Yes, yes, I know Bogie (nor Ingrid) never said "Play it again, Sam" - just like I know these 2 reprint sets I purchased weren't actually made in 1933. I had some interest in these two sets for a long time, and this seemed like the most economical way to add the 1933 DeLong Gum and 1933 Tattoo Orbit sets to my collection.
The back of each DeLong card has a tip about playing baseball, provided by Austen Lake, Baseball Editor of the Boston Transcript newspaper. The 24 card set has 15 Hall of Famers in it!
Here you can see how the cards line up against a modern card; they are a little bigger than the 1951 / 1952 Bowman cards.
There were even a pair of Horizontal Heroes! Compared to some other issues from the pre-war era, these cards are relatively affordable, but you're still looking at hundreds of dollars per card for even passable condition.
Aren't they pretty? Backgrounds were solid yellow, blue, or red. The nameplate came in a contrasting color.
The Tattoo Orbit set is harder to find in the wild than the big set from 1933, Goudey, and even harder to find than the underdog, DeLong. The cards were distributed with gum called Tattoo Gum, from the Orbit gum company.
The card backs had a very clean and succinct tale of the tape of each player, including their given name rather than their nickname.
The cards were nearly square - smaller than DeLong, about the size of a 1948 Bowman card. There are 16 Hall of Fame players (and 1 Hall of Fame Manager, Connie Mack) in the 60 Card set. The set curiously omits the Yankees, Giants, Tigers, and Senators, but makes it possible to find more obscure players not featured elsewhere in the 1933 issues.
The cards are very subtly tinted, to give the faces more of a flesh tone, contrasted with bright vibrant red and yellow backgrounds. Speaking of the backgrounds, you can even line some of them up to make a panorama of the outfield. Some of them are mirror images. I was a big fan of the artistic flourishes in clouds as well.
Are you a fan of reprint sets? Do you have any reprints in your collection?
Found a nice deal on a sealed 1993 Topps Traded Set, so today I am sharing some of the highlights with you! Mike Piazza was already an established star when this set was issued, even though he was still a rookie.
The 1993 Topps Set featured a 2nd player photo on the back, a flourish they hadn't tried in a long long time. But the pressure was on to keep up with Johnny Fleer and Joey Donruss and uh, Janey Upper Deck, so that means photos on both sides! I don't know if this a common issue with the traded set, or a symptom of being in a sealed box for so many years, but the ink on the backs looks a little runny to me.
Also - what's the deal? For the first time, the traded set was no longer in alphabetical order. Also ALSO, " IT - 132T ?" I? Weird.
Piazza was one of 6 Hall of Fame players in the set (with 2 or 3 more possibly to add later?). Boggs defected from Boston to the Yankees, where he would finally win a World Series, and get to ride a NYC Police horse after the clinching game. Andre Dawson went from the Cubs to Beantown, now towards the end of his magnificent career. Greg Maddux and Paul Molitor were thinking championship as well, and both would be rewarded by the end of their tenures with their new teams.
Now that Bowman has returned and the Prospect Machine was in full motion, finding quality rookies in the traded set was becoming more rare. The Team USA issue provided opportunities to add more young players to the set, and like Nomar in 1992, another Freshman made a splash in the new traded set.
The Team USA backs are a little different, so I figured I'd share those, too. Todd was quite the athlete!
The Twins representatives had nearly 20 seasons combined in the big leagues by the time the set came out - granted, they were all from Hall of Fame OF/1B/DH Dave Winfield. Todd Walker technically wasn't with the Twins organization yet, but he'd be drafted in the first round in 1994 by the Twins. David McCarty and Pat Meares were expected to take the reigns in the infield for Greg Gagne and Kent Hrbek. Meares ultimately did become the team's everyday SS, and McCarty had flashes of brilliance, but never really became the player to match the potential.
This group of guys might have a Hall of Famer or 3 in it, you can argue about which 3 they might be. Bonds had card #1T honors, all of these guys became key pieces of their team's success for the rest of the 1990s.
Lastly, here are a couple of my favorite photos from the set, and two guys that were appearing in familiar uniforms. The traded sets can be light on action and personality, but Boomer Wells listening to the national anthem and Erik Pappas sporting some gnarly hat hair. The Big Cat had a miserable 1993 in Saint Louis, playing in fewer than 100 games, and hitting just 10 homers. But Colorado would prove that he still had a few of those 9 lives remaining, and in fact would have the best years of his career. Kirk Gibson was returning to Detroit where he found his early post season success.
The single solid color bricks that served as a calling card for Topps Traded Sets was gone for good in 1992. The longer, thinner boxes that started in 1990 were now the "standard" format, though Topps still had the brick version. Now both versions featured photo reproductions of the cards inside, featuring the big name free agents, rookies, and traded players.
Another change for trade was the back. For the first time since 1981, the traded set backs were the same color as the flagship set - no bright neon traded variation this time. Just like the regular set, a panoramic image of the player's new home was squeezed in whenever possible. There were 3 horizontal cards in the 1992 traded set, the rest are the more familiar portrait format.
Canada was stockpiling Hall of Fame players. Toronto grabbed a pair of Saint Paul, MN heroes, Jack Morris and Dave Winfield. The Expos reclaimed their prodigal son, Gary Carter was no longer the "The Kid," but still a fan favorite. Steady Eddie Murray would be one of several new faces in New York, hoping to power the Mets to the post season again.
The traded set rarely had the biggest of the big name rookies. 1992 would feature the future Rookie of the Year Pat Listach, Team USA standout Jason Varitek, 2-sport star Brian Jordan, and a very young Nomar Garciaparra. Nomar was just a college Freshman, earning his spot as the only walk-on for Team USA. It would be a few years before he'd return to the national spotlight with the Boston Red Sox.
Although 1992 was a big USA Olympic year, the baseball team was on the outside looking in. After losing to Cuba and Japan in the tournament, the US team missed out on all medals.
Canada would not field an Olympic baseball team, but they had the last laugh with the Blue Jays winning the first of two World Series championships. The "other" Canadian team was just showing early signs of the team they would become by the mid 90s.
The Minnesota Twins may have been overconfident following their 1991 World Series victory - they did little to improve their team following the season. They would replace Jack Morris with another 20 game winner, John Smiley. They also added veteran arm Bill Krueger. While the team actually had a better record in 1992, they would fall short of the post season behind the still dangerous Oakland A's.
I tossed in Taubensee and Valera as some of my favorite images from the set.
The Hot Stove may have been cool in the Midwest, but the fires were burning on the coasts. The big free agents flocked to New York, with the Yankees scoring Danny Tartabull and the Mets adding Bobby Bonilla. A pair of trades sent Gary Sheffield and Eric Davis out West. Davis would reunite with his childhood friend Darryl Strawberry, and Sheffield would team up with San Diego legend Tony Gwynn.
Some off-season moves don't work out the way they were planned...
And others work out even better than you had hoped!
Last but not least, here's Kevin Campbell. You may be asking... why? What? Why? Well, to tell you the truth, if I had made this post last week, I would have skipped right past this card. Over the weekend, the Twins were playing the Chicago White Sox and LaTroy Hawkins was doing the commentary alongside play-by-play man Dick Bremer. They were talking about pitch selection and Bremer asked about the 4-seam vs. the 2-seam fastball. According to Hawkins, he never threw a 4-seamer in his entire MLB career - and he owed it all to Kevin Campbell. During Spring Training in his rookie year, Hawkins was warming up in the bullpen and Campbell noticed some fastball command issues from the young righty. He showed Hawkins his grip for his 2-seam fastball and Hawkins found it to be much more comfortable than any pitch he'd thrown before. The rest of his 21 year major league career, that 2-seamer would be LaTroy's bread and butter. So there you go - Kevin Campbell!
One of the fun things about a completed set is deciding how you want to organize it. I have the 1956 Topps set in a binder, sorted by team, in the same order that the teams finished in the 1955 Standings. In 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers were the National League champions, with a 98-55 record. They would win the World Series in seven games.
Without Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers were Bums. They had 3 championship teams in the 1800s, but they had little success in the 20th Century. Just 3 National League titles from 1900 to 1947. Once Jackie joined the club in 1947, the team became a perennial contender, going to the World Series in 6 of Jackie's 10 big league seasons. Ironically, the only World Series game that Jackie would miss in his career would be Game 7 in 1955, the first and only Brooklyn World Series Championship victory.
The 1955 Dodgers' team had the best record of any team in MLB, scoring the most runs while allowing the fewest. And yet, they still had to feel like underdogs against the Yankees, a team that had bested them in the championship 4 times in a row since 1947. The Dodgers had finished with better records in 1941, 42, and '53, but no championship. In 1942, they didn't even reach the World Series, winning 104 games but finishing in 2nd place in the National League. "Wait 'Til Next Year" was the common refrain in Brooklyn (Cubs fans came to embrace it as well.), but in 1955, it finally was next year.
The Dodgers' best hitter in 1955 was the Duke of Flatbush himself, Duke Snider. He was the team leader in hits, doubles, runs scored, walks, homers, RBI, OBP, SLG, etc. Snider would also provide power and clutch hitting during the World Series, adding 4 more homers to the 42 he hit in the regular season.
Snider was the NL leader in runs scored in 1953, '54 and '55. He was in the midst of a run of 7 straight All-Star appearances and would make it 8 overall by the end of his career. He slugged 40 or more homers every year from 1953 through 1957, and had 407 for his career. He'd score over 100 runs in a season 6 times, and drive in 100 or more runs 6 times. It took 11 years on the ballot, but he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
The best pitcher for the Dodgers in 1955 was their ace for the majority of the decade, Don Newcombe. Newk won 20 games during the regular season, but only pitched in game 1 of the World Series. During the regular season he led the NL in WHIP, with the lowest walk rate (1.5 per nine innings) and the highest rate of strikeouts to walks. He pitched complete games in 17 of his 31 starts, and registered 1 shutout on the season. If he had more plate appearances, you could argue that he was also the team's best hitter- he had 7 homers and a triple slash of .359 / .395 / .632(!) in 1955, which is not too shabby for a pitcher.
Newcombe would have an even better season in 1956, going 27 - 7 and winning both the Cy Young award and the NL MVP award as the Dodgers returned to the World Series. For his career, Newcombe had impeccable control and was able to convert from a power to finesse pitcher later on. Battling personal issues and some career setbacks, Newcombe found success again on the field in Cincinnati and also re-claimed his path in life by dedicating himself to the service of others post retirement. As a recovering alcoholic, he mentored others on their own path towards sobriety.
Jackie Robinson was not in the lineup for Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, and didn't appear in the game as a defensive replacement, pinch hitter, or pinch runner. One teammate (Newcombe) later stated that it was an injured Achilles tendon, while another offered that knee injuries sidelined Jackie. For his own part, Robinson did not mention it in his autobiography. He only talks about the great pitching performance of Johnny Podres, Sandy Amoros making an incredible catch to preserve the lead, and how it was one the greatest thrills of his life to be on a World Series winning team.
The truth was that life for Jackie with the Dodgers hadn't been the same since Walter O'Malley assumed control of the team. The cool relationship between Manager Walter Alston and Robinson didn't help either. Alston benched Jackie about 1/3 of the time in 1955, and roughly the same in 1956. Robinson was not bitter about being benched, he too was aware that his skills had declined due to age and injury. But he would note in his book that Alston and O'Malley seemed to think there was mutual resentment. O'Malley for replacing (forcing out) Branch Rickey, and Alston for taking Chuck Dressen's job as Dodgers manager. I haven't read any O'Malley biographies, but if I extrapolate from Jackie Robinson's and Bill Veeck's books, I have a consistent picture of O'Malley as a powerful man that is suspicious of anyone that might challenge that power. If there's any bitterness, it certainly wasn't on Jackie's side. He stated in no uncertain terms that he benefited from Baseball, and was glad that Baseball had benefited from him. He had been looking for his post career landing spot since the end of the 1954 season, so the timing of his trade to the Giants after the 1956 World Series and the announcement of his retirement / new role with coffee house chain Chock Full 'O Nuts was (mostly) a coincidence. He was genuinely considering the Giants' offer before Dodgers GM Buzzie Bavasi told the press that Robinson was trying to leverage a higher salary. That was enough for Robinson to just retire like he had been planning.
The 1955 NL MVP was actually Roy Campanella, who edged out Snider in the voting by 5 points. There was a small controversy about this as there was a single ballot from a Philadelphia writer that listed Campanella 1st and also 5th. The assumption was that one vote was meant for Snider. The writer was ill at the time the votes were being counted, so they decided to go with Campanella as written as #1, and made #5 blank. Both players received 8 first place votes, and in terms of total points, Campanella won by 5 points. Another fifth place vote for Snider would have made him the points leader in the MVP race, making him the winner. But in the end, both players made compelling cases. Campy joined Yogi Berra as league MVPs, which they had done previously in 1951. 1955 and 1951 are the only two seasons in which both MVP awards were given to Catchers.
Johnny Podres was known as a humble guy in the clubhouse, a Brooklyn kid that was thrilled to be playing for the team he grew up cheering for. So when he saw the tension on his teammates faces (or maybe just felt the tension himself), he piped up before Game 7 - "Just get me one today, boys and I'll take it from there!" This immediately loosened the mood among the team, and Podres pitched a masterful game to back up his rare boast. He later revealed that he got a great deal of confidence when Walter Alston told him after his Game 3 victory that if the series went the distance, he'd be starting Game 7.
The bullpen was led by Clem Labine, who won 13 games and saved 11 in relief, and Ed Roebuck who led the team with 12 saves.
Don Bessent and Roger Craig both sported ERAs under 3.00, and youngster Sandy Koufax led the team with 2 shutouts despite only being asked to start 5 games. Don Zimmer provided some pop off the bench, contributing 15 homers to the squad in '55. It was Walter Alston's second year as manager, but he was already establishing his style as a close to the vest tactician. He did not show the outward passion of Dodgers managers of the past like Leo Durocher, or the future like Tommy LaSorda, but he would certainly find a way to succeed, winning 7 NL Pennants, 4 World Series titles, and over 2,000 regular season games.
One of the fun things about a completed set is deciding how you want to organize it. I have the 1956 Topps set in a binder, sorted by team, in the same order that the teams finished in the 1955 Standings. In 1955, the New York Yankees were the American League champions, with a 96-58 record. They would lose the World Series in seven games.
I will say only nice things about the Yankees today, an objectively great team in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Since opening Yankee Stadium, the Yankees had won at least 3 World Series per decade, and by 1955 they had already won 3 championships and were on their way to a total of 5 World Series victories in the 50s. Few things are more "New York" than the Yankees, but how about Frank Sinatra? His album, "Songs for Swingin' Lovers," was released in 1956:
While the AL Champions did not win the 1955 series, they would not have to wait long to return to the Championship -- it would be the first of 4 straight World Series appearances, winning in 1956 and 1958.
The Yankees' best hitter in 1955 was the great Mickey Mantle, who was just 23 years old and the toast of the town, He led the league with a ridiculous 180 OPS+, playing a superb center field while getting on base with a league leading .431 OBP. He hit .306 with 37 homers, and scored 121 runs.
While the 1955 season was impressive, it didn't hold a candle to 1956. Mantle would win the triple crown, hitting .353 with 52 homers and 130 RBI. He scored 132 runs and his OPS+ was 210, meaning his season was 110% better than the average Major League outfielder. He'd win 3 MVP awards over his career. The well-known and well-traveled narrative is that injuries would rob Mantle of his full potential, and certainly it directly changed the 1955 Series. Mantle played in just 3 of the 7 games, and had just 2 hits in 10 at bats. For his career, the Hall of Fame, Switch hitting Center Fielder would still hit 536 homers, and have over 1500 RBI despite chronic knee and back pain.
The Yankees' best pitcher shared a nickname -- The Chairman of the Board -- with Sinatra, and the lefty made his teammates sing his praises throughout his career. In 1955, Ford had a 18-7 record with a 2.62 ERA. While his 137 strikeouts in 254 innings is not eye popping by today's standards, it was among the league leaders in '55. He hurled 5 shutouts that year, and was the staff ace all season long. His 18 wins (and 18 complete games) led the AL.
For his career, Ford had a 236 - 106 record. His 45 shutouts ranks 29th All-Time. His best season was 1961, while Maris and Mantle were chasing Babe Ruth, so too was Whitey Ford, but as a pitcher. Ruth's World Series scoreless innings streak was 29 and 2/3 innings, and Ford matched then beat it en route to a World Series MVP award. During the '61 regular season, he won 25 games and his only Cy Young Award.
Casey Stengel, Yankees' irascible manager, was quoted often for his humor, but he also said -- "I never play a game without my man." That man was Yogi Berra. Berra led the Yankees on the field, and in 1955 had a team high 108 RBI, while hitting 27 homers. Oh yeah, and he was the AL MVP for the second consecutive season.
Berra is a 10 time World Champ, 18 time All-Star, 3 time MVP. As a catcher, Berra never led the league in a single offensive category, but his value was measured as much for his baseball knowledge and on-field leadership. It didn't hurt with sportswriters that he was always ready with a goofy quip, but Yogi was a tremendous baseball player regardless of his funny quotes.
Phil Rizzuto was at the tail end of his Hall of Fame career, and 81 games in 1955, he drove in just 9 runs. Of course, Rizzuto was never known for being a great hitter, but the production had slipped to a point at which he was supplanted at Shortstop by former Oriole Billy Hunter in 1955, and by Gil McDougald in 1956. McDougald was in many ways a forgotten star in the Yankees dynasty. In 1955, he was the Yankees' primary 2nd Baseman hitting 13 homers for the Bronx Bombers. Mantle and Berra were joined by Bill "Moose" Skowron and Hank Bauer as power bats on the '55 team. Skowron had an OPS+ of 140, hitting a team high .319 - Bauer crushed 20 homers.
Ford was the best Yankees pitcher, but their #2 starter Bob Turley wasn't far behind. In fact, Turley struck out 210 batters and had a team high 6 shutouts. Jim Konstanty was a stabilizing force in the bullpen, saving 11 games but finishing 30 games overall with a sterling 2.32 ERA. Don Larsen was just 25, still a year award from the perfect game in the 1956 World Series that made him a baseball immortal.
Even the Yankees' bench was stacked - with the great Elston Howard waiting in the wings to provide relief for Yogi Berra behind the plate. Billy Martin would once again become the Yankees' starting second baseman in 1956 and was already a fixture in Yankees' lore. A host of veterans like Eddie Robinson who hit 16 homers off the bench in 1955, and Jerry Coleman provided sage leadership.
