Another Wonderful Christmas: Diamond Stars, Phillies Yearbooks and Vintage Cards

As has become tradition, we spend the day after Christmas at my Mom's house with my sister and her family.  The day is filled with food, way too many presents and a steady stream of laughter.  This year was no different and there were a few different times I was literally out of breath as I was laughing too hard.  In between the food and the laugher and handing out presents, I sat down to open my presents from my Mom and as is also tradition, the gifts were spectacular.  The baseball card/Phillies portion of this year's gifts consisted of the following:

• 1963 and 1979 Phillies Yearbooks - The 1963 Yearbook is new to my collection, and the 1979 is a much-needed upgrade from the original version obtained during my first ever Phillies game.
• 1953 Bowman Black & White - I needed two more cards to complete my Phillies team set and Mom added them both, #35 Johnny Wyrostek and #64 Andy Hansen.  I'm now the happy owner of a full run of Bowman Phillies cards, with the sole and notable exception of the Richie Ashburn rookie card from the 1949 Bowman set.
• 1956 Topps - To wrap up my Phillies team set from this iconic release, and essentially the second time I've collected these cards, the last five cards I needed were added.  There were two Phillies cards, #180 Robin Roberts and #334 Bob Miller, and three cards of players on other teams who played with the Phillies during the 1956 season, #3 Elmer Valo, #77 Harvey Haddix and #293 Stu Miller.
• 1934-36 Diamond Stars - Finally, two cards were added to my growing 1934-36 Diamond Stars set, and I'll cover both of those with separate posts over on my blog for that set.  I think the coolest, and most unexpected, gift was an original yellow wrapper from the set.  I've seen pictures of these, and I know this is one of three colors available, but I've never actually held one and now it will make an excellent top page within my set's binder.

My Mom puts so much thought and care into her Christmas presents for all of us, and she once again outdid herself this year!  I hope Santa brought plenty of new baseball cards for your collection this holiday season and here's to a wonderful, hopeful and healthy 2022!

Ending 2020 on a High Note (#SBWTMABCTJ)

I've always prided myself in trying to live in the moment and to not spend too much time looking forward to what comes next.  With that being said, I'm more than ready to turn the page on 2020 and I'm hopeful for a safe, healthy and less anxiety-filled 2021.  I'm extremely grateful my family made it through this year with our health and clinging to a few annual traditions that mean a lot to us.  Selfishly, one of those annual traditions I look forward to is the opening of presents at my Mom's house the day after Christmas.  The gathering was in doubt this year, but with everyone masked up, spread out as much as we could and with hand sanitizers readily available, we did it.  Dr. Fauci would have been proud.  The gathering was shorter than usual, with less hugs and less eating, but it still meant a lot.  We gathered for a quick family selfie at the end of the evening, which was really the only time we all briefly came together.

The last present I opened yesterday contained eight individually wrapped gifts in the exact shape and size of baseball cards.  If you've read this blog each December for the past 10 years, you're now familiar with the annual event of Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim.  Thanks largely to my Mom, it's actually getting harder to populate my Most Wanted - Vintage list on this blog's sidebar, and I may need to change up my tactics for 2021's installment.  From this year's haul, the 10th Annual SBWTMABCTJ:

1949 Bowman #228 Jackie Mayo - The addition of this Mayo card, since jail-breaked from its slab, means I'm only one card away from a 1949 Bowman Phillies team set.  The Richie Ashburn rookie card is going to need to wait a little bit longer.

1952 Topps #13 Johnny Wyrostek - Wyrostek is on the Reds here, but he played with the Phillies in 1952 which means he fits into my definition of belonging in my 1950s Phillies binder.  The only remaining 1952 Topps Phillies cards I need now are from the pricey high-number series.

1953 Bowman Black & White #47 Jack Lohrke - Compared to their Color counterparts, the 1953 Bowman Black & White set often gets overlooked.  For a complete run of Bowman Phillies cards, I'm down to needing three cards - the '49 Ashburn rookie, along with Wyrostek and Andy Hansen from this 1953 Bowman set.

1956 Topps #114 Jim Owens and #274 Frank Baumholtz - I already own these cards in our 1956 Topps set, and I'm selfishly adding second copies of each for my 1950s Phillies binder.

1966 Topps #543 Roger Craig - This card gets me one card away from a complete run of Phillies cards from the 1960s Topps sets.  I'm down to needing just the Gary Sutherland card (shared with the Mets' Don Shaw) from the tough 1967 Topps high-number series.  The only cards standing in the way of my having a complete run of Topps Phillies team sets from 1951 to 2020 are four cards from the 1952 Topps high-number series, two cards from the 1956 Topps set and the Sutherland Rookie Stars card.

1971 Topps #664 Ken Reynolds and #692 Wayne Twitchell - These two cards wrap up my complete run of 1970s Topps Phillies team sets.  Again, Twitchell is with the Brewers here but since he played with the Phillies in 1971, it's worthy of a spot in my team set.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your families!  Stay safe, mask up and go wash your hands.

More Cards from the 1950s from the Annual SBWTMABCTJ

1950 Bowman #32

I wrote my last post while coming down from a Christmas cookie high, so perhaps I was a bit premature in declaring that the two Richie Ashburn Bowman cards were my favorite cards obtained in this year's Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim haul.  (The SBWTMABCTOJ if you will.)

Sure the 1950 Bowman Robin Roberts card is small by today's standards, but it's a beautiful baseball card nevertheless.  Featuring a somewhat unusual for this set horizontal orientation, this Roberts card is the Hall of Famers' second Bowman card, coming a year after the appearance of his 1949 rookie card.  This now marks the oldest (and most valuable) Roberts card in my collection, and it gets me one card closer to finishing the tough 1950 Bowman Phillies team set.

1951 Topps Blue Backs #43

Also added from the haul was this 1951 Topps Blue Backs card of Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones.  Not too long ago, I didn't have any 1951 Topps cards in my Phillies collection, and now I'm just a Richie Ashburn and an Eddie Waitkus card away from a complete team set.  Willie looks upset on this card about the Balk call with which his card has been designated.

1955 Bowman #237

Finally, but certainly not least, Johnny Wyrostek's 1955 Bowman card gets me just two cards away from a complete 1955 Bowman Phillies team set.  I've already decided that once I finish off this team set, I'm going to put up a gallery of all the cards, similar to what I did with the very special 1951 Bowman Phillies team set.

2014 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Part 1 - 1952 Bowman and 1953 Bowman Color Richie Ashburn

1953 Topps Phillies

1991 Topps 1953 Archives #10, #146, #88, #79

I've always preferred Topps' "sophomore" effort over its inaugural freshman set.  (I'm not ignoring the '51 sets, but it's hard to hold them in the same class as the '52 and '53 sets.)  The 1953 Topps set is gorgeous.  It uses beautifully painted portraits of its subjects as Topps continued to battle Bowman for the hard-earned allowances of young baseball fans across the nation.  The '53 Bowman Color set is a classic in its own right, but there's something about the '53 Topps set that appeals to me a little more.  It's a shame Topps hasn't dipped back into this well more, as it's only reproduced the design in its 2002 Topps Heritage set.  I wouldn't mind seeing a Topps 53 set, showcasing portraits of the rookie classes of 2011 or 2012.

The Set
Number of cards in the set:  Although the set numbers to 280, there are only 274 cards in the set as six cards were never issued.
My very brief thoughts on the set:  When I'm rich and famous, I'd love to collect this set.  The only drawback is the lack of notable Phillies players in the set, which I'll get to in a a little bit.  The write-up in the Standard Catalog notes this is the first time the back of baseball cards featured a trivia question.
Notable competition:  Bowman issued two sets in 1953 - a 160-card color set and a 64-card black and white set.  Trying to keep up with Topps, both Bowman sets contained a line of prior year and career statistics on the back.

1991 Topps 1953 Archives #102, #140, #59, #136

1953 Phillies
Record and finish:  After winning 87 games and finishing in fourth in 1952, the record slipped to 83-71, but the finish improved to third place in the National League.  The Phils had finished the '52 season as one of the hottest teams in baseball, and they were primed to compete in the Senior Circuit in '53.  But it wasn't to be, as injuries and a red hot Brooklyn Dodgers team couldn't be overcome.
Key players:  Robin Roberts led the league in wins (23), strikeouts (198) and complete games (33) on his way to being named The Sporting News' pitcher of the year for the second consecutive year.  Richie Ashburn led the league in hits (205) while hitting .330 for the year.  Lefty Curt Simmons (16-13, 3.21) had another successful year and Jim Konstanty, who started 19 games for the Phils, made a nice comeback with a 14-10 record.  Left fielder Del Ennis (.285, 29 home runs, 125 RBIs) had another solid year.  Granny Hamner (.276, 21 home runs, 92 RBIs) was the starting shortstop for the National League in the All-Star Game, but he was moved to second over the summer to make room for rising prospect Ted Kazanski.
Key events:  Simmons cut off the end of one of his big toes in June, missing a month of the season.  Second baseman Connie Ryan had six hits in a game against the Pirates on April 16th.

1991 Topps 1953 Archives #311, #288, #318, #307

1953 Phillies in 1953 Topps
Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are only 9 Phillies cards in the '53 Topps set, which is well below the average for the 16 existing teams at the time.  Even worse, two of the nine Phillies featured didn't play a game for the team in 1953 - Howie Fox, who played for the AAA Baltimore Orioles all season, and Ken Heintzelman, who was released by the Phils on April 4th.  We're up to 36 total Phillies cards in Topps' first three years.

1991 Topps
1953 Archives #88 (Back)

Who’s in:  The Topps Company's ongoing disputes with Bowman over player contracts meant that not many Phillies were in.  There's only four of the regular position players - catcher Smoky Burgess, Hamner, third baseman Puddin' Head Jones and right fielder Johnny Wyrostek.  There's also two bench players (Ryan and infielder Tommy Glaviano) and just one lone pitcher who actually pitched for the Phils in '53 - Karl Drews.
Who’s out:  Just about everybody else - first baseman Earl Torgeson, shortstop Kazanski, outfielders Ennis and Ashburn, pitchers Roberts, Simmons and Konstanty and the entire bullpen.
Phillies on other teams:  Pitcher Johnny Lindell was purchased from Pittsburgh in August and he appeared in 11 games for the Phillies.  He appears on card #230 as a Pirate.
What’s he doing here?:  Fox and Heintzelman, as mentioned above.
Cards that never were candidates:  Ennis, Ashburn, Roberts, Simmons and Konstanty.
Favorite Phillies card:  I'm going with Willie Jones' card with its blue sky background with white fluffy clouds.  Although it would have been cool had Topps crammed in "Puddin' Head" on the front of the card instead of "Willie."

2002 Topps Heritage #30, #179, #246, #288

Other Stuff
Recycled:  Topps reprinted the '53 set in 1991, dubbing it 1991 Topps Archives, "The Ultimate 1953 Set."  Topps included 57 "cards that never were" featuring black and white photos and colored backgrounds, which completely failed to capture the look and feel of the original.  What could have been a cool concept was botched as the cards that never were looked absolutely nothing like the cards that actually were, save for the colored black or red box and team logo.  Had they done it right, the 1953 Topps Ashburn card would have looked like this.  As mentioned above, Topps used the design for its second Heritage set in 2002.

Blogs:  Check out this excellent entry on the '53 Topps set over at The Golden Age of Baseball Cards.

Did You Know?:  The Phillies logo used by Topps on its '52 and '53 baseball cards was never actually an official logo of the club.  The correct "official" logo in use at the time by the team on its publications and advertising materials was the logo featured here.  I've always wondered why the people at Topps generated their own Phillies logo for its earliest baseball cards instead of using the official logo.  Perhaps the thin blue line circling the Phillies' cap was too hard to replicate on a baseball card?  The official logo makes its long-awaited debut in the '54 Topps set.

1952 Topps Phillies



1983 Topps 1952 Reprint #216, #221, #223, #357



Perhaps no other baseball card set in the long legacy of Topps has been as self-celebrated as the 1952 set.  Topps has run out this design in numerous retro-themed baseball sets throughout the past decade, beginning with its initial Heritage set in 2001.  If you collected baseball cards in the 2000s, it was nearly impossible to not own a reprint, in shiny form or not, of the iconic '52 Topps Mickey Mantle card.  Topps was also generous with the amount of other reprints it provided to collectors, as I'll show in a future post with the '52 Topps Robin Roberts card.

Unlike the previous year, Topps did not dabble with any other specialty sets in 1952, choosing instead to put all its energy into the six series of baseball cards released throughout the summer and into the fall.

Santa brought me the complete 1952 Topps reprint set for Christmas in 1983, and it's been lovingly displayed in 9-pocket pages in a binder ever since.  (The original blue box it came in is tucked away around here somewhere.)

1983 Topps 1952 Reprint #203, #13, #47, #44

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  A whopping 407 cards were included in the set.  I didn't research this, but this had to have been the largest baseball card set released since the sprawling tobacco card sets from the beginning of the 20th century.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  Criticizing the 1952 Topps set is like trying to nit-pick the Beatles' White Album.  You just don't do it.  It's a classic, it set the standard for modern-day baseball card sets and I'll appreciate it's grandeur no matter how many times Topps subjects us to the design in future retro-based sets.  And it was the first set to feature team logos on the front, which is just awesome.
Notable competition:  Bowman released a 252-card set that was pretty much a rehash of its '51 issue.  They got rid of the black name plate on the front of the card and replaced it with a facsimile autograph.  



1952 Topps #213


1952 Phillies

Record and finish:  The team's record of 87-67 was respectable, but it was only good enough for fourth place in the National League, 9 1/2 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Key players:  Roberts enjoyed one the best years of his Hall of Fame career, compiling a record of 28-7 with a 2.59 ERA and 30 complete games in 330 innings pitched.  He was named The Sporting News' National League Pitcher of the Year.  Curt Simmons returned from the military to go 14-8 and start the All-Star game for the National League squad.  Catcher Smoky Burgess led the team with a .296 batting average.  Burgess had been acquired from the Reds in December 1951 in a 7-player trade that saw popular Phillies Andy Seminick and Dick Sisler shipped to Cincinnati.  Rookie Mel Clark began what appeared to be a promising career by hitting .335 and stringing together a 17-game hitting streak.  Del Ennis (.289, 20 home runs, 107 RBIs), Puddin' Head Jones (.250, 18, 72) and Granny Hamner (.275, 17, 87) enjoyed strong years offensively.

Key events:  Owner Bob Carpenter removed Hamner as the team's captain following a particularly poor road trip in June.  Later that month, manager Eddie Sawyer was fired and was replaced by Steve O'Neill.

1952 Topps #213 (Back)

1952 Phillies in 1952 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  Phillies players were featured on 20 cards in the set, and with 16 teams in the Majors in 1952, that's a below average number for the 407-card set.  If you're keeping track at home, the Phillies have been featured on 27 cards so far in Topps' base set infancy.  

Who’s in:  The eight starters have cards, although the team's regular right fielder is pictured with the Reds.  (More on that in a bit.)  The starting rotation of Roberts, Russ Meyer, Karl Drews, Simmons and Howie Fox are all represented.  The main guys from the bullpen and a few bench players round out the team set.

Who’s out:  Outfielder Mel Clark is missing, and he'd have to wait for the '53 Bowman Color set for his first baseball card.  Back-up catcher Stan Lopata isn't represented, nor is reserve outfielder Jackie Mayo, who appeared in 50 games.  If you wanted a 1952 Phillies card of reserve infielder Jack Lohrke, you'd have to search for him in packs of Bowman.

Phillies on other teams:  Right fielder Johnny Wyrostek was acquired from the Reds in May 1952 for Bubba Church.  Both Wyrostek (Series 1) and Church (Series 6) are featured in the set as members of the Reds.  Catcher Del Wilber played in two games for the Phillies early in the season before being sold to the Red Sox in mid-May.  He's featured on card #383 with the Red Sox.

What’s he doing here?:  Pitcher Con Dempsey appears on card #44 with the Phillies, yet he never played a game with the team.  He pitched in three games with the '51 Pirates and the back of his 1952 Topps card mentions "The Phils drafted him, hoping he shows some of his Pacific Coast League form."  Dempsey's best season in professional baseball came in 1949 with the San Francisco Seals, when he went 17-14 with a 4.23 ERA.  (And what's going on with the "P" on Dempsey's hat?)
Cards that never were candidates:  Wyrostek, Clark, Lopata, new manager O'Neill.

Favorite Phillies card:  With all due respect to the cards of Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn and Roberts, Smoky Burgess' card is just cool.  Had I seen this card in the summer of '52, I would have wanted to wear my catcher's mask on top of my head, just like Smoky.



2001 Topps Heritage #334, 2006 Topps 52 #139,
2007 Topps 52 Debut Flashbacks #DF13, 2008 Topps Trading Card History #TCH34

Other Stuff

Recycled:  As mentioned earlier, the 1952 Topps design was replicated in Topps first Heritage set, released in 2001.  They used the design again in their "rookie" based Topps 52 sets in 2006 and 2007. 

Blogs:  It's not a blog per se, but check out 1952toppsbaseballcards.com for pictures of all the cards in the set (front and back), cards that never were, and rotating baseballs.

Did you know?:  To date, the only actual '52 Topps Phillies card that I own is that of first baseman Vernal Leroy "Nippy" Jones.  I added this card in a summer 2010 Check Out My Cards binge when I decided it was time to own a Phillies baseball card from each Topps base set.  I needed a card from 1952 and one from 1957 to conclude the quest.