1939 Play Ball - Phillies Team Set

I recently put the finishing touches on a complete 1939 Play Ball Phillies team set, adding the card of Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy to my collection.  I thought it would be cool to present the entire 10-card team set here with a brief blurb on each player's Phillies career.

The 1939 Phillies have the distinction of being one of the worst teams in franchise history, finishing with a .298 (45-106) won/loss percentage and eclipsing the 105 losses suffered by the 1938 Phillies team.

#12 Hershel Martin

#28 Sylvester Johnson

#33 Del Young

#37 Virgil Davis

#45 Merrill May

#46 Morris Arnovich

#63 Emmett Mueller

#98 Pinky Whitney

#127 Gil Brack

#145 Hugh Mulcahy

#12 Hershel Martin - One of the regular outfielders for the 1939 Phillies, Martin hit .282 in 111 games for the club that season.  I wrote about Martin in this post, and I also featured a color picture of the 1938 club's blue and yellow uniforms.  I also have Martin's 1940 Play Ball card in my collection and I featured it in a post along with the next two players listed below.

#28 Sylvester Johnson - Johnson was at the end of his 19-year career in 1939, and he served as the team's pitching coach that season as well as appearing in 22 games.  Johnson pitched in three World Series games for the 1931 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals.

#33 Del Young - Infielder Young appeared in 309 games with the Phillies between 1937 and 1940, hitting .224.

#37 Virgil Davis - "Spud" Davis was the Phillies regular catcher from 1930 to 1933 before escaping to the Cardinals and Reds for 4 1/2 seasons.  He'd come back to the Phils in 1938 and in 1939 he'd hit .307 in 87 games.  I published a more detailed post on Davis' career six years ago when I originally picked up his 1939 Play Ball card.

#45 Merrill May - 1939 was third baseman "Pinky" May's rookie season in the Majors.  I published a detailed look at May's career in this post from August 2009.  I also have cards of his in my collection from the 1940 Play Ball and 1941 Double Play sets.

#46 Morris Arnovich - Outfielder Arnovich was the club's leading hitter in 1939 with a .324 batting average and he was also the lone Phillies representative at the 1939 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.  I previously featured Arnovich's 1940 Play Ball card in this post.

#63 Emmett Mueller - "Heinie" Mueller played his entire four-year career with the Phillies between 1938 and 1941 before serving in World War II.  He hit a home run in his first big league at-bat off the Brooklyn Dodgers' Van Lingle Mungo.

#98 Pinky Whitney - One of the greatest third basemen in franchise history, 1939 was the 12th and final year of Whitney's big-league career.  I wrote about Whitney in this post, and his daughter (or relative) left a comment about Whitney being a wonderful father.

#127 Gil Brack - Baseball Reference lists Brack as "Gibby" Brack, and the outfielder spent two seasons with the Phillies in 1938 and 1939.  In 163 games with the Phils, Brack hit .288 with 10 home runs and 69 RBIs.  After his playing days were over, Brack was employed as a steel worker and unfortunately he met a tragic end.

#145 Hugh Mulcahy - Mulcahy started more games (32) than any other pitcher for the 1939 Phillies, going 9-16 with a 4.99 ERA.  As I wrote when I posted his 1940 Play Ball card, Mulcahy earned the "Losing Pitcher" nickname by going 42-82 with the Phillies over the first six years of his career.  He was the first Major Leaguer to be drafted to serve during World War II, and he'd miss four seasons (1941-1944) serving his country.

1939 Play Ball #33 Del Young

Mets 4, Phillies 3
Game 74 - Friday Night, June 21st in Philadelphia
Record - 35-39, 3rd Place, 7 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  An anemic offense and another so-so outing from Cole Hamels contributed to the 4-3 Mets win.

What It Means:  Yesterday was the first day of what could be a very long summer for the Phillies.  As Larry Andersen put it towards the end of the game's radio broadcast, the 2013 Phillies just aren't a very good offensive team.  Defensive lapses by Michael Young at third and Delmon Young in right also contributed to the loss.  I've started drafting in a my head a future post to serve as a fan's "2013 Phillies Survival Guide."

What Went Wrong:  Hamels' record dropped to 2-11 for the season.  He allowed four runs on seven hits in his six innings of work.  He allowed a lead-off walk to Lucas Duda to start the sixth, and Duda would eventually come around to score the go-ahead run.

Featured Card:  Hamels became the first Phillies pitcher with 11 losses before June 30th since 1937.  That is absolutely stunning.  In June 1937, both Claude Passeau and Wayne LaMaster had 11 losses by June 30th for a team that would eventually finish with a 61-92-2 record.  Hopefully the 2013 Phillies don't come near the futility displayed by the '37 club.

I don't have any Passeau or LaMaster cards in my collection, so the best I could do was feature another member of the 1937 Phillies team.  I thought it would be fitting to feature the original "Del" Young, given how awful Delmon Young has been to this point in the season.  Del Young was the starting second baseman for the 1937 Phillies.  In 109 games, Young hit .194 and committed 28 errors.

Happy summer!

1939 Play Ball #98 Arthur Carter Whitney

This is the last of the 1939 Play Ball cards I recently added to my Phillies collection, and it represents one of the best Phillies players of that era. The Phillies Encyclopedia begins its entry on Arthur Carter Whitney with the following bold statement: "Any discussion of the top third basemen in Phillies history must include Pinky Whitney."

Pinky Whitney (not to be confused with his ultimate replacement at third base, Pinky May), played 12 seasons in the Majors with the Phillies (1928-1933), Boston Braves/Bees (1933-1936) and the Phillies again (1936-1939). During that time, he averaged 98 RBI a season while owning a career average of .295. He hit over .340 twice in his career – 1930 (.342) and 1937 (.341) – while playing in Philadelphia’s old Baker Bowl, a renowned hitter’s park.

He finished in the top 20 in NL MVP voting three times (1928, 1929 and 1937) and he was named to the 1936 NL All-Star team. Pinky's 124 RBI in 1932 still stands as the Phillies single-season record for a third baseman. Entering the 2009 season, he was tenth on the Phillies all-time career batting average list. Pinky retired following the 1939 season.

Nostalgia: In recent weeks, my Mom has been painstakingly scanning my grandfather’s old slides into digital files. It’s been a blast looking at decades-old pictures, and I know my Pop-Pop would have loved this new technology and the fact my Mom is taking the time to share these pictures with the family. The old family pictures got me thinking about my Pop-Pop, and I wondered if Pinky Whitney was one of his favorite players growing up. Maybe he even owned this card at some point. Pinky's Phillies Encyclopedia entry notes he was the team's captain and he "was extremely popular." My Pop-Pop would have been in his late teens in Pinky's heyday.

I have distinct memories of listening to Phillies games on the radio while driving with my Pop-Pop to Sea Isle in his big white van. He loved the Phillies and he’d keep track of their wins and losses on a daily basis on a Phillies calendar hanging in his bathroom. I still have those calendars and the picture from July 1983 is of the Phillies all-time greatest third baseman - Mike Schmidt, Willie Jones and Pinky Whitney.

1939 Play Ball #12 Hershel Ray Martin

Hershel Ray Martin was not a Pinky or a Dutch or a Spud – he was just a Hersh.

Hersh played six seasons in the Majors – four with the Phillies (1937-1940) and two with the Yankees (1944-1945). Hersh was the Phils’ starting center fielder in 1937 and 1938, joining the NL All-Star team in 1938. During his time with the Phillies, he hit .286 with 12 home runs, 115 RBI and a .354 OBP. Hersh spent significant time in the minor leagues, accumulating 2,298 minor league hits between 1932 and 1957. His final minor league at-bat came as a member of the 1957 Des Moines Bruins, the Chicago Cubs’ Class A team for which he was managing at the time. (He was 47.) Hersh was a scout for the New York Mets from 1961 to 1979. He passed away in 1980 at the age of 71.

The Uniforms: It's hard to see the full Phillies uniforms on these Play Ball cards, as the standard pose seems to be along the lines of "pensive swing while looking earnest." The players' posed swing completely obscures the Phillies wordmark on the front of the jerseys. Given the patch on Hersh's left shoulder on his Play Ball card, it appears as if he's wearing a 1938 Phillies uniform which was - believe it or not - blue and gold. (Image from the Baseball Hall of Fame Uniform Database.)

1939 Play Ball #37 Virgil Lawrence Davis

I’m starting to notice a trend here with the pre-1950s Phillies baseball cards I’ve added to my collection. Players of the ‘30s and ‘40s had much cooler nicknames than what we get today. So far I’ve featured Dutch and Pinky, and this post will show off Spud. (We like names like Wily Mo and Jo Jo, but it's not the same.)

Virgil “Spud” Davis spent 16 seasons in the Majors with the Cardinals (1928 and 1934-1936 as a member of the Gashouse Gang), Phillies (1928-1933 and 1938-1939), Reds (1937-1938) and the Pirates (1940-1941 and 1944-1945). He was the Phils’ starting catcher through most of the decade of the ‘30s. A career .308 hitter, Spud finished in the top 10 of the National League batting average leaders in 1931, 1932 and 1933 – finishing second to teammate Chuck Klein for the ’33 batting title. His career average is currently good enough for 118th on the all-time list. Not bad for a catcher nicknamed Spud. (I love the origin of his nickname, as told by the back of this card.)

Following his playing career, Spud served as an interim manager for the Pirates for 3 games in 1946 and he coached with the Cubs from 1950 to 1953. Spud passed away in 1984 in the city where he was born, Birmingham, Alabama.

Still Not as Interesting as Rob Ducey: But interesting nevertheless, Spud was traded twice for the same player – fellow catcher Jimmie Wilson. In May 1928, the Cardinals traded Spud to the Phillies for Wilson. Five and half years later, in November 1933, the two teams swapped catchers again with Spud going back to his original team.

All-Time Best Catcher?: Spud is included in the 1986 TCMA All-Time Phillies Greats set (a set currently on my wantlist) as the franchise’s best catcher. Bob Boone couldn’t be reached for comment for this post.

1939 Play Ball #45 Merrill May

For less than a week, the 1948 Bowman Dutch Leonard card was the oldest Phillies card in my collection, until I added a few reasonable priced 1939 Play Ball cards via eBay auctions.

I’m told by my Sports Collectors Digest Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards that with the issue of the 1939 Play Ball set "a new era of baseball cards was born." The 161-card set was issued in a larger size than cards of the prior era, and the card backs contained full biographies of the players pictured. (I'm not sure why the bottom of the card advertises a 250-card set.) There are ten cards in the Phillies team set, and I now have four of them.

After attending Indiana University, Merrill "Pinky" May was selected by the Phillies from the New York Yankees system in the 1938 Rule 5 draft. He spent the next five seasons (1939-1943) as the Phillies starting third baseman before joining the Navy and serving in World War II. Pinky was one of the bright spots for the 1940 Phillies (a team that lost 103 games) making his first and only All-Star Game appearance. He led the team in runs scored, hits, walks and OBP, and he tied for the team lead in doubles. In total, he’d play 665 games for the Phillies, hitting .275 with 4 home runs and 215 RBI.

Following his time in the navy, Pinky retired from baseball as an active player and managed in the minor leagues for 27 years (1947-1972), compiling a record of 1658-1560. Given his winning record and his time in the minors, it’s surprising to me he never got a shot to manage in the Majors. Pinky passed away in September 2000 at the age of 89.

Son of Merrill: Pinky’s son, Milt May, played 15 seasons in the Majors from 1970 until 1984.