#194 Monte Irvin - Chicago Cubs

Monford Merrill Irvin
Chicago Cubs
Outfield

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  195
Born:  February 25, 1919, Haleburg, AL
Signed:  Signed by the New York Giants as a free agent before 1949 season
Major League Teams:  Newark Eagles 1938-1943, 1945-1948; New York Giants 1949-1955; Chicago Cubs 1956
Hall of Fame Induction:  1973
Died:  January 11, 2016, Houston, TX (age 96)

Monte Irvin's Hall of Fame career saw him play for almost two decades as an All-Star shortstop and left fielder for the Newark Eagles and the New York Giants.  Irvin was a six-time All-Star in the Negro Leagues, winning batting titles in 1941 when he batted .395 and in 1946 when he batted .363.  He lost almost three years of playing time between 1943 and 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, earning the rank of Sergeant.  Playing in Mexico in 1942, Irvin won the league's Triple Crown and earned MVP honors in the 1945-46 Puerto Rico Winter League.  He led the Eagles over the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1946 Negro League World Series while batting .462 with three home runs.

Irvin signed with the Giants before the 1949 season and after a slow start he'd cement his reputation as one of the best hitters of his era.  He finished third in the MVP vote in 1951, after batting .312 and leading the league with 121 RBIs.  Irvin batted .458 in that year's World Series against the Yankees, but the Giants fell in six games.  While mentoring the young Willie Mays (#130), Irvin was an All-Star in 1952 but was limited to only 46 games after suffering a broken ankle in spring training.  As the Giants' regular left fielder in 1954, Irvin helped the club win their first World Championship title since 1933, sweeping the Indians in four games.  While his Negro League statistics are incomplete, his known statistics include 137 home runs and a lifetime batting average of .304.  Irvin was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1973, and the Giants retired his #20 in 2010.

Building the Set
December 28, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchase - Card #325

I first shared this story with the Roberto Clemente (#33) post, but I'll repeat myself, in an edited version, here.  The way my Dad and I finished the 1956 Topps set was somewhat anti-climatic but nevertheless a joyful memory.  Leading up to the Christmas of 2007, my Dad (with the help of my Mom) scoured eBay and other online baseball card stores for the remaining 29 cards we needed to complete the set.  Throughout the weeks and months leading up to the holidays, he knew we had completed the set but he kept it quiet, wanting to surprise me on Christmas morning.  I have no idea, and I'll never know, what the true last card was that he acquired to finish off the set.  And I have no record, nor was he able to tell me, how much they had paid for any of these final 29 cards.  Off-center but with four sharp corners, this Irvin card was one of the final 29, and was one of the three Hall of Famers in the bunch, along with Whitey Ford (#240) and Pee Wee Reese (#332).

The Card / Cubs Team Set
This is Irvin's final baseball card appearance as an active player, and Topps used the same photo as his 1955 card, replacing the Giants logo on his cap with a Cubs logo.  I found the action shot used for the card through a Getty Images search, and the outcome of the play is one I'm sure Irvin would have rather forgotten.  In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Irvin dropped a fly ball hit by the Indians' Bobby Avila (#132) in the top of the ninth inning with the score tied 2-2.  Avila would be stranded at second base and the Giants would ultimately win in the 10th inning on Dusty Rhodes' (#50) home run off Indians' pitcher Bob Lemon (#255).  That's shortstop Al Dark (#148) in the original photo with Irvin, and both Dark and his shadow have been removed from the photo used for Irvin's card.

The final cartoon panel on the back references his demotion to the minors in 1955, when he appeared in 75 games for the Minneapolis Millers, batting .352.  Topps reprinted this card twice, first for its 2001 Topps Archives set and then again as part of the 2005 Topps Heritage Real One Autographs insert set, containing Irvin's autograph.

1956 Season

The Giants left the former All-Star unprotected in the rule 5 draft following the 1955 season, and Irvin was selected by the Cubs.  He was Chicago's opening day left fielder and he'd split time at the position all season long with Jim King (#74).  Irvin batted .271 in 111 total games, with 15 home runs and 50 RBIs.  The Cubs finished dead last in the National League with a 60-94 record.  Set loose by the Cubs following the season, Irvin would attempt one more season with the Los Angeles Angels in 1957, then the top affiliate of the Dodgers, but a back injury limited him to only four games and he retired as a player.

1951 Topps Red Backs #50

1952 Topps #26

1953 Topps #62

1954 Topps #3

1955 Topps #100

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1951 Bowman #198
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1951-1956
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2021 Topps The History of Topps #HOT-2

448 - Irvin non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 3/11/22.

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

Wikipedia