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James Franklin Busby
Cleveland Indians
Outfield
Born: January 8, 1927, Kenedy, TX
Signed: Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent, June 7, 1948
Major League Teams: Chicago White Sox 1950-52; Washington Nationals 1952-55; Chicago White Sox 1955; Cleveland Indians 1956-57; Baltimore Orioles 1957-58; Boston Red Sox 1959-60; Baltimore Orioles 1960-61; Houston Colt .45s 1962
Died: July 8, 1996, Augusta, GA (age 69)
Jim Busby spent nearly three full decades in the major leagues as both a smooth-fielding center fielder and as a coach. He spent 13 seasons as a player, and his earlier seasons were his best. Busby was an All-Star with the White Sox in his rookie season of 1951, and he'd play a half inning in left field in the All-Star Game, replacing Ted Williams (#5). Busby swiped a career-high 26 bases in 1951. He'd have his best seasons as a member of the Nationals, batting .312 with career highs in doubles (28) and RBIs (82) in 1953. Speed in the outfield helped him finish in the top 10 for putouts, fielding percentage and assists in most of the seasons throughout the 1950s. Busby's production declined following his departure from Washington, and he spent the final eight seasons of his career playing for six different clubs, including a repeat stint with the White Sox and two different stints with the Orioles.
Busby is one of the more underrated players from the 1950s in my opinion. In 1,352 games, he collected 1,113 hits, 162 doubles, 35 triples, 48 home runs and had 438 RBIs, while stealing 97 bases. He was a player-coach with the Orioles in 1961 and with the inaugural Colt .45s team in 1962. Busby's complete coaching career spanned 18 years with the Orioles (1961), Colt .45s/Astros (1962-67), Braves (1968-75), White Sox (1976) and Mariners (1977-78).
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Building the Set
July 20, 1989 in Williamstown, NJ - Card #79
In the summer of 1989, I was between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and I have nothing but pleasant memories of that time growing up in South Jersey. There were maybe five or six baseball card stores in our area, although only a few of them were known to carry older baseball cards. One of those stores was located in Williamstown, New Jersey, which ironically enough is where my wife and I would settle and start to raise our family some 14 years later. I had to dig into my notes from our other set quests to find the store's name - Collector's Corner. We had finished off our 1974 Topps set in February 1988 at Collector's Corner.
July 20, 1989 in Williamstown, NJ - Card #79
In the summer of 1989, I was between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and I have nothing but pleasant memories of that time growing up in South Jersey. There were maybe five or six baseball card stores in our area, although only a few of them were known to carry older baseball cards. One of those stores was located in Williamstown, New Jersey, which ironically enough is where my wife and I would settle and start to raise our family some 14 years later. I had to dig into my notes from our other set quests to find the store's name - Collector's Corner. We had finished off our 1974 Topps set in February 1988 at Collector's Corner.
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| 1977 Topps #597 |
I'm not exactly sure why Busby was one of my Dad's favorite players, and I wish I had thought to ask him at some point. I suspect it has something to do with the fact they both shared the same first name, and there weren't a lot of major leaguers with the first name of Jim during my Dad's years as a young baseball fan. Busby holds a special place for me in my collecting journey, as my Dad brought home a 1959 Topps Busby card one day back in the early 1980s. It was one of a trio of completely disconnected (and ancient) cards added to my collection after I had first discovered baseball cards, and these were the oldest cards in my collection for a few years until the Magic Shoebox entered my life, jumpstarting the journey of collecting the 1956 Topps set.
The Card / Indians Team Set
This is Busby's first Topps card since 1952, as he had been exclusive to Bowman. It looks as if Busby is wearing a White Sox uniform in the action photo and Topps also decided to remove any infielders in the background who may have been in the vicinity of second base. He could be wearing a White Sox or Nationals jersey in the head shot, and a Topps artist did a decent job adding the Indians logo to Busby's hat. The back of the card highlights his speed and "great fielding ability."
On October 25, 1955, Busby was traded by the White Sox with Chico Carresquel (#230) to the Indians for Larry Toby (#250). Topps updated the cap logos on Busby's and Carresquel's cards, but surprisingly decided to leave Doby's cap logo as is.
1956 Season
Busby was the opening day center fielder for the Indians, and he'd start 122 games overall at the position. In 135 total games, he batted .235 with 17 doubles, 12 home runs and 50 RBIs. He was not able to replace Doby's output for the Indians, as had been hoped, but he did hit grand slams in back-to-back games on July 5th and 6th.
1956 Season
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First Mainstream Card: 1951 Bowman #302
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (9): 1952, 1956-60, 1973-74, 1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1983 Topps 1952 Reprint Series #309
55 - Busby non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 4/8/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
The Trading Card Database
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Order Collected: #72 Philadelphia Phillies Team Card / #42 Sandy Amoros - Brooklyn Dodgers
