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Robert James Wilson
Detroit Tigers
Catcher
Born: March 7, 1929, Milwaukee, WI
Signed: Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent before 1950 season
Major League Teams: Chicago White Sox 1951-1954; Detroit Tigers 1954-1960; Cleveland Indians 1960
Died: August 8, 2014, Fitchburg, WI (age 85)
Before beginning his 10-year career in the Majors, Red Wilson was a star college football and baseball player at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following his senior year, he won the Big Ten MVP award in 1949 while serving as team captain for the Badgers. Wilson was drafted by the NFL's Browns but he opted for a baseball career, signing with the White Sox.
After playing in parts of four seasons with the White Sox, Wilson was traded to the Tigers in May 1954. His seven seasons in Detroit marked the best years of his career with the 1956 and 1958 seasons standing out. When serving as Tigers' pitcher Frank Lary's (#191) personal catcher, Wilson caught Lary as he put together a 16-3 record against the powerhouse Yankees earning the pitcher the nickname of "Yankee Killer." Wilson hit .354 in those games against the Yankees while catching Lary.
Wilson hit a career high .299 in 1958, appeared in a career high 103 games and caught Jim Bunning's no-hitter against the Red Sox on June 20th. In 602 games, Wilson owned a career batting average of .258 with 24 home runs and 189 RBIs.
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| With my friends John and Heather at a wedding, October 12, 1998 |
October 10, 1998 in Winston-Salem, NC - Card #164
In what had to have been a post-birthday purchase, I spent $52 in the Season Ticket baseball card store in Winston-Salem for 10 1956 Topps cards. This Wilson card cost me $4. I say it had to have been a post-birthday purchase as I didn't have a lot of disposable income back then, but I made sure that any birthday money from my parents went towards something fun and not towards something practical. Looking back at pictures from this period, I was in town for a wedding for a good friend of mine.
I spent 5 years living in Winston-Salem, but I still managed to get lost driving around in those pre-GPS days quite frequently. Season Ticket was one of the few locations in the city that I memorized and I could drive to without having to ask someone to remind me of the directions. I mean no disrespect to the former owners, but the place was a glorious dump. Baseball cards were stacked precariously and haphazardly throughout the store, there was hardly any flat surface without something piled on it, nothing was ever in order and if you asked for something specific the owners may or may not remember the general direction of where they had last seen it.
And I loved it in there. I took my Dad a few times when my parents visited me, and he couldn't wait to get out of the store and back into some fresh air.The Card
The Topps photographer positioned Wilson in foul territory most likely prior to a game and got Wilson to give him the old "look like the batter just smoked a pitch to right field" look. His college football achievements are mentioned on the back of the card and Wilson was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.
Tigers Team Set
1956 Season
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First Mainstream Card: 1953 Topps #250
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (7): 1953-1954, 1956-1960
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2009 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs #ROA-RJW
He's Bob on his 1953, 1954 and 1957 Topps card, and "Red" on his 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960 Topps cards. Topps got a little carried away with his 1958 photo, painting out Wilson's bat and also most of his arm from the elbow down. And it can't be a coincidence the background color used for most of his Topps cards was Red.
20 - Wilson non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 1/21/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year. Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.
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Order Collected: #84 "Babe" Birrer - Detroit Tigers / #94 Ronnie Kline - Pittsburgh Pirates
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