Tuesday, October 14, 2025

2nd Series / 4th Series Checklist - Welcome to the 1956 Topps Blog!


Welcome!  This is the 342nd and final post for this blog, started by me back in October 2015 and officially wrapped up exactly 10 years later.  If you've stumbled upon this blog for the first time, please see below for some handy navigational tips:
  • Set Navigation:  If you start here and work your way backwards, you'll be able to view the set in reverse order.  Or, you could go to the first card in the set, American League President William Harridge (#1), and follow along with the Previous Card / Next Card links at the bottom of each post.  OR, for those of you who want to enjoy the blog in the order my Dad and I collected the set, please start with the Chuck Diering post (#19) and use the Order Collected links at the bottom of each post.
  • Team Sets:  I'm a big fan of visual galleries of vintage baseball cards.  Clicking on the Team Sets page on the row of links below the blog's title banner will take you to a launching page of the 16 teams featured in the set.  I've grouped each team set alphabetically, with the team card at top for all, along with the manager cards for just the Dodgers and Phillies.
  • Finding Cards:  I'd suggest the Numerical Checklist at the top or the Names links on the sidebar to the left.
  • Other Fun Stuff:  Also linked above are looks back at each of the four series in the set, along with my "what if" fifth series/traded set checklist.  Find out which color bar combinations were used the most in the set, oldest and youngest players in each series, or which player in the set was born in the United Kingdom.
Thanks for visiting, please check out my other blogs, also linked to the left, and happy collecting!

Building the Set
March 17, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchases - Card #295
Our first son Doug was born in December 2006, and this happy event led directly to my Dad visiting us on a more regular basis.  Dad was living by himself at this point in Mays Landing, New Jersey and he didn't enjoy the 40 minute drive north to our house.  Among all the very positive memories I have of my Dad, one of my few negative memories is the fact he absolutely seemed to loathe driving and that loathing increased exponentially if there was traffic or if it were dark.  But he made the trips anyway, sometimes staying no more than an hour, because he was so incredibly anxious and excited to spend time with his grandson.

By the time his second grandson (Ben) was born in April 2010, my Dad's health had started to fail and whatever visits we had were pre-arranged or consisted of us visiting him.  Which is why these visits during Doug's infancy and first few years are so special to me.  My Dad would show up usually unannounced, ecstatic to see Doug, there would be some small talk and we'd complain about the Phillies, and then he'd leave.  But on his way out, he'd always say he'd see us again in a few days and I'd look forward to these visits.

This background is needed to better explain how this partially checklist came into our set.  In 2007, my Dad's days mostly consisted of an occasional round of golf, calls and visits to his kids - my sister and me, watching cable news, an afternoon nap and scouring eBay.  Most (but not all) of his eBay purchases benefitted me in the form of 1956 Topps cards we needed for our set.  He'd show up at our house for a visit with Doug and nonchalantly hand me one of his recent purchases.  I suspect this checklist card was a major eBay purchase, along with the Elston Howard (#208) card he'd give me a few months later for Father's Day.  But having looked for pristine, unmarked checklists for the better part of 20 years, he couldn't wait the three months until Father's Day and he gifted me this card in mid-March.  The greeting card is shown above, and for the record, my Dad wanted it known this checklist was specifically designated for his grandson's collection.

September 27, 2025 - Wrapping up the blog
The Card / Checklists
For the first time in its short history, and I believe a first for any baseball card set, Topps made the decision to include checklists in certain packs of its 1956 Topps cards, to let collectors know who was in the set and which cards they might still need.  From what I've read, Topps (and Bowman) had avoided providing collectors with checklists with its earlier sets so as to alert them who wasn't in the set.  For example, collectors would continue to buy packs of 1955 Topps cards hoping to find an elusive Mickey Mantle (#135) or Roy Campanella (#101) card, not realizing those cards did not exist, as Mantle and Campanella were both exclusively under contract with Bowman.  With Bowman out of the way beginning in 1956, there was nothing holding Topps back from letting collectors know who was in their set.

I'm assuming that motivation is behind the logic of having the two checklist cards for the 1956 Topps set include non-consecutive series from the set.  This first checklist shows the cards from series one and three, while the second checklist contains cards from series two and four.  With this checklist, not only could collectors see who they needed from series two, but they now had a preview of who to look for in series four.

Topps also took the extra step of highlighting the team cards in red, a new innovation for baseball card sets, so that collectors would be sure not to miss those.  And just in case collectors had no idea what to do with this card, the back contains this handy suggestion, still relevant today:  

"Check off cards you have.  Trade your duplicates for numbers you need to complete the series.  There are 340 cards in Topps '56 Baseball including 16 full Team pictures."

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Friday, October 3, 2025

1st Series / 3rd Series Checklist


There are a few glorious color inserts among the pages of the The Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide (Number 4), first published in 1982, containing photos of baseball card wrappers and examples of what each of the popular baseball card sets released up until 1981 looked like.  That's probably the first time I set eyes on the design of a 1956 Topps baseball card, with the iconic Jackie Robinson (#30) card selected by the guide's authors as the representative of that set.  At the time, and as a young collector who hadn't yet turned 10, the images on those pages represented a very distant past, showing cards I'd likely never see except for under glass display cases at the Ocean City Baseball Card Show, let only one day own.

So when the Magic Shoebox entered my life in the summer of 1983 (or was it 1984?), and the cards within that shoebox officially entered my collection, it kicked off a journey of collecting vintage baseball card sets that continues to this day.  I've shared this story a few times on a few of my different blogs, and the core memory moment came in the summer of 1987 when my Dad turned to me in a shop in Cooperstown while holding a few 1956 Topps cards for sale and casually asked, "Why don't we try to put together the whole set?"

The journey of collecting the 1956 Topps set took us just over 20 years.  The set build started when I was about to enter junior high school in 1987, and it ended in 2007 when our first son had just turned one and my Dad's health had just started to fail.  My Dad passed away in October 2011.  In need of a new creative outlet and as a way to revisit each of the 342 cards in the set, I started this blog four years later in October 2015.  Our first-born son was about to turn nine, and our youngest son, who mostly remembers his grandfather through stories and pictures, was already 5 1/2.  

Life intruded a few times over the years in the life of this blog, and it laid mostly dormant for almost all of 2017 and 2018, before coming back on a more regular basis in 2019.  I settled in on a fairly consistent routine of trying to post a new card each Friday at 7am, and I stuck to that schedule for about four years before slowing down again in 2023.  The blog benefitted from the Covid lockdown as time previously occupied by my commute to and from work was now filled with "play" time on my blogs, as my wife affectionately calls it.  Getting towards the end of this blog caused me to slow down, and once I saw the end was near, I was hit with a sudden desire to not finish this thing up. 

August 16, 1987 - Cooperstown, NY
I had spent 20 years collecting the 1956 Topps baseball card set, and another 10 years writing about it.  What would I do once that was over?

The answer of course, is that I'll start another blog.  I'm not breaking any ground with these posts and player summaries.  There's nothing here that isn't otherwise readily available and better written on other platforms, but I've come to find I enjoy this kind of thing and as long as it brings me enjoyment, why not keep going?  For reasons I've already partially explained elsewhere, I'll be going card by card through the 1955 Bowman set next.

I'll have one more post on this blog after this one, featuring the second checklist of the two checklists, which I consider to be part of the overall set.  That post will contain some helpful navigating tools and links for any future visitors.  I love the idea of some kid 50 years from now stumbling upon this blog and wanting to learn more about baseball or baseball cards or anything about Richie Ashburn (#120) or Willie Mays (#130) or Wayne Terwilliger (#73).  I especially love the idea that someone may find this in the future or distant future and grasp how much this baseball card set and how much my Dad and his collecting this set with me, meant to me.  I'm forever grateful.

Building the Set
December 28, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchases - Card #342
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.

December 24, 2007 - Doug and Dad
Our son Doug had just turned one, and on Christmas morning 2007, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our families to our house to celebrate the day.  I've had a few rough Christmases, but this was one of the worst as my Dad ended up in the hospital that day and it was the beginning of his health struggles that would continue until he passed away in late 2011.  He was discharged from the hospital three days later, and it was only then we celebrated Christmas together, on December 28th, and I opened the package containing the last of the cards needed for our 1956 Topps set.

Dad was understandably distraught that Christmas, but not solely because of his own health issues.  Because of his unselfish nature, he was worried that he had ruined Christmas for everyone since we had spent the holidays in a hospital.  He was also upset that his surprise package containing those last 29 baseball cards sat in the back seat of his car for three days until he recovered enough to come home.  I was just happy to have him out of the hospital, but I do remember feeling confused and somewhat hopeless as we weren't quite sure yet what was wrong with him.

I don't have any pictures from December 28th, which is unusual for me.  I'm assuming I was just happy that Dad was out of the hospital and taking pictures never crossed my mind.  Among the "big" cards in that final haul were the cards of Roberto Clemente (#33), Monte Irvin (#194), Whitey Ford (#240), Pee Wee Reese (#260) and this pristine checklist card.

Dad was adamant that our complete set contain both available checklists, and he was also determined to find both completely unmarked.  I find it fitting this is unofficially the last card added to complete our 1956 Topps set, 20 years after we had started collecting it.

Our final checklist - all boxes checked
The Card / Checklists
For the first time in its short history, and I believe a first for any baseball card set, Topps made the decision to include checklists in certain packs of its 1956 Topps cards, to let collectors know who was in the set and which cards they might still need.  From what I've read, Topps (and Bowman) had avoided providing collectors with checklists with its earlier sets so as to alert them who wasn't in the set.  For example, collectors would continue to buy packs of 1955 Topps cards hoping to find an elusive Mickey Mantle (#135) or Roy Campanella (#101) card, not realizing those cards did not exist, as Mantle and Campanella were both exclusively under contract with Bowman.  With Bowman out of the way beginning in 1956, there was nothing holding Topps back from letting collectors know who was in their set.

I'm assuming that motivation is behind the logic of having the two checklist cards for the 1956 Topps set include non-consecutive series from the set.  This first checklist shows the cards from series one and three, while the second checklist contains cards from series two and four.  Not only could collectors see who they needed from series one, but they now had a preview of who to look for in series three.

Topps also took the extra step of highlighting the team cards in red, a new innovation for baseball card sets, so that collectors would be sure not to miss those.  The back of this checklist lets collectors know the complete set contains 340 cards, and there would be another checklist containing the cards not shown on this one.

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Friday, September 26, 2025

#340 Mickey McDermott - New York Yankees


Maurice Joseph McDermott
New York Yankees
Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'2"  Weight:  170
Born:  April 29, 1929, Poughkeepsie, NY
Signed:  Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1945 season
Major League Teams:  Boston Red Sox 1948-53; Washington Nationals 1954-55; New York Yankees 1956; Kansas City Athletics 1957; Detroit Tigers 1958; St. Louis Cardinals 1961; Kansas City Athletics 1961
Died:  August 7, 2003, Phoenix, AZ (age 74)

Mickey McDermott pitched in parts of a dozen big league seasons between 1948 and 1961, mostly with the Red Sox.  A swingman early in his career, McDermott joined Boston's starting pitching rotation for good in 1953 when he won a career-high 18 games.  Perhaps due to his off-the-field struggles, he was dealt to the Nationals following the season with Tom Umphlett for All-Star outfielder Jackie Jensen (#115).  McDermott found some success in Washington for two seasons, and then was on the move again in early 1956 to the Yankees.  He'd appear in only 23 games and pitch 87 innings in his one season with the Yankees, and he'd see his only postseason action, pitching three innings of mop-up relief in World Series Game 2, won by the Dodgers by a 13-8 score.  McDermott pitched almost all of the next three seasons in the minor leagues, before making one last return to the majors in 1961 with the Cardinals and Athletics.

He'd keep trying to make a comeback to the majors, while battling his alcoholic tendencies, making minor league appearances through the 1964 season.  McDermott coached with the Angels (1968-69) and was hired as a scout by the Athletics during the time Billy Martin (#181) was managing the club in the early 1980s.  McDermott was the first scout to recommend Mark McGwire to Oakland.  In 291 big league games, McDermott was 69-69 with a 3.91 ERA in 1,316 2/3 innings pitched.

Building the Set
Summer of 1983 or 1984 in Millville, NJ - Card #37
This McDermott card was the last of the Original 44.  Given it's also the last player card in the set, and the last card in the set overall, depending on your feeling towards checklists, I'll repeat the story of how my Dad and I started collecting this set, one last time.

June 1983 - Ocean City Baseball Card Show
Technically speaking, my Dad and I actually began collecting the set in the summer of 1987, but this card (along with the other Original 44) first entered my collection three or four years before that.

I think it was either the summer of 1983 or 1984 when a shoebox of vintage baseball cards, football cards and a few non-sports cards arrived into my world.  The box contained about a hundred cards dating between 1950 and 1956, and for the most part, they were all in excellent shape.  A friend of the family was in the process of cleaning up and moving into her new house when she found the old shoebox and she wondered if the only kid she knew who collected baseball cards (me) would be interested in looking through it – maybe even taking the box off her hands.

She dropped the box off to my parents and asked them to have me look through the box and take what I was interested in. Turns out, I was interested in everything.  Up to that point, the oldest cards in my collection were cards from the early '70s I had obtained through trades or cards that my Dad had picked up for me at yard sales or small baseball card shows.  (My Dad had given me a few dog-earred and rough Topps cards – Juan Pizzaro and Jim Busby – a few years prior, and I completely forget how or why he had purchased these cards for me.)

My parents asked me to pick out a few cards from the box, and then we’d return the rest to the family friend.  Problem was, I wanted them all.  I really wanted them all.  I diligently and meticulously went through one of my price guides and determined the “value” of the treasure chest. I probably used my Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide No. 4, edited by Dr. James Beckett, and I had no way to value the football or non-sports cards.  My memory is fuzzy, and I can't find the original tally, but I think I came up with the box being worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to $400, which I knew my parents definitely did not have in their discretionary spending budget.  But they could tell how much I wanted those cards, as I lovingly studied each and every one and handled each as if it were some long-lost artifact.

I don’t know the exact details, but I believe my Dad went back to the friend and told her we’d take the whole box, but only if she let him give her some money for it.  I believe she was genuinely shocked that the box of old cardboard pictures had some value, and that someone was willing to give her cash for it.  My Dad shared the list I had created showing the “book value” of the cards and he mentioned how it was going to be close to impossible to get me to pick and choose which ones I wanted.  When all was said and done, the family friend, who had absolutely no intention of making money on this endeavor, walked away with (I think) something in the neighborhood of $100 for the whole lot.

Within the spoils were 44 cards from the 1956 Topps set – by far the most cards from any one set.  I studied them, I sorted them, and I pretty much memorized every detail of those 44 cards.  

And so a few years later, in the summer of 1987 while on a family vacation, I was giddy with excitement when we came across a few ’56 Topps cards in the Walker Gallery on the main drag in Cooperstown, New York.  My Dad and I studied the cards for sale and he casually asked me the question, “Why don’t we try to put together the whole set?” We bought four cards that day for $9.25.  Those cards, along with the 44 from the magic shoebox, became the basis for our 1956 Topps set.

The list below contains the baseball cards from the Magic Shoebox, as well as other "old" cards in my collection as of the summer of 1987.

The Card / Yankees Team Set
McDermott is likely wearing a Nationals' uniform and hat here, and a Topps artist was tasked with swapping out the W on his hat with an interlocking NY.  This card marks his return to Topps after exclusively appearing in the Bowman sets the prior two seasons.  The first cartoon panel on the back highlights the three lefties at the top of the Yankees' pitching rotation to start the season - McDermott, Whitey Ford (#240) and Tommy Byrne (#215).  Only Ford stuck around in the starting rotation, going 19-6 with a league leading 2.47 ERA, while Byrne made one less start (eight) than McDermott.  The middle cartoon panel highlights McDermott's hitting skills.  He was a lifetime .252 batter with nine home runs and 74 RBIs.

1956 Season
As mentioned above, McDermott joined the Yankees before the 1956 season.  On February 8th, the Nationals traded him and Bobby Kline to the Yankees for Lou Berberet (#329), Herb Plews, Dick Tettelbach, Bob Wiessler and player to be named later, Whitey Herzog.  Of his 23 appearances, nine were starts, and he was 2-6 with a 4.24 ERA.

Phillies Connection
McDermott spent part of the 1958 season pitching with the Miami Marlins, then the Phillies' top farm team in the International League.  With the Marlins, he was 3-7 with a 5.66 ERA in 23 games, including seven starts, and he'd depart the Phillies' organization without ever earning a promotion to the big club.

1950 Bowman #97
1952 Topps #119
1953 Topps #55
1954 Bowman #56
1957 Topps #318

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1950 Bowman #97
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1952-53, 1956-57
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1991 Topps Archives 1953 #55

25 - McDermott non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/24/25.

 Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
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Friday, September 5, 2025

#339 Rance Pless - Kansas City Athletics


Rance Pless
Kansas City Athletics
Third Base

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  195
Born:  December 6, 1925, Greeneville, TN
Signed:  Signed by the New York Giants as an amateur free agent before 1947 season
Major League Teams:  Kansas City Athletics 1956
Died:  November 11, 2017, Greeneville, TN (age 91)

Rance Pless played professionally over 14 seasons, primarily within the New York Giants' minor league system.  Playing mostly the outfield and third base, Pless won two minor league batting championships with the Double-A Nashville Volunteers in 1952 (.364) and the Triple-A Minneapolis Millers in 1955 (.337).  Seemingly blocked at the big league level in the Giants' system, Pless' contract was sold to the Athletics on October 7, 1955.  He spent most of the season in the majors with the Athletics, appearing in 48 games, but making only 17 starts.  Pless returned to the minors for four more seasons, playing within the Yankees, Cardinals and Tigers organizations between 1957 and 1960.  He batted .271 in the majors, but at least .303 in the minors, collecting a known 1,807 hits.

Building the Set
July 30, 1994 in Ocean City, NJ - Card #132
My Dad and I bought this card at the annual Ocean City baseball card show held within the famous Music Pier during the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college.  We spent $41 on six cards for our 1956 Topps set at this show, with the most expensive card being (for some reason) the Rip Repulski (#201) card for $9.  This Pless card was $5.

From the flyer (right), it looks as if The Eastern Pennsylvania Sports Collectors Club (EPSCC) had abandoned its sponsorship of this baseball card show by 1994.  Honestly after they pulled out, the show was never quite the same and the quality definitely suffered.  My Dad would have grumbled at the fact that comic books were now encroaching on the floor space of his beloved baseball card show.  1994 and 1995 were strange years for the baseball card hobby as the player's strike that prematurely ended the 1994 season chased a lot of fans away from the hobby, and some of them have never come back.

Johnny Callison was back signing autographs though, and the former Phillies player was ubiquitous at these events back in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The Card / Athletics Team Set
This is Pless' first and last Topps card, and it's great that a player like Pless, who had spent nine seasons trying to work his way up the majors, received a card in the set.  The action shot would have been taken earlier in the season, as Pless did in fact wear #8 with the Athletics.  The back of the card highlights his successful 1955 season, when he won the batting title and was named the league's MVP.

1956 Season
Pless was with the Athletics every month of the season except most of July and all of August, and he appeared in 59 games for the Richmond Virginians, batting .298.  With the Athletics, and as mentioned above, he batted .271 (23 for 85) with three doubles and a triple.  Of his 17 starts, 12 were at first base and five were at third base.

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1956 Topps #339
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (1):  1956
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1979 TCMA The 1950s #176

4 - Pless non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/1/25.

 Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

Blog Update
I've been admittedly slow-walking my way to the end of this blog, as I'm not quite ready to walk away from it after nearly 10 years of off and on posting.  This Pless card and the Mickey McDermott (#340) card are the final two player posts, to be followed by posts on the two checklists.  I still have my sights on wrapping this thing up by the end of 2025.
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Friday, August 1, 2025

#338 Jim Delsing - Detroit Tigers


James Henry Delsing
Detroit Tigers
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'10"  Weight:  175
Born:  November 13, 1925, Rudolph, WI
Acquired:  Obtained by the Chicago White Sox from the Milwaukee Brewers (American Association) as part of a minor league working agreement, before 1946 season
Major League Teams:  Chicago White Sox 1948; New York Yankees 1949-50; St. Louis Browns 1950-52; Detroit Tigers 1952-56; Chicago White Sox 1956; Kansas City Athletics 1960
Died:  May 4, 2006, Chesterfield, MO (age 80)

Jim Delsing played professionally for 17 seasons, finding his most success as a regular center or left fielder for the Tigers in the early 1950s.  Delsing made his minor league debut in 1942, and then missing two full seasons while serving in the Army in Europe during World War II.  He spent 20 games with the White Sox in 1948 and nine games with the Yankees late in the 1949 season, filling in for an ailing Joe DiMaggio.  Delsing's first shot at regular playing time came with the Browns in 1951, when he appeared in 131 games.  He famously pinch-ran for the 3' 7" Eddie Gaedel after Gaedel walked in his lone big league plate appearance on August 19, 1951.  Traded to the Tigers in August 1952 as part of an eight-player deal, Delsing was the club's opening day center fielder in 1953.  He batted .288 with 11 home runs and 62 RBIs that season, reaching personal bests in all three categories.  Delsing moved to left field in 1954 and had another solid year with the Tigers, batting .248 with six home runs and 38 RBIs in 122 games.  He led the league in fielding percentage in 1953, among center fielders, and in 1954, among all outfielders.

Delsing lost playing time following the 1954 season, appearing as primarily a pinch-hitter in 1955 and 1956.  After three full seasons in the minor leagues, he made a brief comeback with the Athletics in 1960, batting .250 in 16 games.  In 822 major league games, Delsing batted .255 with 112 doubles, 40 home runs and 286 RBIs.

Winter 1994 - Dad inspecting the new construction
Building the Set
December 25, 1994 from San Diego, CA - Card #141
The Roy Campanella (#101) card was my "big" present from Santa for Christmas 1994.  With my Dad's help, Santa secured the Campanella card from Kit Young Cards in San Diego for what my notes say was $75.  That price seems steep, but there were six other cards from the 1956 Topps set under the Christmas tree that year from Kit Young Cards, including this Delsing card, with the other six cards costing a combined $20.  In December 1994, I would have been home from college for the winter break of my junior year.

This was the last Christmas my family and I spent in the house on 12th Street in my hometown where I grew up.  My parents were in the process of building a new house and we'd visit the construction site throughout that winter break.  I had a tough time leaving my childhood home behind and the 1994-95 timeframe brought about quite a few major changes in my life.

The Card / Tigers Team Set
Topps reused Delsing's photo from his 1955 Topps card for this card.  The cartoons on the back of the card highlight his minor league success and his career year in 1953.

1956 Season
Delsing lost his starting job with the Tigers following the 1955 season, and he'd appear in just 10 games with the club before a trade sent him back to his original team, the White Sox.  On May 15th, the Tigers traded Delsing and Fred Hatfield (#318) to Chicago for Jim Brideweser, Harry Byrd and Bob Kennedy (#38).  Used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter or late inning defensive replacement, Delsing batted .122 in 55 games for the White Sox.

1951 Bowman #279
1952 Topps #271
1953 Topps #239
1955 Topps #192
1959 Topps #386

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1951 Bowman #279
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1952-56, 1959
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #111

20 - Delsing non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 6/28/25.

 Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
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Friday, June 13, 2025

#337 Bobby Morgan - Philadelphia Phillies


Robert Morris Morgan
Philadelphia Phillies
Second Base


Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'9"  Weight:  175
Born:  June 29, 1926, Oklahoma City, OK
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1944 season
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1950, 1952-53; Philadelphia Phillies 1954-56; St. Louis Cardinals 1956; Philadelphia Phillies 1957; Chicago Cubs 1957-58
Died:  June 1, 2023, Oklahoma City, OK (age 96)

Bobby Morgan was a successful back-up infielder, spending the bulk of his eight-year big league career with the Dodgers and Phillies.  Morgan earned International League MVP honors in 1949 when he batted .337 with 38 doubles, 19 home runs and 112 RBIs for the Montreal Royals.  Promoted to the Dodgers in early 1950, Morgan would spend the next several seasons as a back-up to Pee Wee Reese (#260), Jackie Robinson (#30), and Jim Gilliam (#280).  The Dodgers dealt Morgan to the Phillies before the start of the 1954 season, with Morgan taking over the regular shortstop job from Granny Hamner (#197).  He'd have his best seasons in the majors in 1954 and 1955 with the Phillies, but he'd slump in 1956, finding himself on the move over the next few seasons.  Morgan's last action in the majors came as one last pinch-hitting appearance with the Cubs in 1958.  He'd sign back with the Phillies' organization, playing five more seasons with their top farm teams and retiring as a player in 1963.

Morgan appeared in 671 major league games, batting .233 with 53 home runs and 217 RBIs.  He'd manage for three seasons in the Phillies' minor league system between 1964 and 1966, and would later serve as a scout for the Orioles, Royals and Twins.

Building the Set
January 10, 1999 in Raleigh, NC - Card #177
I indicate clearly in my notes this card (along with two others) was purchased at the Raleigh Sports Card & NASCAR Collectibles Show, not to be confused with the more benign Raleigh Sports Card & Memorabilia Show.  In any event, the Morgan card set me back only $6, which is an absolute bargain considering the card is in pristine shape.  I also added the Joe Collins (#21) and Johnny Kucks (#88) cards, also for $6 each.  Some of the cards in our set look as if they could have just come out of a brand new pack, and this is one of those.

I don't miss my time living in Raleigh, but I do miss these semi-regular baseball card shows held at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.  As I'm primarily a Phillies collector, those dealers were always more than happy to unload their unwanted Phillies inventory on me and some of them would express genuine shock that I was trying to track down cards in the late 1990s and early 2000s of some very forgettable Phillies players.

The Card / Phillies Team Set
This blog is coming to a conclusion, and I've flipped to the last page in the set in my coveted 1956 Topps set binder.  That's Morgan in the action shot, and if this was a force play, I'm assuming the umpire is about to call the runner out.  The runner could be the Braves' Dave Jolly, the Giants' Hank Thompson (#199), the Cubs' Howie Pollet (#262) or the Pirates' Tom Saffell, as each of those players wore #16 in 1955, and I think the Reds and Cardinals had red uniform numbers on the backs of their jerseys.

This card marks Morgan's first appearance in a Topps set since 1953.  The cartoon panels on the back of the card highlight his success with the Phillies over the past two seasons, his promotion to the Dodgers in 1950, and his versatility in the infield.

Phillies Career / 1956 Season
The Phillies acquired Morgan on March 28, 1954 for Dick Young and $50,000.  Ted Kazanski was the club's opening day shortstop in 1954, but Morgan would start 123 games at the position, while also making six starts at third base and a pair of starts at second base.  In 135 games overall, he batted .262 with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs - both career highs.  In 1955, manager Mayo Smith (#60) moved Morgan to second base with Hamner sliding back to shortstop to start the season.  Morgan again had a solid year, even though Smith moved him back to short in mid-summer.  In 136 games, he batted .232 with 10 home runs and 49 RBIs.  With Kazanski at second and Hamner at shortstop to start the 1956 season, Morgan appeared in only eight games for the Phillies before a trade on May 14th sent him to the Cardinals for Solly Hemus.  Morgan settled back into a reserve role, playing in 61 games for the Cardinals and batting .195.

After the season, Morgan returned to the Phillies when the Cardinals traded him and Rip Repulski (#201) to Philadelphia in exchange for popular outfielder Del Ennis (#220).  Morgan's reunion with the Phillies was short-lived, and he played in just two games for the club in early 1957 before being sold to the Cubs on May 13th.  In 281 games with the Phillies, more than the 203 game he played for the Dodgers, Morgan batted .245 with 24 home runs and 100 RBIs.  He managed the club's Miami farm team in 1964 (64-75) and 1965 (67-75) before taking over the Tidewater Tides (58-81) in 1966.  His minor league managerial record with the Phillies was 189-231.

1950 Bowman #222
1952 Topps #355
1953 Bowman Color #135
1953 Topps #85
1958 Topps #144

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1950 Bowman #222
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (4):  1952-53, 1956, 1958
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Lineage Autographs #RA-BM

22 - Morgan non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 6/7/25.

 Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database

An early post from The Phillies Room, with a cherished comment from my Dad

Blog Update
I'm five cards away from wrapping up this blog - three more player cards and then two checklists.  With summer plans in full swing, I'll be stepping away for a little bit, but then coming back to wrap up the final five posts.  I also want to go back and freshen up some of the older posts, and add pages with 4th Series and complete set reviews.  I envision the checklist posts serving as a way for me to pay one last tribute to these cards, a baseball card set with which I've spent nearly 40 years of my life with at this point.
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Friday, June 6, 2025

#336 Ellis Kinder - St. Louis Cardinals


Ellis Raymond Kinder
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  195
Born:  July 26, 1914, Atkins, AR
Acquired:  Obtained by the St. Louis Browns from the Memphis Chickasaws (Southern Association) as part of a minor league working agreement, before 1944 season
Major League Teams:  St. Louis Browns 1946-47; Boston Red Sox 1948-55; St. Louis Cardinals 1956; Chicago White Sox 1956-57
Died:  October 16, 1968, Jackson, TN (age 54)

One of the most underrated pitchers of his era, Ellis Kinder pitched professionally for 17 seasons, making his big league debut at the age of 31 with the Browns.  Given the nickname "Old Folks," Kinder first appeared with the Browns in 1946, enjoying mild success as a swingman for the second division club.  He was dealt to the Red Sox in November 1947, beginning an eight-year stretch as one of the best pitchers in the American League.  Kinder won 23 games in 1949, and had a 3.36 ERA in 43 games, including 30 starts.  He threw a career-high 252 innings that season, finishing fifth in MVP voting and earning The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year honors.  Converted to a full-time reliever in 1951, Kinder became one of the game's first closers, saving a league-leading 16 games in 1951 and a career-high and league-leading 27 games in 1953 while appearing in a then record-setting 69 games.  He'd depart Boston following the 1955 season, spending two more years with the Cardinals and White Sox before retiring.

In 484 big league games, Kinder was 102-71 with a 3.43 ERA in 1,479 2/3 innings pitched.  He threw 56 complete games, 10 shutouts and had 104 career saves.  Kinder was posthumously inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2006.

Building the Set
January 27, 2001 from Moorestown Mall Baseball Card Show - Card #227
For Father's Day in 2021, we attended my youngest son's piano recital and then travelled to the Moorestown Mall (in nearby Moorestown, NJ) for a baseball card show.  I don't spend a lot of time in malls, but I thought this one looked vaguely familiar.  As it turns out, I was at the very same mall 20 years earlier with my Dad for his 57th birthday.  We paid $60 for four cards for our 1956 Topps set, with the biggest purchase being the Harmon Killebrew card (#164) that set us back $38.  Based on my checklist at the time, we got a good deal on this card as I had the Killebrew card listed as one of the more valuable cards we still needed at a range of $60 to $100.  The other three cards added were this Kinder card, Carl Erskine (#233) and Frank Malzone (#304).

The Card / Cardinals Team Set
Topps did a good job transferring Kinder from a Red Sox uniform to a Cardinals uniform, but the unmistakable Yankee Stadium facade is still visible in the background.  The same main photo is used on Kinder's 1955 Topps card.  The cartoons on the back highlight Kinder's record-setting 69 appearances in 1953, and his successful 1949 campaign.  Topps' math is a little off in the final cartoon panel.  While he did start pitching professionally in 1939, he missed two full seasons in 1943 and 1945.  Kinder retired briefly in 1943, going to work as a pipe-fitter with the Illinois Central Railroad, and he missed all of 1945, serving a year in the U.S. Navy.

1956 Season
Kinder was sold by the Red Sox to the Cardinals on December 4, 1955, prompting a memorable going away party in Boston for the popular pitcher.  He began the season in the back-end of the Cardinals' bullpen, earning six saves but blowing two saves in the first two months of the year.  Despite the Cardinals decent record and Kinder pitching fairly well, he had his contract sold to the White Sox on July 11th.  The 41-year-old appeared in 29 games for the White Sox, going 3-1 with a 2.73 ERA and three saves.  For the season, he was 5-1 with a 3.09 ERA in 51 relief appearances with nine saves.

1950 Bowman #152
1952 Topps #78
1953 Topps #44
1955 Topps #115
1957 Topps #352

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1950 Bowman #152
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1952-57
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1994 Topps Archives 1954 #47

29 - Kinder non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 5/31/25.

 Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
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