Sports Cards Ate My Brain

With my fourth Ebay money purchase I decided to fill a couple more holes in my PC.  While I had gotten a 1933 Goudey out of the way I found a couple of 1934 examples to add to my Braves and Tigers collections. First we have card #59 of Boston Brave Joe Mowry.  The "Lou Gehrig says" on these cards is a major plus as I could never afford an actual Lou Gehrig card from this time period. This is card #70 of Detroit Tiger Pete Fox.  Having a Brave and a Tiger from this set is very satisfying. Another player that I could never afford from his playing days but is a need for any Tiger collection is Ty Cobb.  This same dealer had the 1960 and 1961 Fleer cards available so I took the plunge.  These cards are in fabulous condition. 1960 Fleer #42 1961 Fleer #14 Having these PC needs filled leaves a great taste in my mouth.  These cards come from 1,000,000 Baseball Cards in Manchester, Missouri and was my second purchase from them.  I will definitely look out for ...

I picked up a bunch of Braves a couple of weeks ago at a card show and also got a needed card in a trade. My 9th 1951 Bowman Braves card is #228 Bob Chipman.  It has a significant crease but was very cheap at the show. This is the card I got from Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders .  1953 Topps 217 Murray Wall.  The top of the card is actually very good.  The bad edge is actually scanner glare. I'll be highlighting my other show pickups over the next few days.

I need many cards from the "big" Topps sets of the early 50's.  I picked up 10 cards from these sets.  Here are the first 5. I added my first 1952 Topps Braves cards: 97 - Earl Torgeson I prefer my earlier Bowman Torgeson's but it is nice to finally have a cards from this iconic set. 1953 Topps 185 - Jim Pendleton The Braves received Jim from the Dodgers before the 1953 season. 214 - Bill Bruton My favorite Bill Bruton card so far. 1955 Topps: 23 - Jack Parks Played 11 years in the minor leagues before making the Majors with the Braves in 1955. 103 - Charlie White Another backup catcher from 1955.  I see a theme! Next up will be 5 1956's.

My new favorite vintage vendor was at the most recent show I attended about 3 months ago.  I bought 20 cards as that was all my budget would allow. I filled in 2 1950 Bowman's that I needed.  These give me a little more than half of the Braves in the set. 55 - John "Buddy" Kerr The back tells us that, as of 1950, Buddy held the record for most consecutive games without an error for a shortstop at 383 games. 74 - Johnny Antonelli (From the cardback) In high school he pitched 3 no-hitters and 5 1-hitters, striking out 231 batters in 103 innings, giving up 36 hits. I got 1 more 1950 Bowman that I thought Dustin over at Coot Veal and the Vealtones needed but I didn't read the want list correctly and he already had it.  242 Dick Kryhoski.  It is up for trade if anyone wants it. I'll post the of the cards I got over the coming days.  Some of the cards are not baseball so I'll post those last.

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...