1940 Play Ball Phillies - Part 1

1940 Play Ball #98, #97, #96 and #95

As part of the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" haul, my Mom added seven Phillies cards from the 1940 Play Ball set to my collection.  I'll feature the first four here.

The 1940 Play Ball set (designated R335 by Jefferson Burdick) contains 240 cards - 15 of which are current and former Phillies.  14,000 Phillies has a nice write-up on the set within its Phillies Database.  I now just need seven cards - including cards of Hall of Famers Chuck Klein and Grover Cleveland Alexander - to complete the Phillies team set.  All four players featured here were also World War II veterans.

This is the third card of "Pinky" May in my collection and the second card of May's added as part of my amazing Christmas haul.

"Morry" or "Morrie" Arnovich came up with the Phillies in 1936 and played outfield with the team until his trade to the Reds in June 1940.  His best season was the 1939 campaign, when he made the All-Star team and hit .324 with 5 home runs and 67 RBIs.

My six-year-old son, Doug, was very amused at Emmett Jerome Mueller's nickname - "Heinie."  Mueller played his entire four-year career with the Phillies between 1938 and 1941.  Primarily a second baseman, Mueller appeared in 441 games with the Phils, hitting .253 with 17 home runs.  I have both Arnovich's and Mueller's cards from the 1939 Play Ball set.

Finally, Gum, Inc. was kind not to include Hugh Mulcahy's more well known nickname, "Losing Pitcher," on his card.  So named because of his 42-82 record with the Phillies over the first six years of his career, Mulcahy was the first Major Leaguer to be drafted during World War II in March 1941.