#151 "Spook" Jacobs - Kansas City Athletics

Forrest Vandergrift Jacobs
Kansas City Athletics
Second Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'5"  Weight:  155
Born:  November 4, 1925, Cheswold, DE
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1946 season
Major League Teams:  Philadelphia Athletics 1954; Kansas City Athletics 1955-1956; Pittsburgh Pirates 1956
Died:  February 18, 2011, Milford, DE (age 85)

Prior to his baseball career, Spook Jacobs served in the U.S. Army during World War II, rose to the rank of sergeant and was awarded several prestigious medals for his service.  Jacobs played 14 seasons professionally stateside, and enjoyed his longest stint in the majors with 132 games for the 1954 Athletics in their final season in Philadelphia.  As the club's regular second baseman that season, he batted .258 with a career-high 26 RBIs.  Jacobs followed the Athletics to Kansas City where he was used sparingly in 1955 as a back-up second baseman or pinch-hitter.  Dealt to the Pirates in June 1956, he played his final 11 big league games in Pittsburgh.  In 188 games, Jacobs batted .247 with 33 RBIs.

Jacobs found his most success as a standout in the Cuban, Panamanian and Puerto Rican winter leagues.  He won two batting titles in Panama and helped the Carta Vieja Yankees to its only Caribbean World Series title in 1950.  He played a similar key role during the 1952-1953 season with the Azules de Almandares, contributing a game-winning walk-off hit during the Cuban championship series.  Jacobs was elected into both the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame and the Cuban Sports Hall of Fame, and to date he's the only American so honored.

Building the Set
June 22, 1993 in Ocean City, NJ - Card #112
Like the Bill Tremel (#96) card, this card is fairly beat up and there's no way my Dad was with me when this was purchased from Only Yesterday on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey.  My Dad would have rejected this card outright for our set given its condition.  Having gone through the first 150 cards from our set for this blog, I can honestly say this card is in the worst shape of any of them.  This Jacobs card was purchased along with the cards for Tremel and Dick Brodowski (#157) for $10.  Up until a few years ago, Only Yesterday was located on the Ocean City boardwalk and it was one of the few stops that was a must-visit for me whenever I'd walk the boards.  (The others being, and still being, Shriver's, Johnson's Popcorn, Manco & Manco's and the Surf Mall.)

I missed a chunk of my spring semester of my freshman year of college due to a bad bout of mono.  In the summer of 1993, after that freshman year, I was back at home.  June 22nd would have been a Tuesday, so that's a strange day to be visiting the Ocean City boardwalk given I would have had a summer job somewhere.

The Card / Athletics Team Set
I believe that's Tigers' catcher Frank House (#32) making a cameo appearance in the action shot and I think the play happened on April 16, 1955 in that game's first inning.  House wore #2 for the Tigers.  Jacobs had beat out an infield hit to lead-off the game and eventually came in to score on a Gus Zernial (#45) double play ball.  He's safe at the plate, but the Tigers would go on to win the ballgame, 8-3.

Jacobs only appears on three Topps cards, and all three cards use the exact same portrait photo.  His speed, both on the basepaths and as a defender, are highlighted in the cartoon panels on the back of the card.  This card was reprinted for Jacobs to autograph as part of the 2005 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs insert set.

1956 Season

Jacobs beat out Jim Finigan (#22) for the Athletics' starting second baseman's job in 1956, and he started the teams first 28 games before Finigan took over on May 21st.  Jacobs would play in only four more games for the Athletics before he was dealt to the Pirates on June 23rd for pitcher Jack McMahan and second baseman Curt Roberts (#306).  With the Pirates, Jacobs made 11 appearances (all starts at second base) and hit just .225 before a July demotion to the Hollywood Stars.  He finished out the season with the Stars, batting .341 over 81 games, and while he was among the September call-ups that season for the Pirates he never again appeared in a major league game.

Phillies Connection

In his final professional season as a player, and now 34 years old, Jacobs was a player-manager for the 1960 Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern Association.  At the time, that was the Phillies' Double-A affiliate and Jacobs guided the team to a 60-93 record.  He appeared in 125 games as the team's regular second baseman and batted .306.  It was his only season managing the Lookouts as future Phillies manager Frank Lucchesi would take over the team in 1961.

1954 Topps #129

1955 Topps #61

1988 Chattanooga Lookouts Legends #15

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1954 Topps #129
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3):  1954-1956
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2009 TriStar Obak #48

22 - Jacobs non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/14/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

#150 "Duke" Snider - Brooklyn Dodgers

Edwin Donald Snider
Brooklyn Dodgers
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  179
Born:  September 19, 1926, Los Angeles, CA
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1943 season
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1947-1957; Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-1962; New York Mets 1963; San Francisco Giants 1964
Hall of Fame Induction:  1980
Died:  February 27, 2011, Escondido, CA (age 84)

Duke Snider patrolled center field during the golden age and waning years of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the initial years of the Los Angeles Dodgers, helping the franchise reach six World Series, and winning titles in 1955 and 1959.  Snider was an eight-time All-Star and the N.L. MVP runner-up in 1955.  He set a career high that season with 136 RBIs, leading the league in the process.  Snider hit over 40 home runs in five straight seasons between 1953 and 1957, leading the league with 43 in 1956.  A fine fielder, he led the league in fielding percentage for center fielders three times.

Snider's play declined when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, with his chronically injured knee and a 440-foot right field wall in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum both contributing to his power outage.  As the right fielder for the 1959 Dodgers, he experienced one last World Series with his club winning over the White Sox in six games.  Snider finished his playing career with two lackluster seasons with the expansion Mets in 1963 and the Giants in 1964.  In 2,143 career games, Snider batted .295 with 2,116 hits, 407 home runs and 1,333 RBIs.  His .540 career slugging percentage is currently 33rd on the all-time list.  Snider was on the Padres broadcast team for their first three years of existence and later moved into the same role with the Expos in 1973.  He served as the Expos' hitting coach in 1974 and 1975.  Snider was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980, with the Dodgers retiring his #4 that same year.

Like a lot of baseball fans first finding their love of the game in the early 1980s, I first became aware of Snider through the Terry Cashman song, "Talkin' Baseball," which celebrated the three center fielders of the New York franchises from the 1950s - Willie Mays (#130), Mickey Mantle (#135) and Snider.

Building the Set
December 25, 1989 from Santa Claus - Card #92
It's rare for me to have no record of how exactly a card came to join our set, but that's the case here with this Snider card.  All I know for certain is the card was found under our Christmas tree on Christmas morning 1989, and if my Dad had told me at the time where he had purchased the card, I didn't write it down in my records.

The Card / Dodgers Team Set
Here we have the first (and only?) instance of the rare black-orange bars on the front of the card.  The head shot is the same used on Snider's 1955 Topps card, but it's different than what was used for his 1954 Topps card.  In the action shot, I'm assuming that's a batboy greeting Snider at the plate after a home run.  The back of the card pays tribute to his league leading statistics in 1955, the Dodgers' recent World Championship title and his fine outfield play.

The card was reprinted as part of the 1995 Topps Archives Brooklyn Dodgers set, for the 2001 Topps Through the Years insert set (regular and chrome versions) and again within the 2012 Topps Archives Reprints insert set.  Snider signed reprints of the card for the 2005 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs set.

1956 Season

This was to be Snider's last as an All-Star, although a few solid seasons were still in front of him.  He was criticized at the time for his portrayal in a Roger Kahn article titled, "I Play Baseball for Money, Not Fun," which cast Snider as ungrateful for the adulation his baseball fame had brought him.  Kahn, who would go on to pen the amazing book The Boys of Summer, painted a portrait of a player who complained about the travel and abusive fans, and would rather be with his family and focused on his newly purchased avocado farms.  Still, Snider helped pace the Dodgers with a team-leading 43 home runs and 101 RBIs, and his .292 average on the team was second only to Jim Gilliam's (#280) .300.  He finished 10th in the league's MVP voting.  The Dodgers once again reached the World Series, but lost to the Yankees in seven games.  Snider batted .304 (7 for 23) in the series with a home run and four RBIs.

1949 Bowman #226

1952 Topps #37

1957 Topps #170

1959 Topps #20

1964 Topps #155

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1949 Bowman #226
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (13):  1951-1952, 1954-1964
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2021 Topps Tribute #55

1,754 - Snider non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/10/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
National Baseball Hall of Fame
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

#149 "Dixie" Howell - Chicago White Sox

Millard Howell
Chicago White Sox
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  210
Born:  January 7, 1920, Harold, KY
Acquired:  Purchased by the Cleveland Indians from Logan (Mountain States) before 1938 season
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 1940; Cincinnati Reds 1949; Chicago White Sox 1955-1958
Died:  March 18, 1960, Hollywood, FL (age 40)

Not to be confused with Dixie Howell the catcher, this Dixie Howell was a right-handed pitcher who spent 18 seasons in the minor leagues finally seeing regular playing time at the age of 35 with the White Sox in 1955.  Howell won at least ten games in the minors in nine different seasons between 1937 and 1953.  He saw his first big league action in 1940 with the Indians, but then spent the next three seasons pitching in the Eastern League before missing all of 1944 and 1945 while serving during World War II.  He was taken prisoner by German troops in September 1944, spending six months as a P.O.W. before Allied forces stormed Germany six months later.

Howell then pitched for three more seasons in the minors with the Reds before appearing in five games with Cincinnati in 1949.  After short stints with the Giants and Phillies' organizations, Howell finally got a chance to pitch in the majors on a regular basis with the White Sox in 1955.  He appeared in at least 34 games for three seasons in a row, going 19-14 with a 3.55 ERA and 18 saves with Chicago.  He appeared in one game with the White Sox in 1958 before returning to the minors for the 1959 season.  Howell tragically died of a heart attack suffered during spring training with the White Sox in March 1960.

He was inducted onto the Syracuse Chiefs Wall of Fame in 2002 as the team's all-time leader in wins (55) and home runs by a pitcher (12).  Howell holds the major league record for the longest time (16 years) between his major league debut (1940) and his first major league win (1955).  He's also holds the major league record for most hits recorded (five) during a season without a single.  In 1957, his five hits were a double, a triple and three home runs.

Building the Set
April 22, 2000 in Raleigh, NC - Card #199
I paid $4 for this card at the Sports Card & NASCAR Collectibles Show held in Raleigh, North Carolina a week after tax deadline day and the day before Easter.  I bought six cards that day, paying a grand total of $20.  Pictures from this time in my life are few and far between, but it looks as if my parents paid a visit to Raleigh for Easter weekend as I have photos of them dressed for what has to be for a church service.  We're standing outside the apartment complex where I was living at the time.  And it's quite possible my Dad attended this baseball card show in Raleigh with me, which would have been a rarity in those days.

This day is also notable as it's almost 10 years to the day before our youngest son Ben was born.  There were some bumpy roads coming up for a few years following this picture, but eventually things got back on track.

The Card / White Sox Team Set
This is Howell's rookie card, and he'd go on to also appear in the 1957 and 1958 Topps sets.  While his SABR biography notes he was named for our 13th president, Millard Fillmore, the back of this Topps card indicates that his middle name was actually Fillmore as well.  Baseball Reference lists his full name as simply Millard Howell.  The cartoon panels on the back of the card reference his longevity in the minors, and his brief stint as an outfielder for the Reds.  While he never played in the outfield in the majors, he was used as a pinch-hitter 11 times.

1956 Season

Coming off a successful 1955 campaign, Howell found himself once again in the White Sox bullpen, appearing in 34 games and going 5-6 with a 4.62 ERA and four saves.  No other White Sox reliever was used as much, and his four saves actually led the team.  He made one start for the club on August 23rd against the Yankees, lasting 5 2/3 innings and picking up the win.

Phillies Connection
On January 26, 1952, the Phillies purchased Howell from the Giants.  The Baltimore Orioles in the International League were the Phillies' top minor league affiliate in 1952, and Howell struggled mightily with the Orioles.  In only five games, he went 0-3 with a 11.08 ERA over 13 innings pitched.  Apparently that was enough for the Phillies, and he was returned to the Giants (I'm assuming for a refund?) on May 15, 1952.

1957 Topps #221

1958 Topps #421

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1956 Topps #149
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3):  1956-1958
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1958 Topps #421

The Trading Card Database for Howell intermingles his cards with those of Homer "Dixie" Howell the catcher.

5 - Howell non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/5/21.
Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia

#148 Alvin Dark - New York Giants

Alvin Ralph Dark
New York Giants
Shortstop

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  185
Born:  January 7, 1922, Comanche, OK
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent, July 4, 1946
Major League Teams:  Boston Braves 1946, 1948-1949; New York Giants 1950-1956; St. Louis Cardinals 1956-1958; Chicago Cubs 1958-1959; Philadelphia Phillies 1960; Milwaukee Braves 1960

As a Manager:  San Francisco Giants 1961-1964; Kansas City Athletics 1966-1967; Cleveland Indians 1968-1971; Oakland Athletics 1974-1975; San Diego Padres 1977
Died:  November 13, 2014, Easley, SC (age 92)

Al Dark spent 27 years in the majors first as an All-Star shortstop between 1946 and 1960 and then as a successful manager between 1961 and 1977.  Dark was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1948, batting .322 with 48 RBIs.  He was a three-time All-Star (1951, 1952 and 1954) and earned MVP votes in six different seasons.  Dark led the league in doubles with 41 in 1951, the year he helped the Giants reach the World Series.  He'd have to wait until 1954 to win his first World Series ring when he batted .412 during the series while helping the Giants sweep the Indians.  Dark finished eight seasons in the top five for fielding percentage among all National League shortstops and he led the league in double plays turned three times.  In 1,828 career games, Dark batted .289 with 126 home runs and 2,089 hits.

After retiring as a player, Dark began his managerial career with the Giants in 1961, guiding the team to the National League pennant in 1962.  After stints with the Kansas City Athletics and Indians, Dark took over the Oakland Athletics in 1974 and led the team to its third straight World Series.  (The team had won in 1972 and 1973 with Dick Williams as the manager.)  He was 994-954 as a manager, just missing the 1,000-win plateau.

Building the Set
December 4, 1999 in Raleigh, NC - Card #190
This is one of four cards I acquired at the "Holiday Sports Classic" baseball card show held in Raleigh in late 1999.  I paid $10 for the Cubs team card (#11) and another $5 for three commons - this Dark card, Norm Zauchin (#89) and Chico Carrasquel (#230).  Given the timing of this show right before the holidays, I would have attended by myself but I most likely called my Dad back in Millville, New Jersey to update him on my purchases later that day.

From the notes I took on the flyer shown here, I didn't have much of a budget for this show as I spent $15 for the four cards for our 1956 Topps set and a whopping $6.30 for five cards for my 1972 Topps set.  It's also interesting to look back at this flyer and remember how bonkers the Beanie Baby craze was in the late 1990s.

The Card / Giants Team Set
Dark returned to Topps sets after being exclusively in the Bowman sets in 1954 and 1955.  On the back of the card, Topps shaved a year off Dark's age as he was actually born in 1922.  The first cartoon panel on the back highlights his time at Louisiana State University, where he lettered in baseball, basketball and football.

1956 Season

Dark was the Giants' opening day shortstop and in 48 games with his long-time club he batted .252.  But the team got off to a rough start, mired in seventh place in the National League by early June and Giants' management decided a shake-up was in order.  On June 14th, Dark, Ray Katt, Don Liddle (#325) and Whitey Lockman (#205), along with cash, were traded to the Cardinals for Jackie Brandt, Dick Littlefield, Bill Sarni (#247), Red Schoendienst (#165) and two players to be named later.  Given the popularity of Dark with the Giants and Schoendienst with the Cardinals, I'm assuming it was a shocking deal when first announced.

Dark settled in as the everyday shortstop for the Cardinals, batting .286 over 100 games with 37 RBIs.

Phillies Career
Dark came to the Phillies in the trade that saw popular Phillie and future Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn (#120) depart the franchise.  On January 11, 1960, the Phillies acquired Dark, John Buzhardt and Jim Woods from the Cubs for Ashburn.  With Dark at 38, only Dave Philly (#222) was older on the club at 40.  Dark was the Phillies' opening day third baseman in 1960 and he was a regular in the line-up until the team traded him on June 23rd to the Braves for Joe Morgan.

His first hit of the season in the team's home opener on April 14th was the 2,000 of his career, a sixth inning infield single off pitcher Don McMahon.  With the Phillies, Dark hit .242 over 55 games, with 3 home runs and 14 RBIs.  His short time with the club earned him a 1960 Topps card, released late in the season.

1949 Bowman #67

1951 Bowman #14

1958 Topps #125

1960 Topps #472

1978 Topps #467

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1949 Bowman #67
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (19):  1952-1953, 1956-1964, 1966-1970, 1975, 1978
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Lineage Autographs #RA-AD

137 - Dark non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/5/21.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Phillies Room
SABR
The Trading Card Database

Wikipedia