Friday, January 19, 2024

#274 Frank Baumholtz - Philadelphia Phillies


Frank Conrad Baumholtz
Philadelphia Phillies
Outfield


Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  5'10"  Weight:  175
Born:  October 7, 1918, Midvale, OH
Signed:  Signed by the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent before 1941 season
Major League Teams:  Cincinnati Reds 1947-1949; Chicago Cubs 1949, 1951-1955; Philadelphia Phillies 1956-1957
Died:  December 14, 1997, Winter Springs, FL (age 79)

Before starting his 10-season big league career, Frank Baumholtz played professional basketball for two seasons between 1945 and 1947.  In his first major league season with the Reds in 1947, he led the league with 711 plate appearances and finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting.  He moved to the Cubs in 1949 and had an incredible year in 1950 with the Cubs' top farm team in Los Angeles.  Baumholtz batted .379 for the Los Angeles Angels, collecting 254 hits in his last minor league action before joining the majors permanently in 1951.  His best year with the Cubs came in 1952 when he batted .325 with a career-high 50 RBIs as the team's everyday right fielder.  He lost playing time that season after a pitch from Warren Spahn (#10) broke his hand.  Baumholtz would enjoy one last solid season in the majors in 1953, batting .306 after moving over to center field with the Cubs.

From the 1956 Phillies Yearbook
His final three seasons with the Cubs and Phillies were spent mostly in a pinch-hitting role.  In 1,019 career games, Baumholtz batted .290 with 1,010 hits, 25 home runs and 272 RBIs.  He was inducted into the Ohio University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1965, where Baumholtz had starred as a basketball player.  In 1995, the university retired his #54 basketball jersey.

Building the Set
October 1, 1987 in Bridgeton, NJ - Card #51
My notes indicate we bought this card at Hummel's in Bridgeton, New Jersey a few days before my 14th birthday.  We acquired three Phillies card that day - manager Mayo Smith (#60), Murry Dickson (#211) and this Baumholtz card and I don't know how much we paid for the trio.  My memories of Hummel's are hazy at best, but I seem to recall it was a large building with a sprawling liquor store on the first floor and a baseball card shop on the second floor.  With baseball card stores booming in the mid to late 1980s, we'd often take a ride to one of the four or five local card shops we were lucky enough to have near us.  October 1st was a Thursday, so it's strange to me that we would have made the 20 minute or so drive to Hummel's on a week night after work and school.  My approaching birthday might have contributed to the motivation for the trip.

The Card / Phillies Team Set
This is Baumholtz's final appearance in a Topps flagship set, and Topps re-used the same photo from his 1954 and 1955 Topps cards, replacing his Cubs hat with a Phillies hat.  The action shot is from Baumholtz's days with the Cubs as well, as he wore #7 in Chicago and #16 in Philadelphia.  The first two cartoon panels on the back highlight his basketball career and his successful 1952 season.  Topps says "he just missed" the batting championship, but Stan Musial pretty much ran away with the batting title with his .336 average.  The final panel shows Baumholtz arriving in Philadelphia decked in full Quaker garb.

1956 Season / Phillies Career
On December 9, 1955, the Phillies purchased Baumholtz from the Cubs.  He continued mainly as a pinch-hitter with the Phillies in 1956, starting only 12 games all season, all in right field.  He batted .270 for the season, and every one of his 27 hits were singles.  He returned to the Phillies in 1957, now 38 years old, and made two pinch-hitting appearances before calling it a career.  The Phillies released him on June 17, 1957.

1949 Bowman #21
1952 Topps #225
1954 Topps #60
1955 Topps #172

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1949 Bowman #21
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1952, 1954-1956
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #60

21 - Baumholtz non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 12/22/23.

 Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
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