincinnati in 1958 that included the original Frank Thomas and Harvey Haddix. And of course, he had one of the great 50's nicknames.

All 4 of these 1959 Topps cards came in a big lot I purchased from a vintage dealer I've been doing business with since I came back to collecting. Even though he's moved out the North Carolina, he still has family in MN and he contacted me recently to help me make some progress on my set build.

Matthew, thanks for the years of great blog posts, and on a personal note it was your kindness and generosity when I first started out that kept me in the blogging game. My very first blog trade was with him, and I can't thank him enough for that.

Day Nine - 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson #30

Day 9: A Favorite Card From the 1950s

Taking the lead from Tony at Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards this will be the ninth of 30 posts, using the prompts provided. I won't necessarily post one every day, but I will do one for each card, toss in a few "insights" (as insightful as I can be, anyway), and usually include an honorable mention or two, just because I'm like that.

Here's my pick - and let me tell you, this was an easy choice, but also a very difficult choice. There are so many great cards from the 1950s; classics and icons and hidden gems literally of all shapes and sizes. The 1956 set is definitely my favorite set of the decade, and this card in particular is stellar. This is my favorite Jackie Robinson card, so it was an easy choice for this challenge.

Since these are basically one card posts, why not show the backs, too? A Dodger Immortal, indeed. This was his final Topps card from his playing career, but it doesn't show his full stat line. He retired when the Dodgers traded him to the Giants before the start of the 1957 season. Since his retirement came in December of 1956, it was early enough that Topps hadn't printed any cards of him for the 1957 set. I think I've seen a few customs out there using the 1957 design.

Here are some honorable mentions:

Yikes, where to begin? A quick and dirty ranking of the 50s Topps sets for me would be 56, 57, 59, 52, 54, 55, 53, 58. 51 gets an incomplete. I could probably make a case for any card from 1956 as an honorable mention, but I threw out a couple great defensive plays to counter Jackie's play at the plate. The 1952 set in my opinion is saved by the horizontal cards. Most of the vertical cards are very similar (not quite Donruss level boring), but the horizontal cards feel like carefully planned works of art. Vern Law's card makes him look like a giant. I had to include the Killebrew card as a shameless homer pick.

I think the 1957 set is the Stadium Club of the 50s. Yes, there's a border, but no other set from the 50s gives you more of the ballpark, or a bigger image. There are coloration issues, but I have to highlight the set in a post about favorites of the 1950s. The main reason that Elmer Valo isn't up there as the #1 pick is that I feel like a broken record about the greatness of his 1957 Topps card. Jackie is there because I love the card, and I haven't talked it to death. Bowman doesn't get as much love in this post, but a couple favorites might be the 1955 Eddie Waitkus card, the 1955 Aaron and Minoso cards are great as well. I have been focusing on Topps to this point, I should spend some time once I finish the 56 Topps set to stock up on Bowman.

I also want to point out that I am a little jealous of the Pirates - they've got so many great cards in the 1950s!