Sports Cards Ate My Brain

I decided to organize my Braves collection by player since scanning and posting by year makes me try to come up with different things to say about the same player. I have literally do have cards from A and Z (Zuvella) to post about.  Some posts will be dedicated to one player if I have enough of their cards and they merit their own post. David Aardsma is the first major league player alphabetically but the first hitter listed is Henry Aaron.  Braves fans still consider Aaron the true Home Run King.  Turner Field is located at 755 Hank Aaron Blvd. That is until they move to Cobb County in a couple of years and I stop watching them.  (Yes, I feel that strongly about it.) I picked up most of my early Aaron cards by trade at my favorite card show and have gotten some in trades from other bloggers.  The condition of most is far from perfect but considering my budget and desire to complete years I'll worry about condition later on.  All of the cards on th...

My apartment is being renovated so I have almost everything packed up, including my scanner.  I hope to post something this weekend. Meanwhile I'm trying to settle the heart palpitations that the Braves just gave me by trying to blow a 9th inning lead.

I'm not a big fan of the larger cards that Topps produced from 1952 to 1956 so I haven't started actively pursuing Braves cards from those years.  I will eventually get around to it if I can find some good deals.  I don't have a Braves card from 1952 Topps.  1951 Topps Blue Back - Topps first baseball issue was two series of game cards.  One with red backs and one with blue backs.  They are smaller than the picture below. 12 Sam Jethroe - Sam was the Braves first African-American player and won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1950 after leading the league in stolen bases at age 33. The back is blue.  Go figure. 1953 - I like the artwork of these cards but I think the black bar should have extended across the entire card. 197 Del Crandall - The artist gives Del a light unibrow.  Del has no stats for 1952 as he was in the military. The signature over the biographical info makes it hard to read and was is "Strike Outs" in quot...

I only have 4 Bowman cards from 1953 - 1955.  The cards are much bigger than the previous years.  They are as tall as the Topps cards of the era but slightly narrower. The images are smaller than the actual cards. 1953 - A "pure" card design.  This was the first year Bowman used photos. This is from the color set.  I do not have any cards from the black & white set. 83 Jack Daniels - Played only one year in the majors in 1952 and hit .187.  The Braves moved to Milwaukee right before the beginning of the 1953 season so Jack is shown as a Boston Brave. One of my favorite card back designs from the 1950's.  Good information and finally some stat lines from Bowman. 1954 - The colored box for the faux signature detracts from the design. 16 Jim Wilson - Jim played for the Braves for 4 seasons.  Two with Boston and two with Milwaukee.  He won 12 games in 1952. I like the bat and ball motif for the name and card number and...

1952 was the Braves last season in Boston before moving to Milwaukee. I got 4 of these cards at the last show but already forgot which one. (Brain getting old.) Once again the pictures are pretty much actual size. 12 Max Surkont - Max won 12 games as a starter in both 1951 and 1952. 72 Earl Torgeson - After the duplicate artwork of 1950 and 1951 Bowman finally gave us a new look for Earl. 97 Willard Marshall - Was sent to the Reds during the 1952 season.  "Reds" is written in ink on the top right corner of the card back. 100 Sibby Sisti - Spent his entire 13 year career with the Braves.  He led the league in errors as a third baseman with 41 in 1941. 132 Dave Cole - Dave had a six year career as a reliever and spot starter, four of which he spent with the Braves. 192 John Cusick - Also known as Jack.  Hit .174 in his two year major league career.  I do remember that this is one of the cards I got at the last show.  From ...

For those of you that don't know, the Braves started in Boston in 1870 as part of the start of the National League.   They moved to Milwaukee in 1953 and Atlanta in 1966. These images are pretty much the exact size of the cards. 20 Del Crandell - Del was in the military in 1951 and 1952 before returning to the club in Milwaukee. 66 Bob Elliott - Had three 100 RBI seasons in five seasons with the Braves before being traded to the Giants. The backs feature easy to read blue text with biographical information and statistical highlights. 98 Willard Marshall -  Willard had the worst season of his career in 1950 but was in the top 10 in triples in 1951. 99 Earl Torgeson - Bowman used the same art from 1950 for this card. 135 Walker Cooper - 1951 was the second consecutive season with a .313 for the Braves main backstop. 207 Billy Southworth - Billy led the Braves to the pennant in 1948 but did not last through the 1951 season. ...

I got all of my 1950 Bowman for $3 a piece at the monthly card show I went to a couple of weekends ago.  I usually attend this show about 6 times a year depending on how it falls with my pay schedule.  I dealt with the dealers I normally deal with that had some 1976 Topps that I needed to get toward set completion and then spotted this box that had 1949 - 1954 Bowman and even some 1952 Topps for $3 a piece.  I only had $30 to spend so I got 6 1950 and 4 1952 Bowman I needed for my collection. The pictures are larger than the actual cards. 73 Willard Marshall - Received in a trade with the Giants after the 1949 season. 110 Tommy Holmes - The 1945 NL Batting Champion.  This card has an X drawn in blue pen on the back. 111 Walker Cooper - The netting in the background looks like someone drew on it in pen but it is part of the picture. 163 Earl Torgeson - Was injured most of the 1949 season. The back of the 1950 Bowman is landscape with biogra...