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James Barton Vernon
Boston Red Sox
First Base
Born: April 22, 1918, Marcus Hook, PA
Signed: Signed by the Washington Senators as an amateur free agent before 1937 season
Major League Teams: Washington Senators 1939-1943, 1946-1948; Cleveland Indians 1949-1950; Washington Senators 1950-1955; Boston Red Sox 1956-1957; Cleveland Indians 1958; Milwaukee Braves 1959; Pittsburgh Pirates 1960
Major League Teams: Washington Senators 1939-1943, 1946-1948; Cleveland Indians 1949-1950; Washington Senators 1950-1955; Boston Red Sox 1956-1957; Cleveland Indians 1958; Milwaukee Braves 1959; Pittsburgh Pirates 1960
As a Manager: Washington Senators 1961-1963
Died: September 24, 2008, Media, PA (age 90)
The universally popular Mickey Vernon played in parts of 20 seasons in the majors, with his career interrupted for two years in its prime as he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He'd enjoy a career year in 1946 upon his return from the war, leading the league with 51 doubles and winning his first of two career batting titles with a .353 mark. Vernon batted over .290 in nine seasons, leading the league in doubles three times and earning a second batting title in 1953 when he batted .337. He was a seven-time All-Star, but in spending his entire career with second division teams, he never reached the World Series. (Vernon would win a ring as the first base coach for the World Champion Pirates in 1960.) A above average fielder at first base, Vernon is the all-time leader in double plays turned at the position with 2,044. He led the league in fielding percentage four times, putouts three times, and he currently ranks seventh all-time with 19,819 putouts and fourth all-time with 2,237 games at first base.
Vernon collected 2,495 hits, batting .286 with 490 doubles, 172 home runs and 1,311 RBIs. His Senators, where he played for 14 seasons, moved to Minnesota in 1961, and he's still in the top ten of most major offensive categories on the Senators/Twins all-time leaderboard. Vernon managed the expansion Senators (now the Rangers) between 1961 and 1963, accumulating a 135-227-1 record. He served as a coach for the Pirates (1960, 1964), Cardinals (1965), Expos (1977-1978) and Yankees (1982), and later as a roving batting instructor for the Dodgers, Royals and Yankees.
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| September 20, 2003 - Harry Kalas with Mickey Vernon |
September 25, 2005 in Ft. Washington, PA - Card #266
This was a late edition to our set and one of 11 cards we purchased at the 92nd Philadelphia Sports Card Show held at the convention center in Ft. Washington. My records show we paid only $5 for this card. With the Ocean City baseball card shows long gone by now, our only options for local baseball card shows were the "Philly Shows" held in Ft. Washington at the time or the occasional mall baseball card show.
My Dad didn't like the drive to Ft. Washington, and this would have been one of only a few shows we attended together in this location. Our next show together was a few months later in December, also in Ft. Washington. Looking at my records of when and where we purchased our cards, a full year would go by before we'd add any more cards to the set after that December show.
The year-long hiatus in collecting the set came at a time my wife and I were expecting our first son and as we moved into our first real house, so we had a pretty good excuse not to be purchasing baseball cards at the time.
The Card / Red Sox Team Set
Like a lot of the players in the set's third series, this is Vernon's return to Topps after a three-year exclusive run with Bowman. For the main photo, Topps used a photo of Vernon in a Senators uniform, replacing the W on his hat with a Boston B. That could be Vernon in the action photo on the left, standing and having presumably just tagged the runner out. Or that could be him as the runner, looking up and barely visible between the umpire's legs. The cartoon panels on the back highlight his two batting titles, his recent move to Boston, and his fine fielding at first base.
1956 Season
Phillies Connection
As a lifelong Phillies fan, I knew of Vernon long before adding this card to my collection, even though he never played a game for the Phillies. As relayed in Vernon's SABR biography:
When Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas, then a 10-year-old boy, attended his first big-league game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, he got a special tour that boyhood dreams are made on. Vernon saw him sitting in the stands before the game began. “He reached over and picked me up and took me into the dugout,” the Hall of Fame broadcaster recalled. “He gave me a ball and introduced me to some of the players. I was just in heaven. That started my love of the game of baseball.”
I distinctly remember Kalas telling that story during at least a few broadcasts, and I seem to remember hearing the tale one last time during the Phillies playoff push in late September 2008 after Vernon's passing.
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First Mainstream Card: 1949 Bowman #94
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10): 1951-1952, 1956-1963
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic #196
115 - Vernon non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 11/26/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
The Trading Card Database
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Order Collected: #221 Bob Friend - Pittsburgh Pirates / #239 Harry Simpson - Kansas City Athletics
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